my vh45 s13 project!

T45 — 2009-07-15T07:05:14-08:00

Thanks, finding a MAF adapter for the 90mm is a b****! The JWT is like 150 bucks. I found a 90mm ford adapter for 40 that looks like I can massage to work. Any other cheap adapters? Anyone?

Carl H — 2009-07-14T18:39:54-08:00

I'll try to answer a few questions here at once...

yellowkoolaid - they're unequal length headers made out of mild steel, first headers I had ever made so they kind of suck.
cost was approx 300$ in raw materials for headers alone but the real kicker here was the time involved, approx 10hrs in construction as i had no idea what i was doing at first.
you're spot on with the ps pump being the q and the pulley being a maxima, if i did it again it would be all maxima stuff with a nut welded onto the pump so it could be bolted down to the q bracketry.
radiator hoses are a concoction of upper and lower ka hoses for the most part...i think.

lemhead16 - its close to being complete, if you sitll have my email addy then drop me a line, i think within a week or so I should be ready to ship.

newbissan-tech - I got ya covered man

t45 - no its actually a kn filtercharger kit for a sohc ka that my friend was able to chuck on a lathe and open the inlet some...we then drilled and tapped new holes for the q maf and its been working great since.

T45 — 2009-07-14T16:44:22-08:00

The MAF adaptor you have there, is that a JWT?

Re: (LEMHEAD16)

newbissan-tech — 2009-07-13T17:21:03-08:00

carl you've got mail again lmk thanks!

Re: (newbissan-tech)

LEMHEAD16 — 2009-07-11T23:25:02-08:00

When you get that ECU ready, put me down as your first customer.

Re: (YellowKoolAid)

newbissan-tech — 2009-07-11T22:23:04-08:00

carl hit me up i need to know if you can build my harness? thanks man!

Re: (Carl H)

YellowKoolAid — 2009-07-01T22:50:27-08:00

what details can you give about the construction of your headers? how much did it end up costing you?

car looks amazing....i knew its a big project but damn...

and the PS system...stock q45 with maxima pulley?

which radiator hoses did you use?

Carl H — 2009-06-10T11:20:59-08:00

yes, that was completed before the powertrain was in the car.
works pretty well considering it came out of an automatic car with 70kmi on it.
locks both tires nicely.

Re: (Carl H)

Steve Lloyd — 2009-06-10T10:55:31-08:00

did you ever do the Q45 rear 5-lug or VLSD???

Carl H — 2009-04-29T19:15:16-08:00

there is proly about 12hrs or so in the header set construction...and i'd do it again for sure but now that i know what i'd run into im sure i could do it again much quicker.

Re: (Carl H)

95si4 — 2009-04-29T16:16:32-08:00

awesome build

how long did it take to fab the headers? would you do it again?

Re: (Carl H)

EMK — 2009-04-29T07:56:58-08:00

I'm curious... What settings and type of welder did you use to do the bell housing. I need to do the same thing as you on my Z33 trans. I'm not that far from you so I'd be interested in having you did it for me if I find it more cost effective. I've shot you an email about this as well.

Aripug — 2009-03-13T14:58:17-08:00

Wowwwwwww

I'm writing from Italy!

I've just read all the page of this post....

this is really a great project!!!!!

You're great mans!!!!!

Ciao from Italy

Arian

bfreehill — 2009-03-01T08:22:53-08:00

nice work!
true inspiration for my vh45 swap.

Re: (Carl H)

EMK — 2009-02-16T06:56:31-08:00

I would like to know what you meant by drivabilty issues of the VH with the stock ECU. COuld you expand on that for the rest of us please.

Carl H — 2009-02-11T19:47:24-08:00

some footage from the drift event this past weekend...everyone had a great time.
unfortunately it seems my injectors are slowly dying...the erratic missfire that i was experiencing is starting to come more often.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3tN8Tu8e0s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrA7mbtWF54

Carl H — 2009-01-28T19:10:30-08:00

the dyno runs were done on a stock ecu map as it was having issues and i felt it wouldnt make sense to try and tune when the car wasnt running 100%.
the ecu changes will encompass a full overhaul of the factory maps in both timing and fuel to optimize drivability with the 5spd box as well as maximize power potential.
the engine comp'ed out at factory fresh 180 across cold...i suspect some carbon buildup helped with the numbers but the engine was clean on the inside when i pulled the heads and the pan and i made it a point to fully decarbonize the pistons as well as heads before i put the engine back together.
need to pull the plenum and install the injectors and go from there.

l0nestar — 2009-01-28T17:42:29-08:00

Looking better and better by the day man! Congrats!

Re: (Carl H)

EMK — 2009-01-28T09:27:56-08:00

Yes please tell us more about the ECU changes!

What type of issues were there in the first place? What did you do to fix them?

