David's VG33 Swap Finally Begins

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qwik510
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David's VG33 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

So I have been planning a VG30 Engine swap into my stock 1970 2 door for over 3 years.

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For whatever reason, I just couldn't get started on it. The car was so nice in stock condition that I was just enjoying driving it. Then in August, I sold my wagon to Mike and the day he took it home the engine started giving him trouble. It left him walking home and worse, it left him with a bad taste in his mouth for his first Datsun experience. We had taken it for a 30 minute test drive before he bought it and although it would ping a lot during hard acceleration, it was running ok. Anyway, I felt really bad for him and even though he told me that I was not responsible, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to get me off my butt and get started on my swap. The great running, Low mileage (119K) L16 would be donated to Mike and I would finally do the VG swap.


So today, with sunny skies and 75 degrees, We pulled the L16 and the automatic transmission from the car.



It was an easy pull and mostly uneventful. This was the first time I had pulled an automatic trans from a 510. With a manual trans, I would usually pull the motor and trans together but in this case, the motor was pulled first and then the trans. The column shifter has some funky linkage but other then that, it all went well.

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So now I will begin the cleanup and the VG30 install. I am hoping to have time to work on it over the winter and have it ready for Summit Point 2009. This is my goal. I am not doing a restoration. I am just doing a swap. Sometime in the future, I will pull it apart and restore the car but for now, I will not get hung up in the "while I am at it" syndrome.

So here are some pics of how the car looked before I started and how it was at the end of the day. I will keep the updates coming.

http://datsun510.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3556
Last edited by qwik510 on 11 Mar 2010 13:00, edited 2 times in total.
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David
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yenpit
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Joined: 07 Jul 2006 20:14
Location: Denver Colorado

Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by yenpit »

........and so it begins! Best of luck with the swap Dave!!
1973 510 2dr
1972 521 flat bed
1972 510 Wagon parts car
2009 Toyota Matrix S AWD

LOTS of 510 parts!
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sexyL
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by sexyL »

man, if that's the original paint, i wouldn't want to touch that car! it looks nice
qwik510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

sexyL wrote:man, if that's the original paint, i wouldn't want to touch that car! it looks nice
No. The blue car has been repainted. My orange car has original paint.
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David
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defdes
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by defdes »

Love the project, good of you to donate the motor too. Looks like a beautiful platform.
qwik510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

defdes wrote:Love the project, good of you to donate the motor too. Looks like a beautiful platform.
Thanks. I had my V8 510 for 17 years, then in 2005, I got a chance to drive a friend's VG30 powered 510. I decided right then to sell my V8 car and look for a clean 2 door to do a VG swap into. The very next day, the blue car showed up in the Dime Quarterly Classifieds and I bought it. Had it shipped from the west coast. The car is 99% rust free and has been well maintained and cared for it's entire life. Being that it was in stock condition and had the auto trans, it was never abused or molested. It had only 2 adult owners since new. I was very happy to find it.

It is so nice to work on a car that is not rusty. All of the bolts came off easily and I didn't bust up my knuckles. I did break one of the studs on the exhaust manifold where it attached to the down pipe. Ususally I would spray it with penetrating oil but I couldn't find it. The other 2 exhaust nuts came off with no problems.
Last edited by qwik510 on 11 Mar 2010 19:15, edited 1 time in total.
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David
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Ash510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by Ash510 »

nice find, looks like a real nice car to start with. keep us up to date with your progress.
qwik510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

I spent some time yesterday scrubbing the engine compartment. It cleaned up pretty well for a 38 year old car but I have decided that I will need to paint the engine compartment if I want this swap to look good.

So today I started to strip everything off. I need to keep it as a rolling chassis for a few more weeks so I left the steering and brake components in place for now. I am getting the garage ready to move the car in for the winter.

Here are a few pics from today.

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I am boxing and bagging all of the nuts, bolts and small parts and making sure that it is all labeled so I don't forget what it all is.

I ended up pulling the steering column so I could remove the column shifter mechanism. Now to finish getting the garage ready and then roll the car into it for a winter swap.

More to come soon.
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David
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S15DET
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by S15DET »

Looks like a great winter project. If I'm in your area again, I'll let you know, maybe I can stop by to check on your progress.
Best of luck.
Oh, nice color too, I like the blue.
qwik510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

S15DET wrote:Looks like a great winter project. If I'm in your area again, I'll let you know, maybe I can stop by to check on your progress.
Best of luck.
Oh, nice color too, I like the blue.
Thanks. You are welcome anytime. Just let me know.
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David
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nkldime
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by nkldime »

any new pictures? :) of the vg or any thing?
qwik510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

nkldime wrote:any new pictures? :) of the vg or any thing?
No new pics yet. I have been slow to make progress. I have been getting all my cars ready for winter storage. My Z car got moved to the back garage and the VG car is now in the main garage for work over the winter. The Brock car is in the driveway under a cover. It will be going to an indoor storage place for the winter on Wednesday.

The VG30 is from a 1987 Nissan 200SX I bought 2 years ago. Here are a few pics. I pulled motor and trans out of it last fall. It is sitting at my friends shop waiting for me to come and get it. It will come home once the engine bay is prepped. Then I will start to clean it up for the install..

Here are pics of the donor:

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More to come soon!
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David
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nkldime
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by nkldime »

looks good. Winter sucks but there is a lot of down time to work on projects. : )
djlotus
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by djlotus »

So whats gonna happen to the donor car?
qwik510
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Re: David's VG30 Swap Finally Begins

Post by qwik510 »

djlotus wrote:So whats gonna happen to the donor car?
That car went to the JY last year. I tried to sell it and/or parts from it but I didn't get enough interest and there were issues with the title and I didn't want to store it so I decided to junk it. I only paid $200 for it so I consider it a good deal for a donor drivetrain.
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David
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