Sanchez

Continuing the floor pans, it’s going slow because of my time constraints and trying to go slow and learn. It sucks both my floor pans were beyond just patching up. Also an order from Tabco came in last week with my rockers, fender patches, lower door skins, and rear hatch slam plate. I don’t think my welds turned out too bad for my first time welding on metal this thin on an actual car. Question time for the experts: When you are welding over pitted metal like the area under the rear slam plate would you suggest priming it and then seam sealing really well around it, or should I get a tube of chemical weld and use it almost like bonds and skim it so there is less of a chance water can make its way in and sit there?

That is one beautiful Z. A crossmember designed for VQ engines in the Z is something I have been looking at constantly since I landed on the VQ37 swap for mine. I would love to see some photos of the crossmember and if you plan on selling them I’ll be first in line to try it out!

@Zumf20c How’s the engine and trans mounting going? Any pictures or updates about the McKinney mount kit?

Started on the floor pans today, my toe board/kick panels up to the firewall and battery tray on the passenger side also needs new metal so I got to grab some 20ga sheet metal this week and shape that as well.

@DuffyMahoney Thanks for the support! @TUME Yeah I'm not very happy with the quality of the welds now that I can see them, but I did have the work done in High School when I was very low on funds and mostly just needed the car to not rust out from under me. While the welds are not pretty, the shop did an excellent job hiding them and getting the body right with bondo (I know bondo should only be used for minor stuff, not to the degree it got used on my car). And it pretty much stopped the rust in those areas. That is what got me looking at the ZTrix Subtle Z rear fenders. I really like the original look of the Z's without flares and it comes with the bonus of slightly larger tires (to handle that sweet VQ torque) and save me from having to recut and reweld the lower portion of that panel and fill it all in to get the shape right (or spend the crazy amounts of money on a whole replacement rear quarter).

Sandblasting Video Link (Shameless Channel Plug). I’m the one in the shirt that says “Shop Staff” and the horrible farmer’s tan at the end of the video: 240Z Sandblasting (The Cherry Garage) Photo dump as I start body work... I really hate drilling out spot welds... My passenger side rear quarter is dented pretty good and I found where dents were attempted to be pulled out. I’m thinking I may start looking seriously at the Subtle Z fiberglass rear quarters...

QUICK UPDATE: Got the car sandblasted yesterday!!!! The company I went with is local here in St. Louis and did an excellent job using fine crushed glass. Took about 4 hours and there is no noticeable warping to the panels (I did skip getting the hood sandblasted because it is such a large flat panel I think it would have been impossible to avoid warping it). For those of you thinking of getting the car sandblasted and want to get the rear underside without a rotisserie the frame is so light that myself and 3 friends lifted the shell onto and off the trailer, and tilted the rear of the car up in the air and rested it on a frame made 2x6 wood. I was hoping maybe some of you could suggest a relatively good primer to use to keep the car from rusting while I do the body work. Something that I can body fill over before using a a highbuild primer primer before paint? Here are some quick photos, video update coming soon.

@Zumf20c Don’t suppose there is any chance you would be willing to try and get some plans/blueprints drawn up of what you received for us VQ37 swappers to make them ourselves. If they don’t even come painted I find it hard to justify paying $700 dollars and waiting ~1 month to get some pretty basic welded steel.

@WailordUseBodySlam last time I talked to them about it was in December 2019. I may message them again and see what’s up with it. I don’t know if they plan on completely reworking the fabrication of the entire rear end swap or if they plan to base it off their current R200/230 swap.

@zTrollop i was wondering if you ever figured out your steering issues?

How long did it take to get those mounts from Speed SoCal. Its a bummer they don't come painted because you definitely don't want these pricey mounts rusting. Their engine mounts look a little small and stiff which would be good for a race car but for a comfortable ride for a street car I was wondering if the stock isolators from VQ37 would work. Do you think you'll stick with their's or try and fit the stock isolators?

My hatch is unfortunately a bit rusty and I am starting repairs on it. I'm in STL also and there is a guy called the Zman in Imperial, MO who is getting rid of his Z parts (he used to have a yard full of them). You should try and get a hold of him, you can find him easily by searching "datsun" or "240Z" in the STL craigslist.

