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Ill start off by saying the work the original owner did was incredible certain things were thought out so well. With that said Ill show you all the changes I've done, and a disclaimer I'm not trying to bash the last owner. Little did I know what I was getting myself into, never again will I buy such a unique project lol.
So for those that don't know :
12v vr6 fully built
bw 363 turbo
3.5 inch exhaust
I got it with a th400 transmission (changed back to 6 speed)
ms3pro
When I picked it up the very first thing that needed to be changed was the exhaust holly crap was it loud! 8 inch muffler lol
Cant get the video to attach but oh well
approx 60 inches of straight through mufflers later
original engine bay shots you can see the heat issues with the melted spark plug wire cover
I then noticed that the wastegate was open at idle so I figured it would be easy, oh how i was wrong this is the point I discovered godspeed bov and wastegate had been used, here is a photo with the tial and godspeed side by side. As you can tell the godspeed is a pos look at the wear on it. Well I tried to change it and discovered that the godspeed flange wouldn't work with the Tial oh joy, I tried another pos wastegate and well guess what it was a pos and I was only able to run it with a 5 psi spring.
I then tried to address some of the heating issues by venting the hood, the car would get so hot that you would burn your hand by touching the front bumper. found verus racing (formerly velox) and purchased some vents, started with some small ones as the ones they make specifically for the 350z are huge and ugly in my opinion. The small vents came out nice in my opinion and you can see the heat pouring out when sitting still, not ideal placement was hoping to get it over the exhaust manifold.
Well fast forward a bit the TH400 trans was starting to drive me nuts the high stall of torque converter sucked @$$ in traffic it would also sit at 2800 55mph in max gear (3rd). Dont get me wrong this thing was incredibly quick with the TH400, but not my cup of tea. Divine intervention happened and the starter died so i figured well I guess I should change the trans, wastegate flange and starter all one time. coming out out
Thankfully my friend who bought the car from the original owner had also purchased the vr6 adapter plate, flywheel, and clutch for the 350z trans so I picked that up. Sent out the exhaust manifold, downpipe and hot side of the turbo to be ceramic coated. Painted the valve cover and through on a turbo blanket to try and keep the heat down and of course the Tial BOV and wastegate were now in. Don't judge my giant mess
Went to start it up and found out a few relays had gone bad and caused some corrosion in the ipdm, so I had the joy of taking that thing apart and cleaning it
After fixing that the car started up no problem
my friends son working on his fitness in the back
Well it ran but not very well so I had to learn megasquirt and discovered that I had a cam fault that needed to addressed, lucky all I had to do was a pull up resistor for the signal and that solved it (figuring that out wasn't quick). Some of the things this guy did were so impressive I couldn't find the damn megasquirt at first, well that was because he put it inside the stock ecu!
So after updating the firmware the tach and coolant gauge stopped working, this is where I figured I was done since I know absolutely nothing about can bus..... well it turns out megasquirt develops wrote the tach and coolant info into the software, it was as easy as turning on a drop down (was not that easy to figure that out for me that there was a drop down lol).
I figured since I was still working on getting it tuned Id change the diff bushings since the back one (from the exhaust pictures) you can see has the leak mark, So i switched to z1 solid diff bushings and put a blingy nismo diff cover on.
how she sits now
more updates to come when I get time.
Last edited by Chan_man808; 09-30-2018 at 01:28 PM.
those have got to be the tiniest vents in the world!!!! I respect that you did not like the bigger style - I'm completely opposite...I was like 'bigger the better!!'... that's some crazy-a$$ pin-out work on the ECU!
those have got to be the tiniest vents in the world!!!! I respect that you did not like the bigger style - I'm completely opposite...I was like 'better the better!!'... that's some crazy-a$$ pin-out work on the ECU!
Is your exhaust aluminum?
Oh i have them and they are actually going to be the next project the only thing is i had them color matched to my paint, i think they are going to look weird with the other vents being black. But you know about my heat issues so at this point i have to try anything. I agree they are tiny I was looking at space under the hood without cutting too much of the bracing, they are actually for a brz.
They grow on me the more I look at them
The original exhaust was aluminum, I tried to find aluminum mufflers to keep it aluminum but it looked like everything was discontinued, so its stainless right now. I have the exhaust sitting around if you know where to get aluminum mufflers let me know cause id like to use it.
Last edited by Chan_man808; 09-30-2018 at 10:39 PM.
