Hi all

As the title suggest, I'm based in Cape Town, South Africa. Long time lurker in the forum, been just soaking up the wealth of knowledge and planning my build.

First off, sorry for the long first post, just want to make sure I got everything down!

Some background, as a 2019 Xmas present to myself I bought a bone stock (except for test pipes) 2004 350z after selling my previous "toy" (Datsun 1200 pickup with S15 Autech Sr20 & 6 speed transmission crammed into it).

When I got it

As I got her

The idea was to update the looks and upgrade suspension (bushings & shocks were worn out when I got the car). Suspension mods I installed while we were in strict Covid-19 lockdown:

• Bilstein B8 shocks
• Eibach Pro-kit springs
• Eibach sway bar front and rear
• Z1 adjustable front control arms, rear camber and caster arms
• SPL solid compression rod bushings + Whiteline poly bushings everywhere else
• Whiteline diff bushings + Bell Diff brace
• Z1 rear subframe collars
• 15mm spacer upfront and 25mm in the rear

The car as it stands now:

As its sits now

As rear sits now

I've now started to order parts and plan my twin turbo build. Plan is 500whp with room to grow as I get used to the power. Car will be a weekend toy with occasional track & drag days and early morning twisty mountain roads drives

Car will be run on 95 ROM (same as 91 AKI pump in the US) since E85 is hard to come buy here (no pumps, only available from E85 suppliers for race applications)

Parts I have or are bought & are on their way:
Engine:

• Wossner 9.0:1 forged pistons
• KSM forged conrods (locally finished brand), similar to Eagles
• ACL Race bearings
• ARP L19s Head studs & ARP Main studs
• JWT C2 Cams + springs/shims
• Bronze valve guides
• OEM HR head gasket (will do block mod when the time comes)
• ATI Super Damper crank pulley (Street)
• OEM Revup Oil pump
• Mishi thermostat

Turbo

• 2x GT2871R with 0.64 ar
• 2x GTM cast iron manifolds (made for an HR but they fit my DE when I relocate 2 studs)

My to buy list
Drivetrain:

• Clutch - still deciding between JWT, Z1 or a locally sourced clutch masters clutch (South Africa distributor is 5 mins down the road from me)
• Flywheel - still deciding between JWT, Z1 or will be custom made by a racing engineering place in Cape Town. What weight flywheel would be best in this application?
• LSD - a gear type LSD like Quaife since my stock VLSD is getting abit long in the tooth

Fuel

• Bosch or Deatschwerks 750cc injectors (is this sized correctly?)
• Walbro 450 LPH pump (or is this overkill?)
• Fuel return system - considering CJM Stage 2 (or is this overkill?)

Other

• Link G4X PnP stand-alone (no Uprev tuners in here)
• Poly transmission & engine mounts
• Intercooler - Treadstone TRTT9 or a custom intercooler made locally
• 2x Tial 38mm external wastegates or may just stick to the internal wastegates I have for now
• Blow-off valve - undecided on what will be best. Suggestions?
• Oil Cooler

Is there anything I missed or any suggestions? Will the above take me to a "reliable" 500whp (I know FI'ing a non-FI car and reliable hardly goes hand in hand!)

Thanks for taking the time to read everyone!

 

I like it...

my thoughts are ...

You have a solid parts list - nothing really I would change. Are you 100% committed to twin-turbos? Do you already own them?

JWT makes the best-bang-for-your-buck clutch/flywheel and it'll hold 500hp all day. The flywheel is relatively light and a good balance of drivability and performance …

I would go with 1000cc injectors … ID1000s or ID1050 would be sufficient and will give you as much fuel as you need

Don't go less than a 450lph but consider the Ti / Walbro 525 hellcat pump. Same price and both will fit into the OEM basket. You will need to hard-wire the pump to the battery as the OEM wiring cant support the current draw. Many people have done this before.

You will need a return fuel system. CJM is the best place to start.

Yep, Link G4+ or X … You will not be disappointed

Consider solid engine mounts and a poly trans mount

I would look into a aftermarket radiator. Please don't go with Mishi … consider a Koyo or a custom setup.

what are you doing for exhaust? what are your downpipes? where will the intake air filters be placed?

Consider some intake work - like a spacer and the plenum runner trim.

would you eliminate the MAF and run a temp sensor?

I would do an oil pan spacer too

FI'ing a non FI car may not be the best but every engine can benefit from a little FI to increase that volumetric efficiency

 

Thanks for the feedback Bealljk, much appreciated. Comments above

 

Since posting, I've ordered an HKS SSQV blow off valve, 2x locally manufactured 38mm wastegates which has a good rep here and my Link G4X PnP unit with IAT & boost control solenoid.

