zero Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 (edited) Hey guys, I just wanted to drop in here and say that there will soon be a new VQ swap here on HBZ. I was going to build a mild L28 and triples, but I recently found a deal I couldn't pass up on a VQ pullout and will be assembling the car over the next few months. A guy building a drift 350z sold me his 80k mile VQ, harness, pedal, ECU, radiator and fans, trans, driveshaft, NATS and key, and a pair of leather seats for $1700 delivered to my door! I'll likely be building my own mounts using the cad files another member here posted. I'll probably leave the harness building to Zfever or McKinney, The only real variable at this point is whether I try to find a fuel injection tank for my 240 or build a surge tank, but I feel like I've got a great head start on this project. Luckily I've already laid all the groundwork for the swap with frame rails and subframe connectors, coilovers, and AZC Wilwoods all around. In any case, VQ here I come! I'd also like to thank you all in advance for answering the numerous questions I'll inevitably have. In fact, here's the first one: I assume the 350z has secondary O2 sensors after the cats, is anyone still running these sensors? I imagine the car will throw a code without them, does it pull timing or anything if it doesn't detect them? Is anyone running a Check engine light? Thanks Edited January 21, 2013 by zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astroboy Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 nice one. I hope to be undertaking this process too soon. Sorry, can you tell me where those CAD files are too please? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 Awesome, Cool Deal, another VQ swap... I can answer a lot of the questions you might come up with. But I'd still recommend you get the FSM for the year 350Z your engine is from and familiarize yourself with the Aspects of the engine and what each plug on the harness does. You may still need the Dash (Body harness #1) for the same year car. Since you have the Key and ECU you can use NATS and won't have to worry about harness service. it's really not that hard. As for the secondary O2 sensors. We had a discussion about them, Apparently they're not needed for the car to run. I've heard it will evenually throw a code, but that's not really a big deal. You'll have lots of codes initally. I thought it would kick into Limp mode, but apparently that's not the case according to the Nissan techs. I haven't finished my VQ build so I dcan't tell you first person. Fuel pump, I'm planning on just running a Walbrough 255L in place of the stock pump with a reserviour by the engine, regulator and return line to the stock pump. I expect this should be fine. Read through my VQ35HR thread. you'll see a lot of my experience. I believe the cad files are in the end of the RedZed Build thread in this same forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 The guy I bought the engine from is still using the car so I don't think I can get the dash harness from the donor. I suppose i could find a harness from a different '03, but it does seem like alot of wiring to hide in a Z. I really only got the NATS because I could but I'll have to think about whether I want to try to swap it in without a harness service. I was looking into various test pipes and many of them come with an extension with an 02 bung that is out of the exhaust stream to keep the car from throwing codes, but the vast majority of guys doing these swaps don't bother so I imagine it can't be that big of a deal. The more I think about it, unless I stumble on a cheap 75-76 tank, I'll probably just put together a compact surge tank setup. I've got a mech pump car so I suppose I'll have to run a lift pump. Did you leave the fuel rail as dead end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astroboy Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Hey Zero, I'll be following your thread closely so i'll be great to see how you proceed. In regards to the CAD mounts, are thier measurements on there? I've sent them to a fabricator and he says he just needs the dimensions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 Ok, the guy is sending me the dash harness so hopefully I can get this running without the harness service, I can risk $75 to save $1100... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 IF you can get the key from the guy, it'll save you a LOT of work later, getting the NATS to function. the ECU and KEY are matched together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 Yeah, I've got the Key, nats ring, and pedal as well as the engine harness and ECU now. He's sending me the dash harness and whatever else he can reasonably strip from the car I hope that means the BCU as well because I apparently need that as well, but I'm getting this for free plus shipping cost so I'm trying not to be too demanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 350z gas tank and pump are on the way, I hope to cut out the mounting flange for the pump and weld it into a baffled 76 tank I'm picking up. The rest of the wiring and bcm from the same car as my engine are on the way as well. Finally, I also have mounts now. Getting there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Got the 350z tank and pump. The pump assembly has a spring loaded base that acts like a little surge tank. I haven't looked at it too closely, but it seems to be locally fed as well as fed by a line hat runs to the other side of the tank. The spring action gives an inch or two of play with the mounting height, and running that other line to a baffle box should avoid any starvation issues, the fuel pump itself draws from the surge box. The tank is thankfully metal so welding in the flange should be straightforward. Looking good so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 nice, I hope that the height won't be a problem. I was thinking a mounting ring from the plumbing