Engine Swap Forum

Will this work for me: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=563322

Well, i bought the jwt ecu, i hope ill get it this week so i can do the wireing on the weekend and actually drive this ***.
Ill go get a 30de tomorrow, grind off the markings on the block and cross my fingers that it passes the emissions of a 20de with some good race catalysators. Case closed - problem solved :D

JWT don't make an ECU for the VQ35DE do they?

Well, ladies and gentlemen. This is indeed the moment i have been waiting for over two years. I am very happy to announce that the datsun has left the garage! I drove a testdrive today and i must say, the torque and gear ratios are simply amazing! when i accelerate, here is how it goes:
1st, WOT is out of the question.
2nd, WOT spins the wheels like crazy.
3rd, at WOT the grip just isnt there, spins wheels for a while and then gets a grip.
4th, still spins the wheels for a blink. I cant wait to see what this could do with a proper intake and exhaust. Its just simply amazing!

Ifcourse, i dont have any doors or anything else on the car so the rearend is very light, additionally the alignment is similar to the teeth of a 80-year-old - non existant.

I developed a small banging noise from the rearend, could be the wheel bearing or an alignment arm thats just a bit loose. Ill change the bearings just to be sure and then give a good tightening to all the suspension parts. Afterall, this indeed was a testingtrip and i didnt even think that everything would go like planned.

Then theres the paintwork and some other adjustments like cutting the hood so i can fit the intake manifold etc.

About the VQ35DE ecu, i would recommend you to ask jwt directly, i wouldnt be suprised if they would at least know where to get one.

Congratulations Willem! Get some pics up of it when you have a chance too!

I'll get onto them now.

Ill take some when remeber to take the camera with me when i walk the 20 meter distance to the garage :D

I ordered some paints today, Nissan KH2 and KL0 paintcodes. One is the skyline gunmetal, the other is the skyline brilliant silver or something like that.
The roof, doors, bonnet and the trunk will get the gunmetal and the other parts will get the silver.

The intake and the exhaust manifolds still need some tought. Ill probably make some tubular mild steel manifolds and some piping in order to route the exhaust gasses to the S13 SS catback which we have loads in stock. (Its very convinient to own a parts store, most parts are "off the shelf" and atleast cost a bit less :D).

I hope that ill have the intake and exhausts done early next week. The aluminum TIG welding is the problem, i dont have a TIG so im totally dependant on the schedual of other people. The mild steel welding is no problem tough.

The banging noise at the rear was simply cured with some tightening of the bolts in the rear. No more clonking anymore, yahoo! When the intake and the exhaust are finished it would almost be time to take this beast to the track. One of our drifting teams is having a private trackday at the end of the month, if everything goes right ill take the opportunity to do some driving with the car with no fear of the cops stopping me :D

The wireing also needs some attention. The tach and watertemp should atleast be wired in, as well as some other things like the oilpressure and alternator light. The fuelgauge already works, it needed no modifications at all.
The alternator itsself also needs some wireing done, the hardest part is probably to find the correct connector on the maximas loom so it can fit the max alternator :D
Things like the ecu controlled electric fans are not that important at this time, ill just put about 10 spare wires to run from the ECU to the engineroom fusebox so i can just hook up future things without taking the whole harness apart. Other things like gauges can also be routed through those wires.

To sum it up, here is what i need to do in order to finish the car:
- Paintwork and preps for all the parts. 1.5weeks. Id say 500€
- Wireing, probably like 1 to 2 days, i'd say 100€ max.
- Exhaust manifolds, catalyzers and piping, about 300€ max + 300€ for the cats, 3 days.
- Intake manifold, i'd say 400€, no time taken since ill have someone else make it for me while i do other things.
- Hooking up a cable driven handbrake. Ill need to order a second set of brakepads and grind like 4mm off each one. Then make suitable spacer plates that have brackets which stick out so they can be pulled together mechanically. (In Finland, we need to have a mechanical handbrake). 150€
- A new windshield would probably cost 200€, 2hours to glue it in place.
- Lambdas for the engine, 120€ i'd say.

Anyways, when i get the final exhaust and intake done, ill take a proper video of this thing. Maybe even a small burnout if you guys play nice :D

So, go take a look at:
http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f341/Chezecow/200sx/Engine%20-%20new%20engine%20all%20pics/?start=all

You'll find some intresting photos there.

