03' 350z LS1 Swap - Lots of Pics
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From: Decatur, IL
03' 350z LS1 Swap - Lots of Pics
I've started a new project. Here's a link to my last car build - a turbo'd 1978 Datsun 280z with a lot of fab work involved:
http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/...-lots-of-pics/
The car is an 03' 350z Track Edition I bought off of "Total D" in the classifieds of this forum. The car was $5200 +$650 for shipping.
Link to the classified ad:
https://my350z.com/forum/cars-for-sa...-complete.html
The LS1 is out of a 40K mile 2002 Corvette and the transmission is from an 06' GTO. I picked up the engine, trans, and a new clutch/flywheel from a guy in northern Indiana (craigslist) for $4K
About me:
33 year old mechanical engineer who works at a big construction and mining manufacturer. Married 9 years to my best friend. No kids. Best black lab you'll ever see (her name is Bella).
Plans for the car:
SUPER CLEAN and rock solid reliable daily driver. I'm going to have working A/C, heat, power steering, stereo (small one... not too much weight), full interior. I'm really going to go the extra mile to hide as much as I can and make the car VERY clean.
When I read these build threads - I'm always interested in what kind of place the car is being built - so I'm starting with some pictures of my garage setup. It is SO much nicer than the garage I built my last car in.
So far I've got the car on jackstands for a thourough inspection and the front end is pretty much completely disassembled:
Hood and braces:
A/C condenser, A/C and power steering lines, 350z driveshaft and SIKKY driveshaft (in the box), a few flywheels and clutches:
Parts:
Front of the car and misc parts:
The interior of the car is very, very nice, clean, and appears to be complete:
The car was advertised as having no major problems. I knew it didn't have an engine, trans, seats, or a battery when I bought it. I was pretty disappointed with some things. There are some pretty big dents in the roof (and some in the hood):
Behind the front passenger wheel there is some pretty bad damage to the skirt and fender:
The front tires are TRASHED. Everybody I've talked to tells me that toe-out can cause this kind of wear... but I've never seen anything like it before. The inside of both front tires are down to the belts:
Other gripes with the car are that the car came with 2 fuel pumps - neither of which was actually bolted into the fuel tank. I'm taking precautions and replacing the fuel pump and I'll probably have to drop the tank to replace the gas. The rear hatch struts don't work (replacements are on order). The steering lines on the steering rack are bent all to hell (replacements are on order). The front and rear swaybars aren't attached and I can't find the hardwware to re-attach them. The battery hold down is missing. There are a lot of bolts and fasteners missing - and in general I think I'm going to have a hell of a time reassembling everything back the way it is supposed to be.
The engine appears to be in great shape. Compression checked out good before I put it on the stand. Here it is on the stand with some of the SIKKY goodies bolted to it:
Transmission:
Brand new clutch and flywheel:
I started by installing the clutch master cylinder conversion:
The only real issue I had (besides the time consuming process of adjusting the linkage) was I had to die the adjuster in the Sikky kit... it wasn't machined properly. Not a huge deal:
Sikky also sent the wrong size hose clamps for the larger diameter hose in the kit - also not a huge deal... but I'm hoping the trend with the little stuff doesn't continue:
The A/C compressor, alternator, and power steering pump on the LS engine are all on the opposite sides of the engine from the VQ35. I had originally thought I would get VQ accessories to bolt to the LS, but after looking it over - it will be much cleaner to just re-plumb everything. Here are the spring-lock fittings coming out of the firewall on the passenger side of the car. I bought some -10 and -6 spring lock fittings, hose, and an A/C barrier hose crimping tool so I can start re-routing everything:
I've seen some write-ups for the LS in the 350z and I'm not a fan of how people hook up the heater lines. I think I'm going to take out the heater core and modify the outlet locations into the engine bay over to the battery location so I can hide the water lines. I'll just weld in patches for current locations and make it all flush. Based on the pictures in the haynes manual and what I can see in the engine bay - it looks do-able. Again - this is an example of how far I plan to go for a clean installation:
I've started an excel spreadsheet where I'm tracking all the money I've spent, part numbers, and where I bought the parts from. Budgetary estimates are telling me that by the time I get done I'll have spent right around $20K - including the price of the car, engine, trans, replacement parts. I'll be posting this detail in a future update to this build thread.
Stuff I'm working on this weekend/week:
- I bought some fuel rails for the LS - so put those on.
- Start cleaning up some of the engine stuff I won't need
- Start A/C plumbing (all the parts are here to start that).
- Take out the heater core and figure out how to modify the connections into the engine bay.
- I'm running -8 send and -6 return fuel lines - so I'll probably start figuring out where those will go
- The crank pulley on the LS looks like hell so I'm going to repaint it.
- See if I can figure out what I'm missing so I can bolt in a battery and put the swaybars back on
- I'm building a 2x4 rack for the wheels/tires - get them off the floor of my garage
- If I have time - I'll start in on the LS wiring.
If anybody wants to see particular details of the swap - let me know and I'll do my best to get pics and put up an explanation. More to come!
http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/...-lots-of-pics/
The car is an 03' 350z Track Edition I bought off of "Total D" in the classifieds of this forum. The car was $5200 +$650 for shipping.
