I know there have been plenty of recent turbo post/threads out there lately, but, so to not hijack their threads:

I'm planning on turbocharging my VG30E in the near future. Would it be best to install a turbo kit (if they're even made/sold - idk) or swap in a VG30ET. Either way, I plan on overhauling the motor and tranny anyway. USEFUL tips and advice pls, thanks...

 

they are the same block ... so that doesnt matter... only thing thats different is the crank, so i went with the VG30ET non us engine. i had custom exhaust manifolds made and custom intake manifold, full stand alone, and a TON of other stuff...
if your going to build an engine then put it in, i would get another engine. and do EVERYTHING you can to it then put it in. your going to have to test fit a ton of stuff, then get her running good, then fix what ever brakes, then ur good till something else breaks, repeat and have fun

 

Just make your own kit

 

Not a bad way to spend ten thousand dollars

 

If your factory engine and trans are good dont touch them right away... put your initial effort towards designing and building a decent turbo setup.

 

+ a built engine

 

Forged pistons, Eagle rods, ARP fasteners( main bolts, headstuds), Ported (IM, EM or tubular turbo headers, Heads), Heavy duty turbo headgaskets or bulletproof copper headgaskets and 3" Exhaust system etc......Hope your wallet is ready! If you choose the cheap route.....hope your wallet and ego is ready for failure!!! Take your time read up on some good info like these too books: Maximum Boost (Corky Bell), How to Tune and Modify Engine Management Systems (Jeff Hartman), and engine building books, cause you wanna build for durability and dependability...hope this was helpful....GL!

 

I'm planning on hooking up a turbo on my VG30E next summer also but first I wanna do the heads, headers, rocker arms, fresh rings and bearings. See what I can get with just motor, plus strengthen the motor for a turbo setup you know. The motor is strong w/150 thou on her, which isn't much miles 4 an 89' but if I'm gonna turbo her then I need to make sure she can handle the extra Power. I'm not jumping right into this blind or should I say without doing all my homework plus extra credit. I'm also making sure that my Volvo 850 is perfect b4 I dig into this project, I'm going to need the 850 to get around in for a while. Good wrenching w/your turbo project.

 

I should've mentioned that I plan on having a trusted shop that I know the owner of do all the work. As much as I know about my 3rd gen, I'm taking no chances.

 

Sounds good, I will be having some help w/set up myself. If you have a good connect with a good shop that has experience doing custom turbo's then your platinum. Most def post pics and your progress for us, I know I'm very interested, good wrenching.

 

Ill say it again... Stock motors are very strong.. Spend the time and money on the setup/tuning. Prove the setup, learn the car, and then move on to engine if you want. Stock engine will do over 400 whp if you tune it well and that is usually more than a stock transmission can handle.

 

This is true but I want the motor to last and port/polishing the heads,putting in headers, rockers and bearings isn't that big of a deal. The custom turbo is going to be more work and more problems. Thank you for your opinion but I know these cars well enough to handle my own. The only help I'll need is w/custom turbo set up cause I've never done a custom turbo, I do have experience w/turbos on a few other makes.

 

Im not trying to be a jerk but.. no one makes rockers for VGs, you can adapt ones from an RB but then you need custom valve covers to clear them... and your saying your going to do headers right before you turbo.. Remember... VGs NA... are very slow. Bang for the buck its always Much better to just turbo stock engines.

 

2nd.

My brothers VG30ET has a 1/4 million miles on it, bone stock bottom end, has cams and mildly ported heads, billet 6262 turbo, Nistune, and its easily making 400+WHP(his goals 500WHP on race gas and more boost).

 

precisely.. as long as your engine isn't already damaged for some reason... throw a bunch of boost at it with a good tune and it will be fine, and remember, Tuning is EVERYTHING.

 

My motor is solid yes, very clean inside yes, so in your opinion I shouldn't even bother w/port & polish, don't replace the rockers and bearings.? My point really was to strengthen my motor, not looking for huge gains. I might of stated just motor but I meant get my motor to stage 0, like new yah know. I never take offense to constructive criticism, I come here for that specifically at times. Thank you for your post.

 

Ive taken apart VGs with 200k+miles on them and the bearings look Perfect. If you engine has not had some damaging occurrence like running low or out of oil or badly over heating.. It could very well be nearly perfect. If you really want to know for sure you can do an oil analysis http://www.blackstone-labs.com/. what im saying is if your engine is healthy... its strong and doesn't really need any strengthening until you want to make 500+ whp. Our transmissions have a really hard time holding that power anyways.

