I had this build on another forum that went down so I'll put it up here, I have the pictures but lost everything I wrote so this may be a bit short on the story side of it.

Here is the donor car, well front half of it (not sure what year it is). Nissan President HG50 with a vh45de. This engine was extremely clean and well taken care of in the glove box there was all the owners manuals and complete service history. The engine has just under 99,000kms on it. I'm guessing the car is from around 1994 and it had quite a lot of features for a car of its age, such as a factory TV in the dash and a whole bunch of other fancy electronics, it also has hydraulic suspension.





Had it dropped off in my driveway so I had to get the engine out asap so I could move the front cut around and get my driveway back.



and here she is doesn't look like it here but this is a very wide engine. It's a 90 degree motor vs the VQ which is 60 degree.



I took the ecu and anything else I thought I might need from the front cut then got rid of it.

Time to get the VQ35 out of the 350z.



That's my dirty vq30det 180sx build in the back.

All factory here.



Its easy to get the front off the 350z so I did that seeing as I'm sure the vh45 will be going in and out many times for test fitting.



Nothing exciting but worth noting that the 350z A/C fittings are these springlock type:



So I borrowed some of these which makes getting them off easier, you can make this kind of tool with a bottle cap or something similar but it wasn't a problem to borrow some:



Goodbye vq





More to come..

Welcome to NICO!

Sweet first post man! Can't wait to see your progress!

Part 2..

Next was to add a return fuel line for the VH seeing as the VQ had a returnless system.

Here are some of the fittings I got to make the return along with the aluminium pipe that will go from the engine bay to the tank and also the CJ motorsports intank return setup.



The intank return setup done.. you can't really see much, but it's all important stuff.



In a few more pics you will see where the hard line I made runs up the back of the firewall.

On the fuel rail I flipped the fuel damper around so that it faces the rear of the engine to meet up with the new fuel line location on the firewall.



As you can see the return line comes to the back and the feed (wrapped up in masking tape) also faces the rear now.



Now time to add a throttle cable seeing as the VQ is drive as drive by wire.

First the pedal, I cut the top bit off the pedal from the front cut I had and welded it to the top of the 350z pedal so now it looks like this.



I don't have a before picture but just imagine it without that bit on top..

Anyway here the pedal is installed.



I had a new throttle cable made up to be the exact length to reach the throttle body. Normally the throttle cable goes to the right side of the engine for cruise control stuff and then another throttle cable from there to the throttle body (you can see this in the very first pic in build) so I got rid of that because its ugly and useless now.

There isn't really a good place to put this cable through so I just put it where it fit and it was a very tight fit.



Later I changed the mismatched bolts and put a protective sleeve over the cable there that was just an initial test fit.

And finally here the throttle cable comes into the engine bay, along with that fuel return line I was talking about earlier.

Moving your topic to the Z forum so more folks can see this awesome build!

frapjap wrote:Moving your topic to the Z forum so more folks can see this awesome build!

Cool thanks man I thought it got deleted at first.

Time to get the power from the engine to the gearbox.

Old pressure plate and clutch.



I dont have a picture of the standard flywheel anywhere but it was just the stock dual mass one I'm sure you guys know all about that.

New ACT 6 puk clutch and lightweight flywheel.





Seeing as I was using an adaptor plate between the vh45 and stock 350z gearbox I had to make a flywheel spacer which would also hold the spiggot bush for the input shaft, no pics of the bush installed, anyway here's the spacer.

Front



Rear



And here it all is put together, the gearbox adaptor plate, flywheel spacer, flywheel and then ACT clutch and pressure plate.



Gearbox on.



till the next episode..

Nice work!

Did you have to replace a valve cover gasket on the drives side cylinder bank?

Any other PM- timing chain, water pump, etc?

Yes I replaced both sides and cleaned that mess that you can see, I checked the timing chain it looked good and good metal guides, water pump was also replaced. I don't think I have pics of inside the engine but it is extremely clean.