Link to the classified ad:
https://my350z.com/forum/cars-for-sa...-complete.html
The LS1 is out of a 40K mile 2002 Corvette and the transmission is from an 06' GTO. I picked up the engine, trans, and a new clutch/flywheel from a guy in northern Indiana (craigslist) for $4K
About me:
33 year old mechanical engineer who works at a big construction and mining manufacturer. Married 9 years to my best friend. No kids. Best black lab you'll ever see (her name is Bella).
Plans for the car:
SUPER CLEAN and rock solid reliable daily driver. I'm going to have working A/C, heat, power steering, stereo (small one... not too much weight), full interior. I'm really going to go the extra mile to hide as much as I can and make the car VERY clean.
When I read these build threads - I'm always interested in what kind of place the car is being built - so I'm starting with some pictures of my garage setup. It is SO much nicer than the garage I built my last car in.
So far I've got the car on jackstands for a thourough inspection and the front end is pretty much completely disassembled:
Hood and braces:
A/C condenser, A/C and power steering lines, 350z driveshaft and SIKKY driveshaft (in the box), a few flywheels and clutches:
Parts:
Front of the car and misc parts:
The interior of the car is very, very nice, clean, and appears to be complete:
The car was advertised as having no major problems. I knew it didn't have an engine, trans, seats, or a battery when I bought it. I was pretty disappointed with some things. There are some pretty big dents in the roof (and some in the hood):
Behind the front passenger wheel there is some pretty bad damage to the skirt and fender:
The front tires are TRASHED. Everybody I've talked to tells me that toe-out can cause this kind of wear... but I've never seen anything like it before. The inside of both front tires are down to the belts:
Other gripes with the car are that the car came with 2 fuel pumps - neither of which was actually bolted into the fuel tank. I'm taking precautions and replacing the fuel pump and I'll probably have to drop the tank to replace the gas. The rear hatch struts don't work (replacements are on order). The steering lines on the steering rack are bent all to hell (replacements are on order). The front and rear swaybars aren't attached and I can't find the hardwware to re-attach them. The battery hold down is missing. There are a lot of bolts and fasteners missing - and in general I think I'm going to have a hell of a time reassembling everything back the way it is supposed to be.
The engine appears to be in great shape. Compression checked out good before I put it on the stand. Here it is on the stand with some of the SIKKY goodies bolted to it:
Transmission:
Brand new clutch and flywheel:
I started by installing the clutch master cylinder conversion:
The only real issue I had (besides the time consuming process of adjusting the linkage) was I had to die the adjuster in the Sikky kit... it wasn't machined properly. Not a huge deal:
Sikky also sent the wrong size hose clamps for the larger diameter hose in the kit - also not a huge deal... but I'm hoping the trend with the little stuff doesn't continue:
The A/C compressor, alternator, and power steering pump on the LS engine are all on the opposite sides of the engine from the VQ35. I had originally thought I would get VQ accessories to bolt to the LS, but after looking it over - it will be much cleaner to just re-plumb everything. Here are the spring-lock fittings coming out of the firewall on the passenger side of the car. I bought some -10 and -6 spring lock fittings, hose, and an A/C barrier hose crimping tool so I can start re-routing everything:
I've seen some write-ups for the LS in the 350z and I'm not a fan of how people hook up the heater lines. I think I'm going to take out the heater core and modify the outlet locations into the engine bay over to the battery location so I can hide the water lines. I'll just weld in patches for current locations and make it all flush. Based on the pictures in the haynes manual and what I can see in the engine bay - it looks do-able. Again - this is an example of how far I plan to go for a clean installation:
I've started an excel spreadsheet where I'm tracking all the money I've spent, part numbers, and where I bought the parts from. Budgetary estimates are telling me that by the time I get done I'll have spent right around $20K - including the price of the car, engine, trans, replacement parts. I'll be posting this detail in a future update to this build thread.
Stuff I'm working on this weekend/week:
- I bought some fuel rails for the LS - so put those on.
- Start cleaning up some of the engine stuff I won't need
- Start A/C plumbing (all the parts are here to start that).
- Take out the heater core and figure out how to modify the connections into the engine bay.
- I'm running -8 send and -6 return fuel lines - so I'll probably start figuring out where those will go
- The crank pulley on the LS looks like hell so I'm going to repaint it.
- See if I can figure out what I'm missing so I can bolt in a battery and put the swaybars back on
- I'm building a 2x4 rack for the wheels/tires - get them off the floor of my garage
- If I have time - I'll start in on the LS wiring.
If anybody wants to see particular details of the swap - let me know and I'll do my best to get pics and put up an explanation. More to come!
Last edited by trwebb26; Jan 14, 2012 at 09:37 AM.
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Hey man im really looking forward to doing this as well do you think it would be possibl to show pics of EVERYTHING lol. I know it's a lot of work but it will help with the weird things like heater core lines pully location radiator hoses just all te bs stuff like the clutch as well. Most people can actually bolt the motor in but the wiring might be difficult. Pics of wireing as well maybe?
Thanks man!
Thanks man!