350sx NW Build up

[KansaiDrifter]

Hola fellow Zilvian's, I've been building up another drift car for the NW scene and just thought I'd share some of the pics. I've already got some great deals and would like to start off with a few shout outs

Avery@DTMAutoBody
[email protected]
Fatboy Garage
Travis@88ROTORS
Dan@PoweredbyMAX (USA)
Schassis707
Zfever

Thanks!

Anyhow, here's a quick catch up *beware, lots of pics haha

The term "350sx" is what I've decided to go with, being that a 240sx has a 2.4l, the 180sx (originally started with a 1.8), and I'm going with a 3.5, so it's a 350sx. The engine of choice is the 350z's VQ35DE. I've ran with a LS1 for the past about 3 years drifting at Evergreen Speedway (the 5/8th's banked oval track that Formula D stops at). I was the first in the NW to do the LS1 and some thought it was cool, some thought it was stupid but it was all original. Well years have gone by times have changed and that's played out for me. I've enjoyed the torque of the v8, but wanted the revs of the sr, so the v6 vq is a nice match.

The project started out after sitting out this last year and wanting to get back in it. I started with an engine, found this vq complete with trans, harness, ecu, for a great deal so I hopped on it.
Here's a couple quick pics after I played with it lol


Pretty clean inside, supposed to be ~30k miles


Then I started to assemble a subframe,

Took these, Thanks to Powered by Max!


Did some of this,


and a little of this, (no fire!) Just cut center out, cut outer shell, chiseled out easy as pie



Comparison


Just set in there, perfect fit


Then after some cleaning and paint action got to here,



For my budget this was the best bang/buck, worst case is replacing some bearings so that's in the future plans for sure.


The next and probably most important part would be the Coilovers, got hooked up with DTM AutoBody's special price and got a set of the new Megan Type RS coils for a great price, these are bound and rebound adjustable. The rears will go absolutely slammed and the fronts are pretty good, could go further but go plenty for me. Here's some pics of everything combined




Installation was a snap, the upper plates fit perfect and the knuckles slide right in without having to beat on it like some others lol. I found that the best route for the rear lines was around the knuckle to avoid kinking the line. I also put those rings in the rear to keep it away from the ruca's. Also notice that the PBM subframe risers actually correct a lot of the arms and bar angles. I recommend these to everyone.
(yeah I like yellow haha)





Here's some of the fronts after being lowered the 1" in front, installed along with the S14 5 lug and r33 gtst brakes





Here's a shot of the chassis and where the rear suspension is somewhat set, but before I did lower the front another 1" from where it's showed. I'll be sure to follow with better pics of the chassis soon, been to focused on other things lol.

Lowered front (off ground still)



It needs cleaning lol



Much more to come and Enjoy!

[97240TB]

Megan racing has come a long way, those look like quality piece's.

[240sx123$]

Originally Posted by 97240TB

Megan racing has come a long way, those look like quality piece's.

Dont be fooled. Megan is good for one thing- holding you over until you can afford the real part that you need. Anything Megan makes, in my eyes, is good for 6 months MAX. Everything Ive used from them has failed in an unreasonably short amount of time. And ive used their coilovers, short shifter, tension rods, and their type II exhaust. None of it is quality. None of it.

[KansaiDrifter]

Huh, on the other hand I've ran sets of Megan stuff and never had an issue. My friends all ran Megan stuff for years and never had issues. The newer Megan stuff is quite a bit different then the older though, particularly the ball joint ends I could see that having an effect. Also the fact your in PA and salty roads probably causes premature failure of some parts I'd guess.

But yeah the same friends who ran Megan streets for years have held the type RS's and said how much better these are then the last, of course we'll see when it's on the road haha.

More pics to come later today, just waiting to see some more parts It's like christmas lol

[240sx123$]

Ill admit that the exhaust rusted out, we can blame that on my location. Still, one year is pretty quick considering it was painted. Id expect to get at LEAST two seasons out of a mild steel exhaust.

The tension rods- theyre all aluminum and dont rust. What happened was the threads on the inside of the rod body sheared off, allowing the ball joint to slam in and out of the body. Complete part failure, and after only 3 months.

Short shifter rattled at all RPM's, straight outta the box. Even replaced the bushing, still rattled. Switched to a Circuit Sports, no issues.

Megan springs- I snapped one. Yes, I snapped an f'ing spring. Dont ask me how.

Everything was bought new. Ive learned my lesson. Id rather spend $150 on a USED tein part than $100 on a NEW megan one.

But anyways, back on topic... car looks like its gonna be sick!

