When I did the install I lowered the sway bar mounts but didnt remove the sway bars. I also didnt have to remove the MP on the exhaust (Motordyne VQ) or the heat shielding.

Sounds like I found your extra time

It definitely would have been nice to have an extra set of hands there though.

 

I can have the sway bar out in 5 minutes or less. You've got me interested in how you were able to leave all the heatshielding and cross brace in place though. Those components don't allow you shift the driftshaft around much in order to bring the carrier forward and then downward. I guess it could be possible if you were to wiggle the carrier at various angles to snake it out, but that sounds like a royal pain and a great way to mess up the threads on the rear cover stud. Removing all the components allowed me to easily slide the carrier forward and down and dissconnect the vent tube. Once I got everything out of the way and the drive/half shafts unbolts, the removal/replacement of the carrier took all of 5 minutes. My old man came over to watch my kids and he was in shock at all the crap I was yanking off the car

 

Alright here's my input.

3.9 gears are way to aggressive for the 5AT, I ran with 3.9 gears for about 3 months before I went back to 3.3. The down low acceleration was incredible but after 80 3.3 and 3.5 geared Z's and G's would start to pull on me and mind you my car was full bolt on as well other than pullies.

With 3.9's I lost cruise control indefinitely.. It would flash and not let me set it.. I could cheat by driving really slow (25mph) then setting it there and hitting the accel button on my steering wheel.. It would go till about 40 mph before it would start flashing and shut off. I believe with the ECU and CC there is a 10% error allowed or something.

When me and my buddy took out my 3.9 pumpkin and installed my stock 3.3 pumpkin we did not have to remove the sway or midpipe.. Just unbolted the driveshaft. It was heavy and difficult without a lift..

I drove my friends 5AT 350z with the 3.5s installed. It feels like 3.3 but a lot more friskier.. I really liked it. I just purchased a 3.5 VLSD pumpkin from someone locally for cheap. I will install that later this week.


I really am dying to try out 3.7's on the 5AT as I've heard they are amazing.. Can't find 3.7 gears anywhere!!!

 

I've been touting 3.7 for ever...

 

3.7 would be nice, but for the ring/pinion it was $490 alone with no VLSD...just not economical. Going the 3.7 FD from the HR motor would be nice though...if you can find one at a reasonable price.


Dave - Once all the bolts were removed from the half shafts and the drive shaft i pulled off the sway bar brackets at let it hang by the endlinks. Removed the rear mount bolt as well as the front mounts and then I let just the front slide down past the drive shaft until the rear was just enough to come out and then down backwards.


Not too bad...pretty heavy when you are doing it by yourself, but only took 2.5 hours to do.

 

Oc where did you get 3.7 gears?

 

from Performance Nissan (same as mynismo.com)...

Athon brings up a good point about differential... I got Quaife ATB at the same time - I would suggest having a decent lsd when you do this... or at least OEM vlsd (which makes the 3.5 swap a decent option)... I think someone swapped 3.7 from an 07+ sedan... not positive - but that's what I would try (if you cant find new).

 

Makes sense. There's a fine line between too much gearing and just the right amount of gearing. If you've got too much gearing, the motor sails through the meat of it's powerband too quickly. This is especially noticeable in the higher gears. Gearing is very dependant on the powerband of the car. A high revving VQHR really needs that 3.7 gear set to get into the meat of it's powerband from 5300-7200rpms vs the VQDE's powerband of 4500rpms to 6300rpms. I'll be curious to see what my car does with the short DRs and 3.54 ratio at the strip (~3.75 overall ratio).

 

I had also done the swap and left the heat shield, exhaust and sway bar on.
The car was in park to begin with so I could access the bottom two bolts on the driveshaft, then once those were out, put the car in neutral, rotated the driveshaft and removed the last two.
Once everything was out I did have to move the jack points 4-5 times and wiggled the carrier out of the tight spot.
Took about 8minutes to get it out. Going back in was easier. No damage to upper bolt threads. It was not a straight under and up into place affair the way I did it, but it worked.

 

man, i really need to make the time to get my 3.7 pumpkin installed

 

^ trade a complete nitrous kit w/ intake for it?

 

LOL, dang...

 

gears over cheater gas anyday!

 

"cheater gas" LOL

 

hahaha let me know! Cheater gas FTW!