Irax, I know why you thought it....we have all these rediculous numbers crammed in our heads, for car parts and such that we might never actually use, but at the same time, should the oportunity present itself, and we have the spare $50 laying around, we can take those parts and make something crazy with them! Bad thing is, by the time it comes up, we gotta scratch our heads for half an hour to remember which part is what. Right there with ya!

aint that the truth brother.

though... i could of sworn that there was a gen Q45 that had the R230 diff....

well it doesn't really matter anyways since i already know i want the first gen and Z/G axles for strength anyways.

hi, thanks for the info. thats probably why im struggling to find compatable parts as all the pathfinders over here are diesel (due to fuel prices!) so the only car we have had with the vq engine is the 350z and the altima. as for the tb engine, same again i'm afraid, all the pathfinders over here are diesel. complete nightmare when i'm trying to get parts!

I could still do with a bit of help sourcing a starter motor to fit in the VQ35DE rev up (2006 manual 350z engine) on the RIGHT hand side starter hole instead of the left one as the engine is now transverse in the back of my car and the driveshaft now fouls the original hole. any ideas??

many thanks in advance

SpecDRacing wrote:. . . . . Brake switch wire, anothe ritem monitored by the ECM to anticipate load or lack of load, also needed to properly keep the engine running within the EPA limits of being "clean".

The BRAKE SWITCH signal is when source voltage (12V) makes its way through the switch to the ECM, meaning the brake pedal is depressed. If the driver is holding the pedal down for a good while, the ECM will recognize this and inform the driver by entering fail safe. You would have to be a GRANNY to make this happen. I'm sure the time limit is something in the minutes, not seconds. Also, without hooking up the brake switch to the ECM, the ECM will NEVER see this signal, therefore, this code should not pose a problem. If it does, no biggy, just add a second brake switch to your brake pedal (or a relay from the pedals switch) to supply a 12v source to the ECM. I would not recommend wiring this directly into your existing brake pedal switch, as this swith also feeds the tail lights, and will draw more current than you want, which could (in a rare case) be potentially harmful to the ECM.

Hope that helps! Later gang!

In the 2004.5 FSM P1805 specifically lists NOT receiving a signal for an 'extremely' long time will cause the fail safe mode on this normally open circuit.

Possible causes listed are an open or shorted circuit or broken switch indicates that the ECU must receive a brake signal occasionally or it will go into safe mode.

Nissan was so helpful by excluding the exact time period that a signal must be received which is irrelevant if the ECU will never get a signal without the switch hooked up.

It doesn't sound like anyone has had any issues but I'm going to hook it up to be on the safe side.

Thanks for the tip on not tapping into the S14 brake switch to avoid over voltage to the ECU SpecD.
Modified by Umai Kakudo at 8:32 PM 5/10/2009

Wow, awesome build. Any chance you can message/email me with prices? I have a bone stock 89 240SX that I just purchased. I really wanted to do the VQ swap, but all of my research is showing it as just not that practical. I think Imma go with the SR swap, depending on your prices. Im also from NC, central.... like 20 minutes from Greensboro. Im also a mechanic, which is why Im leaning towards an SR... I can most likely do the swap myself with little to no difficulty.

But, get with me about the pricing if you would. And, if you dont mind, how much would you charge to go through the block and head of an SR?

My brother just dropped off a custom firewall grommet adapter for S14 and it is BALLER!





Note: A notch needs to be cut out of the outer flange to get the grommet to seat fully.







The hole in the firewall of an S14 is much smaller than the Z33. I initially tried to remove the S14 firewall grommet and put it on the Z33 harness but that was a PITA and the S14 grommet was too small to fit and ripped.

I was stupid and took off the Z33 grommet and that was a PITA as well.

After I ruined the S14 grommet I thought about making a custom grommet ring.

My brother has a lathe and initially we were going to use some solid 4" aluminum or HDPE round stock to machine a spacer but the cost of the stock was at least $40 and it was a lot of material wasted to get machined out.

He had some carbon fiber at his disposal so he made up a mold and did some quick wet layup work.

The spacer is badass and best of all it is super easy to install (Plug and Play!).

I don't know how others have been resolving the firewall grommet issue but this is a sweet OEM like solution.

Extra bonus: here is a writeup I did on the dimensions of the S13, S14, and Z33 front swaybars and compatibility with installing on a S14.

http://nissanroadracing.com/vb...age=4

Beautiful. I want to see it installed.

