350sx NW Build up

[sleeper108]

did you just tack the square tubing in place while it was still on, then pull it off and finish?

welds looks pretty dang good for just starting tig welding.

[KansaiDrifter]

Oh yeah I probably should of taken more pics lol, I welded the sheet metal on then did the bar with it mounted on the car. I welded one side up with it on the car and finished it off the car. Some of the angles were tricky but I got it haha. Yeah I started to spray it today but then ran out of yellow lol. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to finish and mount it.

[KansaiDrifter]

So I got the suspension all buttoned up today, at least everything's bolted in place still needs proper alignment other then the old tape measure method lol. Here's some underside shots




Just have to figure out a driveline, get the wiring/ecu back from Zfever, hook up the fuel system and make an exhaust. After all that if I have the time I'd really like to take this down to a place called True Line alignment shop, they will actually corner balance and align the car the right way. It's amazing driving a car that was balanced properly.

[Zero-Offset]

I remember driving home from FD Seattle this year, and driving next to your red S14 with the Instant Gentleman kit. That was quite the car. Deffs looked like it could party!
This thing looks quite good for the budget that you're on now though!
Not sure if it was stated, but what differential are you running? The pumpkin just looks kind of lonely in that last picture there, without any yellow.

[KansaiDrifter]

Oh nice, yeah that was the last trip I took with the s14 haha. The diff that's in it is a r32 diff with a O.S. Giken 2 way and 4.364 gears. I'm going to see if I can hunt down something in the high 3.5 range though as I'm thinking it's going to be way too short for the v6. It's a great sr gear set though. Yeah that needs some lovin' too haha. Maybe when I pull it back out for gear changing or something.

[sftmb]

all that yellow on the underbody looks dyno-mite! lol

note: i like how we're on opposite times. haha i woke up at 3:30 and you probably slept at around 4:30 i'm guessing. cuz there's no way you'd getup that early just to post on zilvia lol

[KansaiDrifter]

haha yeah I went to bed around 3:30 lol, just getting back going again haha. Yeah the underbody is going banannas!

[97240TB]

Needz moar yellow.

[KansaiDrifter]

Just got word from Zfever that the harness is done and the ecu reflash is set for tomorrow, so hopefully I'll see it monday or tuesday of next week. It's coming out of Florida haha. I also ordered a slip yolk from Zfever, they actually had spicer make them a order of 100 of these since they're not a manufactured item yet. So if you're doing the swap hit up the Zfever guys if you have a hard time finding a slip yolk.

Yeah check them out on youtube and you'll see why I went with them, they've got a video on there of the vq sitting on the shop floor running, not in limp mode and if there's any issues, there's someone to call and ask for help haha.


haha yeah I'm thinking of doing the driveline yellow to tie front to back lol

[C-unit]

^ I am having a hard time finding a yoke and a ECU reflashes!! Thanks!

just wondering..did you go with the UpRev? how much did the harness and reflashes cost you?

[KansaiDrifter]

Oh yeah I believe it's uprev, Give Zfever a call, talk to Doug, tell him Ricky from WA told ya to call haha. They've also done the HR and Uprev motors too. All together it was 950 for the wiring and ecu reflash, and I think 140 for the yolk. It seems a bit steep but when no one else really does it and can't guarantee it then it makes sense. Normally even I would do the wiring but I'd much rather have them do it and they also incorporate the obd plug and the drive by wire pedal. I even sent in my pedal and they hook everything up and test it before it gets sent back.

^ Did you have a build thread on nwn? I'm excited to see your r32 come to life, looks awesome already!

[C-unit]

I sent them an email today but didn't get a reply yet. I guess I will give them a call tomorrow! I really appreciate your advice, I was looking for a reliable VQ shop local/north west area but most have no idea what I am talking about. They either trying to tell me to run a standalone and used throttle cable (LOL WUT) or tell me to just go RB (Oh thanks...that really helps)

Anyways, Yea, i did have the build thread on nwn..Car just sat there because waiting for parts really sucks..

