How Texas_Ace Swapped a VG30ET to a VG33ET! Complete Writeup

Me too, i got the AC working today so that is nice. Also got it cleaned up and a few little things taken care of.

Last big thing to take care of is the Exahust.

Ok, today got out there and took the headlight switch apart. Bent those prongs around a little and now the headlights work great! And from all my testing that fixes the last thing that didn't work on the car!

I went by the car wash and washed it down nice and good, i have to say i am VERY impressed with how clean this car is! All i did was wash it off and then wipe down the interior with water and a rag and this is the results, not even a coat of wax.

So only things left to make this car 100% is the exahust, Radio, an ash tray, and black rear carpet (if anyone has any of these parts please let me know, looking for a parts car to steal some parts off of)

Too bad it looks like i am going to have to sell it :-( :-( How much would ya'll value the car at with the above things fixed BTW?

Car looks Great!
Good luck with the sale!

Was driving it today, finally have enough miles on it to actually try giving it a little go pedel (still don't want to rev it past 4k for now though until it is borken in a little more).

I have to say this thing really has some get up and go. for a street car i have to say that even with the conservitive timing (~14 degrees) and WG boost, it is a real hoot to drive. It is also SO tame and stock feeling. Yet it really can get up and go.

Butt dyno says at least ~200 RWHP like it sits. It can make some nice purrty 11's on the street…;-)

I am REALLY going to hate selling this thing, i sure hope buissnes picks up and this is a mute point!

Your car is identical to mine with the excepction of the mudflaps. Did you swap in a black carpet from another car? Because mine has a dark gray/charcoal colored carpet. How many miles does your's have? Mine has 90k miles.

I have not got the rear carpet replaced yet. Plan to get a new rear carpet from http://www.stockinteriors.com/. The PO said that he made a mess in the back and had to toss the factory carpet and could only find the blue that is back there now to replace it.

The way you see the car is how it came to me, only thing i did other then the swap and some minor fixes was clean it.

This car has 60k miles on it, darn good condition too.

I don't recall exactly the condition of my car that i got my motor out of… But i think that everything is in nice shape. It was a Black 1988. It was wrecked and has been in a garage ever since, but when wrecked all the glass was intact, so the carpet is dry.

Ill ask the owner for a price and condition.

Later
Ken 8)

That would be great, if the inside is in good condition there are a few other little things i could use as well.

$50 for the carpet, and is pretty sure its in good condition, checking tonight.

Exhaust was shot (likely NY winters)

Aftermarket sterio in the car, unsure of bezel?

Has Ash tray… Will have to get price for you.


Let me know of any other parts that you are looking for.

No good information to add, but i did want to thank you for the invaluable information.

My VG33 is almost completely assembled.
Here's how she sits as of 2 hours ago



The Quest balancer has a 3 rib rear pulley section so it will work with the stock Z31 water pump and pulley, as well as the alternator.

More pics to come.

Great! Yours is so purrty! What kind of paint did you use? i have never had luck with engine paint so i don't even try anymore.

Glad to hear yours is coming along as well. Be interseting to see how yours turns out. 2 differnt ways to the same end, i still think my way is better lol. :nanan?re

Have put a few miles on mine but got pulled over the other day for it not being inspected (still don't have an exahust, going to bite the bullet and get one made next week). As soon as i get a few more miles on it i am going ot go by the dyno, already talked to the guy and he agreed to trade of a wireless keyboard i have laying around for some dyno time ;-)

I do have a question, i heard somthing about nissan replacing the injectors, some kind of recall. Is that still going on? Might as well get new injectors before i try to make some power, can't hurt.

I agree, how you've done it is definitly better, and it's how I would have like to do it, now that I found the oil pump for cheap and all that… but I didn't have the time to pull the Z31 motor, so…

As for the paint… I do impress people with my painting skills out of a spray can sometimes. I have a different approach. Depending on the shape of the parts, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. But regardless, I always get it to come out super shiney.

I used Duplicolor engine enamel for the gold parts (they look slightly vibrant, but I promise they're more subdued and more like the electromotive gold used on the GTP ZX Turbo engines and Infiniti M30 engines).

I spray really thick coats until you can see the mist turn into a sheen. I don't spray from like 20 inches away and mist it until it speckles the entire part over and over… all you'll get doing that is speckling of the paint and it will end up flat. Every time I spray until it levels itself out into a glossy finish, I stop and let it dry. Then I do the same with the clear.

The clear is weird. It's actually white when it's applied in excess… but if you can apply it in excess and not have it run, and it turns the part white, when it dries it will look like GLASS.

Racinjitter saw my valve covers last year. asked me what I painted them with. LOL. They've since been repainted, due to me having to take off the intake manifold a gazillion times and getting frustrated.

One thing I will note though, is that using the engine clear creates a "soft" layer on the paint. Easily scratched, and easily stained. But at that point, you can use a scotch brite pad to break it down to a flat version of whatever colour is underneath, and then respray if you please.

More pics tonight when I get it 99% assembled (if I get that far).

Can't wait to see the pics and see how it runs!

I got out there and install the downpipe today, got 2 studs installed fine but one of them simply will not thread. Anyone got any ideas on how to get a bolt in there?, tried cleaning the threads with a tap, no luck.

Should get the exahust early next week and then a few more miles till dyno time!

I have found the problem in this entire thread…


MR2. That is what you need to be selling…