Ah, but you are forgetting something....... "The ECM does NOT recieve a brake switch signal for an extremely long time durring driving"......key here is DURRING DRIVING, which means the ECM is recognizing that the vehicle is in motion. This is rational logic (seriously, thats how its referred to by us nissan folk), meaning that the ECM uses information available to compare to information it is seeing and determine if a fault exists. So, unless you are planning to install an ABS unit to your vehicle, along with reluctor wheels and wheel speed sensors, you need not worry about this code. The ECM never knows your driving unless it recieves a speed signal (via the CAN lines) from the ABS unit. I drove my car straight to Atlanta from Charlotte, never did it have any problems (well, an exhaust bracket broke due to crappy roads, but that was it). You can hook it up, but I really doubt it will make a difference. Good work checking over everything though!

so as long as you never send a speed signal to the ecu it will never know your driving?

Exactly. No ABS unit to send the speed signal through the CAN lines = no speed signal to the ECM.

Back to Andy's Auto Sport. I recieved confirmation that my body kit has been shipped (the Bloodline Body Kit for the 89-94 240SX). Hopefully, this is for that and the Vision rear bumper I ordered. It is supposed to be here on Monday the 18th. I had written them a few emails regarding the invoice and a few questions I had about other cars. I will say, don't expect too much out of the customer service side of AAS, as the replies were typically limited to one sentence. Not exactly what I would expect, but on the upside, they are cheap, and I see that my order has been shipped. I will check it out Monday when it gets to my dealership, and fill you all in. Also, I have more pictures to post of my car and it's progress.

well that is good to know, but i'm using 02 maxima ecu so the only can lines in that whole car are two that goto the TCM in the automatic cars. I wonder if it will be the same.

Im in the precess of doing a vq35 swap myself, but instead of buying just parts, i got an entire 350z that was totaled. the engine runs perfect, though.

anyways, my plan was to hook everything up the same way as it was in the 350z, basically putting the entire woring harness from the z into the 240sx (right down to the 240sx bulbs operating on the 350z relays, etc.)

Also swapping over the gauge cluster, maybe the entire dash...

I dont really care for TCS or ABS, but I was going to hook them up just to avoid headaches. The 240sx doesnt have wheel speed sensors, though, which is no problem out back because I can re-use the 350z ones, but out front that could be tricky...

So my question is, if i cant hook up wheel speed sensors to the front, what other wires should I unplug to keep the system happy? Would wheel speed sensors from an ABS equpped 240sx do the same thing? I assume the're standard hall effect sensors, but maybe not...

On a somewhat unrelated topic, the 350z seems to have 2 fuel level sensors, and i dont know if i should install both into the 240sx tank somehow, or if I could just run both sets of wire to the same sensor or something like that... or maybe try and hook both sending units to one float...

so basically does this mean if i just ditch the entire ABS system including wheel speed sensors, i wont have any problems?

ABS is for sissies anyways. haha.

I dont actually remember how the 350z is wired... do the wheel speed sensors lead to the main computer and then to the abs unit, or to the abs unit and then the main computer?

Good question......as for ABS for sissies, well, I wish I had it when I rearended a guy two years ago. He cut me off by changing over 3 lanes in traffic and slamming on brakes to make a turn. I had nowhere to go, and since he couldn't see me when he did it, he didnt know I was gonna be plowing through his rear quarter panel. What made it worse was, when I walked up to check on him to see if he was ok, he only said to me "I hope you have insurance, cause I think my back hurts." I stepped back and thought to myself, this guys gonna try to make a living off of me. Luckily I had a witness, and turns out, his insurance company was the same as mine. So when I told them that I had a witness, and that since I work for Nissan, I wouldn't mind just fixing the car myself, they agreed and denied his claim all together. He did something stupid, ended up doing something even dumber, and all he finished with was a busted up car with a 30 day tag (old lincoln towncar, I mean really, who finances a mid 90's towncar???) In any case, if I had ABS on my car, it might have never happened.

Back to your situation, I think it will work fine if you get it all hooked up. Im sure you can run the front wheel speed sensors from a later model 240SX if you switch to the S14 front spindles (have to anyway for a 5 lug conversion). Do that, and keep the ABS, not to mention, you'll have a working speedo by using the 350z cluster. If you have the whole car, make it easy on yourself and hook it ALL up. I know it looks like alot, but if you can do that, you'll save yourself alot of headaches. You'll still have codes for EVAP and stuff like that, unless you actually run the vent tubes and canister, but all the other stuff will work great, not to mention you'll be ditching the 20 year old wiring in your 240 for the newer stuff.

