zmech

My thanks to you and Garvice for your kind comments. I have wanted a V8 for such a long time and the opportunity came up so I jumped in head first. I was raised on Chevy, Ford and Mopar V8s and just had a hankering for another one but wanting to be loyal to the brand, I chose to use the VH. Anyone can use an LS or Modular Ford. If I could have gotten my hands on a Titan for a decent price, it would have been the 5.6L in there instead. Feel free to copy any pics that are posted here or my pictures website. Just to let you know, that T5 has been modified for the Z31. It is still the T5Z but not for the Cobra any longer. That is a custom built input shaft and the upper and tail casings have been changed to the Z31 cases. All the internals have been cryo treated also to help eliminate breakage. Yeah I had to put a lot of thought into making sure that I could still take it apart with some ease for maintenance. Do not want to just start welding stuff in and then not be able to do something with it if it breaks. I actually made the exhaust manifolds so that they will come out with the engine still in the car. V-band flanges for most of the remaining exhaust for quick disassembly. I do not mind you contacting me. I will PM you some info. I also have the drawing of the trans adapter. Only the 10 holes for the bell to the adapter were hand drilled on a press. The other is CNC. Let me know if you have any questions. Now that I am at the final blows I will answer any questions you have about it.

Actually I cannot take credit for that. Buddy of mine that got me into the Z31s in the first place got me on the NOS long time ago. I had forgotten about it since the car became turbo. But now that it is NA he suggested I do a dyno pull with NOS on at least one pull. You know, just to see what it does. Still have to drive it around some to break in the clutch though. Other plans. Well, eventually. I am still attempting to purchase another house in SoCal and that is pricey. So if that happens then the project may get put on hold for a bit.

My project is located in another thread in the V8 section. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=152957

Umm. I used the Z31T viscous shafts. One is alot longer on the splines to reach the viscous unit inside.