Oh i have them and they are actually going to be the next project the only thing is i had them color matched to my paint, i think they are going to look weird with the other vents being black. But you know about my heat issues so at this point i have to try anything. I agree they are tiny I was looking at space under the hood without cutting too much of the bracing, they are actually for a brz.
They grow on me the more I look at them
The original exhaust was aluminum, I tried to find aluminum mufflers to keep it aluminum but it looked like everything was discontinued, so its stainless right now. I have the exhaust sitting around if you know where to get aluminum mufflers let me know cause id like to use it.
I really like the vents in that pic. Any chance you have a link to them?
The original exhaust was aluminum, I tried to find aluminum mufflers to keep it aluminum but it looked like everything was discontinued, so its stainless right now. I have the exhaust sitting around if you know where to get aluminum mufflers let me know cause id like to use it.
I got my 4" in / 4" out aluminum muffler from Vibrant ... it was like $120... not bad and the quality was pretty good.
What would it take to get that 8" aluminum muffler to Colorado?? I might be interested!
I like those vents as they are a step in the right direction but they're not as good as they could be...
Twin spal fans sounds like jet engines but they keep the car cool! You will not need any (more) venting of the hood... Kudos on the awesome save on a very unique build!
so after being shamed about my small vents to protect my manhood I installed my bigger vents by verus engineering. Originally These were going to be the first vents I put on but I tried to get away with the smaller ones, so I had these color matched.
Let me tell you the instructions say 3-4 hours , this **** took me all day. Probably cause I'm super **** getting the templates in the correct spot was difficult. templates on holes drilled and cut out inside of hood I must have dropped at least 3 of the nuts inside the hood and had to swing the hood around to shake them out lol halfway there done mounted up (patriotic without intending to be)
Cant decide if I should match the small ones or make the bigger ones black, I think ill color match the small ones.
Took it out for a spin car stayed cooler for longer but still got some pretty bad heat soak. Also blew off a wastegate vacuum hose, thank god for boost cut. I regret installing the mishimoto fan shroud, Ill definitely be putting in spal fans and switching out the radiator.
Can anyone confirm that the big koyo radiator will fit with the condenser?
Last edited by Chan_man808; 10-02-2018 at 09:56 PM.
I like the way those vents look. I really think I'm going to add a set to my car. I do have my hood spaced up and I pulled the weather striping. But the engine bay temps are still really high.
well I bit the bullet and upgraded the radiator and fans, got it installed and then the fans kicked in good lord they are loud and draw so much it almost stalled the car lol. But then i felt a breeze by my shins, yup i wired them up backwards *^*&#^$@^&*^@^@$ they are pushing instead of pulling!!! the good news is it seems to have done the trick the temp actually drops when the fans come on lol.
pics soon after its wired up and running the right direction lol
well I confirmed all my cooling issues are sorted out now went and did some 18 psi pulls in 90 degree weather and its all good!
Couldn't figure out why it was overheating previously, there seemed to be a few culprits 1st being the fans 2nd how close the exhaust manifold is to the coolant pipe, and 3rd possibly the radiator being a generic pos.
well like any normal car guy I just started throwing money at it,ordered a new koyo radiator, 2x 13" SPAL fans and a whole bunching of heat shielding. There was a fair amount of cutting to make the radiator work with the shroud more then I was expecting. all chopped up for the new fans rivnuts are a godsend they made it so i could install the fans without removing the shroud This is how it should have come
As stated in my previous post this wasn't without incident I followed the wiring guide on here for the mishimoto fan and shroud and for some reason it had the spals pushing instead of pulling. Makes me think maybe my mishimotos were pushing this whole time lol. Quick switching of wires solved this and they are working great. These fans are so powerful and loud, especially because I have hood vents near them so you can really hear them.
So on to address the heat shielding of the coolant pipe, the last owner for some reason made a heat shield that didn't separate the manifold from the coolant pipe. So I addressed that. I used heat shield products for everything on this, the sheet I formed, the cover for the coolant line, and the stick on heat shielding. shows how close they are Not my best work but it does the trick lol cut a hole in the heat shield right below one of the rear hood louvers to let some heat out
Now I can deal with other problems like why the hell 5th gear keep popping out, and hopefully get this frankenstein on a dyno here soon.
09-30-2018, 12:42 PM
The abomination (350z with vr6) still lives
