I've been part of this forum for years, on my 3rd 350z. Figured since everyone else had their own build thread I didn't want to be left out

The first post I put up my current build specs, which includes everything that came on the car when I purchased it, minus a few things I have removed. You'l notice the Plenum Spacer mentioned, not STU legal, should be removed before the first event.





Setup List maintained at http://www.project350z.com/Car-Setup

Vehicle
Year: 2003
Make: Nissan
Model: 350z
Package: Touring

Front Suspension
Shocks: ISC threaded-body front shocks. Single-adjustable damping at top of shock, Independently preload-adjustable and height-adjustable. *
Front Springs: ISC, 14k rate (784#) *
Upper mounts: ISC pillowball, aluminum *
Upper control arms: Kinetix, modified by Level Motorsports to optimize camber adjustment *
Sway Bar: Hotchkis 3-way adjustable, urethane bushings *

Rear Suspension
Shocks: ISC, single-adjustable damping, threaded body for length adjustment. *
Shock mounts: ISC pillowball, aluminum *
Rear Sway Bar: currently removed *
Rear Springs: 2.5" id Hyperco, 600# rate *
Rear Spring Perches: Megan Racing threaded collar adjustable *

Engine/Exhaust/Drivetrain
The car came with an intake spacer, this will be removed before the Dixie Tour in Georgia, March 2016.

Intake: Jim Wolf cold air induction, shielded *
Exhaust: Invidia Gemini, quad tips (added by P/O) *
Battery: Deka 16# (?) *
Differential: Tomei 1.5 way locking unit, 85% lock *
Intake Spacer: Unknown brand, not class legal, (Removed March 2016) *

Wheels/Tires/Brakes
Front Brakes: Hawk HP Plus pads *
Rear Brakes: factory type pads *
Wheels: XXR 531 *
Tires: 275/35R18 Bridgestone RE-71R *

Interior
The interior is the Frost interior, originally with the leather,heated,electric seats. The Bose stereo components are mostly removed (AMP, sub, microphone).

Head unit: Pioneer Bluetooth XM-capable double-din touchscreen head unit w/iPod connection *
Shift ****: Tomei composite *
Shift boot: Alcantara one from eBay *
Glass Tint: medium (approx 35%) *
Seats: NRG FRP-310 (added February 2016)

* - Anything with an asterisk came on the car when I purchased it in November 2015

 

NRG FRP-310 Seat Install original post -> (http://www.project350z.com/Articles/...350z-new-seats)

This weekend I spent some quality time finally working on the 350z before the upcoming autocross season (Dixie Champ Tour is coming up quickly).



In prep for STU I want to see what kind of weight I can get out of the car, I really don’t know if this car (2003 Touring) can come anywhere close to what my first one (2003 Enthusiast, 3075lbs) weighed, or even the second one (2004 enthusiast, 3062). I have yet to get it up on the scales, but I assume going into this that the car is heaver than both of them. The power, heated, leather seats that came with the car, along with the potential extra stereo equipment, and electronics for the VDC mean the car likely weighs a good bit heaver than the previous cars.



A week or two ago I headed out to Solo Performance to try on a few different seats. I wanted something that would drop weight, and add some rigidity and support. SPS has quite the selection of seats, and had an NRG Innovations FRP-310, which is their medium, fixed back seat. I’m 6’4” and weight 250lbs (working on dropping that weight as well), and I actually fit semi-comfortably in this seat. I chose to go with the NRG Innovations FRP-300 instead however, this seat is the Large version of the one that SPS had in the shop.

We weighed the seats, along with a mount, on the SPS shipping scale and were shocked at what we found, the scale read what we thought was 9 pounds for the sat and 4 pounds for the mount. Dave at SPS also ordered me a set of BuddyClub Racing Spec Super Low Seat Rail Kit Nissan 350Z/G35 03-09 to mount the seats into the car. All the parts arrived early last week, so I headed over to the shop on Sunday to work on removing the old seats, and putting in the new ones.

SeatsinBagsIt is good to have a friend in the business, while I could have installed the seats in my own garage, having others around while working on the car and watching various other work get done on customer vehicles is motivating.



