Not a lot of progress.. once again.
- Spent $150 on new oem/z1 gaskets/fittings for current/future use, as most aftermarket gaskers I have tried recently are horrible and leak still.

- Coolant Leak Saga.
Threw on new oem gaskets for the thermostat & cam solenoids. Leaks are now gone, and a new one is found... Turns out there is a pinhole somewhere on the thermosat, I can watch the drop form, guess it was 2 leaks, but I couldnt tell until now. Need to get it rewelded now.

- Calipers!
Oh, this has been fun. I wanted to upgrade over the 06 base calipers. I got rear calipers from MAX and front calipers from a high rated listing for $150 calipers. I FIGURED the calipers that cost more (not the oem), are just more expensive due to branding/paint, turns out I was wrong.
- The rear calipers fit up great, no issues. The front, were HORRIBLE. The inside of the caliper was touching the rotor, thats how off center they were, and 1 had stripped threads.
- I was about to buy used OEM n rebuild, but stumbled upon @Z33since03 's thread https://my350z.com/forum/2003-2009-n...mbos-swap.html . With their experience of TRQ calipers.. Thank you
- I picked up the front TRQ calipers from ebay for $220 and they fit perfect.
- During this, I threw on new front wheel bearings, old ones had no play, but were noisy and had a lot of resistance. + Trimmed the shields to basically just be spacers.
- I learned the rear caliper mounting bolts are M12 x 1.75. I found mulltiple threads saying 1.25 and 1.50... Nope.
- I let the system run dry, bc the whole issue with the first set of calipers. Bled the system, 60% of the pedal had almost no affect. Bled again, got a ton of air out now with the motive bleeder. Will probably go for a short drive n rebleed again this weekend.
- Once I get them 100% bled, I'll paint em.
- Setup ~ Rear MAX calipers. Front TRQ calipers. Dynamic Friction Rotors (60468009/60468008). Bosch Ceramic 960/961. (Already have SS lines).. Was about $900 (includes hardware/shipping cost) for this reman setup.


The rear wheel bearings are old as well, no play, but noisy. Also, checked over all the suspension bushings. The front are all aftermarket and in good shape (only thing left is new lower ball joints needed). The rear are still old *** oem bushings... Will be replacing rear knuckle bushings, upper rear control arm bushings, spring bucket bushings, and the rad arm bushing with Megan or Whiteline + wheel bearings + ball joints, once the coolant/brakes are in working order..



Hoping to have the coolant/brake system done this weekend, before continuing any other projects.. but with how **** has gone recently, im sure ill find something.

 

If you would have mentioned you needed them i could have sold you some for cheap.

 

Dam, had I known, I woulda taken u up on tht after shitty 1st set, as I wasnt 100% sure about the TRQ calipers.. I was originally trying to avoid oem brembos as I didnt wanna get stuck with a set of calipers that have bad bleeders.. Majority of them on the used market seemed to be beat as well.

I lied to myself, had free time n decided to install a few more items.

Got new fuel level sensors for $50 from ebay. Fuel gauge pretty much read only 1/4 or 3/4 full and would randomly change. Gauge is now showing slightly over a full tank (as the tank is overfilled, oops). Old ones below, was a bit tricky to remove the passenger sensor. I ended uup drilling the plastic tabs on the sensor to release it. Also, changed the driver side first, no difference on the fuel gauge really so guessing it was the passenger side that was bad.


Coolant issue - I ended up covering the Tstat housing with alum epoxy, as I thought it was a pinhole leak in the welds. Nope.. It was still leaking the same, took it off and now I can see deep scratch right on where it seals. Later down the line, when i work on the engine bay, I will grind the epoxy off, and get the tools needed to repair these fittings.


For now, this is what I ended up doing. Got another DE Tstat housing and use some silicone tubing with a 90*. Can't believe how much of a struggle this was, all bc a damaged fitting . 100% fixed now with the new housing. Plan on a line from the tsta to top of the rad once I get an aluminum one.. but my OEM rad has like 20k miles soooo, its staying in.


