VG30ET Swap
 

I realized I haven't posted this car up on here before, and I feel like this crowd would appreciate these shenanigans.

I'm President of Texas A&M's Society of Automotive Engineers, and one of our student projects (along with Formula Hybrid) is competing in the Grassroots Motorsports $20XX Challenge. So everything you see here is built by (largely unskilled) students for less than $2011.

This car was originally intended for the 2010 Challenge, but some severe logistical issues (read: Not having a shop or tools) led to a delay 'til the '11 Challenge. The car itself was graciously donated by a member on here (I'm sure he'll stand up and identify himself). Here's a picture of the car when we picked it up, along with the car and our old Civic in shop #1.

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The car was cleaned up, and we dropped some components in to see if there was enough room. Probably not, but we decided to press forward anyways.

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The car then moved to shop (actually a giant lab not meant to be an automotive shop) #2.

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The first motor ended up being a bust, so we yanked another motor out of a (probably) healthier car in some guy's driveway.

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The engine itself fits rather comfortably in the engine bay, width-wise. It'll probably be poking up through the hood a tad, but that's not really a concern for us.

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We added some hardpoints in the transmission tunnel for a mount for the VG30DETT transmission.

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The mounts were extended down to the subframe, which was then reinforced.

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We picked up some used GC coilovers and possibly blown AGXs that we'll be running. If anyone has some stiffer spring rates that they want to trade, we're open to ideas.

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We got an old Cobra racing bucket off CL that didn't fit, but we widened up the tunnel about an inch and shortened the rails a bit.

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I cut away the front crash structure and welded in a length of pipe I found lying around, and we hung an eBay intercooler off it.

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Amazingly enough, it fit completely within the stock bumper. We'll probably be adding some speed holes in the top half of the bumper to increase airflow across the heat exchangers.

As mandrel bends are simply too baller for this build, we've been experimenting with some unorthodox materials and procedures, and I think we've got a concept that'll work. We've used galvanized fence pipe cut into pie bends, and it matches up with the exhaust ports rather well. Don't worry, we're not going to actually weld the galvanized metal, we soak them in muriatic acid to remove the zinc before we weld them up. But yes, it actually works. We'll see if I can make an entire manifold out of it, but all signs point to "Probably."

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We're hollowing out the stock upper intake manifold and relocating the throttle body to the front of the plenum to make it more conducive to our packaging.

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We took apart out engine and threw some fresh paint on the block, then reassembled it with the old bearings and some fresh rings. Should be enough to last through the GRM Challenge.

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We painted the engine bay with appliance enamel from Walmart the other day, and should be dropping the motor in pretty soon.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5094333_n.jpg

That's about where we sit at this point. We've got a lot left to go, but it's nothing compared to how far we've come. You haven't lived until you've convinced a state organization to pay for something like this and give you somewhere to do it.

Let me know if there are any questions about our antics.

Rorz.

Back to work.

Awesome.

*

9 years until retirement... then some property big enough for a nice-sized shop and all my build-whatever-the-fuck-I-want dreams come true.

Much win. I need to find an excuse to go see the GRM challenge this year.

YUS! I always wondered if the 300zx tt engine would be a good candidate, I wish I had the money to try this on my own

VG30ET = 84-89 300ZX turbo. SOHC design, single turbo, not quite a cramped as the VG30DETT which was the DOHC and twin turbo from 90-97.


I'm surprised you guys didn't try to find a short block VG33E from a Fontier and have a 3.3L. http://www.xenonz31.com/vg33eswap.html

Dammit, its a nice table! Even the wife likes it.

I'll get back to mine at some point.. if it wasn't for the cost of using my old miata... mine could have been a GRM build also :p AND I don't have a team!

grumble grumble.

After playing with this car, I really don't think the DETT heads would fit. They're massive compared to the SOHC heads we've got, and we've barely got room for exhaust manifolds as it is.

I can't remember what the reason was, but we considered it and opted for the VG30E instead.

I guess I didn't really clarify in the first post, we're not using a true VG30ET, we've got a VG30E block (with the higher compression) that we're turbocharging. We picked up an old Turbonetics T3/T04E off Craigslist that should work fine.

