Let me preface this with I am VERY new to the car scene. Several of my friends are car enthusiast and so I figured I'd give it a go because it seems like a good time. I like hands on and I dont mind doing any work that I can myself.

I bought a 2004 350z from a dealership here in Mississippi. It's the base model that's been heavily modded from the looks of it. From what my friends can tell the following is all aftermarket

• 440 Fuel Injectors
• Full exhaust system
• Injen intake manifold
• Underdrive pully's
• Carbon Fiber Hood
• Strutbar
• 19" wheels
• also, there's a fuel pressure gauge under the hood

Given all this intel we suspect that at one point th car was either super or turbo charged. The engine is throwing a code (I cant remember what is it at the moment), something to do with running rich, whatever it was prompted my friend to think...

Everyone says the first thing I need to do is get it tuned. Which for the Osiris software is $700 and a tune for me would be $300. I though about getting a can tune to save some money, but I dont know if that would be a good idea because of everything that I dont know that has been modded that I cant see, such as cam shafts, pistons, or O2 sensors.

My other option is to buy the software and with help of friends and forums, tune it myself. I've done some software engineering and so I understand the learning curve might be steep, but I'm sure I can wrap my brain around the complexity of it and I plan on taking it slow. For me this is more of a toy car than anything.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on whether or not my train of thought is on the right track? I'm here to learn.

 

the first thing is to ahve a machanic shop that is familiar w tuned cars and 350zs take a look at it ..

lots of leaps and jumps to conclusions in that post.
A dealer w BS you and say the NON OEM parts are the issue in a blanket statement.
Your codes need to be specific for us to help you, and no, you shoul dnot buy tuning software until the car is running properly as it stands.

Tuning software is to help cars increase power etc etc.. not to fix them when they are broken.

you have no location listed, so no one can yet reccomend a shop in your area.

 

I agree with bmccann,I am assuming you live in Mississippi.Don't
know what part.As I live in the SE region(Atlanta),I'm aware of most
of the tuners that specialize in our cars.Do not remember any in your
state.If you are near Nashville,Doug Crawford of Crawford Z has a
great shop.Better would be Z1 Motorsports near Atlanta.Perhaps
you could contact them to discuss your car.

 

Was the car throwing the codes while you did the test drive?

 

a) The tuner package is $700, the license is $300, add tuning time and it would come out to around $600-700 tuned by a shop. Depending on your location, go to UpRev.com and find a local reputable tuner.

b) You wouldn't underdrive with a supercharger, so it might have been turbod.

c) As others have mentioned, a tune helps lean out af ratio, gain power, etc. but not fix physical parts. Best bet would be to see what parts need fixing and replacing, it could be a physical rather than an electrical/tuning issue.

Opinion: Find the issue before looking into a tune.

 

I agree with everyone else, if it has larger than stock fuel injectors and an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator I can almost guarantee that it was boosted at one point, and might still have a tune on the ecu. It wouldn't run right with the 440's in there on the stock tune...

Find a reputable shop that specializes in VQ's and take it there.

 

I know it's been a while, but I finally had time to pull the OBD2 codes.

P1273 - Air Fuel Ratio Sensor 1 Lean Shift Monitoring Bank 1
P1283 - Air Fuel Ratio Sensor 1 Lean Shift Monitoring Bank 2

So i suppose I was mistaken, it's running lean not rich? Not even sure where to start troubleshooting this, I updated my location so if anyone knows of a shop I can get it looked at, that would be great. I'm not sure what it is I'm supposed to ask them to look at other than, hey it's throwing these codes.

The dealer I bought it from didn't have a clue, so I'm not sure what exactly has been done to the car other than the shiny bolt on pieces that I can see with my untrained eye, what should I be asking a shop I take it to?

@bmccann101 I agree i want to find out the problem first. But isn't it possible that tuning the car would fix the problem in the event that performance parts were removed and the car wasn't tuned afterwards? I understand it's a wild assumption, but I'm still curious.

@grimm66 yes it was throwing the code at test drive. The salesman BS'd me saying that nothing was wrong but that the the aftermarket intake parts often cause the engine to throw a code and couldn't be changed. I found out later he was full of ****. Much like bmccann101 said.

@Suwaidi The OSIRIS software comes with a license for $700 and the guys at Top Dead Center Performance in Mobile, AL said they could tune it for $300.

@seymore4 Agreed. doubt it's a stock tune, definitely think it's a performance tune with the boost kit removed.

 

Any suggestions?