reallyredZ

The fact that GMP is closed on most saturdays really hampers me from going there alot. I'll have to go back there this Friday and see what they got. Thanks for nudging them!

Morris

iTrader: (1)

reallyredZ,

A several of us from Charlotte are meeting some guys from Raleigh at Hooters in Greensboro next Saturday. You should join us. There is a thread with details.

mcduck

Well, I am now without Z... dropped it off a few hours ago to begin the "transformation"!!!

I should have it back no later than end of day Thursday. I'll probably drive it around a bit and collect a few new pictures before posting my impressions.

Also, the installer is going to work with the shop I normally go to for dynos, so I should have some dynos to post after all the mods are in.

Now... all... I... have... to... do... is... be....... patient...

zxsaint

Did you get a baseline dyno?

mcduck

Several months ago... SAE corrected. Also got a dyno at the same shop with only the Borla exhaust.

Same shop, same tech, and numbers SAE corrected. The shop does tuning on a regular basis for NASCAR teams, so I know the dyno is sound.

my best base number was 228rwhp
my best Borla only number was 245rwhp

my new number = ????

I'm being realistic and hoping for 285ish... could be more, but I doubt it will be less!

mcduck

Work is progressing on schedule for my engine mods...

Arrived at the shop today to find most of the top of my motor lying on the floor....

mcduck

... leaving a lot of space under the hood to work...

mcduck

The guys at Cosentino HiLines were working on the front engine cover when I arrived...

mcduck

The first parts to go in later today or first thing tomorrow will be the Nismo cams. Lobes look very similar to stock, but we all know better, don't we?

etx

Finally a good shot of the cams. Do you have the spec card for the cams? How much did you pay? I think I am going to have crane make me some super agressive custom cams. Probably get more power and cost less than the nismos.

mcduck

The Nismo cams are 10.2mm lift... an increase of 1mm over stock

The only duration I can find is 262. I don't know if this is Exhaust or Intake or both, but I suspect it is both.

This puts it on par with the mid-tier Tomei cam. If you want more aggressive, look at the top Tomei cam... I think it is a 268/272 duration design with 10.5mm lift. Expect it to be a cold natured beast and a little lopey with these specs, tho.

mcduck

Well, we fell a little behind on the project do to some minor roadblocks... not with the work itself or skill of the installers, but with the resources available. Basically, the install of the new parts has had two interruptions to wait for various minor parts.

At this time, it is looking doubtful that I will have my car back before the end of the day tomorrow, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed because after that I am out of town for a week and would not see the results until Oct 27th.

The guys doing the work are supposed to have final tuning done by Nissan and dynos done prior to returning it to me, so I should have some figures to post when I get it back as well.

So... hold on a few more days for pics, impressions, and dynos...

rouxeny

Nice, I can't wait for the update.

That's a big gain just from the Borla exhaust.

mcduck

Yeah... it was above average, but the overall number on the DynoJet was around 245, which is where others were that were baselineing around 235. Makes me wonder if my factory exhaust was "clogged" or had some other issue causing it to under perform.

Still, the new numbers will be interesting to see and even more interesting to drive!

reallyredZ

Bump. I was going to stop by today, but never got the chance. Is their main office open on Saturdays? I know their satillite office is sometimes open.

mcduck

The work is not being done by GMP. It's being done by Cosentino HiLines. Some of the parts were purchased at GMP.

To answer your question, I don't think either place is normally open on Saturdays.

mcduck

Okay... the mods are almost done... We fired it up tonight and car idled with no adjustments to rpm at idle or timing. not saying these adjustments won't help, they just don't appear to be absolutely necessary for the car to run.

We did not drive it because we identified an oil leak from one of the rocker/valve covers. Pretty minimal problem considering the extent of work done and one that will easily be rectified tomorrow.

There are still one or two more items that must be finished before I can dyno and I will be out of town for most of next week... which will also means no updates for a while

Will be trying for some pictures before the weekend is over...

mcduck

Well, I just flew back in from my work trip. Having been gone a week, I decided to stay home on Friday rather than go out. To celebrate my lack of social initiative, I offer more info about what's been going on with my car!

As I understand it from Mark at Cosentino HiLines, the work is done and the car is pulling like crazy now! He had some very favorable words to say about the mods... and since he has driven my car both before and after, I have to respect his opinion.

However, I have no opinion of my own yet since I have not picked the car up yet. Will try to get it tomorrow... if not, it will be Monday. Pics of the new engine compartment will quickly follow and I will post some impressions of the performance gains. Hopefully I will be able to work some dyno runs in prior to leaving town again next weekend.

Anyway... on with the show. Following is a short report and pics of the parts that were installed...

mcduck

First up, we have Borla Headers. I already had Borla TD Exhaust.

The headers were a big PITA to install. First, for some reason the bolt holes weren't perfectly aligned. The guys at Cosentino showed me where they were not fitting and eventually had to grind out the mounting holes (bolts only. The actual ports were fine). Not sure if this is a normal problem or if I got some wacky set of headers.

Aside from that, the fit of the headers themselves is pretty good. However, the designers did not take into account other items that bolt on around the headers. As I had more than just header work going on, we quickly found out that other parts were more difficult to work on with the Borla Headers than with stock exhaust manifolds.

Word to the wise... if you are planning to internal at the same time the headers go on, do all the topend work first and save the header/exhaust work for last.

We were also going to do some creative things to get around the cats, but that didn't pan out for now. So, I'll probably going back to Crawford Z for some hi-flo cats pretty soon.

mcduck

Of course, the heart and soul of this upgrade consisted of two big things. We'll get to the Crawford plenum in a moment. First, we had the Nismo cams.

For these, you basically disassemble the entire top half of the motor. The guys basically followed the service manual instructions on this part of the project and discovered a few shortcuts along the way. The cam install was pretty trouble free, but very tedious... the 10 hour install someone else quoted is way too optimistic. To do it right, plan for somewhere between 16 and 20hrs.

The best part about installing the cams is that my car fired right up on the first turn of the ignition after the install. We have not reset the timing or upped the idle and the car seems to run fine. There might be some slight performance advantages to making adjustments, but they are not required for the car to run and run well!