Deed's 450Z Daily Driver/Drift car

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Deedilus

Member
I know 350Z's are a bit over-rated, but I promise I'm a semi-decent one! Anyway, during a drift even last weekend I got an oil leak and it blew the engine. Instead of replacing the engine with another VQ, I decided to go with a full engine swap. I decided to go V8, but to avoid being a stereotypical American I decided to go with the VH45DE out of the Infiniti Q45. Mmmm, 4.5L of brute Japanese 8-steroid muscle.

Due to the strength of the engine and torque increase, I'm hoping it'll allow me to go to a lot more drift events since I won't have to worry about wrecking the engine. Also this engine weighs in at only ~50lbs heavier than the VQ35 that comes with the car, so it's not going to absolutely ruin my handling and I'll be able to make up that weight when I start focusing on shedding weight.

If you want more info on the swap just lemme know, I'll be glad to tell you what I know. :thumbs:

First, my car.
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Somewhat old, but it's the best one I have currently. Can't wait to lower it more.

No more engine, all that's left are two forlorn exhaust pipes :(
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Comparison between an engine/tranny-less Z33 and an engine-less (tranny in) Z32
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A VH45 that he's just finished painting the valve covers and manifolds. This one goes in that red Z32 and is completely finished.
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He put the engine back in later that day and the owner of that Z32 gets the keys on Monday.

My new VH45, straight out of the Q45 it lived in for so long.
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Needs a bit of cleaning on the exterior, but only has 84k miles on it and the internals look like they just came from the factory. Q45 we got it from was SUPER clean, it got in a little front scrap which messed the headlights, front of hood and the front bumper. Damage didn't even go back to the radiator, but that was enough for the insurance company to write the car off as totaled. Result!
 
Nice, I've seen a couple of builds in the US with VH45 in Z31s but in a Z33, Now we're talking. Looking forward the seeing the install.
 
Z31Turbo said:
Nice, I've seen a couple of builds in the US with VH45 in Z31s but in a Z33, Now we're talking. Looking forward the seeing the install.
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Definitely man, as far as I've been able to see it should be a US first! :thumbs: Definitely pumped, just saw some videos of this engine put in a 300ZX out there in the UK and it sounds INCREDIBLE!
 
dblock said:
You going to keep it stock or maybe add a mid mount turbo?
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I'm still debating whether I'm going to go F/I at all.. I might cam it out, new manifold and stuff like that and get passed a minimum of 350whp. Right now the only thing done to the engine is going to be an ECU that gives an extra 30-40 hp and raises the redline to 7400. I love boost though so I might be going turbo later on!
 
Deedilus said:
I'm still debating whether I'm going to go F/I at all.. I might cam it out, new manifold and stuff like that and get passed a minimum of 350whp. Right now the only thing done to the engine is going to be an ECU that gives an extra 30-40 hp and raises the redline to 7400. I love boost though so I might be going turbo later on!
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Im not sure how much this is like a vq35? Is the ecu an upgraded one or is it a reflash? Do you have to get an uprev liecence?

That is one great engine, How hard is it to change the cams? I have heard its a pig of a job in the vq35. wow a v8 revving to 7400 :thumbs:

If you was to go FI how much room do you have? A boosted vq35 looks quite tight in a 350. Would a mid mount system be better?

Awesome project :thumbs:
 
ma70jake said:
This is pretty sweet. Ive seen 350s with LS1 swaps before, but this is new to me. Good luck Sir
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Thanks! As far as I can find it looks like this'll be the first in the US.

@ dblock: The ECU is an upgraded one made by a company in Arizona. It's roughly around $200-$250, half the cost of a new ECU for a down-rev VQ35 and with better benefits. :thumbs:

Changing the cams is a royal pain in the ass due to the fact that there is hardly ANY aftermarket support for these engines. To cam it out I'll have to get everything custom made; which I know cost someone in the UK who swapped this engine into a 300ZX around ~ £1800 I believe. But I believe he's now bored out to I think 95 or 98, can't remember. 5.0L and pushing 420whp.

