Zswickliffe's Build
Zswickliffe's Build
Hey guys! Figured I'd open this up and get some stuff started. Going to have a different post for each mod with a detailed write-up and review for reference as well. A lot of the stuff has been done already and I will be back-tracking but I didn't want to start a build thread and have it go too slowly.
Let me first do a huge shout-out to my sponsors and thank them for all of their help and support! Cheers to making great friends and spawning new ones all for the love of cars. Go follow/like them on facebook!!
National Speed - www.nationalspeedinc.com | https://www.facebook.com/NationalSpeed
ROTORPROS - http://rotorpros.net/ | https://www.facebook.com/rotor.pros
ZSPEED PERFORMANCE - http://www.zspeedperformance.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/ZSpeedPerformance
Z1 Motorsports - http://www.z1motorsports.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/Z1Motorsports
MISHIMOTO - http://www.mishimoto.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/GoMishimoto
Follow me
On instagram: @zswickliffe
On YouTube: YouTube.com/zswickliffe
On Flickr: Flickr.com/zswphotography
Now, onto the pictures. Here are a few pics I snapped the day I bought my car and washed her for the first time:
And here's how she sits today:
Allow me to utilize this section to explain my mindset and goals as well as give a little personal information to help you understand why I may have chosen to go a certain route over another. First of all, I'm extremely function oriented. The last, and I mean VERY last thing I will do to this car is body work. I already have it planned out what I want to do but I have plenty of other ideas that I would rather put time into first so that is why the exterior has had pretty much no change whatsoever.
Secondly, my goal with this build is to prove that you don't have to turn to ebay or knockoff parts to complete an affordable, QUALITY build. That word will be used often, get used to it. All of the sponsors listed above have one thing in common, they offer quality parts and services for our vehicles, USE THEM. Seriously guys. National Speed is one of the best shops in the country, I can't praise them enough. The people there are incredible and they really know their stuff. The guys over at Rotorpros are really helpful and they truly do want to get you the best deal they possibly can and they carry some really good products. Again, ZSpeed is an amazing aftermarket supplier that offers quality parts such as their undershroud replacement and has an excellent line of clutches if you've never heard of them you need to go to their website right now and check them out. Z1 is a competitor with some respects to ZSpeed but they offer a unique variety of parts and do some of their own design work as well. They just came out with their own 2-piece rotors for the akebono brakes!
I've been going back and forth as to whether or not to do this section but I figure what the hell, I have nothing to hide. My name is Zach - I'm almost 23 years old, soon to be mechanical engineer and I've been living in Florida for the past 5 years or so. Ever since I was a really young kid I took things apart just for the sake of seeing what was inside. Sometimes I managed to get it back together, often times I didn't. That drive to constantly know how things worked and what things did has pushed me to be where I am today. I am currently a senior mechanical engineering student and I'm busting *** to graduate, currently working two jobs to make this build thread happen.
My theory when it comes to this build (as mentioned before) is function over form. My engineering mindset and years of theory constantly reminds me that something is not worth doing if there is no measurable gain to be had. This was my mindset when choosing every component and I have even managed to do so on a limited budget without buying cheap parts. You have to be savvy and make use of the marketplace and most of all, be patient.
That's it for now... More pictures and goodies on the way from black Friday so I will be updating this soon!
Let me first do a huge shout-out to my sponsors and thank them for all of their help and support! Cheers to making great friends and spawning new ones all for the love of cars. Go follow/like them on facebook!!
National Speed - www.nationalspeedinc.com | https://www.facebook.com/NationalSpeed
ROTORPROS - http://rotorpros.net/ | https://www.facebook.com/rotor.pros
ZSPEED PERFORMANCE - http://www.zspeedperformance.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/ZSpeedPerformance
Z1 Motorsports - http://www.z1motorsports.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/Z1Motorsports
MISHIMOTO - http://www.mishimoto.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/GoMishimoto
Follow me
On instagram: @zswickliffe
On YouTube: YouTube.com/zswickliffe
On Flickr: Flickr.com/zswphotography
Now, onto the pictures. Here are a few pics I snapped the day I bought my car and washed her for the first time:
And here's how she sits today:
Allow me to utilize this section to explain my mindset and goals as well as give a little personal information to help you understand why I may have chosen to go a certain route over another. First of all, I'm extremely function oriented. The last, and I mean VERY last thing I will do to this car is body work. I already have it planned out what I want to do but I have plenty of other ideas that I would rather put time into first so that is why the exterior has had pretty much no change whatsoever.
