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Thanks Sadie! And lol with you on the being done aspect. Anddd. The mounts are done. The passenger rear dogbone mount is all welded up. I also clearanced the rear drivers side mount from the p/s rack mounting on the subframe so I have full right to left adjustability.. if I need it. When I grinded it down, I made sure I broke through, welded it back up, then ground it down again. Off to the powdercoater..

I tacked together the rear trans dogbone tie in to the lower oil pan. It's a bit different from the angle iron stuff I've been doing. I'll be redoing some of the welding.. I pulled something in my neck and it was screaming at me the whole time. This will take the moment arm off the jack shaft mount and add the rigidity I was looking for. The oil filter needs to be relocated and I wanted to wait till the jack shaft mount and axles were complete to try and figure out what to do with it. A few posts back I found out that the old Reatta oil filter housing interfered with the p/s pump. The H-body housing hits the axle (see the one on top) but the W-body style (one bolted on in pics) looks like it'll work with a relocation adapter bolted to the filter location. Other people have used the W-body oil filter housing like this with 3.8/F40 swap but I had to verify it. It'll have to be ground down a little to clear the CV band clamp too.

Axles came in. They match up good with the original measurement I took relative to a stock G6 axle. These are actually Cobalt SS inners, G6 outers, and custom length 300m centers. I still have to get them a test fitted but so far so good.

^^ thanks! Did a bit more cutting and mocking of the new unibody rails. Still a little more cutting to do but this is how the new water jetted pieces will sit. I know how I'm going to weld the inner piece and closing it all up with sheet metal shouldn't be too bad.

The easiest way to lower it 1-1.5" is to go with http://coilsprings.com/

@Sadie, lol that's crazy. @Sam, The welds on the headers were left alone the last time I had them coated too. Honestly though, you can only really see a small portion of the front header when it's in the bay. Actually, less now than before. I was able to get the dash back in today.. I was glad I took a bunch of pics when the dash came out in September.. That took all the guess work out of which screw/bolt goes where, the order, and any connections. I need another radio which is why that's missing and water leaks need to be addressed before the carpet goes back in. I'm also going to worry about the center console shifter area after the car is up and running. The unibody rails I drafted came in. I'm happy I went this route. It'll look a lot nicer than bar stock.

Yeah, most definitely the grills swap over as do the steering wheel air bag covers. But for the interior, it's the airbag seats, floor mats, and door sills too. The rear tail center garnish was a impulse buy sparked from seeing them in Japan. If the car was in better shape I would source Cefiro Brougham parts and go that route. But, with all the front end mis alignments, I would have to drill out probably over 100 spot welds, get it on a frame machine, re-do the lower rad support plus do a new upper. This keeps me from doing much to the exterior or cleaning up the bay. I'm cool with it being a low 13s capable beater that gets 30 mpg on the highway and doesn't look terrible. The Cefiro headlights and tail give just enough WTF factor for me. Brougham:

It's definitely quicker than the Bonnie will be.. It probably flows 25%-30% more air. I didn't mention.. The reason for the newer 3.5 VQ was because I hit a huge pot hole with cut trolley track in the middle that ripped my lower oil pan clean off an broke the oil pick up tube off the oil pump casting.. The engine had to come out to replace the oil pump and it was a gamble that debris didn't get to the bearings.. So, I said F-it and bought the newer VQ35HR-headed Altima engine.. 2 people had completed the swap before but never shared any info on it. So, I had to figure out all the differences from a typical 3.5 swap and make it work.. The hardest part was comparing cam timing/specs of similar VQs, choosing what static intake cam timing I wanted, and drilling new dowel holes to set it. I would have to assume others that did this swap didn't do this and just left the cam timing as is because it looks close. I found it to be off 14 cam or 28 crank degrees.. I only have an idle exhaust clip of the old 3.5 and the 3" exhaust.. It's pretty quiet. I have the largest 3" res that fits under the car. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JAAr0ZSEFg Sometimes I think about putting the Nissan hamburger emblem on the back but then it would still be on the grill and throughout the interior. Thanks guys!

I guess I'll dust this off.. I've been DDing and toying with this car quite a bit since the last post. The exterior is beat but it's pretty fun to drive. The short list of things done since the last post is: 08 Altima VQ35 (has HR heads) with 3.0 timing.. had to drill/set the static cam timing, 09 Max upper intake and TB (bigger than the Alti's), homemade 3" SS exhaust y-back, E-manage Ultimate, and 18" Style 5's redrilled and BMW logos replaced with BBS centers. It managed a 13.6 @ 104 with a weak 2.27 60'. This, with a rough tune and the variable intake not hooked up.

That would make them weaker.. I'm not going to sacrifice strength to have these crack on me and then be forced to re-coat them periodically.

The front header came back.

