Ok so this guy:http://evilallianceracing.com/eVilbo...topic.php?t=70 (theres a graphic image of a man in a loin cloth beware) is at my house and we've been talking about random stuff including the grassroots motorsports $2006 challenge.

As it sits, i have a $100 parts car with many harnes's missing, along with most dash parts and other eletronics, and no tranny, and a badly beaten body. plus stitting in my garage, is a VG30e and 2 fwd auto trannies, and random maxima parts from gutting 2 cars, along with 8 extra 3rd gen rims and 6 tires.

So my ideas are as follows. Basic idea is use my 166K mile engine (never been abused for more then 2Kmiles of its life), and my $100 parts car maxima, then do what work I need to compete and make it run.

1st (and maybe easiest idea?) is use a front/rear layout, with the engine driving a 300zx 5 speed, which drives any IRS rear suspention Ive grafted to the rear of the car.

2ed idea- take above idea, but put the engine behind me, and the tranny connects directly to the back axle, giving me a good weight distribution. But I dont know if all this will fit.

also a spin on this idea, is to use the fwd tranny mounted to the engine, mounted in a F/R layout, then use some contraption to drive the rear wheels using IRS from some other nissan car. I have more indepth ideas on this, i can elaborate...the best advantage to this idea is the compactness, and it would let me place the engine in a more suitable area.

3rd idea- take my engine, and get another max 5 speed and mount every fwd part in the back of the car and make it RWD with the engine and tranny from a fwd car. Of course still FW steering as usual.

Ok ok I know sounds insane. But I can get my grandads extra welder, and all that happy stuff, and I like making things, and I want to do something diffrent. the $2006 challenge would be perfect for it. So yea, Im accepting donations and design ideas. Any takers?

~Alex

 

Go with the first idea

 

What's the point? Even if you happend to finish, it would be just as slow as before. Just rwd.

 

After milling around with the idea for a little bit... I came up with a weirder one. Take and make the Max AWD. 2 engines + 2 FWD trannies, and extra linkage. Imagine the 1/4 mile times.

 

but that SOB will be really heavy.... more than 4,000 lbs

 

Ehhh... who needs interior and such with a setup like that. You won't have any backseat space to take anyone along. Not to mention you have to get a different gas tank, new rear suspension.

Also might want to get some tubing on the bottom to stiffen the body. It can be done... just with a lot of money. Probably about the same, if not more than doing a VQ35DE swap.

 

ok, he's proposing a car for this : http://grmotorsports.com/news/category/2006-challenge/

my opinion is that the easiest way would be to take an M30's undercarriage and graft it under the max (1" difference in wheelbase)
if he can get a wrecked M30 cheap enough he can reclaim alot of his budget by selling off part

OK so I thought about this a little too much, but I'm not the only one

 

yea the best thing to do is get some other engine after selling all my old parts off.

lets see, since broaner used a 350z 6 speed, on a VQ30, I could do the oppisite and use a VQ35 and a 5 speed, because the 5 speed is cheaper and the VQ35 has some massive potential. Id use a 6 speed if the price was right of course.

The VQ35 with a custom intake (maybe cheap ITB's??) and custom exaust (or maybe some cheap dual 2.5 or 2.25 true dual exaust with bolt on cutouts) would make some power! so would a VQ30 but of course the 35 is preferred!

Of course I dont need an interior. If I want more then one passenger, they'd have to bring their own pillow to sit on! (LMAO)

Of course to follow the rules Id need it to be under $1906 (already spent $100 on the car) Hmm the possibilities!!

~Alex

 

i would say the AWD conversion will be over $2006..... in the junk yard around me they had 2 M30's in great condition identical to eachother. but i dont think they are there anymore

 

have fun. show us pics when you're done.

 

When did i say that? I know Id never find a skyline in a junk yard to get one off of. All I said is I'd grab the IRS+driveline from any rwd nissan i can get.

So any one want to sell me some really cheap parts?

And matt- dont worry, there will be plenty of info. Hopefully i can be done and keep it a 4/5 seater. If that was the case Id have to turbo it after the race. Heck Id still do it even if it was a 2 seater.

~Alex

 

Am I missing something, why would you even attempt this project??


probably slower...

 

sounds great lets us now when your done!

 

Good luck, that is ALOT of work. You are going to open up a nice can of worms with this one.

IMO: If you are going to waste the timing redoing the entire car. Maybe you should get a VQ3.0 or 3.5 and do it that way, atleast you will say "holy ****" when it is done.

 

Dmontzsta- thats the plan. Ideally Id like to get a VQ35, and a 5 speed (or 6 speed if its in the budget) and a 240 or 300 rear end and graft it all together.

now the hard part is wiring the engine. The most obvious way would be to use a VQ30 harness for either engine.

