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Everything VQ is doing really good … last month or so I have broke new ground and I am introducing a line of my own CNC’d parts. I’ve been design (mostly in Fusion) a line of oil pan spacers, oil pans, plenum spacers, engine mounts, stainless steel header and exhaust flanges - its about $14k worth of parts so I’ve been trying to pick-up sidework. Further, I have three intakes that I have designed and fabricated. I am trying to find a near stock DE to do some dyno testing to see which performs best. Along with some planning for a dyno shootout of different intakes.
I have been doing some fabrication work for a few local guys on their turbo kits to fix some issues. Did a G37coupe rear-mount cold side Unknown Performance kit fix and working on a 370z BP kit header install, boost leak, boost control solenoid issue - more or less to fund the CNC adventures.
I would miss everything I’ve done on the car so I am gonna do major updates and I will come back and fill out details
Sold the haltech piggyback and put the hammy-down G4+ in the g35, rookie / tuning 101 mistakes, humbling moments on the link forum, cleaned up the engine bay harness
New windsheild & rear glass - I lost my rear glass however long ago and have been trying to find a replacment that wasnt stupid-over-priced. I finally broke down and just decided to go to a salvage yard and cut one out of a totaled g35 … Luckily there were two chassis there as we broke/shattered the first attempt. Bought some harbor freight glass removal tools and other than a little work it was pretty straight forward. I do have a windsheild company I like and they ended up putting a new windsheild in and installing the rear glass for me.
Throttle body 12volt power issues - It should be noted that I’m basically at war with the OEM IPDM … I got rather frustrated with it on the z and ripped the entire IPDM out and jumped over to Link’s Razor PDMs … Im a month or so into having them fully operational and I love them … they are awesome! Think standalone ECU but for the PDMs…but the g is another story … having issues with the TB relay to where its not supplying a constand 12volts to both the pins to the ECU, and thus the ECU cannot supply 12volts to the TB… and it finds itself in limp mode quite frequently…I have it wired now to where it by-passes the Relay and provides power anytime the car is on … not the right way to do it but PDMs are coming for this car.
transmission seal leak - got a pretty bad transmission input seal leak … so much that I really dont like driving the car bc it pisses transmission fluid on the driveway … I suspect I’m losing 1 to 2 ounces every time I take the car out … so, gotta get this fixed. Ordered everything but gotta get it done.
electronic power steering - jumping back into the electronic power steering game … one of my good buddies, who I am giving him all the reasons why I cant build him a turbo kit on his AWD g37 has given me a roadmap on how to get everything connected and up and running … so I anticipate running the volvo/FoMoCo pump in the trunk and plumbing a line to the rack and eliminating the mechanical pump.
Been driving the car around the neighborhood (pissing my neighbors off) and really enjoying it … feels good to get some seat time
AEM gauges & sensors / Link setup - All kinds of issues getting these AEM gauges installed and then plumbed to the Link … so much so, I just simply gave up and ran the sensors directly to the ECU and I am going to put a few gauges on the dash … spent a good week or so making pretty wiring harnesses, labelling everything, getting it to the Link all to have it **** out … but working now.
AEM dumb coils - had some extra cash a few months back (now) and bought 12 of AEM 3wire dumb coils … not 100% sure how where to put them but I did a test with a single AEM coil and it wired in A-ok … so, more to come!
No major progress on this but may bump things up on the priority list as I am itching to get a few track days before the end of the year … got a transmission input seal that needs to be replaced and bought the wiring to replace the TB and hopefully eliminate this throttle body wiring issue.
Im feeling it …
Got the car up in the air, turbo kit off, transmission drained, driveshaft off, etc and was able to get the transmission down … The transmission comes out easier (and reinstalls easier) if you take the front ‘W’ brace off too.
Took 5-10minutes and just inspected the front side of the transmission internals and concluded the leak was coming from the front cover gasket and not the seal … so removed the front plate, ditched the OEM gasket and used RTV … not sure how Permatex Black holds up to transmission fluid but we will find out! Gave it maybe two hours at finger tight and then torqued it down. Also replaced both fill and drain plugs … theyre simple M18x1.5 (same thread pattern/size as o2 sensor plugs) and happy to switch out the 10mm allen head for hex bolts. Will do this for the rear diff too.
Also replaced the front input seal and the rear driveshaft seal while I had it out.
Got the transmission reinstalled and it went back in relatively easy, bolted in, turbo kit reinstalled, front W brace reinstalled, etc. Still need to refill the transmission fluid but I’m happy to give the RTV the 3 or 4 days to allow it to 1000% firm-up and seal.
Pics
I was also getting weird voltage signals on the throttle body wiring so went ahead and rebuilt that line using sheilded tefzel wiring. Used three sets of wiring - two sets of 20awg for the ground, 5v sensor power supply and two sensor signals back to the ECU. One set of 16ga wire for the motor power + and power -. Then sleeved that with an additional steel braided loom and wrapped it all with DR25. Further, put a ferrite bead on both ends of the TB cable and routed it slightly away fromt he other wires coming out of the ECU. Hopefully this helps.
