Removing the rear of the donor.

Today I cut the rear body panels out of the roadster. In doing this I am glad I decided to go the Miata/roadster mash up route as I found more hidden rust and rot during the cutting out of the body panels. Luckily the sections I need are rust and rot free, but it appears this car had a lot of short cuts made on the body work by using alot of bondo and newspaper as fillers. Needless to say to all of you out there not to thrilled with the idea of cutting up a roadster for a project such as this, I believe that if a roadster had to be donated this was as good of candidate as any. After some strategic cuts with the cut off wheel here is what I was left with:

It will be awhile before I start the process of fitting this to the Miata. I just wanted the roadster out of my 1 car garage at my house and I didnt want it to be in the way at the shop. So storing the car out back of the shop was the best option. I wanted to avoid the body sitting out in the weather so I went ahead and cut the last of the body panels I needed off the roadster before I set the car outback and let Mother Nature have her way with it.

According to my measurements the Miata in the rear is roughly 7" wider than the roadster. No worries, the same method applied to the front will be utilized in the rear, cut and add metal.

In the shop awaiting fitment:

Transmission in!

I finally got the transmission in place it was a tight fit but everything landed where I intended. 

As you can see the oil pan sits pretty low past the k member I was thinking of modding the oil pan or perhaps elongating the k member, but now I'm leaning more towards a skid plate rather than throwing off the geometry of the suspension by doing essentially the same thing, protecting the oil pan. Ill have to see how low the car squats with the weight of the engine and trans on it.

In the car I had to trim the shifter hole slightly to clear for my mock up shifter bracket. This shifter bracket is temporary as I plan to fabricate a better one. 

Test fitted with the NB center console I have with it fitted with a embroidered Nismo shift boot.

Yeah I need to get a better shift knob.

Next I need to fabricate the transmission mount.

Mounting the beast

I got the motor pretty well set in place where I needed it now was time to level it off. I needed a flat spot on the motor to get it properly leveled. I used the lower intake manifold of the 350z as a place to rest my torpedo level for reference. I set a block of wood between where the k member goes under the engine for clearance as well as clearance of the steering rack. After a few attempts to get the engine to sit level freely I realized I was going to need something to temporarily hold the engine level and in place to weld up the motor mount brackets needed. I realized I had just the thing to do the trick. You might laugh but it did the trick. We had a whole bag of long zip ties normally used commercially for holding HVAC duct work to diffusers in the ceiling. It ended up being perfect for what I used them for, a temporary place holder for the engine. So I centered  the motor in the engine bay, leveled it off from front to back and side to side. I zip tied it in place in conjunction with using the engine hoist to keep it supported.

Motor now set, I was surprised to see the motor mount bracket mounting point on the block was in line with the k member. This is a good sign because I won't have to make a custom k member and it means the motor is near center on the k member for weight distribution. I found that I could drill the holes for the mount and have it offset enough to clear the steering rack like so:

It doesn't look like the 350z manifolds will clear my mount bracket so they will be removed for now. Hopefully the Nismo Frontier headers will clear if not ill just fabricate ones that will.

So now to make the first basic parts of the brackets, the mount plate to the engine and the mount plate to the motor mount itself. 

The plates to the engine are simple trace and cut out, then test fit to engine.

Then looking at the mount I found that that plate can be a perfect circle. I got out my hole saws and found one roughly the size of the mount.

Cut out the plate:

Being that hole saws use a pilot bit to hold them in place, it drills a small hole dead center of the plate which works out perfect for my needs. The pilot hole was two small so I just drilled it out bigger to suit the mount.

Perfect fit except there is a alignment dowel as I call it that won't allow the plate to sit flat unless it is also drilled into the plate.

So I took a nut and bolt and held the mount plate in place on the stock 350z mount arms.

 

Found a drill bit about the same size as the hole needed to be drilled. Drilled it.

Result:

Test fitted:

Like a glove! With all my mount plates fabricated and ready to go its time to make the mount arms needed. I bolted the engine to mount bracket plates to the engine and then bolted the mount bracket plates to motor mount plates to the motor mounts. Using card board and tape I made templates for the arms needed. I then traced them on the metal and cut them out. Once cut out I tack welded them in place.

I noticed that my drivers side mount is slightly under the body of the Miata. I am all about ease of maintenance so I am going to position the passenger side mount in a little closer to the engine for clearance and ease of engine removal if I ever have to pull it back out.  

So I placed the passenger side mount in place all the while being careful not to obstruct the starter.  I then did the same thing I did for the drivers side mount bracket, made a template and tack welded the arms in place. I cut loose the zip ties and rechecked my torpedo level.

Still level!

Pulled the motor out. Pulled the brackets off. Welded them solid. Sand blasted them in preps for powder coating later.

Drivers side:

Passenger side:

I will be putting the car on my lift next and bolting the transmission to the engine in preparation for making the transmission mount. 

Stuffing the engine in...