Secondly, my goal with this build is to prove that you don't have to turn to ebay or knockoff parts to complete an affordable, QUALITY build. That word will be used often, get used to it. All of the sponsors listed above have one thing in common, they offer quality parts and services for our vehicles, USE THEM. Seriously guys. National Speed is one of the best shops in the country, I can't praise them enough. The people there are incredible and they really know their stuff. The guys over at Rotorpros are really helpful and they truly do want to get you the best deal they possibly can and they carry some really good products. Again, ZSpeed is an amazing aftermarket supplier that offers quality parts such as their undershroud replacement and has an excellent line of clutches if you've never heard of them you need to go to their website right now and check them out. Z1 is a competitor with some respects to ZSpeed but they offer a unique variety of parts and do some of their own design work as well. They just came out with their own 2-piece rotors for the akebono brakes!
I've been going back and forth as to whether or not to do this section but I figure what the hell, I have nothing to hide. My name is Zach - I'm almost 23 years old, soon to be mechanical engineer and I've been living in Florida for the past 5 years or so. Ever since I was a really young kid I took things apart just for the sake of seeing what was inside. Sometimes I managed to get it back together, often times I didn't. That drive to constantly know how things worked and what things did has pushed me to be where I am today. I am currently a senior mechanical engineering student and I'm busting *** to graduate, currently working two jobs to make this build thread happen.
My theory when it comes to this build (as mentioned before) is function over form. My engineering mindset and years of theory constantly reminds me that something is not worth doing if there is no measurable gain to be had. This was my mindset when choosing every component and I have even managed to do so on a limited budget without buying cheap parts. You have to be savvy and make use of the marketplace and most of all, be patient.
That's it for now... More pictures and goodies on the way from black Friday so I will be updating this soon!
Last edited by zswickliffe; Dec 9, 2013 at 02:20 AM.
Reserved for misc.
12/07/13 UPDATE
ZSpeed Undershroud installed
The old hardware (top) and the stainless hardware kit (bottom): it comes with 10 new clip-nuts (not sure the proper term and I already installed 8 so that's why only two are in the pic) and 10 new stainless button-head cap screws.
Four of the bolts are pre-installed with a spacer on the other side and those remain attached to the undershroud. The remaining ten bolts can be installed loosly as they are slotted to allow custom fitment (seen in pic)
This is great because as you can see mine was almost all the way to the side of the slot, it never would have fit a hole on the other side. ZSpeed thought of everything it seems...
Looks amazing installed. Seriously a high quality piece and it shows. If you don't have one you need to pick one up! Free shipping the entire month of December for any order over $200!
I thought this was a cool Easter egg... The light on the ceiling casts a cool shadow.
12/07/13 UPDATE
ZSpeed Undershroud installed
The old hardware (top) and the stainless hardware kit (bottom): it comes with 10 new clip-nuts (not sure the proper term and I already installed 8 so that's why only two are in the pic) and 10 new stainless button-head cap screws.
Four of the bolts are pre-installed with a spacer on the other side and those remain attached to the undershroud. The remaining ten bolts can be installed loosly as they are slotted to allow custom fitment (seen in pic)
This is great because as you can see mine was almost all the way to the side of the slot, it never would have fit a hole on the other side. ZSpeed thought of everything it seems...
Looks amazing installed. Seriously a high quality piece and it shows. If you don't have one you need to pick one up! Free shipping the entire month of December for any order over $200!
I thought this was a cool Easter egg... The light on the ceiling casts a cool shadow.
Last edited by zswickliffe; Dec 8, 2013 at 06:19 PM.
Reserved for intake/exhaust
12/07/13 UPDATE:
Cold Air Intake
This is a bit of a retroactive update since this was the very first modification I did to the car, however, this is my current intake setup. It is a K&N FIPK Cold Air Intake.