I realize that the Z31 performance board is used by members only now. So I copied my posts from there, cleaned them up and decided to post here also. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Z45. My latest creation. This is a work in progress. This is an oem engine from 1995 Q45. V8 with a stock 7000 rpm redline. Yummy... The weight is actually lighter in the front now. Only by about 100lbs. (no ac, aluminum engine vice cast iron) There is a five speed T5Z Mustang Cobra transmission behind it. I was shooting for an OEM look. I wanted it to look like it came there from the factory. If you are looking at this swap, I would recommend a shrink. I had a very steep learning curve on fabrication with this one. The VG30ET that was in this car will be re-located into the 50th at a later date. Crossmember with mounts cut off. First test fits. oil pickup failed the first oilpan, this is the second. chopped and dropped crossmember motor mounts Z32 OEM flywheel custom cut with Q45 automatic ring gear welded on. This mates to the VH starter. clutch- Howe throw-out bearing bell housing from Q45 auto mated to custom T5Z with adapter. transmission crossmember Z31 turbo radiator and Spal fans Last fuel pump went bad because the bracket rusted and it sucked up the rust particles. New one installed here. Cut down the large alternator/AC bracket to mount a G35 alternator. Alt is mounted in the AC compressor location. Some general clearance pics. PS pump was very close so I notched the bracket. Then the dreaded exhaust. I have many hours tied up into this. Ceramic coated Picked up another HKS super mega flow filter. Cut down the OE rubber intake tubing and got everything fitted in. Just could not make myself cut into the car to put it outside. Spark plug change out. New emblem for the back. Tommy Kaira (Z) and the 45 from the Q45 powder coated black. On the alignment rack. I have owned this car since 1992 and have done some very stupid and some incredulous stuff to this car. I have done all the work and know every nut and bolt in this car and it rarely surprises me. Well low and behold, it shocked the shite out of me today. I came across my cusco bar in the storage and was about to give it to a friend of mine. Well for giggles, I decided to try it onto the Z45 to see how badly it would not work. HOLY SHOCKS!!! It fits. I really did not believe my eyes. So here it is. Got the front sway bar mounted again. Used some 3/16 steel and made some spacers to get the sway bar dropped enough to clear the PS pump. This is what the car started as in 1992. Nostalgic picture. Some comments and Q&A from Z31P. No tuning as of yet. I will be using Nistune once I get there. Not worried about the knock sensors at this time as they are by-passed. They are both bad and need to be replaced but I have enough stuff on the plate as is without taking off the plenum to replace those. I made them go bad by flooding the valley with antifreeze. OOPPS. This is an OBD1 1995. Last year (sorta) before the OBDII. The 1996 was sorta OBDII but lost the variable valve timing due to restrictions in smog laws. Yes. It will stay that way till I get the HLSD setup working. Still working on shafts for that. You would be shocked at how well behaved the car is with the open diff. I have seen many a car with too much power spin around because of having the diff too tight. Also, I have two CLSDs but those both need to be rebuilt with new bearings and clutch plates. I currently have the VLSD in the 50th. Little by little I will keep chipping away at this. I want to do everything myself or as much as possible. Finally finished up 99% of the wiring. Still waiting for the tach adapter but now I have all the other gauges attached. It is so nice to know what the engine is doing. Put all the interior back in and dropped it to it's wheels. Off for a little drive today. Drove it about 65 miles today and it is running very nice. This engine is the smoothest engine. It revs right up with little effort and sounds great. Still have a couple of things to iron out but for what has been done to this car, I will accept that. I think I have made the car look TOO STOCK. I was at the Breakfast at Balboa on Sunday and met some really cool Sentra SER guys there. Only one guy there could tell that it was different. Most people going by did not even know that it was not STOCK. Maybe I should enter the stock class at MSA next year... I am not. I decided to register in Texas. Changing the title to my Dad so he can register it. Not yet. Still have a few things to finish. Want to swap the clutch out as I am not happy with the current one. Then get the NOS bottle in it and and then off to the dyno shop for a few runs. Well, took it out the other day driving in the morning and had to stop to get brake fluid and refill the clutch master. I have changed the clutch master to the 3/4 inch Wilwood for the clutch. Confused because this is a new master and I was not dripping fluid anyplace. Decided to look inside the car. Holy shite, fluid inside. Damn what a mess. Seems the extreme pressure of the ACT HD pressure plate was just too much for the master and blew out the seal. Sucks! So, not liking the crazy heavy clutch pedal anyhow, I decided to swap out the clutch. Off to Nissan for full Z33 clutch. Got the pressure plate and the 250mm disc. Pull off the exhaust, pull back the trans and pull the bell. Swap out the clutch and put it all back. Only took me about 6 hours by myself at a leisurely pace. Now the pedal effort is very nice and the engagement is smooth. This is what I should have used in the first place... Was asked about pricing. Donor car $3000 Tons of other stuff- aproximately $4000. Now that does not include some items I already paid for in the past. Nor does it include the items I manufactured. Try pricing an oilpan custom made by someone. Or custom one off machine work from someone you do not know. Or stainless exhaust pieces. The exhaust bends and piping in SS for headers alone costs about $600. Then having them coated... I have two words for the Z45. Money Pit. It has been a crazy project for sure. All the build pictures I have. There are over 600 pics here to see. Have fun.... CLICK ME If you have not used this photo album before, click the album you want, then click the pic you want. It will bring a small pic of it up. Click that one and it will bring up the 1200 x 800 pic. Videos All my videos up to date. Don't mind my stupid comments as I sound like a dumbass in some of the videos... http://videos.streetfire.net/videos/search.aspx?p=1&w=3&o=5&c=All&t=zmech One more vid. Gave a guy with a GTI a quick ride. He used his phone to record the video. This was 0-85 mph and then quickly braking (wilwoods). Almost planted his face into the dash.

