1cockyZ

iTrader: (46)

The cement mixer noise. Good to hear you got it up and going. I am in the same boat with not wanting to rev it out or go full throttle. I will wait for a couple hundred miles. How you making out with getting out all the bubbles in the cooling system?

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

Thanks man! I've started going full throttle a bit, only every once in a while, but I'm being strict about keeping the RPMs below 4500. The air pockets seem to be gone... the coolant temp is good and the heater blows hot air. And now when I open the radiator, the coolant level is all the way up to the top. I put 105 miles on it so far... hope to get 200+ this week so I can change the oil and do a lot of driving next weekend to get up to 1000. There's a track even feb 14 that i'd like to go to, but I don't want to push the engine too hard too soon. What do you all think, too soon?

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

150 miles on the engine and so far so good.

I'm starting to think about tuning, which will probably happen in a week or two, at Uprev. I'd like to get advice from you guys on what kind of ignition timing to run, as well as A/F ratios. I need to tune it to have as much power as possible while still being safe & reliable for track use -- which means 25 minutes of hard driving, full throttle much of the time, and in weather up to 100 degrees here in Texas. Since my Wiseco pistons are rated at 11:1 compression ratio, while stock is 10.3:1, is it possible I'd need to retard timing from stock?

Quick recap of my setup:
2003 VQ35DE, stock cams, built internals, Wiseco 11:1 pistons,
JWT pop charger
Crawford plenum
Berk high-flow cats
Fujitsubo titanium exhaust
JWT light flywheel
Koyo 54mm radiator and Stillen oil cooler
Uprev reflash

93 octane texas gas

thanks!

solidsnake

iTrader: (14)

Congrats!

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

you shouldn't need to deviate very much from a stock timing curve - the datalogs will tell you where the car wants to be, just go off that

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

I've got 800 miles on the engine, so far so good, as far as the engine is concerned.

I did have a problem last night. I was driving and all of a sudden all my lights went off and my car "reset" while I was driving. It did this about 5 or 10 times before I could stop. It turns out the positive battery connector had come loose from the battery and must have been making intermittent contact. Now my VDC and SLIP lights are on and won't go off. It's throwing 3 codes - I can only remember two right now - C1156 Steering Wheel Sensor Comm Circuit error, and C1109 Abnormal voltage. I think they're both on the VDC system. I also noticed my cigarette lighter power socket isn't working. I hope it isn't something serious...

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

Update time. It's been several weeks since my last post... the issue caused in my previous post -- the ABS, VDC, and SLIP lights all coming on -- turned out to be caused by the steering angle sensor! The voltage weirdness from the battery terminal coming loose must have fried it. I was lucky to find one from turbo-toys.com for $150 shipped overnight (list price is like $600).

The new engine now has about 2000 miles. I'm planning on getting tuned on the dyno at Uprev this weekend to make sure the tune is all safe for track use (25 minutes of *****-to-the-wall full throttle or full brake), and just to get a horsepower number. Then on Sunday I plan to hit a local track just to shake it out some more. I am also not happy to report I have gotten one speeding ticket on the new engine.

I got an oil analysis sample kit from Blackstone labs, which I'll probably use when I change the oil next. I know you're supposed to wait until 3700 miles... but I plan to continue getting oil analyses for a few thousand miles.

I realized that I hadn't posted much about the vendors I used to get my parts, so I wanted to take a minute to mention them, especially the ones on this forum.


Z1 Auto - I got the Wiseco Pistons and Eagle Rods from Z1Auto. After reading Adam @ Z1's awesome "Soup to Nuts N/A build" thread, Adam answered a few questions I had about an N/A build. Due to a mistake (probably on my part), I got the 95.5mm pistons instead of the 96mm ones. Adam took care of the problem by having the correct pistons sent directly from Wiseco's warehouse to me. Great service, great prices. I also recently ordered the 380RS accelerator pedal from Z1, which I received in the mail within a week.

Import Parts Pro - I got the ARP head studs & main studs from Kyle at IPP. Later I also ordered my JWT clutch & lightweight flywheel kit from Kyle. Very competitive prices. And Kyle even called to check exactly which version of the 350z transmission I had, because some 2003 owners have the new one and some have the old one, and the pivot ball thing won't if you get the wrong one! This saved me a lot of potential time & hassle. Great service here as well.

Forged Performance - The famous Sharif! I ordered the Cosworth rod bearings from Forged, and I also rented a torque plate so my engine machinist could use it during the cylinder boring/honing process. My engine builder took longer than expected with the torque plate, but Sharif was very cool about giving me an extra week around thanksgiving time. Once again, great service.

I also have to mention my friend Travis at my local Nissan dealer (Maxwell Nissan in Austin). I was probably in there 2-3 times a week during the build, getting various nut, bolts, revup oil pump, water pump, valve springs, etc. He's always patient and super helpful finding the right parts for the Z.


And I can't forget Uprev - where I got my Osiris reflash and upcoming tuning session from Jared, to get the full potential out of my engine & mods.

thekinn

iTrader: (18)

Thanks for the update. Good luck with everything. Subscribed

lanceccs

Could you give a estimate of the total damage done. $$$

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

I'd rather not probably $5k or more. I actually got a pretty good price on the machining work... and for the parts, the vendors above typically have the best prices (any of them). I also chose vendors based on who had stuff in stock at the time.

OCG35

iTrader: (2)

^^^ dirt cheap!