Oh that looks like fun. Crank up the boost and forget about the extra cams... who needs em?

this would be something where a cowl hood is accepted.

WHOOP! Lookin' good Ags!

I don't have anything big to donate like Rob...but I have a few parts on the shelf.

Also have a Momo wheel I'll donate. Let me know by Tuesday am as that's my last final day and I won't be back that way all summer.

Exactly. These motors will swallow so much boost in stock trim it's not even funny.

In all seriousness, we're just going to cut the hood around the motor where we have to and let it poke through the top.

Unfortunately we don't have any room in the budget for anything nice like a Momo wheel. We're currently rocking an FB steering wheel wrapped in bicycle grip tape. If you want to sell it, though, my personal Miata needs a new steering wheel with a horn button before it'll pass inspection.

Looks good, but I didn't know that the et would take much boost. I guess it was the stock turbo that wouldn't take much boost.

Yeah, the stock VG30ET wasn't intercooled, and couldn't handle much boost. Here's a bunch of dyno graphs of aftermarket setups. I don't think 300hp is an unreasonable goal for our setup.

http://redz31.net/turbofaq/dyno.graphs.html

now I want a 80's 300zx or newer 300zx TT.

I'd love to have an old, beatup Z31. It could be a hell of a sleeper.

When you guys picked you the car I know it didn't have any fenders on it, but I have some spares you are welcome to along with an old hood that is not presentable but good for mock up of cutting the hole and some FM sway bars for the 90-93 that I would let go for cheap.

I have a couple stock steering wheels around here that you can have for inspection purposes for your personal car.

Let me know if there is anything else you guys need as I probably have it.

I definitely will. What are the chances you've got a pair of headlight covers?

We've got a set of your daisies at the shop, still.

I love swaps like this. If the race was not so far away I would be more inclined to enter my 2jz swap car. Nice build so far keep up the good work.

These GRM builds are some of my favorites on the site. Pure knowledge and skill!

Please keep us updated!

I have a stock wheel (and airbag if you want)....and the Momo is free for the GRM build. It's not in the best shape...but might get a few style points.

Will throw it in the car. Probably eating lunch with my brother on Tuesday close to Zach on my way out...so let me know if you'll be free.

I've got a final in Zachry at 3 Tuesday, I can meet up with you whenever.

Now that finals are over, we were able to make some headway on the car.

We reinstalled the subframe and the freshened-up motor:

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It looks quite comfortable in its new resting place.

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We then started ballparking some component placement.

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We made a huge discovery, at least for our build. Stock 350Z manifolds are like a gift from above. At only $30 for this set, you can't beat the price. We have to oval out some bolt holes, but the bore spacing is identical, so all the ports line up. The ports aren't the same shape, but it's workable. If we were doing this build for maximum power, we'd match the ports in the head to the exhaust, but that's not something worth doing at this point in the year. They look like they were made for this build.

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That is an awesome find. That should take a load off...

Oh man you have no idea. I was seriously stressing about those manifolds.

Jake,

Sorry, completely forgot about the wheel in the midst of new job and finals, and was gone by 3...

PM me if you want me to ship it to ya.

Nah, don't worry about it. I completely understand the finals mindset (or lack thereof). I appreciate the offer, though.

plans to boost?

Very much so. Turbonetics T3/T04E. Going to start off with about 12 pounds and go from there.

Nice! Thats exactly my plan for the 350z manifolds on my VQ. Whats nice is I only have to move a few studs on each side and they flip with 0 issues.

Yeah, I imagine that'd work perfectly. We're going to have to get creative with our mounting for these.

Here's a few pictures from the past week:

Nissan wiring harness going on a diet:
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Bedlinered floorboards and half-dash ftw:
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Interior painted with appliance enamel:
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Rebending fuel lines:
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Looks really good. I'm doing my entire interior with bed liner hopefully next week.

Did you use a roll on or a spray on?

Just the can. Something like $7 at Autozone, and we had enough to do our floorboards, our front wheel wells, our valve covers, and still have some left over (hopefully enough to do the roll bar).