Installation of the seats is fairly straightforward, but it did take me far longer than I expected. The main problem I ran into is that, at 6’4”, I needed to have the seats in the lowest position possible when mounting them (driver’s side all 4 corners on the lowest setting, passenger side 3 of the four, due to a hump in the passenger floorboard at the tunnel). Getting the seats onto the Buddy Club rails at the lowest position, was easy to do when I didn’t tighten everything down, and test fitted the installation, but as soon as I tried to tighten everything down I pretty much had to try it multiple times to get things lined up correctly so that the rails didn’t hit the bottom of the seats, and the holes in the rails lined up with the bolt holes in the floor.

Even with all the test fitting I did, after getting them mounted in I find that the sliders are binding up. Fortunately I can mover the driver’s seat enough to make myself confortable, but anyone shorter is going to have troubles, so hopefully I can work out the binding issues down the road.

350z Seat Weight
When I got the seats and rails mounted, I decided to weight them, I was shocked at what I found, 11lbs. I then put the stock seats on the scale, and they weighed in at 19lbs. This was going to be a problem, in SCCA Autocross, STU class, you can replace the seats, but if you do, the replacement must weight 25 lbs. What advantage would I have of replacing my 19lb seat, with a 25lb seat, is the “grip” worth the extra 6 pounds. The more I thought about it, the more something had to be wrong with the scale. There’s no way the stock seats only weighed 19 lbs. So off to grab a 25lb plate Dave had around the shop for help in corner weighting and alignment. I threw that on the scale, and boom, 11lbs. Wait, what? Quick check of the scale’s display and we realized that the scale was in kilograms.

So how much did they weight? Well, the stock seats weighed in passenger 43.5lbs and driver 44.85 lbs , the NRG FRP-310s with Buddy Club rails, weight in at 24.45lbs (passenger) and 25lbs (driver).

Weight
OEM Touring Leather 45lbs
NRG FRP-310 w/ Buddy Club Brackets 25lbs



NRG FRP-310 WeightTo get the passenger seat legal, I stuck 1/2 pound of lead wheel weights on the bottom of the seat. After reviewing the pictures I took, I saw that when I weighed the Passenger Side seat, I didn’t have the slider arm on it, that might have made up for my weight difference.

How do they fit? Well, they fit the driver great, while they aren’t all that comfortable for ingress/egress of the vehicle, when sitting in them they are amazing, I don’t plan to do long road trips in them (hello trailer, soon) I think I could drive to/from Kansas City for an autocross in relative comfort.

Door Panels
The ONLY problem with the seats, the large (didn’t test the medium size) is a little too wide up top for the stock door panels on the 350z. The doors press against them when they close, and due to the styrofoam body of the panels, they now have indentions in them from the doors pressing against the seats. I figured I have two options, 1) shave the seats down, removing the cover to file them or 2) leave them as is and not care about the door panels. I’m going with option 2 for now, the car has a specific purpose, and that is to autocross, if I ever get annoyed by the indentions/damage to the panels perhaps I can find panels to replace them.

Seat Height
NRG FRP-310 Seat installed in 350zThe one thing I didn’t test, is how the seats will do with a helmet on. I have a feeling I will likely rub a little bit on the top, but if necessary, I can always pull the padding from the bottom of the seat (and be sure to add weight) to drop down an inch or two in the seat while autocrossing. With times for autocross being fairly short, sitting without padding for those periods shouldn’t be a huge deal.





Check out some of the installation photos with close up shots of the various weights of the seats.

 

Your upper control arms are likely not legal, and I'm pretty sure your pillow ball mounts are also illegal.

 

Good points, I'll dig in this weekend and verify things. I don't know that I'll get them replaced before Dixie, but will definitely put them on the list of replacements.

@Mike, any chance I can buy my old arms back?

 

BP won Nationals STU running Kinetix A-arms. They are legal. (At least the ones sold in the last few years are)

Not sure about those particular pillow ball mounts. FWIW, I won't be protesting them either way, and I would be surprised if anyone else did at Dixie.

 

I don't know when the arms were purchased, so I'll go in and take them off to check the bushing composition. I've been through this part before with the BSP car, the stock arms with Delrin might not be a bad approach again, though they were loud as F* driving around down.

 

I don't know if the newer ball joints fit on the old arms, but you can get the newer ball joints separately.

 

Were the balljoints the problem on the Kinetix arms, or was it the metal content (%) in the bushings?

