Archives for : General

Winters NISMO

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : April 16, 2012
0

This black Z34 NISMO came to us in need of a few things.  The owner complained of high oil temps even with his 25 row aftermarket oil cooler in city driving.  We designed and fabbed up a nice worry free solution to this.  We upgraded to a Stillen Gen 3 Intake, tuned the Z, and finally upgrade the rear end gearing to 4.08s.  Everything went smoothly and all the upgrades made nice improvements in the Z’s daily activities.

We had a few hurdles to conquer.  The first was getting by the front (NISMO only) brace.  You can see it in this picture running along side the front of the oil cooler and behind the fan.  Done with a little magic 😉  We used a very high quality SPAL pusher fan controlled by a thermostatic switch.  We opted to go with an 190 degree ON.  So as soon as the oil temps hit 190 degrees, the fan will automatically turn itself on.  We installed the temp sensor for the oil control directly into the oil pan (bung welded).

Looks almost factory.

Stillen Gen 3’s powdercoated wrinkle red (from Z1).

Short video of the fan running.

NISMO factory tune with only the Stillen Gen 3 for mods.  Already running extremely lean.  This would only get worse with an aftermarket exhaust.

Tuned run.

The owner of this NISMO is happy to report that with the e-fan mod the oil temps are much cooler.  Here’s what he had to say:

Wow. Just wow.  The fan works great! Driving around West LA yesterday in stop and go traffic the temp got to about 200. That is vs. the 220-230 that I would normally see in that traffic in 70 degree weather. At a long stop light the the temp (as you mentioned) went down. That little fan must really move some air.

The new final drive gearing also helped give more kick in the pants feel, accelerating the Z quicker.

ZONAZ-Crash

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : April 5, 2012
1

Over the past weekend John Garrison was racing his red Z32TT at the road course and ended up upside down.  Thankfully John came out with no injuries.

Here’s what John had to say about the incident:

hey guys,  wanted to let you know that I am ok, aside from some soreness.  Last session of the night event, got off line.  There was no run off area, just about 10 feet of sand then a tire wall.  The Z hit the tire wall and caught, then just launched it.  People say 3 1/2 flips, did not feel like it, crazy.  Ended up upside down, the partial roll bar keep the whole top of collapsing on me.  Won’t go back on track without a full rollbar.  Engine, drive train, exhaust all seem to be ok (still have to dig into it), have a rolling chassis that I am going to transfer everything into.

He also added:

no problem, stress the importance of safety gear if anyone goes on track.  I had a partial roll cage but will not go on track without a full one again even though I walked away from it without any injury.  thanks

Its a miracle John walked away clean.  Thank God!  Safety first.

 

A previous blog post about ZONAZ.

 

Rode Hard Put Away Wet

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : March 28, 2012
7

Cons’ 2nd Z and (track) beater is this NA Z32 that graces its presence on our blog.  Its a slicktop that serves its purpose as a road race Z so that his pretty white TT can sleep peacefully knowing no rock chips or deadly oil starving corners await ready to pounce.

On its first stop to SZ we fixed a major oil leak, rerouted\fixed his PCV system, added an Unorthodox Crank Pulley, HI OD Water Pump Pulley, fixed some suspension issues, and finally strapped it on the dyno to see what this little NA VG had in it.  Engine mods are limited to a catback, UD pulley, and pop filter.  Rotora Brakes, Powertrix Coilovers, strut tower braces (F&R) and a mix of other adjustable rods and arms round up the braking & suspension mods.

We made one pull and found that it was running extremely lean (blue run).  This confirmed my thinking on how far off the NA programs are off stock or tuned.  Fuel changes over the years has really adversely affected mixtures.  This is the 4th NA that’s come in this way.  Making 2 pulls we were able to richen up the mixture (red run) to be safer and add some much needed power that the VG30DEs need.  Any will help even if its +7 HP.  Ignition timing was not adjusted since this was a quick and dirty pull just to see how much power it made.  No intentions on tuning.  So there maybe some more left in it, however Cons will wait until he pulls the trigger on a set of cams and headers.  Stay tuned for more from this little NA.

Must….. not….. let….. the….. Honda …..pass……

Wilken Z

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : March 20, 2012
2

Paul came to us from Arizona to tune his beautiful red Z32TT.  Already sporting our SZ ECU Switcher we went to work tuning for 91 and 100 octane fuels.  An overview of this red Z’s engine performance mods:

  • IPP Built Engine
  • Stock Cams
  • Stock IC Piping
  • MSP Manifolds
  • JWT Sport 500 Turbos
  • 3″ Downpipes & Test Pipes
  • B&B 2.5″ Catback
  • Greddy Profec-B Spec 2 EBC
  • SZ Max Street Clutch & Flywheel
  • Nismo 615cc Injectors

First up is the 91 tune.  Strong #s for 91 octane, boost peaked to 16+ psi around 4400 RPM and tapering down as RPMs climbed.  Gotta love small turbo torque.

