Asking thoughts/any words of advice from people that have seen/done weird swaps. I’m thinking about swapping a similarly sized Nissan v6 into my 95 3.4l Camaro. I’ve seen forums asking about doing this to a 3rd Gen and nobody was really helpful. I know everyone’s first suggestion is to go LS or LT swap but that seems like a lot of work with suspension and whatnot. I’m thinking of doing the 3l VG30DETT engine/transmission/ecu out of the 300zx mated to a custom driveshaft. I decided on the VG for the iron block and aluminum heads, and it seems like less technology to deal with over the VQs from the 350z. This wouldn’t be a daily more of a fast beater/sleeper. A junkyard 350 or Z28 would be cheaper yes, but where’s the fun in doing what everyone else is doing? The current goal is about 600hp but really 450 would be enough to hang with some of my other friends cars. Plus it would be pretty fun to put the gap on my buddies 5.0 Fox Body with a v6.
Again not really sure what I’m asking here just needed some place to have a conversation about it.

 

If your good with welder and computers you could do it. I'm sure there will be fabrication to be done.

 

Certainly! Swapping a Nissan V6 into your '95 3.4L Camaro is an intriguing idea. The VG30DETT engine from the 300zx offers durability with its iron block and aluminum heads. It's a unique choice that sets you apart from common LS or LT swaps. Achieving your goal of 600hp (or even 450hp) for a fast sleeper is ambitious and exciting. If you have specific questions or need advice on the swap, the automotive community is here to help. Enjoy the process, and may your v6-powered Camaro take on your friends' cars, including the Nissan Pathfinder!

 

You say that putting a LS or an Lt but it seem like a lot of work? You can buy any part you need for these swaps. Heck you can just pick up a parts car and have everything you would need. To do your swap you will need to make or get really lucky on evey part. Do you know how to make motor mounts? Do you know the proper way to align a driveline? Can you custom make your headers? Do you know enough to rewire the dash to make everything after you have removed the computer?

I do not mean to be rude but this swap would be a lot easier in a 3rd gen. S

 

Sounds like a really bad idea to be besides being sacrilege.
Why would you want to Jap power a Chevy and go through all the hurdles involved when you can do a Chevy swap so much easier?

 

I had a friend that did a turbo VW engine with a Nissan 6 speed in a first gen S-10. Man that thing gets attention at any show. This guy is a mechanical engineer, he had to make a lot of parts. He had everything he made powder coated. It took him just shy of 2 years to build it and he had access to a complete shop. He still had to bring some stuff in to work to do. We CNC milled several parts and cut a few more on the waterjet. I asked him once why and he said to be different. I could have done a LS 5.3 swap complete for what he had in his custom stainless exhaust. He knew it too. He was friends with Mat from sloppy mechanics. Mat is the king of budget build fastness. I think there is a video on youtube of the trucks Dyno.

Found it


It would be a LOT easier to do this in a S10 then a 4th gen Camaro. The problem with blazing a new path is sometimes you end up in a swap. Without the boys in the machine shop he would have taken another 6 months. I remember the last thing he needed was a drive shaft. Stock was way too short. He had a custom Carbon fiber one made because the vendor said it could handle the RPMs' It did not and shook like crazy above 80 MPH, lastly he had to have a two pc one custom made that was balanced. That cost more the then Carbon fiber one.

 

I came back to this thread because of I’ve since had more time to think about what I want and I have new goals. I want to make the car mid engine, I’ve got plans to try merging a Porsche transaxle with a c4 independent rear suspension and having the engine sit behind the front seats. I still want to go with a v6 just to make sure I have enough room still for my seat (I’m 6’2” 280lbs so my seat is all the way back and leaned a bit) so right now I’m trying to narrow down what can be bought and built cheap. Still considering the vg30 but I may also go with a 3800 series 2 and swap the supercharger for a turbo. The point of the car will be less about pure performance since there’s not many tracks near where I live and be more about having something nobody else built, so I’m looking for about 400-450 whp and a good exhaust note. Rotaries crossed my mind too but I’m not sure I can afford that much maintenance I’ll also be learning how to use fiberglass to make my own widebody and I’m looking into how I can make a chassis mounted wing work on a unibody car. I know that sounds ridiculous and cringey but that’s how you get people’s attention with things like this. I know I could easily pick up a z28 for $3-$5k and be done with it but I grew up on Fast And Furious and Need For Speed so I’ve had the urge to customize extensively since I was little

 

Do you have the fabrication skills and the tools required to do this job. Do you know enough about cars to set up drive line angles and make a new wiring harness? For one guy that have never done this before I would guess about 2000 hour. If you assume 20 hours a week every week that is 2 years. That assume no breaks and no weekend missed due to waiting for parts. Plan on doing everything you have not done before, twice.

Go to google search side view of a 4th gen Camaro. Then search a side view of a 2020 corvette. Look at the distance between the back of the door and the center of the axle. This is not just for clearance of the engine it is a balance the weight of the car. With sports cars weight balancing is very important. If you pull a bunch of weight out of the front and put in in the middle the front tires will not bit. When you try to do a hard turn the front tires just slide straight instead of turning. We call that pushing. Since your front brakes do about 80% of the braking the last thing you was is to put the front tires into a side.

If you are just starting out, you should try something less ambitious. When I was young I loved working on cars. I bought my first car when I was 14 with paper route money. It was a 70 charger with a bad timing chain. I went to school for being a mechanic and went to work at a dealership. My first at home project was to build a race car. It was me and a body man friend of mine. Race cars are relatively simple compared to street cars. They lack all the creature comforts. We started with a bare frame from a 1972 Chevelle. We work about 30 hours a week plus our regular job. I made it about 12 weeks before I wanted to light the garage on fire. I am proud of what we did. Rick drove the car to 3rd place in his first race. I know that is the 3rd loser, but we beat 7 other guys and we were the only rookies. Most of the guys had been racing at least 5 years.

Check out this build. This is the type of build you could do one area at a time and not commit 2 years of your life. You could do this type of build on your 4th gen. Once you do a build like this you would know exactly what was involved in the build you are talking about.
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