200+ MPH 350Z build thread
07-18-2012 | 03:35 PM
#122
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 34
Likes: 1
From: St Louis Missouri
Ok Well I got a couple of 
for the GTR stories(all on track) So....
first let me say to any of the moderators, if im breaking the rules here(and I really don't know) buy posting this, a single warning and it wont be an issue.
Ok a little general info first. When this story takes place at Gateway Motorsports Park on the road course. For anybody not fimilular with Gateway, the road course is inside the Nascar oval and actually uses turns 3 and 4 of that oval, as part of the road course. The banking there I believe is 22 degrees, pretty steep, I have seen more than my fair share of engines lost on that banking, do to oil starvation. The GTR was completely stock and had about 11000 miles on it with the full factory tune on it.
The story starts: It was a warm sunny Saturday, probably in april or may, we had decided to take the now broken in GTR and test its metal on track. The first sesion was pretty normal, as he was getting the correct line on the track, figured out. Second sesion, different story, I was down in the pit watching him muscle this beast around the track. When all of a sudden the car fell off dramatically inbetween turns 3 and 4 of the oval. He imedately brought the car into the pit and it was hammering(not knocking) like crazy. I yelled for him to shut it down and lifted the hood, there was oil everywhere. After poking around for a minute with a flashlight something caught my eye down on the right side of the engine, It was part of a connecting rod sticking thru the side of the block. Oh did he Freak! We figured they weren't going to warrenty the engine because it happened on track. So after discussing it we decided to load the car up and take it back to St Louis and drop it off in a walmart parking lot. Made a call to the dealer, and told them the car died there and to please come tow it back.
So Monday comes and he get gets a call from the service manager, "Good Morning, Sir, we took a look at the GTR and would you like to tell me what really happened or would you prefer I tell you?" He was like "What do you mean". "Well lets see,When the engine let go, you were in turn 3 at gateway, it was 11 am, it was 80 degrees out, you were go a 103 mph, etc". Turns out these cars have flight recorders, HS, the entire event was recorded and they could pinpoint the location the engine failed with in like 5 feet, lol. Oh the story isnt over, oh no, At that point Nissan quarentined the car and wouldnt let anybody near it. Apparently we found out later that is was only the second one of these cars to loose an engine. Lets face it with fourms like this and the internet, Even the Manucaturers are sensitive to bad press and at 90K+ for one of these cars new, it would be a hard sell. So Nissan flew several engineer's over from Japan to study why this engine failed, according to the dealer they went back and redesigned the windage tray and oil pan to prevent this from happening on the 2011 models.
In the end Nissan covered the engine, completely. After the new one was broken in and cleared by Nissan, thats when we go our hands on it and the real fun began, had that new motor out twice to do turbo work and such.
Like I said before these cars are almost too high tech, lol, and you just cant get over on it.
We'll have to see what happens, if noone has a problem, ill post another one tomorrow.
for the GTR stories(all on track) So....first let me say to any of the moderators, if im breaking the rules here(and I really don't know) buy posting this, a single warning and it wont be an issue.
Ok a little general info first. When this story takes place at Gateway Motorsports Park on the road course. For anybody not fimilular with Gateway, the road course is inside the Nascar oval and actually uses turns 3 and 4 of that oval, as part of the road course. The banking there I believe is 22 degrees, pretty steep, I have seen more than my fair share of engines lost on that banking, do to oil starvation. The GTR was completely stock and had about 11000 miles on it with the full factory tune on it.
The story starts: It was a warm sunny Saturday, probably in april or may, we had decided to take the now broken in GTR and test its metal on track. The first sesion was pretty normal, as he was getting the correct line on the track, figured out. Second sesion, different story, I was down in the pit watching him muscle this beast around the track. When all of a sudden the car fell off dramatically inbetween turns 3 and 4 of the oval. He imedately brought the car into the pit and it was hammering(not knocking) like crazy. I yelled for him to shut it down and lifted the hood, there was oil everywhere. After poking around for a minute with a flashlight something caught my eye down on the right side of the engine, It was part of a connecting rod sticking thru the side of the block. Oh did he Freak! We figured they weren't going to warrenty the engine because it happened on track. So after discussing it we decided to load the car up and take it back to St Louis and drop it off in a walmart parking lot. Made a call to the dealer, and told them the car died there and to please come tow it back.
