Anyone do an engine swap yet (not another nissan)

Guys,
Been looking at the paperwork needed to do an engine swap in the X and keep it road legal. I have an old crd liberty carcass with a good engine and tranny + electronics accessible. While it wont happen for another couple of years, I cannot get a straight answer either from the DMV or the EPA on what I need to get this done.

This is what I have so far. EPA says no engines from older vehicles into newer chassis. Check. Engine has to be in a vehicle that has been approved for US use. Check. Engine has to retain all smog related items (cats etc etc) check... Now the local rules (NC) are tricky. Apparently I have to apply for a kit car and have it refereed. With no outline of things needed to "pass", this worries me. Has anyone here put in an engine off of another vehicle (in the X or other, jeep etc etc). Id like to pick your brains on insurance and/or DMV regulations.

Andrew,

When you have the truck inspected do they look under the hood? If they do, could they tell the difference between what is under the hood and what should be under the hood? If you put the CRD engine in the Xterra other than you (and most likely us) who is going to know? I don't know NC regulations, but I would expect as long as it still has cats and it passes Smog test I can't imagine they'd hassle you.

I know in NJ they don't check under the hood during inspection and they do a pretty thorough inspection of more than just smog.

-Michael

Thanks Mike, no, they dont look under the hood at all, just connect the odb2 and see if it passes. If it were a trail only rig, i wouldnt care as much but id like to get it insured at some point to be road legal... ill hit up some yota forums... i heard they like swapping in some vw diesel goodness

In NJ they are pretty strict if you go to one of the state facilities, however, you can take it to any local garage and they will inspect it for you, appx. 80 bucks. Develop a relationship with your local independent guy and you'll be fine.

No older engines in Newer cars. Although that engine would pass smog for the current chassis your xterra is set to meet smog and certain levels for the year it was made.

Sorry man. i dont think you can get away from it.

I would so love to swap in a VH45DE 4.5L aluminum 32-valve V8 from a 95 Q45 into my X, but damn that little clause about older engines in newer vehicles...

Brent.. move to a free state and you can do it

Is that even possible?

Did you never see Project X?

Nissan put the V8 into an 02 X

WTF are you smoking Carlton? Nissan never put a V8 in a 1st-gen Xterra. They put the VQ35 driveline from a QX4 in the 02.
They put the VK56 driveline from the current Pathfinder into a 2nd-gen Xterra for the second Project X, but that was pretty easy seeing how they share a common platform.

they put a titan v8 engine in a 350z for drifting, that is the only big nissan engine swap i know about and i dont even know if nissan had anything to do with it.

Your right Brent.. too much engine fumes for me.

I live in NC. the problem is that the obd2 is downloaded to the state and vin specific so for anything newer than a 1995 vehicle youre kind of screwed. you actually have to swap the entire harness and ecm to make an error free download possible.

personally when its finally time im just gonna add the oem supercharger. since the ecm and harness changed for the sc models, it should be easier to just bolt the blower on the older motor and tune for it.

In NJ, they now JUST check emissions, NOTHING else.

OBD and tail pipe stuff, that's it.

(Budget cuts)

They USED to crawl all over the rigs...bulbs, stickers, window tint, brakes, shocks, etc...very very picky in the past.

It seems that with the emissions/computer part of the process now, instead of engine swaps requiring, tools, beer and pizza, you need to make the new list include tools, beer pizza and programming.

Your best bet now a days is to find a pre-OBD rig...and mod that...as they can't do deek about it...the VIN will be exempt.

If you do even a SAME MODEL SWAP, it gets to be messy.

It seems that if you go with the engine's harness, and abandon the truck's harness...the engine lights, etc are happier.

Obviously, if close enough to work, you can do either.

I had to do some voodoo to get my '03 engine from a rolled automagical trannied rig to stop lighting up the dash on my manual trannied '01.

The experts at the CPU places were dead wrong about what would / would not work.



Essentially, if you find the specs for current/ohms and whatnot for the sensors feeding the info to the cpu/obd system...you can, um, create input as needed.

Garbage in, passed inspection out.



I finally PASSED my inspection after a coupla years of trial and error.

The secret is to rest the codes, and then go in...they read the OBD, and say...it has not been long enough for the codes to be ready to read...come back in 30 days....

...rinse/repeat.

(There's no limit as to how many of these repeats you can get...)

trying a 5 cyl sprinter van (mercedes diesel) next year. measures ok just lots of work arounds do figure out.

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