Carl H — 2009-01-27T21:24:08-08:00

somewhat of a short update...
car is parked for now since im back at school but i did have a chance to do a quick and dirty gas mileage test.
flogging the car intown yeilded about 18-19mpg and highway driving (up and down mountains from charlotte to asheville) was around 24-25.

finally got some decent suspension on the car and it rides on the tokico lowering kit and blues...handles nicely and rides loads better:

also managed to get a baseline dyno of the car...before the dyno the car developed a missfire which would come and go.
end of the dyno session it was missing badly and sounded like it was running on 6 of the 8 cylinders.
problem comes and goes so i suspect either a tank of bad gas or injectors starting to fail; either way i have 8 good condition sr injectors to go in as well as the deatchwerks adaptor kit.
heres a quick scan of the dyno, but my floofy cat got in the way.

hoping to pull the plenum next time im home and rr the injectors...stay tuned.

Re: (Coolwhip)

elwesso — 2009-01-02T12:50:31-08:00

You shouldnt need to change anything in the ECU for 5 speed?

Coolwhip — 2009-01-02T12:01:40-08:00

Hey Carl, did you ever get that off the shelf Q ECU 5spd tune down yet?

Re: (Neejay)

fayceoff — 2008-12-25T18:53:23-08:00

Quote, originally posted by Neejay raquo;

Good job man. I really want some R32 wheels.

Not to jack the thread, but I have a set for sale. They're not GTR, though - they're GTS. Email me.

l0nestar — 2008-12-25T16:54:24-08:00

w00t! Need more vidz!!

Carl H — 2008-12-24T21:35:41-08:00

car is back on the road again!
the 30$ advance auto clutch disc special seems to be holding up just fine and has not shown to be a problem.
got stuff accomplished today installed the steering rack bushings, finally mounted the clutch hardline to the body and the ss clutch dampener bypass line (it had been ziptied to the transmission), and installed the speedometer converter.
End result is a fully functional cluster with accurate speedo and tach and a car that handles slightly better...course blown stock suspension doesnt handle well at all.
A friend of mine also let me borrow his eastwood fender roller so i could roll the rear lip on the fenders to keep the tires from hitting them and scraping...eventually they would have worn grooves in the tires due to the fender rubbing.

Carl H — 2008-12-16T13:39:46-08:00

clutch disc was installed properly, done this many a time on nissan rwd cars...the more i look at it the more i think that it was damaged by the clutch hydraulics indirectly.
I think the clutch slave rod is too long and was causing the tob to push the clutch fingers in too far which i guess with just the right ammount of throw caused contact with the disc.
I'll be shortening the clutch slave rod down some to prevent this from happining again...

Re: (Carl H)

sijoko — 2008-12-16T12:47:14-08:00

Was the clutch disc installed correctly or is it a defect?

Re: (Carl H)

SuperHatch — 2008-12-16T03:20:24-08:00

Glad to see it's not your trans Carl, best of luck getting it back together!

Carl H — 2008-12-15T20:14:38-08:00

back from the dead again...
home for the holidays so i have a month or so to fix the car and get it rolling under its own power again.
got the car up in the air and trans out of the car; for those wondering it was done engine in car and was full of suck...mainly due to the vh having a larger bellhousing than the ka.
here is what we found:

clutch disc was damaged and the spring had wedged its self between the pp and the disc causing it to not disengage.
transmission is still in one piece and does not appear to be damaged nor do i see any cracks in the welds.

here is another shot of the disc up close:

and one of the pressure plate:

i speculate that the disc was hitting the pressure plate on the large 'rivets' that can be seen under the diaphram, not sure why and if this was a defect of just poor design.
I think i may just order a standard organic full face disc from the parts store as they're cheap and readily available...pp does not appear to be damaged and with a light scuffing and cleaning of the mating surfaces should be fine.

keep an eye out, hopefuly an update this week.

Re: (Coolwhip)

ripracer — 2008-12-04T08:28:07-08:00

Looks great like I said before Carl, very impressed with the headers. This is getting me thinking about the VH business.

Coolwhip — 2008-11-27T21:41:01-08:00

i wanna see this spash gaurd

l0nestar — 2008-11-27T19:03:42-08:00

Looking more better!

Hope that speedo converter works out for ya too!