So Monday comes and he get gets a call from the service manager, "Good Morning, Sir, we took a look at the GTR and would you like to tell me what really happened or would you prefer I tell you?" He was like "What do you mean". "Well lets see,When the engine let go, you were in turn 3 at gateway, it was 11 am, it was 80 degrees out, you were go a 103 mph, etc". Turns out these cars have flight recorders, HS, the entire event was recorded and they could pinpoint the location the engine failed with in like 5 feet, lol. Oh the story isnt over, oh no, At that point Nissan quarentined the car and wouldnt let anybody near it. Apparently we found out later that is was only the second one of these cars to loose an engine. Lets face it with fourms like this and the internet, Even the Manucaturers are sensitive to bad press and at 90K+ for one of these cars new, it would be a hard sell. So Nissan flew several engineer's over from Japan to study why this engine failed, according to the dealer they went back and redesigned the windage tray and oil pan to prevent this from happening on the 2011 models.
In the end Nissan covered the engine, completely. After the new one was broken in and cleared by Nissan, thats when we go our hands on it and the real fun began, had that new motor out twice to do turbo work and such.
Like I said before these cars are almost too high tech, lol, and you just cant get over on it.
We'll have to see what happens, if noone has a problem, ill post another one tomorrow.
Last edited by Dave@ETTuning; 07-18-2012 at 03:46 PM.
07-18-2012 | 04:27 PM
#123
You learned the hard way the insane datalogging that goes on 
. I've heard similar stories from a nissan tech about customers trying to fool them. Glad it worked out in the end and nissan improved the design. they monitor forums like these as well .
. I've heard similar stories from a nissan tech about customers trying to fool them. Glad it worked out in the end and nissan improved the design. they monitor forums like these as well .
07-18-2012 | 05:21 PM
#124
Unfortunately I have been asked not to use his name, however I will tell you that he owns the building were in, He is partners with Jon in the business and he also runs the sales side of the business, we also sell high end euro/asian cars, like Porsche, ferrari, Bentley, Rover, etc.
and no objections about GTR stories as long as it doesn't involve illegal street racing.
what might help with questions being asked over and over is updating the first thread page with the new info or put at the top "updated pics and info on page XX" so people can quickly click to the right page.
07-19-2012 | 07:22 AM
#126
obviously I was speaking about the car in the thread I posted..... 350z with LS swap and F2 blower, dated from 2010.
I realize this thread is getting somewhat long, but if I could make one request , please read through the entire thread, before asking questions that have already been answered.
NO the car is'nt finished, but it will be hopefullyby sometime late next month, we are on final assembly, as we speak. The reason I waited to start this thread where i did in the build process was, so it didnt drag on for a year and everyone got bored with it. So if you want to see it finished and see what kind of numbers we hit......................................................Sta y Tuned!!
NO the car is'nt finished, but it will be hopefullyby sometime late next month, we are on final assembly, as we speak. The reason I waited to start this thread where i did in the build process was, so it didnt drag on for a year and everyone got bored with it. So if you want to see it finished and see what kind of numbers we hit......................................................Sta y Tuned!!
07-19-2012 | 07:38 PM
#129
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 34
Likes: 1
From: St Louis Missouri
HS, now I understand, this project has taken a couple of years and has been put on hold a few times too, for a varied number of reasons. I never thought it would have been already posted on here.
Sorry again str8dum1, hope were cool!
Sorry again str8dum1, hope were cool!
07-25-2012 | 06:30 AM
#136
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 34
Likes: 1
From: St Louis Missouri
Some of the welding is mig and thats a 75/25 argon/CO2 mix and the Tig welding Aluminum is straight argon.
My appollogies for my abbsence, I had computer problems and just got it back from the repair shop. I was at the shop yesterday and the car is headed out to the bodyshop to get the rest of the paint and body work finished, thats the only part of this car thats not being done in house.
Looks like Ill be back at work next week assuming I can build the strength up in my right knee/leg, which im working on everyday.
I also promised another GTR story, ill get that up here some time later today or tonight late.
My appollogies for my abbsence, I had computer problems and just got it back from the repair shop. I was at the shop yesterday and the car is headed out to the bodyshop to get the rest of the paint and body work finished, thats the only part of this car thats not being done in house.
