Update on my Z refresh project...

Well I wasn't able to get everything wrapped up before Thanksgiving, but solid progress has still been made nonetheless. Since my last update, the following tasks have been completed.
1) Driveshaft has been torqued to spec at the rear diff.
2) Reconditioned Bassani catback exhaust has been installed.
3) Power Steering system has been flushed with OEM fluid.
4) Rear bumper + LED lighting upgrades have been installed.
5) The correct coolant crossover hose arrived and was immediately installed.
6) Motordyne MREV2 + Plenum Spacer has been installed (after thorough cleaning).
7) Coolant system flush and multiple rinse cycles completed (system was vacuum tested to ensure no leaks).
8) Coolant system topped off with fresh OEM Long Life coolant (blue stuff).

Many of these tasks seem quick and simple and would be if I didn't have OCD levels of attention to detail. The rear bumper and LED lighting took a lot longer than I anticipated. One of the previous owners (I'm the 3rd owner) thought it would be a good idea to black out the rear signal lamps and tail lights with spray paint....while mounted on the car. Their masking skills were found to be lacking and I kept finding overspray evidence around the bumper and rear quarters of the hatch. The process to remove this overspray safely turned out to be as simple as using some Acetone on a microfiber, but extreme care is required so as not to damage the good paint/clear under the overspray. I guess the Acetone sold in CA is a different formulation, because no damage was observed when I tested on the old rear signal lamps. Still this took a long time since I came back over the treated areas, re-cleaned to remove any residual acetone, then polished, and followed up with a sealer/wax.

I decided to splurge a bit and pick up the GTR Lighting i-LED signal bulbs for both the front and rear. These are incredibly nice and well designed, however I did run into tolerance issues for the rear signal bulbs. The supplied silicone gaskets for the rear bulbs made the fit tighter in the socket than was safe. I had to grind/shave about 0.75mm off the lower contact area of the locating screws for them to safely lock into the housing without cracking/damaging the plastic. The front bulbs came with foam style gaskets, which should compress better allowing a modification free install. If you decide to pick up a set of these bulbs from GTR lighting, just be aware that some modification will be required, that or take the risk of forcing them in. It is also worth noting that these LEDs are polarity sensitive! Make sure to test your bulbs out before remounting the rear bumper! I'm glad I did, because 3 out of the 4 bulbs I replaced all needed their harness plugs to be flipped 180. Everything worked perfectly after that. I'm using Diode Dynamics Reverse Bulbs and their License plate bulbs (5000k) and they look fantastic. One other note, I can confirm that I did not require the resistor kit for the rear signal bulbs from GTR. No hyperflash issues with just the bulb by itself. If you ever decide to pick up a set, you can skip this addon and save $20. I haven't snapped shots of these on the car yet, but will do so soon.

After the bumper was mounted up, I could finish installing the exhaust system. I started the exhaust install right after the driveshaft was torqued, but stopped short of finishing since I needed the bumper cutouts as an alignment point for the rear tips. Nothing super interesting, but I'm happy to report that the exhaust tips fit like a glove after some fiddling to fine tune their locations and keep everything symmetrical.

Once that work was completed, it was time to get moving on the MREV2 lower plenum swap/install. I pulled the parts off my old engine that I have sitting on a stand in the garage. All the main components were thoroughly cleaned with a brush and some gasoline. There was a small amount of oil in the gallery of the lower plenum, common on VQs. All the bolts were soaked in gas and brushed clean. The throttle body was especially dirty on the inner portion. Extra care was applied while cleaning the E-throttle. I used E-throttle safe cleaner to gently remove all the grit. The stock plenum on the Z was then removed and swapped over to my old engine on the stand and I proceeded with the mrev2 install, carefully following Motordyne's clear and well written/documented instructions. I'm honestly shocked that the main bolts for the plenum are held on with less than 10ft/lbs (100in/lbs).