While waiting for parts to arrive, I've been cleaning up the water lines by deleting front cross-over line, oil warmer line, throttle body warmer lines and right rear bypass line.

I'm also trying to figure our how coolant lines for the turbos will be run. I've searched the forum but can't really make heads or tails of how you guys route your lines. Kept getting stuck at links to installation manuals that aren't available anymore (APS, GTM). I've looked at the JWT TT manual (the only manual I could find) and that's confusing to follow

So my thinking is:

• For the right side turbo, AN fittings on a line from the major coolant hard line on the right side of the engine for a feed and the drain into the oil filter warmer line (either totally bypassing the oil warmer by connecting to that drain line or into the oil filter cooler inlet)
• For the left turbo, AN fittings on a line from the major coolant hard line on the right side of the engine for a feed and the drain into the flange on the left front of the engine where the front bypass line runs into

Will the above work? What size line should the coolant lines be?

Alternatively I've seen setups discussed re linking the drain of one turbo to the inlet of the other turbo but my concern there is the second turbo will be getting already heated coolant. Is this a valid concern or is the effect minimal?

 

The GTM kit flows one turbo to the other, I'm not a fan, but I've got no data on it. My AAM kit (and I think most TT's) add tee's to the heater core lines, often one where the factory bleed point engine right rear is. The flow is from the right heater line (the one from the coolant output of the engine) to the left that goes into the block near the front right by the thermostat. On my setup, these are -6an (I think) and go to a tee behind the engine, and then an in/out line to each turbo.

Hope that helps. I've probably got pics on the build thread.

 

Twin turbo kits are great and they do offer a lot but if a turbo goes out or a waste gate needs servicing/replaced twin turbo kits are horribly difficult to install and maintain. But if you're committed than youre committed and make the most of it!

Yea, a JWT clutch / flywheel kit will hold into 700hp I believe

keep your injector duty cycle below 80%. Duty cycle is relatively linear between 10% and 80% and you definitely don't want to run out of fuel. Many many people undersize their injectors and end up 'buying them twice' because they want the full potential out of their build. I'd definitely go with a 1000cc if you want anywhere near 600hp

Stage 2 looks about right

If you fab your own down pipes I would try to go to a 3" slightly past the flange. I fabricated these for my greddy kit. Make sure you use a pipe with a healthy side wall … like Sch 10 (which is 1.1") I would not use anything thinner until further down the line and/or once it goes to 2.5" or 3". I went with 3" down pipes, to a 3" in / 4" out Y-pipe, and a 4" mid pipe/muffler

Check post #448 for my exhaust built for my greddy TT kit...
https://my350z.com/forum/forced-indu...n-build-9.html



Cool on the filters - try to get them away from behind the radiator.

Runner trim is the MREV2 Motordyne intake plenum...you can do this yourself with an angle grinder if you're handy! But Motordyne makes a great product if you buy theirs.

Good stuff! Great build plan so far!

 

Thanks aarrgghh, will have a look at your build thread to see the coolant line routing. I just had a look for the coolant inlet in the block, very convenient...will definitely be using that!

Yup, things are tight so maintenance will be difficult. When running lines and intercooler piping I'll keep ease of access top of mind.

Getting the 1000cc Injector Dynamics injectors, they seem to be well rated and don't compromise on idling quality

Thanks for the advice re downpipe & exhaust. Your build thread is a wealth of knowledge, been working through it for tips!

 

I like where this is going!

DO NOT PULL A ME...Its better to go to big with your fuel system than to small. I'm on my 2nd set of injectors and still they are to small. Get a set of 1000cc injectors that will provide acquitted fun on pump gas. If you are going to run E-85 1000cc will get you 500-600whp.

If you do It correctly, you can easily have a reliable 500whp care. Just make sure you have the gauges to monitor things. If you have the time/skill/money you may look at using a tablet as your infotainment system. You can monitor everything at once.

 

Thanks, I'm pretty excited bout my build too! Have 3 packages on the way from the US, NZ and Japan...so frustrating waiting for parts cos I wanna get started!

I read through your build thread Conway_160, some terrible luck you've had but your perseverance is admirable! I actually wanted to go for a ti supercharger setup initially so your thread was one of them I was scouring to plan my build. Unfortunately the lack of support for superchargers in South Africa killed that plan

Will definitely be over spec the fuel system so that I have room to grow

Re gauges, unfortunately I dont have an abundance of money, time or skill so its gonna have to be regular gauges! Besides the OEM oil pressure and water temp, I'm looking at aftermarket wideband and boost gauges. Anything else? Any brands you'd recommend?

 

what do you do in South Africa? Where do you live?

Are 350z common there? Did you have to import yours?

