450ZX is on the road...finally!

[T45]

After 3 years, 2 engines and transmissions and a ton of money, time, effort and DNA the car is at the end of phase 2. Phase 1 ended in a swapped VH, that blew up on day 1. Phase 2 holds more promise but still nowhere near completion.

This year my BFF and I thrashed on it for 3 weeks nonstop, everyday so it could be ready to drive back to FL. It made it, but it is running warm/hot, I still need to finish the a/c lines and there is some kind of vibration I can't figure out yet.

Anyways we did a lot of work in that time. We shaved the antenna, door handles, rear wiper, washer nozzles in front, washer nozzle in rear was replaced with sirius antenna, fiberglassed over the hold in the hood, finished the suspension and painted along with a lot of other stuff.

Car has full suspension with Tein coilovers, EDFC, full energy bushings throughout, ST swaybars F/R with SPL adjusters, Stillen FR uppers and tension rods and Courtesy Nissan rear uppers. Running a Zees exhaust, 350Z track rims 18X8.5 F/R with 245/45/18 Nitto NT555's and of course the all important 95 VH45DE with NICO 4-way ECU and 3.5" intake.

Car runs great, lol, this thing hauls a**! The drive down to FL from VA wasn't long enough. Twisties are a blast and I have yet to reach any form of loss of traction through the tires. At this point the car is much more capable than I am. The torque from the VH is amazing, there is no "wait for it"....it just goes. I don't feel like I am beating it to get to speed, it's already there just where you want it. It rides stiff and the EDFC will either let you feel road noise or not, not much difference with the bumps, a bump is about the same whether on hard or soft. Anyways... I love it so far and can't wait to get it out on a track somewhere to find the edge of this thing.

[NolimitZ32]

Any videos of this beast tearin it up?

[Zwicked]

Fantastic...how about a few under hood shots?

[92300z]

YEA lets see/hear it

[Touge-Z32]

Some engine pic's please.

[NSR_s30]

Any videos of this beast tearin it up?

Nice to hear you got it up and running

[T45]

The engine is still dirty as hell from all of the sanding and glass work but here is one. I need to get it all cleaned up and a decent camera, these are from my berry.

[Zwicked]

Excellent! How was it wiring it up to the Z32 end of things? Did you keep a log or draw a schematic you could post in case any one else wants to give this a shot?

[OUKNO]

I was bummed when the first VH took a crap on you, glad to see you figured it out this time. Are you using a dry sump now?

Excellent! How was it wiring it up to the Z32 end of things? Did you keep a log or draw a schematic you could post in case any one else wants to give this a shot?

In the VH45 section there is tons of info & good guys which seem willing to help with the swap wiring, engine mounts, oil pan, etc....Thats why Nico is the best

[T45]

Correct, there is a complete wiring diagram in the VH section, search FTW.

Thanks, I was bummed as hell too but in the end it was for the better. I just went front sump, modded the pan just a little bit and the front xmember.

Found a couple more on my bff's facebook that we took up at the mall.

[T45]

Vids will have to wait for a while. There is another VH swapped 240 owner here in Miami that has a Hero cam, I'm sure we'll end up with some killer vids!!! Patience dear Zedheads, patience.

[franklin93zx]

Congrats and looks great (except for the nose emblem) and the 350 track wheels look sick!

[OUKNO]

snap a pic of your glass work to the hood in day light, I want to see how it turned out.

as for the vid's I've seen/heard craigstoyz its F**KING BAD @SScant wait for your vids but I really just want to know about the dependability of the VH in the Z

[T45]

Nah, the nose emblem is one of my favorite parts! lol Working on a 450ZX sticker for the rear panel, thinking about writing "RE-POWERED BY INFINITI" underneath it. I dunno...

Q45TECH has over 300k on his stock VH. It's still a Nissan engine and I don't know of a s***ty nissan engine. Owner care has a lot to do with failures. The lack of a tool caused my last VH failure. Don't try to guess that since you have a 4 ft breaker bar that you have enough torque on the crank bolt I suppose.