Ahhhhh good times … wasnt the transmission / transmission fluid …
had this god-awful moment under the car, staring at the clutch/pressure plate/fly wheel thinking ‘you could take that off and just check to make sure its not leaking’ … and didnt …
got everything buttoned back up and took the car out and sure-enough it was leaking pretty bad … pissing oil everywhere
did the dance, turbo kit off, transmission off, and not 100% convinced the fluid was coming from the engine but I did add a few ounces of ATF to the MTF and the pink’ish color has a more red’ish color and the leaking fluid was still black’ish/brown’ish … I resealed the gallery gasket access port and cleaned the back of the engine well … reinstalled the flywheel, the starter, and the crank position sensor and started the engine to build oil pressure and verify … gained enough confidence that it was the engine … plucked the engine and got the rear main seal retainer off and sure-enough the seal is broken and warped. So, I picked up a new rear main seal at infiniti of denver and went to town. Got the engine on the stand, upper/lower oil pans off, cleaned, and resealed with the new rear-main seal installed.
It’s been a few days (just been busy with life), got the engine back in the car, turbo back on, and I’m about 95% back together. Havent put oil into the engine yet but I will soon.
No further issues from the throttle body wiring - so hopefully that is solved.
I came to a breaking point with working on jack-stands/blcoks/etc and flew the idea of getting a lift installed in the side garage … I expressed some concerns about the existing concrete slab in the garage and proposed the idea of installing 2ft x 2ft caissons about 5ft deep(which is very overkill) and installing a lift. Wanted to get something full-size but the 9.5ft ceilings dont / wont really work for anything respectable. Its sorta a half solution but we’re installing a maxjax setup - it’ll take the car up to about 50” which is 10x better than what I have now. We are likely moving at some point in time and this setup will come with us and be added to a more formal shop setup.
Demo & concrete is tomorrow and lift should arrive on Friday.
I think you'll be happy (at least for now, haha) with the MaxJax. I think it's better than the QuickJack. Really, anything beats jack stands. You're right that 9.5' ceilings really limit what's available for you. I know BendPak makes a low-profile lift which can squeeze into a garage with a 9' ceiling, but you're only getting about 6" of more rise and it's obviously a more permanent solution which doesn't make sense if you plan on moving. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, lol.
There were options with other lifts that had the runner across the bottom of the floor and I didnt want that. I started going through the mental gymnastics of what would I need to do to remove the ceiling drywall and revise the roof trusses to make more room and it was a rabbithole of muck. My problem is that I want my end-all lift solution today … where, in reality, I can always buy that full size lift down the road when the time is right.
I wanted to stay with Bendpak or Rotary so this is a good compromise and they were doing a decent 4th of July Sale.
We love the house were in and its a great area but we have some rather unique neighbors that are sorta nutty …
Got the lift 100% installed - for what it’s worth - both the lift instructions and epoxy instructions said wait the full 28days to cure the concrete. I ended up waiting a little over two weeks after discussing it with my structural engineer buddies.
I am expoxying threaded rod in vs. wedge-style anchors … and it does make sense you need full compressive strength if using wedge styles anchors …
I think the same is true with epoxy - where you wouldnt want to epoxy anchors in concrete that is 3days in (say, approximately 500psi compressive strength). Concrete gains most it’s strength in it’s first week and I estimated that I had 3k to 3500psi strength when I epoxied the anchors in. There is a component that as concrete cures it does consume moisture but I was told that the moisture does subside within the first week or so. I drilled holes and they were dry, cleaned with compressed air, and brushed clean before I epoxied.
also did some nerd-work and worst case scenario, the lift arms extend ~3.5ft and can take 3500lbs (per side) which creates a 12k ft-lb moment. The epoxied anchors at 16” embedded have about a 25k lb pull-out force. So the 5 anchors have a combined pullout force of 110k ft-lb counter-moment … so its like a 9x safety factor…
In practice - picking the 2800lb z, it’s only 1.5ft from the toe of the lift. Thats around 2100ft-lb moment and at a reduced 100k ft-lb counter-moment its a 50x safety factor …
MaxJax says the posts need re-leveled past 3degrees of tilt … I have about .5degree on one and 1.5degrees on the other. I installed bubble levels to monitor the tilt.
So, so far so good…
the car is running good - no further leaks from the engine / transmission but I did forget to put PS fluid back in the PS reservoir … so refilled that, bleed-off, and good to go. Did a tiny bit of idle’ing and warm-up and drove the car and it was stupid rich (by about 20% or so) So I took fuel out of the start-up and the lower load/lower RPMs … drove it a little more and it def runs better. Got some sidework coming on with a full turbo build so I may have limited time on the g35.
Had a few discussions with the wife on purchasing a track-dedicated car (I wont let the cat out of the bag) but part of this discussion will be to take formal driving lessons and get licensed through SCCA. Registered with SCCA and got a physical lined up next week. There is a driving school in northern colorado run by Mike Pettiford and I intend to do his programs. That could start as early as late-august as I believe he will be at a track event I am looking to attend (pit crew) at High Plains Raceway.