Carl H — 2008-11-27T16:56:27-08:00

back up to the top with another update...
car is closer and closer to being 100% complete but i have hit a snare or two as the throwout bearing blewup with some spirited driving during its testing period.
reason i suspect the TOB is that hydraulics are still functional, bellhousing is in one piece and the car shifts when the engine is stopped.
It had been making noise since i had fitted the engine originally so i knew that it might fail soon and was probably a bad bearing from the start.
I was however able to modify the parts needed for the intake, so it has a proper air cleaner assembly on it now.
A friend had given me a filtercharger kit for a sohc ka as he was unable to use it anymore due to his turbo setup...so i decided to just modify the adaptor plate to bolt the q maf to.
here is the modified adaptor plate and maf all bolted together, the velocity stack id needed to be opened up about .25" to suit the 90mm maf opening.

front view of the modified plate and maf:

decided due to the size of the filtercharger that it would be best to go ahead and put the maf in the fenderwell for not only space but also to insulate it from engine bay heat, the pipework is 3.5" mandrel bent.

quick shot of the maf/filter/extention pipe:

splash guard has been refitted to keep water from well splashing onto the filter and causing operational issues like hydrolocking.

also was able to start on the cowl hood sides and back, havent decided on how i want to seal off the sides/back to keep them watertight.
using some nice 16ga sheet steel a friend gave to me i started tracing out the needed patterns for the sides and cut them out...here only the passenger is cut.

and the cut passenger side test fitted...needs more triming but that is stuff to be done under the hood.

depending on how motivated i am tommorow i might pull the transmission and inspect the damage...i have a new complete clutch kit here if i have to replace the clutch but i hope it wont come down to that.
worst case scenario the trans assploded, best case its just a faulty throwout bearing...we'll see.

Carl H — 2008-11-10T12:22:07-08:00

also factor in that i have retained full emissions sans cats it should be pretty effin good.
car turns 2300rpm at 65mph with the q45 final drive...when i get her plated up i plan to do a proper gas mileage test to find out actual mileage.

BoostFab — 2008-11-10T12:15:27-08:00

it would be interesting how your result will be in the fuel economy, since the q45s are rated 16city 25hwy MPG; maybe it makes a big difference in this lighter car and a leaner tune.

Carl H — 2008-11-10T08:22:35-08:00

its very hard to fill large gaps in metal with a tig, for even penetration tig would have been better but oh well use what ya got.
once the metal warmed up it melted quite nicely...i guess we'll see how long it lasts; i plan on inspecting the welds on a regular basis just incase.

BoostFab — 2008-11-10T00:10:12-08:00

great work carl.... that's pretty interesting idea about custom fab'n the bell housing; i wonder how that will hold up on the road. maybe it was better tig'ed.

Re: (Carl H)

l0nestar — 2008-11-09T10:58:14-08:00

This makes me happy.

Mettler — 2008-11-06T14:17:34-08:00

Whoops my bad, I must have misread gt;_lt;

Re: (Mettler)

Carl H — 2008-11-06T14:06:25-08:00

oh i know i was refering to his post asking for a vq35 version...least thats what i got out of it.

Quote, originally posted by Mettler raquo;

Negative, that was discussed some time ago and it was established that the bellhousing pattern was much different. If that was the case, we'd have at least one documented example of someone having bolted a Z33 trans on to a VH by now.

Re: (Carl H)

Mettler — 2008-11-06T13:05:45-08:00

Quote, originally posted by Carl H raquo;

irax - do what? hybrid bellhousing? a z33 trans bolts right on...

Re: (Carl H)

CrazyTrance — 2008-11-05T14:08:24-08:00

right.. i forgot about that. And so do we haha. I'm just really careful and watch my oil pressure gauge all the time lol. I'm gonna make like a bash bar or big skid plate or something for it. Maybe a dry sump setup eventually or just a different pan thats wider with baffles instead of deeper.

Carl H — 2008-11-05T13:56:37-08:00

ah well remember that i mounted the engine to be oil pan flush with the xmember which is higher than most people mount the engine...we have potholes and cinderblocks in the roads around here...not good for an oilpan.

Re: (Carl H)

CrazyTrance — 2008-11-05T13:55:05-08:00

hmm, mine doesn't hit the cap, just the top of the intake mani

Carl H — 2008-11-05T13:49:05-08:00

eh i could have shimmed the hood but wasnt too keen on it...i have a better idea of what to do nexttime if i swap a vh in another s13 again...
trick is the engine radiator cap...all it is is a bleeder for the highest point in the engine, removing the cap assembly and just adding in a simple bleeder would work better and allow for more clearance, i may fab one up and redo the hood with abit more slope to clear the cap and for asthetics.

Re: (Carl H)

CrazyTrance — 2008-11-05T11:13:45-08:00

Lookin good Carl!! You couldn't fit it without cutting the hood like I did? I was going to cut it exactly how you did btw lol.

Carl H — 2008-11-05T09:18:30-08:00

irax - do what? hybrid bellhousing? a z33 trans bolts right on...

neejay - soon enough man...have to get her legal now to drive on the road.

yellow4g63 - that was the plan but the local yard is lacking q's currently.

