240hoke

Haha yea, thats what Ive been thinking all along, my bank account denied my plans though....someday the time will come .

Yea, at this point I think ill pretty much have to redesign the entire exhaust to get it much quieter. But like I said it sounds pretty good now not to loud and less drone. I think if I build another exhaust I might would keep it dual and run a dual full size muffler in the tunnel and then two mufflers in the back.

haha yea, I don't let my Miller helmet anywhere near the MIG. Heres a link to the before videos: http://www.vq240z.com-a.googlepages.com/videos

Hey Guys, I finally have Z32 shifter relocators for those of you that are still working on swaps. I am having the protptype tested by a member who is working on his swap and once I get the okay from him then I will make the rest of them...should be about 2 weeks and they will be ready to go. They are simple and strong, made from steel, TIG'd and powerdercoated. Pruchasing Details / Pricing: Relocator: $80 via Paypal to hokeperformance@gmail.com Shipping: Continental US: FREE Canada: $5 Overseas: Contact for quote Shoot me a PM if your interested in purchasing one, as always I wont take payment until these things are boxed and ready to go.

So after getting the vq240 on the road the first thing I realized was that my exhaust was way to loud for the street, however the worst part wasn't the noise but the extreme drone. So much that for a trip of any distance I had to put in ear plugs. My original setup consisted of dual 2.5 inch tubing coming together into a single 3" tube with a single oval Borla XR-1 muffler in the back. When I built it I knew I might have issues with drone but i was hoping for the best..... Original Setup, http://www.vq240z.com-a.googlepages.com/exhaust: I talked with Borla tech support who were very helpful. They told me the oval XR1 was pretty much the same as there xs and turbo street muffler since it had a lot of packing. After looking at pictures of my car and the space limitation they recommended another XR-1 (round, 15" length) as a resonator as close to the engine as possible. I the only place the muffler would fit was right behind the Y pipe in hte transmission tunnel. Even at the location it required removing my flex joint and hacking up the muffler. I always wanted to know what these things looked like inside anyway.... To gain much needed ground clearance I started by chopping the bottom of the muffler off and welding the section back on flat, this was a little tough to get straight but it turned out decent: Finished product..you can see the horizontal section as well, this was a bit harder as the muffler didnt want to stay round after I cut it. I ended up taking about 1.5 inches out of the length. Dont look to closely at the welds, I seem to have a rather large learning curve with SS. Overall iam very happy with the outcome, the car is MUCH quieter in partial throttle conditions and cruising around. Its still pretty dern loud at WOT though. The rasp is still there as well, but i think its is always going to be with a straight through muffler design. Anyway Im happy with it for now but I may change the rear muffler out in the future. Ill post some videos next time I go home.

I have a Miller Syncrowave 180SD and I LOVE IT. I mostly weld aluminum and it works great, you can get by with almost everything you need to do in a home shop with a 180. The only time I have maxed it out was welding on my cast intercooler tanks that were prolly in the range of 3/16+ inches thick. I think the 200 would be a perfect choice, alittle more umph then the older 180 and alot more features. Also everybody raves about having a water cooled torch, but in a home garage I dont think its that big of a deal....I rarely get the torch hot enough I have to stop welding. If I was going to buy a new unit though its something i would definitly think about getting. I use a WP9 flex head torch to do all my welding, its can handle short bursts of 180amp stuff. My unit is prolly 5 years old or so and works perfect, I bought it used with very low hours (looked like new) for 1200 dollars about 3 years ago. Several of my friends work in racing/fab shops and weld all day long and they rave about miller...they use the dynastys though $$$$. But anyway after my personal experience and hearing about hte machines from my buddys Miller is the only brand welding machine I would buy. While Im plugging miller I also have a Miller Spectrum 375 Extreme plasma cutter. Its is an amazing tool!! It only weighs 18lbs and can sever 5/8" steel with ease, after using some cheaper units i am blow away at how well this little thing works.

I from what Ive learned talking around with several guys, including forged performance about rough power levels for the Vq35de: Max SAFE power on the stock block,rods, pistons = 380 horsepower at the wheels on a Dyno Dynamics Dynomometer... Many guys have run over this on the stock internals, I have talked to afew running 450+. The rods can only take this for so long, on a street machine it may be okay for a while since you only see WOT every once in a while for short periods.....but I wouldnt risk a hole in my block. At Zdayz during the forged tech session they showed us rods that had been slowly bent from DD use over 400hp. Next step is forged rods and pistons this will take you as far as most people will ever want to go as I mentioned before Sharif's car was putting down 800 and something....so we are talking about MASSIVE power for a S30. For proper tuning anything about stock really also requires a standard supply/return style system to avoid fuel pressure issues. Anyway hope this helps guys choose between a rb and the vq. In my opinion sourcing parts and the cost of those parts is the worst part about the motor and why I choose the VQ. The vq is newer, usually doesnt require a rebuild and for hte same money youll be rebuilding your stock rb for you can have forged pistons and rods and be putting down some massive numbers. Aftermarket parts for the vq are plentiful and easy to come by second hand as well.

