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Just purchased this last night. 2005 350Z 6 speed with 77k miles. Has Akebono brake calipers, 370z wheels, tein coilovers, DC Sport exhaust, headers, and intake. Was looking for a fun car to learn how to drive with on a track. I bought a 2012 Tacoma after college and while I love that 4x4 more than anything, I always had an itch to get back into something quick and nimble. Requirements were rear wheel drive, manual, and decent amount of power with good handling, and under $6k.
Very excited to be here and learn from the community. I have been reading about how solid the VQ35DE/HR motors are but I don't know much else. First order of business is to get this thing tuned. The previous owner sold the UpRev tune, so it's on a stock tune. I don't have much experience with tuning cars, especially on this platform. Do you guys have any recommendations? There are some shops close to me but I'm not sure if I have to buy a tuner for them to use on my car or if I can just buy a "license" and have the shop tune it using that.
Down the line who knows what will happen with this car. I want to become a better driver and be able to push it to its limit as hard as possible. If this thing really becomes my track car, maybe I can really build it into something special. Hoping I can keep this thread and update as the car progresses just as a place to keep track of things.
First order of business is to get this thing tuned. The previous owner sold the UpRev tune, so it's on a stock tune. I don't have much experience with tuning cars, especially on this platform. Do you guys have any recommendations? There are some shops close to me but I'm not sure if I have to buy a tuner for them to use on my car or if I can just buy a "license" and have the shop tune it using that.
Welcome! It sounds like you got a good deal with low miles. You can go on UpRev's website and find a tuner close to you. You'll need to purchase the license and then they should be able to tune it for you on their dyno. I think the license is $550 - add an extra $100 if you want the ARC license (burnout mod, flatfoot shifting, etc.) and then whatever the shop charges per hour for time on the dyno. I think there's up to 5 different maps. On mine, the first 3 are the same and then 4 is 'valet mode' where it limits revs to 3K and 5 is an anti-theft map where it starts, but it bogs down constantly making it unable to be driven.
If you plan on performing additional breathing/engine modifications, it may be a good idea to do everything before the tune, so you won't have to take it back in the get reflashed.
Welcome! It sounds like you got a good deal with low miles. You can go on UpRev's website and find a tuner close to you. You'll need to purchase the license and then they should be able to tune it for you on their dyno. I think the license is $550 - add an extra $100 if you want the ARC license (burnout mod, flatfoot shifting, etc.) and then whatever the shop charges per hour for time on the dyno. I think there's up to 5 different maps. On mine, the first 3 are the same and then 4 is 'valet mode' where it limits revs to 3K and 5 is an anti-theft map where it starts, but it bogs down constantly making it unable to be driven.
If you plan on performing additional breathing/engine modifications, it may be a good idea to do everything before the tune, so you won't have to take it back in the get reflashed.
Enjoy it!
Thanks for the advice man. So you think having a shop do the tune after buying UpRev is worth it? I was looking at their website and it looks like they have a cheaper option where they send you a preset flash and then you install the tune yourself. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the advice man. So you think having a shop do the tune after buying UpRev is worth it? I was looking at their website and it looks like they have a cheaper option where they send you a preset flash and then you install the tune yourself. Any thoughts?
It sounds like you're referring to an e-tune which is available with some tuners where you either send them your data logs or a list of your modifications and then they send you a map to program the ECU yourself. That may be a cheaper alternative than the cost of dyno time. You'll still need to purchase the UpRev license in order to do that. If I were in your position, I would take it to a reputable tuner that deals with UpRev so you can buy the license there and they can flash and fine tune it on the dyno for optimal results since there's no telling what modifications the previous owner did before selling. However, if nobody is close to you, then an e-tune may be the way to go. There was a place close to me that does UpRev, but in the end, I drove about 3 hours to a specialty shop that mainly deals only with VQ engines to make sure I was getting the best results.
You also get a cool graph that you can post on here with your results
2005 350z
