Hellcat-Swapped Nissan 350Z Is One Wicked Combination
‘Hellcat-ified’ Nissan 350Z is a seriously cool project that gives new life to a junkyard powerplant and a salvaged sports car.
The YouTube channel ScrapLife Garage always has some sort of interesting content worth checking out, and most recently, a lot of it has revolved around the Dodge Challenger and the Hellcat engine. In fact, just a few months ago, the channel picked up a Challenger Hellcat from the junkyard and rebuilt it, got it running, and the proceeded to use it as a parts car for another project – a manual transmission swapped Hellcat. Now, that incomplete car is donating its powertrain for another cool project – this time, a Hellcat swapped Nissan 350Z.
The beauty of such a swap – at least on paper – is that we’re taking a supercharged, 707 horsepower engine from a 4,400 pound car and stuffing it in one that weighs a mere 3,300 pounds. Our host points out that he thinks he can mate the powerplant to the stock transmission in the Nissan 350Z, which would obviously make this project quite a bit easier. On the flip side, the Z’s stock engine is on its last leg, so it needs a fresh heart anyway.
Of course, the Hellcat powerplant is physically larger than the stock Z engine, and there are a zillion other issues that will need to be sorted out. It’s a bit of a wreck itself that was flooded and has since been rebuilt somewhat, but the first order of business is simply trying to stuff five pounds of fries in a one pound bag. As expected, fitting the Hellcat in the Nissan 350Z requires some ingenuity – and some cutting – along with finding the right mounts and modifying an oil pan to fit as well.
With a custom flywheel and clutch adapter installed to make the transmission and the engine fit together, the team gets back to work, and once the next mockup is complete, it reveals that there’s actually a decent amount of space around the powerplant in the engine bay.
Of course, there are many more issues to figure out – such as how to get the hood closed with the newly massive powerplant, as well as getting everything running and functioning as it should. That’ll be covered in future episodes, but for now at least, we’re intrigued enough by this project to keep close tabs on it.
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