[TJG]

so your who picked up victors old chassis

[97240TB]

Well I actually own megan tension rods, had them for several years and I bought them as a "Hold me over" part. I kept them because they worked well. so maybe you just had bad luck?

Anyway, Are you planning on painting this car?

Any idea for wheels?

[conrad_s13.5]

gonna be dope man!

[JDM Sil4ty]

whoa, this is really gona set the bar.

[l2edken]

doing great so far man, def keeping my eye on this one!

[KansaiDrifter]

Huh yeah that kinda sounds like a bad batch or something with the Megans.

Thanks for all the compliments!

Yeah the car was somewhat recently painted Gloss black top and Scion Xb green, so I'm going to leave it until it's drift damaged haha. It's really dirty in the pics, it cleans up a lot.

Here's the second part of my story so far, I've actually been working on this for a while and this is actually the second chassis. The first was a white hatch but needed a ton of work. I found this chassis and I've known the chassis for a while, it's been to Pro-Am red bull nationals and has a nice P1 cage with double door bars that sit nice and low for easy in and out. Basically for a little bit more then the white hatch I gained a cage and a OS Giken 2 way with 4.3 gear set.

So here's the engine side of things,


I picked up a Mishimoto X line radiator 3 row for it, fits like a glove. It's noticeably thicker then the 2 row also. Got it from Swapped HQ Edgar, got a great price on it!




Here's the shifter bracket, there's a guy online that makes these for older z swaps and they work with the 240sx


Here's the shifter linkage after cut and welding, pretty easy to work with



and here's the two combined. It took some trimming of the shifter hole to get it back far enough and the header will need to be dented a little bit but it'll be fine. There's a real sweet spot where the oil pan will clear the crossmember and the sway bar. I actually found that using a s14 auto trans rubber mount and metal cross mount ended up bolting the center hole into the rear hole of the chassis and it lined up perfect. I also tried to find the happy medium for the up and down, up far enough to clear the sway, but down enough to clear the hood with minimal trimming.




The brake lines need to be popped back in the white brackets and they'll clear just fine


Here's the trans mount,



and how it pops up through the hole, a little trimming needed




Here's the beginning of the mounts, I use a NHL legal hockey puck, some 1/4" steel plates and cardboard to template with. Simple and effective


Here's a quick pic with a ebay cold air intake kit, it'll work fine lol



And got some presents today, these I got from 88rotors Travis, they are the 17x9 +17 Drag dr-31's. Great price and I'll space them out for proper fitment. With my power range I didn't want to get over 9" wide and 17" tires are cheaper then 18's lol. I still on a budget haha.

They come packed nice, and I'm thinking of getting the tire shop to leave the white plastic rings on until after tires are mounted, looks like they'd save the lips



I didn't know this but Drag wheels are actually out of Kyushu Japan. They're actually light too.

I was thinking of painting them silver, but I think I'm just going to run them bronze and see how it goes. The green and bronze seem to go together nice.


They line up ok with the 20mm front and 30mm rear Origin overfenders, but i'll space them out soon. I did have a set of bolt on spacers but the wheels have a flat hub bolting surface so the studs hit the wheel and it wouldn't seat all the way down. I'll just get some nismo studs and space it that way.


And I was curious so i put on one of the stickers, the blue looks nice to me


Oh and before I go, here's my roll call


Hope that makes sense and I'll be updating when I get things done. I'm hoping to have it wrapped up in under two weeks. :P

[C-unit]

You think you can get more shifter bracket or can you pass me his info? I am looking for something quality like yours!

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by C-unit

You think you can get more shifter bracket or can you pass me his info? I am looking for something quality like yours!

McKinney Motorsports bro.

[KansaiDrifter]

I actually got mine here, saved a little coin He's the original person that mckinney goes through,

shiftermount - www

Last I remember he has a few made up.

[C-unit]

Thanks man..that is some quality piece!

[tricky_ab]

Interesting build you've got so far...

[JaysVQ240]

Looks good Ricky, man you're changing cars more than I change my shoes..LOL Did you end up off loading the LS1 S14? Looks good though bro gonna be a sick coupe

[jzepol1985]

Cant wait to see how you make the headers work.

[KansaiDrifter]

haha yeah I've been through a few chassis. I sold the S14 because I didn't want to beat it up with drifting, I actually made it too nice for me and this one I'm building to basically beat on lol.

Yeah I'm happy with the shifter plate, I just figured out the blue plate goes the other way thought lol. I've not played with z shifters before haha.