~Alex

 

does it have to be street legal?

 

yes and no, it has to pass SCCA and NHRA tech inspections

 

do it

and im gonna get flamed for this but a solid rear axle would be way easier to make work and still be effective there are alot of people using them

 

I know I know but thats the 3rd gens claim to fame, and using a solid rear axle would be very bad! So I'll just chop up a 240 or something like that.

Any one know if the 5 speed that comes in the 240 will bold up to the VQ35 or 30? or if it will even stand the power?

I'll make it street legal so it can be my fun car. One thing im not too sure of, do you have to drive it to the event? I saw alot of trailered cars in the pics of the event, and either I didnt see it or the rules dont state any thing. Of course it would be cool as heck to drive a $2000 scratch built car to FL and back, but not if its not in one piece after the event.

One thing I want to use for either VQ I get is some ITB's. Ill have to start doing some research but I have a few ideas.

BTW Im doing this for many reasons. One just to do something with a car that I should pay some one to take away. Two, is to have fun making a car from a heap of parts. three, to compete and see how I do, and four to do something diffrent in the maxima community.

So with ITB's or a custom intake, and custom exaust tuning will be needed. Im very strongly leaning to setting up a Megasquirt ecu, as its cheap, will give me full control, and solve the wiring mess Id have if I took the VQ harness and integrated it into the 3rd gen's harness. Any one know if any of the sensors work with a MS? Time to venture to their forums....

OK so heres the check list
1-RWD
2-VQ30 or VQ35
3-ITB's and custom exaust for most power (thinking full exaust with bolt on/off cutouts
4-standalone- with transplanted sensors maybe?
5-If possible make it mid engine

Hmm. other then #5 sounds pretty doable, and If everything eventually works together, would make one killer car. Oh and after the competition, depending on what form the car is in (front or midengine'd) I may just keep it and boost it.....

~Alex

 

why itbs that seems like a HUGE waste of time for 1hp just use one of the many rwd vq35 intake manis

also to keep this in reality with only one or two people working on this part time it will take at least a year to complete if your lucky but probobly several years

 

I'll take no way in hell will you be able to do that for 2006 please Alex good luck. That's a lot of school you will be missing out on...

 

This would require custom fabing the interior of the car so that the drive shaft would connect to the rear wheels right? so wouldn.t that eliminate the back seats? Also since the frame of the car is desinged for a fwd motor if you changed it to a rear wheel drive wouldnt you have to redesign the frame structure to handle the chassis flex in the back? Sorry about all the grammatical errors. I thought about this a while myself (a side prooject for myself after i got out of engineering school) I think the frame and interior would have to completely redesigned for this, unless your very handy with a torch. I dont know I could be way off base here but it sounds like a ton of work turning a maxima into a rwd.

 

yes you would have to cut a trans and drivshaft tunel and move the gas tank back but the rear seat could stay no problem and reinforcments wouldnt be that big of a deal just some 1x1 .250wall sqare tube to stiffen up the rear axle area and along the middle where the tunnel and trans xmember nothing major this has been done on many FWD cars without issue

 

The drive shaft tunnel shouldnt need too much work compared to the RWD IRS parts. The gas tank is the last of my worries.

Nismosleeper-have you not heard of killer deals or something? The VQ Im getting for what it costs to get some oil seals for, and the car is $100. I got the details nailed down on the stand alone, and its going to be right around $200. At worst Im out $400 for an engine,fully tunable ecu, and the shell.

That leaves the tranny, and IRS and drive shaft, for the main parts any way. Im looking for a 5 speed 300zx donor. That would give me a tranny to bolt to the VQ, and the rest of the drive line. They can be 200-1500 depending on what I find. so say I score one for 800, minus what I can sell off it. Then from there I build my exaust, mount up the IRS, make some strut tower braces, and thats about it other then wiring and tuning. Sure Ill cut the budget close but it's going to be fast and a blast to drive.

So thats the plan for now. Im looking for any year 300zx, and some Eibach springs and maybe some struts. The springs preferably used.

Oh and one more thing to ponder. Stiffer sway bars. I was thinking I could weld or connect my extra sway bars together, seeing as I have 2 now and getting another stock one or 2 would be easy. I was thinking for the front I could fill it with something like that chassis stiffening foam. Any way you OGs give me some ideas please!

~Alex

 

why not get TWO SR20DET's and drop them in there...instead of two 6cyl's...would save you weight!

(i know you're ballin' on a budget, but i had to give my .02 )

 

i dont see how that would save weight? in fact i think the two 4 cyls would out weigh the one aluminum block VQ....

 

oh and alex i dont think the 240 ka or even the sr would bolt up to the vq, but im not 100% sure.

