jadm4x4 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 ok the motor i have is a vg30i in the origional beast and have just purchased a vg33 out of an r50. need to know what is needed for a swap over. do i need to run a r50 ecu or can i strip it back to and replace the bits and pieces so its back to a vg30i... any help is appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 You can put all the VG30 parts on the VG33 with a few modifications such as A/C or alternator bracket and such. Someone did a write up here on exactly this, but if my memory serves me, it was a VG30E, not VG30I but it shouldn't make a difference. If I ever blow my motor, I'll probably swap, but with 106,000 miles on it, I may have to wait a while... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edicer2 Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 your probably going to need a newer pathfinder ecu from like a 90-95 and a vg30e wireharness to make it work right unless u like wiring....talk to king man he swapped from a vg30i to a vg30e from a 300zx and had to do a lot of rewiring and a vg33e is pretty much just like a vg30e so if he got the vg30e to work you can get the vg33e to run. My only thought is how does the ecu compensate for the bigger motor and stuff im not sure if u would need a tune either. read up and talk to kingman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) Aside from swapping the accessories over and modifying the old water pump to fit up to the newer oil pump there are 2 things you can do: Re-use the TBI setup off the old VG30i so you don't have to swap the ECU. Find a VG30E ECU and MAF sensor and hook that up with the MFI setup. I don't know what years they are for your country but you need to find a VG30E ECU that supports the older smaller oxygen sensor. If you find a newer ECU then you will need to replace the midpipe that holds the oxygen sensor or drill for a bigger bung. You can re-use the R50 ECU but that is more wiring than it is worth. If you do plan on switching to MFI then don't forget to grab a VG30E MAF sensor. If you don't want to modify the water pump you can fit a VG30ET oil pump which should work with the old style water pump. However the VG33E oil pump is still better so it might be worth to mod the original water pump. Edited October 8, 2011 by Tungsten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 CHAMPION. we had come to the conclusion that the bottom end is pretty much the same so im going to swap the bottom end over on the vg33 oand use the other components from the vg30i Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 ok so this is the process im going through what i have srated with a 93 pathfinder with origional vg30i the vg30i (93 pathfinder) stuffed bottom end including the block and pistons i have all the top end but the heads are in bad shape i have all the maf and other bits and pieces. the vg30e. (88 Terrano) stuffed bottom end but the crank is good and pistons stuffed heads are good (but i want to run the I not the e) the vg33 ( R50) top end absolutly stuffed. i needed a shovel to get rid of the sludge but saprisingly there is no sludge around the block or inside the oil pump i have all 3 motors spread out accross the garage and are comparing parts to wich ones i can use and others i can discard so far i have come up with the oil, water and heads are the same with only minor cahnges. and they are very minor. but i do like where the oil filter is on the vg33 ill run the heads of the vg33I with the injection set up aswell. the only issue i can come acroos is the piston boares are larger than the other vg33e and the vg33i and am not shure if this will affect the ecu any other imput would be most appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Are you sure you have the i and the E not mixed up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 You might consider replacing the oil pump and water pump as preventative maintenance. I didn't replace my oil pump when i had my engine out for a rebuild end ended up replacing it (major pain) a couple months later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 (edited) How does a VG oil pump fail? Does it stop pumping oil? I don't think they commonly fail on VG engines. That's Toyota's problem, they blow to pieces on some of their engines. Edited October 8, 2011 by Tungsten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Leaking air between the cover plate and body. At low RPM it just sucked air and oil pressure dropped to zero. Above about 1000 rpm the gear would be spinning fast enough that it pulled oil through and the pressure was almost normal. I even opened the pump up when I was rebuilding the engine and measured all the clearances in the FSM between the various parts of the gear and body, but that didn't find this problem. If I take my old pump and blow into the intake you can hear all the air leaking out like crazy. New pump still leaks a bit (there is no real seal between the two parts) but not like my old one. Presumably the previous owner didn't change their oil enough or something and it got worn down. Could be uncommon, I have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 (edited) How does a VG oil pump fail? Does it stop pumping oil? I don't think they commonly fail on VG engines. That's Toyota's problem, they blow to pieces on some of their engines. Cavitation, metal particles, super dirty oil, etc. Same way any other oil pump can fail. It's just not as common on Nissans. OP: The VG30E computer will run a VG33 no problem. Since it sounds like yours is a VG30E (1993 Pathfinder) you can keep your stock ECU. They will compensate for around 10-15% displacement change. Also might want to look in to running your stock VG30 cams with your new VG33 engine. They have a little higher lift so you can open up a little power, or find some cams from ANY pre-1987 VG30 engine. These are AB series cams and have the highest lift and duration, plus you may be able to get Euro spec versions of these pretty easy. To clear up some confusion... VG30I 1986.5-1989 I is Throttle Body Injected VG30E 1990-1995 E is Multi Port Fuel Injected So... what year is the truck you're putting the new engine in? Edited October 8, 2011 by Kingman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 If you have an engine with super dirty oil that causes the oil pump to fail you may as well replace the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 If you have an engine with super dirty oil that causes the oil pump to fail you may as well replace the engine. That's essentially what I did (full rebuild, cylinders bored etc.). OP is also replacing his engine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 ok so this is the process im going through what i have srated with a 93 pathfinder with origional vg30i the vg30i (93 pathfinder) stuffed bottom end including the block and pistons i have all the top end but the heads are in bad shape i have all the maf and other bits and pieces. the vg30e. (88 Terrano) stuffed bottom end but the crank is good and pistons stuffed heads are good (but i want to run the I not the e) I still don't understand how the 88 has a VG30E while the 93 has a VG30i. Something isn't right here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 yeh ok i was wrong. ass about... not enough alcahole in the system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Ok now that you cleared that up... Are you really swapping VG33E over a VG30E then? If so you don't even need to swap anything else other than the accessories and the water pump. I would recommend using the VG30E cams over the VG33E cams for more power. The ECU you can leave alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewebster Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I think we need a re-cap here. What is the truck you are trying to put the engine into? The 91 in your profile? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRich Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 (edited) If it's like the VGs here in the states the crank pulley on the VG33 is different and the crank snout is larger so you can't put the VG30 balancer and pulley on the VG33 crank. The only way to put the VG33 in place of a VG30 using all the VG30 accessories is to put a VG30 crank in the VG33 block. Then you will need to use the VG30 oil pump too because of the different size of the crank snout. Nissan nut covers all of this on his site. Nissan Nut Also you can't just put VG30 heads on a VG33 block. Some of the water jackets don't line up. This web site Project Pathfinder Explains what you need to do to make it work. James Edited October 10, 2011 by JamesRich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edicer2 Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 ok that clears up what i was saying then i thought u were converting a vg30i to a vg33e instead of the vg30e to a vg33e so yeah that should be pretty darn easy then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 yeh found out al the above the hard way. i stufed a few parts getting them of but eassily repace from the parts recyclers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 oh and its not the one in my profie. i must change that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 ok so the issues ive had doing this so far. ive had to use the flat belt system from the vg33 becouse of the harminic balance. the crank size is different. so that had opened up a whole can of worms when fitting acccesories like the power steer pump and alternator and aircon. so refabbing brackets has been all the go. and becouse of the accesories had to be swaped sides made things a little harder aswell eg where the power steering was located. ( harder as in australia apperently we sit on the wrong side of the car so all the power steering is on the oppisite side) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadm4x4 Posted December 3, 2011 Author Share Posted December 3, 2011 heres a quick pic of the harmonic balancer's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now