The headers actually just need a little dent action and they'll clear. The z headers are sort of a 2 piece, there's the inner header, heat wrap/insulation, and then the outer shell that you actually see. I'm planning on denting the outer layer in and if need be I'll cut it a little. On first trial though it only needs a touch. I'll be sure to take some pics though when I get there haha.

Well today saw just a little action, I had some 225/45R17 tires mounted up, went 45 series to help with the final drive ratio and ride height. Also got some metal cut and got a good idea on the mount mock up.

Here's a couple pics of the mount mock up




Here's the wheels, interesting note on these, the left sides didn't need any balancing weights, they were checked 3 times and were good to go. The right sides only needed small tape weights.




Here's the wheels mounted up and the car with it's weight on it, it's on 2x4's so I can see underneath it to check clearances.


yeah it's a maaco paint job lol.

[sil80 monster]

lookin good

[97240TB]

Don't know how I feel about the green with the wheels...

That being said this is all pretty interesting, that bracket for the shifter is pretty nice...
also really interesting about the trans cross member from the S-14 auto tranny. All the piece's we did for the vq in my car are one offs. I'm not precisely sure and I'm assuming they are slightly different because of the starter position but my headers cleared all piece's just fine on my car. You could look into HR headers if thats possible?

[sftmb]

OMIGOTOU^_^ car looks awesome man! lol for somereason your color is green. it just works for you. lol i really like the lip sticker too. lol also, that engine mount looks pretty nice. i'll have to check it out when i come by 2moro. lol

ps- i feel like i've seen this car before... hmmm.. if only it had white wheels then...... haha. koguchi powa

[thefro526]

I like the use of Hockey pucks as Isolators. I've seen then used on hot rods and stuff before, but not that often on 240s.

Build is awesome as well.

[KansaiDrifter]

Yeah I saw another build with a vq that someone else used a factory trans mount, I might notch it to go back a little further, but it wouldn't maybe be 1/4" haha.

I'm actually having the Wiring and ecu reflashed by Zfever out of Florida. I talked with Doug yesterday and hopefully about week the harness will be done. There's 18 harness/reflashes lined up! They're one of the only companies out right now that offer a service like that and it uses the electric pedal and the obd plug is functional.

When I was talking with the Zfever guys they said that the HR engine does sit in a different spot due to the starter being on the driver's side and the headers were different, so maybe that's got something to do with it.

Haha I didn't even realize it is kinda like Koguchi haha. Yeah I'll see ya tomorrow lol

Yeah I've used pucks a few times, they're a good happy/medium stiff rubber. Especially when you'r worried about torque over and rubbing issues. Hopefully I'll get a little further with it today but possibly taking a break today lol.

[omgRWDgoodness!]

I dunno why but hockey pucks as mounts seems kinda sketchy to me. I recall people saying "hockey puck motor mounts" when satirizing people who do swaps on the cheapest budget possible, or are just being lazy. Not trying to knock on you everything's looking really nice, but if I were doing a build of this caliber I'd have some custom solid mounts fabbed up in the near future.

[97240TB]

Yeah I figured, but it's always worth it to check in on something like that!
Would have been nice for you to have gotten the HR headers, they are seriously nice.

RS Enthalpy also does the reflash work and they have a good turn around.

I haven't looked into how much it costs for Zfever to do it but I know the Enthalpy one is 599.99. Just another option. =]

[KansaiDrifter]

I hear ya that it sounds cheap, I've used pucks on multiple things and never had an issue. While I am building with budget in mind, I could use the $400 I just saved on other things, like wheel spacers and extended studs haha. If you don't think of them as pucks but rather "firm solid rubber isolators" then it makes more sense to most and doesn't sound cheap. It's around the same elasticity as some urethanes. It is somewhat unheard of in the import field but like thefro526 was saying they're very common among domestics.

It is possible I could upgrade in the future but we'll see.

thanks for the comments! I'm excited to get her all done and back on the track

[KansaiDrifter]

Oh nice I didn't hear about RS Enthalpy, the Z fever is $500 and wiring is $450. I've done well I don't remember how many sr's lol, a few rb's even the LS1 and 2, but what I've learned through that is by trial and error, so I'd like to get it done professionally since I was able to work it in the budget.

I'll be sure to give my thoughts on it when it comes in too, so far the Zfever guys have been great and very helpful. They've been up for any questions, even newb ones haha.

[CaptainVlad]

What kind of paint did you use for that subframe? Have you had a chance to see how it will hold up yet?

[dts13]

Lookin good Ricky! You sure like them hockey pucks huh lol. Im loving the car still. Thanks again!