hoov100

Guess I should start a build thread on this now that I am farther along then just buying parts now. I've owned MANY MANY MANY MANY zcars over the years, including a turbo 240z, built sbc in a 240z, TT z32, turbo z31's...etc..etc And now I figure it's time to do something not really done with s30's, so we're dropping a VH45 in, was going to go with a vg30et and a holset, but thats expensive.

Kind of weird, but when it comes to cars handling and response I refer to them as music, so this is how I am wanting the car to handle and drive during normal "operations"


And this is how we're expecting the car to be when we go beyond ***** to the wall.



.................................................. ...............................


Here's the original mockup with the VG, fallowed by the ceremonious dropping of the VH, fallowed by the stripping of the chassis harness fallowed by the beginning of sizing the Q's chassis harness down so I can fit it in the Z and use a majority of the Q's features and functions.

Murph Z32

Why did you post the most broke cat woman ever?

hoov100

???

I thought it looked alright, couldn't find any more of her and I didn't feel like moving it out of the project folder.

DeathByNissan55

its like an electrical christmas fire waiting to happen haha

are you working with theramz at all?

theramz

He's about 400 miles away otherwise we could. I have 2 fire extinguishers in my garage for such occasions lol

Murph Z32

Good or bad picture, I think she's the worst catwoman ever...

hoov100

I'm not doing anything crazy with it, just deleting all the unused circuits and cutting them out of the harness.

And yes, I also keep a fire extinguisher handy.

I've been taking notes from what you have done, but this is just going to be a pretty stock swap for the time being so I can get some of the body and floors fixed and get some decent brakes and suspension under it. Then we are thinking of remote mounting a roots type blower.

DeathByNissan55

interesting

hoov100

If your talking about the wiring, we are mounting the Q45's fuel pump assembly in the s30 tank and I wanted to keep the Q's variable fuel pump system and I figured since it's all pretty much it's own harness that I would strip off all the BS and just use the factory wiring. That and besides the headlights and taillight harnesses the chassis wiring is going to be all from the Q donor, even the relay and fuse blocks.

DeathByNissan55

Using the relays and fuse blocks from the Q45 would be such an AMAZING upgrade. Im interested to see how you would tie all the dash pieces and wiring into the q45 harness. This is assuming you appreciate the original dash look of the s30's, which most do, so i think its a safe assumption haha
What are using for a speedometer to get rid of that cable. What trans, rear diff are you using? arizonaZ offers a q45 rear end swap where you use q45 wheel bearings, cv axles instead of stupid stub axles, q45 diff housing mustache but idk what diff you could use cuz i doubt the q45 diff is any good.

hoov100

I am actually going to use the Q's speedo assembly and no dash until I get a set of autometer of speedhut gauges in the s30 dash and working properly. I like the S30 gauges, but even for their time they sucked and the s30's where built to be cheap and disposable.

And for now we are sticking with stock s30 suspension until we get the bugs worked out of the new setup, then it's on to crazy suspension ****.

Unfortunately we are still waiting on the bellhousing and I just got my car put back together the other night. Once the trans is put back together we can put them together and start work on the oil pan and motor mounts.

DeathByNissan55

What trans/diff combo are you going to be using now and then in the long run? I wanted to use a beefier tranny but I dont want to use T5. I was going to use a T56 but dude sold it from under me. What other decent trannys can be hooked up to the vh45?

hoov100

Where using the z32 trans and the stock 280z R200. besides a possible shortnose r200 swap and coilovers I don't have any other plans.

Also since any trans you use is going to require an adapter plate, it would be easiest to swap in a trans that has a seperate bellhousing.

DeathByNissan55

Isnt that going to burn out the trans, especially if you turbocharge it? The reason I ask about the rear diff is because I was looking for an LSD that I could use for drifting and autocross. Got any ideas in that creative brain o' urs?

hoov100

Why would an adapter plate kill the trans?

To be honest when it comes to LSD's for a street car for nissans and you want to keep it affordable, shortnose R200's that are shimmed are about the only way to go for under a grand. Yeah you could go spend $600 on a beat up CLSD that will need rebuilt with parts that are NLA, but nissan still makes and uses the short nose R200.

hoov100

I like what I see so far, but about 4-5 more hours of work and it should be finished.

DeathByNissan55

I meant the engine, isnt it too powerful for z32 trans?

DeathByNissan55

I just found a 1994 q45 for 500$, the 4.5 in the 1994 model is still the one with aluminum everything and forged internals, right?

hoov100

Z32 trans should be fine, just worried about the bearings living as I plan on trying a little 2 hour endurance event on the roadcourse.


All of the Q45's have all aluminum engines, no stock nissan engine has all forged internals. The later VH's have the updated timing guides, new style injectors, different intake ports and the new style wiring harness.

But I warn you, this swap is not for the faint of heart.

DeathByNissan55

To my understanding, the only things that will be a challenge is electrical integration into the datsun, otherwise i thought they sell kits that bolt up the z32 5spd to the vh45, and they also make the clutches with z32 splines that mate to the vh45 flywheel, custom drive shaft, and then use stock r200 rear end. what I was planning on doing was taking the rear end housing from the q45 and using the cv axle setup instead of the stub axle bullshit and then using the arizona z track ready hubs that have the q45 splined wheel bearings and the q45 mustache bar and everything. Then if it fits, i would use the r200 diff if it is truely overall better for autox/drift setup.

lol was any of that even remotely true, or was I totally misinformed.

I'm not worried because this is a project for fun, I love doing this stuff!! I still have a complete L26 and factory 4spd i can use and I was thinking about picking up a bored out L28e for 100$ that just needs a rebuild and an engine harness

i wish there were some nissan shops in milwaukee area of wisconsin

theramz

FYI, the VH45 engines have forged steel crank and forged steel rods. The pistons are forged with molybdinum coating. (good for nitrous) sodium filled exhaust valves, and cross bolt mains. The actual stock HP is 310 na. With a turbo you can get 500hp and still be streetable. This engine will make 800hp and stay together.

DeathByNissan55

See thats what i had thought too, and im pretty sure you're the one that actually told me that haha

hoov100

The pistons are not forged, they are very beefy cast pistons, the entire rotating assembly is deburred to remove ridges and casting marks.

As my buddy put it "It's like someone had a time machine, stole ford heads and an LS1 block, went back to the 80's, improved them and the casting techniques used to make them and just engineered a bad *** motor"

Theramz, if you haven't seen them already, there are SAE papers on this motor floating around the web.


One thing I think all of us can agree on is that these cams ****ing suck for anything but tractor pulls.

theramz

Hoov, I guess you're right about that. I was looking to buy an after market set, they are forged and sold by these guys
CP Pistons Nissan VH45DE Infiniti Q45 President VH45DET | eBay
I asked them about their pistons and they replied-
Dear theramz,
The pistons are custom made by CP in a 2618 aluminum forging. If you have any other questions please let us know.
Thank you.
- ericsperformancepartscorp

hoov100

Well, no updates yet. This custom oil pan is turning into a disaster and I might have to find another oil pan to do it right.