 

I thought it was the ball joint. (That's what Kinetix changed anyway) The inners are standard eurthane bushings. (And a lot of eurthane at that)

 

Good to know, I might have been thinking of a different brand of arms being an issue. I had SPC's I believe for the BSP car but never used them because there was no way they were legal.

 

Those upper mounts are legal. Those types of top-mounts are very common in STS/STR miatas.

 

Anyone know what the difference was between the old/new kinetix arms?

Working on the car today I believe I have this setup:

The ones with the black ball joints, as opposed to this setup:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kinetix-Camb...-/380531951644

with the red ball joints

 

Its just a change of dust boot color, I bought a spare a year ago and it was red, the original was black. The internal bearing however was the same.

 

That's an even newer change. I bought mine after BP won nationals on Kinetix A-arms and got the black dust cover ball joints.

-never seen the red ones.

 

It was a good weekend on the 350z, I made progress on pretty much everything I needed/wanted to do to start the 2016 season, with only the corner balance and wheel alignment remaining. Those are scheduled for Monday at Solo Performance.

Here’s a run down of what I was able to accomplish this weekend:

Oil/Filter Change
Plenum Spacer Removel
Upper and Lower intake manifold cleaning
Lower engine splash guard installed
Passenger front fender liner replaced
Replaced bolts for strut tower brace
PlastiDip’d strut tower brace
Replaced missing plastic clips all around the front end, top and bottom
When I removed the upper intake, to remove the Plenum spacer I found that the inside was a disgusting mess. I sprayed it with some carb cleaner before seeing “not recommended on fuel injected vehicles” on the can, so I headed off to pick up some throttle body/intake cleaner. Ideally I would have taken the entire lower manifold off and cleaned it, but I didn’t have the lower gasket and after spending all day on the car I was anxious to finish up for the evening. I cleaned it up, but it still could be better (See photos below). After getting it all back together, I wasn’t able to start the car, initially it started and ran for a moment, but after that it wouldn’t fire.

I went to bed dejected, worried I had done something to damage the car. While laying in bed I started to question if I had reconnected the throttle body, so first thing in the morning when I awoke I went out to the garage to check, and sure enough, I hadn’t fully connected the throttle body. I connected that up, and later in the morning after grabbing the keys I was able to start the car up without any problems.

In addition to the work on the 2003 350z, I also spent a bit of time working on a friend’s 2014 Corvette Stingray. He’s had it for 2 years now, with just over 6k miles on it, and after the brakes get warmed up it has a pretty annoying squeal/squeak that happens during low speed stops. He’s had the service bulletin for ‘14s done but that didn’t help with the brake noise, so I have the car for a week or two to try and correct it. After being able to reproduce the problem, I determined that it appeared to be coming from the rear of the car. I took the rear pads off, applied some anti-squeal to the back of the pads and then drove it 100 miles this weekend around town, so far it appears that the problem has been resolved, but I’ll drive it a few more times before he returns to see if it is truly fixed.


Pictures over on: http://www.project350z.com/Articles/...ss-on-the-350z

 

Car weighted 3099 today with a 2-3 gallons of gas.

Will replace the exhaust in the next few months and see what else we can drop off.

 

Looking good!

This reminds me, I need to take off my plenum spacer before Dixie too. Got the replacement bolts the other day, should be an easy job, correct?

Do you have any plans for a tune?

 

Very easy, but I would recommend getting both the upper gasket, and lower gasket, that way you can take off the lower portion of the intake and clean it OFF the car, I did it on the car because I didn't get the lower gasket.

I also picked up a new in/lbs torque wrench as I didn't have one, recommended there as apparently those bolts are easy to break off.

 

