The shipping price for an engine is anywhere from $150 to $200.

40K, 15 Month, 15,000 Mile Warranty: $1,500 + Shipping
75K, No Warranty: $800 + Shipping
75K, 90 Day Warranty: $450 + Shipping
88K, 6 Month Warranty, Broken Intake Manifold: $500 Shipped
130K, 6 Month Warranty, Good Compression: $500 Shipped
150K, 6 Month Warranty, Good Compression: $400 Shipped
209K, No Warranty: $350 + Shipping

The one with 88K is a GREAT deal and I will probably get that one. The warranties really don't matter since I'm tearing down the engine, but I put them there for reference. A rebuild from Nissan costs me $2K, so the 40K engine is not that great of a deal.

The plan: Raise compression to 10:1 or 9.5:1, a full head port/polish. Since I'm raising compression with new pistions I might have the block bored 1mm per cylinder and give it bigger pistons. Complete rebuild of the engine will be performed. Please someone comment on this if you can. I will also have the intake manifold and TB powdercoated silver to match my wheels/calipers/CAI/interior(soon). The TB and intake runners will be bored out as much as needed (I will talk to several experts). As big as the VG30DE ports are, I would think that we can just bore it as big as we can and not loose any low-end power. The good thing about our butterfly valves is that they are screwed on, so I could just find some bigger ones and change 'em out to accomodate a bigger opening.

So, let's talk all-motor power from here on out, Turbo is gonna be too much trouble for me personally.

Thanks guys,

 

raising the compression and porting everything will change the engine's needs for fuel,air and timing. Have you considered what to do about the ecu?? I assume the stock ecu will make the car run but the question is will it be able to take advantage of the mods you just spent money on??

 

VG30DE is 10.5:1 granted it has variable timing to take advantage of the extra compression. IF want to push it to the limits this isn't a bad idea. I couln't tell you what kind of power you would get, but WTF cant hurt to try!

 

he has the JWT ECU right?....wouldn't that be more advantageous over the stock ECU in this situation?

 

If your going NA you need at least 10.5+ CR pistions. I was wondering why buy those engines when you can get one from a salveyard for around $200-500? Since your gonna rebuild you will have to bore the block around 0.020 over and then you should get the block magna fluxed. The crankshaft balanced, blue print the engine, install the Motorsport auto 280 degree cam regrinds, JUN valve springs, retainers/keepers, port/polished heads with 5 angle valve job, bigger injectors, ported/extrude honed intake manifold, bored TB. Not to mention you can use VG30DE rods since they are thicker than ours. Also remember its gonna be hard to make more than 170hp at the wheels with NA build up. Unless you rev higher and tune the powerband higher. With that motorsport cam you can use the HKS camgears, and tune in that highend power. If you can get your power peak to occur around 6000-6500 you would put down more power than a VQ. Also are you going to do this with an auto or 5spd tranny? If you are chosing an auto, its gonna make you alot slower than what a 5spd would. The reason is because you will be making more power highend in the rev range you will still have the stock tall gearing. However if you were to match a VE 5spd tranny to that modded VG all hell would break loose. Personally if it was me I would chose the 209k mile engine and rebuild that one. Don't even think of going NA without considering some serious cams. According to the Z31 guys the motorsport auto 280 duration cam is as wild as a street car would want .

 

I don't think it would be worth the trouble to convert it to a 5 spd. Any tranmission shop can play with the gearing to make it faster. Besides you would want to retain a tall 4th gear to salvage (some) fuel economy. An extra 60 hp at the wheels would make it fly any way.

 

To upgrade the auto he would need at least a shift kit and a TC. Now the TC is $400 and a shift kit around $400 then there is the labor in putting both on. This could potentially goto $1500+, however a 5spd wrecked max can be had for $500. Then it would have every part he needed. Besides my car hits around 50mph at 6700rpm in 1st gear! Tell me that isn't tall gearing, its just too bad we can't swap in a 3.83 gear like the VE/VQ engines have. Then you still get better acceleration and lower rpms at highway since the gear is still taller than a 5spd 5th gear.

