My Z32 vh45de swap....

[Axiomhead]

I thought I'd post a bit about my vh45de Z32 swap... I know this has been done dozens of times (maybe even hundreds) by nico members, but I think its cool to keep a log of completed work and share the experience with others. I have probably spent over 60 hours reading and researching the conversion before actually turning a wrench. Most of that time was spent reading the plethora of info here on Nico!

Anyhoo....

Here's my 1990 300zx n/a automatic pos... I got it in a trade. I've always wanted one, and have had a few 280z's in the family before.




After a brief adventure getting it home, I realized the engine situation was worse than I thought. Chatty vtc's, bad injectors and some smoke issues at idle... The obvious choice was to replace the engine with something more reliable AND more powerful! I scoured the web and found a Q45 about an hour from my house for $300, with a locked up motor. My plan was to tear down the motor and use the block for fabrication(oil pan/motor mounts), and get some of the fab work out of the way until I ran across a good engine, as well as getting the wiring harness ready. I picked it up and the fun began removing the engine... from under the car... because I'm special like that.



In hindsight, I recommend removing the engine from the top of the car... I just did it that way because I saw someone on Youtube do it that way, granted, they had a lift. The good news is that the engine wasn't actually locked up, just the starter, but I wouldn't find that out until after I tore it down, and my next purchase.

As luck would have it, I had to leave town for work a few days after I pulled the first engine, I jumped on craigslist and found a Q45 in running condition for $500 in Richmond, VA which is where I was headed to work. Two flat trailer tires, 4 ghetto fabulous rims and 23 hours later I was home and ready to tear into the Z!





This is only the 3rd engine I've ever pulled, but man it took forever. I would hate to work on a stock TT! Some people said it was necessary to pull the auto tranny off before removing the engine, but I had no problems. You just have to make sure the car is about 18" off the ground, and you have a jack to lift the oil pan/tranny over the crossmember before putting the full weight of the engine on the hoist. I found some serious issues with the steering components and rear end components of the Z. Whomever had this in the past ragged the poop out of it! I guess the giant NISMO sticker on the windshield and mismatched rims should have been a clue to stay away from this car. Regardless, between the 3 cars I think I can get the Z back on the road by next summer.



I've decided to run the stock automatic q45 tranny, which is something I haven't seen done yet, but from what I hear shouldn't be that difficult, as its the same one that came in the n/a zx's, and is the same as was in my zx.

Next up is focusing on the motor mounts and harness wiring. To be continued...

[Mettler]

Go hard man! You've bitten off a large amount of labour, but perserverance will see you enjoying your Z in a whole new way!

[Axiomhead]

Since baby has come along, things in the garage are slow. I managed to use the tranny from the 300zx to fix my wifes Pathfinder I didn't think this would be an issue for my vh/z32 swap because I was planning on using the tranny from the Q45 in the conversion, but last night I think I found an issue while doing a test fitting, using the stock mounting location...



The stock z mounting location is way to far forward for the Q's tranny... Which obviously pushes the VH furthur forward in the engine bay (as demonstrated by my vh mock-up block).



Looks like I'll be building custom tranny mounts and shortening my driveshaft to get the vh closer to the firewall.

[Axiomhead]

I managed to find a few hours to mess around with the Z today. I bolted the tranny and mock up block together to try different mounting positions for the tranny.


I found that using the last hole on the stock trans mounting position gave me the clearance I was looking for in the engine bay. I will use this location for the tranny, and fabricate additional mounting points to secure the trans brace.



The stock q45 shift lever on the trans has a weight attached to it. It wouldn't clear the trans tunnel, so I swapped it out with one from a 94 pathfinder, but a stock 300zx lever arm should work fine too.





This location gives me 2" of clearance between the heads and the harness attached to the firewall. It puts 2.5 cylinders behind the center point of the front wheels, and 1.5 cylinders ahead of the center point of the front wheels. It not perfect for handling, but shouldn't be horrible. Next on the list is to re-plum the power steering lines and mock up some temporary motor mounts...

