SATAN Z31 Turbo LSx

[SATAN]

So, Ive been a member here for a while, but now I officially belong here. I am in the middle of swapping out my VG30 in my 1985 300zx with a 1999 LQ4 6.0 liter. I managed to get a 10.3 @ 134mph out of my V6 on low boost, but I cannot keep the engine from spinning rod bearings. I was about to give it a go one more time when I thought about Eric (sq_creations)running his mid 9's and I looked over at my LQ4 sitting on the engine and said "Why the hell not". I sold all of my vg30 stuff to pay for my swap.

 

Goals are to have 800whp normally and then 1000whp on kill mode. I expect the engine to hold about 7-800whp on stock internals, then it will have to get built. But I'll beat on it a little before I pull it out and build it. Oh, fuel will be E85.

 

This is how the engine looked when I decided to pull it and move forward with the LSx swap. It was almost ready to fire up.

 

Then I yanked it out and started going to town.

 

Engine will be a stock 6 liter LQ4 with a turbo Comp cam 224/228 .590" 114LSA, Patriot dual springs and Ti retainers. Melling hi volume oil pump, ProComp intake manfifold 1600cc injectors controlled by a racetronix harness for my AEM peak and hold driver. HP Tuners runs everything.

 

Fuel system is a Magnafuel 4303 pump pushing through -10 aluminum hardline. Feeding bosch 1600cc injetors. Magnafuel fuel pressure regulator.

 

Transmission is a Transmission Specialties PL2500 powerglide rated to about 970whp. I have a converter built for a turbo car. Rated to 1000whp with a 4k stall.

 

I do all of my own TIG welding. Make my own exhaust and mounts and anything that needs to be done.

 

I decided to tackle my own paint job as well about a year ago.

 

Car has a full 10pt roll cage, widow net, 5pt harness. Still need to mount a chute and do some other minor things to run 9's.

 

I'll update a little here and there, Add in some info that I forgot to put in, but figured this would be a good first post for my build.

[ModernS30]

I love the VG setup but everything you do is just pure bad ass. Maybe you have seen the article of a stock short block 4.8 making 1200 crank HP?

http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/forced-induction-159/ls-power-twin-76mm-turbo-4-8l-1200hp-still-going-485734/

[SATAN]

I love the VG setup but everything you do is just pure bad ass. Maybe you have seen the article of a stock short block 4.8 making 1200 crank HP?

http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/forced-induction-159/ls-power-twin-76mm-turbo-4-8l-1200hp-still-going-485734/

 

Hey thanks man!

 

Yeah, I've seen that. I'm not as impressed by that as I am by username Skinnies grabbing a 8.64 @ 167mph on a stock bottom end aluminum 5.3 though. He also makes 1150ft/lbs torque to the wheels by 3,600rpm's. He didn't even bother touching the ring gap like those guys did either. There's one thing that doesn't make sense about that article though. They had to pull apart the engine to open up the ring gap. Yet after all the dyno pulls, they pull it apart for the second time, and only THEN do they notice it wasn't what they thought it was. But either way, it did what it did and is very impressive still.

 

I don't know if it is all in the tune, or if there is a difference in the pistons on the smaller bore engines than the bigger bore. But it seems that the smaller bore are making the records. Lots of people are blowing up the bigger bore engines. Seems most are only getting into the 7-800whp range on the stock block 6.0's. Again, could just be poor tuning blowing them up too. Who knows?

 

Oh, I forgot to post up pics of the tranny. It's just a powerglide though. Shifting will be done with a Hurst shifter.

 

 

Intercooler is an Ebay 12x24x4 core. I cut off the in/outs on the end tanks because they only had an I.D. of 2 5/8". I welded on some 3.5" Vband flanges and now run 3.5" I.C. pipes (3 3/8" I.D.) and they run to a 92mm throttle body.

Turbo is a Borg Warner S374. It is a 75mm inducer turbo. Supposed to flow over 100lbs/min. I plan on maxing it out and throwing some extra N2O in the mix if needed.

Edited January 8, 2012 by SATAN

[SATAN]

So this next post was two separate posts that I made on a different forum. I just combined them here.

