well im goin to start off by saying this isnt goin to be a quick build... my fronty is my only vehicle and i still have to tear down the vq40 and do a minor rebuild before i pull the ka24de out to start the swap... i will document the vq40 build here... once the build is complete and i find a cheap beater i will begin the swap... let me just say that the vq40 is a very difficult to find performance parts for... ive been researching and researching interchangeability of parts from the vq35de, vq35hr and vq40... so much misinformation on the web its ridiculous.. there is no aftermarket performance piston or rod company that make pistons or rods yet, exception of a custom set made by cp that's way outta my price range so i will be keeping the stock rods and pistons and just re ringing the 135k vq40.. i will be using vq35de arp head studs and vq35hr head gaskets..once the heads are off i will be able to figure out if i need to have the block coolant ports grinded down for the hr head gaskets, i will be using king rod and main bearings once they are released sometime this month..
here are a couple pics i took of the vq40 when i picked it up and the start of the tear down..

update.. i disassembled the vq40de today... its worse then i expected but not as bad as it could of been.. the engine was pulled do to a faulty water pump at 135k miles... it was making a horrible sound.. so now for some pics and a video of the broken water pump









bad water pump

Gonna be a tight fit. The issue with VQ motors in the D21/D22 chassis is width between the frame rails. You'll likely need to fabricate exhaust manifolds and down pipes from scratch to get them to fit.

Should be a screamer if you get it done though. looking forward to your build.

If a vq fits in a s-chassis i think it will fit just fine in a fronty... There is alot more room in the fronty then there is a s-chassis

A good friend of mine was a contractor for Nissan and build Project X - a 2002 Xterra 4x4 with a VQ35 out of an R50. He went through the challenges. Stock exhaust manifolds wouldn't work and he had to custom build a set of headers to clear the frame rails. The 4.0 I believe has the same outer dimensions.

Certainly not insurmountable, but it will be a challenge.

We shall see

Yes, we shall, and I'm looking forward to it. Should be awesome if you can shoehorn it in there.

Are you going to upgrade the H190 rear to something more substantial? A 5 link Pathy setup with an H233B would be sick if you could find tall enough gears for it. The 4.38 / 4.62 combos will be way too deep for what you're doing, but the 5 link would eliminate axle wrap you'll have with leaf springs.

update.. the block was taken to the machine shop for a little machine work... im goin to use vq35hr head gaskets and head studs so the block needs to be machined for better water flow as instructed by jim wolfs site.

here are some examples.. i will show the final product when i get it back


before


after

Well I got everything back from the machine shop. king rod and main bearings are in... everything looks so much better...Now just need to find the time to reassemble it..

Crank polished


Block honed and coolant passages modified for vq35hr headgaskets


Modified coolant passage


Other side


Very clean block... numerous hours spent cleaning oil ports that were clogged from lack of oil changes [/URL
]
[URL=http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/katil ... g.jpg.html]

Sub oil pan 98% clean with new oil relief valve ( no pic sorry) installed since original was blown out

looking good

do you, by chance, happen to know approximately what the VQ40 weighed?