Engine Swap Forum

I'm almost done w/ my project, it's been a year in the making.  I'm using an engine from a 2003 Nissan Maxima and a 6 speed tranny from a 2003 Nissan 350Z. 

Pics can be found here:

http://www.engineswaptech.com/photos/vq35de_s14/default.aspx

I'll post up some more details soon. I'm proud to say this car will be featured in the "Hybrid  How-To" section of Sport Compact Car magazine in a couple months!

Fred

Well, the photographer from Sport Compact Car flew out a few days ago.  Everything went well, I think he got all the shots he needed and all the technical info. specific to this swap.  He says the article should be out in about 3 months, can't wait!

Much thanks to Jerry from www.diyautotune.com for hooking me up with the Innovate LC1 wideband kit just in the nick of time, that's gonna make the tuning process muuuuuch easier.

I took the car home last night to complete it at my house and to begin the setup and tuning process, shouldn't be long now....

Fred

Good news!  I finally got this sucker running last night on the MegaSquirt II stand alone.  It was suprisingly easy really once I sorted out a couple of mistakes that I had made.  I had my crank sensor wires backwards and my starter wasn't installed quit right but once I fixed those two problems she fired right up!  I have some vacuum leaks which are keeping my idle too high but she ran pretty smooth and steady with no coolant leaks or oil leaks, etc. 

I'm pretty sure I"m gonna switch to a 350z intake manifold for now and keep my custom intake for when I turbocharge it.  I'll have to modify the Z manifold for firewall clearance and throttle body mounting but it shouldn't be too difficult.  That will give me a more reliable setup for now - I'd like to have as many things "stock" as I can for a while while I sort out the tuning.  I don't want vacuum leaks, etc. to be screwing with my tuning.  I've got the Z manifold coming in the mail as we speak. 

I've got a fair bit of tuning to do before I want to drive it but I'm very very close now.  Maybe a week or so before I can take it down the road for the first time under 3.5L power!

I'll continue to update as I make progress.

Fred

Ok, got ahold of a Z manifold so out went the one I built.  Once I got it out I immediately found the source of the vacuum leaks:

Apparently the material I used was too thin and warped when the motor warmed up, I knew this was a possibility when I built it but obviously I didn't think it would really happen or I'd have used thicker aluminum, bummer.  There goes a lot of work down the drain.  Chalk that up as a hard and expensive lesson learned.

So, after the tears dried in went the Z's intake:

It's actually a nice fit, the only modification necesssary was to bend down a metal tab on the firewall w/ a hammer and later trim the cowel trim panel, no biggie.  Mounting a cable type throttle body is another story however.  I'm gonna have to make an extension to mount my old Pathfinder 3" cable type TB farther forward in the bay where there's more room.  I'm gonna use a Z LH valve cover too.  You could just trim the maxima valvecover in a couple non-critical places but I have access to one for cheap so in it will go.

It's a tight fit but it does indeed fit.

Here's a shot of the insides of the z intake and my old intake:

later

Fred

Got a throttle body mounted tonight.  Instead of making an adapter to mount the pathfinder TB farther forward I was able to modify the Z's cable-less TB.  Using examples seen on another forum I was able to convert it to cable operation but then took it a step farther and was able to keep the Z's throttle position sensor.

Here you can see the throttle cable bracket I made.

Here you can see the now forward facing cable and you can see how I modified the Z's stock drive-by-wire case housing, I remove quit a bit of material but it is still perfectly functional as a TPS.

Enjoy,

Fred

Some updates:

Also found the cause of my starter problems.  I've now broken two starters while trying to start the care.   Both broke in the same place, the top ear broke off.  The problem is the 3.5L's crank has a small locating dowel pin on the back of it that helps you to get the flywheel lined up correctly, the 3.0L's don't have this.  So, when I put the 3.0L flywheel on the 3.5L motor I didn't realize that dowel pin was even there and so I just torqued the flywheel down without noticing that the flywheel was not completely flush with the crank.

Bottom line (if you haven't figured it out yet) is the flywheel wasn't flush with the crank and thus not square with the starter so when the starter tried to spin the motor around it's teeth were binding with the flywheel's teeth causing the starter to "torque" sideways trying to buck out of it's hole causing the top ear to break off.

The solution?   Take the motor/tranny out and get rid of that 3.0L flywheel for a Z's 3.5L flywheel.  This is not an option if you want to run a 3.0L computer (like I used to) because you need the 3.0L's special timing ring, the 3.5L's ring is different.  I don't need it anymore because of the standalone.

I'll get some pics up of this dowel pin tomorrow.

enjoy,

Fred

Here's a shot of that pesky dowel pin:

Don't make the same mistake I made. If you want to use a 3.0L flywheel on a 3.5L block (fwd or rwd) you need to drill a small hole in the flywheel for this dowel to fit into, it doesn't have to be a tight fit either.

Edit:  I'm not sure this paragraph is correct about needing to drill a hole in your flywheel. I think I was mistaken. (10/20/06)

thanks

Fred

Hey Allen...

I just found this forum... :)  I need to get up with you about getting some VQ mounts for my swap.. And whatever other parts/info I need to get the engine in the car.  What are you using for a driveshaft?  Thanks!

Travis

Trav4011:

Hey Allen...

I just found this forum... :)  I need to get up with you about getting some VQ mounts for my swap.. And whatever other parts/info I need to get the engine in the car.  What are you using for a driveshaft?  Thanks!

