Speed

VQ35DE The VQ30 from the Max is dead; low compression overall and super low on one cylinder. Its time for a 35. At this point I wanted to continue using the A32 ECU and harness for simplicity and cost. In order to make that doable I had to swap on the 30 timing chain assembly. For the time being I'll be using the 30 cams. They will not release the full potential of the motor but the intent here is that I can keep the 35 cams in OE condition so I can drill them to whatever degree is best for boost. So, the bump in displacement helps torque significantly but power increases are modest.

Aeromotive A-1000 External Fuel Pump With plans for big power on the horizon I decided to complete the fuel sytem plumping with the correct hardware. This pump is capable of 800HP of forced induction power according to Aeromotive. I have the pump set up for gravity feed from the cell. I may alter the location eventually but it works for now. In the pic the filter is before the pump. It ended up causing a restriction for the gravity feed in that setup so I moved it to the pressure side.

Aermotive A-1000 Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator The stock FPR quickly got overrun by the imense pressure that the pump could put out. I found some steel -8 & -6AN fittings to weld onto the rail to eliminate all the wormgear clamps from the system. I really like how the FPR has a port in it for the FP probe.

Blitz Aluminum Radiator
With turbo boost you need serious cooling capability. Top of the line parts are a must. I was very impressed with this part. Very nice welds. Has a port for the coolant temp sensor.

Vortech V1 Supercharger The blower is now SOLD. Stroked NA VQ for me.

Custom Fuel Cell Why am I doing this? A lot of people are saying I'm crazy. Let me lay it out there. The stock tank was a POS. Thats pretty much it. The access panel was rusted shut so I had no way of getting in to put my Walbro in. I decided during the rear suspension rebuild that I was going to do this. I wanted the clean look of a flush with the floor fuel cell. I couldn't find what I wanted in my pricerange so I decided to build my own. Eventually I'll probably send it to ATL fuel cells and have the duplicate it in aluminum form and have it be SFI certified. For now its made of 14 gauge steel. I used -8 AN feed and -6 return. The pics explain the rest.

Rebuilding Motor I got this motor from a Buddy in Chicago. He blew it when he mishifted. Went from redline in 3rd to 2nd instead of 4th. At this point, I'm just tearing it down to see what went wrong. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to go with the buildup. I've been thinking about running a hybrid VQ30/35 combo. I need to do more research before I decide. All I know is that these heads are toast. The rotating assembly seem to be fine minus the dents the valves left in the tops of the pistons.

---------------------VQ Swap--------------------------
The swap was completed in September of 05. It had quite a few bugs to work out but overall it was basically done.

I decided to do this swap after completing a 5Spd swap in my 95 Maxima. Soon after completing that swap I realized that front wheel drive was totally worthless. Even with a basically stock motor I couldn't hook at all. It really made me mad when my buddy Ross would whoop my ass in his 318 until the top of second.

So the first step was finding a car. I knew that I wanted a coupe because I like the look a lot better. I got lucky and found an $850 beater just down the street from me. It had 170K miles and was on its second KA24E.

Second step was procuring the correct parts to do the swap. At this point I have to give a ton of credit and thanks to Thaniel. This guy pioneered this swap in his RX-7. He used the same motor and tranny. Also, Fred Allen has helped me out quite a bit as well. He was working on a similar swap in his S14 at the same time I was doing mine.

First part required is the 350Z/G35c upper oil pan. This is required for several reasons. 1. The starter on the FWD VQ is on the tranny side. Having the starter on the tranny is definitely not possible on the Z33 6MT. 2. The bolt pattern on the FWD oil pan doesn't match up to the RWD tranny. So I got this pan out of a yard. But thats not all. The 350Z oil pan doesn't have the windage tray incorporated into it. The VQ35 has the tray on the main bearing cage. Since I didn't want to buy another part I decided to adapt the FWD windage tray onto the RWD pan. I'm not going to go into detail about this because I don't have the correct pics to explain. Its not really that hard though. Here is a comparison shot of the two oil pans. The dirty one is the FWD pan.

At the time I didn't have an engine stand so this is my ghetto way of supporting the motor while I do the pan swap.

Before you bolt the tranny to the motor you need to have a spacer made for the T/O bearing. This is required because the T/O arm on the 6MT doesn't engage as far as the Maxima T/O arm. This is true because the 350Z flywheel and clutch combo is thicker than the Maxima combo. The spacer moves the bearing 29mm out from the carrier that attaches to the arm. Then simply install the T/O bearing with newly installed spacer on as a normal T/O bearing would be installed. I don't have pics of the modified bearing because I didn't take them at the time. I will when I beef the motor.

