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CRD Engine Swap?

3K views 46 replies 11 participants last post by  diver110 
#1 ·
Just curious if anyone has swapped a CRD engine for any of the other three engines in a WK after an engine failure?? My Hemi runs super strong, can't see it failing anytime in the near future but was curious if swapping out the motor for a CRD was possible/feasible? (emissions issues aside since that would largely depend on what state you live in)
 
#4 ·
Very complicated motor to transplant. Anythings possible but the only way to do it with out a nightmare would be if you had a complete wreaked donor vehicle. But odds are as rare as these are you'll never find one.
 
#5 ·
I thought as much, but odds are someone out there has done this. Usually there's at least one odd ball on these forums who's done the ridiculous; who's said damn the feasibility. There's a guy on my 350z forum who did a V8 swap at a cost of close to $20,000, even though any kid who's gone turbo for $3-$7K will blow the doors off his Z in a straight line and around a turn. He completely messed up his weight distribution also, but that didn't stop him.
 
#7 ·
Originally posted by quicksilverado

If the kid runs into a 350Z with an ls1 swap with a turbo, he will think his turboed Z is not running right. And the ls1 is an all aluminum v8. So they are usually lighter than the engines they replace.
The VQ35DE (350z engine the year I'm taking about) is an aluminum block V6, I doubt an LS1 with two extra cylinders weighs less. Those turbo kits put down 600 hp (more or less depending on what you want) now of course a V8 is capable of more power but it's pointless at that point, good luck finding tires that are sticky enough, the conservative turbo kits make 400 hp to the wheels which is enough to make the first two gears fairly useless at anything less then a hair of throttle in a RWD set up. The case I'm talking about definitely messed up his weight distribution big time, it was extremely front heavy. V8s are dead. Nothing beats the sound of a big American NA V8 growling around in my opinion, but it's archaic at this point with modern turbos if you're purely going for speed.
 
#8 ·
The nissan engine is a great motor, but you may want to have a look at what the archaic v8s are doing. The ls series of engines make in the 400 neighborhood bone stock. My 5000 lb truck runs 10s in the 1/4 mile, is used as a daily driver to work out of and gets 16-22 mpg. On the street tune @ 7.5 psi it makes 600 rwhp, if that is not enough to put a turbo z in its place a simple twist of the knob would do the trick.
 
#10 ·
Originally quoted by quicksilverado:
The nissan engine is a great motor, but you may want to have a look at what the archaic v8s are doing. The ls series of engines make in the 400 neighborhood bone stock. My 5000 lb truck runs 10s in the 1/4 mile, is used as a daily driver to work out of and gets 16-22 mpg. On the street tune @ 7.5 psi it makes 600 rwhp, if that is not enough to put a turbo z in its place a simple twist of the knob would do the trick.
I'm a car guy man, I keep up with what all modern engines worth while are doing. I've seen a twin-turbo Z put down a mid 8 sec 1/4 mile when it was 85 degrees out, and that Z was putting down 900 rwhp. No offense, but I don't believe for a second your 5000 lb truck runs a 10 sec 1/4 miles on anything less than slicks and a whole lot more than anything close to a reliable set up. And it's not really a truck at that point in most peoples opinion, sure you can throw junk in the back, but you sure as hell can't take it offroad on an easy trail with tires and a suspension set up to produce a 10 sec 1/4 mile.

Don't shoot the messenger, V8s are dying. I don't design cars (if I did, the new Dodge Dart wouldn't be the little POS rental car it is), I just drool over and drive them. It's all about power to weight ratio. Other than all the ridiculous regulations coming into play over recent years, car manufacturers are shying away from V8s and 6-cylinder engines and using turbo four and six-cylinder engines for good reason. You can produce the same power at a lesser weight and make it damn near as reliable with modern technology.