Installed the Z1 subframe bushing collars. Struggled for 20 mins getting the collars in and still couldnt. I left 1 corner slightly bolted to the car though. After i removed all 4 corners and dropped it a couple inches, everything slid in easily with lube.



Put on the Z1 diff brace as well.


Took off the rear exhaust pipes, grinded the rust off, n painted. Not the prettiest, but the resonators REALLY help witht he sound.


Installing a new bottle bracket still. Decided to put it in the correct way this time lol. Will have a few things to tidy up in the rear now as well.


Now that I know the weight of the car, I'm not too worried about adding back an extra 10ish pounds. Have been contemplating on removing the CEL led in the cluster or going through with extra weight + connections... Decided to reinstall the charcoal canister + evap purge + Rear 02 sensors. So I started reinstalling everything.


Figured this should be fine for the evap solenoid.. Waiting on the vacuum delay before finishing it up. Also wired in the harness for the solenoid.

Started ewiring the rear 02 sensors.


So, currently working on installing the evap system, rear 02 sensors, bottle bracket, and rear bumper brackets.

 

Progress!
Charcoal canister installed. I could not find the bracket for sale for the canister and I don't believe it would fit either due to the exhaust now. Added some foam on the top to remove any slight wiggle room.. Use 1 pre-existing stud and bolt a bracket throuh the hatch floor.


Even though it seemed to be very secure, I added 2 eyelets with 3 zip ties just as a safety precaution. Used an existing bolt hole and bolted the other through the hatch floor.
Guess this is a way to hide it as well if you got a bumper cut lol.


Painted and installed the oem brackets in the rear again with 1 bolt. Bumper fits up GREAT again . The tail light no longer pops out further than the bumper.


Installed the new bottle bracket and threw on the blanket as well... While doing this, I reloated the blow down and wire harness. No more wires going thrugh the floor now.


Calipers painted n stuck on the decals. Used the G2 kit, n honestly aint happy this time with the result... When I used the black G2 kit years ago, it went on great.. This time I swear the paint was so much thinner, dripped easier, coats didnt make the paint thicker by much... They work for now, but I will def be redoing them down the line.



Secondary 02 harness remade. Sensors n harness all done n installed.


Couldnt find much info on the evap vacuum delay valve. Seems like I spent $30 on a hollow piece of plastic lol.. Waiting on a barbed fitting to complete the evap system.

Also, put in some new clutch fluid.

Now - Remaking 1 of the rear floor pieces. Reinstalling oem driver belt system for street. Fixing the corbeau seat. Waiting on barbed fitting to complete evap system. Fully bleed coolant again... As long as there are no new issues, will be able to test everything this weekend.

I'v been putting off on uploading the final tune, as it just ddnt matter... Ending up having my email wiped. LMT (Pat) came through and was able to resend me everything from 3+ months ago . Thank you!

 

Some good, some bad.

Good-
1. Rear end feels much better (less 'squat' while wot in low gear).
2. No CELs from the evap system!! Woo!
3. Trunk floor done again. Glad I went n got a lot of the fabric from Joanns since they are closing.
4. The exhaust is amazing now ! No more horrible rasp below 3k rpm and the HORRIBLE decel rasp/fart is gone as well. Crazy how much the Totalflow resonaters did for the sound.
5. No coolant leaks still after all the driving and pulls.
Bad-
1. Brakes feel pretty much the same.. I'm gonna assume it is due to not having a check valve in the booster line... Car was fine before without one, but from some recent reading, this may be the issue. Ordered some from CZP...
2. The rear o2 sensors are not throwing codes, but they are completly ****ing over the tune.. 20% constant throttle = 13-15 AFR fluctuating nonstop. Made sure the entire sensor is in the exhaust stream... So, kinda bummed over this. Msg'd the tuner to see if anything can be done about this.

 

Update Time..

