I got to ride in an infiniti J30 the other day, and i realized that they are RWD! Might be old news to some of you guys, but i never knew these horrid ugly cars were RWD...

Well anyways, I know the creation of a RWD maxima has been flamed since..well...forever. But would it be possible to toy with the J30 and the max to possibly have this as an option? I know, this isnt the most cost efficient thing, and i know this isnt something i plan on doing as i dont have the time or money, but is it possible? Im not sure, but do the J30s have the same motors as the maxima? The IM do look very different, but i dont know anything about the J30s. It looks like to me, if someone wanted to try this, it COULD be done...using a totaled J30 or something...

Any thoughts....or flames?

 

J30 with a VQ swap. J30 is almost a 300zx

 

m30 would be a better choice imo...

 

I didnt really get flamed when I posted my project....RWD 3rd gen

But then again maybe it sounds like Im actually going to finish (which I am) it unlike most people that say stuff like that.

~Alex

 

What he said. They have a VG30DE. They are basically a 4-door 300ZX.

 

i second the m30

 

So basically the trannies are completely different between the VG30DE and the vq30de, may sound like a stupid question...just trying to get all the info straight lol...

 

I vote to have a new 350Z engine dropped in a J30

If thats not badass, tell me what is

 

badass would be a ls6 with t56 and lots of cuting and fitting.

 

badass would be droppin in a 572 with a blower and doing lots of cutting and fitting. LS6? psh

 

You are saying psh to an LS6, yet you drive a Maxima.

 

maxima=free to me, ls6= much much more. also, maxima = better gas mileage and less cop attention

 

great logic kid

 

thx... i guess

 

your saying pff to an ls6 because its expensive, but yes to a blown 572? Gee which is more expensive to drive?

~Alex

 

im sayin psh to the power, blown 572>ls6
i said no to the ls6 because i got my max for free and an ls6 would have cost me money, i also say no to driving a blown 572, but thats not the point.

 

J30 has lots of great stuff that people don't realize. It'd be much easier to swap the into it than make the Max RWD. The J30 comes with a stock VLSD. Or you can swap the VQ into a 240.

 

AWD would be kickass.

 

A manual transmission....

 

He reminds me of that kid from Bad News Bears...lol sorry just had to say that...haha great movie

 

Any new info on your swap? It's inspired me to save up for my own VQ S14 swap

 

psh to the blown 572. Turbine power > blown 572

 

psh to the turbine. liquid hydrogen rocket>turbine
"Go to ridiculous speed!" Spaceballs i guess

 

this is too much

 

I didn't read all the other stuff in this thread but to answer your original question. If you are going to do this you might as well do something like an LS1/T56 swap. The J30 and the maxima share nothing in common, so there is no advantage to using anything from a J30. Just because it's made by nissan doesn't mean things start bolting right up. Everything you do will be completely and totally custom, so why would you do all the work for a completely and totally custom 200hp rwd car with basically zero aftermarket support when you could do the same amount of work and have a 300whp car in an engine that can put 450 to the rears without too much trouble, just NA. If you're going to put in the effort then don't shortchange yourself by going with half-arsed components.

 

for gas mileage
once he has the experience with that, hell be able to do an ls6 swap in 2 days.

 

No new info really except that Tilley has got me convinced that the rear crank sensor is the source of my problems. But I haven't started the thing in over three months. I haven't bothered testing it out. I'm busy doing the suspension right now to support the power. Actually I'm updating my cardomain right now.

 

I forget- are you using the 3.0 or 3.5? And the 6m out of the 350z? Can you use that with the rear end of the 240 or do you need the 350 rear? Got LSD?

Are you going to run coilover, or normal spring/strut? I've been looking around the 240 sites and there seems to be limited knowledge and info on those sites. I was looking at the Silk Road (I think) coilovers, but they cost like $1600. Makes me think about the Tein coilovers with their EDFC.
Are you doing any frame bracing/stiffening? Keeping it NA for a while?

I really can't wait to see what comes of your VQ 240.....

 

It's N/A 3.0 right now, S/C in the future or maybe 3.5 swap, yes 350Z 6-speed, J30 VLSD, running Megan coilovers, and he's putting in some aluminum bushings in the rear. Broan you'd better do some serious chassis stiffening, I know you will.

 

Tom, pretty much summed up. Check my homepage for more details. I've been updating a lot lately. The 240 forums definitely are not as well versed as the .org. But there is info to be found.

Why'd you change your avatar Tom? I loved that thing.

 

Haha, change is good, my friend.

 

Hmmm, yea i didnt know what the deal was. Motors look completely different but i figured i would ask, to c if anyone knew if there were any interchangable parts from the J30 to maxima. It WOULD have been a kewl idea if that were to be the case, but i guess not hehe.

RWD maxima...hmmm....maybe if i win the lotto?

 

...and if you decide that RWD in a very front-heavy car would be a good thing.

 

Hypothetically, the weight distribution wouldn't be too bad if it had a differential and driveshaft in the rear. Plus you can remove a good 100-150 lbs from the front.

That said, just buy a 240sx and stuff a VQ35 in there.

 

Really? I think freshalloy's 240 section has more info and knowledgeable members than the org could ever dream of

 

As the cliche stated "anything is possible with the right amount of money"

Snag the J30 rear end and you'd have to cut and chop, alter for a j30 rear suspension. We already have that driveshaft like bump running from front to rear, use that for the drive shaft and make a new place to run exhaust. Custom drive shaft, custom tranny, etc...

 

I dont know much about cars, and nothing about these swaps. But if some one was to mount a rear wheel drive engine and tranny and install a rear diff, the only custom part needed would be a drive
shaft right?
Well an obviously other parts like engine mounts and figuring out an intake ect. But Im just taking about the big parts.

 

You would need to design an entire transmission/driveshaft tunnel and completely redesign the rear of the car. Not to mention that a RWD layout calls for a strong frame and body stiffness a whole lot more than a FWD car. A hard launch on slicks and the wimpy FWD maxima frame will twist quite violently.

 

The custom driveshaft is absolutely the least of your worries.

You can't just tack on any old rear suspension. The rear section of the frame is designed around the beam suspension, which depends on the lateral link in the center to guide it up and down without it shifting around. If you go with a solid rear axle and try to cusomize that lateral link, you lose a ton of ground clearance and wind up having the differential, axle, and half of the driveshaft being unsprung weight -- in other words, ALL the help your weight distribution just got is unsprung, which will KILL the car's dynamics. The only other option would be to mount the diff to the frame and set up an independent rear suspension, which means you now can't rely on the lateral link to guide suspension travel. So either you reuse the stock shock mounting points and have the most primitive suspension you've ever seen in your life (bye bye handling and stability), or you design upper and lower control arms and find some way to cram them along with the springs and shocks into spaces designed to hold nothing more than the springs and shocks.

Then you're only half done. That tunnel down the center of the car is big enough for a driveshaft or an exhaust, but not both, and there isn't another convenient place to run an exhaust. You'd HAVE to run side exhausts, and good luck trying to cram catalytic converters and a noise-legal muffler in there.

Plus you'd have to destroy the firewall and completely rebuild it to accommodate a RWD engine and transmission.

 

These threads are always funny. I am one of the most diehard Maxima fans out there, and I came to appreciate long ago that FWD was its tragic flaw--the one big thing you can't really change. Despite this flaw I'm gonna mod and love my Max until the end, but all the future cars I own will be RWD, unquestionably.

BTW traction bars should all but eliminate torque steer and make FWD not so bad.