:OffTopic:
 
#11 ·
Check out performance trucks.net. I go by Quicksilverado over there also. There are a few daily driven trucks on there running 10s. Slicks and stock suspension daily driver. I will see if I can find a video. Truck is completely reliable. Have towed a friends 5000lb work trailer on several occasions. Current engine is approaching 110k miles. It will come out in the next few months for a fresh one. You are right, I don't take it off road. It is not an off road truck. :cheers2:
 
#13 ·
#14 ·
Here is a link to an 11 sec pass on low boost, which is the street tune. The 10 second pass is with 12.5 psi. The street tune is simply to keep the power down and is safer for the street. With the extra boost the truck will spin the tires at 60 mph, not fun if you simply want to get around someone. The truck sounds and drives like a bone stock truck with exhaust until you go wot, then everything changes quickly.

http://cablebandit3.smugmug.com/Other/Videos/21752958_C5dGSg#!i=2196712965&k=8prWkHV

If you look through the videos, there is one of my friends 9 second daily driver turbo TA and also a video of another friends 9 second Supra on Pass Time. The other videos are of one of my other hobbies, PPG or powered paragliding.
 
#15 ·
Originally posted by quicksilverado

Here is a link to an 11 sec pass on low boost, which is the street tune. The 10 second pass is with 12.5 psi. The street tune is simply to keep the power down and is safer for the street. With the extra boost the truck will spin the tires at 60 mph, not fun if you simply want to get around someone.
Sweet rig man, it would sure blow the doors off my old Z. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking your ride, it's just not really what most people want out of a truck. If the only feature left on it that make's it a pick up truck is the bed in the back, an El Camino is not a pick up truck. If you put the same amount of money and effort into a car half the weight, you'd yield much better results if you're purely just going for speed. It's not what I want out of a truck, but who cares what I think, to each their own. I'd call your truck more of a hot rod with your current set up, and a bad *** one at that :cheers2:

Another big problem with making a heavy daily driver vehicle quick is that most people do not put the same effort into the brakes. Even if you do get amazing brakes, there's no overcoming the weight if you need to swerve around some idiot who's pulled out in front of you. I know a lot of people claim they never speed in their quick DD and save it for the track, but most people who build up their ride like this have a bit of fun out on public roads at least every once in awhile. My old 06 350z 6MT pulled off a 4.9 0-60 stock with stickier all season tires and an aftermarket LSD, which is more than enough to take 99% of traffic on the roads. I made more than one of my friends practically poo their pants taking turns at 40+ mph back when I had more horsepower than brains and no regard for anyones safety around me or mine own.
 
#16 ·
It still 100% functional as a truck. The only thing that is not stock is the engine and tranny. The rear is stock except for an aftermarket posi. I haul around 500-600 lbs of work material daily and pull trailers on occasion. That is the great thing about a turbo, it acts 100% stock until you want it to act differently. Believe it or not I drive like grandpa 99% of the time. As the truck got faster, I got more paranoid about the police. The GC is taking place of the truck, since I can carry most of what I need in it for work. The brakes will get an upgrade soon and I will lower it a couple of inches. It already has larger sway bars and better shocks. With slicks the calculator shows 0-60 in 2.41 seconds. On street tires it is probably about 6.5 seconds for obvious reasons. About the only time I get on the gas is on open back roads or the hwy. 100 mph comes up in the blink of an eye. On surface streets getting on it results in a smoke show. Funny how you slow down as you get older. I remember going 20-40 over the speed limit everywhere I went when I was younger. Now I poke around at 5-8 over most of the time.
 
#18 ·
The El Camino is classified as a coupe utility vehicle. I was making a point, just because it has a bed in the back doesn't make it a pick up truck necessarily. People will argue over what the exact classification of a vehicle is forever (like what the exact definition of a sports car is. Some say a true sports car can only seat two, which would make the Porsche 911 Turbo not a sports car.)
 
