NA Build Inside....Soup to Nuts :)
05-08-2008, 04:49 PM
#481
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=nu3CmQYFt4g
Quick cell phone video from the tuning at TXS a couple weeks ago...thanks Stan!
edit...give it a little while to upload
Quick cell phone video from the tuning at TXS a couple weeks ago...thanks Stan!
edit...give it a little while to upload
Last edited by Z1 Performance; 05-09-2008 at 04:38 AM.
05-08-2008, 04:50 PM
#482
Booooosstt!!
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Originally Posted by Z1 Performance
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nu3CmQYFt4g"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nu3CmQYFt4g" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
Quick cell phone video from the tuning at TXS a couple weeks ago...thanks Stan!
Quick cell phone video from the tuning at TXS a couple weeks ago...thanks Stan!
05-08-2008, 08:45 PM
#485
Z + Rear Seat
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Originally Posted by Z1 Performance
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
in terms of taking it out, its quite easy actually
Did you find a used dash cluster somewhere or end up buying a new one?
05-08-2008, 08:47 PM
#486
Z + Rear Seat
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Originally Posted by Kwame@z1
It might be more difficult on a G however.
Plus, the dash cluster for a Z probably wouldn't fit a G35, so I might need one from a G37. Probably not many of them floating around used yet. I have a feeling that a complete dash cluster might be a bit expansive new.
05-09-2008, 06:26 AM
#490
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I hope so too....time will tell - all I can do is try and see where it ends up.
we're going to go one step at a time...first some intake changes, then a retune, the headers later in the summer
we're going to go one step at a time...first some intake changes, then a retune, the headers later in the summer
Last edited by Z1 Performance; 05-09-2008 at 07:56 AM.
05-19-2008, 05:03 PM
#492
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Since life isn't always roses, I figured I'd post about the first real problem I've had with the car. Unfortunately, it had to start at ZDayz, which is, oh 900 or so miles from home lolol. This really is the first problem I've ever had with the car period since purchasing it in 03...so I guess it was just my turn.
We left LI early Wed. morning to head to ZDayz in North Carolina. The trip down was pretty uneventful - lots of cows, not much scenery but it was relaxing. The new stereo setup (the new hu, amp, etc) and new seats were really nice to have on the trip down. Around hour 10 into the 13 hour drive, I did start to notice a very very very faint "hiccup" while cruising around 3000 rpm in 6th (about 80 mph). Thought nothing of it though since I had been playing a bit with the utec map jermaine did while at TXS a couple weeks prior in the zero column, so I figured I went a bit too far with the adjustments, and I'd take care of it at ZDayz. I guess the handwriting was on the wall though! We stopped to get some food shortly afterwards, and when I started the car again, popped a CEL. Not too uncommon though, as the cams sometimes throw a P0300 code (random misfire). No issues with the car driving, and the front of the motor was dry, so I thought that we had finally solved that last small oil leak issue and just had a slight tuning issue.
On Thursday we washed the car early and got it ready for the first mountain run. I can't remember the name of the road, but its the run that starts right off route 143 and goes to the "5000 feet elevation" point. I noticed when we started getting on the car the VTC was not working at all. Had no ***** from idle to about 4000 rpm. Over that, and the car felt the same as always - quick, ultra responsive. The suspension was absolutely awesome at the event! We had just done a new alignment a week before, so this was the first test of some of the new settings, and I was looking forward to it. Despite the car being so low (more to come on that later!), it really performed above and beyond expectations. Some of the roads in and around the Dragon are rough, but it just soaked it up. Despite alot of the run being done in the rain on Thursday, at no point did I even set the TCS off (I had run with it on, just in case), nor did I even break the tires loose. It really was awesome. So, I figured without the VTC I'd have to just keep the revs up - no big deal. Made it up to the 5000 foot mark, in spirited fashiion. At the rest stop I popped the engine bay and bam...I see the oil leak starting again. Still not 100% sure where its from, but its driver side and up top. Doesn't look like the valve cover since the heads are dry. My best guess is the VTC solenoid "housing". I am thinking this is maybe related to the VTC acting up....would be a nice coincidence.
