I found an 85 300ZX Turbo that was in a rear end collision and also has front end damage. Motor appears to be in-tact. There may be damage to the radiator, hoses, and possibly the A/C unit. It looks like the brunt of the damage was stopped before the bar with the hood latch on it, and the car slid under a taller vehicle.

Does anyone have experience swapping motors from a wrecked car with front end damage? Is it possible that engine internals like the water pump, head gasket, pistons, valves, etc. could have been damage from the jolt of the collision? I know the VG30ET has very strong stock internals, but that's in regard to everyday driving.

OK, you're asking why I'd want to do this? Well finding one of these engines with less than 50k on it is like finding gold, and it's less expensive to do a swap than a rebuild.

As a rule, accessories and a water pump are damaged in a front collision. I have seen rear end collisions where the impact actually broke the transmission mount ring on the motor so check that carefully.

You can never know what the damages done on any wreck is without starting the motor yourself, and confirming it IS gold. If you have done that step already then your junk engine has all the parts you need. Assuming you still have the old engine, swapping the GOOD parts you have for the ones you suspect could have been damaged in the wreck is a standard, and allows you to keep what you find good as spares.

I feel your excitement, so have fun and good luck.

I decided against doing this because too much may have gone wrong. For example, they could have run the car for too long if the radiator hose was leaking, or there could be internal damage to the water galleries in the engine. I also sold the car which the engine would have gone into, which was fine. Instead of doing the engine swap, I bought an 84 Turbo with 19,500 miles on it. :D