Pretty cool to have an international member doing an FI build!

 

I'm in Cape Town, born and raised. Its the second largest city in South Africa. I'm an Investment banker (Real Estate) but quite handy with a wrench: my dad's in the car business so I've been working on cars since I was really young!

South Africa has quite a strong aftermarket car community with German (VW, BMW, Merc, Opel) and Japanese brands (Toyota, Nissan, Honda) being most popular. Plenty of petrol heads here

While I wouldn't say they are common, there are a decent amount 350Z and 370Z's around. Unfortunately not enough to make it worthwhile for anyone to offer decent aftermarket parts for the Z, so everything needs to be imported or custom made.

We have a Nissan manufacturing plant here (for local and international market) so I think our Z's were made here. Auto manufacturing is actually a big industry here with most of the major players represented.

There are very little FI Z's around and even less that are done right, so pretty keen to see what the platform can do!

 

HI all

Over the past few days parts have been coming in and I've ordered everything so far except LSD. Once everything gets here I'll start the actual work on the engine and car...LSD will need to wait until my wallet recovers

Link G4X with IAT, Boost Control Solenoid, XS Loom extension and switch to switch between high & low boost maps plus HKS BOV came yesterday


Pistons, Rods and Wastegates came in last week




I also had some solid mounts made up locally. Also had them make up 5mm and 10mm spacers in case I need to lift engine to get the turbo to clear the steering U-joint



Got two more order to come in. The one is being held up as waiting for CJM Stage 2 fuel return system to come in (apparently CJM is working through a 3-4 week backlog of order) and the other should ship out next week when the Treadstone intercooler comes in

Been reading through other build threads and noticed that quite a few people put together their own motors. I've been toying with the idea of assembling it myself after its been at the machine shop.since while I'm not formerly trained, I am quite mechanically inclined and quite enjoy the challenge. While I havent ever worked on the internals of an engine, I did all the suspension work on my 350z and on my previous build, I custom made & fitted my brake system using another cars calipers. Do you guys reckon this is doable for someone which has been tinkering on cars for a few years now or should I rather leave it to the experts? To be honest, to get a mechanic to do it will be a fraction of the cost I spent on parts so cost isnt the issue..its more for the enjoyment of the build & the ability to learn a new skill. Any pointers?

Something else I'm toying with is to instead teach myself to weld and fabricate everything to get the turbo kit, etc to fit.

While engine assembly and fabing everything myself would be awesome, finding the time will be the major challenge...

 

Very nice!

My engine mounts are very similar and you'll like them that narrow. I decided on a 'drop-through' bolt design so I didn't have to raise the engine but 1/4" to get the mount in and out. If it's not too late, maybe consider having you center hole pushed through 100% and drop a bolt with a nut.

what treadstone IC did you go with?

Yea, rebuilding your block isn't hard if you have all the machine work done. Do you have a electronic copy of the factory service manual? I took some online courses through HP Academy and it gave me enough background to rebuild my block. I would schedule 4 to 6 sessions of 2hrs to 4hrs to rebuild. You'll need breaks between assembly tasks but generally speaking just take your time and read the FSM on the assembly section a few times before you take it on.

I spent about $2k USD on a middle of the road tig welder and I don't regret the decision one bit - Ive done enough side work that I've probably paid for the welder just from side work.

 

I actually took inspiration from your engine mounts Bealljk Worth considering the bolt through design especially since its TT and ease of access is NB! Will chat to the shop who made these and see what they can do

Was chatting to a custom shop here to get me a intercooler made but cost were getting out of hand because the core needed to be imported. Ended up going with the Treadstone TRTT9 as it seemed like the biggest I could fit in the space provided. Z1 gave me a great price including shipping since I had other stuff I was ordering from them. https://www.treadstoneperformance.co...cooler/p104596

I unfortunately only have the FSM for the HR motor, going to have to get hunting for the DE manual. I see Nicoclub has it so will register on their website and get access to the FSM for my car.

That sorta time is very doable for me, sounds like a plan! May start with rebuilding they motor and depending how it goes, see if I have the stamina to learn to tig & fab up everything

 

If you can't get the FSM, PM me your E-mail and when I get home Sunday I'll send it to you.

V/R
Jason

 

I have the DE FSM for an 03 in my dropbox if you need it … just shoot me a PM

 

Thanks for the offer guys, much appreciated! Managed to get hold of the FSM for 2003 350z...working through it now to make sure I'm able to put the engine together

 

Only thing I will say is be careful with O-Rings. Pay attention where they came from. Especially the oil pump and upper pan O Rings. No amount of RTV will keep that from leaking :-(

 

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like its coming from a man who's learnt that lesson the hard way!

 

Maybe :-(