Anyway, drove the car back to the resort that night and parked it. I still was thinking it was a tuning issue as to why the car lacked down low grunt. Got up early and plugged the cipher in...P0011 - Intake Valve Timing Control. Hmm....never saw that code before, but that at least tells me the VTC isn't working as it should, and explains the lack of down low power. The oil leak was a bit more concerning as the car lost about 1/2 quart the day before, in very high rpm (4000-8400), higher speed (50-80mph on most of the runs we did Thursday). We obviously were far from home, so I didn't want to do any more damage, or make anymore of a mess on the front of the engine, and gave the car off on Friday - the weather sucked anyway, so no big loss.
I asked around to a few guys on Saturday about the code I was getting and got a variety of things to look at when I got back home to NY. I figured we would just drive the car back on Sunday as planned, not beat on it, and examine it once back at the shop. I topped the oil off on Saturday and just let the car sit.
So yesterday we leave NC at around 6:45 AM to start the long drive back to NY. A couple hours into the drive I start to feel that same bucking sensation at around 3000 rpm but this time its more severe. I pull over, make a couple calls, scan the code and this time I get P0340 - Camshaft Position Sensor. Once again, first time I've ever seen that! This is now in addition to the VTC code. I reset the codes, and just figured I'd drive as conversatively as possible back home. The car only would buck occassionally and seemingly only at one certain, light throttle position. We continued on, but the car got progressively worse. By the time we were at I-81 in Virginia/West Virginia I found myself having to totally modulate the throttle just to keep the car from bucking. Great.....we're only like 7 hours from home lololol. Since we were in the middle of nowhere, I decided to just continue on as best we could. By the time we got into PA, I had basically mastered the fine art of throttle pedal modulation. By this point the car developed a severe miss at various throttle inputs....occassionally running on 5 cylinders, then back to 6, back to 5, etc. It was definitely weird, and not something I've ever dealt with in a Z. We pulled the codes again and now we were getting the usual suspects (P0340, P0011, and now P0012. So, that confirms that its just getting worse....and believe me, driveability wise, you could tell easily. I felt like we were driving a bucking bronco!
The car seemed to stabilize at this point, not really getting any worse, just more of the same. I found as long as I kept revs between 3500-4000, I could at least feather the gas pedal to keep the car moving....so as long as we were moving, we should be ok..or so I thought. We stopped for gas outside of Phili and when accelerating from a dead stop from the gas station, it got even worse. Now I could not give it any throttle input at all in the lower rpms...it wouldnt even take it. By this point now, its like 9 pm, and both Kwame and I are tired as hell but eager to get to our homes and rest. Since nothing is opened anyway, we continue onwards. Oil pressure was good, gas mileage was surprisingly not as bad as you would expect considering how I had to drive the thing, and temps never went up...so I knew nothing cataustrophic would happen at this point - I figured we would just drive it as best we could.
More of the same as we get into NJ....finally we start seeing signs for NY, and though its getting late, we know we'll be home around midnight or so...not horrible all things considered. That is, till we get around Newark Airport. As we follow the signs for the GWB, we have to slow down for the upcoming toll plaza. By this point, the car really only wanted to be between 4000 and 5000 rpm - fun stuff! Any throttle input at low rpm was met with nothing..no response, just nothing. The idle was getting worse now as well, bouncing pretty badly. We finally have to stop as we enter the toll plaza with the traffic and it finally stalls. I pull over to the left side of the road and try to restart it, and it starts, then stalls. We let it sit for a little while to cool off, and retry it again, but same thing. By this time, its like 11:30 and we're both getting exhausted. I make some phone calls, and we decide its best to just tow the car back to NY at this point. 2 hours later (since I had no real idea where exactly we were and the tow dispatchers at midnight on a Sunday I guess aren't the cream of the crop), the tow truck finally comes, and despite the car being so low, it gets on unscathed (thanks to the attention the driver took). $586.00 later (sucks), the car is now back on LI and I guess the next step is to see what the hell is going on. I know there have been threads about these issues in the past on several build and non built engines, and it seems that Nissan even ackowledged a problem with the Cam and crank sensors to the point where there was some recall issued on them several years ago. While my car is an 04, I don't know what year the motor is, since it came out of a customers car (that ironically totalled his car on the dragon a couple years ago!). I want to say its either an 03 or 04, but I can't be sure. Anyway, all the sensors in question are the original ones that the donor motor came with, so they very well may be the ones affected by the recall that had been issued. Thankfully, the cam and crank sensors are in stock and not too expensive, so I guess we'll start with that tomorrow and take it from there.