[Axiomhead]

Wow... The Z project is crawling at a snails pace. Today I managed to replumb the power steering and get the mock-up block shimmed and measured into place to fabricate the motor mounts.



This is actually a pretty big milestone in the project. I'm nearly 2 years into the project and have only managed to spend about 60 total "hands-on" hours on it. I've probably spent quadruple that doing research on motor mount design. I have a buddy bringing his plasma cutter over this weekend to help the fabrication move along quickly.


Once I get the motor mounts and oil pan/oil pickup finished I'm hoping things will move a bit faster. I also picked up some new shoes for the Z... Their from a 350Z convertable. The new 18"s look nice on the z32!

[Axiomhead]

I decided last night that I want to build motor mounts like Copper's 450z, to leave room for the headers. I figured that level of modification required me to remove the crossmember. After about 15 minutes of cursing, I got ot out. How in the F*@K do they get those bolts so friggin' tight?



Now I look at the empty doghouse and wonder if I'm ever going to get this car back together.

[hannibal]

All in due time! Glad to see youre still working on this and havent let the idea die.

[Axiomhead]

All in due time! Glad to see youre still working on this and havent let the idea die.

Yeah, me too. I'm lucky enough to have a huge space to do the swap in, unfortunately, late August to mid November is the only time it's not unbearably hot or wretchedly cold in the garage...

[hannibal]

Can't wait to see what you do with mounts. Keep us in the loop...

[Axiomhead]

The journey continues... My buddy came over with his plasma cutter yesterday, and we got to work on the mounts. This friggin' plasma cutter is awesome! It cut through the crossmember like butter. Our first order of business was to remove the old mounts, and avoid cutting all the way through the crossmember.

Before:


We used Easy Off oven cleaner to remove the 22 years of road grime. 20 minutes and done!


After:


The removed section:


Next we used poster board to make a template of the new metal we wanted to put back in. We needed to put a smooth surface with 1/8" plate on the crossmember to weld our new motormounts to.
Grinding the plasma cut smooth:


The pattern transfer:


We cut the pattern out of a single flat sheet of 1/8" steel. To get the bend we needed to contour the crossmember, we clamped the steel to the base of our engine hoist and beat on it with a 3 lb hammer. It worked swimmingly!


Welded!:


After both sides of the xmember were done, I installed it back in the doghouse, put the engine back in the car, checked/set my clearances and centered the motor with the rubber mount bolted to the block. With the motor in place, we measured the space between the rubber mount and the x member.



Since the gap was even all the way around, we cut our perch on a chop saw to be more accurate, and then built the perch on the workbench. We used 3" wide 3/16" steel.



We put the welded perch under the rubber mout on the block, checked our clearances/level again and tach'd it in place...





Thats as far as we got on the crossmember. The next step will be removing it, grinding the welds, adding some gussets and painting it so it looks a little nicer. The crossmember mod took us about 14 hours of work (minus about 60 minutes for lunch and dinner), but was pretty straight forward and fun to do. I think we could have done the mod without a plasma cutter and chopsaw, but it would have taken a few hours more (using a cut off wheel or electric grinder). We decided to test the strength of the mount, so we stood on top of the block and jumped, nothing budged of flexed, not even the rubber mount. This thing is beyond sturdy!

[Axiomhead]

Used the jeep to haul Q45 #2 from the backyard to the driveway. I'm prepping it to pull the engine. Also, a small rework of the Z's xmember is in order. I'm moving the engine forward a hair, to make room for the hoses going to the heater core.

There's not enough hours in the day.

[Axiomhead]

I threw the heads and valve covers on the mock-up block today to double-check my clearances. Everything looks legit!



To be honest this is the best I've felt about the project in a long time. I also took the oil pan of the old VG30 to clean it up, so I can make a vh45-vg30 franken pan for the Z's new rear sump setup.