Here are some pics from the hood work and some others.

http://s860.photobucket.com/albums/ab169/InfiniZ/

[Touge-Z32]

Awesome Z, have you dynoed it yet

[felixtherican]

good work.

are you going to leave it flat black or paint it its original color. i vote original color.

[tg]

oooh post up some vids

[T45]

I'll keep it flat for a while. I like it. It looks homebuilt and....well....it is homebuilt. Paint doesn't make it go any faster and I like the look of it, looks unfinished and it will be unfinished for a long time.

I am working in Alaska for the next few weeks, I'll post some up when I get a few small issues fixed and some time. She's bad though, so much fun and sounds incredible!

[REDWINTERZ]

You sir, are amazing. We need a "high five" smiley... haha

[300freekzx]

Sweet!

[OUKNO]

come on vids~vids~vids I think the flat black just makes it look meaner I know the engine is lighter but did it change how your front end sits height wise & how it handles, besides wanting to break loose in the @ss end from the beastly VH

[T45]

Ask any self-respecting white trash hotrodder, flat black is the s***.

It handles amazing, I never drove it with the V6 but can only imagine it is much more balanced than stock. I think the suspension is a little stiff from the lack of weight up front but other than that it inspires much confidence in the handling. Haven't been scared with the car, just scared myself a few times. The car outperforms me.

Stock tires wouldn't even hold 3rd gear. Cruising at 30-35 a snatch into 2nd would light them up and leave nice long smoky black marks. The new Nitto 555 245's are awesome. I passed my buddy and although I couldn't hear the tires over the engine, when I passed him he could hear the tires clawing for traction. They did spin a little but they maintained traction through 2nd and didn't just break loose like the stockers.

Vids to come, still in Alaska working for a few more weeks.

As for the paint.... I wish it was legal to drive around like this. I would have kept it that way.

[OUKNO]

So F-ing mean looking

[nghtrain88]

yea man, that last picture is bad-a .. keep up the good work

[NissanFairladyZ32]

My TT motor took a dump on me and im considering this swap ...

How you would you rate the power stock for stock TT/VH ? i understand the vh has more low end

are you running the 5 speed transmission ?

[REDWINTERZ]

I'm not very familiar with the VH45 engine, so forgive me a rookie question... Is it possible to turbo (or twin turbocharge ) the VH45? Or is it too high compression? Like I said, I know very little about it but I was thinking about how to get the best of both world's (if you wanted an 8 but liked the feel/sound/power of turbos). If anyone has any understanding of this please explain

[jedijeff123]

I'm not very familiar with the VH45 engine, so forgive me a rookie question... Is it possible to turbo (or twin turbocharge ) the VH45? Or is it too high compression? Like I said, I know very little about it but I was thinking about how to get the best of both world's (if you wanted an 8 but liked the feel/sound/power of turbos). If anyone has any understanding of this please explain

i 2nd the question

[T45]

Search the VH forum for Jeff Taylor, you'll find he turbo'd the stock, 100k mile VH to the max with stock injectors at 100% duty cycle, 6psi and got over 450whp IIRC. Engine when pushed to JZ/RB limits will go way over 1k hp, but nobody has done it yet in a car with the wallet and data to back it up.

As for the VH/VGTT argument it's apples and oranges. The VH has a much more linear torque curve than the VGTT. It retains 90% of it's available torque below 2k rpms. It's a torque monster, it has more torque than hp and that's pretty amazing for such a small displacement V8. 278hp/292tq quoted stock. It's over 300hp in reality, especially once opened up with an intake/ex/ecu. Granted the VG has more peak hp stock, but the torque and hp curve is more important. What good is 10hp extra when it only lasts 1k rpms with a narrow torque band?

Anyways here is a turbo Q45 0-100 run. Car weighs a LOT more than a Z. There is a lot of info out there, search FTW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Kz9fgQyzw

[NolimitZ32]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Kz9fgQyzw

WOW

[getm1]

damn dat vh seems like a great mean engine!!!!!!