Once the plenum was plumbed up, it was time to install the airbox + tube and prepare for the coolant flush and 1st start in 2 months. I used the Schwarben coolant refill tool to vacuum test the system and initiate the 1st fill with distilled water + Prestone Coolant Flush detergent. All went well with the refill. I used a 5 gallon bucket to act as my fill reservoir for the Schwarben pickup hose. The car sucked down about 2.5 gallons per fill. Not all was perfect though, as there was still some air trapped in the system, even with the vacuum fill. In hindsight, I suspect this might have been the way I used the tool. A small amount of air still gets introduced from the pickup hose. I'm guessing if you want a completely air-free fill with this tool, you need to 1st prime the pickup hose, close the pickup valve, then open the venturi valves to re-pull a vacuum before starting the fill. After using the Schwarben tool for the Flush cycle, I decided to go with the tried and true method of the Spill Free funnel and cracking open the bleeder port at the battery box firewall. This method takes longer, but at the time I thought it was the safer route.

Before engine start, I made sure to prime the oiling system by holding down both the gas and clutch pedal while cranking the engine for 15 seconds.

The flush cycle was run for about 30 minutes, intermittently blipping the throttle to cycle out air bubbles and break up any debris/crud. The drained fluid smelled like sewage and was murky with small particulates/debris, nothing crazy bad though (no black or brown sludge). I'm not sure what the smell was from, perhaps it was the Prestone Detergent. I've used this stuff before and don't recall that smell. To ensure I got as much of the detergent out as possible, I followed up with 3 rinse cycles using pure distilled water. Lasting about 20-30min each. I allowed for the engine to fully warm up and continued with the standard throttle blips while monitoring the temps at the heater vent and fluid levels at the funnel. All went smoothly. This was my 1st time going through a coolant drain and fill process on a 350Z and to be honest, it's really not difficult to bleed the air out. Just use a simple spill free funnel and make sure to crack the bleeder port when filling up the system. Warm up the engine (get the thermostat to open), and blip the throttle a few times between the fan cycles. Do this for 10-15min after the thermostat has opened and you should be good. You can tell when you've gotten air out by monitoring the funnel fluid levels and checking temp at the heater vents. If you get super hot air coming from the vents when the engine is sitting at idle you're good. If you only get super hot air when you rev the engine, then you still have air trapped.

Note: About draining the system, I did this while the engine/fluid was still hot. This was intentional, I wanted to get as much of the fluid out as possible while the thermostat was still open. I also didn't want to pull one of the block plugs for fear of stripping one of these out or introducing a potential leak point. This was calculated and done with caution. Since I was using the funnel, the system was not under active pressure.

After the 3rd rinse cycle (which was crystal clear), I topped off the system with the OEM Long Life Coolant. For good measure, I came back the next morning and ran the engine for another 20-25min doing the same thing, but this time with the radiator cap installed and the overflow reservoir connected and filled to the MAX line. No fluid bubble noises heard from the dash upon startup and the heat was working very quickly.

Now, you would think after all that, that I would be good to go on a test drive! Wrong! Murphy is a ruthless **** and he paid me a visit during the coolant flush process. The X-Pipe on my Bassani system developed leaks at both flange connections to the ART pipes. This has been an issue with my specific Bassani system since day one. The flange geometry was welded off by a few degrees (mfg defect). To get a solid seal, I've had to use High-Temp RTV + thicker gaskets. Like an idiot, I used my old tube of RTV that's been sitting around for over 5 years (probably stale) and apparently I didn't use enough either. Within minutes of startup I noticed the exhaust leaks and verified as much by climbing under and inspecting up close with the engine running. I do have a spare set of 2.25" gaskets and I'll be re-sealing the mating surfaces to shore up the leaks. I simply ran out of time to address this issue before heading back to work. In the long run, I plan to have a good exhaust shop weld in some quality flex joints to resolve this issue for good. Pretty much all high quality catback systems use flex joints and I can only assume Bassani elected NOT to use these as a cost cutting measure. This strikes me as odd since the overall system displays quality construction & materials. I love the sound of the Bassani system though (not all folks do), and I spent a lot of time reconditioning it, so no plans to swap it out anytime soon.

Things left to do...
1) Fix exhaust leaks.
2) Road test shake down.
3) Install Bilstein struts + Nismo Coil Springs.
4) Alignment + Dyno tune.

Updates will keep rolling. Hope y'all had an awesome Thanksgiving!
Cheers!
-Icer

GTR i-LED product box

Close Up. Those small screws needed to be shaved on the bottom side where contact is made with the lamp housing.

