How far back did it exist? Whether in the US or Japan? I remember reading a VQ origin article that said that they started planning around 1990 or so, I assume the VG goes back to the very early 80s at least...

 

Assume all you want, I have no records of a production VG existing before 1983 (1984 model).

Here is another reference to take with a grain of salt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_VG_engine

 

I stand corrected B. I misread what you wrote. I thought you wrote that the first CSB was the LT.

 

That's right. I would absolutely build one of those engines if I am to build a V6. I know that if I were to build one mildly I could run high 10s. Turn it up a notch on the cam and 10.teens are there. Why? Because I know the numbers I'm running right now with an unopened motor.
And what of the links to the engine builders offering stroker builds for the VQ for somewhere north of $8k? Those are not stock and not useable in a Max unless you have an aftermarket engine management system. I can purchase a Buick T and modify it to run in the 11s spending less than the cost of that engine. So what makes the VQ so great then? Nothing but personal opinion. My opinion is the Nissan engine is a good engine for it's intended purpose. I don't want to race it. Any engine can be made to make more hp. The question is the how much it will cost and will it survive. The Nissan would probably survive but the cost is prohibitive, not to mention all the rest of the mods/fab work it would take. But if you insist on spending cubic dollars on you project good for you, me I'm too much of frugal New Englander. If I were even frugaler I would build a SBC but I love the faces of onlookers when they see that little 6 and fear it.

 

I have no intention of building a VQ. Im going to push the stock 3.5 (560$ in a boneyard by the way, if thats not DIRT cheap I dont know what is) as far as I can, then push the stock 3.8 as far as I can. But the engines will remain stock. Thats the entire point of my little experiment. Seeing just how fast its possible to go with a bone stock factory engine. Because its best not to f*ck with what Nissan does best.

Since the engine is remaining stock and N/A, I rather have the VQ over the Buick 3800.

 

YES YES YES I have been saying this alllll alongggggg

 

ok just thought i would drop my thoughts on this, if your going to compare engines like this you might want to consider some of these things: the VG is to the VQ what the old 283, 327, 350 (iron blocks) is to the new SBC. Now with that said. The VQ has replace the VG, it is used in all the same models there for it has evolved.

As for the 3800, I don't think the bottom end will take anything close to what the VG will handle (my 89 has 244000 on it and hit redline everytime i drive it)

And for the SBC it has a lot of variations in it even from the same years ie: 2 bolt mains to 4 bolt mains so matching parts can be a pain at times. I could take the block out of my pathfinder the one out of my 89 and start swaping parts (my 85 would have a A or B block so not sure about that) and if i needed parts, the list of where i could get them would be way to long to get into.

As far as the VQ being the similer to the SBC in the fact that they were used in many differnt models and use for many years and have been upgraded as time went on i would say YEP.

just my thoughts