Sorry most of your post was informative, this is the specific part Iwas referring to as ridiculous, it is anything but the cheap way to do it...in fact its the most involved and expensive, and way overkill for almost all street applications.

That looks realllllllly nice, I think you just made up my mind with what I want to do! Do you have any pictures of the building process?

Thats ridiculous. The weak link of the vq is the RODS. There is no reason to sleeve the block unless you are looking for 1000+ hp levels, forged performance actually recommends that you DON'T sleeve the block for road racing use and only recommends it for drag/street. If you want to make massive power all you really need to do it put in rods and pistons and you should be able to make 800 hp with a nice turbo kit/uel system/engine management. If I remember correctly shariff put down 841 on the s1 block in his car. My buddy has a DD with 600 hp and he runs the forged s1 short block, never had an issue with the motor.

Just as an update the machining should be finished on the relocaters this weekend and then they will go out for annodizing. So we are about two weeks out on having them ready to ship to you guys. i also want to add that if you want me to TIG weld your shackle then it will be an even 200 bucks for the relocator and welding. For those of you that want to have the shackles welded then you can go ahead thd send me the shifter link so I can be ready to go when the relocators are ready if you want.

I felt the same way you did to a certain extent. I did a lot of work to my l28 and I constantly had issues that I just started to get fed up with. The last straw was when my turbo went out after a fresh rebuild. I made a plan to change the motor for a stock NA vq35 and enjoy it while finishing up the little details on my car. I am very happy with what I have done...but looking back I still miss my L28 and the power, I probably would not have done my swap again, smarter thing I think for me would have been to just detune the l28 a bit, focus on drivability and enjoy it at around 300-350 hp and be done with it.

Ur Nutz. Your car is reallly clean and you have a nice l28et setup. I think you would be bored (haha , I kill myself) of the stroker in about a week. What makes you want to make the switch, are you wanting to track the car? Also do you already have another car lined up or why trade whole cars....your motor is worth more then a stroker, why not sell you motor and buy one if thats really what you want. I got around 5500 for my l28 setup, which got me a really nice start on my vq swap.

Oh also if your looking for something more of a sports car the C5 vette is a great GT car....tons of room in the back compared to most coupes and super comfy....they can light up the tires when you want to as well.

Scratch the 350z, g35, and 370z they are totally impractical as they have no luggage space. It is the worst thing about the cars, 370z has much better space but 350z is terrible. I think the e46 m3 is a great choice, lots of space (rear seat folds down), fast, handles good.. heck of a lot of car for the money.....however don't be surprised at the maintenance bills and how much OEM parts cost, you obviously can do your own work so I wouldn't be too worried about that. I had a e46 330ci and loved it...just got boring having only that car to drive at school, did get 30mpg on the hwy though. I would prolly listen to the SUV guys though, I love X5's and they are in your price range, the v8 sport package ones are pretty sick looking as well. I think you need at least a truck or suv if you ever need to two the z or make parts runs to the junkyard etc etc etc. I alway have to borrow my parents SUV or the company truck whenever I get anything of any size or something thats dirty.

To be honest I havent pushed the car that hard yet, I've only driven her about 150 miles and she has been sitting in my garage since Im at school right now. Im using the factory rack and the steering does feel a good bit lighter but its been over a year since I drove the car with the L28, so that may not saying much. Ive got a few more things on my list to finish up and then Im going to hopefully start driving it alot more but it could be a few month depending on school stuff

Sorry I havent checked this thread in a while...to answer the rattling question: As long as you have everything adjusted right it should not rattle at all, mine doesnt. I am using new factory bumpers on the cowl and I adjusted the pins so they hold it tight against them.

Toyota Spectra Blue Love the color but still has a little purple in it.

I think anything less then 20K is a steal. Think about it you KNOW the transmission can be sold immediately for 10-15K then all the interior and random parts on the car...like the brakes. All these items are ridiculously overpriced from the factory. I think for 15-20 you are basically getting the engine for free!

Somebody should buy this. I dont think swapping it into anything would be any more complicated then a vq35 swap....i mean if you get the car you have all the wiring so in a worst case senario you chould just chop the chassis wiring out....and have one of the baddest s30's on the planet! Add to that nissan has great electrical schmatics and trouble shooting in there service manuals.

I didnt have any luck with 3m 77 glue, it remained sticky and almost kinda melted the back of the vinyl, after a year everything in the back of my car had wrinkled and peeled up....when i pulled it all out a couple weeks ago everything is just a sticky mess and i think im going to have to replace all of it. I think contact cement is much stronger and more permanent...especially if you are wanted to do pleating and stuff.

Isnt the transmission worth about 15K?

Looks really nice! Having a rotisserie is the trick, I wish I would have built one when I did my car.

What ITB's are those? Looks like a cool project!

You guys should take some Philosophy classes, they will tell you science is all bogus anyway, and yall are all just believing an intricate mess of laws and theories that are all fallible. Stop wasting your time! Yea Im reading for my BS class in the morning to fullfill my humanities requirement for engineering and make me a more rounded person!