Hello all,
Just purchased my first 350z which is an 06 soft-top. The car is completely stock with the exception of the rims/wheels. I am currently looking for suggestions or threads that list out good beginner mods to the car. I am looking for anything that will help it run better and gain a few horses. I am not interested in super charging it or putting in a turbo, but if I can get a few horses through exhaust, intake, chips, I am all about that. Thanks in advance for any advice and I am glad to be a part of this community now.

 

Get lightweight wheels, will make the car feel more agile. Performance mods without a tune is mostly noise on the 350z unless +5 to +10 are your goals. The most noticeable mod in how the car gets off the line would be a rear diff and 3.7 or < final gears.

 

I agree get some new wheels, and some sway bars...

Then never take another picture with the top up again...

And enjoy.

Ps and get new diff bushings.

 

regardless of the performance aspect ... please please please get new wheels!!! Getting lightweight wheels will 'feel' like you picked up a few h.powers.

and forget anything about a chip - the best bet for tuning in your situation would be Uprev. None of the bolt-on mods will do much without a tune ... so that's a must.

a good 10k ft view road map -

any intake setup that can take it's intake charge from ambient air($400)
plenum spacer ($200)
a quality true dual exhaust($1000)
Uprev tune($750)
lightweight wheels ($1000 - $2000)

 

Thanks for the replies. The tires really make that much of a difference in how the car feels? What exactly is an UpRev? Sorry haha complete car noob, up until this point I have driven pretty much trucks in the mountains, and I just moved to PHX, AZ so I needed something small and fun. So you guys are saying a nice intake and Exhaust system like the (ARK Grip v2) wouldnt be worth the money and I wouldnt feel much of a difference is far as performance goes? The car just feels sluggish to me for some reason. I was always told 350z's have a lot of torque and felt quick but honestly mine doesnt. Maybe there is something going on with it. I had a P1084 code the other day so I replaced the intake valve sensor and that made the code go away and honestly made it feel like I had gained 20hp but then a few days later its seemed to have gone away again...?

 

Oh my god yes! You wont understand until you put lightweight wheels on the car. The best bang for your buck will be enkei RPF1s - I bought a decent set for $600 with junk tires... they are 19lbs and replaced wheels that were 26lbs +/- and it was night & day! Dont go any larger than 18" wheels.

another very good value are the version 1 'track' wheels or nismo wheels (if you can find them)...they are just as light as the RPF1s


it's a company that has many tuning solutions, they have pretty damn good customer service, and quite possibly best value for tuning the 350z...google them...


You'll only 'feel' a difference if you re-tune, YOU MUST RETUNE to realize the benefits of an intake/plenum spacer/exhaust work.

You may want to take it to a mechanic to have the car looked over ... might benefit from a MAF cleaning, new O2 sensors, check your cam shaft and crank shaft position sensors, remove the cats and have a look at them...and for the love of god!! get lighter wheels!!! this might be why the car feels sluggish!!

 

Okay well I will start looking for some lighter wheels then. I have some Foose 20" rims on there right now and I am sure they are super heavy. Hopefully I can sell them and get a decent amount to put towards some new rims/wheels.

When you say tuning, what exactly can they do to a stock car? I thought tuning was only if you have some kind of dyno system or chip installed?

Im glad you mentioned the Cam shaft sensors because this is what got me really confused during this whole process. The P1084 code says bad "exhaust valve timing sensor", however when I took it to the Nissan dealer to have them run their codes (regret), they said their tests indicated a bad exhaust cam shaft sensor. Now my question is a cam shaft/crank shaft sensor the same thing as a valve timing sensor? I have been told yes by multiple people that it is the same thing. Regardless, when I look on the back of the engine I see 4 sensors. A black and a green one on each side (passenger/driver). One is the exhaust and one is the intake correct? Are those the only 4 sensors I need to be concerned about and are those the EVT sensors that my bad code was pointing to?