Engine bay after plenum swap and coolant flush cycles completed.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't DE green and HR blue?

 

Edit: You can read a TSB from Nissan/Infiniti about Blue Long Life coolant here. I was slightly mistaken about the green service interval, it's 4 years or 60k mi (corrected). Blue is 7 years or 105k mi with later refills every 5 years or 75k mi. I think the shorter lifespan for follow-up services is due to the age of the hoses/seals. I'm guessing the rubber starts to break down faster at this point leeching into the coolant causing it to also break down faster. Just a guess, I could be completely wrong as I'm not a chemist.

Hey Dark,

Good question. I did a lot of checking on this. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. The blue stuff is compatible (mix-able) with the green stuff. Nissan simply made the switch to the blue stuff in the later production years, across most of their fleet models. You can use either. Since I did a full flush/rinse, I decided what the hell, lets use the blue stuff since it lasts longer. Note that when mixing blue with green, your service interval sticks with the lowest common denominator (green, which is 4 year). In terms of chemical composition, it's perfectly safe to use the blue stuff. Yes it costs more since it's only sold in pre-diluted 50/50 mix jugs, where you can get the green stuff in concentrate and mix up your own ratio.

If I'm being honest, I purchased the blue coolant by accident. I didn't read the fine print and thought I was getting the green stuff. Only after I received my order did I realize my mistake, but like I said, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day. The only damage was to my pocket book. ($30 per gal ouch).
Cheers!
-Icer

 

Ah ok, good to know, I thought there might have been different additives that wouldn't be compatible.

 

More updates on my Z refresh project...

Over the past two weekends I accomplished the following:
1) Fix exhaust leaks at the X-Pipe.
2) Install Bilstein struts + Nismo Coil Springs.
3) Road test shake down & Tune RJM clutch pedal.
4) Appointment scheduled at ZCG for alignment, tune, inspection.

The exhaust issue has been fixed. I was able to save both gaskets and re-seal them using fresh Permatex Ultra Copper....a lot of it. This still doesn't address the alignment issues, but it's a good med-long term fix until I can get an exhaust shop to weld in some flex joints. Once that was squared away, it was time to get the old OEM struts and coils out and get the new Bilstein B6 HDs and Nismo coils installed. During this process I replaced the rear strut hat bushings with new sets from KYB. I also tossed the OEM paper gasket that's sandwiched between the chassis and rear strut hat in favor of a custom made gasket I cut out of a sheet of 1mm thick neoprene (good stuff, very durable). This will ensure rear-end creaks and noises from the struts have been eliminated. The overall strut & coil install went smoothly. I especially like how easy it was to "clock" or "index" the front struts thanks to the Bilstein lower spring seat design. The lower seat can freely rotate around the strut body. By comparison, the OEM strut lower seats are welded in place, same for the Koni Yellows I had in the past. This can make getting the upper hat bolts and the lower strut fork alignment a real pain, not so with the Bilsteins! I think I spent the same amount of time on the fronts as I did with the rears and the fronts have the added complexity of using a spring compressor.

After the suspension work was done, it was finally time for a shake down test drive. Right away I noticed that the clutch pedal travel/stroke was very short using the pre-set RJM clutch pedal settings. This is not necessarily a bad thing, the clutch would still disengage without issue, but it did require me to push the pedal to the bump stop, this made the engagement point very low. More on this later. In short, the Z drives great. The new clutch and flywheel combo is a winner in my book. It's extremely quiet, virtually no cement mixer noises coming from the bell housing with the pedal out. Engagement is very smooth, zero chatter. I'm very happy with the 18.4lb flywheel choice, the torsional vibration (gearbox lash chatter) I was experiencing before with my Specialty Z flywheel was far worse. If you daily an NA Z33, this is an excellent clutch/fw combo. I'm also happy to report that the suspension and rear diff feel great. This combination of the B6s & the OEM Nismo coils is excellent. The car isn't bouncy or jarring at all, zero NVH issues, yet the chassis feels firm and planted in the corners and over bumps. It's really an excellent balance between performance and comfort. Bear in mind that I'm running stock bushings all around except for the rear differential (Whiteline). More of the OEM bushings will eventually get replaced, I already noticed the front LCA strut bushings beginning to crack. I'll keep an eye on the suspect bushings and replace as needed. My 1st test drive was short (maybe 15-20min) using country roads with plenty of bumps, elevation changes, and twisties. I was satisfied with the results and knew I needed to make adjustments to the RJM pedal, but this would have to wait until the next weekend as it was 3AM and I was exhausted from the suspension work.

