620 vg conversion

[lynchfourtwenty]

ya thats pretty big maybe you should insulate it an seal it up lol.. hey it would give ya something to do! heh atleast it cuts down on the wind

[ariascarlos1990]

whats he gunna do with that? paper weight? hahahahaha :lol::lol:

 

 

ya jason any progress man? its been mighty cold out.. cant wait to take ya in the 1/4

 

Hey, someone may have use for it..:fu:

 

It's freaking cold outside.:mad: So ia have been spending my outside time working on customer cars and then heading inside to warm up, but my wife found a smoking deal this evening on a propane torpedo heater. So that will get fired up tomorrow to see how it works, to bad i have a lot of work to do on another customer car.

 

I did find a starter that clears everything really well so far. Best fit yet. I still need to find a Z31 bellhousing though.

 

Carlos, thanks for the offer, i am going to check to see if it might work.

 

Its just sittin here. Let me know if need it.

[ariascarlos1990]

just took a look at it and its a 3N71B

[yello620]

Project update..I made a set of motor mounts adapters today. The motor is now resting in the frame on VG motor mounts.

 

Here are a couple of pics of the right side installed, and showing a little bit of my starter clearance/fitment. I have plenty of room for the starter now.

 

After i finished making the motor mount adapters, I started cutting on my oil pans. Cut the bottom sump off of the Z31 rear sump pan, so that i could use the upper half. Then cut the bottom 3" off of an Infiniti M30 pan so that i could weld it onto the Z31 upper. This will make the sump about 1" shorter than the z31, but the much larger in size, front to back and side to side. Measures that it will actually hold a little more oil than the stock Z31 pan. Should be able to start welding on the pan tomorrow.

[MicroMachinery]

Sweet man, nice to see you're making headway :thumbup:

[mklotz70]

Very nice!! Thanks for the pics....gives me more info for when I do the NL swap :)

[yello620]

A lot more work done again today.:thumbsup: Most of today's work was done on the oil pan, have way to many hours in it already, but it is all welded up and is now sitting full of water for a leak check.

 

And a couple of pics installed before final welding, checking clearance.

 

discovered a problem with the alternator mounting also. I started installing other stuff on the front of the motor and realized that i had the alternator above the mount and it needs to go below. Well, below is major interference with the idler arm. So the other factory place for it(with different brackets) is up high on the drivers side, but that is where the air condithioner compressor mounts. Trying not to give up on the possibility of having air conditioning too.

[78kingcab]

very nice work.....vg620 that just sounds good

[lynchfourtwenty]

thats some great work jason.. keep it up brother

[MicroMachinery]

Could you fab/modify the bracket to work on the passenger side? Maybe use a different belt?

[mklotz70]

gonna have to swtich to rack and pinion :)

[Hyphy]

Im curious why you didnt just go straight for the z31 intake manifold. Its the most commonly used manifold and I would think easier to shorten given the style diferences. The z31 style can be cut at the bottom of the upper at the runners, shorten runners, and re-attach. Althought the 'pathfinder' style, which looks very similar if not identical to your current mani is better performance wise for turbo'd motors, I think the differences on an n/a arent much.

 

Im actually doing a similar conversion on my 521, tho im still waiting on the motor to get finished from rebuild, port and polish..etc.etc. so I havent been able to mock it up. When that time comes I might be hittin you up for an oil pan and some other stuff you may get to before I do. Tho Im much more wiling to cut and sacrifice..lol Already planning a coilover front and rack an pinion, maybe even a modified trans tunnel.

[yello620]

Could you fab/modify the bracket to work on the passenger side? Maybe use a different belt?

 

Nissan makes brackets to go on the other side of the motor, but they go right where i was hoping to install the a/c compressor. Might have to lose that feature for now. I am looking for a smaller cased alternator that would fit in the small space and on the stock bracket on the lower passenger side.

 

Im curious why you didnt just go straight for the z31 intake manifold. Its the most commonly used manifold and I would think easier to shorten given the style diferences. The z31 style can be cut at the bottom of the upper at the runners, shorten runners, and re-attach. Althought the 'pathfinder' style, which looks very similar if not identical to your current mani is better performance wise for turbo'd motors, I think the differences on an n/a arent much.

 

Im actually doing a similar conversion on my 521, tho im still waiting on the motor to get finished from rebuild, port and polish..etc.etc. so I havent been able to mock it up. When that time comes I might be hittin you up for an oil pan and some other stuff you may get to before I do. Tho Im much more wiling to cut and sacrifice..lol Already planning a coilover front and rack an pinion, maybe even a modified trans tunnel.