 

You need more than 10.5:1 compression to get some good power. Push it to around 12.5:1. Yes it can be done, and it can be streetable...

 

This is a serious thought... I've got a spare car folks.. two of em really... spare motor/auto tranny, etc... Now.. I ALSO have a upper/lower intake from a Z31 300z and in reality just about any part I want from a Z31... (read ECU) So heres my thought..
1) Max motor w/ Z31 turbo internals (upgraded for some more power of course.. pistons, rings, rods, valves and springs, cams, etc..)
2) Z31 T upper intake (or even NA intake)
3) Z31T ECU (or even a JWT ECU tuned for a turbo)
4) Get Don to "sponsor" a 3rd gen VB upgrade for the auto.. take that w/ a level 10 upgrade on the internals and a high stall TC
5) bolt on some 15" Nitto drag slicks and run like hell down the track??
Other thoughts?? a PURPOSE BUILT gutted, stripped (no bumper supports, extra brackets, pwr windows, real glass, back seats (or passenger seat for that matter), no spare tire, no stereo, no a/c, nothing...) I say go all the way or don't go at all ... just a thought.. hehe.. BTW I agree with Nismo to get much REAL power at the wheels with a NA max (at least VG) is going to be hard to accomplish.... you can go all motor.. but to be effective at the track against hondas, mitsu's, etc... your going to have to turbo to be squeezing the bottle man... your best bet at upgrading for NA is to look and see what all the older Z31 NA guys do... a turbo "seems" complicated.. but once you've got it tuned and running right.. nothing will be able to touch it in terms of power and yes (heaven forbid I say this) even reliability (meaning you won't get the same power/reliabilty from a NA car.. a NA car will be operating sooooo close to its limits to make that kind of power it won't even be worth it.... oh and get ready to start sucking race gas ....) good luck bro
Oh and we talked about this awhile back.. but unless I can get my buddies shop to sponsor me.. I'm selling off the entire 91 GXE locally before too long (don't worry I know you wanted some stuff.. I'll hang onto that stuff.. along with all the win. motors and regs... oh and that pwr. antenna.. all those things that go "break" ...)

 

still you have to consider that an automatic tranmisson will alow you to brake torque. where as with a 5 spd you have to slip the clutch and pray. there are also advantages to automatics, with the main one being that you don't have to lift when shifting.

 

As much as the thought of building an all-out race-max interests me, it's really not that practical unless someone has tons of cash to dump into it... building an engine like that is gonna run several $k. not to mention maintenance on the thing and everything else.
not even gutting the car and selling off the innards is enough money to pay for the lexan windows that were mentioned. (a 2x4ft sheet of 1/4 lexan is about $25. you'll need 4 for the side windows, and even larger pieces for side and rear windows- which price goes up exponentially with size.)
would this "race-max" be in conjunction with kaleb's engine, or what? I'm trying to put both ends of this thing together...

oh.. btw... I have TONS of room to garage a car at my mom's if the need arises. you guys just have to drive to branson to work on it. it's okay though.. the drive to the house from town is almost as fun as the Sunday Drive at Maxus.

 

The idea of building an all out race Max intriguises me too. To the point where, when I'm done, thats what mine will be(including roll cage, racing seats, etc)

 

im not all that interested in building an all out race car. if i was a max would be the last place i'd start. (i'd probably look at an s15 chassis) I'd just like to build a street car with more than enough ***** to rip apart most peoples hot rods. not to mention give a few vettes a good run while i'm at it

 

Thats the plan, bro. 3200 lbs of flame throwin, Vet rapin fun! Mwahahaha.. Boost is da coolest..

=)

 

i'll leave the flames to you. I was thinking about a dual stage NOS setup with 2 selenoids one running a 50-75 shot before boost maxes out. then a 30 or 35 (shich ever is the smallest jet you can get) while under boost OR using a second tank to cool the IC.

 

this is why i'm getting an old sentra for a project race car. i'll be satisfied with my max just being quick enough to take out stock domestic v8s.