FF to the following weekend. I decided to swap out the CZP PCV delete kit (you can see the filter on bank 1 valve cover in previous post) and replace it with the Mishimoto OCC kit. While doing some digging the week prior, I discovered a cache of brand new OEM PCV hoses and some front sway bar bushings. I had completely forgotten about these! When I installed the Mishimoto OCC, I noticed the PCV valve hose had really hardened. It felt like plastic and was already cracking at the intake manifold side. So, the crossover tube between the valve covers and the bank 2 hoses got replaced with fresh rubber. Next, I made adjustments to the RJM pedal. I dropped the AFP setting to something around 50% (Not an exact science), down from 100%. This lengthened the stroke of the master cylinder. I also adjusted the angle of the foot pedal so it sticks out slightly (closer to the driver) more than the other pedals. After that was said and done, I took the Z out for it's second shake down. The new settings of the clutch pedal felt more to my liking. The awkwardness I experienced before is gone. I was banging through the gears with confidence again! This time I was really able to enjoy the car while the sun was still shining. It feels like a totally different machine now and I love it.

Warning - I'm going to nerd out on car detailing stuff in the rest of the post...

Now that the major work has been finished, I'm beginning the work on cosmetic care. I'm starting with the wheels and fender liners. My set of silver LMGT4s haven't seen much love since they were mounted on my Z, primarily because I haven't been driving the Z much because of the maintenance needs. All the wheel well plastics are getting a thorough cleaning/refresh as well. They were all looking a bit haggard with lots of road tar and other nasty bits sticking to them. Many of the plastic retainers had also seen better days. Part of this maintenance is also to inspect the rockers, both front and rear. This is something that should be checked every so often, I recommend taking a peak at every brake service interval. I doubt my Z had ever had the rockers inspected and cleaned. I found lbs worth of sand, twigs, and leaves piled up behind the mud guards and fender. It was literally caked on, I had to break it up with a stiff bristle brush. If you care about your car and want your rockers to stay solid (instead of rust bubbles), keep these areas clean of dirt/sand/etc. The dirt/debris traps moisture which leads to the rust issues.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish the wheel & liner TLC before the end of the weekend. I got about 60% done. The wheels have been super cleaned and all the plastics have been cleaned. Only the rear plastics have been treated. I like to use Car Guys Plastic Restorer. The results speak for themselves (not sponsored). For the wheels I used IronX with a simple detailing brush. For the stubborn road tar bits, I used a plastic razor blade. I'm very impressed with the results I got from the wheel cleaner. The dirt lifted off the surface with ease, only light agitation with the brush was required. I plan to polish some of the scuffs and finish up the wheels with Swissvax Wheel Wax. I only recently heard about this product, but it sounds like the best of the best, hoping for awesome results. For tire dressing, I love Larry's Mud Tire Gel (AMMO NYC), I also use this stuff on all my rubber weather stripping & seals to keep them from drying out and cracking. As a bonus, it gives the rubber that nice new satin look without looking dripping wet or leaving an oily/slimy residue. Zero sling issues and it lasts a long time. I've tried it on plastics, but it doesn't last as long as the Car Guys stuff.

Link

Link

to Car Guy's Plastic Restorer.
Link to Swissvax.
Link to Ammo NYC Tire Mud Gel.


Once the wheels and liners are done, it will be time for some paint care and then the interior. With Christmas and New Years around the corner, I'll have some time off to get into some detailing ASMR.
Until then! I leave you guys with some pictures.
Cheers!
-Icer


Exhaust tips aligned nicely. Bumper looking fresh.

Muffler shot.

Rear end looking fresh.

Mid-pipes looking fresh.

Troublesome X-Pipe now leak free thanks to RTV shmoo.

Undercarriage shot. Notice the flanges to X-pipe are staggered.

Re-conditioned W-Brace looking fresh.

Belly pans after re-paint and plastic conditioning.

