Archives for : General

Dean M. (Trust Your Lust) Part II

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : December 19, 2012
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In our last post about Dean M. we had done a few upgrades and talked about the future.  Well, the future has come and gone.

We did add the SZ 3″ 4-Bolt Down Pipes to the existing JWT Sport 500 turbos (still on stock exhaust manifolds), SZ 3″ Aluminized High Flow Cat Pipes, SZ 3″ SS Dual Tip Catback,  Ash Intercooler Piping & Massive Intercoolers, Z1 58mm Throttle Bodies, Nismo 740cc Fuel Injectors & 300Degree Fuel Rails.  The old Greddy Profec-B was also replaced in favor of the Blitz boost controller.  We also went in and replaced any and all parts that were in the way to upgrading.

I didn’t take any pictures due to time constraints (again).  In any case I think the results were superb from before and after.

The before and after on 91 octane.  Look at how much more response we gained down low (blue run)!  The turbo is able to make more boost from 4200RPM and below.

Same thing with 100 octane.  The new run (blue) can now more effectively make use of the higher boost pressures.  Whereas before power didn’t go up dramatically with the increased pressures.  Love the HUGE torque gains!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

SR 240Z

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : December 4, 2012
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Spike’s 240Z limped its way to us after so many months of poor work from other shops.  At first look this Z didn’t have the original inline engine nor did it even have a 6 cylinder in it.  Spike had it converted with the “lightweight” SR20DET.  My good friend “Rawb” argues that a 4 cylinder should not inhabit the engine bay of a Z, I disagree in this particular case.

Upon arrival we found many issues to work through.  For starters the wiring doing for the EFI harness was non-existent so we went to work getting this all squared away (thanks Juan!).  We replaced the old skool HKS injectors in favor of new Nismo 740s.  We ditched the Nissan ECU, installed and tuned the PS1000 Haltech.  In doing so we got rid of the MAF in favor of a MAP sensor especially since there was an HKS BOV on the Z, added boost control, and the Haltech I\O Box.  We also had the exhuast changed out for a full 3″ single out and upgraded\replaced the inlet and intercooler piping.  The air filter was moved out away from the engine bay and up front in the bumper area.  The SR retained the factory turbo.

Part of inlet and outlet piping disassembled ready for upgrading.  We added a catch can and insulated\wrapped the breather hose running near the exhaust manifold.

The old HKS injector(s).

A shot of some of the old crush bent intercooler piping that was also undersized.

The Haltech ECU tucked away.

Here’s the upgraded intercooler piping.  We had it made in lightweight aluminum along with the inlet piping.

There was no way we could get a baseline pull on the Z when it came to us due to poor running, we tuned the Z first on low boost, the old intercooler and inlet piping, and old 2.5″ exhaust.  This netted us 219 whp at 9 psi and a drivable car (green run).  Once the upgrades to the intercooler, inlet piping, and exhaust were done we retuned for higher boost.  285 whp on 15 psi (stock turbo) and 91 octane.  The stock turbo is the biggest restriction on this engine now that the breather mods have been done.  You can see it boost creep at the higher RPMs, the wastegate flapper door can’t let enough exhaust out.

SZ: After Hours

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : December 1, 2012
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Every vehicle is in need of some sort of help and here at SZ we are willing to help those who need it.  SZ’s very own LJ needed this and more.  His vehicle comes in the form of an 88′ BMW 535, 3.5 liter inline-6.  Many months ago we dynoed it to get a base line and were horrified with the outcome.  The engine struggled to make power and ran extremely lean.  Lean enough to melt pistons.  LJ and I put our heads together and modified his Bosch Motronic ECU to give us the ability to tune it.  Before we did this, the air flow meter (flapper door style) was tweaked to help get mixtures a tiny bit closer.

 

While on the dyno we fabbed up a way to install a Z32 POP Charger to remove the factory air box.  We will later on down the road install a heat shield for the filter.

The baseline in blue.  Just terrible.  Look at how choppy the graph is.  It struggled many many years this way.  Once we got our hands on it we had this inline engine purring and making alot more power!  See the difference on the tuned run (red).  Needless to say this is an entirely different car to drive.

