How Texas_Ace Swapped a VG30ET to a VG33ET! Complete Writeup

very informative post. glad you came here to share. i should have gotten the z31 crank out of my engine earlier and used all that stuff, but too late.

I hope the nitriding i did was worth the extra hardness.

and that VG30 came apart like a casting block. LOL
The way i look at it is this, if you are doing this swap, there is a 90% chance you have a VG30 of some kind already. And no matter what you have to remove the VG33 crank wether you machine it or swap it. So i see no reason to go to all the extra work of making the VG33 work vs just swapping cranks.

But it can be done and should work fine, just a lot of extra work and $$.

By "nitriding" I assume you mean some form of cryo freezing? that should indeed help you out if you are going for the big numbers. It REALLY does add a LOT of streangth. Years ago when this was new a friend of mine and me sent in some disposable razors to be frozen, those things were no longer disposable, they lasted longer then the big $$$ razors you can get (this was a common example they were using back then to show it works BTW) they also used panty hose, supposedly it lasted 5x longer after being frozen. Never tried that one though…lol

very informative post. glad you came here to share. i should have gotten the z31 crank out of my engine earlier and used all that stuff, but too late.

I hope the nitriding i did was worth the extra hardness.

and that VG30 came apart like a casting block. LOL
The way i look at it is this, if you are doing this swap, there is a 90% chance you have a VG30 of some kind already. And no matter what you have to remove the VG33 crank wether you machine it or swap it. So i see no reason to go to all the extra work of making the VG33 work vs just swapping cranks.

But it can be done and should work fine, just a lot of extra work and $$.

By "nitriding" I assume you mean some form of cryo freezing? that should indeed help you out if you are going for the big numbers. It REALLY does add a LOT of streangth. Years ago when this was new a friend of mine and me sent in some disposable razors to be frozen, those things were no longer disposable, they lasted longer then the big $$$ razors you can get (this was a common example they were using back then to show it works BTW) they also used panty hose, supposedly it lasted 5x longer after being frozen. Never tried that one though…lol
The nitride he is talking about is from him having to remove too much material from the crank. This will create a soft spot where bearings sit causing extremely fast wear. In order to make it suitable to be a journal of some kind again, you have to have re nitride it.

"Nitriding is a chemical hardening process in which the part is heated in a furnace, the oxygen is vacuumed out, and nitrogen is introduced which penetrates the entire surface. The depth of hardness is dependent upon the time the crankshaft is exposed to the gas. Typically, a nitrided crankshaft will have a hardness depth of about .010 - .030. Nitriding is a low heat process compared to Tuftriding, but it shares the advantage of avoiding the introduction of localized stress zones as in induction hardening."

Nice post, especially for a newbie! I remember doing this swap a few years ago and it would have been nice to have a post like this around. I had to PM around to get the info I needed :lol:
Well i am only a newbie in the world of z-cars. I have had a number of project cars before this but thanks, i am very happy with the results.

Only problem is i went so far over budget i might have to sell the car if buissness doesn't pick up :-(

Nice post, especially for a newbie! I remember doing this swap a few years ago and it would have been nice to have a post like this around. I had to PM around to get the info I needed :lol:
Well i am only a newbie in the world of z-cars. I have had a number of project cars before this but thanks, i am very happy with the results.

Only problem is i went so far over budget i might have to sell the car if buissness doesn't pick up :-(

Don't do it… It is one of those things that you will regret doing for a long time. Tough it out man.