Hope you don't mind if we use some of your ideas for our build. We are putting an 87 300zx motor and trans in to our 93 miata. It will be our 2nd lemons/chump car. Right now we have a 77 datsun 280z with a 82 280zx turbo motor that we have been running in lemons/chump. It is fast as heck, but we have run into some reliability problems along the way. We want to buid something fast as heck like a 300 turbo that handles like a miata. The last car was partly built by my high school students and myself and any free help we can get. My students are ready for the next school year to start so they can start on the next "Toy". Would love if you could post any more pics of the motor and trans from diffrent angles. If you make it to 2011 challenge we will have to drive up from Tampa and root you on. Rock on to higher education, and working on cars at the same time. Rick from Skool Boyz Racezing.

Yeah, that's fine. All the pictures I've got are on our website (saeintl.tamu.edu/grassroots/miata), but I can get you any other pictures you need. Let me know if there's any other questions I can answer, as well.

bump for ingenuity. amazing build

what happened to this biuld?

you killed it

It's still going strong. I'm out of town on an internship, but the rest of our guys are still working on the car. Got the driveshaft sorted out (less than an hour in a machine shop to make a Nissan driveshaft safely mount to a Mazda differential!) and they're starting on the exhaust manifold.

This is a great build, I love stuff like this. In for more progress pics.

So I had a thought. I'd love to reuse the stock tachometer. But I need some help.

The stock Miata gets a 12V (I think?) signal twice every revolution. I believe the Z31 ignitor puts out a 5V signal, because I've seen people mention a 1k Ohm resistor as a 12V pull up when using Megasquirt.

In short, halp. I don't know exactly where I need to go from here.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1314941284

"Feed me a small child."

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316586357

So we've got the bodywork done, and tried out the new stance with 225/45/15s on the front instead of the 275/35/15s. Aesthetically, it's much better, and dynamically it should help us get our goal of steady-state mild understeer with power-on oversteer.

Yes, that's the exhaust outlet in front of the front left tire. We're going to surround it with a stainless steel plate, that's just the rough cut in the bumper.

you'll be happier with equal tires and adjusting the under/overseers with sway bars, coilover settings, and/or tire pressures.

This build looks great. Very nice job!

Thanks for the advice. Right now we're so pressed for time we don't have the time to properly flare the fenders to fit the 275s, so I'm going to try and find a setup that will allow us to keep understeer in check without having to run 225s in the back. Old 911s at the local race track give us a nice supply of used race tires to choose from.

Thanks. Two years of my life have surrounded this car, I'm going to be very happy to see it done.

Engine bay pics?

x2

Just about to ask. Don't skimp on the good stuff!

I don't have any recent (past 48 hours) pictures with all the components in place. I'll get some tomorrow night after class and put some up.

I was sad seeing a hole in the hood.

Neat project anyway. :)

Yeah, I would have loved to keep it as sleeper as possible, but with the narrow-angle V6, there's no way to get it lower short of a dry-sump system.

You probably figured this out, but there's a similar problem when putting a ls1 in a NA. The miata tach wants a 12V uniform 2 pulse/rotation square wave signal. The gm ECU puts out a ~5V signal at 2 pulses/rotation so most people add a pullup resistor. My tach would bounce around sometimes at idle with the pullup and I'm not sure whether the MS is ok with that output being pulled up to 12V. Here's the signal that worked with the miata tach:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2898429...in/photostream

That's very interesting. Thanks. The tach conversion kind of got dropped off the list for right now, as busy as we are with everything else, but hopefully we can get everything working again for next year.

Here are some pictures of under the hood, as promised. Keep in mind everything is in its semi-disassembled state, I just threw it all under the hood for a picture or two.

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eBay Charge Piping kit FTW.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316749878
The one part of the exhaust (flanges notwithstanding) that wasn't sourced from another scrapped exhaust- a 2.5" Weld-El for $11 from a local steel supply place.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316749878
Looking down from the driver's side.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316749878
Looking across the front from the passenger's side.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1316749878
Put to bed for the night.

Gig 'Em Ags!!!


Whoop OSU this weekend.


Love the build, let me know if I can get any parts to you. I see my brother this weekend who works in Zachry. Sorry I never got that Momo to you, last semester was hectic.

No worries. If you're out in CS on a weekend, hit me up if you want to see the car.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=182421915167936

Primed the oil pump tonight. Exciting to see this thing coming to life.