farch

didn't know about Extrudabody's kit, that will make things a little easier. there's still heaps i want to do with it, a extended range drop tank for one, since the 180 has a tiny 55 liter. still deciding if i want a half cage, since the rear seat won't be going back in.

can't wait ! can't believe that the VVT and ecu were buggered. after the they sorted the problems it feels great, very lively in first. it's not going to end with it rego'd though, after it's on the road i'm going to take my time and get a second engine and source a second set of the short in take runners. apparently if you replace the long runnners (because half are short and half are long to get that east west looking manifold- worst idea ever) under stock manifold all the short runners line up in two straight lines. perfect for individual throttle body's, also going to have get a box to contain the trumpets for legal issues. sean stop giving me ideas my wallet can't cope!

not to mention the awesome throttle response from the vh45, i couldn't believe it when first started mine. through i have the opposite problem i have raise the front of my a little because the front weight has increased slightly. that engine matches a 300zx perfectly high torque, high response, wide chassis and short length. racing car if i have ever heard it. the fact that it's lighter than the stock engine is just icing on the cake.

actually because the engine is a replacing a cast iron 4 cylinder turbo, the weight difference isn't that great maybe 20-30 kg plus a bit for the larger 300zx transmission (when you factor in the turbo and inter-cooler piping). actually this even more significant in skylines. when a ls1 or another similar alloy v8 engine replaces the cast iron straight 6 rb26, the front axle weight will usually reduce. in most cases you'll have shorten your front suspension and springs. that yellow 32 with an ls1 (i think) has done this conversion, GTRsean said he saw it at one of the track days (the visual doesn't match the sound coming from it, an import that sounds like a v8 super car). very interesting concept, import handling lightweight high torque western v8. looking back i would love to do this to skyline one day, though i think Sean might have something to say about that, I'll just have to increase the money.

it's still stock, i want to keep the tomei t-trax 2 way thats in it. i'll leave it 4.363 until it's rego'd and see how i like it. i figure if i make the tires wide enough traction will no longer be an issue. i'm really hoping this oil problem doesn't turn out to be huge.

i've got ross tuffbond making me a new perfromance balancer for it and we have make sure the valve trains fine, it's been making intermittent loud lifter noises of late, which why we have been relutant to run it. going to talk to mark at mrc about extending the key way for the oil sprocket. cars complete just little things that hopefully don't turn out to be massive. should just give to ross harmonic balancers and tell'em to fix the pulley system, that stop it sliping once and for all.

drag is a factor of the power needed to overcome it, the ratio tells me with enough power what maximum speed the car is capable of. the main point of it is to calculate the cruising rpm of highway driving. the plan for the car is mainly street performance will see the odd track day and drag strip. hence the Na con-fig and 5 speed manual. the diff ratio will probably end up as 3.9 to get the best out cruising and acceleration with out too many draw backs in either one. by the way the custom front sway bar is fitted, same diameter as the white-line adjustable that it replaces.

it looses traction just off idle in 2nd gear, i was getting it to a tow truck and i had go over a speed bump. just gave a little throttle in 2nd as i idled off it and it steps out. crazy response.

been doing some research on my diff ratio. which is currently the ca18det manual trans ratio of 4.363 which means, assuming that 7000 rpm is my red line and the 300zx gear ratio's are: 1st 3.214 2nd 1.925 3rd 1.302 4th 1.000 5th 0.752 this should mean each gear maxes out at: 1st 60km/hr 2nd 100km/hr 3rd 146km/hr 4th 191 km/hr 5th 254km/hr and at 100km/hr in 5th gear the rpm should be 2750rpm. (quite high for a v8) or the other other option is using the ca18 auto trans diff ratio of 3.9 which is: 1st 66km/hr 2nd 111km/hr 3rd 164km/hr 4th 214km/hr 5th 285km/hr and at 100km/hr in 5th gear the rpm should be 2500rpm. worried if i go any lower in the ratio I'll loose out on too much acceleration. or i use a 4.11 out of an sr20 s13: 1st 63km/hr 2nd 104km/hr 3rd 156km/hr 4th 203 km/hr 5th 270km/hr and at 100km/hr in 5th gear the rpm should be 2600rpm. I'm thinking the 4.11's what does everyone think?