The DE has 2 check valves, 1 in the hose, and another on the booster.. I removed the one in the hose years ago and did not notice any issues and since forgot about it.... Thanks to an old post from @DarkZ03, I added one of these right above the check valve on the brake booster. After testing, it seems the valve on the booster is 'soft' while the new added is a hard cut/ an on/off switch.. Brakes are fully working and feel amazing now. Very happy with the upgrade.


Installed the Z1 motormounts and uninstalled the engine dampener. The only had part of the install is loosening the nuts on top of the oem mounts. Used a stubby wrench + allenkey and worked well.

Installed these mini cat o2 sensors. Gonna try them first on the extended bung.. Hope they work. If not, I have an o2 sim on the way :P.


Installed the z1 crank/alt pulley + new tensioner pulley + crank gasket.. Crank pulley was a bit of a ***** to get on. Had to get the altenator out to get a impact on it. The rubber in the oem crank pulley is extremely hard and cracking btw. The leak got pretty bad recently, within a few mins of running, there would be a puddle of pil on top of the oil pan.


Since adding back the oem belt system, the buckle was way too far down... Never thought I would buy one of these unless I was old or 500 pounds. Got a buckle extension .


$5 for the exhaust silencers lol. They work great and fit perfect. I don't feel like an ******* when starting my car up past 7pm anymore.


I ended up messing up the rear diffuser paint.. I forgot it was behind the table and got glue on it... Decided to try a new color on the diffuser and splitters (below) and was unhappy.. Gray just looks like primer to me, no matter what... Already painting back to the original color.


Finally Through the backlog of parts..

Went on a 50 minute drive, multiple puls, cruising checks, and idle checks.. Everythign ran great. I did notice while coming to an idle a few times it got a little rich, low 14's, n then snapped back to the normal 14.7... Cruising at normal speeds was constant mid 14s.
- Solid engine mounts are great, I love em, really only feel a lot of vibrtion when taking off from a stop.
- I do notice it feels like it takes a little more to get going now frmro a stop?? Guessing that is the pulleys.

 

Update -

1. Had to reinstall the crank pulley. I didnt smack in the seal far enough. Only took about 30 mins this time and did not have to remove anythign extra. Also threw on a new belt, as when I originally did the install, I fked the belt trying to loosen the bolt.
2. I was having issues with the nitrous acivating again.. Nothing changed other than the new head unit install.. Which originally caused grounding issues with the nitrous purge, which is why I went to a LOC setup for the sub... So I remade the harness and threw in the old headunit again.
3. FPSS was giving issues as well.. Its an NX one... After a ot of testing, it was really random in how it would activate/shut down. I set it to 0, now no issues.
4. Threw in the 50/28 jets in today and now have no traction in 2nd lol. I can see why its addicting :P.
5. Been hearing a tick at idle lately (thought it was the timing chain), randomly. It was loud af today and had a deep tone.. Checked n prodded everything. Turned out to be the dam evap solenoid leaning on the firewall. The thing is so loud. I need to make an isolated bracket for it.
6. Got new wheels. I originally was looking at enkie/konig, but for the styles I was liking, the weight was 22-24lb each for $1300+.... Instead, due to a recent post here, I ended up with Vors TR10s 18x9.5 all around. They were cheap af for the weight (20 pounds each, $700 shipped). Not sure on tires yet, but I have time to decide. Cat for scale.

7. All panels back on the car again as well.

Enjoying the z more everytime I take it out.. Will be doing some testing n logging like mentioned earlier in this thread...

 

Decided to go see how everything felt today and drive to the mountains...

1. Within 15 mins of driving there, my car starting to not decel correctly/ idle at 1.5k.... Went home, the rubber stopper on the accel pedal broke to pieces. I replaced all the pedal stoppers with the Z1 urethane versions. The clutch stopper was already in half, n 2 others fell apart while removing them. ALL DONE NOW!
2. Went out again, oil temp sensor decides to die now. Went to change it, burnt myself, oil spilled, need oil now..... lol..
3. Turns out all weird vibrations have been the undershroud.. Guessing its the missing of the nylon washers. Ordered a kit of nylon washers and push nuts to make life easy again uninstall/installing and to rid the noise.
4. Now that its finally hot, I gotta get an oil cooler going..

