Decided to convoy with 30 friends to Import Alliance-Nashville for the weekend, and then drove to WI after to wire up a few Pro-Am cars for Illwaukee Street Performance. Here's how she looked when I arrived:
Then....I saw this sitting in the shop floor. Came out of a salvage titled 350Z with only 21k miles :biggrin:
So, I naturally asked about it. A friend of mine here in SC is a Nissan Master tech and has built a few VQ cars, including one with a roots type blower and another that's twin turboed. My buddy Vince said he had been trying to sell the motorset for quite some time, so I jokingly offered a trade for my RB25. Full setup for full setup. He made a phone call to his business partner, and agreed. He valued his setup at 5k, which wasn't far off from the 4.5k the RB was worth.
I made many friends in WI...and one of them offered his shop to me for a week so I could build my mounts for the VQ. I had to find a way to get the motor/trans an hour from the shop without using a truck....so after a few beers, this happened.
Got her to Sun Prairie and began the teardown. In 2 hours, the RB was out and the VQ was sitting in the chassis.
Clearance is MINIMAL...but amazing.
Made the plates for the motor mounts and got the motor lined up...
And.....VOILA
Ended up just re-drilling the RB crossmember bracket and made a spacer for the trans mount. Everything is solid mounted.
While I was at it....decided to replace the junky stock subframe bushings, with Stance V2 solids. Took me nearly 2 hours to pound them into the subframe. Tight is an understatement.
Decided to go nuts and stitch weld the engine bay while I had the tools to do so.
Fresh paint....all the holes welded up!
Mocking up the VQ cluster into the dash...I'll explain into more detail the pain in the a$$ process of wiring this in later.
As anyone knows who has ever done a motor swap that is not FULLY explained and covered...the wiring can be a nightmare. I have nearly 60 hours invested in the wiring of this car.
350Z pedal installed
I was working and making money while the build was in process, but the $800 ECU tune I wanted was a little out of budget. I called up RTTuning in Pennsylvania, and offered their tuner the turbo manifolds in exchange for the NATS delete and the Osiris Pro software. He accepted! Here's what I traded him...
And the badass driveshaft I had made...
Almost done ^_^
Eventually decided the purple needed to go. Looked a little more sinister in black.
After another month or so....it began to snow. Not wanting to get stuck up in WI for another 6 months, I decided it was time to pack up and roll on home. Smooth sailing for 6.5 hours until... :frown:
Semi truck ran me off the road in a construction zone at 1:30 AM. I sideswiped a barrier at 70mph. Broke both my left coilovers, destroyed my left wheels, ripped the body away from the wheel well, and pushed the exhaust into the fuel tank draining $50 of fresh 93 :squint: I ended up taking refuge at a Pilot Truck Stop in Memphis, IN for two days. Boredom got the best of me while watching "Burn Notice" reruns. I created an Adventures of Domo album. This is Domo vs plant.
I survived off Arby's and potato chips, until my amazing friends hooked up a 24ft trailer to a dualie and drove 11 hours to rescue me because the damage was not fixable.
After a long, long ride home, we finally got the car back to my house in SC. Then began the search for a new chassis, which didn't take long. Two friends donated two clean hatch chassis' to me after they heard what happened.
I picked a chassis and dumped the motor in over a matter of 2 days. My wrecked car was also stripped to nothing.
And this brings us to current date. I traded the blue hatch shell and a wiring service on a drift car for a running, 5 speed convertible. I decided to put the VQ into the vert for my daily, along with a few other goodies and give the hatch/KA/5 speed to my little brother for his 16th birthday. It'll be his first car....gotta get him started off right :chuckle:
Here she is...updates soon! I plan on having both cars running and drivable by March.
Here's what she looked like when i first got her...
After the Sil front install
After some talking/trading with a buddy of mine, I acquired a JAZ 15 gallon fuel cell and a hookup on a roll cage. The factory fuel tank was rusty and I want to run a 350Z style dual exhaust out the back, so the factory fuel tank had to go!
Cage was done a few days ago, but I went ahead and stripped the interior, boxes, and wiring out of the chassis.
Just a basic cage for now....going back to add bracing and cross bars at a later date.
I'll get some high-res photos up a little later. Here are a few photos from my 15 year old brother's first build...He helped me assemble the engine.
As of tonight, the motor is in the vert!
Hope you guys/gals enjoy....looking to fire her off next week so I can make Spring IA in Atlanta!
Fri Feb 24, 2012 11:23 pm