Hey man i've been reading your thread, great job by the way but i was wondering if u were still doing the vq swaps if so i more or less just need wiring and driveshaft done. I only have the motor, tranny, and ecm so far but i may be able to get all the other electrical components. If you can help me out out just lmk a estimate on what it may run me. Thanks (Sent u a email couple days ago)

There's a few things i would really like you to find out for me...

The VQ30det (Factory Auto only RWD), will that bolt up to a 350Z 6MT?

Are the Auxillaries (Powersteering & Alternator) on the VQ30det the same as the VQ30de Maxima

We dont have a huge variety of VQ's here in Aus, but i managed to track down a failed project VQ30det, less auxillaries, but with 2 ECU's and wiring loom.

I also want a manual, and a bolt up 6MT would be GREAT!

I plan on keeping one ECU standard and the other I'll NISTUNE.

I promised you guys I'd post up pics once I had some of the body work I've been doing. Seeings how my car was rediculously ugly for the past two years, I think it's time I fixed a few things. Nothing is finsihed yet, but this should help you guys get some ideas for yourselves.



Yes, thats the hood. VERY ugly at the moment. The passenger side is smooth and only needs to be sanded with a high 200 grit and then a final with something around 350. The driver side is covered in fiberall. Its like kitty hair, but alot easier to sand and better to spread. By the way, that scoop is not an add on, that is the actual hood. I cut out three sides of a square (leaving the cowl side intact), hammered out the curves, heated and dollied the humps for the throttle and manifold, then welded more metal in between the scoop and the hood. Fiberall went in over the welds and to bring the hood up (no gulleys or ditches) and then some primer to smooth it all out. Fiberall will have small bubbles in it that you have to poke out with a pick, or else the bondo and/or primer may bubble up later on in life.



A look from the front. The upper edge of the scoop is made from a thin peice of stock. Its available at any hardware store. I think its about 2.5 mm thick and has one rounded side. That side makes for a great edge of the scoop, not to mention it will add strength. Just weld it in and sand it down. Make sure when your welding sheet metal to do spot welds every few inches, and never on the same side. The metal heats and warps, making for a harder time keeping things straight. If I had done a better job, I might not have needed the fiberall at all, but hey, I'm only good at making things go, I can't say much for my body work. I'll admit it, I suck at it! But its fun!!!



A shot from the side. The side skirts and front bumper are from the Andy's Auto Sport Bloodline body kit. This kit looks great, but needs a good bit of work prior to installation. For one, its thin, I mean THIN, so I added more fiberglass to the inside of the front bumper to strengthen it. The edges aren't cut very well, I had to file almost every edge to get things to fit without warping. Also, the lines around the headlights were pretty sorry. Whoever cut them out, just didnt leave enough. Had they left too much, I could have easily trimmed them to fit perfectly, but since they didnt, it looks like Im going to have to converter the flip ups to some sort of sealed type. Dont get me wrong here, for the price, I got a great looking kit that didn't require too much work, but be sure to reinforce it and take your time, and you'll get things to look correct.



This shows the bumper but what I really want everyone to see is how much I had to pull the front fender to get the lines to even out. Where the front fender meets the bumper, I had to crease it (yes, bad thing normally) so that it would be wide enough to make a smooth line. Before, the front bumper looked like those hondas where there kit looks like the car is wearing bell bottoms. After pulling the fender, it brought the upper part of the bumper (where it meets the fender) out along with the fender, to give it a straight down line. It also made the car look wider. I will have to add some small crossbars in here to keep things in place, should something hit it like a shopping cart or a soccer ball. Also, where the bumper comes to the headlights, on the factory piece, is folded down and fits between the brackets, adding support and ensuring a proper fit. The Andy's Auto Sport bumper is missing this.....further more, the it was trimmed TOO much, so now I have to add material.



I did the same thing on the drivers side. This pic is closer, so you can see where the front bumper comes over the fender. This area needed a good bit of sanding and the fender again needed to be pulled. One good thing about this kit, it covers the bottoms of the fenders. I had a pretty bad aread (bent up) on the passenger side. I spent a full day dolling all the creases and dents out to get that fender bay straight and guess what, noone will ever see it (which might be good, like I said, I suck and body work, and what I think is good might have someone else thinking WTF). I also am not sure of the molds they used. Each part seemed a good bit too small. I had to file and sand to get things to fit. I also had to roll my front fenders (even more) to get the kit to fit. One day in the sun though and everything seamed to loosen up. I guess thats what fiberglass does. Dont be scared if its not a perfect fit, it will settle after a day or two in the sun.



