The S30's factory 4-lug pattern has become a problem for tons of owners. The pool of available wheels gets smaller every year, and most of what's left out there has stress cracks or the finish is peeling away. It gets old fast when you spend hours online searching for decent 4x114.3mm wheels and all you find are either overpriced vintage options that need restoration work or sketchy replicas that just don't look right on the car.
Replacement wheels get harder to find and even more expensive as time goes on. The quality 4-lug options are extinct at this point. You'll have a hard time finding modern performance tires in the sizes that most enthusiasts want that are already mounted on 4-lug wheels. The original bolt pattern traps you with outdated wheel designs from decades ago, and everybody else is running beautiful, modern, lightweight wheels with way better tire options available to them.
The whole situation leaves you with some performance concerns. Track days need wheels you can trust and sticky rubber that you can afford, and the 4-lug market just can't deliver anymore. A 5-lug conversion opens up compatibility with decades' worth of Nissan performance wheels and literally thousands of aftermarket options to choose from.
Let's check out the best 5-lug conversion options for your S30 build!
Table of Contents
The Benefits of Five Lug Conversion
The factory four-lug setup on your S30 was perfectly fine when these cars rolled off the production line in the 1970s. Now, though, you have a very different situation with that original bolt pattern. Those factory wheels have become increasingly scarce over the years. You'll have to deal with asking prices that have become completely out of hand if you want to find a set for yourself. What makes it worse is that even after you spend all that time and money to track down an original set, there's a decent chance you'll discover hairline cracks around the lug holes from 40 or more years of metal fatigue and stress. It happens.
A conversion to the 5x114.3mm bolt pattern opens up tons of new possibilities for your Datsun. This particular measurement is the same one that Nissan eventually adopted for the 300ZX and later the 350Z. It's become one of the most widely supported patterns in the entire aftermarket wheel industry since Nissan used this same measurement. Walk into any decent wheel shop with this setup and suddenly you have actual options on the shelf instead of confused looks from staff who've never heard of four-lug Datsun fitment.
For anyone who takes their S30 to the track, this upgrade gets even more worthwhile. Modern lightweight wheels can shave a few pounds of unsprung weight from each corner of your car. This weight reduction translates directly into better acceleration, improved braking and noticeably sharper turn-in response. You can also take full use of all the grip that modern tire compounds have to give you, since you gain the ability to run much wider tire sizes. Most owners usually do this conversion when they're already in the middle of a suspension rebuild. The timing actually works out great because you'll have all the brake parts off anyway, and since you're going to need new hubs regardless, it just makes sense to upgrade the bolt pattern as everything is already apart.
The best part about this whole conversion is how easy it becomes to buy new wheels. Instead of wasting months scrolling through classifieds and looking at beat-up wheels from who knows when - wheels that could have cracks or other problems you can't even see - you can just order brand new ones that are built to all the latest safety standards. The difference in what's actually available for you to choose from is genuinely ridiculous.
What Makes a Quality Conversion Kit
Five-lug conversions for the S30 are very popular, and there's a massive difference in quality between the kits available on the market. A well-engineered conversion kit is worth every penny - you don't want those cheap alternatives that cut corners on materials and design.
A full conversion kit usually includes the 4 basic parts that all need to work well together. The new hubs should bolt directly onto the existing spindles without any modifications or extra machining. The wheel studs themselves need to be manufactured to the right length and from the right grade of steel - cheap studs can stretch or snap under load, which obviously nobody wants to deal with. Quality bearings are essential because they're what determine whether the car feels steady at highway speeds or starts to develop that unsettling wobble that makes every drive feel sketchy. Most manufacturers include brake rotor adapters in their kits, and it makes sense since everything's already apart at that point anyway.
The biggest thing here is actually wheel offset preservation. A well-designed kit maintains the factory offset specifications so the suspension geometry stays right where the engineers intended it to be. Changing the offset just to fit different wheels creates all sorts of driving problems that nobody needs. Quality manufacturers always give you exact torque specifications for every bolt in the kit. Each fastener has an exact torque value that needs to be followed - you can't treat this as a situation where close enough is acceptable.
Some setups actually need hub-centric rings for the wheels to sit centered on the hub. You might also need longer studs for different wheel designs, or you won't get enough thread engagement for a safe fit. A quality kit already accounts for these requirements right out of the box.
Conversion kits are sold in a few different packages, actually. A lot of them will throw in upgraded brake parts along with the bolt pattern adapter. But some kits are just the hub conversion and nothing else. Different types work for different situations, and what you pick is going to depend on your build. The higher-end kits use bearings that should last you 20 or 30 years with proper care, but the cheaper ones might wear out after only a couple of years of everyday driving.
The Top Five Conversion Options
Five-lug conversions for the S30 break down into a few different categories, and each one serves different needs depending on what you're after. The premium bolt-on kits from MSA and Silvermine Motors are where most owners start their search. These packages have the parts you'll need in one box, ready to install. They run between $1,500 and $2,500, which isn't cheap. But for plenty of S30 owners, the convenience and reliability make the price tag easier to swallow.
MSA has made a name for themselves by packing in everything you could need in their kits - they're very complete and nothing gets left out. Silvermine Motors takes a different approach and focuses more on the engineering side, which is where they do their best work. These two make solid products that'll do the job well, and each has its own way of tackling the conversion process that sets them apart. Wilwood takes a very different strategy with the whole conversion question.
