Turbo Transplant
45

Asked by Byron Jun 25, 2009 at 11:32 AM about the 1984 Nissan 300ZX

Question type: Car Customization

I had a 1985 Nissan 300ZX Turbo sitting in our garage. Floor panels, beams, plates, and underbody were rusted considerably (the welding job would take lots of $). The electronics faults would take more than days to fix on my time (the car's electronics and mechanics just failed after we brought it over by flatbed). Also, the engine had over 200k miles.
   Later, my dad and I found an '84 Datsun/Nissan 300ZX. The car had 120k miles on it and we thought it would be great to install our current Z31's turbo.
   Now, we plan to transplant the '85s factory turbocharger assembly & components to the '84. They have the same engine (Turbo/Non-turbo:VG30E/VG30ET respectively). The things that we were most concerned of was the fact that the '84 was a 2+2 (longer exhaust tubing) and it has a digital dash/meters.

   Will this transplant work?

   What should we do to make this transplant possible to succeed?

1 Answer
195

Stephen answered 15 years ago

Assuming the Z31 is the same way as the Z32, the internals are different. Main difference being high compression pistons in the NA. The TT Z32s had 8.5:1 and the NAs had 10.5:1, which cannot handle much boost at all (not even factory TT boost, from what I understand). So, if the internals are actually the same, I don't see why it wouldn't work, but I'm no Z31 expert. And I doubt the internals were the same. I do know that a lot of the parts were identical to the Z32 counterparts (according to my Z31-owning, engine-rebuilding, Nissan tech friend). Also, if it's the same case as a Z32, the fact that it's a 2+2 doesn't matter as far as the motor goes. Good luck. Hopefully someone will give you some better info than me. Try NICO forums.

Mark helpful

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