After time, deliberation it’s the vg30

[BAMUZ]

Haven’t had much luck in sourcing the vq35hr, after also going through a few vg33 with no luck- high miles, beat up etc. I’ve found an 84 300 that was wrecked into a trailer, rolled the hood and messed the fenders up mechanically however, it seems to be alright. I’m going tomorrow with money in hand to hopefully bring it back.
I’ve noticed there isn’t much in the vg30 swap department on here or anywhere for the roadster, if anybody has any useful links or tips it would be much appreciated, thanks y’all!

-BAMUZ

[spl310]

Lenny Sprague in Florida has one that was installed with no cutting.

[BAMUZ]

Lenny Sprague in Florida has one that was installed with no cutting.

Oh now that’s the sauce I like, is there a write up here? I must’ve looked over it or not enough one!

[spl310]

No, no write up. It was done a LONG time ago. He is on Facebook, I don't think that he is on here.

[Alvin]

Haven’t had much luck in sourcing the vq35hr, after also going through a few vg33 with no luck- high miles, beat up etc. I’ve found an 84 300 that was wrecked into a trailer, rolled the hood and messed the fenders up mechanically however, it seems to be alright. I’m going tomorrow with money in hand to hopefully bring it back.
I’ve noticed there isn’t much in the vg30 swap department on here or anywhere for the roadster, if anybody has any useful links or tips it would be much appreciated, thanks y’all!

-BAMUZ

VG30 swaps into roadsters were common. I've seen many over the years. Try contacting one of these owners I'm sure someone can identify them on 311s.org and put you touch!

[Gregs672000]

Many moons ago I had a project 68 that was to have a VG30T I bought that came out of Japan with a different intake manifold that made 10 more HP than the US spec 205 HP. I was going to bump up the boost a little (they only ran about 5lbs of boost but could go to 12 with stock injectors) and add an intercooler. 250 HP and a ton of torque seemed quite doable. Was going to run the exhaust piping under the motor to the turbo and back out the stock frame holes (don't know if that really would have worked or not). Had a good computer to run the injection and ignition too... but then a life change occurred and I sold the car minus the engine and 5 speed to a Canadian friend, and the engine went to some guys who were putting it in a 4x4. I think it would have been a cool car. Good luck on your build!

That reminds me, if you do go this route I have some kind of seal that a z car shop owner gave me, saying "these always need to be changed"... free to you if you want it, or pm me and I'll go dig it up...

[BAMUZ]

Many moons ago I had a project 68 that was to have a VG30T I bought that came out of Japan with a different intake manifold that made 10 more HP than the US spec 205 HP. I was going to bump up the boost a little (they only ran about 5lbs of boost but could go to 12 with stock injectors) and add an intercooler. 250 HP and a ton of torque seemed quite doable. Was going to run the exhaust piping under the motor to the turbo and back out the stock frame holes (don't know if that really would have worked or not). Had a good computer to run the injection and ignition too... but then a life change occurred and I sold the car minus the engine and 5 speed to a Canadian friend, and the engine went to some guys who were putting it in a 4x4. I think it would have been a cool car. Good luck on your build!

That reminds me, if you do go this route I have some kind of seal that a z car shop owner gave me, saying "these always need to be changed"... free to you if you want it, or pm me and I'll go dig it up...

Greg, that would be awesome
I’ll take you up on that, I’ll shoot you a dm and also going to save your comment just incase some of your steps can be implemented!
I looked up Larry to no luck. Those pictures are sweet and if anybody can help identify that would be much appreciated!
I would look on Facebook , however this site and YouTube are the only social medias I use!
Thank you for the positive energy everyone,

[Gregs672000]

OK, I'll go find it! I don't know what you're going to use for controlling injection and spark (and obviously that has been done), but if you decide to go aftermarket and don't want to spend big bucks I can help some with using Microsquirt (most info relates to the more optioned/expensive Megasquirt as well). I never got close to the point of wiring up the stock computer, and as I recall they may be a little different throughout the run of the VG30 engines, and likely different NA vs turbo, so keep that in mind. I'm sure there's a VG out there running MSQUIRT somewhere, might Google that if you're interested.

I hear you on Internet sites... I'm exactly the same!

[BAMUZ]

OK, I'll go find it! I don't know what you're going to use for controlling injection and spark (and obviously that has been done), but if you decide to go aftermarket and don't want to spend big bucks I can help some with using Microsquirt (most info relates to the more optioned/expensive Megasquirt as well). I never got close to the point of wiring up the stock computer, and as I recall they may be a little different throughout the run of the VG30 engines, and likely different NA vs turbo, so keep that in mind. I'm sure there's a VG out there running MSQUIRT somewhere, might Google that if you're interested.

I hear you on Internet sites... I'm exactly the same!

I’ll definitely keep you and that in mind, I’ll do a little bit of digging myself. I’m digging into the 1600 and have found it has something called a heathkey and I’m thinking that was used for ignition timing maybe hard to find anything on it.
I’m definitely excited to get the swap going excited to keep it Z!

[Gregs672000]

Looks like it's a front cover crank seal... I'll confirm before I mail it to you that it's for the VG... it wasn't in my Roadster gasket stash so I'm pretty sure, but it's only been like 20 years that it's been sitting there (perfect condition though!).

Ok, confirmed... pm me your address and I'll send it out.

[BAMUZ]

Alright, well here goes nothing
Vg / trans / ecu / harness completely removed
And so begins the vg30 swap!

[Gregs672000]

Looks like a 20 minute job...

[BAMUZ]

Looks like a 20 minute job...

hahah! Well it is definitely SEMA ready

Took the two of us, all in all, around 20 hours.
Next is sitting the engine and trans in as well as getting the harness figured out--going to wire the two together and clean up a whole bunch of wires that aren't needed!
Also, need to figure out how to convert the gauges/tachs to electric and get them to the 300zx harness

[Gregs672000]

If you run into computer problems, you might consider running it on microsquirt... might simplify things (?).

[BAMUZ]

If you run into computer problems, you might consider running it on microsquirt... might simplify things (?).

So after doing some research it looks like the ms3 gold box is eventually what I will run. Seems a lot of the vg z31 guys are really enjoying them. I’m deleting just about everything from the engine, leaving only the bare necessities!