The VQ30DET S15 Silvia build

[db_s13]

its not a pipe with the motor but a fabricated piece to move the turbo to a new location...google z31 relocation pipe and you will see an example

[psi999]

Originally Posted by notchtops14

so in every build i have seen everybody custom makes their intake plenums and does a crazy turbo set up, i am wanting to run stock turbo set up, i am wanting to run factory ecu and turbo set up, is there any clearance issues with turbo manifold "i know the rear exhaust that runs through the back of the motor will be an issue" i am wanting to keep it nice and simple with stock ecu and turbo.. is that possible? by the way it will be going into a usd s13 chassis.. thanks in advance

You'll run into a lot of problems, you wont fit the stock plenum for a start. I had mine running on the stock ECU for a while, it can be done and was fairly simple

As for this thread I have absolutely no updates on this car, other than that i've purchased a set of LS1 coils that are awaiting installation.

What i have been doing is playing with my Datsun 910 bluebird, installing a 1UZFE and 5-speed. I wont bore you all with the details, but will chuck a post up on it anyways

Made up some 5mm plates and tacked shit



Then welded



Then found the correct angle on the engine plate



And tacked that place



Cut out another 5mm plate for additional strength



Then glued it all together



Then pressed in my urethane bushings & painted





Then did the same for the right hand engine mount



Finished product installed (right hand side)



Than had a crack at the transmission mount - was able to use a portion of the stock bluebird mount and toyota mount





and installed



Next up was to install battery box in boot and run cables from engine bay to box





Installed a +ive post in the engine bay to run the starter and alternator - also drilled a 2" hole through firewall to pass the ECU loom



Next up i fabricated a throttle stay, probably slightly over engineered but i really hate flimsy brackets that most conversions end up with



Installed - with original sitting on the throttle body





Was able to retain the stock cover as well



Then a surprise in the afternoon today - my custom radiator arrived



So went about mounting - got my spacings and made up some brackets



Radiator sits quite nicely in there, millimetres clearance in each direction









No fucking around

BTW this is the car:

[future]

Car looks great

[Drifting Kalamari]

I love it all!!! Especially the 1UZ, I'm in the process of implanting one into my '89 S13 at the moment. Top notch work!!!

[RB2.5]

Amazing build!

[psi999]

So ive had a busy week throwing this thing together.

[CaliforniaMayhem]

Holy Molly your swaps are so damn clean! I wanted to say that I love all the information in this thread and you have a new sub!
I've wanted an Rb seal since I was a teenager and still do but after reading a this info and doing a Google search this swap is definitely quality! Do you know what the total weight of the motor & tranny? Sounds like it is lighter than an Rb (25det w/ tranny) although no one has said so outright.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[psi999]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMayhem

Holy Molly your swaps are so damn clean! I wanted to say that I love all the information in this thread and you have a new sub!
I've wanted an Rb seal since I was a teenager and still do but after reading a this info and doing a Google search this swap is definitely quality! Do you know what the total weight of the motor & tranny? Sounds like it is lighter than an Rb (25det w/ tranny) although no one has said so outright.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

Bare VQ30/35 block is 24kgs / 52lb so compared with an iron inline 6-cylinder she's light!

In other non S15 news my Datsun passed engineering today

- Toyota Celsior 1UZFE 4.0L V8 engine
- Toyota Chaser GX100 5-Speed transmission (w-series)
- Nissan R31 Skyline Front Brakes
- Nissan R31 Skyline Rear Brakes (disc)
- Nissan R31 Skyline BW78 Diff
- Nissan R31 Skyline Front Struts modified coil over suspension (adjustable)
- Nissan S13 Silvia Rear coil over suspension (adjustable)



Fully road legal

[Drifting Kalamari]

That sir is a beautiful sight, brings a tear to my eyes.

And an aluminum alloy block V6 is definitely much lighter than a cast iron inline six!

[psi999]

So ive been driving around the new toy quite a bit

Decided to hit up a local annual 'old school' Jap car show mid Feb:



(next to my mates US import RHD FJ20DET Datsun 510 2-door sedan)

And today a V8 muscle car cruise for a few laughs (being a V8 and all )



(some GM and Ford Aussie muscle cars there for you blokes)

[psi999]

Well i've been driving this heaps, 2-3 times a week and a couple of Mt Nebo/Glorious runs - lots of fun but i'll be needing new tyres soon.