Budget-conscious builders have another path that's actually quite viable. It's definitely possible to piece together your own conversion kit with 280ZX or 300ZX hubs, and this DIY approach usually runs between $300 and $600 if you source all the parts yourself. It takes more research to find out which parts work together correctly, and you'll need to put in some homework on compatibility. The payoff is big, though - we're talking about saving $1,000 or more compared to those full bolt-on kits.
A fifth option that many builders don't know about is going through specialty shops like Arizona Z Car, and these guys can build you custom setups with just the specs that you need. Maybe your state has weird offset laws, or you want to combine parts from different manufacturers to create something that works just right for your particular build. Installation difficulty depends on the strategy you choose. The bolt-on kits are pretty simple to install. But the DIY way is going to need much more patience, and you'll run into compatibility problems along the way.
What You Need for This Job
Most 5-lug conversions are going to need you to press out the old bearings and then press in new ones, so you'll need access to a shop press or you'll have to pay somebody who has the right equipment. It's definitely not something you can just hammer together in your driveway with basic tools.
Measure the clearance around all your suspension parts before ordering any kit. Trust me on this one. Some kits will fit right out of the box, and others are going to need you to grind down the control arms or modify other parts just to make everything work together. What you don't want is to find clearance problems halfway through the install after you've already torn everything apart.
The DIY way with junkyard parts can get expensive once you factor in all the machine work. Most salvage yard hubs are going to need to be machined to match your Datsun's exact specifications. Machine shops charge by the hour for this type of work, and those hours can pile up fast.
A mechanic who's done this before can usually knock out the whole conversion over a weekend pretty easily. If it's your first time with this job, though, you should plan to give yourself at least double that amount of time and maybe even more if something goes wrong along the way. You actually do need to have a quality torque wrench and the right hub puller for this project - these tools aren't optional, and you can't get by without them.
Most car owners who start this conversion project themselves eventually drive their vehicles to a professional shop instead. Once they discover all the steps and the tricky parts that go into it, the shop's pricing suddenly seems pretty fair. You need the right tools for the job, and there's a fair amount of technical knowledge that goes along with it, too. The upgrade actually does pay off, though - the better brake and wheel options can completely change how your car performs.
Budget Smart for the Long Haul
The financial side of a 5-lug conversion is probably the biggest factor in whether you'll actually go through with it. A lot of owners see the first kit price and think they have the whole picture figured out - it's almost never the case. Once you add up all the parts you'll actually need (the conversion kit itself, upgraded brakes, a new set of wheels and fresh tires), you're realistically looking at somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 for the whole project.
$3,000-$5,000 is a significant amount of money for most of us. The problem that a lot of owners miss is that 4-lug wheels for the S30 get scarcer and scarcer every year. When a decent set does show up for sale, the seller usually knows how rare these have become and prices them accordingly. A single set of vintage wheels in decent shape could run you $1,000 or more. And most enthusiasts want at least 2 sets anyway - one for track days and another for everyday driving or seasonal swaps. Classic car buyers want vehicles that are fun to drive without endless trips to the mechanic, and when they see modern wheel compatibility on your car, it sends the right message.
Budget conversion kits can save you $500 right now, and that's tempting. The problem is that inferior bearings usually fail prematurely, and cheap studs have a nasty habit of stripping out after just a couple of years of use. Once that happens, you're paying for labor all over again, along with the cost of a replacement kit. A quality conversion kit should last as long as your car does - if you spread that first investment over 20 or 30 years of ownership, the annual cost gets almost negligible.
Being strategic about the whole process means that you'll schedule your conversion at the same time that you're planning suspension work. Since your mechanic will already have most of the parts disassembled anyway, you'll skip paying for duplicate labor, and I've seen how it can save owners a few hundred dollars in shop fees.
You can also get a cheaper set of wheels that gets the job done. Then later, when your budget permits, you can upgrade to those beautiful 3-piece wheels that you've had on your wishlist!
Build Your Dream Car
For a successful conversion, you have to be specific about what you want from your car and your budget.
For anyone who's in the process of creating a weekend track warrior, Wilwood's integrated brake upgrade makes perfect sense because you're going to need that extra stopping power anyway when you push the car hard. But your goal might be a clean street cruiser that you can take out on Sunday drives and have fun without the worry of lap times - and a more basic bolt-on setup from one of the other manufacturers will take care of everything you need without completely draining your bank account in the process.
No matter which direction you go, once you actually finish this change, you'll see immediately how much opens up for your build. Suddenly, that perfect wheel and tire combination you've been looking at for months actually fits, and your suspension geometry options expand in ways you probably didn't even know were possible. Once you've taken the leap and upgraded the wheel hubs on your classic Datsun, you'll probably want to maintain that momentum with other modifications to your Z's appearance and performance.
At this point in any build, access to parts designed for these particular cars makes all the difference in the world. At Skillard, we've put together a great lineup of custom parts for the 240Z, 260Z, 280Z and a few other classic Datsun models that most of us love to work on. Our catalog covers just about everything - sleek aluminum door cards, custom center consoles, aggressive spoilers and modernized bumpers that actually fit the way they're supposed to. Every piece we produce is engineered to work seamlessly with these vintage cars, and at the same time, we manage to give you that modern quality and style that makes your build catch attention in the crowd.
Check us out at Skillard.com and browse through our entire lineup to find whatever parts you need to take your S30 project where you want it to go. Whether you're working out your game plan in the early stages of a restoration or putting those final touches on a nearly finished build - we stock the parts that'll fit right into your plans.
