Hey guys, I have my 03 350z Touring Edition. Right now, I have an AEM cold air intake, X02 True Dual exhaust (HKS clone) w/ stock headers, cats, resonators, dual mufflers, and x pipe, and a 5/16" iso-thermal plenum spacer. I'm looking into getting lightweight underdrive pulleys and possibly a mishimoto aluminum radiator... My question is, what's a good place and brand for a lightweight underdrive pulley set? And will getting an aluminum radiator make much of a difference in the car's performance? Just trying to see if its worth installing these two mods on my Z. Thanks gentlemen

 

underdrive pulleys can cause problems, from eating the crank seal to causing harmonic balance problems. I would advise against it. A bigger radiator would not benefit you at all with those mods. maybe if you were FI or track the car. with what you have so far, money can be better spent elsewhere like suspension.

 

Upgrade YOUR personal software before your car's hardware - particularly that of dubious performance value.

IOW, can you apply pressure on three pedals at the same time, counter-intuitively use the "wrong" foot to step on the middle one, control that nasty light weighted tendency of your rear when the rear tire slip angle reaches it's maximum before the front, or squeeze versus smash the loud pedal??

If not, that's a great place to start modifying stuff.

Yeah yeah, here I go again.... sigh....

 

I'd go with a set of long tube headers and a tune next....OR do a 180 and drop some money on FI.

 

save up / pay cash to get FI...youve done everything you can do under a few thousand dollars.

a higher efficient/larger capacity radiator will not yeild anything at the wheels unless youre generating significant amounts of heat that can't the OEM system can't mitigate.
yes, avoid under drive pulleys, it can cause issues down the road for essentially no gain...if you want to decrease the moment of inertia on the system your biggest gains will be with lightweight wheels and/or a lightweight clutch/flywheel package.

 

Makes sense. I already have lightweight aftermarket konig wheels, with the common wheel upgrade of 245/40 in the front and 275/40 in the rear. Suspension has been done already with Tein S lowering springs too. Just trying to find other mods to add that might squeeze in some more horsepower and torque. Headers and tune seem to be my next mod, just seems a bit pricey for me at the moment. Sucks only being a 19 year old college student and working in retail, while having bills to pay lol :/

 

Best advice and it's the advice hardly ever taken

 

OP, It sounds like you want better performance, so let's try it this way....

Can you type? (If so, how many words per minute?)

 

To be honest im still not sure what he is saying. Sounds like he is talkin pedal work and keeping control of the car while cornering. If OP is interested in autox and road racing then great, but he asked about mods for more power.

 

Most people can't effectively use the power of a stock car , the weakest link is normally the driver

 

I still type with two fingers. What keyboard should I buy to type 100 words per minute?

Or should I maybe learn to type?

 

Everyone is saying learn to drive etc, not assuming your driving is either good or bad, I also think that would be the best bang for the buck on your budget. Anything else worthwhile and done properly would be out of your price range right now as it seems.

The best mod you have done is the spacer, and the next best thing you can get is a tune. other than that you will be looking to spend a lot more for little gain. I personally would do suspension mods first. S tech springs are a far cry from properly done suspension. and it will be a difference you would feel vs headers and a tune that cost more than your konig wheels, giving you 5hp.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

Y'know, that's sort of an inside joke.

If OP didn't get it, here..... if you type more than 100wpm already, get yerself a twin turbocharged typewriter to keep up with YOU.

 

And that exactly is the point of my cryptic and stupid wording.

If one gets what I'm saying, they don't need my advice.

But once again, I kinda feel like everytime I make a mention to driver improvement versus hardware improvement, people take it wrong, like I'm being a d**k who thinks I can outdrive Mario or Ayrton.

NOT even close to them, not by about a thousand miles. Only point, a skilled driver gets more out of ANY car, be it a Z, an SUV, an IMSA GT car.

But it's not my money so I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

I'm pretty positive I can outdrive Ayrton any day.

 

Morbidly humorous.

So yeah, you're right. I can outdrive Ayrton NOW.

Bad.

 

Neither of you (nor anybody else on this board) could ever hold a candle to Ayrton Senna de Silva's driving skills. But the flip side is, everybody can improve their driving skill a little at a time with the right guidence.

 

So my joke might have been dark but at least someone understood that. You apparently missed it entirely. I said that because Ayrton Senna da Silva has been dead for 20 years, meaning he cant drive. He is arguably one of the greatest drivers ever seen on a road course.

 

dkmura, c'mon man, I'm the guy that's always telling da newbs (not necessarily to this forum but to cars/mods in general) that the "Best mod = improve the driver." Heh heh.

But I got Woody's joke... and added to it. Badly.

Like I said in my post.... I can outdrive him.... NOW.

Watching Ayrton at the helm of the McLarens was simply magic at the wheel. One of my favs of ALL TIME!

 

Appreciate your sentiment about moddng the most important part of the car: the nut behind the wheel. When the Z33 first came out, I was the one putting together HPDE clinics at my local racetracks and teaching Z newbs for FREE to demonstrate what the Z was capable of.

With years of road racing experience, it was a shock being at a race and seeing Senna's crash that day. I talked with the SCCA officials that day and got on the PA to ask for a moment of silence before we got on with our racing. Now when anybody compares their driving skills to his, I just shake my head. Dead or not, his skill and style live on.