Back in July we headed off to Vancouver, B.C. to meet up with our good friends.  We had been there before to do some tuning but this time we sure weren’t expecting what followed!  We took for the airport 7 a.m. Friday morning and arrived to Vancouver around 2 p.m.  I could not believe how “nasty” Canadian customs is.  I was interrogated by the first officer with a very bitter cold attitude (like your job?).  What are you doing in Canada?  How long will you be staying?  Where will you be staying?  How do you know the people your staying with in Canada?  Where do they live?  Just some of the questions I was asked.  Shortly after we pick up our bags and head to the EXIT, boy was I wrong.  I got picked out by another officer and was told to follow them into another back room.  Great, I had some tuning equipment in my bags not to mention we brought our AFR wideband stand that looked like a pipe bomb to an untrained eye.  Again I was attacked with 20 questions in under 20 seconds.  I thought a cavity search was next.  Lucky for me I didn’t have to open up my bags and I was allowed to enter the Canadian country.  BTW, vorpalz (Rob K.) has a very nice writeup with more pictures of our adventure, be sure to read and view it by clicking on this.

Beautiful view from the plane.

We were picked up by Rick H. and his lovely wife.  Grabbed a quick bite to eat and made it over to Meatman’s (Josh) home\workshop.  We knew Josh had been working frantically that entire week to get his car back on the road after eating a rod bearing (or so he only thought at the time).  Arriving to Josh’s property I was amazed of his “little” place.  Beautiful and a lift for his Z!

The Workshop

Josh’s Zed

Scurfie’s Silver Zed and McGuiness’ peeping in front of it.

Tom’s beautiful Z

Little did we know that this VG was going to be out in a couple hours.  Greg and I listened to Josh’s engine and it didn’t sound pretty.  Not only was there some nasty lower end noise it cranked over with low compression.  We put our heads together and decided to fix it with parts Josh had laying around.  Thus began our mad adventure.

Josh anxiously pulling his Zed into the workshop.

Josh had a good assortment of tools although there were plenty of times we wished we had something better to accomplish some tasks.  I learned a new name for “zip ties” as we commonly know them here.  In Canada they are also known as “zap straps”.  How freakin’ cool is that?

Pretty SZ 3″ SS Exhaust.

Rob confirming that his test drive after one of our fixes was successful.  Greg riding shotgun.

We all worked like mad men.  Determined to get Josh back up and running AND tuned the next day.  Greg and I were running on little sleep as it was.  We started around 6:30 that Friday afternoon and finished around 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning.  Luckily for Josh we were on a mission and he had a good looking (internally) short-block sitting around.  We transferd all of his parts including his old heads on to that thing.

So not only did it have low compression.  It had bad rod bearings and main bearings!  Way to go Josh!  He knows how to punish a VG on the road course.

Rick’s wife stuck around with the boys all night long!

Here you can see Josh (Nike shirt) looking for something.  What was I looking for again?  😉 McGuinness looking on.  There were plenty of times we faced big bumps compromising the end job.  With enough determination we saw it through.  By the time 2-3 a.m. hit I was beat.  I slept a few hours in Josh’s Zed.

My bed for a few hours.  I remember waking up while the car was up in the air and recalling the boys stabbing the trans into place.  WTF was that? (thinking to myself) Oh, yeah.

Around 6:30 a.m.  Buttoning everything up.  Boy it was a sweet thing to hear that engine crank over.  It sounded so healthy and quiet.  Everything had come to plan.  I don’t think anyone could believe it.

Greg making sure she’s pretty to see the light of day.  It’s all in the details.

Rick’s Zed

Josh looking and probably thinking to himself, how the hell?  Damn this rocks!  Greg and I went to our hotel room to take showers, ate breakfast, and went over to the dyno for another long day of tuning!

Did I tell you we were a little tired?

Some of the dyno results:

Josh’s fresh rebuild made a nice amount of power.  Sport 530 powered.

Scurfield’s Zed proved to have some gremlins that needed to be addressed before it could undergo more power.  Sport 700 powered.

Rob’s (vorpalz) Zed powered by Sport 530s on 91 Octane.

Tom’s Zed powered by 2871Rs on Q16.  Well done.

We finished up tuning 9 p.m. Saturday night.  We went to the hotel, ate dinner, fell asleep by 10:30 and woke up by 5 a.m. the next day to catch our flight back to L.A.  We love Zs, Zeds, can’t you tell?  Don’t forget your zap straps!

This is a rare find.  JDM RHD Slick Top TT from the factory.  Canadians do have it good.

