Nissan VG33ER rebuild questions

[ashman]

For those of you that have been following the Pigeonrat build you know that I am in the process of swapping in a VG33ER. For those that don't know, that is a 3.3 liter V6 Nissan engine with a supercharger. Since I'm going to all of the trouble of swapping the engine for more horsepower, I figure it makes sense to do a few things to it to make even more.

That said, I've never rebuilt a Nissan engine before, and it's been like 20 years since I did a chevy engine.

What's going to give me the best bang for the buck? Where should I spend my money?

I'm already assuming port and polish the heads, and I'm going to rebuild the supercharger and run a smaller pulley (2.3" vs stock 2.65").

I'm going to have a lot of questions, so hopefully you guys are on board to help make this happen.

 

[ZooMad75]

Outside of the overhead cams, it's the same process to rebuild as any engine.

My best suggestion would be to get a factory service manual for the truck the engine came from. You will get Nissan specific teardown and assembly procedures and all the needed specs in the book also. The cost is worth it, that is if they used books that year. The oem info will save you from scouring the web hoping to find details that are accurate.

Before ripping it apart, I'd take a compression reading on the cylinders. If they are all up and within 10% of the average of all 6, I don't know that I'd tear it down that far. Re-seal it and slap a new timing belt and water pump and go.

 

[Justin V]

Best bang for the buck?

Nitrous.







Cheapest way to make things go bang.

 

[ashman]

Best bang for the buck?

Nitrous.







Cheapest way to make things go bang.

Ok, fair enough, but doubt I'll go that route just yet.

Outside of the overhead cams, it's the same process to rebuild as any engine.

My best suggestion would be to get a factory service manual for the truck the engine came from. You will get Nissan specific teardown and assembly procedures and all the needed specs in the book also. The cost is worth it, that is if they used books that year. The oem info will save you from scouring the web hoping to find details that are accurate.

Before ripping it apart, I'd take a compression reading on the cylinders. If they are all up and within 10% of the average of all 6, I don't know that I'd tear it down that far. Re-seal it and slap a new timing belt and water pump and go.

Good call on the compression test, but it did blow some blue smoke, so I'm betting leaky rings. Just thinking if I have to pull it far enough apart to change the rings, I might as well see what else I can reasonably upgrade on the way.

I'll look into the factory service manual too.

 

[max 02]

I don’t know much about that engine but I know my niece has a Pathfinder that uses oil. My brother adds oil for her! Lol!

 

[ashman]

My best suggestion would be to get a factory service manual for the truck the engine came from.

Found the FSM online and downloaded all the .pdf. When I get back from BB I've got a lot of reading to do.

 

[ZooMad75]

Found the FSM online and downloaded all the .pdf. When I get back from BB I've got a lot of reading to do.

Excellent!