5. This is how I mouned the evap solenoid. I was gonna make a bracket but with the limited room, this works. Use the oem hole, flipped it upside down, n used a rubber washer. No longer knocking against the firewall.


Ofc when I have time off to go to the mountains, things decide to not work :P.

 

I did an oil change and changed the oil temp sensor. Went out to data log all the heatshield ****.. Car didnt seem right.. Felt sluggish and even was deceling slower. Havnt driven it since.

1. I used 5w40 instead of the usual 5w30.. That is the only thing that was changed to affect anything engine related..
2. Oil temp gauge still was not working correctly..
3. New gauges + LEDs + Progressive controller to install... I got tired of the wires still not being managed neatly.. and the whole nitrous wiring setup has been changed soooo many times.. Too many crimps + incorrect gauge wires.
4. To fix the wiring situation.. Installing 2 aux fuse boxes under Passenger dash. Used aluminum stock + ABS + Roll bar mounts.. Had to cut some brackets out and used tesa tape to cover it all, not much room to smooth everything out.


5. I remade the entire nitrous wire setup. Was the easiest way to wire in the Prog cont and fix all the issues (Correct gauges, color coded, less wire breaks, lengthed correctly, grounds to battery).. I could have moved the relays next to the fuse boxes, but I rather have everything together n deal with the extra wiring.. New in progress vs old wiring...

New wire harness, mostly wrapped up.


Nitrous panel all done... Removed the fire ex.. Wil remount in passenger area..


How I wired everything now. Prewired an opener as well.


Also, took apart the noid setup, inspected everythign, and rethreaded all connections.. Everything nitrous related works without issue now..

6. Removed interior fan.. 2nd hood latch, fuel psi gauge, and FPSS.. Fan doesnt do **** in dry heat.. humid heat woudl work... 2nd hood latch.. Rattle + who knows if it would even work (depending on speed), putting gauge in bay instead, FPSS was just not working correctly.

 

The rewiring of all accessories took a lot longer than expected.. All interior wiring is now done.. Pic was before cleaning everthing up a bit, but everything is now organized and safe. Also got the wiring for amps/speakers done. Need to get amps/make rack.

Small change lol, upped to a QC charger that also has a metal body, so no more loosening with time.

Added relay to the horns. Without a relay, they were not getting the power they needed.


I'v read a ton of conflicting info regarding LED vs HID, mainly lght cutoff/brightness. The LEDs are defenitly way brighter in the garage though .

I ended up never going back and fixing up the wiring/resistor setup I had with the headlights. Wrapped everything up and added a harness for the resist, so easily removable.


So, PS pump is starting to make some noise.. The res was slightly below the pump, I'm gonna take a guess and say thats the reason thats its letting go (also had a PS leak on the hardline next to the pan). Put in a new res, ensuring its above the pump. Once I throw in a new pump, ill have AN fittings welded up to everything. Also changed coolers... Few years back, after switching to the open bumper.. I had a rock hit the cooler while on the highway and ended up losing PS with half the car covered in fluid. This one should be more robust..



Added the fuel psi gauge in bay.


Got the new oil ttemp gauge working. Turns out there was a disconnct in the fenderwell somwhere.. But again, these issues should now be gone as everything is a full length wire now and not a single 12v wire having 3+ conns in it lol. Reocated the oil temp to the center for the future aem gauge in the pillar.

Since I'v taken away some of the tackyness/rice from the car in the last few months, I had to add some back. Added 2 simple red strips under the dash (both with a quick disc). ANDDDDDDDD


underglow.. Will I use it for not even 5 minutes in a whole year? Probably lol. I was always 'idk if i love or hate underglow' type... but the chasing effect made me buy em... Was contemplating making my own, but with the cost of this kit, it wasnt worth the hassle.
Got this Kanjo specD kit.. You pick your own lengths and it comes with everything + extras that you need for about $130. I'm waiting on 2 extra extenders I had to order, as I wanted to keep everything easily removable (panel wise). Basically Have extenders over the wheel arch that are perm and unplug near where the panels meet.. So, it will take only an extra few seconds to remove the bumpers/diffuser/sideskirts when needed.