Looks like Ill be back at work next week assuming I can build the strength up in my right knee/leg, which im working on everyday.
I also promised another GTR story, ill get that up here some time later today or tonight late.
Last edited by Dave@ETTuning; 07-25-2012 at 05:52 PM.
07-26-2012 | 02:20 PM
#137
Some of the welding is mig and thats a 75/25 argon/CO2 mix and the Tig welding Aluminum is straight argon.
My appollogies for my abbsence, I had computer problems and just got it back from the repair shop. I was at the shop yesterday and the car is headed out to the bodyshop to get the rest of the paint and body work finished, thats the only part of this car thats not being done in house.
Looks like Ill be back at work next week assuming I can build the strength up in my right knee/leg, which im working on everyday.
I also promised another GTR story, ill get that up here some time later today or tonight late.
My appollogies for my abbsence, I had computer problems and just got it back from the repair shop. I was at the shop yesterday and the car is headed out to the bodyshop to get the rest of the paint and body work finished, thats the only part of this car thats not being done in house.
Looks like Ill be back at work next week assuming I can build the strength up in my right knee/leg, which im working on everyday.
I also promised another GTR story, ill get that up here some time later today or tonight late.
07-27-2012 | 07:32 AM
#138
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 34
Likes: 1
From: St Louis Missouri
Sorry about that.
Ok this story takes place at Putnam Park road course.
While the HP numbers were looking pretty good and he was happy with the performance, he wasnt particularly happy with the braking on the car, so time for an upgrade. Had to do some digging around but we found some track pads to put on the car. Lets face it, the car comes factory with Brembo 6 piston calipers, pretty hard to improve on that.
So we installed the brake pads and set off for the track. Usually he would drive the car to and from the track, but this time we decided to trailor it instead. So we really didnt have any time to break the new pads in before getting to the track. After getting it unloaded and preped we sent him out on the track, he was out for about 5 laps and he brought the car back in, he was'nt happy. Apparently the difference in the braking coeficent was quite a bit higher and the antilock and traction control systems were freaking out, making the car very difficult to drive. Well we all put our heads together and decided the best short term solution was to remove the primary ABS fuse and dissable the system temporarily. So we pulled the fuse, he got in, fired the car up, put it in gear and the damn car wouldnt move, it locked itself down! Are you freakin kidding me? it would'nt budge, so our only option was to replace the fuse and just let him go out and try and have some fun with it.
Here is the most amazing part to me, these cars are so complex and actually have adaptive learning capibilities, like I have never seen before. In the next two days he probably put 75 laps on the car. By the end of the weekend the car had completely re-learned the new brakes and was stoping better than it ever had, with no issues from the ABS or TC systems what so ever!
I probably would'nt have believed it, if I had'nt witnessed it myself in person.
Ok this story takes place at Putnam Park road course.
While the HP numbers were looking pretty good and he was happy with the performance, he wasnt particularly happy with the braking on the car, so time for an upgrade. Had to do some digging around but we found some track pads to put on the car. Lets face it, the car comes factory with Brembo 6 piston calipers, pretty hard to improve on that.
So we installed the brake pads and set off for the track. Usually he would drive the car to and from the track, but this time we decided to trailor it instead. So we really didnt have any time to break the new pads in before getting to the track. After getting it unloaded and preped we sent him out on the track, he was out for about 5 laps and he brought the car back in, he was'nt happy. Apparently the difference in the braking coeficent was quite a bit higher and the antilock and traction control systems were freaking out, making the car very difficult to drive. Well we all put our heads together and decided the best short term solution was to remove the primary ABS fuse and dissable the system temporarily. So we pulled the fuse, he got in, fired the car up, put it in gear and the damn car wouldnt move, it locked itself down! Are you freakin kidding me? it would'nt budge, so our only option was to replace the fuse and just let him go out and try and have some fun with it.
Here is the most amazing part to me, these cars are so complex and actually have adaptive learning capibilities, like I have never seen before. In the next two days he probably put 75 laps on the car. By the end of the weekend the car had completely re-learned the new brakes and was stoping better than it ever had, with no issues from the ABS or TC systems what so ever!
I probably would'nt have believed it, if I had'nt witnessed it myself in person.
