M23Zet

Hi, I’m new to the forum however I’ve been doing nothing but research on it for the past 2 weeks.

The story is I’m looking at getting my first Z April/possibly may next year. This would be my first Japanese car and by far the oldest. Having only Audi, Mercedes and BMW’s prior.. currently have an X5 which my gf keeps bugging me about passing it to her once this is all done and the Z will be up and going.

What I intended to do is to get the cheapest 350z I can find and rebuild it back up with a few things in mind… for anything that goes in the car something lighter must replace it.(BTW this is not going to be a track weapon… more so a daily car with potential for a few track days and some spirited driving when conditions allow)

I want to strip the car completely, repaint and retrim everything, so basically most of the interior will be alcantara and exterior haven’t settled to a colour yet.

Thats the easy part .. styling and interior is where I have a full image in mind with Bride seats and all the goodies.

Since we taking the engine out either way I thought it would be a good opportunity to recondition and replace everything that needs doing, thats pretty much where I need all the help I can get. I have small list which I’m sure will grow of things that is better to change with the engine out then down the line. That Includes: Clutch, flywheel, slave cylinder, plenum spacer, oil gallery gasket and valve cover gasket.

This is all straightforward soo far but I’m not sure which way I want to go with the car engine wise be it NA, Turbo..Sc. I need the car to be a daily and not gonna put more money into it then a brand new Cayman. At first I thought turbo for sure 450whp seemed like a reasonable power output but then a SC kit should be able to get me there and also should be more reliable then turbo.

BUT one of my mates bought an M5 E60 now that thing doesn’t have to be going fast to fall in love with that NA sound… its just brutal.

So through more research in here I found out about the VQ35HR… now that just made everything more complicated cause I’m really not sure if its a good ideea to buy one well looked after and then tear it down which I planned on doing. But that being said the car I learned its a better platform and would be better for an NA build.

While I found out a lot of information and a lot of bits and bobs that I have to add together to get a full image I’m still left without something more concrete.

I decided that I will leave that dilema for the future since car will be done over 1-2 years but with the engine out I want to know what would be best changed now for building either way…

For NA I thought I should get some tomei cams done and thats pretty much all I came up with.. turbo and SC is usually all kits but not sure if something in particular would need replacement before putting engine back.

For the NA build id be looking at making 330whp to 350whp .. would really hope to get 350, even considered itb kits tho they feel like extortion. Regarding CAI.. I know everyone says stock is best but really looking at getting one for the sound alone.. if they lose power and would restrict me from getting that 350whp I would have to drop it.

Before thinking about costs my father in law restores and repairs cars so painting and all the engine work will be carried out by us.. interior will be done by the guys that he works with so pretty much everything will be done at cost.. no labour payed except for when the car gets tuned that we need someone with a dyno and the knowhow.

Sorry for the extremely long post but I’m really excited…

Any input is appreciated

Aeneas137

I would buy a different car if I were you. after you drop 20 grand into a 350Z, then it will perform at the level of a basic Porsche or BMW which you could have bought more easily without all of the parts and labor. you might be happier with a new Z or Supra. then go from there if you want to customize.

The old 350Z is a shitty car. they are dirt cheap which is why so many people play with them. The interior is garbage. The engines are stout, I won't argue that, love the engine, but it doesn't make much power. The transmission is ****. unless you're talking a late model, in which case you might as well get a 370Z because it's overall a far better car. there is literally no reason to buy a 350Z to turn into a fully custom streetcar. just buy a better car up front and save yourself all of the headaches.

If you've got a 350Z itch to scratch, and I can relate, then buy one as good as possible, the best one that you can find, even if it costs more, do not buy a POS that needs everything like you described. do not buy a cheap POS that's been thrashed. by a low mileage survivor. but I wouldn't even waste my time doing that if I were you.

why are you jumping ship anyway? why don't you buy a Z3 or a Z4 or better yet, an E36 or E46 M3 which are so damn good that they dominate NASA and SCCA events. The reason I like my Z3 is because it's basically an E36 roadster, and it was damn cheap, and it is fun as hell! I'm waiting on a hard dog roll bar for it right now. mine is not pristine. it's a worn 2.8 that I'm going to track because it is an awesome little car.