Front Right Bilstein B6 + OEM Nismo Coil combo. Looking very colorful.

Front Right again, better angle. Shows SS line routing.

Rear right corner.

Rear right combo, better angle.

 

Previous post continued. More pictures!
-Icer


RJM pedal as it is now. I'm happy with the settings and don't think I'll change them further.

Rocker and Fender debris! A lot of it fell onto the floor out of frame when I pulled down the liner, believe me, it was bad!

Front wheels after IronX cleaning.

Rear wheels after IronX cleaning.

Front Fender Liners, cleaned, not treated. Showing the backsides, doh!

Rear plastics after cleaning and treatment. Looking fresh!

Can't wait to try this stuff out!

Brand new front sway bar bushings! Getting installed next weekend!

Almost forgot, GKtech diff brace going in. I'm curious to see how this feels. I'll sell it if it causes NVH.

 

Mark, you that Rawb at ZCG is always hiring. I'd bring my car in for "the ICER treatment". That's some serious OCD GOODNESS! Can't wait to see your car! My new "office" isn't too far away from MooView!! But ya, seriously good stuff!!

 

Thanks for the compliments Mic! I love "Rawb" and the ZCG Crew and I would be lying if I said "I didn't think about offering my services to ZCG." But ultimately I always scrap the idea because I'm not fast/speedy with my craft. My attention to detail and quality of work requires time and patience. I often get myself hung up on trivial things that a normal person would overlook or simply not care about. For a business, time is money, which means I would have to alter my methods to save time, something I struggle with because I put more emphasis on quality over quantity. Also...I have a full time job with good benefits/salary and this is my hobby/passion! But... I have been thinking about starting an appointment only detailing business as a side hustle. I'm pretty obsessed with detailing cars and over the years I've gotten very good, far better than most so called "pros" that offer mobile services. I have all the equipment/tools to do professional level detailing at home, both interior and exterior. Now that I have a home with a 3 car garage, space is no longer an issue and I can do the really good stuff (polishing & waxing) indoors.

The Z is going in for the ZCG treatment on Jan 5th. After that is done, I'm going to try and get a quote & appointment with William's Autobody for some work on the front bumper and passenger fender. I made a huge mistake one morning when backing my Z out of my 8ft garage door and scuffed the FR fender/bumper corners where they meet. Nothing serious, mostly paint transfer that buffed out, but there's some clear coat damage and some paint chipping that still bugs me to this day! My garage is perpendicular to the street, which requires a 90 degree turn to pull in from the driveway, easy to do for the 16ft door, but a royal pain on the 8ft door, doubly so in reverse! I also have new mud guards I need paint matched. The ones on the car now are in rough shape. Until the paint work is done, I won't be installing the new OEM headlights or iJDM LED front reflectors. So my detailing work (aside from the wheels and wheel wells) will be focused primarily on the interior for now, plenty to do there!

By the way, I think there's a bug in the forum web code. I tried fixing the hyperlinks for the Swissvax & Ammo Mud in my previous post, but the text is not displaying correctly, instead it's just showing the URL. I can't figure out why. Is there some kind of limit to the number of LINKs one can share in a single post?
Cheers!
-Icer

 

Not aware of any link limitation, let me look into it.

So, what's Rob doing to your car Jan 5? Dyno/tune?

EDIT: I tested nine links in a post. Works fine. Presume you probably need to re-do the whole link because a single errant change, you know what that does to code. Haha!

 

Rob will be Dyno tuning the Z, I assume with Uprev's software. It's been a while since I've had a tune done by ZCG and CA has changed up the rules. I know Uprev offers CARB legal packages now though, so I'm guessing that's what Rob may use. I'm also getting an alignment done since I replaced the struts/coils and I have a TPMS sensor that needs replacing. My TPMS sensors have been driving me nuts for years, I should have replaced them all at the same time, but the OEM units are a bit pricey, so I've been doing it as they fail (my mistake). I even purchased an Autel TS501 to handle this issue so I don't have to bug ZCG with trivial stuff. Even some of my new OEM sensors have randomly stopped reporting/syncing. It's not always just a dead battery, I think there could be something else triggering the sensor to lose sync.

