Using the pictures I've posted, I'm just curious which hole(s) everyone is referring to when they say they needed to re-drill it?

 

It's the piece in the first two pics you posted. Those two holes that are side by side are the culprits. You don't have to re-drill them, per say. We just took a small, heavy duty file and widened out both holes a tiny bit. The holes are either too close together or too far apart (I don't recall which), so you need to widen them a little. It's only a very small amount, though, and isn't as bad as it might sound. I wish I had had a camera during my install so I could've taken some before and after shots of the bracket.

Plus, many people have *not* had the fitment problem. It seems to be randomly hit and miss. Perhaps if everyone who owns one posted their results and the production date of their car we could figure out if maybe Nissan very slightly changed the spacing of those holes on the frame by 1mm or so. That would explain why the issue doesn't affect everyone.

 

Dude, what planet are you from? To quote WARD'S AutoWorld March 2005 p42 "The well-known VQ 3.5L DOHC V6 ... with the same turbine-like characteristics and peerless noise, vibration and harshness that have made it a benchmark for a decade."

Now if you f*** up the balance with light weight flywheels and underdrive pulleys with no harmonic balancer then I'm sure you can turn a silk purse into a sows ear. Flame ON!

 

wow, straying a bit off topic here.........
let's bring it back in guys....

by the way you don't mess any balance up by changing to a lighter flywheel or pulley on the VQ......

 

When I turn my car off or push the clutch in at a drivethrough or something I hear something slapping around (I think my stock intake pipe or plenum hits the strut bar), will this help?

Is this common with Z's or should I take it in for warranty?

 

^ i dont have any such noise... but im thinking your just hearing the load being taken off the tranny when you disengage the clutch (i only hear this sound when i pop it into neutral out of 1st gear)

 

Yeah, I read reviews like that I wonder what planet *they* are on. Every single 350Z I've ever driven, all of them, have rough engines. I mean heck, just feel how much that shifter vibrates! All my previous cars felt completely silky smooth compared to this thing. Even friends of mine who drive my car or test drive brand new Zs at a dealer say the same thing to me afterwards. I don't, maybe I'm just more sensitive to it. Or maybe the people writing these reviews are used to driving big rigs or something. Or maybe the 10 or so different Zs I've driven just all happened to be exceptions to the otherwise "smooth" VQ35-based cars.

And think of it this way: if the VQ35 is so silky smooth, why did Nissan put such incredibly soft, gushy engine and tranny mounts in it? The only thing super soft engine mounts do is suck up engine vibration, but if the thing is supposed to be super smooth why would they need that? Now, I'm not complaining about the engine vibrations here. I can live with them. I'm complaining about the super soft engine mounts and all the negative effects they have in a sports car.

 

Thanks jreiter. I'm installing mine tomorrow & I'll post pics afterwords.

 

Good to hear! It's a bit of a pain to install, but you'll love the results.

 

When I first saw the engine dampener I thought it was a replacement for the Y brace which connects the exhaust pipes to the transmission. This is where the vibration in the transmission comes from. On long straights when going from 5th to sixth at 6000 rpm the vibration is so intense it goes into my shoulder. Others have noticed this too. I've tried rubber bushings on the bolts holding the brace to the pipes but they didn't help much. Didn't burn though!
The VQ35 engine is probably very smooth but until someone offers a fix, like a set of dampeners in place of the brace, a lot of vibration will get into the cabin. Also, I'd like to know what problem Nissan was addressing by using this brace. I'm hesitant to take it off entirely.

 

Just to let you all know, we have gotten our latest shipment in of the engine dampers, but they are moving fast again.

 

Okay, just got my engine dampener installed & yes it's definitely a pain to get in. Takes about an hour depending on your level of experience. Location was pretty tight. You basically have to make room by taking out your coolant bottle. Also, it seems like Stillen fixed those holes since I didn't have to modify them on mine. Initially, I didn't feel too much of a difference. I did, however, feel that shifting was a bit easier during hard driving. Still have to ride on it for a while to give my full impression. Here's some pics installed.

 

mine not that bad.....I got small hands

If you really want to see the diffrence it makes REV with the hood up before install......unless you have a friend that can REV it up for you.... then look at it after.... I noticed a big diffrence in engine movement...... and its smooth now..... not bad for 118 US DOLLARS

 

Did you notice a bit more vibration in the cabin after you put yours on? The engine doesn't shake around like it use to but I now notice that it does cause a bit of vibration in the cabin. The vibration is very minor though & not so obtrusive (at least, IMO). Just something I noticed when trying to compare to how it was prior to the install.

 

yeah my interior started to vibrate more... but my gas pedel seems to vibrate at around ~2800-3000rpm... ? anyone else get that?

 

Around 4k miles ago, I put the Kinetix hi-flow cat's on and there was no where to attach the transmission brace to them as with the oem's. So, I left it off and soon thereafter noticed that the awful vibration that used to about make my hand go numb on the shifter was no longer a problem! Virtually eliminated the shifter vibration problem.

However now, some 4k miles later, the wire-mesh covered flex-joints in the Nismo cat-back exhaust pipes are making racket at idle. The other day I sprayed them with dry graphite and it helped but did not stop it. It looks like I'm going to have to have a shop fabricate some mounting points on the Kinetix cat's so I can reinstall the transmission brace as much as I don't want to : (

If mounting points can't be welded to the cat's then I guess some sort of a band clamp might could be made to work to connect the cat's to the brace.

Once that little dillema's corrected, I thought about putting a thin but dense rubber pad between the brace & tranny, followed by rubber washers on the bolts (otherwise they'll transmit the vibration right past the pad) to see if that might noticeably reduce the vibration while putting it back the way it was designed to keep it from tearing up the flex joints in the exhaust. Which must be why Nissan put that transmission brace on there to begin with . . .

 

PS- Going to ask Kinetix about this too. No mention was made as to what to do about the trans. brace, and there's no mounting points on the Kinetix cat's to bolt the brace to.

 

Umm...Not to be rude but how does your issue with the Kinetix HF Cats be related to the topic of an engine dampener? Or am I missing something???

 

Aw go ahead GTNPU Z. . . Be rude! I don't care! (Just kidding!)

Yeah, I guess you did miss something (but I'll forgive you) as in the previous post, listed below, also in reference to engine vibration:

When I first saw the engine dampener I thought it was a replacement for the Y brace which connects the exhaust pipes to the transmission. This is where the vibration in the transmission comes from. On long straights when going from 5th to sixth at 6000 rpm the vibration is so intense it goes into my shoulder. Others have noticed this too. I've tried rubber bushings on the bolts holding the brace to the pipes but they didn't help much. Didn't burn though!
The VQ35 engine is probably very smooth but until someone offers a fix, like a set of dampeners in place of the brace, a lot of vibration will get into the cabin. Also, I'd like to know what problem Nissan was addressing by using this brace. I'm hesitant to take it off entirely.

 

Just installed the Stillen dampener today. It was a pretty tight fit trying to get things aligned and in place with the limited space and all the hoses. Took me about 3 hours going at a slow pace including a trip to buy an 8mm hex wrench. No modification to the bracket was necessary.

Yes it was probably a more difficult install compared to other dampeners, but I think Stillen made a good choice on the overall install, especially the bracket locations and resulting angle of the dampener, both very well thought out and effective. I definitely noticed smoother shifting after the install, and the problem I had with my cats rubbing on the underbody while in reverse went away. Overall I'm happy with it and would do this mod again for sure.