Well, it’s been a pretty long an arduous journey after I had to take my turbo system off but after some careful planning and timing, I sent my car in to GT Motorsports and about a month later, I got it back- bigger, badder and stronger than ever.

There were a few fundamental changes that I did to my set-up. Some were a ‘necessity’ while others were about taking advantage of newly developed equipment. Thanks to Reggie at Turbonetics, I managed to get a quick turnaround time when I sent in my turbo housing to him and got back the water-cooled variant with the lines within a few days. Turns out that I am the first car that GT Motorsports has done with the water-cooled TN system so it was a little bit of an honor for me, I guess. Considering that GTM has never done this style kit before, I was a little concerned but the car came out fine and all the steel-braded lines seemed to go where they needed to go. The second major change that I did to my car was that I ditched my chopped ‘n screwed Greddy Evo II exhaust because it was an abysmal piece of crap, especially when going FI. Hell, it didn’t even do anything for me when I was NA! I did some research and I found that TurboXS made an exhaust designed for twin turbo Z33’s complete with 3” true dual piping that connected to, *gasp* what’s this? A stock-looking exhaust canister!!! I called TurboXS and spoke to Jermaine and asked that instead of getting the whole entire set-up (which would be relatively useless for me since I have a single turbo) could I just purchase the exhaust canister and I would just have GTM make a custom 3” pipe form the downpipe back to connect to the exhaust. He agreed and a few months later I made good on the deal, paid for it and the exhaust was on its way to GTM. (Thanks Jermaine!) The third major change I did was upgrade my injectors from the TN’s 380cc to APS 440cc which I purchased from a member of this board who’s screen name is ‘Turbokanji’. I wanted / needed these new injectors because in order to achieve my more-than-conservative AFR, the 380’s were at more than 90% duty cycle at WOT which, of course, is not good over the span of time (even though I drive conservatively). Bottom-line is that the injectors arrived on-time and worked great. The fourth major change I did was paint the intercooler in black thermal coating which not only decreases charge temps but also lends to a more stealthy appearance.

Sam at GTM worked pretty late on my car and actually called me around 8 p.m. Sunday night. I had asked my buddy Vince (who shot and edited the pics you will see below) if he could give me a ride on a pretty-much on-call basis. Vince cleared his schedule so that if my car was ready, he was able to pick me up at a moments notice and get me to my beloved Z. I was incredibly excited when Sam called and said the car was ‘complete’ so Vince picked me up and we were on our way over. As we arrived at GTM, my car was sitting outside and we went in and talked to Sam. I made the payment and as I was walking out, Sam stopped me and gave me some exhaust resonators. Stupidly, I asked him, ‘what are these for?’ He replied, ‘they are for your exhaust, you MAY think it is a bit too loud but it should be okay’. Sam knows what my tastes are and that I am all about keeping a relatively low profile (or so I say with my Gold rims, lol).

So I go outside with Vince and I am expecting my car to choke as it starts-up or not start at all (that’s the way it goes sometimes with big installs). It is really dark outside and all you can hear is the sound of the car wooshing by as the 10 freeway is only about 20 yards from us. I couldn’t believe I was going to start my car. So I get inside, turn the key to position 2 to let the fuel pump pressurize the system and then, ignition! The car starts up and the exhaust roars and settles into a deep grumble. I was so relieved that it started-up so smoothly and the engine temp was close to operating which made me know that Sam had probably JUST finished road testing the car. The car’s idle was very smooth (for a turbo’d Z) and I said that it ran as smooth as if it came direct from a Nissan production plant! I was overjoyed and satisfied with the work that had been done. Vince also commented that the exhaust sounded great and I agreed.

So Vince and I took off back to the L.A. area and after I let the car fully warm-up (oil psi right smack-dab in the middle of the guage at 3,000 rpms), I got my first taste of boost in awhile and I must say, there is a noticeable difference between the feel of the car the first time it was boosted and now. Probably due to the new exhaust, injectors and painted intercooler all working in conjunction, the boost seemed to come on quicker than before and the car pulled hard all the way to redline. One thing I noticed is that while under load, particularly a heavy load, my car or my exhaust, more accurately, sounded like that of….a Honda . Well, it sounds a little deeper but it is definitely not tame-sounding unless driving normally but since I drive conservatively anyways, it isn’t a big deal.

My final numbers, as listed in my sig, was 372 rwhp / 364 torque (4th gear) on GTM’s dynojet. Overall, I wanted to say thanks to the whole GTM crew as no matter whom I spoke to: Nick, Sam, Pablo, George, they all knew what was going on with my car. I also wanted to thank Vince (vkzawa) for letting me borrow his stock air filter system to help pass inspection and I also wanted to thank Ryan (SugarspunZ) for letting me borrow his stock exhaust for the same purpose ( I threw-away my stock exhaust when I got my Greddy). I also wanted to thank Vince again for providing me with rides and helping me at the drop of a dime to get my car back the night it was finished (on a Sunday, mind you) Lastly, thanks to TurboXS for making a deal with me that fit perfectly for what I needed at the time.

Now, all I want is for God to protect me and for the cops to leave little ol’ me alone so that I can enjoy my car instead of going through the HELL I clawed-through before.

Here are some pics for you ladies and gents to enjoy for those of you that haven’t seen what my Z looks like. I will post pics of the engine bay and one shot of the interior of the Z on a second post later on tonight since they are on a different camera. I hope these pics work and I hope you all like what you see:

 

Glad 2 see ya back. Nice car and set up btw

 

Thank you, sir.

(Reserving this spot for extra pics)

 

Sweet ride bro. Those gold Volks look awesome on your car. Have fun and be safe.

 

Thanks. You do the same.

 

Welcome back, and congrats!

on a side note: I didn't know GTM had a Mustang dyno.......?

 

yeah doesn't GTM have a dynojet? (can't see pics right now at work)

glad to see the car back on the road! That must've really sucked to have to go through all that

 

I'm sorry. I think I meant to say dynojet instead. I always get those confused as I am not too familiar with dynos. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Nice car and results... glad everything work out for you - now let's see some vids :-)

 

Yea I know they have a dynojet, and they're about to put in a dyno dynamics... I just thought Sam lied to me that's all.

I believe it's dynojet then.

 

nice car love the gold wheels! i jus ordered me a set of gold wheels now i can hardly wait til they arrive!

 

nice. congrats.

 

Nice to hear you're happily boosting again. Got any pics of the intercooler and exhaust?

 

I do actually. I will post them for sure tonight. Vince only took the 'glamour' shots in his SLR and I took the techy shots with my digital camera. Actually, come to think about it, I don't think I took a pic of the intercooler because you can't even see it behind the stock black grill, lol.

 

Congrats... car looks awsome

 

Oddly enough, gold seems to be the best color to match the body of almost any car. There is an additional perk in-that very few people have gold rims.

Mine are 'Top Secret Gold' to be exact.

 

Congrats. Welcome back to FI.

 

Glad to see you back in the boost club,enjoy the car now!!!!!

 

must suck to live in cali with all these "this 2 inch hose is illegal u cant drive ur car anymore" laws while having a car like this

sweet ride

 

Thanks, Warm.

Yeah, it does kinda suck out here but I know there are good cops out there that are decent in the head. I just happened to run into one hell of a douche that was hell bent on giving people that had their cars standing perfectly still, tickets.