VHR swap 05 G Coupe
 

I picked up a 2005 G35 Auto Coupe without a motor or trans. It’s getting a VQ37VHR and 6MT swapped in for a 2010 G37S. This is going to be mainly a drift car, so some items will NOT be covered, like A/C, heater, and other “street” items. Seeing as there isn’t much I could find on it, and some misinformation and guess work out there, I figured I’d document what I learned. Also, I don’t need reasons why I shouldn’t be doing a VHR swap, thanks. It is still in progress, I will try and update as I go. This is being done in my home garage.
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The car as I got it. Someone had pulled the motor for another car, my buddy got it and it sat for a bit, then sold it to me. It’s not perfect, and the suspension needs redone, but it works for my purpose.
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stripping the nasty *** tan interior and sound deadening out. Someone has not been kind to this car.

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Dropped the motor in this weekend.
Not pictured: lightweight flywheel, aftermarket clutch, ZSpeed HD CSC, Willwood clutch master, and pedal swap: Note that the master cyl needs to be for a 350Z HR because of the bore size is the same as the VHR chassis, they both use a CSC. I also deleted the ABS with a Chase Bays brake line kit. For the mounts, a Z1 G35 trans mount fits, and G37 urethane motor mounts. Then it bolts right in. I won’t cover those in detail, as that’s common stuff and can be found else where.

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For the wiring harness part of things, I got G37 engine and engine room wiring harnesses, and sent those and the ECU to Guilty-garage.com. They will delete the NATS and add the UpRev license, combined with the modded harness it should be plug and play. Eric has also answered a lot of my stupid questions.

The other issue I ran into was the drive belt. I have a belt for deleting the A/C compressor. The G35 power steering pump bolts up to the VHR after grinding a small notch in the top bracket. Only to find out the belt for a DE is 6 grooves, where as the VHR uses a 7 rib belt, and a way different p/s pump. Doing some research, the 350Z HR uses a 7-rib belt, and the pump appears the same as a DE. So I have one on order, and hopefully the pulley lines up. I will get some pics of that later.

another thing needed is the fuel feed line with the damper. On a DE, it bolts to the fuel rail in back. The VHR is in the front, but an HR Z one is also front, appears to work and clip to the stock fuel line. I have one on the way.

Thanks for sharing. Excited to see what is next.

just FYI, the timing gasket pre 2011 vhr tends to blow out causing oil pressure issues and throws a bunch of codes. there is tons of info on the myg37 site. I would highly recommend replacing the part with the updated gasket that has a metal bead to correct the problem. otherwise it will happen again. this problem is a design flaw with the gasket itself, and will happen at some point no matter what.

Thanks for the heads up. Another thing to add to my parts list!

That's called the oil galley gasket, if you go searching for more info.

Subscribing for curiosity. I'm really interested in seeing how you get CAN translation working for the speedo

I had come across the galley gasket during my research. I’ll get the car running first then take care of it, I wanted to add an oil pan spacer and cooler anyway.

Not sure on the CAN bus yet, the wiring harness is a few weeks out. I wasn’t really worried about the speedo, but I may try and make it work. I did delete the ABS which should make it not work, but I may just plug in the module and see if it works.

vvel disabled?

VVEL will work. I don’t know why you’d disable it?

i thought that was the main reason why the vq37vhr swap couldnt be done on the de chassis. learning something new everyday

Oh I see. Physically, the actuators clear the firewall fine, plenty of room. For wiring, the VVEL module has its own connector on the harness, so that’s not a problem. I’ve seen elsewhere where people say the accessories are positioned different also and may be an issue, but everything so far clears fine. I still have to put the steering column back in but it doesn’t look like anything is in the way. Only thing close is the steering rack line to the starter, but it’s not touching and can probably can be bent some if I did want to lower the Z1 motor mounts.

The biggest challenge to the VHR swap to a DE chassis is the VHR ECU uses a CAN protocol that is much faster than the DE. So none of the other components like TCS, BCM, gauge cluster, etc. can communicate with the new ECU. HR swaps are mostly plug and play.

Since OP is stripping everything, this is basically a pure standalone, so he won't have to worry about those issues. The physical stuff has been sorted out mostly: steering rack from an HR 350Z, HR engine mount brackets, keep all the HR/VHR accessories, wire it up and go.

You know I made a thread specifically for this and yours comes in just in time.
Once you're done if you dont mind I would like to make a parts list on what's needed.
Maybe in the future will include in depth wiring.

but based on what he is saying, is that he sent out the harness for modification so that it can be plug and play? OP are you using the stock cluster or just swapping in a g37 cluster?

Stock G35 cluster. According to guilty garage it will work, the 37 cluster would required extra work. He’s using the G37 engine and engine room harnesses to modify. There is also a “3rd ECU plug” that comes from a G37 dash harness, he has those available for a little extra but it makes it easier than sourcing a harness just for one connector. The other option is Hexa Garage. I left the wiring to someone else, that’s the only thing I didn’t want to mess with. Since this is essentially a racecar, there’s a lot of things I’m not worried about working.

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I used a 350Z HR power steering pump. The top bracket hole just needs slotted out some and it bolts on, no changes to the lines. The VHR pump has completely different lines, where as the HR pump itself is the same as the DE but has a 7rib pulley to match the VHR belt/accessories. Why would the HR steering rack be needed?

BULL, I planned on putting together a parts list when I'm done and running, I’ll update the first post then. Feel free to do what ever you want with it.

The HR has a starter that mounts on the driver’s side (left) whereas the DE starter is mounted on the passenger side (right). The HR starter may make contact with your DE steering shaft. So, the HR stering rack puts the shaft at a different angle giving it more room and clearance for the starter.

zfever does harness conversions. But their solution for VHR is to somehow run both DE and VHR ECUs side by side.