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

Update - Jared @ Uprev tuned my car today. The dyno chart is below. I had him give up 5-10 horsepower by tuning it a bit rich, and by not advancing the timing beyond stock, in order to keep the engine temps safe for track use. We tried advancing timing a few degrees but we heard pinging above 5500 rpm. (Remember I have 11:0 compression pistons, and stock is 10.3:1).

The peak numbers don't really matter, but they were 259 horsepower and 245 ft-lbs torque. Gas was 93 octane pump gas. The temperature was 80 degrees, humidity around 30%. Altitude around 700 feet.

Comments, advice, welcome as usual.

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

Another update!

I took the Z to Texas World Speedway this weekend. The engine had 2600 miles of break-in time so far. I ran about 7 sessions of 20-25 minutes each and the engine had no issues, and the engine (coolant) temperature gauge didn't get above 1/2 (it usually sits around 3/8). The outside temperature was as high as 80 degrees F. I wanted to datalog the coolant temp using Cipher to get a better picture of the exact temperature, but I didn't get a chance. I have another track even in about 2 weeks so I'll try to datalog it there.

I'm interested in installing an oil temperature sensor & gauge. Can anyone (Adam?) offer any suggestions? I'd like info on the easiest/best setup -- specifically, which sensor to get, which gauge, how is it installed, etc. I appreciate any feedback here.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

installing the gauge is really up to you - depends upon where you have room and want it mounted. The a pillar is always popular and a single a pillar pod is only $20

For the gauge, I'd personally recommend the AEM - it's a clean digital gauge, comes with a reliable sensor (and replacement sensors are readily available and not expensive), and is 52mm. Comes with both white and black face 'disks' included.

I've found the cleanest way to install the sensor is using the oil block adapter - screws right to the oil filter housing and gives you ports for 2 sensors (so you can add oil pressure down the road if you like)

Gives you a nice, clean, affordable and reliable setup

sfarrah

iTrader: (4)

How were your lap times at TWS? Shave any time off? How do you like the newly paved sections?

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

Thanks for the info Adam. I'll check out the AEM unit. I have the Stillen oil cooler kit installed (with the sandwich plate adapter thing) -- will this oil block adapter work ok with my oil cooler adapter?

The very first session out I did a mid-1:59 lap, which made me happy to know the car (and I) still "had it". I had hoped to break into the 1:57 range later, especially on sunday morning when it was cool. But it didn't happen.. with my students, passengers, traffic, etc, I only got 2 real clean sessions. We were fogged in for 2 hours sunday morning too. Mostly I ran pretty consistent laps around 2:01 avg (with a passenger).

I haven't had any problem on the newly paved sections in turn 7 & 8... I can't really say they're better or worse, either way.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

I'm not familiar with their kit - you would have to look at the oil block adapter they give you and see if it has threaded holes in it (yours would have screws or caps of some sort to prevent leakage) for aftermarket gauge sensors. If not, you'll have to drill and tap it

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

The engine has 3100 miles on it, and I had the compression checked, mostly just to see where it's at, make sure it was ok, see if the piston rings have seated, etc. The compression on all 6 cylinders was within 5% of 200 psi. I forgot the exact numbers, but I know the driver's side bank was all like 205 and the passenger side was around 197, 205, and something (I'll try to get the exact numbers). The spark plugs all looked okay (according to my mechanic), and they all looked the same.

The other reason I had the compression test done was because this weekend, while sitting at a stoplight a few times, the engine had an unusual vibration. A few times it seemed to "miss" and vibrate just once, then again a few seconds later, etc. One time it seemed to "miss" every time and was vibrating like it did when I had a misfiring cylinder (which turned out to be a cracked piston). I know the common causes for this can be a bad coil pack, or a bad injector, or a bad connection to either the coil pack or injector. Or, of course, low compression due to things like cracked pistons. With the compression test results, I can rule out compression. For now I'll keep an eye on it. Any ideas on this from anyone?

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

Bad coils are tough to spot. Sometimes you'll get a blister on the outside of the pack itself, but I've only ever seen this on high boost setups. Othertimes the coils just get weak, and you can measure the resistance with an ohm meter. the factory manual has the min and max limits for the resistance. I did this with my car and a bunch were out of spec so I just replaced all of them. Injector wise, could always try a bottle or 2 of Techron, etc and see if it clears up. If so, you can pick up a set of stock injectors cheap, and send them out to be cleaned/balanced and use those, and then use yours as emergency spares if you don't want downtime. I've got my stock injectors out of the car now if you need a set - I won't be using them anymore, I upgraded. I haven't seen any issues wtih the stock connectors on these cars thankfully, but that's another possibility. The last thing worth checking was something that I found on my car too - the alternator bracket was loose, causing inconsistant charging at low revs, and that caused an obvious mis-fire. Took us a while to track it down, but was easy enough to fix.

mthreat

iTrader: (16)

Thanks for the info, I'll check the resistance on the coil packs. They're 5 years old and have been through some hot times. My injectors, on the other hand -- I just had them cleaned & tested by RC Engineering when I did my build. The report that came back said they were all okay (after cleaning). I wonder how I would determine if I had a bad injector.. my A/F on both banks looks okay, but of course that shows the A/F for 3 cylinders, not just one.

I'll check the alternator bracket as well. The issue I'm having happens pretty rarely, and it may just be normal, but I don't remember it happening before.