ProjectZeroG Turns 15! ---> 23!

[DJpowerHaus]

Its hard to believe it but I started this website when I began my first swap over 15 years ago. At the time the 6 bolt 4G63 was already out of production for a decade. Now its been out of production for TWENTY YEARS! Its pretty crazy how much work we're doing to swap an engine platform that was designed over 30 years ago.

I had spun a bearing at a USDrift event in Charlotte, NC and after toying with the idea of an SR swap, I decided to do a 4G63 instead. There was a site or two with some info, but it was not nearly of the quality I thought this swap should have. We pretty much had to make it all up. The first swap took all winter. I had to learn everything including how to read wiring diagrams. After some final ECU bugs, we got it going in time for 2004 summer events. I did my best to document the swap along the way, but I'm sure I missed some things. I remember having a pretty strong season of nearly monthly drift events from VA to NJ.

During the first swap I had collected enough spare parts to build a 2nd chassis. The police car was supposed to be a simple swap using what I had lying around. Unfortunately, it kept growing in scope until we were cutting the firewall, adding a fuel cell, wiring it from scratch, and adapting 240SX steering. During this time period, the street car got some front end damage and that led to 100 small problems and I decided to take it off the road.

The race car took WAY longer than I had hoped, but when it was done it was pretty bad ass. I was able to fill in some gaps in the website which I posted as a major update back in 2007. The police car had a rough first event where a loose ECU ground led to burning 2 pistons. Luckily after a quick rebuild it was back and I had a solid year worth of events. Even won some cash at a dyno event. There was a big crash, but I had enough parts to have it back on track in 2 weeks.

After that one good season it sat while I backpacked in Europe during the summer of 2008. I did a mean swap for Busdriver the following fall and after that I revised the police car to fix a few things that bothered me. It took a lot of work, but only led to some big mechanical let downs that year. Out of 3 events I think I got about 5 runs due to stupid things like a loose power steering belt which ate itself at the track when I had no spares. Finally I kicked a rod on the first run of the day (2nd turn). I was fed up so I parked it and it sat for a few years.

In May 2011 I decided I wanted to get back into drifting. One look at the car and I knew that it wouldn't get past a drifting safety inspections. The requirements had come a long way since 2003. I decided to move the parts over to a better chassis to be used as a mean street car. Somehow this has taken over 2 years. Should be damn near perfect when its done though bringing together everything I've learned in my 3 other swaps (+ 5 major revisions) and through this website.

I'm happy to see how this site has kept going even if I'm not involved as much as I used to be. I'd like to thank a few people who have helped keep this site going.

Matt Martin - Thanks for helping me get going with the first swap. As frustrating as it was, we had some good times.

Bill Hincher - Thanks for offering some top of the line parts these past few years.

Mainstream - Thanks for keeping the site going this last year. I'm sure the spambots would have taken over completely if it wasn't for you.

I'd also like to thank everybody who has donated money to pay for hosting over the years. This site costs about $110 a year to run and I don't make nearly enough wiring harnesses to pay for it nor do I make any money off of ads, or vendors. Please donate something if you can so we can keep this site going until there are no more 4G63s to swap.

Donate button is located at the bottom of the homepage (www.projectzerog.com)

[DJpowerHaus]

And just like that's 23 years! I can't remember the last time I saw an Eclipse (any gen) or a Starion in the wild. Probably haven't been to a junk yard in a decade and I miss those finds dearly. I'm comfortably in my mid 40s, all cars gone, and only a Sprinter van remains. I'll post about it on the Project Cars forum in a few days.

What has everyone else been up to?