# Motor swap: turbo motor into non-turbo body



## rhythmicSTIMULUS (Apr 12, 2005)

I have recently come into possession of 1985 Nissan 300zx Turbo, and an '85 300zx (non-turbo) Both have a manual transmission. The turbo starts and runs fine, but the body has some nasty structural rust in the floor pan, and one of the columns, and also has bad frame damage to the right quarter panel. The non-turbo motor will start and run for a few seconds, but then dies, and won't start again without waiting at least a day... I don't want to deal with the non-turbo motor and its problems, because it has over 180K miles on it(the turbo only has 140K), and was not taken care of, so the problems could be numerous. All I want to do is put the turbo motor into the non-turbo body. This all seems fine and good, but for a few exceptions. The turbo has a few nice additions as part of the sports package. It has electronically controlled suspension, with a switch in the center consol, (soft, normal, or firm options) which is really cool, but I don't know of anywhere to find a replacement for this suspension if and when it decides to give out. Does anyone know where to find that? Also, the turbo gauge cluster is different, since it has the boost gauge and etc. Does anyone know anything about the differences in the wiring harnesses, or how difficult it is to switch them out for this car? and my final question, After the cars been driven for about a half hour, driven relatively hard mind you, the turbine glows orange. I'm planning on putting some insulation around other parts of the motor to help protect it from the insane amount of heat produced by this turbo, but is there anything else I can do to cool the turbo aside from buying an intercooler kit for it? Those weren't cheap for this car, last I checked. I'd appreciate anything you know about all this, or just any tips in general for doing an old nissan motor swap.


----------



## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

There are some differences between the turbo and nonturbo motors. For starters, there is at least one extra sensor. You'll have to swap the wiring and the ecu from one car to the other. The engine swap will be easy, it will bolt right up. My advise is to leave the nonturbo transmission in place, it is actually stronger than the BW T5 in the turbo car. A far as the electronic suspension goes, don't sweat over it. It's pretty much garbage anyway, I left mine on firm all the time.... There are some fundamental differences between the 2 suspensions, the nonturbo car will not accept the turbo suspension parts anyway, unless you want to swap hubs and other stuff around. The boost gauge is also garbage, if you up the boost at _all_ you'll want to buy a better one. My advise is to remove the 2 center guages, pretty much worthless in both cars, and install at least a boost guage. The other guage is up to you. The stock guages are there mostly for show, and at this late date will not only be inaccurate, they don't have much margin for if you do any modifications. 

As far as the turbo glowing orange, this is pretty typical of all turbo cars. I'd worry if it _didn't_ glow....


----------



## rhythmicSTIMULUS (Apr 12, 2005)

Thanks!


♣Zen31ZR♣ said:


> As far as the turbo glowing orange, this is pretty typical of all turbo cars. I'd worry if it _didn't_ glow....


The reason I wondered about it is that there appears to be some heat damage to various wires and hoses that are near the turbo. Is there supposed to be a heat shield around it to protect all that?


----------



## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

rhythmicSTIMULUS said:


> Thanks!
> 
> 
> The reason I wondered about it is that there appears to be some heat damage to various wires and hoses that are near the turbo. Is there supposed to be a heat shield around it to protect all that?


 At this age, that is also fairly typical. The T3 on the Z31 was a bit short on heat shielding. The only thing I'm aware of that was actively shielded in that area was the master cylinder. There are heat shields on the manifolds, or should be, and on the crossover pipe as well. I'd have to look at my car, but I don't think the turbine area itself had any shielding.


----------