I'm actually quite surprised how good the 32 GTR wheels look on it. match it perfect, if they were only an inch or so wider.

10inch wheels at the back, hell yeah. we'll make'em fit, 17*9's at least.

if i had my way there would be no bonnet bulge at all. one day i might put a new intake manifold on it. runs pretty quiet when part at throttle, very unassuming until you put the hammer down then every knows whats in it. The noise coming from the engine is louder then the exhaust, a lot louder. I drove it down the road to try and get a pink slip for a unrego'd vehicle temporary license, and I'm quite amazed at the result. It's not a stupid amount of acceleration, its linear. speedo looks like tacho when accelerating from about 50km/hr in fifth gear, goes up faster then it feels. guess I've gotten used to boost. Sean thinks it'll go faster with taller diff gears to make better use of the torque cause it's currently got the tomei 2 way 4.363 from the ca18, might have to drop it to about 3.9.

ask GTRsean he had LMGT 1 nismo's on his 32 gtr 18*10 265 rubber looked wicked. filled the guards perfectly.

I'm pretty much dead on 6ft (183 cm), and in an attempt to fit in my 180sx properly i put 32gtr seats in it and 6ft is almost average size these days( i think?). i still ankle-toe instead of heel-toe, but i manage. Although you tend to look like your driving a go-kart with your knees up the sides of the steering wheel. I have seen some taller skyline drivers deliberately buy automatics, but an automatic skyline seems a bit of waste of time unless all you want to do is go to the drags. but I'm sure with the right seat combo (and a little welding) anythings possible. I wish i put in a variable length steering column, that would be a dream.

these pics are what the car looks like now with bonnet complete and engine bay pretty much complete as well. only thing left are new custom front sway bar and calibrate the speedo and put a converter in the dash to get the 4 banger tachometer to display a v8 signal correctly. then engineering!

bonnet's finally finished, it took two bonnet's to make. Cutting the induction hood out one and grafting it to the other. Kreative in windsor did all the welding work. dan's place (also in windsor) did the prep and painting (he also seem welded the some of hood again, the welder was worried about warping). it's a little warped on the front at the sides but a little persuasion on seans part seemed to fix that.

lol, very funny...... hey wait why I'm i talking you on the forum when you live next door?

thought I'd comment on my own car lol. I'm very impressed at how responsive the engine is, can't wait drive it somewhere other than the driveway.

yeah, paid about 2k for mine. using a Z32 gearbox and getting an adapter plate made for it which will be recessed into the gearbox housing so we don't have to run a spacer on flywheel. the engine mounts from the pics above are similar to the ones we are getting from UAS and we will modify them to suit the position we want the engine.

basically it started when i got my ca tuned again and it got 225kw and on the way home started making tapping nosies at part throttle and lost power, when i got home an hour later it looking like i had done a main bearing. after riding around in GTRseans R32 all of these years i was getting sick of torque of the ca, as a joke i said "why don't i just put a v8 in it." and sean sugested that he's up for a challenge and if i organised the engine and equipment he would help me with the making of engine mounts and all the unforseen things. after a few visits to MRC who is putting a twin turbo VH45 in his R31 and lucky enough had a stock vh45 and auto gear box that had just been put in a 300zx, and doing a few measurements to make sure we fit between the rails i had an engine and gearbox sitting in my garage and a ca18det with no where to go (ps pulling apart and selling) the following pictures are of sean and me test fitting the v8. we are currently ( by we i mean sean) trying to complete the custom bell housing to suit the 300zx manual gearbox i bought for it.

i've been looking into vh45 converion into a 180sx, the biggest problem i can see is with the exhaust manifolds. the engine being DOHC makes the heads wide and the fact it's 90 degree v8 mean that modifying the chassis os needed to get to the exhaust manifold to fit. by the way if anyones got info on what the clearances are and if there is enough room for block a hugging exhaust as iam very interested in this as i am very keen in this sort converion. as my 180 will end up with either a VQ30DET or VH45 and if all else fails RB26 by the way according to my engineer the maximum na engine you can put in an S13 is just over 5L and 4L for a turbo. so theres no sortage of choice.

nice camera work right there.