Time to test fit the engine before drawing up some mounts.

It's just sitting on blocks of wood in the picture to test fitment.


The owner did not want to get rid of the carbon fiber driveshaft and move gearbox back etc so the gearbox is bolted up using the original crossmember position.

Having the engine in this position meant I had to cut a small amount off the front of the sump, can't seem to find a picture of it but there isn't much to see anyway.

The donor car that the vh45 came out of had active suspension so the power steering pump was huge, I used the 350z pump and put it on the left side of the engine. Here is a bracket I made up to mount it.



and the pump mounted on the engine



The oil filter was relocated in front of the left side wheel.

Engine mounts were done from laser cutting and have been welded.



Here is a better view of it from the side (left side mount)



Then finally got to test fit the engine with the mounts and exhaust manifolds on, the drivers side (RHD) exhaust manifold had to be cut to clear the steering shaft.

After cutting the manifold this is what I was left with.



The gap is smaller than it looks in this picture, it was about 2cm between the exhaust and the steering shaft.


Next update will be the first start video.

Nice job! Do you have a machine that cuts metal like that in your home, or is that work 'sponsored?'

Will you do a custom exhaust manifold on the drivers side? Whats your plan to get everything talking? Full stand alone?

I am getting a machine for myself at home soon, but for now I get it done through work.. I wouldn't call it sponsored though I pay the usual price for it.

I am using the stock manifold, just cut as shown above and then after that a few bends to get around the shaft nicely and clear the gearbox and then the stock vh45 flange welded back on. I don't have any pictures of it unfortunately, I started another build at that time and got a bit slack on taking pics. After the vh45 manifold flanges there is a straight pipe of each side which is in place of the 350z cat converters and then the rest of the exhaust is stock 350.

As for ECU it is using both the vh45 ecu and the 350z ecu to run things, the 350z has a canbus system and if you want things like all the gauges on the dash working and maybe some other things then you need the 350z ecu in place.

Audio is really bad and doesn't do it justice you just need to turn it up a bit, still doesn't sound as good as it does in person though

Freggin' awesome man!
That sound so sexy! Is that open headers? Whats the exhaust plan?

Is it driveable yet?

Yeah that's just with exhaust manifolds on. From there the manifolds will just connect to the standard 350 exhaust with straight pipes, so removing the 350 cat convertors.

Yes it's driveable.

Here is the fuse and relay panel I made up, last pic of it before getting tidied up and hidden away.




Radiator to engine clearance



Last pic I have of it before it before I took it for its first drive and got some hose clamps etc to finish it 100%



And the next project...

Wow man! That is some top notch work! Plans on its use? Daily driving? Racing?

Whats the next project there?

At the moment the plans for it are just a daily driver and 3-4 track days a year, later on it will be boosted and then probably see more track time.

Next project is an awd rb30det going in a r32.

How's the V8 been running? Any new videos?

Did you start up the R32 project?

v8 is running very well treats the 285 wide tyres on the rear like they're 155's, it's got a new exhaust now but no video yet might get one soon.

As for the r32 progress came to a stop the engine was ready a while ago but the owner had completely stripped the engine bay to paint it etc and has misplaced and forgotten where many things go and we've both been busy so I haven't had a chance to go look at it for myself yet hopefully within the next few weeks I can sort it out and put the engine in.

quick question. what fly wheel and starter motor did you use? Iam currently doing the a similar conversion vh45 to z33 6 speed gearbox with a 5/8 thick gearbox adaptor plate from collins adaptors and brainstorming ideas on how to get the starter motor to line up with a fly wheel.

Bump, any updates on this thing? Pretty sweet build!

Nice build, keep us posted

Quick update, still running amazing. Did a massive 900km trip in one day and not a single issue. And it has since been wrapped, excuse the dirt - photo was taken after 450km

Awesome build!