 

lol. Same. You just need to find some bros and go on a run like this. Safety in numbers!

 

I'd never use a LED bulb in a HID housing, let us know what you think tho.

 

Yeah, the main problem with those LED swaps is that the light output may be brighter or more lumens, but the LEDs don't scatter light everywhere like a halogen or HID bulb. The light only emits from the chip. They do their best to spread the light everywhere, but it's not exactly the same. That's why you get blinded by people swapping LEDs for their halogens bulbs in reflectors. The light doesn't focus properly and it goes everywhere. With an LED in a projector bowl, the light from the LED is focused through the lens, so this would eliminate blinding people since the cutoff is maintained by the cutoff shield inside of the projector, but I think you're going to lose some foreground light output.

 

Honestly, there seems to be a decent amount of people with it, at the larger meets.

I was able to get a small test drive in. It felt like I was in my 24 jetta (LED). A very nice upgrade compared to the HIDs, just in terms of lightput.... Not sure if I am blinding people, but the car barely gets driven at night and 50%+ of the crossovers/SUVs/trucks blind the living fk outta me in the jetta, so Ia int worried about tht.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finished the underglow install. Was honestly way more time consuming then I thought it would be to get it all done. This is how the connections are done, easy to get to, but also secure.

Pic of it on. Underglow def looks better when it covers the whole car, n not just portions like the $30 kits give.


I forgot to mention when replacing the HIDs, I replaced the daylight n turn signal bulbs as well... These are the old ones from Diode Dynamics.. Not too sure on what is going on with em... But they are replaced anyways.


Started the mock up for the amps. I was trying to get ideas and pretty much was just stuck on threads frrom 03-07 here. Crazy seeing how much work people would put into audio installs and just DIYs back then... Not sure if people just dont care now, only go with premade parts, or maybe just are not as skilled in general? Early 2000's was just custom everything.


Bottom.


Installed before the cleanup. From indep testing, these amps seem to perm very well and not have bloated specs. like only $90 each.

Only have done a little tuning, and the music already is SO much better. I'm not sure if it was just being in cars with nice systems or if gutting the car just made all the noise drown out the music at reasonable levels... BUT, I can now make the music louder then the exhuast while crusing lol. Made everything easy to remove when needed. Rewired the sub for 4 ohms. While doing this, the loc no longer triggers the amps (didnt think of that), so I had to run a wire to the aux fuse box for 12 trigger.

Went on a 10 min test drive (40-50 mph slow driving). Felt slow still, as if they brakes were on. Got home, all the wheels were hot af.. Did some thinking and found a thread frrom 09... I'm thinking this is my issue... Before.


After... Hoping this will fix the issue. I more than likely put it too far it when I replaced all stoppers a few weeks ago.... Which means I pourd out the 5w40 oil for nothing...


While throwing the seat back in, hit the console.. There is a slight difference in color between the 2 center peices + this scratch + a clear drip... So I will repaint these soon.. ALSO! Turns out they are diff colors bc an issue with the paint, not my painting lol.. Below are 2 diff cans of the same color lol.


Should not be that brown.

 

Alllright.... Turns out, that sensor being pushed in all the way was 100% causing my issue :P. Car feels normal again without the brakes being constantly pushed down....

The first thing I fked up on this car was stripping one of the strut bar threads when I first removed/installed it a while back. I'm pretty sure I just forced a new bolt of the same specs into it with some oil to 'fix' the threads. Turns out, it was only being held in with 2 threads this whole time, as they decided o finally give up. First time using a helicoil.. Very easy and forgiving to work with. So thats fixed now..

I can't wait to refinish the bay...

Notes:
1. The headlight cutoff is high now, gonna see about adjusting it lower.
2. The purge solenoid is still loud af, its muffled now with the mount/bushing, but still, sounds horrible. Probably gonna buy a new one.