Notice that it seals around the filter against the hood. Yes, it actually does seal. I think this is a crucial thing to look for in an aftermarket intake. So often I look at intakes and see people just sucking hot air in from the engine bay. I still have my OEM intake so maybe I'll run a before vs. after and post my results from the dyno.
The first thing you'll notice is the sound. Oh boy the sound. It makes the engine sound so much more alive instantaneously. Worth every penny just for that if I'm honest, I just love that VQ growl.
Fitment was great, no issues whatsoever.
Definitely would recommend it for anyone looking to buy an intake that wasn't flashy but got the job done. I picked mine up on sale for $179 I think.
Plenum Coating
I had my intake plenum both inside and out coated with a thermal dispersant. The inside is an oil shedding oil dispersant while the outside is just a "Brown Sugar" colored thermal dispersant. The idea here was to take as much temperature out of the intake air as possible before it entered the engine.
Plenum Spacer
I almost don't even need to write anything here but I figured it's worth mentioning that I'm running a motordyne 5/16" plenum spacer and I definitely noticed a bit of a difference after installation. I still need to get a tune so I can post dyno numbers... soon.
Exhaust
I'm currently running a Momentum Performance Cat-delete y-pipe - huge shout out to National Speed for the amazing hookup and all the help and cool gear they've sent me.
Paired with the Momentum Performance single exhaust
And let me tell you... It's quite a noise.
12/07/13 UPDATE:
Cold Air Intake
This is a bit of a retroactive update since this was the very first modification I did to the car, however, this is my current intake setup. It is a K&N FIPK Cold Air Intake.
Notice that it seals around the filter against the hood. Yes, it actually does seal. I think this is a crucial thing to look for in an aftermarket intake. So often I look at intakes and see people just sucking hot air in from the engine bay. I still have my OEM intake so maybe I'll run a before vs. after and post my results from the dyno.
The first thing you'll notice is the sound. Oh boy the sound. It makes the engine sound so much more alive instantaneously. Worth every penny just for that if I'm honest, I just love that VQ growl.
Fitment was great, no issues whatsoever.
Definitely would recommend it for anyone looking to buy an intake that wasn't flashy but got the job done. I picked mine up on sale for $179 I think.
Plenum Coating
I had my intake plenum both inside and out coated with a thermal dispersant. The inside is an oil shedding oil dispersant while the outside is just a "Brown Sugar" colored thermal dispersant. The idea here was to take as much temperature out of the intake air as possible before it entered the engine.
Plenum Spacer
I almost don't even need to write anything here but I figured it's worth mentioning that I'm running a motordyne 5/16" plenum spacer and I definitely noticed a bit of a difference after installation. I still need to get a tune so I can post dyno numbers... soon.
Exhaust
I'm currently running a Momentum Performance Cat-delete y-pipe - huge shout out to National Speed for the amazing hookup and all the help and cool gear they've sent me.
Paired with the Momentum Performance single exhaust
And let me tell you... It's quite a noise.
Last edited by zswickliffe; Dec 13, 2013 at 07:44 AM.
Look forward to following your cars progress. Already clean car with quality parts on it.
If you are going to have bolt ons I might consider moving it to the 350z Tech: NA Builds threads. You may get more hits and looks in that section than media share.
Look forward to updates!
If you are going to have bolt ons I might consider moving it to the 350z Tech: NA Builds threads. You may get more hits and looks in that section than media share.
Look forward to updates!
Last edited by Nismo350z#0310; Dec 3, 2013 at 04:01 PM.
Trending Topics
I did! Way back when I first got my z. Then I kept in touch and asked a lot of questions. George and Jordan were great guys and we hit it off. Ended up buying the rest of the exhaust at a discounted price and they sent me a ton of goodies as well. Thus the relationship was formed. They really are an incredible group of people and my car is hitting their rollers as soon as it enters NC.
Got some awesome goodies in the mail!!! Huge shout out to Joe at ZSpeed for the undershroud, can't wait to install it this weekend. High-res pics and write-up inbound. Also picked up a Griot's DA for $89 on amazon with 3 polishing pads ($200 value) during one of their lightning deals so I'm psyched to give my baby a really good polish.
Waiting on the rest of my sponsors to get their decals in...
Waiting on the rest of my sponsors to get their decals in...
Last edited by zswickliffe; Dec 5, 2013 at 03:14 PM.