Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

just a quick update on things that have been going on

Last weekend I had some free time, so I paid Jermaine at Turbo XS a visit down in Maryland. An uneventful 4 hour drive down...car gets the same gas mileage as it did when new (and unmolested), and was just a pleasure to drive down. Good music, and nice weather with a long distance drive = fun

Anyway, got there around 2 PM last Saturday, strapped the car down and made a baseline....306 whp. I have not touched the tune at all since it was done last July (when it made 303.9 whp). The only thing that has changed is I'm now on synthetic oil (20w50 Royal Purple XPR per my engine builders recommendation), and about 6000 miles on the motor total to date (motor had 900 miles on it the first time I dyno'd last summer). Anyway, Jermaine started playing with the tune a bit, and found I was quite rich up top (more than it needed to be). Played with the fuel and timing curves a bit, and cleaned it up nicely. My net result for the day was 320 whp (insert big grin!) Any way you slice it, a 14 whp gain in a given day from just further tuning, on an NA car, is a worthwhile trip in my book! Jermaine would know how many pulls we did in total (maybe 30?), but we didn't really take many breaks to let the car cool, which is another good indicator of real world conditions (plus its not an FI car, so the heat soak issue is not nearly as apparant). I had really looked forward to playing with the timing at this session, but it didn't prove worthwhile. Next time I promise to get some race gas ahead of time just to play around and see if the combo of the gas and increased timing nets any result. I was also hoping to have a Cosworth intake manifold to try too, but we know how that goes.....still no idea when they are coming back in. Oh well.

Afterwards we drove the car around a bit on the local roads to fine tune everything, and it pulled like a champ. Noticeably improved pull from ~4500 and up, and I was all grins! I don't have the scans, Jermaine probably does, so I'll post them whenever I get them. Torque didn't change from the original tune and is still right around 248-250 at the wheels. After we were all done, we grabbed some really good, authentic Mexican food at a local place, and I hit the hotel for some much needed rest around midnight. Next morning, woke up around 6 AM, got some breakfast, and started the long drive home. By the time I got home on Sunday and brought the car back to the shop, I was completely wiped out. But, it was good practice for the drive down to ZDayz in 2 weeks!

I've got some things in the works that we'll be doing very soon. My main goal right now is trying to further improve the top end peak of the car (I want solid GT3 level power, which I am closer to now), and most significantly, to improve the torque. Right now I am about 10 whp away from where I wanted to be when I started the project, so I'm really pleased with the results overall. I know one thing I will be playing with is some new headers, some hopefully in the next 3-4 weeks, we can get some time to have some new ones fabbed up, and see what we get! I'm thinking long tubes, with a nice merge collector. I also want to put a single cat into the Y pipe, because the smell from the test pipes is just too much for me. I've also got some plans to change things on the intake side of things as well, but more on that at a later date.

FWIW, TXS's dyno is calibrated to read exactly like a Dynojet (there are several in the area and #'s are literally within 1-2 whp among them all from what I understand). I post these #'s for informational purposes only, not to go off on a "which dyno is better" tangeant. One interesting thing we found is on TXS's dyno, my torque and hp curves fall off at redline where they didn't do that on the DD plots - not sure why this is, but was interesting to note anyway.

Anyway, that's it for now - stay tuned!

GTM

iTrader: (12)

Very nice Adam, 320rwhp N/A is more that what a Stillen supercharger makes most of the time

Congrats on this accomplishment.

Let me know if you want a stroker

-George

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

thanks George!

__jb

iTrader: (3)

Congratulations, Adam! I always look forward to your updates.

Most of us NA people would kill for a 14 horsepower increase.

I'm also interested in your comparison between HFCs and test pipes... I've been considering test pipes, but I really don't like the extra noise and especially don't like the smell.

Thanks for keeping us updated! Good stuff...

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

Thanks _jb!

I am not going to do dual hfc's - my idea is just to do a real long tube header, and put a single metal substrate cat in the single portion of the Y pipe (just before the midpipe). When we do the headers I'll look a bit more into it, but I think it should work well, and cut down on the test pipe stink ! Noise wise, my car really isn't loud at all - I think the long tubes are going to change that a bit though lol

Resolute

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the update Adam. Your build is a good inspiration, right up there with Ritchie's original dive into the built NA realm. It's exciting to see you make new advances into this area. 320whp is impressive.

I hope your long tubes will be made with an eye towards mass production. There are several people who have been pining for a decent set of long tubes with a good collector, but aren't prepared for a custom job. I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

You have relatively mild cams, and are using the stock VTC angles, correct? I'd be curious if any more torque could be found in your low to mid rpm range with the Nismo VTC units. Can the UTEC alter cam advance, or would you have to switch to something like the Haltech if you did try and change cam timing for more torque? Are you even planning on eventually changing the cam timing, or do you have something else in mind for bumping torque besides the long tubes?

Will

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

Thanks Will - with respect to the headers, if they work, and we can have them made within a reasonable cost, then absolutely we'll look to market them. I don't exect any of the stuff we're doing to ever reach significant volumes, but at the same time, if its worth me using it, and it can be done with a workable cost, then it's probably worth offering to those few who want to go the NA route!

As far as cam angles, I am forced to use stock angles and mapping since the UTEC has no provision for altering VTC. A Haltech may eventually find its way to my car...I will PM you

DaytonaRoadster

iTrader: (2)

kewl thread, i'd love an N/A build for my car

mchapman

iTrader: (1)

Hi Adam,

Have you considered trying out a water or water/meth or water/alcohol injection to simulate combined higher octane fuel to allow for a higher state of tune and hopefully output?

Obviously you would need to retune for but should in theory net some gains. Would be interesting to try out on a NA motor to see the results.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

Hi Murray - honestly, I'm not a fan of any such injection setups, since it just introduces another level of complexity that I don't want to have to deal with. I'd just prefer to tune it for just pump gas, and maybe play with race gas once in a while.

NA&CH

iTrader: (74)

Awesome Gains Adam. Wish I could have stopped by the shop this past weekend

Thanks for all the work you guys are doing

Chris
Tell Kwame to hurry up.

Kwame

iTrader: (78)

Not to go OT, I have to admit I had put my car on the lower teir of my priorities list during this past winter (very a$$ backwards I know but it was something that had to be done) but now I'm ready to get cranking on it. I will be channeling (sp?) tons of money into my project in the next few weeks so that I can get it wrapped up and start enjoying it. Now back to Adam's car...

ACEMAN

iTrader: (29)

Very nice Adam.... I bet you are truely happy with the setup... I know i would really enjoy driving your setup.. Would love to see how it would do in the 1/4

Just to see the MPH would put a grin on my face.

Congrats again
Todd

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

thanks Todd!

daytona350z

iTrader: (19)

hey adam,
just wondering if you are using an aftermarket tach or something, although i may have missed it somewhere. you think its possible to swap over the 07 cluster?

turismo

iTrader: (33)

Awesome numbers Adam. Congrats on the build.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

I am using an 07/08 cluster (9000 rpm tach)

__jb

iTrader: (3)

How hard was it to swap out the dash cluster? Did the '07-'08 cluster fit without any modifications? I'm curious if anything has to be changed to get the system to use the new RPM range. (8,000 - 9,000)

I have had a lot of my dash apart, but not much near the driver's side gauge cluster. My guess is that this was not a trivial swap.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

not hard to do at all and it plugs right in. However, it resets the mileage, so the dealer has to be consulted to flash the original mileage back to the cluster.

in terms of taking it out, its quite easy actually

Kwame

iTrader: (78)

It might be more difficult on a G however.