mdrobe2

here goes- anyone know where i can get a good cover for my Z? What can i do to make my Z accelerate faster without voiding the warranty? how can i put a picture of my car on this site? I would like the photo to appear with my posts. anyone found a cool key chain for the Z? I saw one on the nissan site but delivery was 4-6 weeks. what have y'all been doing to customize the appearance of your ride? i do NOT want to look like some high schooler who spent all his lawn mowing money turning a civic into a half-a$$ ferrari. thanks in advance for your help and putting up with a newbie. mdrobe2

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Courtesy Parts has the Nissan car cover made for the 350Z. They also have a few nice keychains as well.

www.courtesyparts.com

As far as mods that will increase your HP but not void your warranty, you can go with a cold air intake (I have the AEM) and also a grounding kit (I have the z-extreme kit by InsaneAmine) and dual exhaust (I have the Borla). There are others, but that's what I have. A twin turbo or supercharger will give you big time gains but will obviously void the factory warranty.

As far as looks, you can do the carbon fiber emblem fillers on the Nissan emblems(from a member on this board who goes by Reen), or you could switch them for the "Z" emblems also from Courtesy Parts.

You can do any one of the dozen or so, body kits (mine is the NISMO kit).

You can put the fake "Chrome" door edge guards on your front grill. You can paint the engine cover and strut bar the color of your car.

Do searches on all of these but at least this will get you started.

Here is my gallery if you want to see what some of this stuff looks like. You may need to register over at 350zfrenzy.com to see these however. Take a look at that site too. It is a nice one as well:

Dr Bonz 350Z Picture Gallery

peptidbond

iTrader: (2)

Ok, one anwser at a time:

1. Buy your car cover from www.courtesyparts.com. They are a well known dealer in Dallas and they give good service (wow, that sounded kinda sick). At any rate, they have the cover and a lock for it at a good price.

2. Accelleration is linked directly to horsepower and torque. When you up these, you go faster. If you want to insist on zero warranty issues, only buy Nismo S-tune parts. Courtesyparts.com carries them for a decent price. Do not buy the R-tuine parts. However, most people here have been using products from other companies. The aftermarket product will not be covered under warranty. However, if you put a Injen intake (not nissan approved) on your car and you have a cylinder issue, the dealer must prove (by federal law) that the modification caused the other problem. In most cases, this is tough to do. However, some dealers don't understand aftermarket mods and will refuse to touch your car. To avoid all these issues and be totally safe, stick with S-tune parts. You won't get very far though. I use other parts like Borla and Injen.

3. Picture of your car. Look at my signature below. That image is hosted on a server for me (my server). I then placed a link to it in my signature. Find a place to host the picture. Then, click "control panel" in the upper right of this page. Now, find your signature settings and put a direct link to it in the signature box. I am not going to explain the technical details. It would take to long.

4. Courtesyparts.com has a keychain that looks like a Nismo S-tune coilover strut. I like it, you might too.

5. As for custom appearance, check out the exterior mods forum on this site. There are a lot of good things and images over there. You can find out more about body kits, lighting, and other mods. To avoid the high-schooler look (normally called ricey), my suggestion is to avoid crappy exhaust systems (sound like mouse farts), LED exhaust tips, STICKERS, and over-blown body kits. Choose subtle changes that are both functional and look nice. Choose a body kit the accentuates the Z and does not make it look oiver-blown or like another car.

I hope all of this helps. For those that disagree with my comments on what makes rice, I tried to be fare. These are only my views. Yours may differ, which is just fine.

silverstoned

Hey Peptid, just a question about what aftermarket parts will not void warranty. I don't know all that much about warranty issues and what-not, but I always thought that if a dealer approved and installed a specific aftermarket part for your car, then your car would still be covered under warranty. Is this true? Cause im gonna buy a Borla exhaust in the near future, and i DEFINITELY still want the warranty.

peptidbond

iTrader: (2)

Silverstoned,

First, Borla will cover the exhaust for 1 million miles. Nissan no longer will cover the exhaust or any issues that it cause. For example, lets say that the exhaust caused you idle to run rough (which it won't). The dealer could rightfully claim that you must pay to have that fixed.

Now, you will be hard pressed to find a dealer that will install a Borla exhaust and agree to cover it. Second, it is cheaper to install it yourself (just don't tell the dealer). In the future, if you have a warranty issue not associated with the exhaust (lets say the window), the dealer must prove that the exhaust caused the window issue to keep from coveing it under warranty. Obviously, the dealer won't be able to do this. Don't let them argue that the warranty law of which I speak does not effect your state. This is a federal law. I forget the name, but it is something like "someone and Moss Law".