[KansaiDrifter]

Oh yeah, they're good about getting calls but emails are slow since they're so busy from what they were saying. I was thinking of hitting up Drift Office but never got around to it haha. Yeah going standalone would be great if going turbo down the line, but it's twice the price, and it still needs to be wired up lol. I know the Haltech actually can use the drive by wire though. Even if I go turbo eventually I'll just do a piggy back. I do however trust Bob at Drift Office for tuning though.

I liked your comment on the vq over the rb about how it makes more power then a rb stock vs stock and it's still NA, good stuff. When you get it going again I'll be sure to watch that thread too haha.

Here's some progress for today, just played with the hood a bit.

Since I did custom mounts it sits a little higher then what the McKinney ones do, but that also cleared my sway bar and header/steering easier then others and I don't mind spacing and cutting the center section out of the backside.

Here's the hood with the spacers I cut, they're just 1" pieces of thick walled aluminum tube



And from the side,


Here's the section that's cut out


sprayed a little black on it


Here's one of the intake set on as a short ram, I think I'll rock it that way, I don't want to suck up water from rain this being WA and all lol.



I think I'll get to exhaust work next, just need to dig up some pipe haha.

[Zero-Offset]

Wow, that looks really good in there. The bay looks so sparse compared to having an SR in there!!
And are you the one who owns/runs Kami Dori?

[97240TB]

Paint your roll cage yellow hahaha.... This car is a John Deer Tracker.



Yeah that's one thing I love about having the VQ is the space and the cleanliness of everything. I felt like I gained so much room after this swap in my engine bay. Zfever will take a few days to respond via email. Just call and talk to Doug, he's a good dood. Tell him exactly what you want and his quote and work will be pretty damn good.


You could also try RS Enthalpy, They do the reflash work and it's phenomenal. They also have excellent turn around on the ECU. Think it's like 3 days? Don't think they do the harness work though.

[sonic3856]

this build effin awesome. i see the thing in person every so often, can't wait til it's on the road. it'll make make foos flatline lol

[KansaiDrifter]

Haha yeah I did run Kami Dori, I kinda got out of it because of all the b.s. and politics, that really ruins the fun of having and building cars, which is the only reason it was started. I'd rather do my own thing and some of my friends stuff that still has that fun feel to it.

Yeah it's funny because it's sooooo much easier to work on the vq in a 240 then in a z lol.

Haha yeah I'm hoping to get it done by not this but the next friday hopefully. Haha it'll be so epic it'll make them flatline haha

[GripTerror]

will have to have vids yo

[irax]

fucking sweet build!
though kinda sucks you got the wrong radiator. There is a griffen radiator that you could of ordered off of summit racing for like ~200 and it would of fit almost perfect and had the spouts at the right spots.

[97240TB]

I was thinking the exact same thing about the radiator.

I have the same one, I don't mind it much though.

Not sure how badly you want your hood to fit but If you would prefer your hood fit more flush or look closer to flush, you can put spacers in the quarter panel where you bolt it on. I did this and it really helped alot especially since I had to use a inch riser on my hood.

[KansaiDrifter]

Yeah I got a really great deal on this one so I couldn't pass it up. I can always tig up the current outlets and move them if needed, or run hoses opposite. I've been trying to find out if it would have any ill effects if running it the opposite anyway. I haven't gotten a straight answer yet though lol.

I know that like chevrolet has it the other way, where the outlet from the thermostat goes to the upper driver's side and the inlet is the lower passenger. I could see running a reservoir tank that's higher, since I could see that the highest point of water is the throttle body warmer so I'm seeing lots of possible air being trapped. But it would still cool the water, I don't see any issue with the water pump being able to push the water through the radiator, if you put a hose in the upper inlet it flows easy out the other side, see what I mean? It doesn't show any bad signs. The only thing I can think of is maybe the radiator won't cool the full amount of water, that the water could have too easy of a way in and out.

Yeah I'm still thinking over that one lol

[herbieS13]

very nice build

[90white240]

This is a sick build, great job dude.