TT.Netters may recognize the red car as being Jim Nichols Z32.  That would be Dave N.’s dad.  Jim, Dave, Cliff, and Ben all came down to get Jim and Cliff’s Z32s tuned.  Jim has a very clean Z with standard bolt ons and still has factory CAT pipes.  His basic engine mods are:

• Stock Turbos
• SZ Downpipes
• OE CAT Pipes
• 740cc Injectors
• JWT Single POP
• SZ Catback
• Boost Jets
• Stillen SZ Modded Intercoolers

Nothing crazy but makes for a nice solid Z car.

Cliff on the other hand has a 96 2by2 that he himself converted to a TT.  Cliff has our full SZ 2.5″ exhaust setup, Z1 Stage 1 turbos, Nismo 615cc injectors, larger intercoolers, etc..

Cliff’s car came in with a terribly lean AFR, this was corrected however along the way we suspected his VTCs were not working.  His low end power was lacking.  After some tests we concluded the valves behind the cams were MIA.  Cliff went back home, tore it down and fixed the problem to come back and get it finalized.  Here’s a graph showing the difference with VTC.

Blue was without VTC and red is with VTC.  Big difference!  Thank Nissan for implementing VTC for the VG30DEs.  One of the many advantages over the RB26.

Sorry for the lack of updates to those who keep up with my posts.  It’s been busy over here and dealing with personal matters leave hardly any time for our blog.  I am way behind and have lots of stuff to share from the last month or two.

To keep it funky fresh we dynoed Javier’s Z32 TT a couple months ago.  It was a pleasure to meet him and his family.  Javier is a Floridian who made the move over to non-humid SoCal.  I am not a fan of that Florida weather, sorry dad.

Javier has a very clean Z32, his mod list escapes my memory.  I’m pretty sure he has 2560R turbos.  Javier if your reading this e-mail me your mod list. UPDATE, his mod list is as follows:

Engine Internal Modifications

Block bored .020 over

Oversize Wiseco forged pistons

Rotating assembly balanced

Coolant galley casting flash removed

block is deburred

Port matched upper plenum

Port matched lower plenum

Mild Street ported heads

Engine External Modifications

Twin Garrett GT2560R Turbos

Greddy Intercoolers

HKS SSQV Twin Blow Off Valves

Labree Split Down Pipes

Z1 2.5″ Test Pipes and HKS Hyper Cat Back

Z1 Dual POP Charger Intake

Dual MAF Sensors

Z1 Polished Hard Pipes

PCV ‘s Relocated

Unorthodox under drive pulley

Custom  aluminum radiator

Custom dual oil coolers

Nismo 740cc injectors

Engine Management

SZ Tuned ECU

Apexi AFC Neo

Greddy profec B spec II boost controller

Greddy turbo timer

Tuned for 91 octane (blue) and 100 octane (red)

My long time friend had his Straman upgraded with larger turbos (2560Rs) a few months ago and after installing the Selin Dual POP kit we went to work on tuning his beast.

Some may not know but Straman was a company in SoCal that took cars not offered in covertible versions from the OEMs and made them convertibles.  1990 seems to be the only year Straman rendered their services on the Z32 TT.   Hydraulic actuated top and some very good bracing make this a Z32 TT feel better than the OEM Verts.

Jason’s Straman comes equipped with:

• 2560R Turbos
• SZ\300 Degree 740 Fuel Kit
• Stock Block & Heads
• MSP Manifolds
• SZ 3″ Downpipes
• SZ 3″ to 2.5″ Test Pipes
• SZ 2.5″ Single Oval Tip Catback
• 2.5″ I\C Piping
• Ash Massives
• Z1 58mm Throttle Bodies
• Selin Dual POP Kit

Peak boost hits by 4400 RPM (17 psi) and tapers down to 16-15 psi the rest of the way.  444whp and matching torque.

Stay tuned for 100 & Q results!

Joel from NorCal has a very unique Z32.  No, it doesn’t have a single turbo or RB26 swap.  It posses two angry turbochargers strapped to the front of the ever loving VG30 and an intercooler sitting where the radiator usually does.  It uses the TDM Works Front Mount Turbo, V-Mount Intercooler, and Radiator Kit.  Fuel is pumped through by 2x Z32 TT fuel pumps and sprayed out by RC 1000cc injectors and BDE Rails.  All of this bolted to a built bottom end and controlled by the factory ECU with some SZ love.

All of this adds up to a wild ride down the highway.  It does come with its lag but one must pay the price with a setup configured like this.  This baby churns out 17-18 psi on 91 octane.  Is does this with a very efficient setup.  For now its only making “low” boost to finalize engine break in before we see 30+ psi.  This is when the real party starts on turbos this large.

Video of it in action:

3076 Beast on the rollers.

We tuned it all up for a healthy 560+ whp on our lovely CA 91 octane.  A little nitrous shot down low would make for a hairy ride down the 1\4 mile.

Stay tuned for more action.