Engine Swap Forum

So, without the nonsense. Pictures!









And a few pics from gutting the hood. The scoop only adds about 30mm more space - not a big deal to do.





And to prove things are done properly. The doors for example are painted all round, not just the parts that one usually looks at.



The clear has some "wrinkle effect" on the doors and started to drip on the rear quarters. The front fenders and the roof are the best. This will never be a showcar, and to be honest this is the first time i've even sprayed a car so im pretty satisfied with the result. Still need to paint the hood, trunk and bumpers, should be ready by friday i hope. I also have a new windshield waiting to be installed :)

EDIT: Please note that the suspension settings are not final, so it wont look like that when finished :D

And to the header Q: Yes, the VQ20DE and 30DE exhaust manifolds seem to be interchangeable. The heads are 31U (2l) and 38U(3l) so they have a significant difference. The intake manifolds are also way different. To give you an idea how different: You could probably put a complete 2.0 intake runner inside the runner of a 3.0 :)

I dont think the VQ30DE was ever mounted for rwd. And even if it would have been, the exhaust manifolds still need to be custom in order to clear the steering column (99% sure). 350z OEM headers might fit with some minor modification, 350z AFTERMARKET headers - dont even dream about them, they rub the FWD mounting points and the steering shaft also goes straight throug them.

Could you give me measurements for your throwout bearing? Length, Inner diameter, outer diameter.

Thanks

You might be better off asking fred for the dimensions. I have my only peace clamped between the engine and tranny so its kinda hard to get it off.

IIRC the spacer spaces the tob 29mm outwards. The inner diameter is the same as the mainshaft (25,4 iirc), the outer diameter should be the same as the inner diameter of the tob. The rear part can be almost any diameter, i suggest using a diameter thats stron enougn to be pressed onto the original tob sleeve. There was even a drawing of it in some of the fred's topics, you might want to take a look.

Anyways, its not hard to make, and to be accurate you should really bring your tob and tob sleeve to the machine shop. They can surely measure whats needed to space the tob 29mm forward.

ATTENTION GREATLY APPRECIATED:

Does the TOB spacer move the TOB 29mm forward? Could someone with one just confirm this to me!

My combo is the usual VQ30DE with the stock flywheel and clutch paired with the 350z tranny. I have some clutch slippage and the pivot fork has no play, i am worried that the spacei might push the pressure plate for a small preload if the 29mm is indeed to much. Fred, Broaner, anyone, just measure yours if you have one at hand, please!

Can anyone tell me the thread pitch and diameter of the VQ transmission bolts? I know there are two size and the engine bolts are M12. I don't know the size of the transmission bolts.

Thanks.

There are M10 and M12 bolts. The pitch is 1,75mm if i remeber right, it is the only common pitch that we (at least in Europe) have readily available in regular hardwarestores (speciality stores ofc have them, but the are not price /kg like regulars).

I got it. M12 has 1.75mm and M10 has 1.5mm

Here's a link to my swap. I'll make a step by step how to including measurements here once the swap is done.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=326877

Here's some pics for your reference.

This is the Maxima A32 flywheel with 1/8" spacer under it.

With spacer under it.

350Z Flywheel with no spacer under it. I used engine oil to get it in smoothly.

Well, i got my Cusco twin carbon disc setup yesterday, and dropped the package - acoompanied with the maxima flexplate - to a machineshop. I hope ill get a plug-and-play setup back on the upcoming week and can finally wave to any clutch slipping issues. Ill also get rid of the TOB and started spacings which are a big plus by means of reliability - the less (custom)parts the less problems.

In the weekend im gonna try to tackle some of the exterior finishing (scoop, mirrors and the spoiler), some tidying up in the wireing is also needed as the bay currently looks like a dump of an electricityshop :P

Well, i got my new clutch assembly now. I got the Cusco (a.k.a.) Exedy twin carbon setup which should be easy to drive but still holds up loads of torque.

I took the clutch accompanied with the max's flexplate to a machineshop which fitted the 350z setup with the max's timing ring.

I took some pictures too and will post some up later.

Im still not sure if i can use the max's flywheel bolts, if not, ill need to source them out somewhere too.

Chezecow:

Well, i got my new clutch assembly now. I got the Cusco (a.k.a.) Exedy twin carbon setup which should be easy to drive but still holds up loads of torque. I took the clutch accompanied with the max's flexplate to a machineshop which fitted the 350z setup with the max's timing ring. I took some pictures too and will post some up later. Im still not sure if i can use the max's flywheel bolts, if not, ill need to source them out somewhere too.

 

Your car looks great man, glad to see it's still coming along so well.  I've been away from the site for a while and lost track of this project, sorry I couldn't help w/the TOB issue. 

 I'm very interested in seeing some pics though of how you got the Z flywheel setup w/ the Max's timing ring.  I always thought that would be the best solution to this situation.

 

Fred

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Instrument Cluster and Speedometer Repair

I have a few pics of the timing ring on the Z's fly.

Basically all i needed to do was to bring the max's flexplate (or flywheel, whichever you have) and the 350z package to the machine shop and tell them what i wanted.

One thing you need to take into account tough. If they use the maxima flywheel to measure the "offset" of the timing ring, it will most likely hit the starter body. I didn't know this at the time, and i oly had like 0.2mm of clearance to the starter. I grinded a few mm off the starter because there is an unneccessary bump on the starter body (look at it and you know what i mean). This gave me a safe +2mm clearance to the body so i know the timing ring wont be hitting the starter.

Ofcourse, with the max's flywheel in place, you would use a spacer for the starter, but with the Z33 setup you can get rid of all the spacers - in other words: selfmade stuff that could show premature wear and unforseen problems.

At the simplest, take it to the machine shop and tell them to put the max's ring in the exact same place as the 350z has its ring.

My Z's fly was simply milled (is that the correct word?) so that it had a nice and tight fitting place for the max's detachable ring to fit in to. Then it was tacked in six places and eventually balanced.

DIY is ofcourse also an option, but if the fly is out of balance you might end up ruining your engine bearings, clutch, or transmission.

I have some pics on my camera to clear this up, ill try to post a few later on.

It's been an awfully long time since an update was done on this - any word on how it's running now? :) Pics too if you have them! :)

Ya, I'd love some new pics!

Fred

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Instrument Cluster and Speedometer Repair