those are pretty similar!!!
this is pretty cool

 

When I got home this evening, I saw my 4th gen torque converter housing had arrived. I couldn't wait, so I just test fitted it on a spare VE RE4F04V tranny. Well, it fits PERFECTLY! I can't believe how easy this was! I hope the rest of the swap goes this smoothly. The speed sensor opening in the housing looks to be the same size as well. And of course the starter is way different. So I will need to use the 4th gen starter with this setup.

And FYI, the engine bolt pattern between the VG/VE and the VQ series engines are WAY different. Not a single bolt lines up. So this converter housing swap is needed if you want to be able to use your stock 3rd gen transmission with a VQ.

Well, now I guess it's time to purchase my engine.

 

Where will you look to unearth the perfect VQ specimen?

 

You mean where will I purchase this engine? I have several salvage yards in my area that have them for sale. I have a couple more options as well, but I may just end up taking a chance with a shady salvage yard. You never know what you're going to get since you can't see it run before purchasing it. I may decide to completely tear it down and rebuild it or at least replace the head gaskets. Or I may just decide not to remove the heads and just replace cams and connecting rod bolts. I'm still unsure where I want to go with this. Suggestions?

 

Yeah I was referring to where, and you pretty much answered the thoughts going through my head in terms of taking a chance on a standard wrecker engine, or going with a 'ready to go' engine that's been tested, serviced, etc...
I think you're actually better off with a wreckers engine actually, because knowing you, you'll tear it down anyway. When I was doing the VG to VE swap I initially went the 'JDM' route, and the engines were far from perfect for the price. So those engines were rejected in the end in favor of just doing what needed to be done with the engine from the VE donor car. In my case at least I knew the history of the donor engine.
But I guess what I'm saying is, the whole low mile engine 'direct from Japan' thing can be overrated. Though I'm sure there are 'gems' to be had out there. Then again, the same can be said of one coming from a local yard.

 

FWIW I've seen the caps split on grandma VE's

IMHO there is a strong correlation between the clacking and them cracking, but no set time line. I showed one to a friend and he had a set of caps CNC'd out of I forget what type of steel but they were pretty nice. The caps are simple enough for most CNC workers to reproduce and that headache is gone. I was going to have a set made for my white VE but never bothered with it. After fiddling with VTCs for a bit I would say leave a little more material on the spring seat.

Good luck with the car

 

Thanks. My VTCs have been ticking ever since I got the car at 97K miles. I rarely ever flipped the switch to ground them. The ONLY time I would ever ground them would be when I rolled up in a parking lot full of people. I would shut them up just to prevent the people from staring at me. lol A couple guys even asked me if that thing had a diesel. But other than the occasional parking lot embarrassment, I would let them tick and enjoy the top end power.

I rebuilt the VTCs somewhere around the 150-170K mile mark and they were quiet until the ticking returned 1K miles later. I really think I got a bum rebuild kit. The spring heights and tension was the same as the springs that came out of the engine. I replaced the VTC cap with the one that came in the rebuild kit too. That was the cap that finally busted at 203K miles and destroyed the motor. I have to say that the cap in that rebuild kit felt much lighter and cheaper.

I have a new VTC rebuild sitting on my desk right now. I was careful to measure the spring heights this time to make sure they were taller than the originals. I'm very sure this rebuild kit is a good one. It will probably be up for sale soon along with the new tensioners and all the VE mods that I can't use on the 3.5.

 

awesomesauce! so now that you have the tranny able to mount onto a vq... and can go and get the engine... what are the biggest obstacles on the electrical side of it?

 

Well, I am going to do a full ECU swap instead of mix and matching a crap load of 4th gen parts. My local salvage yards include the full engine harness with the motor. So that's good. Other than that, I will need to get an ECU, Immobilizer, Ignition, and Key all the from the same car. I will also need a full dash harness, cluster, and the egas setup.

The hardest part that I foresee is looking over the schematics and labeling all the wires on the harness and removing ones I don't need. It's not hard, just takes a long time. Then I route everything through the firewall and give power to the ECU. It will just take a LOT longer than welding in my motor mounts.

Also, the more I think about it, the more I am certain about actually spending some time ripping into this motor in the off season. Even though the engine may only have about 50K miles on it, I am still going to upgrade the head gasket and inspect everything while I'm in there. I gotta make sure the cylinders aren't scarred up. I'm also planning on installing cams, ARP rod bolts, HR valve springs, UDP, headers, and doing some minor headwork while the heads are off.

If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right while the engine is out of the car.

 

well how come you're using they key and cluster out of the VQ car? IIRC the other guys with 3.5 swaps just reused their 3rd gen stuff.