I did the work myself. Also used the half-shafts from the VLSD that came in the 1988 Shiro. I used the fsm to find out what shims to use by doing the lash and tooth spacing adjustment. It is a diff off the 1988 300ZX with 3.7 ratio and I am pretty sure it has the larger bolts but not sure as I have about 5 of those laying about here. 1984 Z31 50thAE.

alwithaz: I think it is your car and YOU should make a decision on what you want to do with it. My 86 has gone through many changes through it's life and is not about to stop anytime soon. I do not regret doing any of them. NA to turbo to V8. Just make a plan and do it.

The J30 is VLSD 29 spline. I use a center from the J30 in my Z31 now.

I know for a fact that S15 HLSDs have 30 spline shafts and that the 29 will not work. I have one sitting right here on my bench that I imported from Japan. I was just stupid enough to not import the shafts at the same time. DOH! I will someday get to the yards and pull the Q45 shafts to see if they will fit since they are 30 spline. The Q has VLSD though and that means I will probably have to cut down one of the shafts.

I was just looking for the same thing and wound up ordering these. http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/product_detail.asp?RowID=363&CS=ireland&All= They are made by Ireland Engineering in LA area and are urethane shore 80A. They have used them on BMW V8 swaps so I figured that it would work for my VH45 swap. They are very nice people there. BTW: you cannot make them for what they sell them for.

Shield gas is the way to go unless you are outside in the wind. Otherwise the gas and solid wire are the way to go. You should be able to find a bottle and reg cheap and the fill is cheap. My fill here in SD is about $40 for a 125cf. I also use a 125cf of argon on the TIG that is cheap to fill. Moving them is what I hate... That welder should do just about anything you want on a vehicle. I use a Hobart Handler 140 for MIG duty and a Lincoln Squarewave 175 for TIG duty. They have done anything I ask so far. Only problems I have is small duty cycle on the MIG.

Just to let you know, you can get a good clutch right from Nissan. The 350Z clutch is 250mm and has a ton of clamp force. They are rated at 850kg of clamp force. Then you can just use the OEM 250mm disk with a Fidanza flywheel. What is the hangup on a kit?

You really need to check out all your sensors. It should be obvious that a sensor is really bad. Try the CHTS, O2 sensor and timing.

Send it to me. I will pm you my email.

No L6 engines in the Z31.

HUH? Just wondering what weakness you are talking about because I have done my fair share of punishing to that suspension. I may not run the tracks as much as some because of funding, home mortgage makes it like that in California. Back to suspension though. What weakness??? I have taken my car to multiple autocross, three times at Willow Springs big track and once at Laguna. So if you mean drifting as punishment, that is something that I do not do.

I am running Nistune in my Z. I have it in the M30 ecu and use it in the 1984 50th AE 300ZX. I really like it in the M30 ecu as it is programed via the consult port. It works... I used one of the very first versions on the Z31 ecu and I was not impressed with it as it is USB interfaced and I was getting drops all the time. It worked good if the car was not running but if it was moving at any rpm then disconnects. I have talked to Matt and he told me that the newer versions of the type 1 boards do not do that now. As far as ease of use, it is quite user friendly and I think that Matt and his crew have done an exceptional job. So for what you get, I think it a very good value too. Try to get a stand-alone for that cost. http://www.nistune.com/

Do you know for sure if the internals of the Z32 transmission will fit the Z31 FS5R30A casings? If so I have a casing here that can be built up with the internals.

Here ya go... Should fit as the lugs will not matter. The NA and turbo rotor on the 84-86 bolted to the back of the hub. Not slip ons. http://www.buybrakes.com/store/BR25316

Not sure what bolt pattern you are refering to but I know the pressure plate is the same pattern. I have the Z33 pressure plate on my Z31 Fidanza flywheel. All 9 bolts fit properly.

I put a WC T5Z trans into a Z31 before. The shafts are way different and I was in a similar predicament. However Liberty Gear came to my rescue. They took both shafts and cut them under the bearing and then combined the gear and front part of the shaft. It came out perfect and is still working for me 4 years later. I recommend them for your predicament. http://www.libertysgears.com/services.htm