Thank you again for all your help, I am learning a lot already!

 

A tune will give you some more hp/tq and open up the throttle a little bit more even with no breather mods. If you plan on modding it, then you would probably benefit the best from waiting until after that's done in order to maximize any gains.

With the mods that bealljk mentioned, you're not going to break 300hp, but you'll likely pick up somewhere between 15-25hp.

 

Def sell those wheels and look at something lighter!

here's a good thread on wheel weights from the BMW guys:
https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265756

To add on to what Heel said - Nissan coded/tuned the car as best they could for as many elevation/climates/seasons as possible and they also added a fair bit of 'tolerance'. A tune will specifically dial-in your car to your elevation/climate/location/etc. But even with $2500 worth of easy bolt on modifications the 20hp is about as realistic as it's gonna get.

I believe you can replace your cam shaft positions relatively easy yourself but google / search the procedure to familiarize yourself with the procedure.

 

Welcome and congratz! Discount Tire had the best price when I bought Enkeis. 18s are the best size for this car and there are plenty of used sets to be found.

 

Do a Wheel Swap and call it day...

Perhaps some Stock Wheels - Consider it...

Welcome !

 

So I am doing some research on the plenum spacer and have come to the conclusion on the 06 uprev motors, a plenum spacer alone isnt what I want. The best route is to get the MREV2 lower plenum correct? As the 06 fixed most of the problems that a plenum spacer resolves?

 

On your revup, I believe you can use the MREV2 with or without a plenum spacer or aftermarket upper plenum and you'll still see gains.

But yes, adding a plenum spacer alone without MREV2 would be worthless.

Adding MREV2 and a Motordyne 5/16" copper iso thermal plenum spacer would be a good combo.

 

^^^

I wouldn't say the spacer is 'worthless' by itself, but adding a little volume and less restrictive air-path will help with power output & efficiency ...

I think the big picture is that there are a handful of intake and exhaust mods, that, in conjunction with a tune, will increase output.

did you swap those wheels out yet??

 

Interesting... Motordyne's website says that MREV2 is a prerequisite to a plenum spacer or aftermarket upper plenum. Maybe just a good sales gimmick?

I have a friend who had a plenum spacer on his '06 revup without the MREV2 and he claimed he lost power. Of course, he had no actual dyno numbers and I think he was just talking ****, but who knows. lol.

I think he's still trying to work out his oil psi issue before taking off them shiny rimmmmzzzzzzz

 

who knows ... I think the big thing with the MREV is how they shaved the front of the lower down...

 

Back to the wheels discussion, what do you guys think about these? Also does that price sound reasonable?

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/p...635476637.html

 

omg yes...I'd pay that for those wheels.

I don't think people knock those off but it may be wise to authenticate them before you hand over cash.

look up what those wheels weight and verify those wheels came in 19"?? I don't know, I'm just asking??

Then look up (best place would be tire rack . com) what those tires weight and add the two...in person weigh the wheels & tires to ensure they are close to what the internet says for the combined weight.

If they are knock-offs/fake the wheels will be cast and weigh more and it'll be a giveaway.

Let us know what you come up with, especially the weight difference between your current setup and those nismos...

great find btw



price:
https://my350z.com/forum/wheels-and-...mo-wheels.html

 

More than reasonable! If those are legit, I may fly to Glendale just to pick those up for that price!!! I paid about $1400 for my set.

You have found a set of discontinued and very rare Nismo LMGT4s. I can verify they do come in 19" as I have a set on my Z



Even if they aren't your particular style, You could flip those for a quick buck.

 

Okay awesome, I am going to try and go look at them this weekend. Wish me luck, ill keep you guys updated.

On a side note, do any of you know if my big A** oversized wheels I have now would cause my "slip" light to come on? It seems like when I downshift hard-ish right now usually in second, my slip light comes on and the car "jutters" for a second.... Usually only when I am downshift or going around a corner (slowly mind you). I am definitely not losing traction.