But like always, im hunting for a few more HP so started looking for ways to lean out the fueling.

1UZFE's run insanely rich standard, 10.5 (down to 10.0):1 under load with stock ECU and with some research on more specific Lexus forums leaning from 10.0:1 -> 12.5:1 will gain something in the vicinity of 20rwhp if leaned with a signal bending device.

There are quite a few of these signal type bending device's on the market (Jaycar DFA, Greddy emanage, Apexi AFC, SAFC II, NEO) but in recent times have become fairly unloved with the advancement of aftermarket ECU's, specifically more PnP options combined with better knowledge of how setup/tune.

But for this car, there is no point in changing the ECU, perfect cold start, idle, fuel economy and legal i just cant walk away from - so signal bender it is.

For my particular setup the significant leaning of the map (apparently around 8% in some points) will also chuck in a couple of extra degrees timing. While these signal bending devices and inclusion of timing when leaning out mixtures are the devil on turbo vehicles on an atmo type thing such as this its an excellent 'trade-off'.

So started looking, being the tightarse i am i started looking at the Jaycar/autospeed DFA, ive secretly wanted to build one of these for many years - but never had the right setup for it.

Jaycar / Autospeed DFA:



About $160 in parts and self assemble.

Throwing into the mix for around the same money the Apexi SAFCII can be had, this will perform all functions of the DFA but also tied to throttle movements & also able to display data such as MAF voltages (or Hz's in my case), engine knock, RPM, battery voltages & throttle angles... All configurable on various data screens. So i decided as much as i wanted to build the DFA the SAFCII made better sense.

So I set out looking for a SAFCII. These things haven't been in production for years so all 2nd hand (the NEO which replaced the SAFCII actually lacked features of the 'II' thus keep SAFCII's values quite high)

I quickly established the SAFCII going price is around ~$250, ended up picking one up on Gumtree for $180 after a couple of weeks half arsed searching

So far i've wired it in and configured it to my engine (confirmed working!) and played around a little on the data screens.

Have mounted it away in the glove box to maintain my 100% stock appearing interior



Tacho is nice as i don't currently have one - cheaper than a monster tach!



And another handy screen which displays both numerically and graphically knock value, throttle, revs and correction (+/-)



Next project is to source a cheaparse wideband kit ($200 with gauge outa US) and start leaning out, i have a couple of maps from the Lexus forums but would prefer the safety of a WB before i even start tinkering.... A WB and the knocking sensor should make this a piece of piss to configure

p.s. I washed the S15 last week and took it for 100km drive lol.

[Teigen]

Cool project. One of few I will follow here!
I love to see other people who uses wrinkle paint

[psi999]

Been a bit busy for a couple of months but thought id dust atleast one of my cars off on the weekend and drive it around a bit.

Dropped down to see mate on Saturday (killing time / daddy daycare duties) and as luck would have it he was able to find a few minutes to weld in my O2 wideband bung that's been kicking around for a while.



....Which meant the rest of the wideband setup ended up being installed yesterday afternoon - nice and stealth, hidden away in the glove box with the stezza and SAFC.





Then had a tinker with the tune Saturday eve on the Dayboro dyno (local rural long straight road, 65MPH speed limit so its perfect), sorted out a fairly solid 12.5:1 map then headed back to the dyno today to lean it out a tad more ~13.4:1.

Chucked both maps into excel and all looks pretty good.



Has absolutely transformed the car (both performance and note of the engine), with such large minus numbers (-17%!) i'd say not only is a heap of fuel gone timing must have been added as well.

Decent result for $370 in parts (SAFC II + AEM wideband)

[PoorMans180SX]

Whatever happened to this thing?

[db_s13]

Still going he is just dedicating more time towards his bluebird

[psi999]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Whatever happened to this thing?

Still happening, just been lazy/slack.

Chucked it on a friends dyno







357rwhp on 13psi. Have an issue with timing dropping with RPM so we didn't push it hard, just a basic tune so i can drive the car.

Then had it shot for a magazine:









And more recently took it to the drags. Busy night - only a few runs:

13.1 @ 105.5 (2.3 60ft)

Run straight off the highway - hit limiter in every gear, crossed the line in 4th on limiter - fail but at least i knew id be shifting to 5th from here on.

