A buddy of mine sold me his i30 that he had for 6 years or so. He swapped in a VLSD 5-speed, it was s/c for a little, then I helped him do a 3.5l swap about 6 years ago. The car has been through a lot.. stolen, crashed into a few times, etc. so it was a bit past it's prime.
He was getting a new car, unloading it for a decent price, and I needed a car to have my Bonnie down to shave the bay etc. So, I picked it up.
I always kinda liked the car and I know a thing or two about VQs since doing the 3.5 swap so it's cool to have even all beat up.. Racing this car (on a closed course) is the reason I did my 1st cam swap in my 1st 95, waay back.
When I got it:
I fixed up the exterior/interior to make it liveable, pulled the engine to re-seal the timing covers and did headers/2.5" exhaust/coilovers at the same time. I had a set of BBS Super RS wheels that I trashed a barrel on from the Bonnie.. I found a used barrel since you can't buy those particular wheels in the U.S. and threw those on.
In January, I hit a pot hole with a trolley track in it.. it ripped off my lower oil pan along with the oil pump casing/pickup tube. Very freak accident.. a steel cover for construction had moved to uncover the hole. I stopped taking that route home after that.
Since the engine had to come out I decided to do one better and get a newer fwd that came with VQ35HR heads and bigger cams stock. I used an 08 Altima 3.5, 09 Max upper intake and TB (bigger than the Alti's), and 95-01 3.0 timing covers/static timing equipment/oil pans. This also required drilling/setting my own cam timing.. among other things.. but it worked out quite well.. This setup uses a 98 3.0 ecu/harness/sensors to run the hybrid 3.5.
A couple months after this swap I hit another large pot hole on a blind turn which cracked the face of one of my Super RS wheels.. I couldn't get just one wheel new/used so I opted to get something that actually was for sale in the U.S. at some point.. 18" BBS Style 5s (came on BMWs). I bought them from a guy in MN, had them shipped to Cali to be re-drilled, then shipped to me. I swapped the BMW logos for BBS once I figured out the size.
Other mods at this point are Q45 MAF, Cattman headers, rebuilt VLSD 5-speed, homemade 3" SS exhaust y-back, E-manage Ultimate (piggy back), Progress rear stabilizer bar and JIC coilovers.
It managed a 13.6 @ 104 with a weak 2.27 60'. This with a rough tune and the variable intake not hooked up. The VI adds up to 20 ft-lbs to the midrange. Being low 13s capable and 30 mpg highway tells me I picked the right cam timing.
How it's sitting nowish:
It's been a very fun DD and part of the reason I'm going 6-speed in the 95.
