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When we were first approached by our customer about this build we were a little skeptical. Why would you get rid of a proven, reliable, powerful, and technologically advanced V6 motor for a 15 year old, 2 liter, 4 cylinder? The answer was much more simple than we expected.

With the closest 350z/G35 specialty shop having outrageously high costs for mostly bolt on work , it is easy to get caught up in the idea that the car is expensive to work on and modify. If it costs over $300 to get a compression and leak down test from them, what would it cost to get an engine swap? In this case our customer is on a budget of under $15,000. That will cover the cost of purchasing the the body, motor set, all upgrade parts, and labor. Not too bad when you consider what you will have at the end of the day. A lighter, more balanced, and nearly double wheel horse power version of  the 350Z. Go ahead, go buy a stock one for that much.

Cost and Weight: The SR20DET motor in full stock trim including the transmission is nearly 150 lbs lighter than a VQ35 in stock trim with transmission. Add in that we are going to make 450whp and now you have twin turbos and manifolds, 2 down pipes, Y pipe, extra intercooler piping/couplers/clamps- the difference is even greater. Now factor in the cost of buying 2 of everything on the hot side. Your 450 whp VQ powered 350Z is significantly more expensive than the SR powered one. Now I know that there are single turbo kits out there for the VQ and I know they work really well because we have installed them here. The cost of those kits are quite a bit lower than that of the good twin kits. but you still are adding weight to the already heavier stock motor.

Balance: The stock 350Z has a front to back weight distribution of 53/47% and a curb weight of 3815 lbs. That puts 2,021.95 lbs in the front part of the vehicle. Subtract 150 lbs, all in the front half of the car, and you will see that the SR powered 350Z has a curb weight of 3665 and a weight distribution ratio of  51/49%. Nearly perfect. This will be priceless when on track. It will definitely be on track, this customer plans on entering the car in the Redline Time Attack series in the street tire class. After tearing it up on track he can drive it home too because the wifey is going to daily drive it as her commuter hotrod.

Power: With the plan to get 450 whp out of this car, our customer has a nice list of goodies that he wants installed. Getting that level of power is not voodoo magic to us anymore and almost all of it can be completed with off the shelf items. A Garrett GT30R turbo mated to a Mazworx turbo manifold, and custom 3″ exhaust will expel the the hot gases. A Meizure electric water pump and a Koyo radiator will help keep the motor cool. A custom FMIC and 3″ piping will be enlisted to cool the incoming air. GSC S1 Cams, and an upgraded intake manifold utilizing the stock VQ throttle body (yes the drive by wire one) add to the list of bolt ons. Controlling all of this is a combination of AEM EMS and a stock ECU. Our customer absolutely wanted to retain as much daily driver comforts as possible. Functions like cruise control, power steering and A/C are being incorporated into the build and the custom wiring harness. A custom set of engine/trans mounts have been fabbed up and the engine assembly is in the car. No solid mounts will be used on this build, as I made sure to incorporate the stock 350z motor mounts and the stock trans mount from the SR.

Justin will be starting on the wiring job soon and we hope to be able to fire this project up in the next week or 2. I am always excited to do something different and this fits the bill. We are already looking at another motor swap in a 350Z for a summer project, that one is gonna be a whole different animal, with a 700 whp goal. With the shop having a LS6 powered Z, this customer with an SR, another customer with a 3rd-still undecided motor swap, the RB26 swap Dan did back in 03′, and my “stock” G35 sedan – thats 5 different motors in a Z that Batlground has or will complete. Whats your flavor? I like mine vanilla with Reeces peanut butter cup pieces.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Batlground Customer Cars, Batlground Fabrication, Nissan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.