Well I’ve been lurking around this and other forums for the last few years and I’ve finally got something fun to post.

I Purchased my 2004 G35 6MT back August of 2003. I have to say it has been an awesome car. I have put 200,000 miles on this vehicle. It has held up incredibly well. I have replaced the brake pads 2 times, and the tires 4 or five times including winter tires (I live in Michigan and yes I drove this car every day to work 100 miles round trip except on Blizzard days). I had to put a battery in as well. But that’s it.

My list of complaints is incredibly small. The Stereo/6 CD changer stinks. Driver side buckle presenter has a habit of trapping the buckle between the door and seat when closing the door. Wiring to the trunk latch failed in the boot at the trunk lid. 290 horsepower is nice…..but more would be better….as always.

For the last 50,000 miles I have had a lifter ticking. I looked in to replacing the heads or re-building the motor but everything seemed very complicated or expensive when comparing $$$$ to benefit. The lifter did finally give out and I had to limp home on 5 cylinders, on its last day of service. I did not totally blow the lifter through the motor….valve just wasn’t opening any more. (I guess the car saw that LS3 sitting there and decided it was time to get started :-)

The things I have always liked about my car is maybe too long to list e.g. Classic Exterior Styling, Interior comfort, fit/finish, balance between sportiness and luxury.

To get a new car that could replace my G would be $40k minimum !
So I finally decided to pull the trigger on an LSx swap. After about 6 months of looking/researching and second guessing I settled on a 2011 Camaro LS3 with the TR6060 6 speed complete pull. I went through Cleveland Pick-A-Part. These guys did a fantastic pull….all the harnesses were pulled well, no hoses cut, everything capped and crated well. The cost was a bit higher that I originally planned (was thinking LS1 at the beginning), but having everything complete (harness, ECM, MAF, Pedals, Trans, Accessories) with low mileage (30k miles) is a big plus considering.

So I hopped in the truck and wend down to Cleveland to get it. I have to admit that after dreaming of this for the last 5 years or more, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning going to get this….and that is saying something at 43
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My oldest boy put the recently purchased engine picker together the day before going to pick up the motor. (love Harbor Freight....)

Lifting the motor out of the truck with an engine picker was a bit of a challenge but we finally got it out and set down on some dollies in my converted wood shop (which will be out of order for a few months).

Sorry about the thumbnails....I can't figure out how to get my pics right in with the text...grrrr. Assistance for the noob!?!?

More to come....I picked up the motor on August 8th....So my clock started..Wonder how long this will take..First build I've done...should be interesting.

 

In for updates... when I saw your last post I was excited for this thread in a couple of days, but nice to se it here now. I worked on a street rod build with my father for 7 years and 3 of those while being in college. What a great experience I hope everything goes great for you.

 

My boys got to be really involved in this part of the project.
Hood off
Bumper cover and Grill removed
Remove the Plenum
Headlights out….Disconnect LOTS of connectors and get the body harness connections labeled so we can get them back in the right places later. Get the engine harness separated and started pulling it out.
Drained fluid and disconnected hoses to remove Radiator and front support to expose the entire front of the engine bay.
Remove some front accessories to allow access to some good bolts for the hoist chains.
For extra clearance I removed the header nuts….then crawled under and after a bit of struggling I used a die grinder with a cut-off wheel to cut the exhaust bolts I dropped out the Cats together with exhaust manifolds then Y pipe and pipe to the muffler. For some reason I could not get any of my sockets to fit on the drive shaft bolts at the intermediate joint, so I ended up cutting those

 

Thanks !! More to come. Any advice on the pic posting process...I'm just not seeing how to post my local pic files from my PC to the body of message like others are.

 

They are posting through image hosting sites, but IMO the way you are doing it is better because the photos are locked in this thread "FOREVER." If you look at 2-3+ year old threads on this site the photobucket links die... so its up to you which ever way you decide to put them up.

Ex. Imageshack, tinypic, imgur.

 

Finally started hooking up the picker to the motor….2 back bolts in bell housing and 2 front accessory bolts.

OH YEAH! Remembered at the last minute to remove the shift ****, shift boot. I could not believe how tight the **** was torqued on...sheesh. Tucking that little jewel away....gonna try to get that back on...I don't care for the Camaro shifter. I have a good work friend that does all kinds of leather wrapping so I will likely be doing a custom Steering Wheel/Shift Boot/ Shift ****/Seat inserts/Door panels.....way in the future

I put some tension on the hoist and my son removed the trans support. Gave the hoist a couple pumps and got clearance to the mount studs. What followed can only be described as lots of wiggling and wrestling. Trying to get the shifter clear and the motor tilted was a bit of a slow process for us and we found and some stray connectors to remove that we missed or couldn’t get at before getting the motor started coming out. Once we got the angle right it came right out. I got a little distractacted as I was trying to get the angle right and forgot that the trans fluid would come out.....made a mess on the driveway....oh well.

For us the process took me 6 hours on Saturday and about 4 hours on Sunday to pull the engine starting with the Hood removal to touchdown of the engine in the other bay…….First time I’ve done this so I feel pretty good about it. (this was on the 17th and 18th of August 10 days in.

 

In for updates

 

Sweet man! Best of luck to you!

Are you doing anything special for the rear diff setup?

 

Subd, great work so far.

 

I had planned to swap the diff (Quaif? $1500) and axels($1000), but I talked with Todd at Fueled Racing and he said that the stock parts are very tough an he and one of his customers have had good luck with theirs. As I'm not planning a 1/4 mile car I think I'll start w stock. I do plan to do a cam so I expect to be around 500 HP at the shaft. I have to admit I like the idea of saving a few grand$$$.

 

That's a pretty bold swap to do in the driveway without a garage. I hope the weather works out in your favor and you get it all buttoned up before any rain or seriously inclement stuff arrives!

 

Nice build.. Can't wait for more updates..

 

Lol. I have a garage....just way easier to do the hoist outside. that being said there is never enough garage space but I do have one bay enclosed and heated in case this goes through winter

 

I plan to keep up with this thread and wish you the best of luck. What is your plans for gauge cluster along with integrating AC, and stock electronics with your new motor and ECM.

 

So the plan as of now : disassemble cluster...done pics coming. Make provisions to inset aftermarket can bus gages (like speed hut) that will talk to gm ecm while retaining idiot lights talkig through cluster to Nissan body control module. I want to find a solution for ac to get signal from stock env controls but need to research it ...hoping someone has done it and can give me some tips. I work as an engineer on restraints...and have a lot of experience with steering wheels and steering wheel controls I think that will help in getting a cluster to look good and function right