 

From my experience w/Nissan in general, yes they are built very well and yes my Max is Solid. Yeah now that I think about I'm only looking at about the 350whp range for now and I'll take it from there at that stage. I just recently replace the lower bearings in my other ride, 1993 Nissan XE , I also replace the WP/belt, full exhaust and what a difference. She ran good w/220 thou on her but the work I did on her really took some years off her, I figure she's got atleast another 100 thou in her.

 

to respond to the original post, I'd go with neither. I'd grab what you need from a VG30ET and hook it up to your existing motor. NA VG's have a higher compression of 9:1, which is not by any means too much to run a turbo, also the Max intake is much better than a USDM VG30ET is. A turbo kit will be expensive and a PITA to install vs something already designed to go on your engine from the factory. So a VG30ET W series (87-89 Z31 Turbo) will produce 205 HP to the flywheel with a T25 and low boost plus lower compression, an A or B series VG30ET (84-86 Z31 Turbo) produces 200HP with a T3 and even lower boost and compression. So if you take a Max motor, which is a W series motor, has better flowing heads, keep the 9:1 compression and your Max intake designed for low end power you will have better acceleration than with a complete VG30ET, then use a T3 which in the Z31 application only runs 3-5 PSI of boost regularly and a manual boost controller turned up to 12-15 pounds on pump gas, you'll have a good start. That's with parts that can be found in a JY all day long, you could even get the whole motor for under $200 often times. If you really want to have some fun, grab a VG33, VG33s have even better flowing heads than the W series. So basically take that engine, throw a Z31 crank in there, Max intake, Z31 turbo manifold, Holset turbo, MBC and you will have plenty of fun.

 

just a little food for thought...

you know that the cross over pipe is right in the way of many things for the maxima right? the people who never done the work never mentions that. they all think...yeah same motor just throw the pipes in there and you're good.

also the Z31 oil pan configuration is different than the max so that will need to be changed.

hey let's not forgot that turbo drain to the oil pan. having that turbo that low is ok but there's not too much gravity pushing that oil back into the pan because the pan is flipped around and the turbo drain ends up on the non sump part of the oil pan. what do you do?

how about that engine mount? you might have to make a new one b/c w/ the stock Z31 turbo manifold that turbo will sit where your stock maxima front mount go. the other alternative is flip the turbo around...then that adds more complexity on space to the radiator. your stock fan won't clear it or it's realllly close (depends on your turbo size).

let's not forget about fuel delivery...is that stock pump up to snuff? injectors?

so yeah there's a lot involved....ppl who never done it (not saying you..just in general) just talks about how easy it is.

 

i have seen a nissan tuner from miami (wwr) take maxima short blocks vg30 , slap on his head package and everything else when he was on a budget, put 30 psi into it plus nitrous, run over 600 whp... lol they lasted only about 3-4 months, he runs a z31, he would get engines for under 200 bucks and race for 2000 lol i think 350 whp doesnt call for a built expensive engine.

 

blocks are the same the pistons are different due to the dished pistnos for the lower compressin for the boost.


lets see what happens....

 

all true but for the small mods to be done with the z31 kit its hella cheeper that a full custom kit. i turboed my 2nd gen and been driving it naturbo on 8 lbs for a few years now with no problems.

if you can do all your own welding itl cost you about 200 in custom parts along with the z31 stuff.

as for injectors you can use either q45 injectors (370cc) or pathfinder (260cc)

if your doing a full swap then use the engine management ecu and the harness.

 

agreed...it's doable but i don't want ppl to believe that it's a perfect drop in.

i swapped in two rear (right) manifolds and hooked them up together and came up with this...

 

I'm simply stating that's easier than other options for a turbo upgrade, this being based on his already deciding to turbo the motor.

The cross over pipe isn't what I'd be worried about as much as routing from the manifold to the exhaust as it's designed to do strait to the transmission, and most things in the way can be relocated or removed. And as for the oil pan you can use the Maxima oil pan but you will need to modify it for the oil return for the turbo, if you can use a Z31 Turbo oil pan it will already be set up. The other option is grab a Turbo setup from a Cedric or Gloria in Japan which has an intake like the USDM Max, and routes the Turbo right into it, so it's possible that manifold would be better but it comes with a T25. I actually have one of these motors about to go into my 89 Z31. The other thing is does the turbo sit where the motor mounts go or does it simply black off routing for the intake to turbo, in which case a flow through motor mount is an option. Fuel Delivery is a simple enough fix, but yes you are right, these are all things people don't think about when doing a turbo swap. I simply figure if you are going to go through the trouble of the swap, use parts made for the engine and are known to work, on top of that, why simply turbo it at that point and boost an engine not prepared for it, build it right the first time and enjoy it, use the best Nissan offered for each component as your baseline.

 

i did this ...

 

I did this. Have the stock maf and 370cc injectors maxed out. 100% stock motor. 750cc are going in soon with z32 maf.