More to come -
Also with the car down I did a compression test and for the record/archive and not so much worried about the lower than OEM pressure as I am still doing break-in on this engine but happy they are consisten with each other.
Ok ok ok ok … been loving it but I will fully admit, it’s not a full-sized but soon …
Doing a turbo kit on this car at the moment - pretty extensive build (probably around $15k when its all said & done).
Made a bracket to mount the pump to - the cart they include is junk.
Upclose
A little fab work on this AWD G37coupe … I nick-named it baby-GTR (baby bc the blue) but he is pushing 17psi and I am sure his is well into the 600hp to 700hp range. God bless the VHR. I re-made the charge pipe twice now, put a new sump box on the car and did the hot-side after the turbo to reduce rasp and lower the exhaust tone. One of my favorite customers.
Dumb pump assembly
First lift with the z
Picked up bubble levels for each side just to keep an eye on tilt - so far, so good!
Nice! HUGE quality of life improvement having a lift! Even if it's not a full-sized lift, anything beats jack stands.
100% agree and I gotta (and did) come to the realization that this wont be the last lift I own. It is 10x easier to get around the car too - so very grateful to have this setup.
The next mini-project will be to add / extend the electical socket that powers the garage door. Thinking of adding one or two more sockets in the ceiling. While I’m doing this I will expand the lighting and add a few more light receptacles away from the center of the space to help distribute light better. One step at a time.
I've got 6 LED canopy lights in my 3-bay garage and they are insanely bright. They really only work well with light distribution on higher ceilings, though. I saw HexGlow after the fact and they would distribute the light pretty evenly (added bonus, they look pretty cool, too!). Not sure how fancy you want to get, haha.
Literally havent done anything with the g35 … but the story continues
Not sure if I mentioned it but the wife wants to travel more and I suggested lets go to places that have tracks … which most of the places she wants to go, I can find a track close by…either truck & trailer a car or do an arrive & drive type of thing.
She gets a little timid around fast cars and put a stipulation that I get driving school / professional training and further get licensed … we ran through some of the major sanctioning bodies and landed on SCCA. Showed her the hoops to jump through - application, physical, driving school, race participation and she is onboard.
I have a former boss who is part of PCA and does coaching/driving for the colorado chapter and has volunteered to mentor me along. I meet with him once every 8 weeks or so and he said get a miata. Start with a NA or NB miata. Started scouring FB Market Place and Craigslist for Miatas. Of course there are a million of them out there and its not so much the price of the car but rather the space. I have the black g35, the white z, and the grey q40 sedan (along with my pickup). So I really cant bring home another car without getting rid of a car.
So - found a guy in Colorado Springs that has a relatively stock 03 350z (Performance) and he was looking to get into a g37. Mentioned this q40 and he was pretty interested - I was happy with a straight across trade (despite it being a little bit of a loss) and he loved the q40. So, we exchanged titles and now I have another z - other than some basic bolt ons its stock and I can’t and wont change that.
next step will be to take instructed driving lessons that will meet SCCA standards and a gentlemen by the name Michael Pettiford lives up north and does plenty of training at High Plains Raceway, Pueblo Motorsports Park, and La Junta Motorsports - I know of him, talked to him before, and he is very acclaimed. HPR has some open track days in early october and were going to try to squeeze in 4 or 5 days before October 12th. He said most the driving schools are 5 days but it can be shorter for individuals that have more experience. He likes to do private test & tune sessions for the first few days and is receptive to open lapping days for the 4th and 5th day if he thinks your ready.
It was very much accelearted and I’m hoping to go into the winter with my driving school requirements fulfilled and hit the ground running in spring for the required races. It’ll give me time to shake-down this new chassis, replace some of the goofy mods (loud exhaust, godspeed coilovers, non OEM lights) and put class compliant upgrades (brakes, respectable suspension, quieter exhaust, etc) on the car.
Wish I'd heard of your swap and plans earlier. As a longtime member of Colorado SCCA (CoR), there's some thoughts on getting started in either time trials or W2W racing that I can offer. As the Rocky Mountain Divisional Administrator for Tech, I can also help with getting your Z ready for competition (shops, parts, class-compliance, etc). There's also one last race at LaJunta Raceway in October you may want to go to. I can also help introduce you to the Chief Driving Instructor for CoR and get you started on the right foot. Send me a PM with your phone # and we can chat outside of this thread if you like.
Wish I'd heard of your swap and plans earlier. As a longtime member of Colorado SCCA (CoR), there's some thoughts on getting started in either time trials or W2W racing that I can offer. As the Rocky Mountain Divisional Administrator for Tech, I can also help with getting your Z ready for competition (shops, parts, class-compliance, etc). There's also one last race at LaJunta Raceway in October you may want to go to. I can also help introduce you to the Chief Driving Instructor for CoR and get you started on the right foot. Send me a PM with your phone # and we can chat outside of this thread if you like.
Definately will - still have the white z and the black g35 and will intend to track (likely) the g35. This is more of a crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you sprint. If I dont do anything but driving school in 2024 that is ok with me. Mike said there a few races that I could enter before the end of the year. Much appreciated DK - I’ll message you now.
04-01-2024, 11:36 PM