I'm not entirely sure yet, what I do know is that on each side (left and right) of the engine there's about 1/4" of space between it and the walls of the engine bay. But I think there's going to be a fair amount of room in the front of the engine as we're putting the engine as far back as possible. If worst comes to worst, I'll relocated the turbo and all to the rear ;)

Also it looks like we might be able to fit the engine underneath the stock hood, but if we were to do that the oil pan would be extremely low, so I'm just gonna go ahead and snag a carbon fiber hood that has more clearance.
 
Damien said:
I hate you yanks with all ya space and driveways etc! ;) Truly awesome project!!!
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Hahaaa the car is a city away due to the fact I have no room in my driveway or my garage! :(

Here's two little pictures to hold anyone following over until I can get some new pics this weekend...

I went from this:
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To this....
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Oh yeah... a supercharged Buick Regal GS! Yeeeeah, stylin'!

.....:no:.....

God I can't wait to drive my car again!
 
Damien said:
got room for a uk tyre smoking brother over there? ;)
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Hahaha, hell yeah man!!

Gonna be an update soon, prob tomorrow... some cool stuff is going down tomorrow!

But in the mean time to cure some speed love, I went somewhere for the first time. To the only place where American's know how to drive: A drag strip.

I tagged along with my buddy in his stock Mustang, he just dropped a new motor in it and is getting some times for reference for when he starts building it up. It's going to be his drag / daily driver, and he just got an FD RX-7 from a family friend for free! Lucky SOB! I also used this as a good opportunity to test out my new GoPro HD, for when I get my car back and start drifting!

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Yes, our standing joke is calling his Mustang "JDM." We like to make fun of his Amuurican Muscle!

After seeing the immense size/open-ness/flatness of the drag strips parking lot, I'm also going to attempt to tackle starting up sanctioned drift days there... gonna keep my fingers crossed! :thumbs:
 
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Some pictures!

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My new V8 inside of it's new home! Time for some cleaning / painting, then mount fabrication and whatnot!

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The very same engine I posted before, an example of how incredible it will look when it's all done!

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My new tranny on the way to my friends garage to get it's adapter plate fitted! Hardest part of the swap.

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My new Centerforce clutch and Fidanza flywheel! Scored these off of a 300zx TT at the scrap yard, they have less than 20 miles on them! Owner of the 300zx was on the second test drive of the TT when they wrecked... ouch!

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Always nice to reward yourself after a long, tiring day with some fresh Tuna Nigiri and Seaweed, Squid and Sesame salad ;)

Tranny adapter will be on tomorrow, and then tranny will be attached to the engine, and the fab work begins... Still shooting for it being finished on Sunday! Then sometime next week my friends are welding my old open diff because I'm a full-lock kind of guy.

The engine was the furthest back it could possibly be and it was looking like the shifter wouldn't reach to the stock shifter position! So right now it looks like the shifter might have to be extended a bit just so it'll rest inside of the stock shifter place.. Some test fitments are DEFINITELY going to go down when I get the transmission back to my buddy! There was a bunch more that he told me and explained to me today, but it's so late and I'm so full of sushi that I can't possibly remember at the moment. Will do a small update tomorrow as well.
 
nice swap, i would like to see that car going sideways.
but was the stock engine so bad? did you have to clutchkick it all the way?
 
The stock engine isn't bad, you could power-over and initiate if you really wanted to. I'm a clutch kick kind of guy, so I did that anyway. It's just unless you're the original owner or unless you know for a fact that the engine was treated properly, it's not fun taking it sideways or even gripping around a circuit. The entire time you're worried because the engine will literally feel like it's dying, and since mine has 108xxx miles on it and the previous owner didn't take care of it at all, it literally did die xD.

Plus, this swap was only $1300 more than replacing it with another VQ35.
 
Looks like a great build so far.

I have been very tempted to get the same V8 as a back up engine for my Z32 when the VG engine dies. NA power would be great!!
 
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