As I mentioned I am using a VQ30DET for this build. I actually have a few variants of the VQ series engines in my possession. I have a VQ30DE from a Maxima and a damaged VQ35DE from a G35x (350z engine). So with the various engines I am able to mix and match parts from the different engines to "Frankenstein" a VQ engine together to suit my needs. For fitment purposes I will be using the damaged VQ35. 

The VQ30DET uses motor mounts that are the same as a R32 Skyline. I have Nismo R32 mounts with 350z motor mount brackets I am hoping will work for my application. I also have a set of stock 350z manifolds to use as I am certain I will most likely have to do a rear mount turbo setup. 

After pulling the motor and reading various other Miata builds it became clear that I would have to convert my VQ to rear sump for clearance of the stock Miata K frame. Luckily there is a solution to this small problem. 

Nissan used the VQ series engine in the 2001-2004 Pathfinder which utilized a rear sump. So I bought the upper and lower oil pan off a Pathfinder and went to work.

I also ordered a new oil pick up tube, oil baffle, oil dip stick tube, oil dip stick and various gaskets new from Nissan. 

I popped the upper and lower oil pan off the VQ30DET. First thing I did was test fit the new Pathfinder oil pick up tube. 

Next thing I did was test fit the Pathfinder oil baffle. I found that the bolt holes needed to bolt down the oil baffle were missing on the VQ30DET torque plate (I think that's the name for it)

Thinking I was going to have to order a new plate from Nissan, I decided to pop open my damaged VQ35DE to see what it's plate looked like. I was surprised to find bolt holes where I needed them on its plate.

So I laid the oil baffle on it and found it lined up perfectly. 

Happy that I didn't have to purchase more parts I took everything and test fitted them on the VQ30DET. Everything went on without a hitch.

Then lastly I fitted the upper and lower oil pan, they too went on without a hitch. Only thing I will have to do is tap and plug the factory dip stick location on the VQ30DET and drill the block in the exact same location for the dip stick as the pathfinder block.

Now that I know everything fits the VQ30DET. I removed the upper and lower oil pan, as well as the motor mounts and brackets. I installed them on my damaged VQ35DE motor as well as the 350z headers and G35 transmission.

Ready for test fit!

Well first thing first I had to notch the subframe as you can see by this picture the oil pan is off center.

The oil cooler was also removed as it interfered with the steering rack. 

Transmission had to be removed as the engine could not be angled enough to clear the steering rack with the transmission attached.

The stock 350z manifolds were cut as they were too long and hit the fire wall. They will be replaced with shorter VQ40DE Nismo headers for a 05-13 Pathfinder/Frontier

I then found that the 350z motor mount brackets are not going to work for my needs. I will still use the Nismo Skyline motor mounts but the brackets I will have to custom make myself, no worries. After some measuring here is how the motor will sit:

The motor sits a little high and will surely have hood clearance issues. I plan to remedy this by elongating the stock Datsun Roadster hood scoop, which should give the roadster a more aggressive look.

The motor sitting at its lowest results in the oil pan sitting a inch or so past the bottom of the K member. This obviously won't work. Once the motor is mounted I will remove the upper oil pan and cut out a section of it reducing the length to be even or just barely past the K member and weld the pan back together. 

Engine removed, my what pretty eyes she has.

Removed the engine today in preparation for fitment of the VQ and cleaning of the engine bay.

Pretty easy to get out especially when I got to use the new lift we had installed in our shop. I highly recommend to any car guy that they get a lift if they get a chance makes life so much easier.

The chrome G-Class headlights came in. I was happy to find the front lens on these were glass unlike the plastic black housing ones I originally had. I like the glass because they are less likely to scratch and turn yellow over time. The chrome housing looks much better. 

Cooling and Lights

After mocking up the core support I had a realization and that was I could possibly use a brand new intercooler I had laying around from a previous aborted S14.5 project. So I grabbed it off the shelf and my hunch was correct, actually I was surprised how well it fit! So I welded a top  support and positioned it where I wanted it right behind the grill. 

I then started to tie the entire core support to the top fender supports I mocked up.

In order to finish off the front underbody I needed to finish off the sections where the headlights would be housed. I am not a fan of the stock old halogen type headlights that the Roadster initially uses. After searching the Internet for a suitable replacement with the desire of projectors and HIDs in mind, I came across these: 

Mercedes G class HID projector lamps. Yes they are DEPO headlights as I can't justify buying headlights that are more expensive than the entire car. I went with black housing as I intended the car to be black on black with the factory Roadster chrome trim highlights.

After some trimming of the inside of the fender, the underbody and headlight plate mount I had the headlight positioned and mounted where I wanted it.

As you can see I spray painted around the headlight black to get an idea of how it would look in black with the chrome trim and headlights. After looking at the car from every angle walking back and forth starring at the car. I quickly realized black housing headlights were a bad choice. So frustrated I shelved the black housing headlights and ordered the chrome housing that look like these:

I know this will be the better choice. I think the black just looked out of place and pulled away from the "era" and look of the car.