As for dealer approved and installed, you right, this would not be an issue. However, keep in mind that the only dealer/Nissan approved parts are Nismo S-tune. However, go with the borla and be prepared to argue the above if necessary. However, if you have a window issue, just don't mention the exhaust to avoid a potential headache.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Magnusson-Moss

Gunnar

Hey Dr. Bonz. Where did you buy your paint? And did you have to add anything to the paint to allow for the engine heat? If so what was it? Was thinking about doing the same thing with the paint. I talked to a guy at Paintscratch.com and he said some stuff and they didn't make paint for sole reason. Thanks in advance.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

My body shop used the exact same paint they used to paint my body kit. They used the PPG paint system. Nothing special for engine heat. I have seen no problems with the paint whatsoever. Of course, I do have several layers of Zaino on the under the hood parts that are painted.

mdrobe2

everybody- i have typed two replies to your helpful info and this blanking site keeps logging me off by timing out or something. so much for me trying to give well though out responses to you all. i am going to try to hurry and get this in so i apologize for the brevity.
1. what is the diff between cold air and a regular k&n filter?
2. is the nissan cover lined? i heard a cover will scratch a car that has dirt on it when applying or removing said cover. how are you protecting the fragile paint on this car?
3. what is a grounding kit?
4. what are the est. hp gains from these different mods?
5. doc bonz- a dealership on veterans blvd in new orleans has a sweet cover for your grill that i bet you would prefer to those door edge guards. will look for it if you are interested.
6. what about exhaust? i love my current exhaust sound but would consider an after-market if the gains were worth it.
thanks everybody,
mdrobe2

Gunnar

Dr. B, PPG paint system?? wtf I have no idea sounds like Swahili to me Please Clarify.

peptidbond

iTrader: (2)

mdrobe2,

Here are some more answers for ya:

1. K&N only replaces the stock intake filter. This is fine since the intake on the Z is a good one. However, a cold air intake is a little different. It replaces the entire intake duct with one that stretches to a location where it can get cold air from outside the vehicle, such as in front of the radiator. However, some argue that the Z already has an excellent intake and this is not worth the money. It is your choice, but I would argue that the Injen intake is worth about 2-3 rear wheel horsepower. This is not much, but it does give a nice "whhoooosh" intake noise.

2. pass

3. Grounding kit. The ECU of modern cars must listen for the signal from sensors so that it knows what is going on. However, the ignition and sparks cause "noise" in the electrical system. This makes it difficult for the ECU to get a good reading from the sensors. Kinda like listening for a flute at a football game. However, you can combat this by improving the grounding system (negative feedback to the battery) of the car. The Z in particular is very troubled by a bad ground. At any rate, you simply place some VERY large wires around certain spots on the engine and it improves the ground. Now the ECU can hear the flute like it is playing lead at a concert hall. The technical term is "ground loop interference". I like the flute idea better.

4. HP gains. Depends on what you choose. The grounding kit gives negligable gains, but it does settle out the engine some. Intakes are usually 3-5 wheel HP. Exhaust really depends. It can be anywhere from 0hp-20hp. Borla (~6-8hp) and Injen (~10-13hp) are the preferred exhausts around here. A new ECU seems to be good for about 10hp. Headers, depending on brand, are usually good for anywhere from 6-15hp. I think the Nismo headers give around 10hp. These numbers are "by memory" and are intended as general range numbers. Specific application may very. Also, mods are not additive. An intake worth 5 hp and an exhaust worth 10hp does not equal a 15hp gain. It depends on how the combination plays together.

5. pass

6. See (4) above. Also note that exhausts are available from Nismo, Borla, Injen, Magnaflow, Power Enterprises, Amuse, Fujitsubo, and many others.

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

The Nissan Car Cover is lined.

The PPG system is a very popular paint system used by many body/paint shops.

They punch in the paint code of your car (in my case AX8 for Brickyard) and the computer spits out all of the colors needed (and in what proportions/amounts) that need to be mixed together to make that color.

Brickyard needed something like 6 different colors. The room where they had all of their paint was lined with literally hundreds of cans of paint in every color you could imagine. STILL, there was a special "pearl" color they didn't have and had to order for me to make Brickyard. It cost $104.00 for ONE QUART!

Gunnar

RG, thanks man. I checkd out this paintscratch.com and the color is the same. I also have a place here that I use that matches paint via a camera thing. So I will try and get it from them. Where are you? If your guy ships I will more than gladly buy from him. Thanks