Now its time to bolt the tranny to the motor. Be careful and make sure that the spline of the input shaft is in the clutch disc correctly otherwise you can crack the bottom part of the oil pan. Here's some shots of the motor and tranny together.

Next step is rather simple. Put the motor in.

The motor and tranny going in.

I was always wondering if hood clearance was going to be an issue. Well, I've answered that question. In this pic I have the tranny mounted and the motor supported by a jack in just about the location that it will finally sit. The timing chain and IM need about three inches of clearance. Thats no biggy. The killer will be the clearance needed for the blower as it sits about 2 inches higher than the timing chain cover.

The next problem that I had to deal with was the firewall being in the way of the TB. So I went to work with the grinder. It clears fine. Now, I just need to weld some sheet metal in to box it out. I wouldn't mind the noise, I just don't want my feet to catch on fire in the event of any oil fires or nitrous hiccups. LOL.

The comparison between the stock driveshaft and the one I got out of a 350Z. I had to get this new one because the tranny didn't come with the output shaft in it. I'd wanted to shorten the Z driveshaft but I don't know how feasible that is as the main shaft is made of carbon fiber impregnated plastic. Seriously the Z shaft weighs no more than 15lbs. Instead I had a 3" steel shaft made combining an aftermarket beefy U joint that bolted to the J30 diff with the output shaft of the Z.

350Z Oil Pan The upper oil pan came in from the yard. It was in good shape although I was suprised to find that it had two starter holes in it. One is much beefier than the other though. The Maxima starter didn't fit so I had to get a Z33 starter out of a yard. One thing I was happy about was that it had an oil cooler sandwich adapter on it. Although, it seems that it isn't a real oil cooler. Stupidly Nissan decided to run coolant through this little area in an attempt to cool the oil. It doesn't make sense to me. Sure the oil will be a little hotter than the coolant but not much. I removed the sandwich. Here you can see the differences between the oil pans. Obviously the Z pan has a hole for the starter. But for some reason there are two. What, is that a feature in Japan? Twin starters? To make this work without having to buy a VQ35 windage tray I had to drill into the new pan. Then I screwed the VQ30 windage tray in after modifying it to fit. Works like a charm and doesn't bang on the rotating assembly. Lets just hope it doesn't come loose.

Z33 tranny. I paid $875 shipped from a yard in Virginia. The Z it came out of was hit on the pass door. This tranny has 3K miles on it. I'm unsure of how the close ratio box is going to match up with the 3.92:1 ratio of the J30 VLSD rear diff. I feel this car will be way too light to use first gear in any WOT situations. I know the VLSD will hold up to the NA power but I'm worried about it living on boost. Even with a lower gear I'm still worried about traction in a 2200 lb car. Enough worries. How 'bout some pics? This thing is an absolute bear. It it so fat. Not so much in weight, just girth. I guess thats the way its gotta be if you wanna cram six gears in it. I'm happy that it came with the slave and TO bearing but p!ssed that it didn't come with any of the shifter stuff or the output shaft. Its okay though because I got a B&M STS and that comes with many of the required parts. I just had to buy the connecting rod, the shifter stancion and a little plate.

Z33 Exhaust Manifolds I figured these manifolds were engineered to flow for the 300HP VQ35 in the Z's. So I decided going with the very costly Nismo headers wouldn't be worth it as these already flow more than enough for my lowly 215HP VQ30. Once I get on the boost they should be just past their optimal flow range. I decided to clean them up by grinding off the heat sheild mounting tabs. That made them nice and smooth but I wanted to get them ceramic coated. But I couldn't find any local places to do it so I just sprayed several coats of 1200 degree on there. I hope it holds up.

True Dual Header Back This is a 2" setup. I know its too big for the NA VQ but it should be just about perfect for 300 wheel. Oh, and the best part is that it cost me next to nothing. I snagged the piping out of the dumpster at an exhaust shop accross the street and welded it to the flanges I had laser cut.

Wiring All I have to say is the wiring on this is by far the hardest part of the whole thing. This pic is at about the half way point of the wiring. I'm not going to explain the wiring because it still isn't perfect.

Motor Mounts I bought various 3/16 steel and went to town. This is the result. They haven't broken yet.

Modified rendition now solid mounted.