1974 260Z VH45DE(T) project

[Olderthanme]

I have been playing with my L26 powered 260Z for a couple years now and am tired of the 120whp...The car has coilovers all the way around and illumina strut inserts. I also have some slightly bigger than stock Toyota pickup 4 piston brakes (bolt- on upgrade).

now to add some spice.picked up this today...Now to attach a Z32 transmission or T56.The auto transmission is for sale BTW.

[elwesso]

Very nice!!!

I think the 5 speed suits it better, the gearing is great for the VH...

welcome to NICO

[Olderthanme]

Hey Thanks for the wecome!I'm going to be upgrading the rear driveline as well as the motor/transmission. The easy thing to do is get an R200 and slap it in there with a 280z mustache bar. The better thing to do is find a Dana 44 independent pumpkin and build the mounts for it. That way I can tailor the rear end depending on how I am feeling...lol No more leaky R180 junk.

Bodywork is also in the planning stages. I'm looking at using the Wolf V500 EMS for this engine and hooking up some LS1 coils.The engine has 120k miles on it which is pretty good. I may go ahead and get it overbored and some lower compression pistons put in.

I'll be ditching the spider that is sitting on top of the engine in favor for some home-built ITB's.

Lots of plans for this motor. Looking to get into the 500hp~ish range with 10-15Lbs of boost.I became addicted to boost driving Dad's Porsche 944 turbo. And that is only 220hp@12PSI!

(BTW I have 3000+ posts on other Z car forums...I'm no noob. :-D)

[T45]

Sweet, my roomate had a 260 and that thing would haul with just the 6 in it. Oversize pistons can be found up to 1mm overbore but lower compression pistons are still un-sourced under $2500 or having some custom ones made up on your own. There are people looking into other pistons like VQ35's and such so it shouldn't be much longer before someone figures it out.

[AZhitman]

Welcome aboard!

The web's foremost VH experts are here, and you'll find TONS of support for your project!

It's great that people are finally starting to see the usefulness of the VH - and no added weight!

[defrag010]

hey cool, I've seen you on hybridz.org. I built a 3.4L L28 stroker here a while back with ford 4.6 pistons, but the guy I sold it to let it sit out in the rain and it got ruined.

hope you enjoy your VH

[Olderthanme]

Sweet, my roomate had a 260 and that thing would haul with just the 6 in it. Oversize pistons can be found up to 1mm overbore but lower compression pistons are still un-sourced under $2500 or having some custom ones made up on your own. There are people looking into other pistons like VQ35's and such so it shouldn't be much longer before someone figures it out.

$2500??? Can't you get some forged custom pistons for around a grand? What about pistons from another V8? I read something about chevy pistons?What is needed is to add the VH45 to the Nissan engine calculator:http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/enginedesign/

I can't wait to get this project underway! This is an old sketch I did with an OHV V8..This just shows turbo placement that I'm looking to do if there is room. I'm just going to route the exhaust through the battery box (relocating the battery) to a single huge sidepipe on the passenger side.

AZhitman, Thanks! I noticed that with the auto trany it weighs about the same as my 2.6 liter w/ transmission with an iron block...LOL It may weigh less with a Z32 transmission.

Defrag, Cool!I am designing a 3.3 L6 using some trick parts and no crank welding. Now just to build a prototype...It would cost a bit more than a rebello 3.2 L6...

[T45]

To my knowledge Escort is the only mfg. of low compression pistons for the VH45 that you can just call and order. Like I said, some guys have had pistons custom made but that's the only "off the shelf" pistons currently available.

[Olderthanme]

I don't mind doing custom pistons. I have built several theoretical engines with both custom and OE pistons. I also have access to some trick parts. This engine may get some super-trick stuff from a top of the line cylinder head builder. We'll have to see what happens there. :-D

I may get some custom cams ground. That will depend on what happens with the rest of the engine though.

[450Z]

As you'll find out it's a great combination. Allot of work but well worth it.Welcome to the "Dark Side of Nissan V8 powered Z"Be carefull HP is additive!

[Olderthanme]

As you'll find out it's a great combination. Allot of work but well worth it.Welcome to the "Dark Side of Nissan V8 powered Z"Be carefull HP is additive!

Thanks for teh comments Marc!If Nissan raced a V8 Z then I can too right? :-D

I am likeing this engine more the more I read about it. Maybe some aftermarket will come for the VH after this build. ;-)

I'm not going to be using stock headers so frame clearance hopefully won't be too much of an issue.

OTM/Dan

[hannibal]

Cool project. I wanna see a VH with ITBs...

What year Tundra are the calipers from??

[Olderthanme]

Not from a tundra..

Cool project. I wanna see a VH with ITBs...

What year Tundra are the calipers from??

They are from a 79-85 4x4 pickup. All I had to do was trim the dust plate a little bit and they bolted right on. I'm probably going to end up with some full on racing brakes by the time I'm done (relatively) with the car. The 86+ calipers are bigger but require Z32 rotors and a spacer for the caliper.(IIRC)

OTM

[Olderthanme]

I may be keeping the auto transmission...Just as a word of warning to y'all...and with some sick plans for it.

[r200helical]

The better thing to do is find a Dana 44 independent pumpkin and build the mount.

What were those found in? Sorry to be a nissan noob but an irs dana 44 is rather intriuging.

Cheers!!

