OK before i sell my baby i want to know if shes a future project. My ideal frankenstein would be a VQ3.5 with 6spd trans swap. If this is possible with mininal expense besides the motor and trans itself then shes a keeper. Im just not sure if this has been done yet or even possible at all.

Im also sure this has been asked before but ive tried stickies and poor man's search with no luck so please point me to the dead thread that says its not possible or give me some GOOD NEWS.

I also would have to say this would be a $2-3k project (naturally aspirated) if this doesnt seem realistic slap me OK.

 

It bolts right in.

 

huh? ur kidding right

 

I kid you not, yes?

 

Ill take that as a NO.
aww shucks and i thought she had some potential.

 

there IS potential...

but speed for a Maxima isn't something you just buy off the shelf like your small block chevy.

 

it is possible but it's not by any means an easy, cheap, quick whatever motor swap. i have seen it in a 4th gen and to our knowledge it hasn't been tried in a 3rd gen

 

Hi,

he not kidding,

the vq swap has been done on the 3rd gen,

 

if i had the entire front half of 2k2/3 lying around and a spare 3rd gen i'd definately take a shot at it.
but if you don't have that just forget about the whole thing IMO

 

Ill consider that my slap. I just looked and its going to cost me around $3000 minimum for the engine/trans alone.

Autotrader here i come...........


Thanks for the input guys.....im not a hardcore mechanic just hoping to keep my baby alive and interesting. I was hoping i could spruce her up a bit with minimal damage to my budget but it doesnt seem to be the case.

 

it can be done (at least the VQ with an auto has been done apparently)
http://internetautomart.com/gallery/VQ-in-3rd-gen

 

1. shop around for engine/trans
2. VE > VQ
3.

 

did anyone ever go to check out that vq'ed 3rd gen or was it sold before that?
was it fast?

 

i dont think anyone ever saw it in person, i belive he was always "busy" when someone wanted to look at it

 

the RB26DETT w/ the ATTESSA AWD system would be easier.

edit: nm, try the drivetrain off of the Chevy Corvair. That's supposedly quite the popular upgrade!

 

ahhh, just do a turbo vg. cost me somewhere around 1500-2000 to get it running.

 

it can be done. you would spend probably as much on custom fabrication/alteration of the firewall, fenders, mounting locations, ecu/wiring harness relocation/installation, tranny/axle fitment. as you would on the front clip.

take whatever fantasy figure you have here, like the 3k you threw out, and double that. it would still be cheaper to do a VQ swap than to buy a new car!!! that is quite an incentive if you think about it seriously.

 

thinking more about it, because why not, you would probably need to use the entire front suspension, or, moreover, the axles, hubs, spindles, struts, tie rods, rack&pinion system, sway bar, from the 5th gen. ie, my tack would be to "form," if you will, the 3rd gen's body "around" the entire 5th gen's up-front hardware.

i say this because in a highly scaled down version of this, you need to swap the entire driveline from a VE 3rd gen SE to the VG SE when doing the VLSD tranny swap.

then, as i have no idea of width-comparison, well... wait... the 5th gen's FSTB will fit the 3rd gen. ok. bingo. that is a good thing. this means that the strut towers from both cars are pretty much the same distance apart, if not the same. i would then assume, too, that the entire engine compartment is relatively similar in cubic volume because of this.

the issue then becomes retooling of the 3rd gen's unibody to accept the different mounting positions for all the newer hardware stuff. and re-routing the plumbing; it may be sweet.

anyway, before i continue with more fantasy thinking and spew out loads of crap, can someone else correct me or add something?

 

hmm. actually, think about using the entire front clip from the 5th gen, as a half-cut, and then grafting this onto the body of a 3rd gen, ie, cut off the front of the 3rd gen and weld in it's place the 5th gen's front.

then, take the exterior sheetmetal off of the 5th gen, the fenders, etc, and put the 3rd gen's on it. the underlying structure of the 5th gen would need to be shaved, altered, cut, sculpted then reinforced, to have the 3rd gen's outer skin mate to it.

this way, you have all proper geometry intended for the VQ as it sits in the maxima. you would need to use the steering column, too, from the 5th gen.

maybe all of this is too extreme and unnecessary. but this is what people do when they graft an R32 Skyline GTR front clip onto the 240SX -except there they keep the GTR sheetmetal. everything else, along with the RB26DETT (sans the ATTESSA tranny), is kept.

of course when most do swaps on the 240SX, it's body is unaltered. the engine does "drop in."

but in the case of the maxima, i would be more inclined to graft the entire front end of the 5th gen onto it, as it seems too problematic to just "drop in" the VQ --remember that the maxima is FWD. everything is up front in this case and interrelated. whereas the S14, being RWD, pretty much just needs the tranny crossmember and relocated engine mounts (and a relocation of the turbo to clear the USDM steering column). i'm talking hard stuff. not ecu, wiring harness, etc...

in the case of the maxima, it seems that far more needs to be altered than just motor mounts. you cannot even use VG spindles on VE axles. those must be changed. this is the reality of FWD. it is not easy to alter it. and now we're talking VQ. nothing is cross-compatible here.

i am certain, too, that one could keep the entire 3rd gen's body the same and just hack up the engine bay to accept the VQ. but i know you cannot use any of the 3rd gen's driveline. it must all be VQ stuff.

 

This offers no knowledge of a VQ in a 3rd gen. I don't know if they share similar mounting points if thats what you were trying to figure out. Anything is possible with time and money. Drop the old motor and tranny, level the car, chop out all the mounts, hang the new motor and tranny in the engine bay, don't hit the firewall (if you hit it, move it back), level it, make sure your height is cool, make sure you dont have weird angles from hubs to tranny, weld in mounts you chopped out in new spots (or fab mounts), start wiring, and connect all coolant and vacuum lines, buy (or make) custom axles, fab up the exhaust. That is the typical process using any car and motor. If you can do any of that work it really helps. You would need long term access to a shop or friends garage with all the tools and welders and the knowledge to use them. Or lots of money to pay someone else.

 

Okay, so you've gotta be kidding - that's a straight six rwd biased engine you're talking about - if it was easier than a VQ swap, we'd all be converting our cars to rwd and we all know that ain't possible without major, major fabrication to the whole car

 

I think he was just kiddin', bro!

 

rwd would be nice tho

 

Hi,

to turn a maxima into a rwd would take a lot of money and time to do and i think it would not be worth it,

 

o rly? I have RWD.














































edit: in reverse

 

Get that Toyota Cressedia (or however you spell it...)

7M-GE powah

 

Seeing as how you used the word minimal in describing the extra costs, you shouldn't even bother thinking about this swap

 

Hi,

here is the spelling for Toyota Cressida instead of Toyota Cressedia,

my aunt use to have the earlier Toyota Cressedia, it was a good car,

 

rwd conversion isn't quite as hard as you guys would think...

 

The swap should be easier than you think.
IF you know about swapping completely non-stock powerplants.
The biggest pain would be to get everything in the dash to function correctly.


and go AWD with the AXXESS's AWD setup

 

Anyone who wants a VQ in their 3rd gen should be banned.



on another note: fireworks

 

Hey... that was my idea.

I found some axxess awd's but everything was ripped out of them so I couldn't see the setup of it (bolt pattern, axle setup, height of the rear output, etc.)

 

I got the blue prints of both setups still...i think i posted them a while ago....ill email them to whoever wants to see them again.

 

i'll take a set if you don't mind.

 

ill take a looksee

 

10q, I got the first e-mail from ya and replied.