Re: (Carl H)

irax — 2008-11-04T22:49:09-08:00

Quote, originally posted by Carl H raquo;

first section of the bellhousing, most important as it will locate the trans for the rest of the mouting...

trans bolted on awaiting second section, alignment is still good.

second section and modified bellhousing, notice large gaps from differences in bellhousing diamaters.

quick shot of the ringgear and one spot on the trans that needs more grinding for good clearance.

second section welded along with first section:

trans bolted to engine, she's quite snug and fits well...

if your could do this but for a vq35de engine i would you! it would make my life soo much easier

Re: (Neejay)

Yellow4g63 — 2008-11-04T22:27:46-08:00

Nice looking Carl. Get a stock air box on it now lol and it will look like it belongs in there.

Neejay — 2008-11-04T20:30:07-08:00

Good job man. I really want some R32 wheels.

How long before a vid?!?

Re: (Carl H)

Coolwhip — 2008-11-04T19:15:12-08:00

way to go keeping it discrete with that hood mod

another clean looking swap in the bag carl, nice job man

Carl H — 2008-11-04T19:10:43-08:00

been a while since the last update but the car DOES run and runs quite well...had to tie up a few loose ends and fix some problems but for the most part IT MOVES!
found the root problem of the random cutout...you'll like this one...be sure to check your used fuel tanks before install.

this effectively killed the fuel pump so the only option was a new pump...150$ later i have a new pump in tank and it drives flawlessly.

started on the hood so i wouldnt attract too much attention from local law enforcement.
have a bit more to do and need to cut and reweld as it is uneven in places but it does the trick for now.

an overall shot with a shot of her new shoes, r32 gtr wheels woo!:

tail shot, exhaust needs to be realigned tho.

a few engine bay shots, also note the work in progress with stuff here and there...have to cut a hole in the fender well for the cold air extention for the intake.

more to come, videos perhaps this weekend!

Re: (Carl H)

Flamereka — 2008-10-13T21:49:57-08:00

Glad to see its powered by Mountain dew just like me.

Re: (LEMHEAD16)

Carl H — 2008-10-13T18:45:01-08:00

sorry, but wiring is not something i distribute...i convert harnesses to support myself while in school and to fund my education.

Quote, originally posted by LEMHEAD16 raquo;

Do you have a wiring diagram you would like to post up?

Re: (l0nestar)

LEMHEAD16 — 2008-10-13T15:59:19-08:00

Do you have a wiring diagram you would like to post up?

Re: (Coolwhip)

l0nestar — 2008-10-13T15:39:37-08:00

Yummy!

Coolwhip — 2008-10-13T09:08:53-08:00

looks good. it's getting there ;0

Carl H — 2008-10-13T07:19:26-08:00

long time and no update, thats what a gas shortage in the southeast will do to you!
this week is my fall break and i have used part of it to try and finish up the car...luckily its almost there.
the first order of buisness was to finish up the exhaust and piping so that it wouldnt be incredibly loud as only open headers can provide.
I fabed up a 'y' pipe to connect the headers to the exhaust and to also form an 'x' pipe to help ballance out the sound that the unequal lenght headers might create.

here is the finished product:

a shot down the vband flange, unfortunately there was no way to expand the piping to reach the full id of the flange, so this will most likely cause some turbulance but i cant imagine enough to make a noticable difference in hp output.

the whole header back exhaust, i had to cut the mounting points off of the exhaust and reweld them for it to fit properly...had poor fitment when i started.

undercar shot of the exhaust, sorry for the poor lighting but was hard to take a picture at the time.

quick shot of what it looks like from the cockpit, fuel pressure gauge is there to diagnose the hesitation issues i was having:

instumentation, stock cluster works perfectly without fail, hud unit its self has failed but the digi speedo works correctly; tachometer has been recalibrated and i offer this service along side my wiring services.

sideprofile:

tail shot:

here are a few shots of the 95% complete engine bay, a few things to clean up here and there but very close to being complete.
need to wire wheel the rust off of the battery tray area and seal to prevent more rust as well as clean up the power supply wire.
dont mind the mountain dew bottle, have to source out a new catch tank as the one on the car is beyond dead (suprise suprise).

have to source out a new fuel pump, mount the battery properly, and modify the hood and she'll be on the streets!

Re: (Carl H)

l0nestar — 2008-09-16T10:42:48-08:00

Very nice man. I can't wait to see how this thing moves.

Bronze MFP — 2008-09-16T07:53:46-08:00

in regards to the PS pump, if it is being overdriven, i just had an idea on how to maybe reduce the flow it puts out. I may be completly off base here as i've not seen the internals of the q45 pump, BUT, i remember when disabling the rear HICAS part of the R32 gtst pump on my old swap, that you had to remove a bunch of metal fins inside the pump. well assuming the q45 pump is the same design, and its being terribly overdriven, would tearing apart the pump and removing maybe half or more of the fins be an acceptable way of bringing the pump output back into check?
just another hair brained, half-cocked idea from yours truly...