 

I have a Z31 style intake also. The fitment is not even close to going into this engine bay without major cutting of the firewall near the wiper linkage area, that is not going to happen on this project. The pathfinder manifold still has a small hope of fitting, very small though. Currently i am looking at two options though, 200sx and 84-86 maxima. I like the looks of the maxima intake too. It has to be turned backward for a rwd application, then the throttle body comes right off the front of the motor. I havent purchased either the maxima intake or the 200sx intake yet though.

 

I am trying to avoid having a pile of alternators and intakes on the floor, like i have done with the starters, i have seven of them.

[kwoo510]

You can try the VG33e alternator bracket, you might have to raised the bracket pivot mount an inch up to clear the frame, though.

The maxima intake might interfere with your master cylinder.

[Hyphy]

I have a Z31 style intake also. The fitment is not even close to going into this engine bay without major cutting of the firewall near the wiper linkage area, that is not going to happen on this project. The pathfinder manifold still has a small hope of fitting, very small though. Currently i am looking at two options though, 200sx and 84-86 maxima. I like the looks of the maxima intake too. It has to be turned backward for a rwd application, then the throttle body comes right off the front of the motor.

 

You mean due to the intake runnin on the back side? Thats why I mentioned the ease at which it can be altered. Cut the intake mani at the bottom where the runners meet up, rotate intake 180, slice the tube connecting TB to mani and rotate 180. Now you manifold is low and comes out the front. If you're this far you can adjust the tube cut to point it exactly where you want it. I can understand if you want to avoid that kind of modification tho.

 

Although, if you cant get the z31 mani to fit un modified, I suspect you are very close to the firewall and your coolant/heater lines will need to be adjusted aswell.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Hyphy

[yello620]

In order for the Z31 intake to work without cutting the intake, the firewall would need a 1.75" clearance cut from the firewall just to get it on the motor. Would need an even bigger notch to have any clearance to keep it from rubbing.

 

And i just cant seem to picture what you are doing with the cutting of the manifold.. I am not completely opposed to cutting it, but i really want stock looking parts too.

[Hyphy]

Ok, did some quick checkin on a few things. The gist of what i was gettin at regarding the z31 manifold modification would have resulted in a near replica of the maxima manifold. The major difference, based on photos, would be the modded z31 would have retained the arc'd section and would have pointed toward the drivers side. The maxima manifold you're talking about is soo close to being the same, you might aswell just use that. The intake piping can make up for the arc and you dont have to cut and weld.

 

I checked on the 200sx Mani aswell. I think that one may be higher than the maxima one given the TB comes out the side over the valve cover. So after having check out the other Mani's I hadnt seen before.... Id vote Maxima. If theres clearance issues still, mod the maxima manifold. Itd be less noticeable to cut the backside of the manifold and plate it off aswell. Hell, If you did have to do that, you could always take the manifold and give it a quick sand blasting using realy coarse grit and itd look even closer to stock. Not to mention the cover plate would hide most of the manifold anyway.

[yello620]

The stock as possible appearance is the part that is getting vote for the maxima right now, but since i have not tried it yet, maybe it wont work either. I plan to go to the JY today..

[Hyphy]

The stock as possible appearance is the part that is getting vote for the maxima right now, but since i have not tried it yet, maybe it wont work either. I plan to go to the JY today..

so whats the verdict? does the upper match the lower? will it work?

[yello620]

so whats the verdict? does the upper match the lower? will it work?

 

No news yet. :( They do share the same gasket part number though. I went to the JY two days ago, cold as hell outside, but left without a manifold when it started snowing, I didnt make it out of there until there was enough snow that i could no longer see my tools in the wheelbarrow.

[yello620]

Small update. :cool: I have done a couple of things. I made it to the JY and found an alternator bracket that mounts the alternator about 3 inches higher on the block, which looks like it gave me plenty of clearance to the idler arm. I didnt buy the alternator from the JY, hoping that mine would fit the new bracket. My alternator is too big to fit all the way into the bracket and it still clears the idler arm, so when i get the smaller cased alternator from the JY, i should have even more clearance.

Second thing that i have done is start on the wiring. :D The engine harness absolutley fell into place like it was meant to be there, just need to power the main relay and it will be done. The transmission ECU is an entirely different story, it is a mess. I have all the wires labeled where they go, just need to make it happen now.

[Hyphy]

pics please

[dat520]

any updates?

[yello620]

any updates?

 

Not really, been working on other projects. Worked a little on the transmission wiring harness. And the dash harness. The auto transmission requires that i convert to an electronic speedometer.

[yellowdatsun]

Yeh but why go through all the trouble to make the ZX manifold work when there's TONS of other options that don't need modification? I've had a VG in my 510 for years, so I've dealt with all that.