Solid Axle Swap!!!

[AmosD22]

hey mate bit of a dig up of old thread, but i'm currently looking at doing SAS on my rig, also from Perth, up ellenbrook ways

seeing you did most/all of the SAS work yourself?

 

[dilmah]

Yeah the only parts I got external shops to do were the following:

Setup and install of the 4.88 ring and pinion and E locker
Knuckle rotation welding and the welding of the radius arm brackets
Radius arm brackets were also laser cut but I designed them myself

I am now a lot more experienced with welding and would do all of the welding myself.

If I were to do an SAS swap again I would do a few things differently:

Buy a housing from either buds customs, JMW Eng or Overkill Eng and not rotate my own (lot of work)
Use GU cv's
Make my own radius arms and shock hoops and not use the Calmini kit
Run longer shocks 12"+

 

[AmosD22]

yeah you definitely know your stuff then

thanks so much for the reply and all the info mate, you know of any shops here in perth who it'd be worth me speaking to?

so you wouldn't worry with buying the calmini kit at all? just do all custom work?

hopefully see you out in the pines or mundaring sometime, your rig is looking sweet

 

[dilmah]

Sam at slinky customs might do it, he would be the only one in Perth that would attempt it. We have bugger all custom fab shops in WA. Most of them are backyard hacks. Sam has done a few surfs and hilux's with leaf springs. Calmini kit would be good if you can find a dana 44 diff but they are very rare

 

[AmosD22]

yeah that seems to be what i have found calling around the boys at locktup told me to try sam at slinky when he's back from over east next week, see what he says

it's about as hard trying to find any engine shops who will attempt a big engine transplant in the d22

thanks heaps again for all your help mate

 

[dilmah]

If I were to do an engine swap it would be a VG30DETT out of a 300ZX, they use the same gearbox and are a direct bolt up. Only issue is they are very wide and some inner guard trimming is required.

I plan to eventually run a VQ35 out of a Nissan maxima and run it with twin turbos. Should be good for 600Hp on race fuel

 

[AmosD22]

ah nice, that'll be a beast when it's all done

i've found it hard trying to find some good diesel motors with the same kind of weight, thinking of going the scotty way and transplanting one of the LS engines into it

 

[dilmah]

If your going to go an LS swap go the L98, they can be found for around the $4k mark with all of the bolt ons and an ECU. If you can find one I would run a 6L80 auto behind it. Good strong transmission with 6 gears. Lots of aftermarket parts for both tranny and gearbox as well.

 

[AmosD22]

yeah thanks mate that's what i've been looking into the 5.7's are cheap as chips. spewing though as I love my manuals. still lots of time before the engine will be getting swapped out though

 

[dilmah]

Well I have had the SAS kit in for about 2 years now and in this time the car has done about 15,000kms. It has been in an off road race, a 4wd comp and done approx. 5000kms of corrugated roads and the kit has held up pretty good. I have taken the shock towers off the existing upper control arm mount to reinforce them before continuing using the car in offroad racing. I am hoping to get another 3 races out of the shock towers before I pull them off for good and build some proper shock towers which are welded to the chassis rails and have enough room to fit some bypass shocks in