Hey guys,

I have my eye on a 350Z with HKS Supercharger that is for sale here in The Netherlands.

Some specs:
- Sunset orange (not my first choice of color)
- Track model (only type sold here)
- MY2004
- Around 20.000 miles (35.000 KM)
- HKS Rotrex Supercharger (installed in 2005)
- KW coilovers (dunno which kit exactly)
- 19" OZ Superleggera III
- Ad says around 340HP which is on the crank
- Askingprice 22.500 euro (can probably get it for 20. a stock one of this age and milage is worth 22.600 euro)

My original plan is to buy a stock Z as a new project car and put (DIY) a Vortech Supercharger on it with a goal of 380-400 WHP. Together with some 19" Volks/Nismos, Nismo exhaust, Berk HFC's and Nismo Suspension.

Buying a car that is done is absolutely the opposite of what I want because for me it's all about the project and getting my hands dirty...

I'm not considering this car for the mods but because of the low price and the extra resale value of the wheels, suspension and possibly the HKS kit... It could be a very very good deal after selling that stuff...

Still I do wonder if this HKS Supercharger kit could be useful for me and my goals with some minor modifcations like pulleys and a better engine management system. Although I did read about reliability issues or something.

I'v spoken to the tuningshop that did the installation back in 2005 and they say it uses a pre-mapped HKS piggyback and that the kit has a seperate oil system. So taking the kit off completely should be no problem though.

What do you guys think? Is this car a good option for me or should I stick with my original plan of buying a stock 350Z?

Some pictures of the HKS car:

 

Okay I've done some more research on the HKS Rotrex Superchargers and it seems they aren't suitable for high horsepower numbers but they make up for that in low-end torque which is also a lot of fun.

What I don't like about this HKS kit is the locked piggybak ecu, the second injectors and the fact you can't make any mods with the stock piggyback ecu.

But the good thing is that injectors and a good engine management system were on my to buy list anyway and can be reused with any other tuner supercharger or tt kit...

So I'm thinking to keep the HKS Rotrex kit on there for now but change the injectors to bigger ones and get a nice standalone engine management system together with some breathing mods and maybe a smaller pulley and see what I can squeeze out of the HKS kit.. 350 WHP with some nice torquenumbers should be possible and a lot cheaper than buying a stock 350Z and a tuner Vortech kit.

 

OP what are your intentions with the car. Whoever built it, did it very tastefully in my opinion. Those are my favorite wheels, nice suspension set up, and 350whp, with plenty of low end torque.

Have you driven the car yet? Have u drivem a stock 350z to compare? The mods done to the car would, in my opinion, improve on an already well balanced platform. I'm positive that that car would be a blast to drive on a daily basis. Plenty of power, but not over the top.

 

I owned a 350Z two years ago which I sold because it wasn't fast enough.

So if I buy a 350Z this time it's definately going to get FI anyway.

Right now this car has 340HP on the crank and that is definately not enough so either this HKS kit gets uninstalled or I try to raise the power with additional mods.

350WHP with some nice low-end torque would be very exceptable for me..

I'm going to check the car out this saturday.

 

I'm confused. So only 10 more hp and you will be happy?

 

Nice clean car! That is however alot of Euro's tho depending on how much Z's go for in ur neck of the woods. I think here in the US we are spoiled with the low price of Z's as of late..

 

i think wht he means is that he wants adleast 350 to the wheels, because right now its at 340 at the crank....

 

That's doesn't make any sense. If it wasn't fast enough, then you could have just made it faster. Now you're looking at another Z which you still don't think is fast enough either?

No point in buying the car and parting it out to just put everything back on another Z with more mods.


IBTL

 

gtm sell's hks supercharger kits that are capable of 400 whp. i think they modify the unit itself. so you can get in touch with them see if you can send them your existing unit to be modified to make the 400whp that you want

 

That 350Z was my first nice car and was the start of my new car hobby.. I did look into superchargers back then but it was all new to me and seemed scary and expensive.. At that time I couldn't do anything more than maybe check the oil so labour costs would also be a big expense.. Also the Z's were still 30.000 euro back then and I thought a 30.000 euro car was too expensive to tinker with..