Sadie, I couldn't be more flattered. I'm glad that you take the time to go through all the text. Some of the text is going to be boring by default but I do try to keep it interesting and to the point. I also try to give enough pics so that you can get an idea of what's going on but if you realllyyy want to know, the text will explain. There's a ton of detail in here because when ever I read a one-off engine swap thread or similar I'm always left wanting more. IMO it's always cool to see how everything comes together and that's what I want to give you guys. Good luck with your swap! You can always try and work on things that don't require money while you're waiting for the funds to come in. I do that to an extent. I've got a list of things to buy but I'm waiting to get some overtime in before I pull the trigger. As for this past weekend.. nothing too exciting but I got the pedal plate and pedal bolted in for good. I used Hv-350 sealant between it and the firewall and around the wiring grommet. I still have to fill in between the wiring and the grommet but that'll come when everything else is in place. Before: After: So, that dash it ready to go back in. One thing I never checked was the tie rod length between the 00+ and the 92-99. When I was eying the toe the 00+ tie rod ends, I seemed to be running out of thread quicker than I would with the 92-99. I think I chucked the old ones and never checked till now. Sure enough, the 00s are shorter. I had a feeling, so I ordered 2 new moog tie rods for 92-99. The 92-99 is on the left. Otherwise, the axles are being worked on and might be done in the next couple weeks. The front header is on it's way back from Jet Hot. And some bar stock is in the mail to finish up the rear trans dog bone mount bracket.

So, I picked up the square stock and I was about to start boxing in the unibody in the engine bay.. and.. I just couldn't do it.. No matter what bodywork I do to smooth it in, I just don't think I'll be happy with it. So, I broke out the cardboard, ruler, and drafted a connector in CAD. I'll run 2 of these, one inner, one outer, and close it all in with sheet metal. More cutting will happen also. And for the rear dogbone mount, I'm going to tie it into both W-body passenger side oil pan engine mount bolt holes. It'll definitely need stand off spacers. Once the angle iron goes past the rear oil pan bolt hole, It only needs to slope down slightly to make contact with the engine side of the dogbone bracket. I'm confident this final tie in will make the mount structurally sound. Andd I got a good m10x1.5 tap and tapped the holes in the jack shaft mount for the dogbone bracket.

Here's more progress! I took off today and worked for 9 hours straight. The first kill list was the jack shaft mount. I tried tapping it first with a cheap tap/die kit and it didn't work out. I need to order a good tap. It doesn't seem like there's any warping at all. I took my time with it and added gussets like I mentioned earlier. Once I tap the two holes, it's going to the powder coater. Next up was the front header. All I needed to do was clock the crossover that meets up with the rear primary, clock the s bend that interfered before and add a small section of pipe. It clears no problem and I don't have to modify the crossover. Now all I have to do is box it up and send it to Jet Hot. Then I decided to start the dogbone mount that will bolt to the new jack shaft mount. I used the stock auto trans mount's ears and added metal to it..It's almost complete. I just want to add something that goes from the outside of the dogbone bracket to the unused bolt hole at the bottom of the oil pan. The moment arm that the offset mounting creates would be eliminated by this. I'll also have to wait till those two jack shaft mount holes are tapped so the bolt holes will all line up together. Disregard oil filter clearance. I need to remote mount it. That last pic has the unused bolt hole in the oil pan I referred to. And during the day I primed and rattle caned the pedal mount plate. There are a couple small ripples in it and I had to battle OCD and convince myself not to have it powder coated. Once it's up under the dash, I'll never see it. So, it's ready to be installed. And a list!!

Haha! I've been neglecting to make a new one! I'll take care of that before the next update.

^^ Thanks! Not the biggest update but I got the last part back from the water jetter: I just need to get it all square and weld it together now.. but carefully so it doesn't warp. It shouldn't be too bad due to the metal thickness.

^^Thanks. I almost got the front header complete today. There was a lot of prep work getting the old coating and pipes unstuck from inside the collector. I had this welded before, and the guy did a good job.. But the inside of where the 3 pipes go into the collector was not welded. I don't think it's even really possible without going the route I did, described below. I had an audible exhaust tick in the engine bay and I'm betting that was it. Now.. my welding is still mediocre but I decided to go ahead with this so that center portion would be sealed. I welded the inside of 2 primaries, then cut a window out of the 3rd, grinded in a slot so that I can weld the inner part of the 3rd primary from inside that primary, then welded the window back on. This gives a full 360* of weld on the last primary. 2 original primaries tacked to collector and checked for trans clearance 2 original primaries welded to inner collector Modified primary welded up, window and slot cut, slot lined up with inner top of remaining primary Inner slot welded and smoothed Window back on and everything welded Attempt to get the crossover tacked And it hits the shifter counter weight.. Looks down at the clock.. 8:30.. time to call it a day. I might be able to still get it to work without modifying the crossover. We'll see next time.