[ScottJackson]

C4 'vette (no, not a Chevette, a Corvette)

[Olderthanme]

like this:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWD1V

A 3.08 gear with LSD is perfect!!

[Olderthanme]

Hey guys...

I'm back home and started tearing into my VH some today. I pulled teh passenger side lower manifold runners and the passenger side valve cover. I HIGHLY doubt that Nissan used orange goo to seal the valve covers...

The valvetrain looks fine... There was some light sludge in the head bolts but I have seen MUCH worse. I think the valve stem seals are starting to go bad so I should pull the heads apart and replace the seals or just run the engine. I am *slightly* concerned about the condition of the main and rod bearings...I really don't want to pull the whole motor apart though.

The engine looks to be in good shape though.

Engine management is going to be via Wolf V500 from "Prime EMS".I've decided to keep the auto transmission and mod it when I raise the power levels.I'll also be sourcing a set of paddle shifters from some OE application.Supposedly Wolf will be able to manually control the auto. I saw the IPT transmission stuff and may end up using some of their upgrades.

[T45]

My engine had the orange rtv too. Apparently it was from when they changed the cam tensioners to the metal ones. You probably have them too.

If I were to do mine over again I would have just torn it down to a short block and left the bottom end alone. Then replaced all the gaskets, seals and cleaned everything up.

I ended up tearing it all the way down, new bearings, 94mm pistons, rings, crank polished, cleaned heads and did some minor port matching and polishing.

Also got a nico ecu to run it and deleted a few things along the way like egr, tcs, iac and charcoal canister. A lot of the things that improve economy but don't do a whole lot for good performance.

Your engine is proabably in good shape, however there are quite a few people on here that have put in high mileage engines and driven them hard and had issues with rods knocking. Ellisautoworks and gsracer have both had issues with rod knock and Mettler blew his up whilst trying to outrun a kiwi. (the flightless bird, not a fellow new zealander)

Better safe than sorry, if you can afford it.

[Olderthanme]

If anybody needs anyhting from the outside of my motor like EGR or any of the other fitings/selonoids just let me know and you can have them for shipping price. The only thing I'm really keping is the four outer intake runners. The curvy ones can be had.For now I'm also keeping the fuel system because I may re-use it. valves I think I'll pull the heads... There was oil on the stem of one of the valves. That probably means valve stem seals...

I will be drafting up some turbo exhaust manifolds in SolidWorks and should have them done by around new year's.

By this summer I plan on having some VH45 swap (intake and exhaust) manifolds available so you don't have to cut the hood for it to fit. I'm also going to try to retain the stock 420mm intake runner length because of the favorable helmholtz characteristics of that length.

[Olderthanme]

Here is the start on some turbo front mount exhaust manifolds I'm going to offer.

[Mettler]

Heh, I have some pieces like what you have there on the vice the other day.

Cut some 1.3/4" I.D. pipe to 40mm length and jammed one end in the vice and crushed it down to perfect exhaust port shape _b

Lookin good man, you designing that in solidworks?

[Olderthanme]

I was planning on 1 5/8" ID tubing for this project to keep exhaust velocities good for earlier turbo spooling. I haven't decided between twins or a big fat Holset HX50. I'm leaning toward the HX50 or an HX40 just because it will be cheaper and easier. I have PLENTY of engine bay space to play with. I was planning on making some sort of mandrel to put inside the tube as I crush it in a vice to maintain the proper shape.I can either re-use the stock flange or have new ones cut out on a CNC plasma table for a good price.

[Olderthanme]

OK so I am just learning more about my version of solidworks... There were a BUNCH of things I didn't learn in my Solidworks class at college...This is just practice and it will be completely re-done...I was up until WAY too early this morning working on this.I will need more room to clear steering shaft I believe.I really would like to build the header completely out of 2.25" radius bends and not have go down to a 1.5" radius

It would be REALLY cool to build a top mount header like for an SR20 but I dont want to have to pull the turbo to check the spark plugs...

[tmorgan4]

Somebody was looking for one of the lower intake runners in the classifieds wanted section not to long ago if you're planning on getting rid of them.

Nice project so far. I'm jealous of your Solidworks skills....I can't figure out how to bend a tube in there.

[Olderthanme]

I looked through 7 pages of the wanted ads and didn't see anything VH45 related. Do you know where it is/post a link?

Thanks!If whoever wants them can shoot me an email to my user name @infohq.com

SolidWorks does take some work to figure out... There is a reason that SolidWorks classes are soo expensive!!

[SuperHatch]

I looked through 7 pages of the wanted ads and didn't see anything VH45 related. Do you know where it is/post a link?

Thanks!If whoever wants them can shoot me an email to my user name @infohq.com

SolidWorks does take some work to figure out... There is a reason that SolidWorks classes are soo expensive!!

Interested in sending me a model of just the exhaust flange? I could use it for when I waterjet some flanges for my motor....

[Olderthanme]

Maybe...Shoot me an E-mail at olderthanme at infohq.com:-DJust put VH and exhaust flange in the title so I know it's you...
Modified by Olderthanme at 4:51 AM 12/22/2007

[David Steele]

Maybe...Shoot me an E-mail at [email protected]:-DJust put VH and exhaust flange in the title so I know it's you...

You should mask your email or else you will get spammed by programs that scan websites for emails.

Like this :

olderthanme at infohq.com

[Mettler]

Nice. I considered modeling up my headers, but lost motivation tbh... still gonna have to make them in place.