I was just looking over the pictures again and was wondering the same thing as @74_5.0L_Z. It seems like the best way to fit these engine in the car is to set them as far back against the firewall as possible and lower if possible (I've heard some talk that the McKinney mounts come with some shims to adjust engine height, and are slotted for some tilt adjustment). Also noticed that it seems like your steering rack is angled differently than mine sits, it looks like the part where the u-joint connects to the steering rack is pointing up higher than mine looks which could be throwing off your steering (It could also be the angle of your pictures that is making it seem that way). Here is the way the steering is angled in this picture from Silvermine Motors website:

This is a good question and there is almost no info I have found, even from ZFever about how to change the steering linkages with the VQ35/VQ37 swap. For a while I was under the impression the tubular manifolds on the VQ37 would allow the steering to clear when it is mounted correctly but that may not be case. I wish I could help you but I’m just as lost as you when it comes to this area of the swap.

Thank you, but I was more wondering how you are able to get correct tension on your belt. I haven't seen any tension arm brackets for the VQ37 alternator.

So the body shop gave me some less than stellar news, but news I was somewhat expecting to hear. My chassis is saveable but to have somebody else do it will cost me more than I can really afford to spend. It sucks, but I had a feeling deep down that it would possibly be the case. This means that I will need to start really putting in some work to improve my pretty mediocre welding and metal body working skills (I'm a wizard with body fill and fiberglass though cause of my work with boats in college). Anyway, I would appreciate any help and tips and pointers you guys could throw my way about replacing the outer rockers and the main engine bay rails where they meet the radiator core support because those are areas I know I'll struggle. I've seen some pretty good guides about the floor pans and frame rails/front gussets that make me believe that it is something I can do as a novice with the help from some of my friends who have done body work before, but still any advice is much appreciated. It sounds like I shouldn't need any thing more than a good quality MIG welder to do all of the body work on this car.

@budgy Love the progress you have made on your car, your build is part of the inspiration on my VQ37VHR swap. After some looking at my engine I was starting to get a bit confused about how I would run the belt on the VQ37 without power steering or AC (my engine didn't come with an alternator or tensioner pulley). It looks like you have removed all of the pulleys and are running a belt straight from crank pulley to alternator. Would you mind elaborating on what length belt you used to do that? How does the belt sit in relationship to the front crossmember (is it close to rubbing or require any additional cutting)? And how reliable this setup has been in your test fires of the engine?

Looks like you got a engine/trans assembly with the EFI harness all in one go, with only 3k miles too. Pretty sweet find my man! If you were able to get the ECU, VVEL Module and sub-harness, throttle pedal, and the OBDII and Dash Harness pigtails than you are in business. If not check your local scrapyards and if you can find 370Z/G37 that not totally stripped you should be able to get those all without to much trouble. I'm currently working on swapping a VQ37VHR into my 1973 240Z same color as yours too. With only 3K miles on your assembly it should have no problem lasting a long while as is if you plan to drop it in as is and make no modifications. I know I'll be happy with a stock NA VQ37, but I am getting an itch to put some exhaust cams in it and a lighter flywheel in it while mine is sitting on the engine stand (my engine has 25K miles and trans has 73K miles). I've been talking to a few other people in the same stages of a VQ37 swap as us and we should definitely put our combined skills together to make this swap more viable for for those interested in resto-modding their Z's because the VQ37 could easily become a swap that is as common and easy as the LS swap while still keeping the car fully Nissan. Hit me up if you ever wanna bounce ideas around. I'm going to be posting a video soon going over all the electronic parts I scrounged together for ZFever to do the re-wire and some tips on getting those parts out to help out those who are getting stuck at this part.