13.2 @ 115.7 (2.4 60ft)

Drove it off the line to limit axle tramp on ramp (became apparent rear end needs sorting bigtime), ran it through to 5th gear - picked up 10 mph

More boost and timing issue sorted with more appropriate tires should see solid ET/MPH gains. For a long overdue first outing i'm happy

[psi999]

Originally Posted by db_s13

Still going he is just dedicating more time towards his bluebird

Yep gone a bit retard on this...

[CaliforniaMayhem]

Wow beautiful manifolds and diagram

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Koukiii]

Siiiiiiiiick cars man!

[1988montecarloss]

both of these cars are epic but especially looking forward to see the bluebird finished

[PoorMans180SX]

Nice! Glad to see it's still around.

S366 on the bluebird?

[psi999]

Yep S366

[GreenBomberS13]

Do you know of any standalone ECUs that will fit a VQ30DE from a Maxima? Im doing a FWD A33 swap into an S13 and the million dollar question what is the best set up for programming.

[SoundEfx]

This is just plain wicked.

Is that a yellow 120Y I see in the pictures on the first page?

[psi999]

New ECU on the Datsun





New Haltech Elite 750

And a rewire while i was at it:





And some GM LS2 coils on custom brackets + knocked up some leads to suit.





Thankfully was able to trim and retain all the plastic factory covers as well (UZ's look like arse sans covers IMO).





And ECU all fired up with triggers configured.



Haven't attempted start yet as ive still got a few sensors to wire, fuel and oil pressure sensors & Flex fuel sensor

[psi999]

S15 has been seeing the light of day recently as well







850 odd mile drive - car went great

[psi999]

Originally Posted by SoundEfx

This is just plain wicked.

Is that a yellow 120Y I see in the pictures on the first page?

Well spotted, yes. Its running a VG33

[psi999]

So thought it was about time to chuck the side project on the dyno. Full flex tune completed in 2hrs from base VE haltech map, Elites tune up amazingly quickly!

283hp @ 5.5 psi on PULP 87MON / 98RON (didn't bother further because 10:1 compression ratio) - good enough to get the car to the track and the odd squirt here and there on wastegate pressure.





(...screaming for more boost)

Then dropped the PULP and poured in 50L of E85 (which resolved at E72 with remaining fuel according to the flex sensor).

400hp @ 13 psi on E85 - stock gaskets/studs/springs so about as far as we felt comfortable pushing it.





Never going to make any real power on dyno because powerglide and stalled converter but looks promising

Trans didn't get hot enough to switch on the 2nd trans fan (2 x coolers with fans) and radiator did its job well. All seems to be working well.

Next job is to plate the diff mounts as Bluebirds have a tendency to rip the brackets off the floor due to minimal factory spot welds. Hopefully have it to the track in the next month.

[psi999]

So I’ve been thinking about treating myself to a new cheap interesting daily for a while but couldn’t commit until it could be garaged. Both of my project cars live in our dual car garage – my current daily (shit ute) and nopics 4wd live outside which is not an ideal situation given Queensland Australia summer storms (hail etc).

So finally, after 8 years of procrastination over a few weekends I knocked up a garage under our rear deck. Had a 33qsm slab poured, $25ea garage doors from gumtree, builders 2nds windows & colorbond plus a few hundred bucks at Bunnings on a door & framing materials. I’ve sealed inside with a corrugated iron under roof into its own drain. All weatherproof.

Still needs a weekends work fitting trim pieces and bit more colorbond but good enough to now put use.





Toys now live there freeing up main garage. Needs another 30sqm of concrete leading into but it’ll be fine for a while. Anyway enough on that.

So onto the car. Plan was to flick soul destroying shit ute which Wife basically refuses to drive (2001 Isuzu dual cab manual 4wd v6 petrol/LPG) for hopefully around the 3.5k mark and top up 5k from savings. Wasn’t prepared to spend any more given reality is this car will often be used for train station / day-care pickup/dropoff and shopping centre run – basically no point in getting anything to good.

Decided fairly early on into the piece that the car couldn’t be turbo (ie, I would frig with it 110% and ruin its daily place in the fleet), must have 4 seats, a boot, 4 or 6-cyl – no V8s (no v8 rego) & no euro because want some form of reliability .