I saw your link test post, everything appears to be working. I moved the hyperlinks outside of the paragraph and now they are displaying correctly, no change to the URL characters/text. So there is some kind of bug there, not sure exactly what triggered it, but something with the location of the link mid-sentence or paragraph. I reviewed the web source code and it checked out. The Amazon link was working from the start and I didn't see any change in syntax/code with the others, but still, for some reason, they were only displaying the URL and not the hyperlink until I pulled them out of the paragraph.

Anyway, thanks for your efforts to look into it!
Cheers!
-Icer

 

Added some weight for extra downforce!



Lol. I've been meaning to add some sound dampening to the doors for a while, but after upgrading the speakers a couple of months back I thought I'd do it properly now. Should've taken a photo of the other door (it's a bit nicer) but you get the idea. Door is slightly more 'clunk' now.

I'll be moving on to the boot next, but I've also got a whole reel of sound deadening mat to install back there too.

I also started selling/shipping my 3D printed angled gauge cluster in Australia too (primed/painted below). Haven't considered other markets yet.

 

Looks good! You will need to modify the gauge bracket for LHD if you plan to ship to USDM. I also recommend wrapping all your door harness wiring with interior Tesa loom tape. Really helps get rid of those annoying plastic tapping noises. Doing this on my Z, especially to the wiring in the passenger footwell around the blower box, really made a difference. Of course there are dozens of locations where interior rattles/noises can be heard on the Zs, but every little bit helps!
Cheers!
-Icer

 

Thanks. Yeah I already hooked a guy up in the States with one- just did a mirror image. He's been very happy with it.

I've been chasing rattles for years in this damn car -got most of them- but the one that eludes me is just under the dash on the left side. It'll have to wait for the day I remove the whole dash to sound deaden and clean up...

 

More Z refresh updates...

The wheels, tires, and liners are done! Looking super sharp! A lot of effort now will make future cleanings/washes super easy with some wheel woolies and ultimately save a lot of time. I didn't bother cleaning up the painted portion of the mud/rock guards since those will be getting replaced with new, freshly painted units. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough available time this weekend to get the Gktech diff brace or front sway bar bushings installed. I'll take care of that this coming weekend. Just wanted to show the amazing results I got from the wheel wax, consider this post a partial review of the product.

I was impressed with how easy it was to work with the Swissvax wheel wax. It goes on super easy with a foam wax pad and buffs off easy with a plush microfiber, leaving behind a very nice shine and buttery smooth surface. You only need a small amount of this wax, no need to go nuts with it. A single 50ml jar will last years if you only use it on your own vehicle(s). No joke, it made my wheels feel like a non-stick pan (as it should since the wax contains PTFE). It doesn't smell like chocolate as advertised, it smells more like Smarties if you know that candy. The only real detractor I can think of is the poor visibility (contrast) I had with the product against the color of my wheels. Seriously, this stuff is near invisible. The thin waxy film it leaves behind is very difficult to see. This makes it hard to know which areas you covered vs. those you haven't. So, either be very systematic about how you apply it, or run over the entire area twice for peace of mind. I used a combination of both! I had the most trouble seeing the applied wax when I coated the inner barrel and back of the spokes. There's no high-gloss clear coat on this part of the wheel, making it a satin finish. The front face of the wheel does have a glossy clear coat adding just enough contrast for me to see the areas I covered.

To get the same results I did, start with IronX and follow the instructions. Use a plastic razorblade or other type of non-scratch scraper to remove stubborn road tar/asphalt sticking to the inner barrel or outer dish. To further remove tar stains and grease, I used a microfiber with a dab of paint thinner. No joke, paint thinner eats right through greases & tar and will not hurt modern paints (To be safe, always do a test in a non-visible area 1st). Lastly, I did a final cleaning with 70% isopropyl before applying the wheel wax. I also used some of the wax on the outer faces of the Brembo Calipers, again this will make follow-up washes/cleanings much easier! The calipers really pop as an added bonus!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I like to use Tire Mud Gel from AMMO NYC for the sidewall dressing. After a few minutes of setup, it leaves a beautiful satin finish that lasts for weeks to months depending on road conditions and car wash intervals.