aisle at lowes might work to reenforce the tank where the pump will mount. I think the diameter is about 5"... Yeah you'll need a BCU, but from what I understand any BCU from the same year will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Just a little update here I have the pump and tank in the same place now. As it stands it looks like the tank is about 11" deep at the top. The pump can range from 8" to 9" with the spring loaded base, so it looks like I'll be sinking the mounting ring for the pump a couple inches into the tank. This works out for the best anyway because it'll allow me to make a nice channel for the wire and fuel line to exit the area. I'm going to be using a 240z tank because the guy I was going to buy a 280 tank from stood me up, wasting a half day of my time and a bunch of gas and toll money. I'll probably make a couple of baffled boxes for the pump and secondary draw tube to sit in. I also found an extra crossmember so I can start chopping that up before I tear my car apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted February 21, 2013 Author Share Posted February 21, 2013 I finally got the dash harness and BCM. This is gonna be alot of wiring to hide in the Z dash! I'm gonna have to look into what I can trim out of the harness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pharaohabq Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 Wow, that guy is hooking you up with parts. That's really lucky. Yeah there will be a bit that you can trim out of the Dash harness. that's going to be a pain, but The Dash harness also runs the fuses and a lot of other devices. The lines to the fuel pump run from Body#1 through Body#2 back to the pump, but you can just splice that run from the plug. It's good to know about the tank height and the pump height. I really like the idea of dropping the pump inside a couple to allow channelling on the top of the tank. It's going to be a bit of modification to do that though. I am keeping my Fuel system on a deadhead, but I'm swapping the fuel rails 180 deg so the inlet will be at the rear. Your mounts came out looking pretty sweet. Did you have them plasma or laser cut? What'd that run you if you don't mind my asking. The Crossmember mods: There's a lot that has to be cut out of it. Austin's and Myron's builds show it pretty well. The HR I'm doing has a different cut out required since the bottom pan is different, not to mention the oil filter is much more forward. That's one good thing about the DE engine. though that Plenum at the top is a pain. Have you given any thought to the Exhaust? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted March 1, 2013 Author Share Posted March 1, 2013 (edited) Yeah, I got lucky with the parts. That said, I'm still considering doing the harness service. I figure I'm gonna want to get a flash tune at some point for the mods (no cats, plenum spacer, intake, exhaust) and to allow WOT at all times which the car doesn't do as stock apparently. Those tunes run in the $350-500 range, but I could put that towards the harness service /NATS removal, and save time and effort and only have to hook up 4 wires. It's tempting but I haven't decided for sure yet. Yeah the tank will be pretty involved. If my car was fuel injected to begin with and i had a pump, regulator and fuel injection tank already I would just stick with that. Lacking all that this should work though. The mounts are mckinney. I ended up coming across a great deal on a used set here on HBZ with the shorter shifter mount. The pricing i got for the mounts came to about 200-300 anyway, which didn't make too much financial sense. I priced it with a water jet and laser cutting. Yeah I have a good idea what needs to go from austin's build. I actually lucked out with the exhaust. EvilC is doing a new exhaust for his V8 car now that he will have long tube headers. I was helping him pull his engine and realized that I could pretty easily adapt his old exhaust and cutout into my car. I'm going to buy his full 3" dual to single exhaust (with electric cutout) and hang it in my car once the engine is mounted, then the plan is to get some tubing bends and some V-bands and adapt it for VQ manifolds. Hopefully that shouldn't be too painful. The exhaust already has a resonator and I can't imagine the vq trans is substantially larger/lower than the T56, but I've got my fingers crossed. Edited March 1, 2013 by zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted March 4, 2013 Author Share Posted March 4, 2013 Another little update here. Friday night I brought the engine and trans to EvilC's shop. I had an hour to kill so I stripped the wiring harness, power steering pump and AC pump off of the engine. That's a nice 30 pounds off of the engine! I brought the mounts there as well. Car should be moving in the next week or so. I also cut the mounting flanges out of the 350z tank. I'll be bringing them to my shop and cutting my my 240z tank up this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 (edited) Just some progress on my crossmember and tank. Link to my blog http://southbronxspeedshop.blogspot.com/ Edited March 7, 2013 by zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 Welded up the crossmember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astroboy Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Hey Zero, I've sent you a PM. Thanks in advance. Astroboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 Bought a cheap smoke machine to check for pinhole leaks in my tank. Found a few and sealed them up. Will go over the area with a sealant as a final measure but otherwise I should be good to go. I also sent out my wire harness to get cut down and reflashed. Finally have every piece for my r200/OBX/CV conversion except for the mustache bar. Getting there! I'm pulling the stock engine and trans this week to go to its new home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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