While the side skirts fit fairly well, they too are not made quite right. They didnt line up with the stripe on the car (which will be gone and filled before I paint) which is where I assume (by design) they were intended to fit. The inner portion that secures under the door was ok, but did not have enough for me to trim and get a tight fit to the cabin shell. Now I will have to fill this gap with fiberall as well. If you do fit the kit up to the stripe line, your side skirts might fit a tad better, but again, you get the bell bottoms look, and we've all laughed at those cars before. You can see here that I used torque screws countersunk into the fiberglass. The tops will still nee to be grinded flat and some small filler applied over them. These screws typically do better if things need to be removed in the future. I used this same screw over the entire kit.



Now this is a very well built rear bumper. It was made by vision and its made of a material called vfiber. It is a good material. I'd say its more of a high quality fiberglass than a flexible fiberglass, I'd be scared to twist it the way they do in their ads, but....then again, it has proven to be a pleasure to install. I had plenty of extra where I needed it, to file and sand so things would line up. And I really only had to do this on the sides where the bumper covers the rear quarters. The lines were straight and clean cut. Even the tag light areas was nice. I only had to drill holes and mount the lights. My muffler needs to be moved but thats no big deal.



Ignore the shop, its a mess. This shows the side and rear of the car. I think its going to look really nice if I dont screw it up.



Another look but closer to the front. I think the scoop is going to look fine with this kit. Ya know, some things just don't belong together, like seeing a hot chick at a urinal. Even worse, I noticed braille on a drive up ATM....I mean REALLY! Now that's scary. Back to the car, so if I can just stay focused and not get into a rush, I might be able to get this finished in a few weeks.



DONT DO THIS! This is a booboo. This is what I get for not doing a fitment check. I needed to remove some material where the bumper covers the quarter, and ended up filing too much. Now I have to fill this with fiberall, then shape the line it so it looks normal.

My summary so far, well, it didnt take long to get the kit. It was in good shape, shipped quickly and was cheap! Down side is the AAS stuff did not have the right folds in the kit to make use of all of the factory brackets the way they were intended. I had to modify the AAS parts a bit to get good fitment and also had to reinforce them. The Vision bumper was nice to work with, allowed for the use of two of the four factory brackets and seems to be alot more sturdy. I would have liked if the top bracket would have been used, so I wouldn't have to make one, but for the price, you get alot. Customer service at Andys Auto Sport was at best ok. One line email responses and minimal enthusiasm. So plus one for cheap price, good looks and fast shipping, minus one for extra effort, poor trim work (making me add to areas, rather than take away) and slack customer service. Vision, please, make a hot looking body kit. Copy the Chargespeed silvia kit and make it in VFiber, that would be awesome and cost way less than the 3K you would have in the CS kit (conversion, kit and paintwork).

More updates will come as I get things finished. So far, my cheap body kit is comming along nicely. Though, I am getting ever closer to the $1K mark.
Modified by SpecDRacing at 4:43 PM 5/21/2009

Cool, man, sounds like a good idea. Im going to try and find the s14 spindles. Im assuming the're both the same type of hall-effect sensor, since it seems like most of them are...

And yea, I was kind of joking when i said ABS is for sissies. I dont really like the idea of it coming on when im trying to tear around a track... especially since im more concerned with getting my personal skills up as a driver as opposed to saving .25 seconds... but I grew up near buffallo and my honda has no ABS. It really comes into play when your minding your own business and the oh sh*t factor appears...

The coupes coming along nicely too. Those wheels look good on an s13, which actually kinda surprised me, seeing as how they look so modern

yeah man, I can definately see how ABS would ruin a day at the track. Thanks for the comment on the coupe. I just started the headlight buckets today. I'm making the buckets for projectors, like what raceonusa makes, but for WAY less! I have $13.00 in them so far. I'll take pics soon of all the progress. I will probably have about $50.00 in the headlight conversion by the time it's all said and done. Not bad, considering I will pay that much for the stock units anyway.

hey specdracing i am currently doing a vq35de swap in my s14 and im about to start the wiring on it and i was wondering if you would be willing to give me a few hint on what exactly is involved thanks

anyone know if there are the same amount of teeth on the 350 front wheel sensors as the ABS equipped s14 240sx?