The wheel liners look great and do have that "wet" look even after a wipe down with a microfiber. In this case, I'm all good with it, no sling to worry about. Mud and other road sling won't stick hard on the plastic liners after this treatment, again saving time during future washes/cleanings. No longer having the faded liners really makes the wheels/tires/brakes pop!

That's all for now, what wheel/tire products have you guys tried and had great results with?
Cheers!
-Icer


Front wheels fully cleaned and waxed with sidewall dressing.

Wheel barrel and spokes.

360 degree shot of the wheel barrel and spokes. Zero road tar. Imperfections left are pits, chips, or stains.

FL-F liner looking fantastic.

FL-R liner looking amazing as well.

RL liner with the same treatment.

FR wheel mounted and looking sharp.

The Z as it sits now with the new suspension. I haven't even washed it yet!

 

Whoa. That is one clean wheel. Nicely done!

 

reminds me, i need to wax or coat my new wheels when they come in before anything is mounted on them

 

Trav, just make sure you tell the tire shop before they install the wheel weights during mounting/balancing. The mount surface will need to be chemically cleaned, otherwise the weight may not stick properly!
Cheers!
-Icer

 

Holiday Special Z Refresh Update...

Well Christmas and New Years have come and gone. Over my two week break from the daily grind, I was able to spare some time to work on the Z. The new front sway bar bushings were installed, but it was a struggle. One bolt on the passenger side rounded off and had to be drilled out, then busted off. The single nut on the driver's side also rounded off and had to be cut and broken off. I'm usually extremely careful when cracking bolts/nuts free and you would think these bolts/nuts would be cake, but in my case they were all over-torqued. So much so, that all the frame threads have been pulled. These are M10x1.25 and sadly my thread chaser set does not have the 1.25 thread pitch (only 1.5 and 1.00). I'll have to purchase an entirely new metric set for this one size (doh!). The good news is that there's still enough meat on the threads for the sway bar to be safely secured and torqued to spec, things just don't thread on easily by hand.

I also did some rust prevention on the front sub frame. Nothing crazy, I sanded and wire wheeled all the lose paint and rust off the engine support + brace and used some rust reformer primer and followed up with Satin Black paint (Both Rust-oleum). Sadly I didn't stop to take pictures during all that work. But the paint job finished up about as good as you would expect when using a paint brush instead of a spray can. I didn't want to risk overspray getting all over the place and using a spray can on your back doesn't work very well. But at least now I don't need to worry about more rusty paint flaking off and the underbody looks very clean front to back now.

I moved on to interior work since the weather here has been both wet and windy. I really wanted to get a wash, clay bar, polish, and wax in on the Z, but it wasn't in the cards for me, at least for now. So both seats came out and everything got vacuumed and steam cleaned. I used a Lilly Brush to take care of all the lint, human hair, and pet hair clinging to the carpet (If you have pets or shed a lot, these things are life changing!) There was quite a bit of hair left behind from the previous owner(s). I've had this car in my care for nearly 5 years and I never once detailed the interior, I promised myself I wouldn't give it that level of TLC until the serious mechanical issues were addressed.

The driver seat bottoms between the existing chair and my old chair were swapped (very easy to do, just 4x12mm bolts at the bottom of the seat pan/frame). Although the seat cover on the new chair is in better shape, the side bolster foam near the manual seat ***** is cracked/torn internally and needs to be repaired. This made long drives feel awkward and uncomfortable. Even though my old seat has seen more usage/mileage, I was always careful about how I planted my butt when getting in and out of my car, so the bolster hasn't deteriorated as badly. The interior carpet looks new and the seats almost as good as new. Pro-Tip, hot steam on your seat foam/cushions actually causes them to puff back up and rejuvenate them. It really works wonders for older seats that are starting to look saggy. Don't use hot steam if you have leather though! For the repair, I may take the bolster from my old passenger seat, the center section is unique on the driver's side, but the side bolsters are identical. I may sacrifice my old passenger seat to rebuild the driver seat, or look for a Z33 passenger seat bottom at the local Pick-N-Pull. Z33s are starting to show up in the yards now, never thought I would see that happen.

