Engine replacement or manual conversion?
 

Just looking for some advice.. I originally got a 2004 g35 coupe 6 speed sport pakage ( brembos and 18 inch wheels) however recently I started having issues with a knocking sound that would get louder and faster with the rpms.. but only while the gas pedal was pressed I tried to trouble shoot it but couldn't figure it out so I bought a second G as a parts car/ donor car to pull the engine from and a couple other goodies... it's a 2006 g35 coupe automatic... now the reason I'm posting this asking for advice is now that I've bought the car and have actually had a chance to go over it a couple of times it's in way better condition than mine and is also the newer body style but it has the DE engine which is the exact same one mine has.. so my question is would it be cheaper and make more logical sence to stick to my original plan and just pull the motor and put it in my manual G? Or would it be cheaper or around the same price and difficulty to convert the new one into a manual??
take into consideration I have everything needed for the manual conversion as my original G was a manual so the wiring harness and ecu and so one I could just take from that..

And for all those who would say why not just keep it auto.. I refuse to drive automatic I personally feel as if I'm sitting in the passenger seat when driving an automatic car for me its personal preference..

I would just swap the engine out, just make sure to pull the automatic torque converter pilot bushing out of the crankshaft before installing the 6 speed stuff. As for the manual swap idea the 04' and 06' are different dash, wiring and ECU so you would want to move it all if doing a manual conversion.

Little tip on pulling the pilot out of the crank: We usually drill and tap 2 holes in the bushing then screw 2 bolts into the tapped holes and use a slapper to remove.

Wheel bearing grease and a drift and hydraulically hammering it out is really simple too. For the drift use a long bolt that's CLOSE to the same inner diameter then wrap it with electrical tape to make it fit tight, hammer away, win.

I might use the drill/tap and bolt trick with the slide hammer some day though :)

I have done that on manual trans pilot bearings but never had it work on the automatic bushings. I haven't pulled one from the VQ cranks yet but I would say the SR20 variants are probably the same.