521 Engine Swap

[m415]

I am hoping to buy a 521 soon, and want to engine swap it and try to get some solid horses out of it. I was looking for midrange engines to swap, and I came across this. Does anyone know if this would fit, and does anyone have any other recommendations for high powered engines that won't break the bank?

[thisismatt]

Fit? Yes, with a lot of work, and the transmissions are quite large.  Easy? Not exactly.  Not sure what the current engine management scene looks like, but it used to be you had to get the ECM reprogrammed to drop the NATS (Nissan Anti-Theft System) unless you brought over the entire harness essentially, as the system uses CANBUS communication between everything and if you don't have parts it won't work (eg ECM, BCM, IPDM, ignition/key fob, etc).  So either everything, or flash the ECM to get rid of NATS, or a standalone management system.  Someone else can maybe chime in with more recent info.  I went the flashed ECM route but I've never gotten everything together far enough so I'm not that much help there 🙄

 

Not sure I've even seen it done in a 521, but it's been done in 510's and Z cars.

[datzenmike]

Have you swapped engines before?*

Got +$5k?

Got six months time?

Got a secure garage with tools.

Can you fabricate?

Do you weld?

Do you have girlfriend?

 

What transmission???? nothing will fit without cutting the floor out

Exhaust will be a nightmare with torsion bars in the way

 

You'll need a major upgrade in brakes for this, don't kid yourself.

 

 

*I worry that failure to comprehend magnitude of time and expense and experience needed to complete this will lead to the 521 being brought to the point that it becomes a parts car for someone else and ends in the wrecking yard. Even with good intentions and all. Once gone... it's gone forever.

 

 

[Crashtd420]

Mike beat me to it.....

 

Get it running and driving... they dont have the weight of the newer vehicles, so they dont need as much power to get them moving.. even the low power of the truck is fun when they only weight something like 2400 pounds....

 

What's your intended use of the truck?

[banzai510(hainz)]

Most time people pull the motor then push it in backyard to let rot. then in junk yard when rent not paid and kicked out of house.

 

 

MY 521 just has a L16 in it and gets lots of Dumbs up just because its running !!!!!!!!!!! You dont see them on the road. A swap that never finnishes is another off the road and seen lots on here that didnt make it back.

Every now and then youll see a guy truely make it big and complete one.

I say look for a swap project with the motor already and take it cheap off ones hands.

 

a L motor is simple to get running and driveing and will still be cool w/o breaking the bank.

Edited September 12, 2023 by banzai510(hainz)

[Slow Loris]

Personally, I’d love to find a 521 in a junkyard, it would really help me finish mine. 

[wayno]

23 hours ago, m415 said:

I am hoping to buy a 521 soon, and want to engine swap it and try to get some solid horses out of it. I was looking for midrange engines to swap, and I came across this. Does anyone know if this would fit, and does anyone have any other recommendations for high powered engines that won't break the bank?

 

To put something like that in a 521 you will need experience, it took yelo620 quite a while to put a VG30 in a 620, but he did it right so it took time to find the right parts to make it easier without cutting notches in the frame/body, he took parts off of several different vehicles with the same engine that were clocked differently or were lower profile, like I said it took time to search all the wrecking yards to find what would work and what would not work.

 

In my opinion it would be better to buy the 521 running, drive it for a while while making plans, measuring things so you can get it right, I can likely drop a aluminum V8 in my 720, but it would take lots of time, this kind of stuff is something I know about, I have a 1969 Datsun 521 kingcab turbodiesel, it took a couple years before I was even close to happy, 7 years later I figured out how to turbocharge it, then I was happy, its all I want to drive.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

One post and not the answer he wanted. He'll never be back.

[mainer311]

1 hour ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

One post and not the answer he wanted. He'll never be back.

 

When I first joined this forum and introduced myself/posted what my plans were for the truck, I was attacked, mainly by Angela (who rarely posts anymore) as well as a few of the other regulars about plans and ruining this and ruining that. It was as welcoming then as it is now. 

[datzenmike]

Posted at 7:28 and last visited 7:28. It's only barely 41 hrs. not even two days yet.  I've taken a dump that lasted longer. 

 

[wayno]

That person could be here right now but not signed in.

 

I also got flamed when I made my first post about my 521 kingcab without any photos, but Mike Klotz posted a link to my Photolame account for those in a hurry to see photos, this was the first forum I ever joined, I had to figure out how to post photos.

[datzenmike]

To the proletariat he can disguise his presence but he can't get past me. It would still display the last time he was here and that hasn't changed. If here, and hidden, it would say what forum he is viewing.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Proletariat? Who are you? Guy Fawkes?

[mainer311]

20 minutes ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Proletariat? Who are you? Guy Fawkes?

 

He's got a lot of vocab for a Canadian.

[EDM620]

On 9/12/2023 at 6:45 AM, datzenmike said:

Have you swapped engines before?*

Got +$5k?

Got six months time?

Got a secure garage with tools.

Can you fabricate?

Do you weld?

Do you have girlfriend?

Let's be serious for his sake. Unless you have done engine swaps before and are comfortable with your abilities, the probability of getting the project to completion is low.

Swapping a LS into a Chevy truck is simple but good practice. Swapping a modern electronically controlled physically larger & heavier engine into a chassis that wasn't designed for a big motor = a massive undertaking, both in costs, time and frustrations.

 

If the swap has been succesfully done before by others who can help (with info at least) AND your skills/time/$ align, then why not? If you are about to re-create the wheel (aka never been done before) then we recommend you not go that route. Guys with lots of $ and skills can put anything in anything, and the old saying "no substitue for cubic inches" can be true. This forum can help you along the way. As has been said already, a lightweight truck doesn't need massive power to be exciting.

 

Don't dump all over this, but m415 consider that guys here have experience and have seen projects and big ideas go to rot. We personally know those guys too.

[datzenmike]

Still has only visited last on the eleventh so any post after have not been seen by him, possibly not even anything after the first post. 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

On 9/14/2023 at 9:11 AM, EDM620 said:

 

Don't dump all over this, but m415 consider that guys here have experience and have seen projects and big ideas go to rot. We personally know those guys too.

This is the chief reason I throw up a little in my mouth whenever I read someone's post asking about engine swaps. I bet 50% of them never get finished, which equals 50% of those cool cars and trucks off the road forever.

[datzenmike]

Certainly a percentage, a small one, are killed by their creation. B-210 brakes with SR engine. Others, much better built but just insanely fast for their owners, and they get into trouble. Another few percent the car self destructs from bad design/welding.

 

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

17 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Certainly a percentage, a small one, are killed by their creation. B-210 brakes with SR engine. Others, much better built but just insanely fast for their owners, and they get into trouble. Another few percent the car self destructs from bad design/welding.

 

 

Like that 521 crew cab a few years ago.

[EDM620]

On 9/19/2023 at 2:37 PM, datzenmike said:

but just insanely fast for their owners

a '69 econoline I had years back was saved from such a fate. PO stuffed too much power into it and realized it before he finished or wrecked it. I bought it minus the powertrain and put a more sane level of performance into it. Drove that for a few years before it got traded away.

 

In other words, I bought someone else's failed/unfinished project for cheap and finished it.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]