<p>So it has been a while since I’ve had the time to get a blog post up here, so let’s get started.</p>
<p>After the last post, the car was almost ready for the Dixie National tour, held in Cecil Georgia, but there was some final prep to do. I took the car down to Solo Performance to corner weight and align the thing, with good results. </p>
<p><a title="#350z #autocross #balance #weight # alignment" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/24969652024/in/dateposted-public/" data-flickr-embed="true"><img style="float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto" alt="#350z #autocross #balance #weight # alignment" src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1621/24969652024_924a29b86a.jpg" width="500" height="500"></a></p>
<h3 align="center">Alignment Specs:</h3>
<p align="center">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="500" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="166">Total Weight (empty / driver)</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">3099lbs</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">3351lbs</td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="166">Front Camber (LF / RF)</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">-3.5</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">-3.7</td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="166">Front Toe (LF /&nbsp; RF)</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">-1/32”</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">-1/16”</td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="166">Rear Camber</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">-2.9</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">-2.7</td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="166">Rear Toe</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">5/32”</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">5/32”</td></tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="166">&nbsp;</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">&nbsp;</td>
<td valign="top" width="166">&nbsp;</td></tr></tbody></table></p>
<p align="center">Total empty weight was with all loose items removed (spare tire, tools, carpeting). Total weight with driver using additional weight to mimic driver.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>St. Louis Region Test &amp; Tune</h3>
<p>The corner weight/alignment was completed just in time for the St. Louis region’s impromptu Test &amp; Tune. The weather didn’t pan out well, cold and wet, but the region did a great job of throwing together a last minute T&amp;T at Gateway Motorsports Park on March 13th.&nbsp; Due to the weather, not much was done in terms of actually testing and tuning, I used the event as a driver shakedown to try to get the winter rust out of my head, I also used it as a trial test of towing the car behind the 2008 Tahoe. </p>
<h3>Dixie National Tour</h3>
<p>For the Dixie National Tour, Natalie and I towed the car down to Georgia (<a href="http://izzyscustomcages.com/" target="_blank">thanks to Izzy’s for the trailer</a>). We went down a couple of days early to spend a day with one of my bosses hiking through <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154059936489703&amp;set=a.230948829702.1686 53.685999702&amp;type=3&amp;permPage=1" target="_blank">beautiful Amicalola Falls State Park</a>. After the hike and staying a night in the cabin, we headed down through Atlanta. I don’t know if I have ever had a good time driving through Atlanta, and this trip was probably the worst in terms of our experiences. Waze took us through downtown, getting off the highway, to try to avoid some of the accidents on the highway, but Waze obviously didn’t know we were pulling a car on a trailer, because the route was definitely not ideal for the rig.</p>
<p>We ended up in Valdosta Georgia a day earlier then planned, which ended up making things much easier on us Friday when we got up, washed the car, and headed out to the event site, the South Georgia Motorsports Park. Friday morning we parked, unloaded the car and headed over to the practice course to try to get more of the rust off (the driver). Practice went pretty well, though it was crazy busy, so long waits between the practice runs. Brian (former car owner) ended up taking some runs as well as he was going to be co-driving with me for the Dixie Tour. After practice runs I made Natalie head out for a bicycle ride with me, it was our first time experiencing riding for your life while being chased by some very angry dogs. Other than the dogs, the ride was flat, fast and great exercise.</p>
<p><a title="Adel Georgia Bike Ride" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/25618888060/in/dateposted-public/" data-flickr-embed="true"><img style="float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto" alt="Adel Georgia Bike Ride" src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1612/25618888060_455e4e775e.jpg" width="500" height="375"></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Saturday and Sunday for the Tour went well. Saturday morning started out wet, we ran first heat, but it was drying, so there was definitely an advantage to being second driver if you had two drivers, as the surface was getting dryer/faster every additional run. At the end of Saturday runs I was sitting in second place in the 7 driver STU class. Brian was sitting in the 3rd and final trophy spot. Sunday we both drove well, all driver’s in the heat benefited from dry runs. Both of us ended up falling back, myself one position to finish third (final trophy spot) and Brian back two, to fifth for the weekend. I was pleased with the result, and happy to finally have fun in the car, I was beginning to worry I wasn’t going to enjoy autocrossing this 350z after the first two events I had done in it.</p>
