Carb’ing the VG30e is simple, it sounds trivial but it really isn’t. Now why the question is why? Well for one Datsun 510 Owner’s do this often already and this question has been asked on the cs12 forums a few times. Granted you will not get much of a different performance gain, just the satisfaction of doing something off the wall weird and different. It can be a performance changer if you need a full over haul of the EFI harness as it might also improve the old failing electronics.
I don’t intend to boost the vg30 s12 at all. If at most I might add some NOS down the line but there isn’t much I wanted to do from there. Going Carb, is just a different Fuel Delivery system that works.
I am trying to work together a small break apart the efi and install of the carb when I get my tripod in for the GoPro before I proceed with a live video on my process.
Parts:
- Distributor – best solution DUI Performance Distributors, secondary “Rare” Saudi Nissan vg30 distributor.. There is most likely another way but this is simple one.
- Fuel Pressure Regulator, you need a 3 way that supports 5psi or lower. I Used the Professional Products 10652 Blue 3-Port Carburetor Fuel Regulator with Return Line
- Fuel Pump Re-wire Coming from efi you will also need to rewire the fuel pump to key on power and not ECU. I used the cs12 guide for KA24de swap.
- lower intake manifold from an mid 80’s Pathfinder, modified easy with this I sent it over to David Carroll with EE to modify it with adapting a Holley Carb
- Spacer 1 inch at least to rise the Carb high enough above the valve covers
- 350 CFM holley carb 2BBL (vg30 is an 181ci motor, a 350 is more than enough to cover)
- Hood Risers is needed to clear both the carb and the distributor.
- Extra 10FT of 14 – 16 gauge wires,
- Distributor hold down clamp to keep the distributor in place.
- Custom throttle cable setup, I am using the old OEM hard line with a bicycle cable as the universal ones do not work right.
Now for the only thing is needed at this point is knowing what wire does what, if you have done the PRW-2 Mod, you want to get the battery and the tach connection down you will be deleting all EFI related. If you want with the DUI Dizzy, the coil is a coil pack located on the top of the dizzy and only need 2 wires, 1 for the battery signal and 1 for the tach signal. 3rd wire you will need to find out the coolant temperature gauge. Using a continuity tester you can locate the wire easily to the body harness in you might need to get under the dash to 2 plugs and find the one that the engine harness connects to. You will delete the ecu and wiring harness completely from the car as it will not be needed, or if you are lazy wrap it in a pile and tuck it away but advised to remove the whole wiring harness.
Key note #1: when you collect the pathfinder intake manifold be sure to grab the mounting nuts and bolts and don’t reuse the SEv6 as they are different in length. I made this mistake that had me go back to pick a part to acquire the right bolts. the studs are recommended to change them out as well as they are a different size on the pathfinder but you can get away with it as you don’t need to massively torque down the intake just follow the FSM procedure for the pathfinder.
Key note #2: When ordering the Dizzy, be sure to have them verify that the vacuum advanced is setup with the correct rotation as I had to send mine back because of the vacuum advanced was setup wrong. These distributors are a clone to the MSD Street Fire Dizzy setup, the coil pack, the module, cap and rotor are replaceable with the MSD replacements they recommend to order theirs. When you also order the dizzy get the live wires. and have them trim about 2 inchs off of the 5 and 6 cyl and 1 inch of the 3 and 4 cyl.
Key note #3: Jetting, if you are unsure what jets to help tune your setup, you can purchase the Percy Adjust – a – jet adapter it will help you narrow down your jet sizing.
Key note #4: EGR, anything that was utilize for the EFI will be deleted, you will need to plug up the various holes including the EGR tube on the passenger side, the narrowband O2 sensor, in it’s place I recommend installing an AEM Wideband for much easier adjustments to the fuel delivery. There will be other weird and strange EFI devices located all around the engine bay that you will also be deleting. The oil breathers you will be deleting and adding filters in its place on the valve covers.
I will update this Howto as I progress and upload the videos as I proceed to go from EFI to carb again for the 3rd time. And if there is anything I am forgetting in this, i will proceed to update the original post.
and the list goes on and on as I have spent over a year troubleshooting multiple issues that shouldn’t be there. Worse case scenario I will be doing a full how to guide on converting to the carb setup before I fully dismantle the VG30 completely and pull the block and get it down to a machine shop to do what they need to do to find any type of blockage inside both the heads and the block. When I get the block back I should have a solid ground to work from and to rule out my final judgement that there is either blockage caused by rust or internal damage to a point causing more heat then it should be. As for my dream, shot down to getting back out on the track is shot down I wanted to get up and compete for once in my life time. Looks like I just failed at that too.