VQ Powered Sand Rail

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : November 4, 2012
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Eric brought over his VW Sand Rail powered by a VQ35DE that is street legal!!!  We helped fix a throttle issue with the engine & ECU to get this thing making power after we tuned it.

Eric was surprised that his massive wheels, tires, and drivetrain didn’t soak up more power from the VQ powerplant.

GTXed-60 Style

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : October 3, 2012
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Kevin took his 95′ SMZ to another level this summer.  We pulled his low mileage stock motor out to add a set of JWT GTX 60 turbos, MS Manifolds, BDE (Low Pro) Motor Mounts, Nismo 740cc Injectors, Ash Inlet & IC Piping along with Massive Intercoolers, SZ 5-Bolt 3″ downpipes, SZ 3″ test pipes,  and SZ catback, Blitz sbc -iD Spec-R Boost Controller.  We also added our map selector to switch between tunes.

This was our first encounter with a GTX and although it was the same size as the regular GT2860RS turbo we would be able to get a better idea of how the GTX compressor wheel stacks up against the regular compressor wheel without changing its size (turbine wheel remains unchanged).

 

 The GTX 60 modified by JWT to accept the Z32 style 2-bolt inlet flanges.  A perfect time to upgrade to Ash inlets to allow it to breathe better.  You can also see the anti-surge is retained even when modifying the inlet.

A set of Ash Massive (v3s).  The factory washer reservoir fits (late style models).

Equipped with the 90-s style in car cell phone.  Balla!

22,196 original miles.

Mounted to the manifold\engine.

We modified the inlet pipes for the larger inlet flange provided by JWT.  Ash makes the inlets modifiable by using a smaller inlet that can be opened up for larger inlet turbos.

Ready to go to war.  We retained the factory TBs on this build.

91 octane tune (this one gets away with high boost).  Boost being equal (14-15 psi) to its counterpart (standard GT2860RS) we found that there wasn’t any difference between the two turbos.  We compared the results to a few other Sport 700 (GT2860RS) builds we had done in the past.

Q16 tune, this is where the GTX shined.  It blows past the standard 60RS!  This was done on a completely stock engine (no cams, no head work, nothing!)  Typical big build (built engine, cams, etc.) 60RS’ make anywhere from 630 to 698 whp.  So the power output of this wheel at high boost levels is most impressive (on a stock engine to boot).

The cherry on top.  A Safeguard to protect the investment.

Vinny Ten Speaking the Truth

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : September 2, 2012
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I felt such an overwhelming emotion to post this on our blog.  Vinny hits it right on the target.  Something all good shops deal with.  People with unrealistic expectations and “professional” shops or that kid next door working out of his garage whoring out this market.  You people know who you are.

Enjoy:

http://www.thatvideomagazine.com/newyork/autos/vinny-ten-racing

 

HKS SC’ed 350Z

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : August 26, 2012
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The owner of this 350Z originally came to us with full bolt-ons and we tuned him for 265 whp (blue run).  Several months later he got the itch for boost and added an HKS SC kit.  We then went to work and tuned it (red run).  All on a stock engine.

 

Return of the Sutton

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : August 14, 2012
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Bill came back to us after a year of running around on this setup: click me!

This automatic Z32 is now equipped with GT2860RS turbos, MS Manifolds, SZ 3″ 5- Bolt Down Pipes, and SZ 3″ to 2.5″ Test Pipes.  The stock “JDM” cams remained the same.  The methanol system was deleted in favor of race fuel.

On 91 octane fuel compared to his best on his stock turbos.  Some low end was sacrificed for top end power.  One thing holding back the low end and top end is cams and cam tuning.

His old meth on 91 octane (blue) versus his now Q16 tune.  Great numbers for a stock-cammed automatic Z32!

Pro Charged G35

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : August 8, 2012
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This G35 has a built engine and an ATI Pro-Charger turning 12 psi.  There are plans for a GTM TT kit to make more power than what the ATI can offer at 12 psi.

G37 Sedan Header Results

Posted by : Sebastian Chacoff On : July 30, 2012
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We took a 2009 G37 Sedan, did a baseline dyno with no other mods and added a set of Stillen headers.

Some nice gains were had by just adding the headers, no tuning was done.