I suppose I'm not technically a "new" owner as I bought this car as a shell 4 years ago! However it was a bare shell and after a long build process with many delays it is finally going to become my daily driver! I just drive it down the street for the first time yesterday and have a few minor things to settle. Excited to really drive a Z for the first time

Let me know what you think













I'll take some better pics tomorrow

 

That. Is. F-ing. AWESOME.

 

Bravo! Looks really clean.

 

Thanks guys. I'm pretty excited to get it ripping around. So close! Just trying to figure out wiring up my last few gauges and get the air out of my ABS and it's good to go!

 

Man this is cool. Sometimes I wish I could find an excuse to pull my 5.3 from my Silverado and stuff it into my Z...


but I love my truck just too dam much to wish anything upon it

 

i think you will have really bad gas mileage...........nice car though...

 

WOW, that looks as snug as a bug in a rug. Great job.

 

I think it's going to be alright actually, the 2004 GTO (where the motor came from) is rated at 29mpg highway and the Z is much lighter!

 

Yes, it is certainly a squeeze. Most people who have done this swap eliminate the pre firewall to gain some room but I wanted to keep it for a more OEM look. Ended up having to cut a hole in it for a little bit of the passenger side head to fit through. Happy with how far back the motor sits though. Even fits the OEM fans and shroud no problem

 

Seems like a lot of work/money for 63 hp. Could of got the same results for about 2k put into the VQ

How much are you into it for?

 

When I was shopping for my project car.. Z vs s2k.. muscle vs import.. LS swap vs 2j ect ect..


I discovered one thing... No HP/MPH is ever free.... If you decide to go for a $500 Honda motor and dump $10k into building it to wreck V8's..


You could buy a $800 VQ and throw the remainding $9,200 into it and have the same...


Same goes for the $2,500 2j.. Its ok stock until you throw the remaining $7,500 into it to put it into untouchable V8 killer...


LS same thing.. Start with $2,000 and then go from there...


At the end of the day no matter what trusted motor you run with and wanna kill other motors with it. To match or beat it, in the end HP for HP and MPH for MPH you end up being out around the same exact $$$ as if you went option B, C, or D...


Even with budget builds... cost per MPH/HP ends up around the same no matter what the motor or direction you choose to take.

With his set up... Mounts, ECU, Motor, T56 trans or adapter plate if he went that rout id say hes at least $6k - $7k into it if he shopped around and got good pricing would be my guess..

 

Yes, certainly has been a lot of work and money. Still more to come I am sure, but it is all done for the fun of the hobby.

Unfortunately the $2k into a VQ won't get you much. Sure if you just look at "oh a $2k turbo kit" you could probably nab the extra 50-60hp however that would be neglecting all the little things that come up searching for any serious increase on a factory NA car. Adding 60HP to a VQ would also be putting the motor near its limits without opening it up. My setup should be sitting just under 400whp with a near factory motor. Not too bad when a stock VQ-DE is about 230whp

At the end of the day no amount of money will make a VQ an LS. They are completely different and both have their positives and negatives.

For those curious I am about $15k into the car. That is in total for the motor, swap kit, all the suspension that is on it, wheels, seats etc etc INCLUDING the cost of the 350z to begin with

 

All good points. Everyone seems to think they can build a budget setup on XXX platform that will crush anything, few actually have one that works!

For me, it was just time to do the V8 thing. Have had plenty of AWD turbo cars, SR 240s, even a 500whp s2000. This is my first V8 though!

 

Dollar for dollar, upgrades will go a lot farther upping the hp with the ls. The parts are cheaper with better hp returns.

Nice job. Looks good sitting in the engine bay. Are you going to put the strut tower bar back on?

 

The factory LS1 motor is 350hp at the crank. What is done to it to make 400whp at the wheels

 

maybe a cam?

i know my bone stock ls7 only hit 456 to the wheels

 

Hey man I respect it! Im a firm believer of LS/2j EVERYTHING haha


My 2 favorite motors, one for NA build other for FI option. If I ever total out my 2015 Silverado Im keeping the 5.3 and stuffing it in something

Pretty much^^


Depending on what LS your are running usually cams are upgrade #1 and all you need since they have such solid HP/TQ from the get go.. Then a different better flow head, LS model dependent tho. Some already have high flow heads, some cant use others heads because they don't fit. Then onto exhaust and other random bits for N/A HP but they already come pretty stout. Which is why some cost $6k+ just for the motor and another $2-$5k for the T56/T66 trans.


FI is a whole different story of course.

 

I just read this an had to laugh. My stock, factory Z averages 14.2 MPG and has since I bought it new (I live/drive in a city). The engine swap can't do anything but improve a number like that.

 

Why so much hate? Let him be happy

 

I'm pretty happy with it!

Still figuring out minor things like why my brakes are not working well (maybe air in the ABS pump or something with the booster?) and today my drivers window stopped working. Passenger window never worked but I assumed it was because the window switch is missing on the passenger side.

As far as what is going to put it close to 400whp, it's just longtubes/exhaust and tune. The motor came factory with ls6 block/heads/intake and people regularly make 380-400 tuned