Been a while since my last update cause of work and waiting. Anyway a few days ago I picked up a 370Z 6spd transmission from a local yard for $850, not bad for a good trans with 73k miles. For anybody doing a VQ37 swap the 350Z/G35 manual trans will not bolt up or work, you need to find one from a 370Z/G37 with the correct stamps on the side I believe it is CD8 #1 (still a CD009 trans though). Now that I have engine/trans/wiring complete I will post a video going over everything I have for the swap and how I got them. As for body work my local customs shop that I would take it to is stuck doing insurance and collision work to make ends meet in these uncertain times, but I called up another local shop that works out of a garage bay near where I used to rent space to work on my Z. They’ve had a few Z’s come through there shop I’ve seen and they looked great, but this shop—Garcia’s in Sauget, IL—restores cars from all over the US from exotics to Pebble Beach concourse winners (I’ve walked in there and seen Lamborghinis, Talbots, Maserati OSCA, GT40, Jaguars, you name it they can make it show quality). They are gonna come to my garage with their body guy and take a look at it. I know it would be cheaper to learn to do the body work myself, but my work keeps me pretty busy and a lot of the work my Z needs is structural and I wouldn’t trust myself to do structural repair while learning. Plus I told them I wasn’t looking for a show car, just a rust free body that’s smooth on the exterior and visibly painted parts. So stay tuned as pictures and videos are incoming. I plan on doing a video on how to restore the smaller systems as I do each of those while it’s getting the body straightened out (I.e. heater core rebuild, wiper motor and blower motor restore and swap, etc). Also I have been seeing quite a few threads popping up on the forums as the VQ37 swap is gaining a bit of traction for our older Z’s, but as it stands there is not a lot of companies making supporting parts for it. I’ve been reaching out to a few of the Z custom fabricating websites and trying to work with them to see if they would be willing to start trying to incorporate VQ swap stuff into their catalogs. I know it would make every VQ swap easier if a front steering crossmember that cleared these engines was readily available similar to the one made at Apex Engineered. Maybe a few of you who are also doing this swap could reach out them too.

If you are just asking about what has to be done to the rear suspension when swapping a VQ37, I would say at the very least have an R200 swap to handle the torque from the motor, and switch to CV axles. I’m personally waiting for Techno Toy Tuning to release their Ford 8.8 rear swap or using Apex Engineered’s rear subframe swap which also can use a Ford 8.8 diff.

Thanks for posting that link, it looks like that shifter relocation you posted sits about 1" further back than the Enjuku Racing one. I think that would sit a CD009 in the chassis with no cutting of the trans tunnel. Plus that CBF Performance has a reverse gear lockout which the Enjuku one does not (not like I've ever accidentally tried to shift into reverse at speed, but having it there gives me peace of mind). Does the reverse work like most modern transmissions where you have to push it down and over?

So the past few days I started back at work and can start making money again to fund this project now that I’m done with “zero cost” part of rebuilding (taking it apart). My plans changed a bit as my body shop is backed up with taking a lot of insurance claims jobs because those pay the best right now with the pandemic. I’m going to be fully removing the suspension and use a homemade tip-jig for the sandblasting procedure. I’m currently get ready to pull the trigger on a 370Z 6-speed transmission, man those things are expensive and almost impossible to find in a junkyard so eBay it is. I’ve been doing a ton of research because, for those of you who are not aware, to use a CD009 trans in an early Z you need to shorten the shifter bracket and the previous maker of this part, Hoke Performance, stopped making them it can be hard to source. Even then Hoke’s bracket would still require cutting the trans tunnel about 1-2” to fit. I stumbled upon a piece by Enjuku Racing that completely removes the u-joint and should hopefully fit the CD009 trans in a Z car with almost no cutting of the trans tunnel! I’m going to order this along with my trans so it would be great if somebody with the Hoke relocation bracket could send measurements of where their shifter sits and I can measure the Enjuku and see how they line up. https://www.enjukuracing.com/products/xcessive-manufacturing-nissan-vq-cd009-shifter-bracket-series-2.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3KCzirTh6QIVEL7ACh0RTQTXEAsYASABEgIVsPD_BwE

I got a pair, PM me if interested

Picture of my dash, original with no cover. Developed it’s first and only crack about 2 years ago. Hopefully I should be able to fill it in with some bumper repair and some texture paint. Interior sound deadening/tar may removed using the dry ice method. I highly recommend doing this with dry ice which I got from my local CeeKay.

@BrettR Changing to a dry sump oil pan for the VQ37 is possible and could make it so you don’t have to cut the crossmember. But the cheapest I’ve seen for a complete setup will set you back $5,500 USD. You can really set the engine where ever you want to make it clear the crossmember, provided you don’t mind reshaping/deleting the hood. @74_5.0L_Z I’m having some trouble accessing getting a good look at your custom crossmember or viewing that PDF, any chance you could re-upload the PDF or post a few more pictures while your engine is out?