VH45DE swap
 

I started my 240Z VH45 swap by buying a '95 Q45 Infiniti. I will use the engine, bell housing, rear (posi) diff, ecu, harness and some other misc parts.
The engine/trans drop out the bottom. Rear suspension drops out and the components are easier to remove. I won't be using any of it until later on since my upgraded R200 and suspension/disc brakes will do for now. I might even leave it like that so this swap doesn't take to long in between drives. The last car took me 2 years and this one is 5 years waiting. The body work needs to be finished and paint.

Is it staying auto???? Boost it lol. Def watching this thread

I don't like the intake so I willmake one up. I might as well make it turbo. The bell housing will be made to accept a T5 and hydraulic t.o. bearing.
Lots of one-off fab work no matter what I decide.

Don't need to modify the bellhousing, just make an adapter from the back of the bellhousing to the T5.

Also a posi is a GM LSD brand, you have a VLSD. Take a 12mm diff from a z31 turbo and almost any short nose R200 center and you can bolt the long nose R200 ring gear on it. Then just use the short nose output shafts have someone spline you some custom axles.

The bell is too long so I will have to mill off some and tig weld the adaptor to it or the imput shaft won't reach the pilot bearing. I meant viscous. My neighbor owns a cv/driveline shop so he will hook me up on shortening the axles and making up a drive shaft. I will make new axle hub brackets to use the Q45 axle bearings, brakes and 5 lug hubs. All that is on the back burner till I get the engine/trans done.
I got the engine harness out today, took me 3 hours.

Made a little progress. Engine/trans separated and mocking up the VH bell to the T5 trans. Got a forged flywheel and clutch. Need to order a clutch disc for the T5 spline and hope everything will line up. I see now I will have to chamfer the starter ring teeth since the VH starter is on the opposite side than the Z32 trans. Also clearance issues with the starter housing. If all that works then I will get the hydraulic T.O. bearing. I'm going to cut the stock headers off near the flanges to make my own headers since the ports are oval. I work in a tool room all to myself otherwise this would not be possible.

Need to work faster cause this interests me, and I need a more consistent flow of entertainment lol

I actually spend a lot of time just staring at it since this is uncharted territory. I can't seem to find any completed swaps that have been documented. I weighed the AT, torque converter and starter ring, a wopping 228 lbs. compared to the T5, flywheel and clutch at around 100lbs. I'll try to post more often even if it's not much.

Cool cool

Mocking up the T5 to get measurements to mod the bell housing. The distance is about 7". The bell is 7.5". If I mill 3/4" off the front and 1/4" of the rear I will be able to bolt on a 1/2" adaptor plate. Waiting for pressure plate and clutch disc before I finalize the dimensions but looks good.

I'm going to use the stock headers since they are heavy gauge stainless but first I had to cut the heat sheilds off then I will cut them off about 2-4" ffrom the flanges, a good start to fab the rest of it.

Booo on stock manifold, need custom headers. Cool work. Interested to see the finished tranny setup.

OOoohhhh...just found this ^_^. So much pretty. Can't wait to see it finished :D

I meant I will be using only the flange and the first 3-4 inches of the stock headers to simplify the fab work. There is only one supplier that makes flanges for $100 and I would have to deal with oval to round tubes. This way I can use 1 3/4" tube bends. I really would like to have side pipes.

Ahhh ok. I saw you said that first but that post made it seem like you were just gonna say screw it and rock the stockers.

I cut the headers with a saws-all. Will probably end up cutting them shorter as needed but this is good for mock up in the engine bay. Tubes are about 1.5" ID. The wall is about .080 so I would have to stretch to match the OD using .065 wall stainless. I will take the bell housing to work and shorten it. I have a water jet house that will cut out the mounting plate for the T5 and I will finish the bolt pattern then have a friend Tig it on.

Went to picknpull and got the 1,2,7,8 intake runners. Here is a pic of the hydraulic TO bearing. I took the bell housing and plate to work so I can chip away at that. Still waiting for my clutch disc..

Got a lot of painstaking work done and it was worth it.
Chamfered the flywheel teeth for starter engagement.
Made a sample adapter plate out of plastic for test fit. The holes were random but on a 215 mm bolt circle so I drilled 3 pin holes for alignment on the bell and adapter plate. I aligned the bell on the mill and mapped all the holes using the DRO for reference. Then I put in the trans dimensions.
CNC milled .250" off the starter housing.
Made a pilot bushing.
Mounted the starter and flywheel for alignment check and spin test. Perfect!
Need to make a couple of dimension changes on the adapter plate, better than scrapping a $75 piece of aluminum!
Now waiting for some open time at work to section the bell about 1 inch. Then tig weld it back together. Note the alignment pin holes on the bell.

Nice build up! I am pretty sure someone out there makes an adapter plate for the z32 trans on the vh45, but if you are wanting to do it all yourself more power to you. I have finally made the decision to go this route myself, except maybe an Eaton supercharger mounted on top. I read an article somewhere the the m90 matches up perfectly with the vh45. You just cant beat the vh45 for the price and keeping it Nissan at the same time. Anyways great job, Ill be watching this for sure!

Yes there is. Mazworks sells one for $400. Then you send them the bell housing from your Z32 with $200. You need the Z32 twin turbo trans and starter. So far I have $77 for the aluminum. The T5 trans are more available and a lot less money, I paid $200 plus a rebuild kit for another $200. The position of the shifter is also an issue with the Z32. I want the engine as close to the firewall as possible without having to reach back to shift. That also gets the pan just clear of the front cross member, I hope. Mostly I'm doing all this because I can.
Do you have any links to that M90 bolt up?

All the stuff that I have read about eaton blowers and vh45's is on nicoclub. Having a blower would definitely not be a bolt on process. I think it would probably be the easiest to do a centrifugal charger but it is all top end power with those. You would have to fab up a new intake manifold for the M90. There are some others that are using a M112 which comes off a Northstar motor I believe. I just want around 400 hp in my 280, I think that'd be plenty.

The stock VH is 310 at the flywheel so 400 is easy. I'm staying NA with a ECU upgrade to get 350 with headers. A charger would be to much work for me for the gain. A turbo would be easier but I would have to give up the side pipes. I have an idea to get both but under the hood would look like someone left the lid off the spaghetti pan.

You should have just did headers out the hood haha, blowin' flames!!!!!!!! itd be loud, but itd be cool

Update
 

Here is how I modified the bell housing. Milled for 3 place locating pins for after sectioning. Drilled and reamed 3 places for adaptor plate. Plotted the hole locations by using the DRO and center finder, just need to be close. Note the scribe marks for the 1" wide section to be sliced out.

Had the bell housing welded on both sides. Everything went together perfectly. Still waiting on the clutch disc. Got the new syncro set and bearings for the trans. Now for the intake.

i cant view any pics