I think the 350Z is a brilliant track or drift car but I don't think it's a very good street car. I went a route that most people don't take with mine: I replaced all of the bushings and mounts first, not the suspension, brakes, wheels, etc. it's wickedly fast on track. The limitation is me, not the car. but it's a cheap POS that I would not enjoy going on a canyon drive or a day trip in. track, yes. I don't even care if I wreck the thing. it was cheap to get into. I dropped about 10k in race stuff and it's great for that but it's a shitty car. JMHO. coming from someone who spent 2 years building one like you are thinking about doing. The end result is on any given Sunday I'm jumping in the Z3 or Cayman, not the 350Z.

M23Zet

Well my train of thought is that with the 350z will happen the same as with S15 at some point and prices will hike therefore it seemed like a good investment.

Now the other part is that I want to finally have that custom car that I want to feel like its mine.. tired of getting a remap and an intercooler and calling it a day plus I can never find the colours that I want.

3-3.5k will get me a DE or 5-6k will get me a HR. Rest of the calculations are not that bad either… 700 body kit 1k cf hood 500 for paint(remember pretty much everything is done at cost of materials). About 500 for interior retrim with alcantara. 700 for a sound system, 1k for Bride seats and Momo steering wheel. There will be other bits of course but not gonna count every penny now. Then I should get some coilovers like bc racing or apexi for 1-1.2k depending on what I choose. Then an NA engine build.. 1k cams, 700 clutch and flywheel, 300 for intake, 1k for exhaust.. and whatever else I need to get for it… idea is that around 15k will be all done including purchase of car and it will be exactly how I want it.. now I’m sure there will be other bits will get added as there’s a a few smaller stuff I didn’t add plus more might go into engine so lets call it 20k car included .. now could I get a BMW for the money? Yes… but in europe everyone and their nothers has a BMW and that just doesn’t appeal to me… plus it will again feel like any other car nothing special nothing that screams ME. Doing a car from the ground up has been my dream so that has value in itself.

Not to mention taste can’t be discussed as everyone has their own… I wouldn’t be caught dead in a BMW Z, personally think they the worst cars BMW made…really ugly. Toyota supra while not wow they have a BMW m440i in them… but they forgot about transmission so they lunch like utter crap .. plus they pissed me off asked for 1k to test drive because of “prestige of the car” they called it.. damn idiots…so I felt the need to let them know I just walked out of BMW where i test rode a bmw m4 and thats double the value of their crap *** toyota and nobody asked for any down money before test drive.

Aeneas137

you won't get a good one for those prices. those are thrashed or high mileage prices. you don't want to start with a car like that. If you browse the history of sales on BAT, that's a more accurate measure of the 350Z market for low mileage premium quality cars. a 100K 350Z will not ever go up in value. That's why they are popular track cars. mine has 90K. I just don't care if the engine goes. I'll just rebuild it. but you don't want to deal with that in a street car.

so, look for a good deal on the cleanest one you can find. Don't grab a cheap one and expect to just upgrade it yourself. it's going to need almost everything. All the little **** that wears out without warning will waste your time. start with a low mileage clean one so little things like gauges, fuel sending units, wiring harnesses, seat pressure sensors, etc. hey, you work at a shop, so I'm preaching to the choir. you already know this.

I have a 2003 track edition for sale, already stripped some of the interior but in good condition with brembos. still sitting on jack stands in my garage for the past year because I had a change of plans. just going to put the suspension and brakes back on it and get rid of it. I put all of my attention on the '04 instead. If you're on the west coast.

M23Zet

I’m not in the states unfortunately ..wish I was tho. Car scene seems to be way bigger over there. Prices I was talking about are for London and recently there was a 2004 350z at Copart with no damage just a used car no category 61k miles and it went for 2500£ so with a bit of patience and shopping around a HR can be had for around 5-6k here seen quiet a few to be fair.. they go quick but they pop up.