Now for the fun bit. The Z was taken into Z Car Garage on Thursday the 5th for a solid inspection, alignment, and dyno tune with Uprev Reflash. The inspection discovered two minor issues. One; The forward diff bushings were installed upside-down and two; Under load there was some minor contact occurring with my exhaust muffler assembly and the rear crash bar (where those unnecessary plastic bumper hangers are). The diff bushings surprised me, because I never altered the position of these. I simply removed the diff from my old chassis and it sat in my garage until I was ready to install in the new chassis. If the orientation was wrong, the original installer made the mistake, and that was ZCG. Glad that little mishap was discovered and fixed. I was extremely careful about the exhaust install to make sure nothing was making contact that shouldn't be and all pieces were hanging with adequate clearance. I think I know what happened. When I dropped the X-Pipe to fix the exhaust leaks, I may have tweaked the rear assembly during the re-install. Nothing important was injured, that plastic hanger got a tiny bit melted though. Post inspection, the Z got a 4-wheel alignment and it needed it. The car had a subtle pull to the right, even before I installed the new struts and coils, now it tracks like an arrow and feels great. Lastly, the Z got treated to a visit in the Dyno bay with Rob Fuller working his magic. I'm very pleased with the results, these are considerable gains and very respectable numbers for an NA Revup DE. I don't think hardly any more power could be gained without going FI or modifying things to the point of never passing CA's strict emissions standards (ART Pipes aside in my case, which are easy enough to swap out for OEM cats).

After getting the Z back home, I took some time to try installing the Gktech diff brace AGAIN. Yes, I tried installing this component the same day I did the front sway bar bushings, but the alignment was terrible. It would have required a lot of grinding to get it to bolt up nicely and I was so upset about the poor fitment that I threw it back in it's box and started on the front sway bar bushings (yeah...that was a bad car day). I'm glad I didn't modify things until after the ZCG inspection because the diff brace is in now! I did still have to grind about 1/16th of an inch off the center bolt guide (where it mates with the diff cover), but at least this time around, the bolts were able to all align and thread in cleanly. I probably could have used a dead-blow hammer to tape the brace in place without grinding any material off, but I don't like hammering steel against aluminum, bad things can happen.

The last thing I did to the Z before heading back to work, was an A/C cleaning (interior heater/evap core box), using Kool-It from Lubegard. I used two full bottles, and even after the 2nd bottle, the drained out detergent was still looking a little brown. But so far the Heat/AC shows no signs of stank, time will tell. Some history...this Z, has had a mildew odor from the AC vents since the day I purchased it. I suspect this was from the humidity in San Diego (where the Z spent it's prior life) combined with the fact that Z33s don't have cabin filters. I have already addressed the cabin filter issue by modifying the blower box and installing a proper filter meant for Altimas of the same vintage. If this attempt fails, I'll be pulling apart the passenger side of the core box (near the expansion valve), and getting at it with my steam cleaner. Not a fun task, but much easier than ripping apart the whole dash to fix an odor issue. If anyone has any suggestions or alternate solutions to this issue, I'm all ears.

Remaining Mechanical items to tackle on the Z...NONE.
Remaining Cosmetic items...MANY/VARIOUS.

I'll continue to post updates as I progress on the cosmetics and I'll try to make sure to get more pictures (before & after shots). I like to take my time when it comes to the cosmetics, and some of the issues I plan to address require a warmer season, but for now, I plan to enjoy the car when I can...at least until after these storms decide to let up for a few days! Sheesh! Been raining here almost non-stop for 3 straight weeks! (Unusual for CA).
Cheers!
-Icer


Drilled out sway bar Bolt.

Accidentally nipped the sway bar frame stud when cutting the rounded nut. Doh!

Lilly Brush FTW. Seriously get one if you have pets! Works great on upholstery!

Alignment chart, before and after.

Old Dyno chart (2012) for comparison. Run on my old Z chassis when it was still mostly stock. Take with a grain of salt.

New Dyno chart, after all the work I've done.

Gktech diff brace finally in!

Side shot of the brace.

 

Testing links to Dyno vids from Google Drive.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oCM...usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qn4...usp=share_link

 

The Z had been sitting inside since before Christmas, but I got to take it out yesterday evening for a drive. Unfortunately, for the first time, I noticed a little bit of oil under the engine where it had been parked. It didn't lose enough that the oil was low (I checked the level before I headed out), but it's something to look at before Spring. The Z gets to rest through the winter, as a V70R is my snow machine