[bb4_96]

You would be fine moving the inlet/outlets on the radiator. That is the definative answer. The cooling fins are non-directional. Although i feel like you would see advantages keeping inlet on one side and outlet on the other side. Direct coolant across the core instead of straight down.

What does the Zfever uprev job entail? I saw one of these swaps done with stock ecu and stock sensors/ all stock components but it looked super difficult and required use of consult. Does Zfever setup require all the stock components? BCM? Anti theft? How are you handling all that? Is the zfever setup pretty much turn key?

[KansaiDrifter]

Yeah I figure it would be fine if I moved the inlet/outlet. The answer I'm looking for is if leaving it the way it is and running the thermostat into the upper inlet on the driver's side and running the return from the bottom to the passenger side will be ok. In theory it should be, but I'm thinking it wouldn't be as efficient.

The Zfever guys need the engine main harness, the ecu, a drive by wire pedal with 6" of pigtail for a vq and a obd plug 6" pigtail. The obd plug and throttle pedal can be off any Nissan with a VQ engine. That's all they need. You send that to them and they will send you back the harness with a engine ground, chassis ground, a 12v switched and a 12v constant and it'll fire up and run with just those hooked up. Can actually be ran on the floor haha, they have a vid on youtube showing it running on the floor actually lol.

Anyhow, got a little done today, it's really tedious work so it'll take me a while to get this part done. I'm building the exhaust, since I'm just waiting on the wiring to get in and with that will come the driveshaft yoke.

I'm going with dual 2 1/4" down pipes, into a 2.5" resonator and through the 3" Tanabe G medallion. The rear section was just laying around from another project, it's actually made for a s14 but it's not that far off, I think I can make it work.

Here's the stuff



Here's the start of the driver's down pipe, I got the passenger side flange cut out so hopefully tomorrow I can make some good progress. It's really tedious making all the angles just right lol

[97240TB]

For the exhaust I say run it as you have it... Just the downpipes lol

[slideways2004]

i definately like this build. VQ swap is so badass now!

[KansaiDrifter]

haha yeah I heard a 350z with straight pipes and that sounded awesome but it's too loud for daily action, to me anyway.

I kinda think the vq will start getting more attention shortly, since the swap is in the $4k ish range pretty much.

I'll throw some pics up in a little bit, I've not had too much time recently to work on it so I've only got the downpipes finished. It's been incredibly time engulfing because I've had to make all the flanges myself lol.

[GSXRJJordan]

I didn't get why you went with VQ after having an LS, but I figure you sold the S14. Didn't know you ran at Evergreen, that's cool.

Should be a fun car, but compared to the LS, very expensive to make power with.

[KansaiDrifter]

Yeah I found that at Evergreen I had a hard time using the torque correctly in tandem on the 3/8th's. The 5/8th's it was perfect though, it would sit at 6500rpm in 4th gear through that corner at full throttle, never got to do much tandem on the 5/8ths, other then follow Dai in the gto and holy crap he was fast haha.

Yeah the vq is limited for sure, if you want to jump towards the 350hp+ it has to be a crazy expensive na build or turbo. I guess my best answer is that I've somewhat grown out of the need for power, and I've figured out that the 250rwhp bracket is exactly what I'd like for the tracks around here. I like the fact that it's bone stock and will make around that 250rwhp and that nobody's doing it yet so it'll be unique again haha.

Yeah here's the downpipes I made, they're not perfect but I'm happy with them, I've still got to cut some more flanges to weld to the driver's side but I'm having to take a couple days off so I'm hoping to get back to working on them soon! When the wiring gets in I'll be really anxious to finish it so I hope to be done before then haha. On to some pics, because I don't like build threads with out them lol

Its lowest point is the same or higher then the trans so it shouldn't scrape


Pretty happy with the welds, this would be my 3rd time running the tig setup and my first time trying to build an exhaust, so I'm happy to get the practice.
Passenger side


Driver's side


I grabbed some header wrap to wrap these downpipes so that I don't get any floor board heaters and to protect the fuel lines