I potentially have one axle on it's way to the Driveshaft shop.. this would be try no. 3 due to sites saying they have availability but not. And I'll have the axle I bought to test in the mail on Monday. I pulled the subframe and trans back out so I can get the jack shaft mount mocked up on my spare block. I used a dial indicator with a snake plus vise grip extension on my VQ35/HR i30 swap project to measure cam centerline and loved thehell out of it. When it came time to measure the play in the jack shaft (from bearings in the diff) I knew I needed one of these.. I found one for $50 IIRC. The goal here is to find the neutral position of the play at the end of the jack shaft so that it doesn't load the bearings or seals. I bottomed out the play the end of the shaft by pressing down, set the dial indicator to zero, raised the end of the shaft with a scissor jack to isolate to only vertical motion, find the bottomed out vertical play, lower to the midpoint, and measured to design the bearing cup side of the mount. Indicator set: Set to midpoint and measured: (horizontal distance also taken) Basic part mock up: The other function of this part will be to serve as a bracket for trans mount no. 3. This mount only limits torsion and the poly dogbone mount I was using before is adjustable.. which is convenient. After some measurements I found that I can run the dogbone mount in more or less it's stock location just by adding a couple ears to the bottom of the jack shaft mount. Below is a pic of how the final water-jetted part will look. Here is the somewhat stock function.. Here's that space without the auto trans tunnel in the way but from the other direction: And a reference from the spare block: So those ears will bolt to another simple bracket that will be the engine side of the dogbone mount and the subframe side will be left alone. I'm just going to cut the stock trans side dogbone mount and add my own ears to it. It's more work than it's worth to try and awkwardly use the stock trans side dogbone bracket as a whole.

Here's the drivers side, G6 drivers axle, and Malibu hub assembly with the suspension loaded: At first glance, it's good to go.. but, the axle is completely compressed: So, custom axle no. 1 needs to be 1.25" shorter. Here's the passenger side, Cobalt SS jack shaft, G6 drivers axle, and Malibu hub assembly with the suspension loaded: Custom axle no. 2 needs to be 2.5" longer. I found out the the Reatta 3.8 oil filter adapter won't work since it would interfere with the mounting of the p/s pump. And I finalized the clutch pedal mount and the front trans mount by adding stand off spacers cut from 20mm bar stock.

Welcome. Nice to see another Bonnie member on here.

100% hilarious

Haha. I remember. My Bonnie needs me though!

I got a couple more things in over the weekend and today. Boring stuff: Checked that the new clutch pedal plate mounts up good and welded 1 out of 2 spacers on it for the pedal bracket Wrapped up the birds nest of wiring that comes through the firewall and added one large wire for the starter signal since it comes off the auto trans selector switch that;ll be in the car. Ordered 20mm x 1' rod so I can made two stand off spacers with the band saw. One for the clutch pedal plate, the other for the front trans mount. The lower bolt hole on that mount is set back from the top two. Ordered seam sealer epoxy for the firewall plate. Ordered 1 '07 Cobalt SS axle (they're the same D/P) to see if I'll need one or both custom length axles. Since the trans has to stay in the car till I check axle length I couldn't work on notching the unibody or mock up the jack shaft mount to the block. Not so boring: So, I worked on the from header. Chopped the Cyl 1 primary and collector off, clocked the collector, and figured out the new routing for a 33" long primary. The section after the collector still needs to be chopped off and re-routed but it looks like I'll have no problem leaving the crossover alone. I also hooked up the shift linkage and rowed through the gears for S&G. Pretty cool feeling.

Today, well.. yesterday was a good day. The rear trans mount is finished and the front is 90% complete. Here's a different view of the rear mount to show it's function; and complete: The front mount is only missing a stand off spacer for the lower bolt hole on the trans side of the mount.. For the front, I got clever with my drill press and managed to create a polygon shape for a bolt head.. And a pic of where I spend my free time.. I am beyond pumped that I own a bandsaw now.

I got back from travel Friday night and got some more progress in yesterday. The clutch pedal plate is a very tight fit with the master. This is good though.. it's very solid. I drilled all the necessary holes and bolted the pedal up. The front trans mount is tacked together. It's going to be a puck style mount but with 80A polyurethane I picked up from McMaster. There's about 2" between the bottom of the trans side and the subframe plate. I might be getting a band saw. So, I'm waiting to cut the poly down. At that point I just have to drill a hole through it for the bolt. The corners will get grinded down too for aesthetics. The washers are just there as a reference for where to drill the bolt hole trans side. The rear trans mount is started. It still needs to be boxed in a bit more. Originally I wanted to move the stock mount inboard more but since I'm using 1/4" steel for the plate bolting to the trans, I'm not really worried about bending it. The extension of metal that meets the bottom of the mount isn't straight due to me dropping it. It'll line up better with the mount when finished. The mount extension will be boxed in with right triangles coming off the top and bottom of the trans plate.