 

 

 

So I got this Pro Comp intake manifold, which is essentially the same thing as the Typhoon intake that you read about here and there. My advice to anyone thinking of purchasing one of these intakes is to stay away from it. The bottom of it has a steel plate that is bolted on. It doesn't have enough bolt holding it on, therefore you will hear people complain about it leaking under boost. Also, it looks like it was put together using a couple different cast pieces. The cast sections do not like up very well and are in need of some smoothing.

 

I decided to go ahead and tackle both of these issues. I was going to simply weld on a 1/4" thick aluminum plate onto the bottom, but I have decided to just drill and tap 21 more holes to clamp it shut more. It only had 10 bolts holding the lid on. Now it will have 31. I'm also going to seal it with some silicone in between the gasket and manifold and gasket and plate. If it proves to be a problem after that, then I will just sell it and buy a FAST or maybe make my own.

 

I also went ahead and took care of a lot of the casting overlaps and extreme flashing that looked like obvious restrictions. I didn't take any pics of that though. I did take a picture of the flashing that was sticking out into one of the ports though.

 

Over all, just not a good intake manifold in my opinion. But, you get what you pay for. I think this one was something like $300 shipped.

 

Sorry for the crappy phone pics. I didn't feel like running inside to grab the camera.

 

 

Second post merged in here.

 

Ok, so I know I have already expressed my disapproval of this intake manifold, but today really pissed me off.

 

I was putting the intake manifold on and torquing it down. Gave it more torque that I should have, and still could not get it to seat all the way. Gasket by one of the back injectors was still loose between the head and the intake. Clearly the intake was hitting something.

 

I pull it off to find that I cannot run my water lines under the intake due to the intake hitting them. The water lines had dents in them from me trying to torque down the intake. Also, the gaskets did not have holes in them to accommodate the small head studs. So they were hitting there too. I had to remove material there so I would not bind as well.

 

Now I am going to have to cut up my water manifold (or whatever it's called) and run individual hoses off of each outlet to make it work like it is supposed too.

 

Over all, just a shitty situation for something that is supposed to be a bolt on part.

 

 

Here you can see where I removed gasket material on one side to make room for where the bolts are supposed to go. Still had to do the other side when I took this pic.

[letitsnow]

The steam/water lines don't fit with an LS1 intake either, I had to do a bunch of grinding and modifying to get them on my rx7.

 

The LS1 had block off plates on the rear holes and a bridge between the front two, I thing some trucks and corvettes got the piece that goes to all four. Mine was from a truck.

[s30red240z]

welcomeback to this forum, i am datsun1200_VG30ET from Z31Performance, is sad decision to quit vg30 engines i can't believed that, good look with small block engines.

 

At this moment i don't have VG30 cars too, and i was thinking about LSX too, but i have another thinks in my mind.

[sq_creations]

Awesome. I don't know if you posted the exterior of the car on ls1tech or I missed it. The car looks good black!!

[SATAN]

The steam/water lines don't fit with an LS1 intake either, I had to do a bunch of grinding and modifying to get them on my rx7.

 

The LS1 had block off plates on the rear holes and a bridge between the front two, I thing some trucks and corvettes got the piece that goes to all four. Mine was from a truck.

 

Ok yeah, mine is from a truck also then, as it goes to all four. I may end up just capping the rears and using the fronts.

 

 

Eric, the car took me realistically a solid 60 hours of body and prep work before I was ready to paint. For the longest time I could not understand how a paint job could cost upwards and over $10,000. NOW I KNOW WHY. Not saying that my car is a 10,000 dollar paint job, but I do completely understand the amount of work it takes to get a show car quality paint job now.

 

 

Oh also, I have a buddy that happens to work at a chevy dealership. He managed to order me the correct flex plate. First I ended up getting one for a 4L60E, Then I got one for a 4L80E, but it was for an older externally balanced engine. Finally I got the one for my engine. Simple, I just had to get it off of the same vehicle that my engine came out of... 99 silverado with a 6.0.

 

Mine has the longer crank on the back. There is a lot of confusing info on which flexplate you need if you have an older TH400 or a powerglide, if you are using the longer crank like on the earlier 6.0's. Just use one for a 99 silverado with a 6.0. Then you have to open up the holes where the torque converter line up ever so slightly so you can get your bolts through. Got mine put on tonight before my kids started bugging me to come play with them.

Edited January 10, 2012 by SATAN

[260DET]

Wise move going away from the VG30 single cam if real power is required without Nismo bits, if my Z was being done again a LSx engine would be near the top of the list. Maybe put a link on this project to the Z31 section?