Anyway, long post I know, and thanks for reading through it. I'll update it here again once we make some headway
Adam
We left LI early Wed. morning to head to ZDayz in North Carolina. The trip down was pretty uneventful - lots of cows, not much scenery but it was relaxing. The new stereo setup (the new hu, amp, etc) and new seats were really nice to have on the trip down. Around hour 10 into the 13 hour drive, I did start to notice a very very very faint "hiccup" while cruising around 3000 rpm in 6th (about 80 mph). Thought nothing of it though since I had been playing a bit with the utec map jermaine did while at TXS a couple weeks prior in the zero column, so I figured I went a bit too far with the adjustments, and I'd take care of it at ZDayz. I guess the handwriting was on the wall though! We stopped to get some food shortly afterwards, and when I started the car again, popped a CEL. Not too uncommon though, as the cams sometimes throw a P0300 code (random misfire). No issues with the car driving, and the front of the motor was dry, so I thought that we had finally solved that last small oil leak issue and just had a slight tuning issue.
On Thursday we washed the car early and got it ready for the first mountain run. I can't remember the name of the road, but its the run that starts right off route 143 and goes to the "5000 feet elevation" point. I noticed when we started getting on the car the VTC was not working at all. Had no ***** from idle to about 4000 rpm. Over that, and the car felt the same as always - quick, ultra responsive. The suspension was absolutely awesome at the event! We had just done a new alignment a week before, so this was the first test of some of the new settings, and I was looking forward to it. Despite the car being so low (more to come on that later!), it really performed above and beyond expectations. Some of the roads in and around the Dragon are rough, but it just soaked it up. Despite alot of the run being done in the rain on Thursday, at no point did I even set the TCS off (I had run with it on, just in case), nor did I even break the tires loose. It really was awesome. So, I figured without the VTC I'd have to just keep the revs up - no big deal. Made it up to the 5000 foot mark, in spirited fashiion. At the rest stop I popped the engine bay and bam...I see the oil leak starting again. Still not 100% sure where its from, but its driver side and up top. Doesn't look like the valve cover since the heads are dry. My best guess is the VTC solenoid "housing". I am thinking this is maybe related to the VTC acting up....would be a nice coincidence.
Anyway, drove the car back to the resort that night and parked it. I still was thinking it was a tuning issue as to why the car lacked down low grunt. Got up early and plugged the cipher in...P0011 - Intake Valve Timing Control. Hmm....never saw that code before, but that at least tells me the VTC isn't working as it should, and explains the lack of down low power. The oil leak was a bit more concerning as the car lost about 1/2 quart the day before, in very high rpm (4000-8400), higher speed (50-80mph on most of the runs we did Thursday). We obviously were far from home, so I didn't want to do any more damage, or make anymore of a mess on the front of the engine, and gave the car off on Friday - the weather sucked anyway, so no big loss.
I asked around to a few guys on Saturday about the code I was getting and got a variety of things to look at when I got back home to NY. I figured we would just drive the car back on Sunday as planned, not beat on it, and examine it once back at the shop. I topped the oil off on Saturday and just let the car sit.
So yesterday we leave NC at around 6:45 AM to start the long drive back to NY. A couple hours into the drive I start to feel that same bucking sensation at around 3000 rpm but this time its more severe. I pull over, make a couple calls, scan the code and this time I get P0340 - Camshaft Position Sensor. Once again, first time I've ever seen that! This is now in addition to the VTC code. I reset the codes, and just figured I'd drive as conversatively as possible back home. The car only would buck occassionally and seemingly only at one certain, light throttle position. We continued on, but the car got progressively worse. By the time we were at I-81 in Virginia/West Virginia I found myself having to totally modulate the throttle just to keep the car from bucking. Great.....we're only like 7 hours from home lololol. Since we were in the middle of nowhere, I decided to just continue on as best we could. By the time we got into PA, I had basically mastered the fine art of throttle pedal modulation. By this point the car developed a severe miss at various throttle inputs....occassionally running on 5 cylinders, then back to 6, back to 5, etc. It was definitely weird, and not something I've ever dealt with in a Z. We pulled the codes again and now we were getting the usual suspects (P0340, P0011, and now P0012. So, that confirms that its just getting worse....and believe me, driveability wise, you could tell easily. I felt like we were driving a bucking bronco!
