Z34 NA Power
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
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
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
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.
Big Turbo Power!
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
Mr. Rob from Virginia sent us his Z32 for some big turbo loving. His Z came to us with stock turbos, stock injectors, stock engine, just about everything stock. It was essentially a Stage 3 Z. We performed a leak down and compression test on the stock long block to find it was in exceptional shape. Rob didn't plan to run race fuel but wanted big power on regular pump fuel which is 93 octane in Virginia. The stock long block was up to the task for this. We installed the following parts:
- SZ EXP-95 Turbo Kit
- 300Degree\SZ 850cc Fuel Injector Kit
- MSP Manifolds
- JWT 500 Cams, HD Valve Springs, & BDE Intake Cam Gears
- SZ 3" EXP Downpipes
- SZ 3" Test Pipes
- SZ 3" Single Oval Catback
- ASH 2.5" IC Piping
- ASH Massive V3 Intercoolers
- Z1 58mm Throttle Bodies
- Brake Man Big Brake Kit
Motor ready to be dropped in.
Massive Intercoolers and Brake Man parts installed.
Finally after completing the mechanical work, it was time to tune and make boost! These turbos are capable of easily making over 30+ psi on race fuel which can easily translate to 800+whp. For Rob, it wasn't about the maximum output but ultimate power on ordinary pump fuel.
590+ whp on pump 93 octane fuel on 17-19 psi. Not bad! Rob's original TT fuel pump is struggling to keep up at this point. With some cam tweaks we can raise the entire power-band and smooth out delivery.
Enjoy the ride Rob!
Vortech’ed G
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
Jason's G35 came to us for more power and in turn we obliged by adding a Vortech SC Kit. Fueled by 600cc injectors and Walbro fuel pump. HKS catback and stock cats draw out the exhaust. Power is transferred to the wheels through the stock 5-speed automatic with a valve body upgrade.
Our final tuned numbers when allowed to cool. After a couple passes it heat soaks quickly with power dropping to the 350s. The blue run is a minor bolt on equipped G35 AT. Huge difference in power all over the place!
Resurrected from the depths of despair
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
The following Z and its owner have been through trials and tribulations. Joe purchased this Z over 6 years ago as a simple (slow) and clean NA (non turbo for those who don't know). At the time there was no intention of making the Z "fast" but more of a show stopper. Joe set out acquiring bolt-ons for NA performance along with a plethora of aesthetic improvements. However as time past, Joe couldn't get the thought out of his head about the twin turbos. Two almost "mythical" units that could provide him a powerful Z. The lust of more power bounced through his head. Not knowing enough, Joe set out to research his quest for twin turbos. After much deciding and advice of other people, along with a good chunk of cash Joe purchased a front clip and a large assortment of parts to complete his project. The front clip brought a pleasant surprise for Joe as the engine had strapped to it not only twin turbos but an aftermarket set. That aftermarket set turned out to be a JDM Blitz Turbo Kit equipped with Triple K turbochargers. The kit came complete with cast exhaust manifolds and external wastegates. The transplant began at another shop 5 years ago and didn't fair well for the Z and Joe. The Z sat for many months untouched and when Joe received a call from the shop informing him the car was running his heart skipped a beat. Unfortunately the engine was running poorly, enough that it fuel hydrolocked and finally gave out. Crushed with a blow to his ego and wallet Joe set out to repair the engine and had this time another shop work on the Z. This time the car sat for almost a year without being touched. Empty promises can only go so far and they definitely won't get a Z running. Adding insult to injury during its stay at that shop parts went missing that yet again would have to be purchased for a second and even a third time..........................
Joe wrote me an e-mail sharing his story from the beginning. I took out any names of people and shops mentioned. In Joe's words:
"In 2003 I crashed my 1988 RX-7 so it was time to buy a new car, I had seen several 300zxs on the road for a long time, but they looked expensive and out of reach. One day I went with my friend to pick up his car at his mechanic's shop, and there it was........ at the shop a pearl white 300zx being worked on (beautiful ) so I started looking for joez, after about 9 months in April 2004 I found her. She needed some minor work and so started my project to fix her. I was working in real estate so I had plenty of money to take care of her, and started my car club (team shift) the same year and started to go to car shows, that's where the need of fixing her came in an order to compete. It started with an e-bay $40 cold air intake, clear turning signals, clear rear side markers, chip strut bar...etc.