Thing is not sure if I should go for the DE or HR.. lately I’m kinda drifting towards staying NA.. but doing as much as I can to up the power a bit which I’m aware is not gonna be huge unless money starts falling from the sky.. all the usual wear and tear stuff that includes gaskets..lines etc will be changed regardless if needed or not as I want a “like new” end result. This will be my dream..my show car and every detail will have to be on point. Not really worried whether engine fails or not..1k gets me another one but I’d really like to think I’ve done everything in my power not to happen. I drive fairly aggressive and will happily entertain any red light challenge going turbo I think will just complicate things too much. Might get more into track days but I really don’t wanna have a dedicated build for that without interior trims and other crap..

Aeneas137

seems like good prices there although currency value is plus 50% over USD (Good for Brits, bad for us). And that will only get worse as long as there are still spendy boomers running the show, printing magic money.
The market is very different there from what I've seen on YT. it looks like a lot more of the cars there have rust damage. assume salted roads there are similar to Midwest/ne regions in the US.
there are also very different smog laws. And I don't think you'll be able to ship stuff from here easily from CZP, Z1, etc. there are companies that will transition ship for you for a fee. That's cheaper than paying direct shipping costs so you may want to look into that when you start buying parts.
Good luck! looking forward to seeing what you pick up.

Heel Til I Die

iTrader: (2)

First, you need to define your goals for the Z. It sounds like you want it to be mostly street with a few track days. Just to drop a harsh reality check since you mentioned HP numbers, you will NOT break 300hp at the wheels staying N/A unless you get really aggressive with it basically making it no longer a street car.

Second, if you're after high HP numbers, then you need to go FI. With that in mind, the DE has MUCH more aftermarket FI support than the HR. Arguably, it's the better engine to "build." You can obviously still boost an HR, but your options are more limited. You're going to gain more HP per dollar (or GBP, in your case) going FI as opposed to staying NA. You can still go FI and keep it a perfectly fine street-driven car as long as you don't go wild with boost.

If you're buying a cheap Z, it's probably going to need a lot of boring maintenance costs which is going to add up. It's probably better to get a better cared for Z unless you're planning on completely gutting it to turn it into a dedicated track/drift car.

Just my 0.016 pound sterling.

M23Zet

I keep hearing this and its not my aim to disagree with this but I’m genuinely curious what is everyone talking about more precisely as I have yet to fail in finding the parts needed either for DE or HR build. Is there certain things that are hard to come by?

Plus more HP per GBP I can agree but if I have to spend 15k for whatever horses going FI or 5k for about 50hp NA I would just stay NA. Seeing how I like the instant power delivery compared to turbo.

Regarding maintenance I plan to replace most of them regarding if needed or not just to be safe..plus this days you can’t know how a car has been maintained.. people will have all the stamps and the dealer will still take the **** or it will be uncared for other then oil maintenance.. or on the other side.. there’s people that will clean and take the most pride of how a car will look but the engine will be covered in dirt. I see this as part of the luck and little knowledge.

Heel Til I Die

iTrader: (2)

No worries. You keep hearing and seeing this because there are more supercharger/turbo kits which are compatible for the DE as opposed to the HR. Yes - there are FI options for both, but there are more options for the DE - hence, more support, more parts, etc.

Again - you are not going to see 50hp gains at the wheels with all possible NA modifications. You might break the 300 mark staying NA with an over-sized intake (3.5" or bigger), bigger TB, modified plenum/plenum spacer, aggressive cams, headers, test pipes, and full exhaust. You're looking at about $5,000+ (4,000+ GBP) for what will likely amount to about 280-290 whp.

Depending on the turbo kit (and quality), you might see some lag, but likely minimal. If you want that "instant power delivery", you'd be better off with a supercharger. You might drop another couple grand over all the NA modifications I just listed, but you'll get close to 400 hp.