#19 ·
Originally posted by quicksilver
It still 100% functional as a truck
It's still 100% functional as a street truck. 99% of trucks sold around the world have a classic truck suspension with some clearance and all terrain tires because there's an obvious demand for it. My sister drives a F-150 Harley Davidson Edition and I give her endless crap for it, so don't feel like you're special :thumbsup:
 
#20 ·
Last time I checked a truck was designed to haul loads and tow trailers, not off road. If I wanted to take it 4 wheeling I would have got a truck with 4 wheel drive. Truck was sold new with LT tires for the purpose of carrying extra weight. It still has LT tires on it.:thumbsup:
 
#23 ·
Originally posted by quicksilverado

Last time I checked a truck was designed to haul loads and tow trailers, not off road. If I wanted to take it 4 wheeling I would have got a truck with 4 wheel drive. Truck was sold new with LT tires for the purpose of carrying extra weight. It still has LT tires on it.
Not all pick up trucks come with a tow package, but almost all the volume of trucks sold around the world come with a suspension with a little bit more ground clearance than other vehicles. Most trucks do not come with a suspension that has purely been optimized for the street. Classic supply and demand, companies would be designing trucks with a street suspension if there was more of a demand for it. Currently, those trucks are a very small niche in the market probably not even making up 1% of the total volume of pick up trucks sold around the world.

Let me reiterate, your truck is bad ***, but it is not what the general truck owner needs out of a pick up truck. There is no arguing with that fact unless you can produce some sales numbers that prove otherwise.
 
#24 ·
Originally posted by Richard338
Wow, did this thread get hijacked or what!!?? As far as the crd swap goes I agree that you would need a donor GC, otherwise you're looking at big bucks for parts. I was hoping for a diesel Commander (to me the end-all). Oh well, we'll see what, if anything, comes of the Grand Wagoneer.
Lol, I'm still kinda hoping someone will pop in here and say "I did it."
 
#25 ·
TheDemon said:
Not all pick up trucks come with a tow package, but almost all the volume of trucks sold around the world come with a suspension with a little bit more ground clearance than other vehicles. Most trucks do not come with a suspension that has purely been optimized for the street. Classic supply and demand, companies would be designing trucks with a street suspension if there was more of a demand for it. Currently, those trucks are a very small niche in the market probably not even making up 1% of the total volume of pick up trucks sold around the world.

Let me reiterate, your truck is bad ***, but it is not what the general truck owner needs out of a pick up truck. There is no arguing with that fact unless you can produce some sales numbers that prove otherwise.
A 800hp 350z isn't what the general car owner needs out of a z. People modify cars to get more out of them then the general public needs, if the general public needed it, it would come from the factory. The American V8 is far from dead, a 600hp factory corvette that still gets mid 20mpg and runs a sub 11sec quarter mile is amazing. The fact that the next goal for the gt500 is a factory 1000hp car is outrageous. If you want to see a monster silverado Google up a guy by the name Parish... his truck is/was a beast, haven't talked to him in a few years and I'm not to sure if he still has the truck or not. And just a quick comment on the V8 350Z, a 6.0l iron block with low compression pistons, stock crank, stock heads, with a TC78 turbo will handle 1000hp all day long, I've only seen a hand full of Z's that can produce over 700, and one of those was built by SGP performance for the prince of Abu Dhabi, it was actually the first Turbo 350 and made around 750. Not offend Z owners but I think the 350/370 is a disgrace to the Z name.
Its overpriced, overwieght, and underpowered.

Btw good luck on the CRD swap.
 
#26 ·
When did I ever say a 800 hp 350z is what the general owner needs out of a Z?? Actually, if it came with a 800 hp engine, most owners would be ecstatic since the reason most people buy that car is because it's quick. Car companies are largely fazing out V8s in their plans for then next 10 years, largely because of regulations on fuel economy and emissions, but also because turbo technology has come a long ways. Modern turbo set ups can produce twice the power on half the amount of cylinders and do it reliably and more efficiently. There will always be V8s around in niche cars (muscle cars and supercars,) but that's largely because of the way they sound. You can make a much faster car without the extra weight, it wouldn't sound the same and it wouldn't be as fun to drive (too artificial and robotic, disconnected from the driver.)