<h3>Post Dixie National Tour</h3>
<p>From Dixie, the car was loaded up on the trailer and headed to Chattanooga (with Brian), while Natalie and I headed south to Orlando for a few days at a work convention. On the way back up to Chattanooga on Thursday morning to get the car, Brian sent me a txt telling me that someone had attempted to break into the car while it was sitting on the trailer at his shop. Somehow they were unsuccessful at getting in, but they did manage to bang up the driver’s door and window (about $1500-2,000 worth of damage).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Open-Live-Writer/The-2016-Autocross-Season-So-Far_137CF/image_2.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" border="0" alt="image" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Open-Live-Writer/The-2016-Autocross-Season-So-Far_137CF/image_thumb.png" width="244" height="244"></a></p>
<h3>Jack Daniel’s</h3>
<p>The drive back through Atlanta was fun again, lots of accidents and idiots, along with the fact that I had the news about the car, it wasn’t a very fun day. We picked the car up and drove up to Tullahoma to stay the night, before heading to the Jack Daniel’s distillery on Friday morning. </p>
<p><a title="Z and Tahoe in front of Jack Daniel's Distillery" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/25478119274/in/dateposted-public/" data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true"><img style="float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto" alt="Z and Tahoe in front of Jack Daniel's Distillery" src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1606/25478119274_3d45a0ae4e_z.jpg" width="640" height="427"></a></p>
<h3>St. Louis Region Event #1</h3>
<p>The first local SCCA autocross in St. Louis was held on Sunday April 3, 2016. Over all the event went okay, I won the STU class by a couple of seconds, but ended up in 7th on the overall index. Not exactly the position I was hoping for. The car drove well, I feel like I just didn’t drive it to the full extent of how it can be driven, and my position on Index showed that result.</p>
<p><a title="#350z #stance? #autocross #xxr531 #xxr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/26118221982/in/dateposted-public/" data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true"><img style="float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto" alt="#350z #stance? #autocross #xxr531 #xxr" src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1599/26118221982_11d283c294.jpg" width="500" height="500"></a></p>
<h3>Local Event #2</h3>
<p>Event #2 of the St. Louis 2016 series was held this past Sunday at the Family Arena in St. Charles. Once again, I finished on top in the STU class, but this time in 8th overall on Index. Again, there was more in the car, though I don’t know if there was a full 1.2 seconds more, which is what I would have needed to move in front of the STF index winner.</p>
<p><a title="Project350z St. Louis Region Event #2 2016" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/25889693624/in/dateposted-public/" data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true"><img style="float: none; margin-left: auto; display: block; margin-right: auto" alt="Project350z St. Louis Region Event #2 2016" src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1465/25889693624_bc6c57ccd1_z.jpg" width="640" height="427"></a></p>
<h3>Tire Pressures and Shock Settings</h3>
<p>My current tire pressures I’ve been running on the RE-71Rs is 31F/29R</p>
<p>Front Shocks at 9 clicks</p>
<p>Rear shocks at 1 full rotation (can’t get the darn clicks working on the back)</p>
<h3>Trying out SoloStorm</h3>
<p>One thing I will be doing this year is trying to improve my driving. I find that overall my instincts are “pretty” good as to where I can go fast, and where I can’t, my gut gets me pretty far. But I honestly don’t think it gets me far enough. I have a hard time “improving” on autocross runs typically, meaning I’ll go out and put down a pretty quick time, but not improve much over the next 2 runs (more if local events), which means I am oftentimes not getting all that I should be out of the car, or myself. I am going to try to improve my driving through the use of technology, and the hot tool right now for that in Autocross is an Android app called <a href="http://www.petreldata.com/product/solostorm-gps-obd-ii-and-video-logger-for-android-v2-2/" target="_blank">SoloStorm</a>, from <a href="http://www.petreldata.com/" target="_blank">petreldata.com</a>. </p>
<p>With SoloStorm you can analyze the data from your runs quickly from an Android tablet inside of your car. In the past I’ve tried to look at data from the DL-1, on a laptop, between runs, but it was clunky and not easy enough to do that quickly. With SoloStorm you are able to look at runs, segments, and compare where you are faster or slower, this can be extremely useful when you have two drivers as you can compare your run to the other driver to see where you can each improve.</p>
<p>I haven’t used it just yet, I did try to get it working with my old-*** RaceTechnology DL-1, but wasn’t able to get the Tablet (Nexus 7 2013) and the DL-1 talking properly while on the parking lot at the Family Arena. I’m hoping to have the Bluetooth GPS&nbsp; hardware before my next event (<a href="http://www.gatewayautox.com">www.gatewayautox.com</a>) so look for more posts on SoloStorm in the coming weeks and months.</p>
<h3>What’s Next?</h3>
<p>Next weekend (April 30, May 1st) I’ll be at the Grissom Classic in Peru Indiana, and the following weekend I’ll be at the Wilmington ProSolo. See you out at an event!</p>

 

The Great Tire Shortage of 2016 sucks.....

Have 285 30 18 RE71Rs on order. Went to try to order 275 35 18s and they have an expected delivery date 1 month later than the 285s!