 

the stock 5.5 ecu wants the cluster and ECU. most 3.5 swaps (4th gen) eliminate the variable timing setup from the motor so that it can kind of run on the stock ECU.
while I personally have done no research on it at all, I wonder if the VE's ecu with it's VTC control would be able to work with the 3.5's VTC. It already has the COP setup as well. Some comparison of the outputs and inputs on the 2 ecus may yield some interesting info.

 

The other 3rd gen 3.5 guys used the 4th gen ECU and swapped the timing components on the VQ35 in order to be compatible with the ECU. The only reason they did this was b/c they had several 4th gen parts cars at their disposal. So it was cheaper. But they still had to make the 4th gen ECU work in their 3rd gen and wire everything up.

But since I am doing a FULL 3.5 ECU swap to get the most HP possible, there are several things that must go with it like the cluster and immobilizer. The 2K2 ECU needs more to be happy.

I could rig it up so that I can still use my stock ignition and key, but I would have to strap the new 3.5 key to the immobilizer. That key has to be close to it in order to crank the car up. I'd rather just use the 3rd gen key to unlock my doors and the 3.5 key to start the car. I don't mind.

 

alarm bypass module

 

what about aftermarket ecus? do any have the ability to control the timing stuff? if they did, that would help a little, removing any worries about the key/immobilizer stuff.

or have a locksmith re-tumble the locks to work with the new keys. iirc, they usually don't charge too much for it. and if you are spending even half of what I expect you to, it would be a drop in the bucket.

 

The UTEC works pretty good with the 2K2 ECU. It can control fuel and timing. But it also allows the stock function of the ECU.

The EU doesn't work that great with the 2K2 ECU.

I'm not going to worry about retumbling the lock. It's much easier and cheaper just to swap in the ignition from the A33B. The 4th gen guys have already figured all this stuff out for me. I'd rather just do what they have proven to work. The only thing that will be different is getting the engine mounted up somehow. The crossmember and exhaust are backwards from the VQ. So, I may try to make the VQ30 or VQ35 crossmember mount on the 3rd gen, which goes down the middle of the car instead of on the passenger side. And I will probably have to get a custom ypipe made in order to mount up to my cutout, which is where the cat use to be.

Once I get the engine, I will be able to take some better measurements to see if using my stock crossmember is possible, but I highly doubt it unless I want to make custom headers, which gets VERY expensive.

I really hope to have an engine on the stand sometime this week though.

 

If you are definite on the cams, you will have the cover and chains off, it's not a walk in the park but it's not that much extra work to eliminate the (some have some don't) 2-layer headgaskets. I HIGHLY recommend doing that as well as the JWT cooling mod utilizing the HR bolts and gaskets.

 

Thanks. I have already made up my mind that these heads are going to come off. I really want to be able to at least inspect the cylinder. I don't want to put all this work into it and bolt it up and find out the HG is bad or there is low compression on one cylinder due to a scratch that I would have seen if I would have inspected it properly.

Are you referring to the JWT article about using the HR headgasket?

http://www.jimwolftechnology.com/wol...HEAD_BOLTS.pdf

I haven't made up my mind about exactly which gasket I want to use. But, it won't be the double layer.

 

^^ Yes, that's the one.

You should try to be the first one to run the '09 pistons, at least order one when your motor is apart, my cost on 1 of those pistons is $18!!! I was toying with the idea of doing this but quickly ditched it because of boost. Edit: n/m, I forgot you like to spray. But I have a feeling that you're not going to like the clearance on your pistons, I've yet to see one that I liked, even the '06 Z motor I was inside that had like 18k miles on it measured over .003", it was very close to the service limit and nowhere near the super tight clearances that nissan says they have, I lean more and more towards clearance issues being the cause of many 3.5 oil-consumption issues and different rings just exascberating or covering up that problem. If you put new rings in there, break the fawker in using synthetic oil with trips to redline and heavy decelleration.......

 

Yeah, I'll check everything while I'm in there. If I don't like it, I'll get new rings, maybe oversized.

 

I thought the 3.5 VTCs are variable, as opposed to the VE's on/off setting?

 

You're exactly right. As such, the VQ35 VTC system requires feedback control, which the VE ECU can not provide (apart from the obvious).

 

The 3rd gen VQ35 Swap Thread has been started:

http://forums.maxima.org/all-motor/5...ss-thread.html

 

Come on... lol Im already on the second part of that

 

see how much I know about these newfangled teknawlowjeez.

 

Haha Very nice! That's where some Maxima guys seem to be going after their car dies.

I'm not ready to leave the family!

 

Here are some pics
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp151/mmg23max/S7300010.jpgto add description

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp151/mmg23max/S7300008.jpgick to add description

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp151/mmg23max/S7300007.jpg description

 

http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/S7300007.jpg
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/S7300008.jpg
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/S7300010.jpg

 

Thanks for the pics. And thanks for your help so far.

 

No Problem