 

Travis

Travis,

  Welcome to the forum!  I'm using a custom built steel driveshaft I had made at a local shop. It consists of the stock Z front yoke with the stock 240sx rear yoke and a new tube connecting them.

  Check out the photo section of the site for some pics of my mounts.  Let me know if you have any questions.

thanks

Fred

Well, I've got some kinda bad news.  I pulled the motor/tranny out Saturday (and it only took me 2 hours by myself I'd like to add).  I pulled the tranny off the motor and expected to see a crooked sitting flywheel but didn't, it was installed correctly and it did in fact have the little hole for the down pin.    So, I'm not sure what the heck caused my two broken starters now but the leading suspect is the starter spacers I was using.  We think they were allowing the starter to "rock" when it was spinning causing the gears to mis-align and thus cause a twisting force, braking the ear off the starter (twice ).

Since the motor/tranny are still out I'm gonna spin her over on a battery for several cranks to see if it happens again.  This time I'm using a 350z flywheel which allows me to ditch the starter spacers (and also the throw out bearing spacer), hopefully it works this time.   To clarify, I no longer need the 5 speed flywheel and it's 360 tooth sensor gear because I'm no longer using a Maxima 3.0L computer so, that's why I'm able to use the 350z's flywheel.

If this works I could have it running (and driving?) later this week.

Fred

Update:

   Ok, tested out the new flywheel/starter combo and it worked flawlessly so I think that chapter of this saga may be finally behind me!  Got the motor/tranny sat back down in the bay but not before repainting the front suspension crossmember and braces:

Thanks Mike for making me do that, soooo much better looking now.

And the best discovery yet was this:

The stock Z manifold can be flipped upside down to fire them forward which will be perrrrrfect for when I turbocharge this beast!  I previously looked into this but didn't think it would be easy because of the layout of the stock exhaust manifold bolt pattern.  But, the heads are drilled and tapped in a symmetrical pattern.  So, all I need to do is take out the studs and screw them in the appropriate holes and I'm good to go!

Now, I may need to modifiy the manifolds still for turbo use but it will be minor.  The clear all the accessories and should fit in the bay about perfect.  This is gonna make the turbo conversion much easier, I may even get some of those cheap tubular headers off of ebay for the extra bling factor

Fred

Edit:  After looking at several VQ35's both FWD and RWD I've noticed some things. 

1st:   it would appear that all RWD VQ35's have the symmetrically drilled/tapped exhaust manifold head stud holes. 

2nd:   it looks like the FWD VQ35's are about 50/50 on this, some are drilled like this and some aren't, not sure why yet. 

3rd:  i've noticed that the FWD VQ35's have shorter headers then the FWD VQ30's by atleast a couple inches - that may help if you want to experiment with the FWD headers.

I think the RWD Z headers will work out the best for turbo use in this engine bay, if the bay was quit a bit wider the FWD headers would be nice because they are so short and stout.

Fred

Here's some quick illustrations of what I have in mind for the future turbo setup.  Not sure if I'll go single or twin yet but I favor the single setup to keep things more simply and clean.  On the other hand you can't beat the "wow" factor of the twins!

Fred

Great news, got her running again this weekend, finally!  As it turns out the flywheel I was using did infact have the small hole for the dowel pin so the flywheel was straight after all  So, my theory now is that since my timing is likely pretty far off I was getting some pretty bad starter kick back on cranking, that combined with the spacers I think was the cause of the broken starters. 

I've now got the Z flywheel installed so I was able to remove the starter spacers and the throw out bearing spacer which makes for a much more stock like setup.

I'm having some problems with the thermostat though, it doesn't appear to be opening which caused the temps to get too high too quick.  I've had a similar problem with my old 240sx, turned out to be an air pocket in the coolant system that was getting infront of the thermostat keeping it from opening up somehow.  So, that's the next obstacle to tackle as well as the timing.

I'm getting to know the tuning software a lot better now too.  It's pretty sweet, straight out of the movies kind of stuff!  This is my first foray into stand alone computers so I'm easily impressed I guess but that live 3D map of the timing and fuel is pretty high tech to me.  I'll try to post up some screen shots of that soon.

Also, I installed a 350z air tube, stock Z air box and engine cover this weekend. Man, it really looks great now, I'll get some pics up of that too.  It truly looks like I just plucked the motor out of a Z and dropped it into my car!

I talked with the photographer for Sport Compact Car magazine via email recently.  He says the Hybrid-How-To article about my car is set to come out next month, can't wait for that, hopefully it will increase the site's traffic a lot.

Later,

Fred

P.S.  If anyone has any timing or fuel maps for a VQ30 or 35 that would be a great help to me.  If not I'll get them hammered out in time and post up what I find here for everyone to share.

hi from h-t... everything looks great. I Can't wait to see it turboed. I have a g35 and was planning to do a DIY single turbo. Can't wait to see yours. I've always wondered about the flipping of the stock manifolds.  thanks for the info!!

accordfreak:

hi from h-t... everything looks great. I Can't wait to see it turboed. I have a g35 and was planning to do a DIY single turbo. Can't wait to see yours. I've always wondered about the flipping of the stock manifolds.  thanks for the info!!

No prob, glad to help!  Somebody could make some money making some Z/G turbo kits based off of this information....

That's funny, DIY and G35 don't usually go together in the same sentence!

Fred