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240Z VQ37HR Swap


budgy

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Decided I would start a thread to chronicle some of my build so I can look back and remember the fun I had doing this. 

ZFever has harnesses for the VQ37HR working great with Osiris/Uprev which makes this swap a reality now. 

 

Got a few pictures as the car is now, I blew up my 3.2 stroker build not long after that action shot was taken. Block I believe failed due to heat stress. Got some pics of that aftermath, I thought the engine would just run cooler if I dumped a ton of coolant into the crankcase. Blew off a PCV line and had a crazy amount of vapour pour out of the engine bay on the track. Got my heart pounding :)

 

This engine actually still started and ran by the way! 

I have a collection of parts coming in soon, but will try to make large updates rather than a ton of small ones over the course of the winter. Found an excellent shop to do paint/body and most all of the work will be handled by professionals, I really don't have the time to do this kind of project on my own. But many props to those of you that make the time and do it all on your own. 

 

 

 

Will have turn signals, and even a CEL. The redline on the reflash will actually be set @ 8100RPM, but not sure I will need to go past 8 so I am happy with the look of the tach, the 10K tachs to me I do not like the spacing as much. These gauges were a design that I basically copied/inspired from the AWR guages made for Miatas. 

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Edited by RB26powered74zcar
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Not sure what happened there, Flickr is usually safe for me. 

Screenshots are the next best thing; custom gauges by New Vintage USA. Redline is actually 8100, but I like the way the 8K spacing works over 10K. doing custom tach redline would have added significantly to the cost. These were not cheap but I am happy I did them seeing the night time shots. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Car is going into the shop for phase 1 of the build soon. Just waiting on mounts and other goodies from McKinney and Engine/transmission/wiring harness from ZFever. 

Made a harrowing drive to Montana a couple days ago to pick up a ton of stuff from Techno Toy, just happened to be after a pretty major blizzard. CV Axles from Futofab. 

Also a one off, Walnut w/Mahogany stripe shift knob with the correct thread pitch for the 370Z transmission.
 

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Edited by budgy
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  • 3 months later...


16265759_10158271087795195_807122351950216114802_10158271087635195_613537625075816174924_10158271087850195_879923011596416195409_10158271087975195_865148179956716265971_10158271087980195_788509263381615951925_10158271088115195_541465785457416194943_10158271088140195_7619705748406

 

Car is off to get the paint/body work done. Hopefully not too many typical Datsun surprises. Feels good to have some real progress. 

Go and check out LangesShop on Instagram, this guy has an incredible little shop built on his own property, does amazing work mostly on older trucks. Will give ideas on what the finish paint should look like. 

EDIT: Forgot to ask a few things if anyone has advice on the matter; I am looking to find the JDM Headlight covers with the metal trim, if anyone has some for sale or knows a good place to look for them it would be much appreciated. I must ditch these cheaper plastic ones as I think they will look out of place with the rest of the build. 

Also, I am wondering if there is any consensus in the community in terms of underbody paint protection. I want something that will look good (gloss black preferably) but I am looking for something that is rugged and excellent rust protection without adding unnecessary weight to the chassis. I will be avoiding rain and gravel to the best of my ability but I intend to drive this car a lot so something functional is needed. 

Edited by budgy
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Thanks for the tip! Did some fairly extensive reading on that today and I think that may be what we do, sounds like the heat/sound stuff from them is fairly light and still very rugged. 

Got some more updates to share, she was a decent looking car before but she was definitely a cake face :D

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Typical Datsun stuff, hopefully its not too bad to fix behind the battery tray that thing is a nightmare.

Hoping I get mounts and headers from McKinney soon so it doesnt hold things up before body primer.

Drip rails very disappointing to see what was basically just flat steel welded in before. A whole new 'C' shaped piece will have to be made and welded into place. 

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Edited by budgy
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  • 4 weeks later...

Wolfcreek is now known as Futofab and they make the CV Axles, I actually purchased mine through Techno Toy as they are a Futofab dealer and it just made things easier for me being in Canada for shipping reasons. Not entirely sure they would work with the 350Z R200, if the housings are the same I guess it would not be an issue. 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well the "cups" are supposed to be compatible witht he 280zx cups, just the shafts need to be sized properly...  Supposed toand work with are two different things though.  I am going to use the LSD R200 though so I'll have to figure something.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Decided to get rid of the aftermarket sunroof for the cleanest possible look. Removal of factory drip rails was poorly done. Got a fair bit of metal work to do before she goes into primer, but things are finally about to start moving forward more rapidly. 

Wanted to share a photo of a truck that was painted the same way my car will be. It's why I chose this small shop, guy does excellent paint and body work. 

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Edited by budgy
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  • 4 weeks later...

Things have moved pretty slow on the build as a couple hang ups caused big delays. 

Door Hinges were sent to MSA for refurbishing and the company that does the work I guess was delayed due to come contract they scored so those are finally coming back soon so we can mount the doors and make sure the drip rails will be done properly due to my roof swap. Waited about 6 months for those if they show up now. Could not find any used ones locally or any junk yards that had them. No luck calling around either for spares. 

There was also huge delays to even get the motor in the car and get the project started in earnest, I ordered the mounts and headers from McKinney in August 2016, I wasn't told at the time of order that the headers were going to be all that long of a wait, hell I saw another member had some headers and they looked great, but I ended up waiting about 6 months for headers. So the car was never brought to the shop for tear down until February 2017 when we were hoping to have the car in by late October or November in 2016. After all that, the mounts from McKinney I will say are a bit disappointing, they are very strong, but the trans mount is not usable, it does not even reach close to the transmission, we got measurements for a driveshaft to Mack over a month ago but haven't heard back even after asking for updates. So the communication of it all just sucks. In his defense, I haven't even told the guy about the transmission mount not being usable because I just want the damn driveshaft first. The main engine crossmember mount is also a little bit short of making full contact with the frame rails in the engine bay so we may have to do some fabrication this way as well.

All in all, a few lessons learned on my part. 

1) Don't buy hardly any pre-fabricated pieces for a motor swap, just get a proper local shop to build custom ones. It will be cheaper, done better and done much faster.  

2) Should have bought a donor 370z for other parts too, instead of cobbling pieces together. Although at the time I was buying up parts in August 2016 I was optimistic things would go smoothly and on time and that I would have a driveable car this summer so ponied up to get the pieces I needed quick instead of being patient and waiting for a donor to be available for a reasonable price, even though I ended up waiting around for a long time for other critical pieces I lost the entire driving season anyway. So that was a lot of money spent for absolutely zero benefit. 

Definitely has been a disappointing year, somewhat disenchanted with the entire aftermarket auto industry over these experiences. But still optimistic that it will be worth it in the end. I am basically just accepting the fact that there is no way ill drive it until next spring even if the build is done much before then. 

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