think most like myself, have jumped into the BMW N54 line up, a $600 chip gets you over 100rwhp and yes some have problems w/ the fuel pump but its not as bad an issue as the media makes it out to be.

there are N54 that are bone stock other than a tune, running in the high 11's, low 12's. With the guys running meth, downpipes and tune running in the low 11s

 

Began to go downhill when Booger and Sentry kissed and made up!!

 

actually they did,i had one of the first 944's stateside


as far as the z wale tail,it wasn't a choice.....it was the only choice,import aftermarket was in it's infancy.

 

370z is second in the segment, only outsold by the corvette. Mitsu is pulling the lancer evo, the STI looks like dog ****, Honda has no S2k replacement, the RX8 is dead, and sports car sales in-total are ****. The market went from selling 17 million vehicles in 07 to not even 10 million in 08. The only industry doing worse is housing, new cars is a very close second given they are so expensive. Disposable income is at near record low and the economy helped expose quite a few shops' mistakes and put them in their graves.

The Z is old now, 03's are near 8 years old now, even my 05 is turning 6 years old...

The value of the cars drops, but the parts prices don't. An alternator is probably going to only creep up in price year over year, and the aftermarket is slowing down on the platform.

Fewer shops to do work, low money, aging platform.

 

everytime i go somewhere someone asks me what kind of porsche I'm driving.. both in the 260z and my 350! wtf.

i guess simply 911 is the best answer lol

 

Hmmm... that's one I hadn't considered.

 

I like turtles.

 

Our shop is still about 50% 350Z/G35 but evolution has done it's thing, and we started seeing more of the next gen platforms, like the 370Z, GT-R, and G37. We'll never stop supporting this forum, and offering advise and info as long as there is still healthy demand for the car. And I think there is! We just had a car dropped off, that's a normal 03-04 350Z that is getting one of the largest project builds we've ever done...XKR level.

But I think it's about time for a my350Z.com family reunion of some sort. Maybe Atlantic City or Miami?

 

Sasha fabbed and starting producing his own turbo kit out of his garage. My motor is sitting in my friends garage right now just waiting for me to find some time to build it

LMAO


Vegas so the northerners can make it, although Miami sounds nice.

 

MRC wasn't the only shop to do this. There are still shops out today that were and still just as guilty for doing that.

 

My point is, it is not and will never be commonplace to see diy turbo builds on a Z or G. It's not like some of the other FI from the factory platforms, where you just upgrade a part here or there, or like a Honda, where you simply buy an Ebay manifold, find some random turbo and intercooler, weld together a few pipes and presto, you have a turbo kit.

 

This motor was actually single turbo from the factory in Japan for 3 years. What happens here is that a lot of the motors being built are built wrong. I used to embrace the use of Plastigauge but found out (from other built platforms, DSMs in particular) the best way to build any motor is to always gauge it and NOT use Plastigauge. A lot of times when the girdle goes back on the bearings will turn into an oval and there no way to tell with Plastigauge until it's too late.

Here is the stock single turbo VQ in Japan. Produced from 2001-2004




First pic is stock.

 

what about the internals? they left the compression 10.3:1 too?

you gonna hit up Cheeta's in midtown tonight?

 

Atlantic City A caravan starting at Forged and picking up members along the way. I did Boca to my place in PA in 15hrs 25min last time I went down to see my mom.

 

Yeah, I used to check this part of the forum daily. Now I might check it a few times a month. Most of my370Z is a bunch of newbs like listed above...so I spend most of my time on Driver.

 

Obviously the pistons are lower compression and the connecting rods could be shorter as the stroke is smaller. 2.5L instead of 3.5L.
But it's no different that what everyone else is doing here but wrong most of the time.

There are many other aspects to building a motor the right way than just gauging it right and chosing the right size bearings. Most of the time it's the machine shop that messes up. Polishing the crank in the opposite direction of rotation which I heard some do, not balacing the assembly properly, debris in the rotating assembly(no matter how small), not decking and boring it properly.

There is a good reason only 1 Nissan tech assembles the VR38DETT motors in a clean room.

 

How are you going to add fuel to go any faster with direct injection? If you convert it to a single turbo to go faster it loses all the torque it makes and probably wont make boost until 6k RPMs with a large turbo to run something like a 9.

and forgetting that 335i weighs 3600 lbs +. The 135i is the best car BMW makes in my opinion.

Past 500whp you need to build that motor just like you do with a 350z or a G37 370z. And it will cost a lot more.

 

I think the 2011's (135i and 335i) are now single turbo

 

It's a twin scroll type turbo. To get more power you have to go to a single turbo still. No more torque under 2k RPMs in a 335i that weighs 3600+lbs or the 135i at 3400lbs+. No way to add more fuel with direct injection past 500whp. And no more boost until 6k RPMs with a large single turbo to run a 9. Not to mention no room in the car to fit a turbo that big and I've seen the underpinnings of a 3 series in person.

Just imagine building that motor at the price of at least $6k in parts alone and then spinning a bearing. You can have a 1000whp rotating assembly for the VQ for only $3.6k-4k brand new.

 

That is a crazy blow off I guess I am used to the sound of my vortech makes cause that just sounds weird. But great find, I for one think this is just a lul not the beginning of the end for the Z and G's.