Gonna try doing the heatshield testing again this weekend.

 

So, its been a while - I havnt done anything until recently since the last post.

My plan was to do the testing I wanted and wait for the next down time to install everything in Jan. Had the lil guy below - pass away on xmas/eve. Ended up taking him to an emergency room at nite and spending vortech money, and him not surviving. RIP Eclipse.


Got the new wheels and tires on - Vores TR10 18x9.5 +35 all around. Tires are the HTR Z5's. 265/35 and 275/35. 20mm spacers on the front and 25mm on the rear. Rear camber is @ -2.5 atm, will bring it down to 1.5 and should have great fitment. Overall, wheels are about 6/7 pounds less each (with spacer weight), compared to the old ones.


Got the tablet/holder setup. No more dealing a laptop on a seat!


On tues, I got an appt for the exhaust. Adding in more resonators.. should be the last of it. Also gettin rid of the leaking vbands.


Will get in touch with the tuner after exhaust is done for the oem intake tune. Found a shop that will let me switch intakes on dyno and charges $200/6 pulls. Then the car gets pulled apart for the 50 things that need to be done.

 

Awe man, sorry for your loss, that sucks. On the car side of things cant wait for the intake stuff, was hoping to contribute more but IDK, might be another "off year" for me.

 

Much appreciated bro. Sucks when life hits and you cant do anything to change ****. - You happy where your Z is at now or just not feeling like messing with it?

Update: Had the exhaust work done. Very happy with it. No more leaking Vbands (waste of $200) and exhaust once again sounds better than it did before. Contemplating putting on ONE more set or res test pipes lol... It just sounds so much better every time.

Not sure if I completely messed up my inner tie rods while putting on the new wheels n spacers or what.. OMW to the shop, the car had a HUGE delay in steering on the highway, was very sketchy. So, took the tierods off (inners were floppy af). Also found out my rack has a slow leak in it as well, but that will be for another time.

I checked the steering coupler, seems like it has no/very little slack.. Bushings all looked good in the front - so, thinking its a tie rod issue.

ALSO, my SECOND aem afr gauge is now taking a ****. My first aem gauge died within a few months. I have been using the X series gauge, and its had flickering issues for a bit, and now recently is like a a light show and unreadable.

If the afr gauge and steering issue are fixed on sat when I have time to fix things, I will then hit up rzg on Monday for a quick NA etune. I got the tablet setup, so I can log the dyno runs for afr/temps/timing between them.

I'm thinking for the 6 runs - Should make for some decent comps between everything.
1. 4'' intake 91 tune
2. 4'' intake 93 tune
3. Progressive Nitrous
4. Standard nitrous
5/6. OEM intake tune

 

So the car is up in the air right now with every front suspension component removed, have some coolant leaks so I figured I'd deal with reverting back to rubber lines and doing the pathfinder mod. Shop that did my compression rods a while ago broke one of the bolts for the front crossmember so I need to try to extract that too.

By "off year" I mean a year where I don't drive the car.

I'm also removing the headers so I can get them coated, since it's basically the easiest time to do it. All that aside, there is a problem that I'm trying to figure the best outcome for.
I want to change the crossmembers up front, obviously steering rack has to come off and the enging needs to be supported. My A-frame is in the garage above the car, so I can't get to it without risking damaging the car, and the steering rack is also leaking.

So, do I buy another A-frame and then try to sell it, do I try to get it down, do I leave the crossmember and leaking rack on the car and have to deal with it at a later time, decisions decisions...

Car has oil leaks which I need to fix but one of them is a rear main, i have no desire to do it myself, but at the same time i have yet to find a shop i can fully trust with this car. Problem is when you wrench for a living, it's not as nice to work some more on your time off lol.

 

Gotcha.. I'm in the same situation with you with the rear main and rack lol. Engine has 124k - Not worth doin the main seal, at least to me with how much it is currently leaking. I'd personally pick the side where you can do everything at once, but selling **** local sucks. Finding a shop you trust is hard af honestly... At least they didnt snap the frame stud :P.