 

I believe the better choice for a tranny would be the 350Z manual tranny. I believe it will bolt up and you can find them for pretty cheap since they had some syncro issues supposedly. Some good oil will probably solve that problem.

The gas tank sits a bit low so you'll either need to get it modified or get a aftermarket tank that isn't quite as low for the driveshaft and differential to clear.

 

If I can find a 350z tranny I will use it. Broaner used one with a VQ30 in his 240, and he said it was really fast. I saw his vid it looked awsome. With all that gear reduction it would be a really fast car.

I guess Im looking for any RWD v6 nissan parts then. 300zx or 350z. I wonder how much a totaled 350z would be? I could pull the tranny, driveline and maybe even the engine!! Im sure that would be outta my budget though ><

I think some of you guys are getting confused with vans and kcidmil's post. its going to be a F/R layout with VQ in the front engine bay, and a typical rwd tranny/driveline. I was thinking of mounting the tranny right on the diff input and putting the engine behind me but I think that would be too long to not move the seats. I was considering using 1 VG/tranny in fwd form and doing the same for the rear, as I almost have egnough trannys and axles to do that. I saw a 10.9 or so second Tribune that used that setup, he used 2 300HP 4 or 6cyl engines, that were boosted. That would be a nightmare to wire unless i sold the auto box's and got 2 manuals.

~Alex

 

ud break your budget getting the whole 350z even if it were totalled i would image. but i could be wrong. alex check your pm's

 

Gman- I just wanted to know how your suspention setup handalled.

I was talking to internetautomart and he said go with the eibach's, as he said they would handall alot better then the other options. Is this true? Be cause with only a 1.2in drop I could still use the stock struts after the challenge I'd upgrade them to something better.

But then with all the stuff Im stripping out and then putting in a lighter VQ30 but possibly heavier 300zx/350z tranny I dont know how it would balance f/r after that. Maybe Ill have to wait untill I get the car mocked up to order the suspention.

I really need to snap some pics while its nice out and start a cardomain site.

~Alex

 

VQ + 350Z 6-speed + Z32 N/A 4.09 differential + 235/45-17 tires:

I'm not sure of the redline of the VQ but at 7,000 rpm:

1st: 34 mph
2nd: 55 mph
3rd: 79 mph
4th: 101 mph
5th: 129 mph
6th: 162 mph

That would probably be a decent combination n/a. With a turbo you might want to get a lower ratio rear end like the Z32 TT 3.692 or the Q45 3.538.


I've actually been planning on doing something similar for quite a while. Trying to finish my Z up first before doing this though. Although, I had planned on doing this to be extremely unique since the VH45 idea has been done quite a few times with the Z now but oh well, I'm definitely planning on doing it.


The Z32 TT rear diff. is actually bigger than a Ford 9 inch rear end and is usually considered the strongest diff. that Nissan puts out. No one really seems to know for absolute sure whether or not that's true but it seems to handle some damn fast cars. The new Armada comes with a R230 that has even bigger output flanges and such for the axles. For your setup though these will be more than strong enough.

The Q45 diff. is a R200V, V meaning it has a viscous limited slip differential. You might see a lot of places online say the Q45 differential is a R230, but it is not. Its an R200 (at least in the 1st and 2nd generation Q45's).

 

i would definitly wait on springs thats the last thing you need to worry about right now

350z trans is the only option for the VQ and they can be had for 500ish on ebay

the cheapest way to do this would be to get a late 80s 300z and swap over everything i just dont see this happeneing with a VQ for under 2k it may seem like it on paper but once you dive into it all the little sht is gonna add up quick

 

Why not do a Ford 8.8 or 9" rear end?

See about getting some Nissan Pickup Frame rails.
Someone makes motor mounts for a V8 350Chebby or 302/351 Ford V8.
You can leave it carbed and don't need a computer.

Should be your cheapest route...

Weld on the frame rails, put on the motor mounts, drop in a V8/tranny and put in a rear end. All in a jap car. What a hotrod...muhhahaha

-Brian

 

bite your tongue...

 

just suggesting parts that are quite readily available for cheap prices....

 

this is true.. it will be alot cheaper and easier and you will have alot more horsepower than the V6 motor

 

I don't think he plans to win
heck he'd be way underpowered and to big to do that

try a crx RWD with a small block underhood

 

Im doing it for the fun of it. Who else has done a rwd maxima conversion (besides the 1st gen i know they are rwd)

I hate the idea of a v8 swap because most of the guys there do them. Besides when is the last time some one did more then a bolt on other then guys like mardi and 93GXE? If my project comes out the way I want it too, it'll have a killer top end intake, and a cheap standalone ECU'd VQ. Those in them selves are new options.

~Alex

 

but then youll be the first to put a V8 in a maxima