You're entitled to your opinion about Zs, but I wouldn't call them overweight unless it's fully loaded. My Z weighed 3300 lbs the day I bought it and it produced 300 hp, it never felt overweight in the least, I seriously question whether you've drove one with that opinion. I've personally known 3 different guys who had 650 rwhp reliably installed and daily driven in their 350zs, none of them were particularly rich, they just dumped all their money into their cars. I agree with you, the twin turbo mid-90s Zs were amazing (I owned one of those also.)

FYI, I would never do a CRD swap, I was curious whether anyone had. Thanks for the good luck wish, sounded a little sarcastic to me :dunno:
 
#27 ·
The luck definitley wasn't sarcastic, ive been in your shoes before, I had a '03 Sentra Spec V, at 1500 mile the motor seized up due to low oil. this was about 3 month after i bought it brand new from a dealership. The dealership refused to warrenty it claiming foul play. I sucked it up hired a lawyer and fought, but in the mean time i need to fix the car out of pocket. I got the same type replys when i asked around on a sentra forum about swapping the altima v6 into the sentra, to expensive, not worth it, etc... i teamed up with a shop called forced induction racing and SGP performance and under $5000 and some of Kyles wiring madness we successfully completed the swap. anythings possible even with OBDii.

Ive driven plenty of 350's, from bone stock to the turbo one for the princ eo f abu dhabi. stock they just arent impressive, when compared to the 300's
 
#30 ·
Originally quoted by ca07wk
The luck definitely wasn't sarcastic
I'm truly sorry if I mistook your sincerity for sarcasm. Thank you, but I thought I made it clear in the original post that my engine is fine, I don't plan on swapping for anything in the foreseeable future, and I probably wouldn't go with a stock engine if going to the trouble of a swap. With four engines offered in the WK, I didn't think it was out of the question that at least a few guys have had an engine failure and gone with one of the other three.

Sorry to hear about your experience with that dealership, that's a shame.
 
#31 ·
TheDemon said:
I'm truly sorry if I mistook your sincerity for sarcasm. Thank you, but I thought I made it clear in the original post that my engine is fine, I don't plan on swapping for anything in the foreseeable future, and I probably wouldn't go with a stock engine if going to the trouble of a swap. With four engines offered in the WK, I didn't think it was out of the question that at least a few guys have had an engine failure and gone with one of the other three.

Sorry to hear about your experience with that dealership, that's a shame.
It's a very swap if someone had 3.7 or a 4.7 and wanted to go with a hemi because parts are available everywhere. I'm sure no one has done a CRD swap because they are very rare. Your only real hope to finding one would be to source one from a sprinter, and it'll prob have 300,000 miles on it. It would be a huge undertaking to do it right, and would not be cost effective.
 
#32 ·
I think the easiest 3.7 swap would be to a 6.1, no matter what your going to have to splice the ECU but the 3.7 & 6.1 use the same transmission. Not sure if the rest of the drivetrain will support it. Ive actually seen quite a bit of 3.7 parts, built heads and high and low compression pistons. I thought about buying a junk yard 3.7 and seeing what i could do with it.
 
#33 ·
ca07wk said:
I think the easiest 3.7 swap would be to a 6.1, no matter what your going to have to splice the ECU but the 3.7 & 6.1 use the same transmission. Not sure if the rest of the drivetrain will support it. Ive actually seen quite a bit of 3.7 parts, built heads and high and low compression pistons. I thought about buying a junk yard 3.7 and seeing what i could do with it.
There is enough of these lying around you could easily pull a whole harness from the junkyard and wouldn't have to worry about wiring. That's what we did when my brother swapped a powerstroke into a v10 excursion
 
#34 ·
TheDemon said:
Sorry to hear about your experience with that dealership, that's a shame.
It would have been a shame if i let them get away with it. I fought and i won, they paid the full cost of the new engine (which may have been a little more then it really cost) installed at forced induction racing.
 
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