The car seemed to stabilize at this point, not really getting any worse, just more of the same. I found as long as I kept revs between 3500-4000, I could at least feather the gas pedal to keep the car moving....so as long as we were moving, we should be ok..or so I thought. We stopped for gas outside of Phili and when accelerating from a dead stop from the gas station, it got even worse. Now I could not give it any throttle input at all in the lower rpms...it wouldnt even take it. By this point now, its like 9 pm, and both Kwame and I are tired as hell but eager to get to our homes and rest. Since nothing is opened anyway, we continue onwards. Oil pressure was good, gas mileage was surprisingly not as bad as you would expect considering how I had to drive the thing, and temps never went up...so I knew nothing cataustrophic would happen at this point - I figured we would just drive it as best we could.
More of the same as we get into NJ....finally we start seeing signs for NY, and though its getting late, we know we'll be home around midnight or so...not horrible all things considered. That is, till we get around Newark Airport. As we follow the signs for the GWB, we have to slow down for the upcoming toll plaza. By this point, the car really only wanted to be between 4000 and 5000 rpm - fun stuff! Any throttle input at low rpm was met with nothing..no response, just nothing. The idle was getting worse now as well, bouncing pretty badly. We finally have to stop as we enter the toll plaza with the traffic and it finally stalls. I pull over to the left side of the road and try to restart it, and it starts, then stalls. We let it sit for a little while to cool off, and retry it again, but same thing. By this time, its like 11:30 and we're both getting exhausted. I make some phone calls, and we decide its best to just tow the car back to NY at this point. 2 hours later (since I had no real idea where exactly we were and the tow dispatchers at midnight on a Sunday I guess aren't the cream of the crop), the tow truck finally comes, and despite the car being so low, it gets on unscathed (thanks to the attention the driver took). $586.00 later (sucks), the car is now back on LI and I guess the next step is to see what the hell is going on. I know there have been threads about these issues in the past on several build and non built engines, and it seems that Nissan even ackowledged a problem with the Cam and crank sensors to the point where there was some recall issued on them several years ago. While my car is an 04, I don't know what year the motor is, since it came out of a customers car (that ironically totalled his car on the dragon a couple years ago!). I want to say its either an 03 or 04, but I can't be sure. Anyway, all the sensors in question are the original ones that the donor motor came with, so they very well may be the ones affected by the recall that had been issued. Thankfully, the cam and crank sensors are in stock and not too expensive, so I guess we'll start with that tomorrow and take it from there.
Anyway, long post I know, and thanks for reading through it. I'll update it here again once we make some headway
Adam
Last edited by Z1 Performance; 05-21-2008 at 01:46 PM.
05-19-2008, 05:10 PM
#494
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thanks....it does suck, but, I don't think it will end up being anything too serious (fingers crossed). We'll just start with the simple stuff and take it from there.
05-19-2008, 05:11 PM
#495
F U StuLax18
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Man it was really disheartening to watch you guys end such a great weekend on a rough note. Glad to hear you guys made it back and looking forward to seeing it run again.
05-19-2008, 05:21 PM
#496
Ouch Adam. I feel horrible leaving ahead of you back in VA. 
I wanted to get in before it got really dark (didn't happen though) and I figured the car would be okay, not get worse. I took the GWB too -- sorry man. I didn't even say goodbye because you were on the phone when I decided to go ahead, but I told Kwame. Let us know what you find though.
I wanted to get in before it got really dark (didn't happen though) and I figured the car would be okay, not get worse. I took the GWB too -- sorry man. I didn't even say goodbye because you were on the phone when I decided to go ahead, but I told Kwame. Let us know what you find though.
05-19-2008, 05:22 PM
#497
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thanks guys! Mike/Dave - was good driving back, for at least the time that I could lolol. I'm sure we'll have it resolved soon and it will be back to normal. Even despite that, I had an awesome time with everyone this weekend!!!
05-19-2008, 05:27 PM
#498
Adam just realized something, after I was reviewing to see what you had done to the car -- you still have Fujitsubo Legalis R with the resonated test pipes? I have the same, with cats and was thinking about swapping to test pipes but wasn't sure how it would sound with that exhaust. If you still have that setup, I know what it sounds like now, and I will definitely take that. 
05-19-2008, 05:30 PM
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Originally Posted by Zmazing03
Adam just realized something, after I was reviewing to see what you had done to the car -- you still have Fujitsubo Legalis R with the resonated test pipes? I have the same, with cats and was thinking about swapping to test pipes but wasn't sure how it would sound with that exhaust. If you still have that setup, I know what it sounds like now, and I will definitely take that.