So started my gumtree search at 2000 and newer and $5000 upwards. V35 Skylines came up pretty quick. Decent size car inside, decent boot with lay flat back seat, 3.5L VQ35 engine of which I’m familiar with and passed the ‘interesting’ test. Also amazingly cheap to insure (?!)

Lowballed a few guys to around my budget and ended up lining up a 2004 base spec auto. Loosely negotiated a price and went and took a look at the car. Of course the owner (or owners brother who I was actually dealing with apparently) forgot to mention the paint scuff on the front – conveniently missing from the photos as well. That and a few cracks on the dash we arrived at a new figure of $8,000 with one week to do the deal. $100 down and I was on my way.



Typical smokers teeth headlights, reasonable body with a few minor(ish) dents and scratches, all wheels gutter rashed (sigh). That said it was 100% standard with genuine very low KMs which kept me interested. After all daily.

Few days away from pickup wife who works in insurance was asked by her employer if she could head to Sydney Aust for a month to assist with setting up an assessment centre for the recent hail storm – given wife ran a similar operation up this way a few years ago after a similar storm and did a great job she was basically hand-picked to make it happen - I now needed to pickup the car earlier.

Contacted owner (or owners brother) for an earlier pickup before wife left – owners brother wouldn’t budge from a Saturday pickup as from what I could gather the car was his daily driver until it was sold. Started to get cold feet given I wasn’t dealing with the actual owner of the vehicle, was being driven every day to god knows where, owner wasn’t 100% up front with condition and I expected issues with transfer given the owners brother and owner were incredibly unorganised (RWC yet to be organised) – I wasn’t making 2 x trips to pickup the car with a 4yo by my side so backed out of the deal and forfeited my deposit.

So started scouring gumtree again and cast the net a bit wider and ended up finding a car I’d looked at weeks ago. 5 week old ad & 250km from Brisbane so well and truly outside of most search criteria by this point. I’d actually connected with the owner on FB weeks ago when I was originally asking him some questions about it. At that time the car wasn’t what I wanted (lightly modified not standard) but given the bloke seemed like a genuine kinda guy I looked at it again in a bit more detail. Taking a leap of faith we negotiated a price I set off to buy my new daily sign unseen.

Wife in Sydney, in-laws organised to pickup kidlet from school I set off on Friday afternoon up north to pickup new daily.



….mentioned to my manager when I left the office on Friday that I could be late on Monday if the car ended up being a shitbox – long walk home.

A movie, some TV and dinner in the club car later I was met at the station by new daily and owner. Old mate was curious if someone was actually going to get off the train as it has seemingly all taken place so quickly. Quick look over the car at the station and It was better than I had expected which was refreshing. Deal was done and dropped now ex owner back to his house, which frustratingly for him was 200 odd meters from where the bitumen ended on his road. He could never keep it clean.



Car performed flawlessly on the way home. Saturday was spent giving the car a deep clean (found 100 yen) removing years of dust and dirt. Gave the car a quick polish - car was in much better condition again than I had expected.







Specs wise:

2003 V35 Nissan Skyline 350GT – Track spec.
6 speed manual
LSD
Brembo brakes
18” Factory wheels
Factory Nissan alarm & folding mirror options
Cloth interior - mint condition
New BC coilovers
New front end bushes
New HD exedy clutch & non dual mass flywheel.
New tint all round
New aftermarket headlights – RHD lights. Actually suit the car well.
Pioneer double din stereo (Bluetooth hands free and all the bits and pieces)
Invidia Gemini exhaust and cats (undecided if this will stay on but much quieter than I had expected - barely notice it already)
New windscreen installed & new tyres fitted the day I picked it up.
Safety certificate and 5 months rego.

Also received the stock suspension and exhaust.

On the road feels much quicker than I had expected, apparently in the spec it is it should do a high 13 @ 102ish. Feels about that quick but whatever. Compared to the standard auto version I was looking at I can’t believe it’s the same engine/car.

Car came with full Jap Nissan service history / documentation until the year it was imported. Was a Nagoya car so given Brembos, manual, LSD & region most probably an enthusiasts car

As for the folding somehow amazingly I still stayed within my budget - $500 more than the standard one above thanks to stale ad and too far from Brisbane. Incredible amount of car for the money.

So plan from here? - Plan is no plan, nice daily with comfortable seats that wife will actually drive and isn’t soul destroying for me. Cheap interesting lowly deprecating daily success

[future]

400 whp in that thing must fly