100 Octane tune for an impressive 500+whp.  Two runs are shown, the blue run it slipped the drum roller from 4100 RPMs to 5200 RPMs.  The cold tires couldn’t grip the roller very well with all that instant torque.  The red run displays a clean pull once the tires heated up.

Congratulations to Aaron!

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : March 1, 2012
1

Job well done and thank you for allowing us to provide you with our services!  Check out this month’s Grassroots Motorsports Magazine!

S14 VQ’ed

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : February 26, 2012
3

Tyler came back to us after having us tune his Z31 track car.  This time he brought us his newly acquired S14 with a built turbocharged VQ35DE.  This car was built with a purpose and made to hit the drift circuits and road courses.  The turbo portion of this car comes from the old 350Z\G35 Turbonetics Kit.  A custom intake manifold was made with top end power in mind.  Controlling this moniacal setup is an AEM Standalone.  We reached the limits of both the fuel injectors and fuel pump so we did what we could with what we had to work with.  We also found ourselves performing some wiring fixes before we tuned to get the car to run properly.

For a test we removed that terrible intake on the front of the turbo.

Here are some tuned results.  The red run was performed with that terrible intake I mentioned above.  This is how the car will be running for now on the circuit.  As it is the injectors and pump are on the raggedy edge.  For a test we removed the terrible intake and made a pull.  We changed NOTHING else.  We came up with a great difference.  Look at the boost curve!  This poor turbo is working hard to make power with the terrible intake.  For now it serves a basic function of a restriction.

Custom G35 Sedan

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : February 16, 2012
1

Vivek has one tricked out G35 sedan.  I have no pictures of the exterior but it is one cool show car.  This sedan is running a Vortech blower with all the trimmings.  Running a stock engine and base pulley size we were able to make 6 psi of boost and tune his ride for max reliability and power.

Pull out your sunglasses!

Z34 NA Power

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : February 5, 2012
0

Steve brought us his 370Z for some tuning.  We were impressed with the results needless to say.  Click on the graph to see it in its entirety.

Mods:

  • Stillen UD Pulley
  • Stillen HFCs
  • Stillen Catback
  • Stillen Gen 3 Intake
  • SZ Tuning

Super Street Z32

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : January 31, 2012
8

Over a year ago we took Danny’s Z32 from a tired Z to a refreshed pepped up Z.  We went with a brand new Nissan shortblock and Stage 1 SZ heads (KISS).  We added a set of MS Manifolds, JWT  Sport 530s, and our full 3″ SZ Exhaust from the turbos back.  Stock cams, intercooler piping, Stillen ICs, and stock TBs were retained.  We also added our SZ flywheel and Max Street Clutch.

The old and very tired engine.

The new engine coming along nicely.

Fresh valve covers and MS Manifolds 🙂  I didn’t take more pics of the build or even the car so this is all you get,  unfortunately.

Breaking it in on the dyno.  It should do better now that its all broken in since the past year.

Back for Boost

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : January 17, 2012
0

The last time we saw Jesse we had just performed a tune for his NA bolt-ons. Yearning for more power than the NA bolt-ons could provide we went to work installing a GTM Stage 2 Twin Turbo Kit.  The kit features the use of Garrett GT2860RS’ with .86 turbine housings.  An angle mounted FMIC, cast manifolds, internal wastegates, TIAL BOV, 2.5″ down-pipes that allow the use of standard test pipes or even the factory cat pipes for smog purposes.  We installed a Walbro 255 fuel pump and DW 600cc fuel injectors to supply the needed fuel.

We removed the factory engine oil heat exchanger and added a GTM 25 Row Oil Cooler.  We made our own custom mounts to clear the intercooler.

A look from underneath with the turbos mounted.

Here’s the graph once we finished our tune.  The blue run was Jesse’s best NA run.  Red is with twin turbo power.  A peak gain of almost 120 whp and 85 torque.  This is accomplished only on wastegate spring pressures that make anywhere from 4-6 psi throughout the powerband.  We stopped here so that the stock engine could live a long happy boosted life.  When Jesse’s ready for more power he can easily have it with the potential that this kit can offer.