[SATAN]

Maybe put a link on this project to the Z31 section?

 

Hmm, I don't want to go polluting the forum with the same thing, just in a different section though.

[SATAN]

So I got to a point where I couldn't do a whole lot more. So I pulled the engine back out to start replacing the cam, oil pump, timing chain and stuff like that. Also, the main reason, is to hack up the oil pan so it clears the ground.

 

Here it is. I took about 3" out of it. I also welded on an extra area to get back some of the capacity I hacked out of it. The nice new aluminum always welds really good. But even after having the old pan washed and then wire wheel/ brushing it, it still welds like crap. So I decided I will just take it to work and hit all the cast sections with the MIG welder instead of wasting my gas and filler rod. I hate aluminum MIG welding, but it is fast and this is under the car, so nobody will ever see it anyways.

 

I was able to incorporate the original oil drain too!

 

 

I also have some equal length headers I made laying around for a z31 that I am trying to sell. After that is said and done, I can afford to buy some lifters and push rods and double timing chain as well.

[SATAN]

People like video's, so I figured I would post one of me just doing a run down of the build. So... here it is.

 

 

[OmakZ]

Your car is still amazing. Have I been missing anything in Z31 land since I took a break for College?

[SATAN]

Your car is still amazing. Have I been missing anything in Z31 land since I took a break for College?

 

 

People are still ****** bags and... no... not really. Haven't missed anything at all. Z31T made over 700whp on his VG30E, but then spun a bearing just like everyone else does. Dunno if you knew about that though.

[BLOZ UP]

Your intake piping is larger than my exhaust.

[OmakZ]

People are still ****** bags and... no... not really. Haven't missed anything at all. Z31T made over 700whp on his VG30E, but then spun a bearing just like everyone else does. Dunno if you knew about that though.

 

Haha, figures. I had no idea about Z31T. I hope he got a video of it or something.

 

What are you putting down now?

[SATAN]

Haha, figures. I had no idea about Z31T. I hope he got a video of it or something.

 

What are you putting down now?

 

Well, I don't know if you watched the video, but currently I'm putting down 0whp. Still finishing up the build.

[SATAN]

Your intake piping is larger than my exhaust.

 

Good thing this wasn't posted at z31p. I would have a bunch of people telling me that the piping is so large that it is going to lag for days.

[SATAN]

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, they are phone pics. It is because it is very easy to snap pics with the phone and upload it real quick. That and it is just to give everyone and idea of what is going on. Not meant for a photo shoot.

 

Catch can I made using bronze wool as packing with a K&N filter on top. Uses -10 coming off of the valve covers.

 

OEM cover with the oil baffle in place in OEM location. You can see on the right side where I put the -10 fitting.

 

Then all I had to do was move the baffle over to the right side to put it over the -10 port. Direct fit.

 

Series of flaring the fuel line, for those who wonder how it is done. This is a single flare. I have the option to do double flare, but single works just fine.

 

My oil cooler location. It uses -6 line. In the future I would like to upgrade to -8. But we'll see if -6 is sufficient first.

 

Some random body work I am envious of...

 

My rats next of a fuse block for the ECU.

 

My crank shaft mail box post. Utilizing two VG30E cranks and one LS1 cam and one KA24E cam. I am in the process of making a sheet metal aluminum box with some big fat welds. Gonna put on some pneumatic arms for auto closing as well... Just took this with my smart phone. uploaded it to photobucket. By the time I got back inside, it was already on photobucket and ready to post up. I love technology!

 

EDIT:

 

This is how it sits now for the most part. May have to clean up some of the wiring over the plenum. Not too proud of that, but there is a reason it looks like that, which I'm not going to get into right now, but it is my fault...

 

Here is where I had to go from a single 4" split into a dual 3" so I could snake it past the steering column. I have gotten 4" past the steering column before, but I could not get 4" past the exhaust manifold with this setup. I was adding filler rod to the weld beads, but then decided that the gaps were perfect, so I decided to autogenous weld them together. Of course those are the pretty ones underneath the car that nobody will ever see /face palm.

[BLOZ UP]

Maybe they would have. Lots of people like to nit-pick on there if your setup isn't 110% full race spec. Sometimes I forget if it's the Z31 board or the GT3 board.

 

That dual 3" looks cool. Where's you wastegate dump going to go? Wait... where is your wastegate?