An overall pic of the enginebay. Mind the intake plenum "JIG". Its to be made of aluminum.


Then for some details. The new high capacity lower oilpan:


TOB spacer can be seen here:


A good view of stern:


Damn auto collar, had a hard time getting this one out:


An other view of the oilpan:


A few current pics of the suspension:




Zipties are godlike! :D They are held up with proper brackets now, zipties were just used for some quick fitting.


The handbrake issue. I need a mechanical unit. I wonder if i can take 4mm off each pad and replace that 4mm with some plates that have brackets so i can pull them together with the cables. There is some space in the 18" rim...


Then some exhaust manifold pictures. The pipe is way too big for this power, but i had lots of the bends ready so im using that for now.


a good view of the manifold in progress.


The hard part is the right bank. Some pictures from different angles:






This screamer was used on the first drive. Sounded like an F1 :D


Battery relocation.







The 50 sqmm cable has a gardenhose wrapped around it so its gonna take atleast 50 years before any vibration will eat through the protective layer and cause a short. The wheel area has some waterhose on the cable which is even thicker. I want to be sure there will be no suprises with major shorts.

Ill try to finish the right bank exhaust tomorrow. The left bank is a cakewalk compared to this side. The hardest part is still making some collectors that can flow, they need two precise angles cut on them so they will most likely take some time to make.

If you want to see some more pictures, there are hundreds of them in my photobucket.

Comments, negative or positive, are very welcome. Taking pictures of the work and writing stories about is pretty pointless without some input :)

Yeah, i finally found a welder who was willing to make the intake manifold with a tight schedual, he's actually a client :D The world is indeed small.

I should have it back after the midsummer festival, within a week.

Today i found some nice Chargespeed +20mm front fenders, ill get them in a week too. Now i have a few days time to completely focus on the exhaust, sweet!

Well done fella! And good idea with the garden hose, it just goes to show sometimes the simple things we have lying around are as effective as a customised job!

Just looking at your photos of the exhaust manifolds I'm realising it's going to be a nightmare trying to fit them and the turbos in with space left for the steering rack under my VQ's head.

Also, which side of the car did you relocate the battery to?

Tupmount turboes will most likely be easier to make. You can mount them infront of the strut towers for easy access. Then just a DP and youre ready to do some business.

The battery sits on the right side because thats the easiest way to route the wireing. The pictures above actually follow the cable all the way, there are good places you can run it through. Just remember that any hard places will rub on it, and are a potential place for a short on a long period of time.
The cabme already has a very thich outer protection but i decided to play safe. It takes about 10 minutes to splice the hose and then tape it all the way to the back. Cost? 5€ maybe?

Is it a VQ20DE or VQ30DE? I wanted to get a VQ25DE or VQ25DD but no one imports them to US.

I have both VQ20DE and a VQ30DE. They are very similar engines and almost interchangable in many ways.

The VQ25DE and VQ25DD are nice engines but they pose a little problem for many countries. Firstable, if they are not originally imported to your country, they lack emission paperworks (i dont know if you need papers for the engine).
The VQ30DE is in all ways a better option than the VQ25DE if you dont need the displacement for qualifying to a certain league. The VQ30DE just has almost every part ready on the shelf, the VQ25DE might not.
The VQ25DD is a direct injection version, it produces a very decent amount of power and would be ideal for an endurance type car where consumption is to be taken into consideration. The downside is that as it has no actual traditional injectors, you are very restricted on upgrading and tuning, or atleast it needs a lot more tought than the regular "Ill just buy some 660cc's and be done".

About my own project, i just painted the unibody today. I still need to paint all the detachable parts and put a clearcoat on the unibody but generally the hard part is now done. Alltough it might no be perfect but everyone will atleast be able to guess what colot the car shoud have been if painted professionally.

Ill get some pictures up when i get a chance to take some.

Do you need just the throwout bearing spacer to have Maxima A32 flywheel and clutch work with the RWD 350Z Transmission? I had the idea that the flywheel gear ring teeth distance from the starter were a little off.

Chezecow:

I have both VQ20DE and a VQ30DE. They are very similar engines and almost interchangable in many ways.

Are the exhaust manifolds interchangeable do you know?

And were either/both of them originally mounted straight in a chassis (as opposed to transversally)?

They didn't make VQ25DE for RWD. As much as I know they were for RWD only.

FWD, RWD, all VQ engines have same exhaust and intake manifold bolt pattern.