...or perhaps a high-res photo so I could start counting...

pretty sure its the same since the rear 5lug hub is interchangeable.

They might be the same, unfortunately, the only real way to tell is to put them side by side. I would agree with irax, they should work.

A few new pics of the body work. I've been working on molding the side skirts into the fenders/quarters because the upper edges of them were pretty rough, and would require more material on them prior to shaping them. The easier route was just to fiberall them in. Also, the edge on the rear bumper that sticks out by the rear quarter panel is being filled. This way it matches the rest of the car. Also, I have been filling in the channel that the stripe runs down. All this is still in progress (along with the hood) because I came across a picture of the Raceonusa headlamp buckets. I had to have them, but wasn't willing to pay $300.00 for them. We did find them for as little as $169.95, but that was still too much. I headed to the local hardware store and picked up 2, 12"x 24" sheets of 22 ga steel. Each sheet is making a bucket. I also picked up some small rivets, two 36" long pieces of 1/8" thick steel (stock) and a sheet of .80mm acrylic plastic (cheaper than Lexan, but not as tough). Top it off with a few torx screws and you get a decent knock off of the raceonusa buckets, without the price. Im about $30.00 deep right now, and that should be it. I will be using the low beam lights from a 93-97 camaro that I will convert to bi-xenon HID's, and a seperate fog light will also be installed.

Here's the pics:



Here's the bucket. I cut the acrylic to match the lines of the hood, then I bent pieces of steel that I had precut to fit, to match the contours of the hood. I used double sided sticky tape to secure the steel to the acrylic, which gives it the correct bend. Then I drilled holes through the plastic and steel to secure the cover to the bucket. I shimmed it all with a few nuts and some washers. This allowed me to get the curve, without making it hard to make the bucket.



Another look. The first cover I made wasn't cut correctly, nor did it bend to follow the slope of the hood, so it looked pretty nasty. I did dust it with white paint to see what it would look like. It is pretty cool. From the sides, the old lid looked like part of the body, while this lid (clear one) just reflects. I'll stick with the clear for a bit, and make an extra set that are painted. That way I can switch them out if I feel like it.



A look at it on the car. It is the drives side light. This pic was with my phone, so I doubt it will be very good. I will take more pics with the good camera. The bucket was pretty simple to make. I measured the width of the light opening, depth and height. I used a 2 1/2" tube to roll the bottom edges up, allowing extra for the sides and mounting surface of the lid. The back piece was cut and bent to allow for rivets on the bottom, sides and top of the bucket. Smear a little silicone along the corners in the bottom back/sides of the bucket and you get a smooth surface. I did give it a light sand with 300 grit, then cleaned it and primered it. A few coats of gloss white enamel and its time to sand it again and throw one more coat on (not to mention, I have some fingerprints and dirt to get out).



A closer pic. If you can see the blemishes just under the lid (by the steel) thats because I was too impatient to wait for the paint to dry fully. My first lid was secured with sticky tape straight to the bucket for drilling. This double sided tape pulled the paint right off. That tells me that I didn't sand there well enough and I didn't wait long enough. In any case, nothing a little more sanding and painting can't fix.

Hope you guys are liking this and I'll post more pics soon.
Modified by SpecDRacing at 6:09 PM 5/28/2009

looks tight man. id wanna hear this bouncin off the rev limiter lol. what are your plans with it after you finish the swap?

I might actually be selling this car when I'm finished. Not sure yet.

Excellent work Bruh...

Nice. I think i will look better a dark color.

Hopefully I will be doing this swap soon as well. Your thread was very informative!

any updates? i want to see how your headlights turned out!

http://www.vq666.com/forum/

Ok, so no-one i know of has used the 350z diff for this swap... i happen to have one and was wondering if it would be possible to put it in...

the subframe would have to be modified, but thats not a huge deal... the huge deal is the axles. the short axle from the 350z is about the right length to be used as the long axle for my s13, but i still need a shorter axle...

the shorter axle has to be about 1 3/8ths inches shorter than the 350z's short axle, or about 2 3/4ths inches shorter than the 350zs long axle...

anyone know if there are any nissan axles out there that i could use for this application?

otherwise im gonna have to use a different diff, or spend bills on a custom axle...

I also heard that the g35 has a skinnier track than the 350z.... does this mean it has shorter halfshafts? and by how much?

Modified by fireslave at 4:18 PM 7/30/2009
Modified by fireslave at 4:18 PM 7/30/2009