[Axiomhead]

Spent most of the day yesteday removing and cleaning up the oil pans. I managed to get the pieces cut for the new oil pan.



I'm using the flange from the VH, the sump from the VG and custom fitting the rest.



Mig welding in a garage with no AC, in early September, kinda sucks.

[Madhatter969]

Good progress on it, the vh should be fun.

[RYANW501]

Keep up the post.. Its good to see someone actually show their progress. Just got my vh for my s14

[Axiomhead]

AAARGGGHHH!

This friggin' oil pan is killing me.

I can't get a watertight weld to save my life. This is definately the most frustrating part of the swap thus far.

Time to cut this one apart and start from scratch. Again.

[DRFTBLD]

Man that sucks... good luck with it!

[nismo300zxjdm]

Any updates on your project? Looking great so far!

[Axiomhead]

Any updates on your project? Looking great so far!

Thanks! I'm currently looking to outsource the oil-pan to a local shop. Once that is done I'll start on the wiring... slow and steady wins the race.

[nismo300zxjdm]

I am going to have my pan tig welded most likely. I might give it a shot with my mig though... not too sure yet lol

[Bart]

I wouldnt use a mig, its hard to seal the pan up with a mig. Tig or gas/oxy acc welding are much better options as you can control the heat/flow of the metal and seal it up.

I am going to have my pan tig welded most likely. I might give it a shot with my mig though... not too sure yet lol

[nismo300zxjdm]

I wouldnt use a mig, its hard to seal the pan up with a mig. Tig or gas/oxy acc welding are much better options as you can control the heat/flow of the metal and seal it up.

Yeah, I will probably get it tig'd. I'll start a build thread when the project progresses more.

Axiomhead: Where'd you pick that Z up from?

[Axiomhead]

Axiomhead: Where'd you pick that Z up from?

I got it in a a trade, after seeing it sitting in my mechanics yard for a few years.

[Axiomhead]

I dropped off the mock-up block and pan to the fabricators today... Probably going to get a custom built all aluminum oilpan made up with baffles and accusump provisions. I'm just waiting on pricing from the fab guy.

[nismo300zxjdm]

Ahhh! There was a red Z floating around here about maybe 2 years ago with that same decal. Do you know if it was ever registered in PA?

Keep the updates coming! I just got my hardware for the transmission adapter plate today. I am going to start working on the plate this weekend! Real excited!

... I NEED A MOCKUP BLOCK! I haven't been able to find a Q in the yard lately though

[aeary]

Any chance you could give specs/dimensions of your modified xmember? Just got a 93 n/a that I am going to be dropping a VH45 into

You can shoot me an email to aeary.z06@gmail.com if you have the time to talk about the conversion

[Axiomhead]

And the mission continues....

I have unwelded pan back from the fab guy. I like the custom flange. I decided to see if it fits before he welds it up.





Looks like I have some clearance issues.




I neeed more clearance over the steering rack.



The pan is about 3/4" below the crossmember. Gonna have to move this up.

I'll be making notes and measuremennts tonight for the fab guy, then I have to pull the crossmember in order to get the engine out. While the xmember is out I need t make some minor mods to it as well. Hopefully I can get the pan back in a few weeks.

[Axiomhead]

Any chance you could give specs/dimensions of your modified xmember? Just got a 93 n/a that I am going to be dropping a VH45 into

You can shoot me an email to aeary.z06@gmail.com if you have the time to talk about the conversion

I don't have anything in the way of specs or dimensions. We just measured and cut as needed.

[Axiomhead]

This evening I took some measurements and made final notes for modding the x-member and oil pan. I also cut the cat off an old set of exhaust manifolds to see if they were going to clear the frame rails and steering components. Its a tight fit, but it clears everything. Removing the factory heat shields will give me an additional 1/4" of clearance from the frame rails and plenty of room around the steering components.

[Axiomhead]

Got the revised pan back today...











Looks like it's going to work well. I just need to install the starter to make sure it clears. If it does, I'll have this finish welded and begin the real fun... wiring.