Now I have much more experience with tuning and working on cars myself so I feel a lot more confident about tuning a 350Z. And now they have dropped in price so much it's time for a second try (:

Thnx warmmilk that sounds interesting.

I actually already mailed GTM as i found out on the board they have the most experience with hks superchargers.

Highway: Yes car prices here are ridiculous and yes car prices are ridiculous in the states (: A new 350z was 60k here.. Second hand ones start around 20k.. If this car were stock the askingprice would be around 25 so basicly I'm getting all the mods for free together with and extra discount plus the resale value of the stuff I don't keep. The tuningscene here is a joke.. The number of FI 350Z's here in The Netherlands can be counted on one hand and there is no market for tuned 350Z's.

 

...

 

Why not buy a RHD one from the UK!!!

Also there would be a market in the UK for the SC kit if it comes off!!

Will be having my hks looked at by Abbey Motorsport to do a few of the things like GTM do to try and increase the HP and torque as I am looking for around 350 at the hubs too..

Abbey can be found on nissansportz.com if you want to post any questions to them on there

 

Highway: Yes car prices here are ridiculous and yes car prices are ridiculous in the states (: A new 350z was 60k here.. Second hand ones start around 20k.. If this car were stock the askingprice would be around 25 so basicly I'm getting all the mods for free together with and extra discount plus the resale value of the stuff I don't keep. The tuningscene here is a joke.. The number of FI 350Z's here in The Netherlands can be counted on one hand and there is no market for tuned 350Z's.[/QUOTE]

I would say buy the car if ya can then and enjoy what has been done to it. I saw random prices for Z's in the UK and they were not cheap! GL either way

 

That is the old HKS rotrex setup, not the gt one. Not sure on what kind of support you can get from HKS on that kit (I would check with HKSEurope to be sure replacement/serviceable parts are available). Also I believe there was a recall on one of the components of the rotrex kit...

 

thnx fid

you also have the hks rotrex kit?

do you know what abbey motorsport does exactly to encrease the horsepower?

if i were to uninstall the complete hks kit i would def. sell it internationally.

 

Not on just yet, will be the end of the month!

The SC has been ported already and we are just going to go with the stock setup (car is running about 280 at the wheels at the moment so it should be a nice increase!) but then looking at injectors etc in the future.

GTM lists the following for its stage 5
■GTM Spec custom ported rotrex supercharger
■GTM HKS GT Supercharger Pully putting peak boost at over 18psi of boost (up from 7psi for a stage 0 hks kit)
■Walbro 255lph In Tank Fuel Pump
■DeatschWerks 600cc Denso Injector Set capable of supporting 600 horsepower applications.
■CJM stage1 fuel system
■HKS F-Con VPro Standalone Engine Management System
■HKS GTM Temperature compensation kit
■GTM Intercooler Tempature Monitor
■GTM Spec ECU Flash

So will be looking at a few of those upgrades in time as well as looking at fitting the HKS or Kinetix SSV Intake Manifold to see if that can do any good on this setup... Am sure someone out there must have tried already!

 

id say u will be as stupid as the other dude on here who just had a thread up chargedz or somethin like that who bought a z with a stillen kit and now is realizing he has no room to upgrade...that will be u if u buy this car....that kit is not good for making any good numbers and the torque is not much to speak of either or to make up the lack horsepower...dont waste ur time with it

 

you understand that a stock z will be the same price? so cost is not a factor..

 

not the point...what r u gonna do buy the car and take it apart doesnt make much sense to me

if u think u will be happy with what the hks kit can produce then id say go for it, but if u plan to upgrade to a better F.I. kit then why would u buy this to spend time and money taking it apart to get rid of it...

 

That Rotrex unit is obsolete. I believe the failures that HKS had with this kit was in the compressor. Totally different unit than the GT S/C which is currently produced.