At a winter 2004 car show (team transport / toys for tots) I won best of show ( proof of trophy up on request...lol ) so I got hooked.
In mid summer of 2005, after losing back to back in 2 different car shows to Robert's Red 300ZX NA; I decided to repaint her and fix her to the point where nobody could copy my designs. I decided to spend an unlimited amount of money to put it out reach and force my competition to spend more money in order for them to keep up.
These is where my trials and tribulations started, and very soon God let me know I was doing it for all the wrong reasons and the wrong intentions...let me explain...
After the inland empire show I went to a body shop for what I thought was going to be a $3500 paint job. It turned out to be a $18000 custom paint and body work. After it was done she went to a performance shop where the guy that specialized in Zs got deported and not even within half in hour after she arrived from the body shop, a guy that was working on transmission on a car forgot to put the e-brake on that particular car and it rolled in to my car. That shop never paid for the damage that amounted to $2500. Right away it went to another performance shop. At this place she spent 8 months and they couldn't get it started. Apparently this was due to them not plugging the ECU in properly (pistons no. 5 & 6 got flooded with fuel and blew a $4000 jdm front clip). I didn't even know about this until the car was towed to my house. I decided to start the vehicle after paying good money to discover the bottom end was gone and I had already paid them $4500 for the job. They also never paid for the damage and blamed another shop. I had to purchase another jdm short block for $1200 and from there I took it to an interior shop. Once again a simple $300 job turned into a $7000 job. At this particular place, the owner jerked me around for about a 10 month period. He ended up closing shop, took my money without ever telling any of his "customers". I showed up to find the gates closed and our cars locked. The owner was no where to be found. My interior never got done and about 80% of the interior was stolen including my stereo system and boost controller. Chalked up another loss of $6000 not including the stolen parts.
From here I went to a Nissan dealership where I thought it would get done right. The Z spent another 13 months and they couldn't get her started either. My battery, blow off valves, all the air conditioning pipes, radiator, etc. were stolen. Thankfully the dealer compensated me for the thefts.
From there it went to another shop where she spent almost another year and got taken for another $6000. The Z never ran right and then I finally decided it would go to Specialty-Z.
Here it was a bitter sweet experience. At the beginning they told me almost all the work performed was wrong with joez. After having spent all this previous "good" money on other shops brought me to a breaking point. I was ready to throw the towel in and set the car on fire!!!! However...... after going into Specialty-Z at the beginning of Jan 2011 and wrapping up mid summer 2011, I took her to Vegas and fell in love! Soon after Seb and Greg were done with her fixing all the previous work from other shops, the Vegas trip was the best road trip ever, she ran awesome!!!! All I can tell you is that Greg and Seb are angels sent by God to specifically work on Zs. There at Specialty-Z is where I fell in love with joez all over again.
Moral of the story is God has his time when He is ready to reward you, and He will !!!
Don't do things out of pride, but for the love of it.
Stay humble.
I'm sure I left a lot of other bad details and bad experiences, but who wants to remember that when she already found a home (Specialty-Z )"
Thx Seb
Thx Greg
God bless
Joe G
I wanted to share this with all of you because I have never heard of such a horror story. When Joe brought us his Z he was ready to give up and break down. His health had been greatly affected by his experiences. I was afraid to share more bad news the more I tore into the Z.
Thankfully this story ends very happily with Joe and his Z riding off into the sunset.........
Some pictures from some of the work we performed.
We fabbed up a custom set of downpipes and used Tial W\Gs to replace the old leaking Blitz units. The downpipes cone out to 3". We also routed the external wastegates back into the exhaust. You can only imagine what came off of this Z.
Joe brought us a Brembo kit that fit terribly. We had to machine the caliper bracket as the caliper didn't even come close to sitting evenly on the rotor. We replaced all of the adjustable suspension components with SPL units. A good majority of the suspension was improperly set and left loose ruining the parts that had been previously installed.
On his last major visit to us we installed 2.5" IC Piping, Massives, and Z1 TBs. The headlights, fog lights, and turn signals were sent off to Mike @ clearcorners.com. Mike does amazing work.
On Joe's first visit to us we got the Z running properly off the 9 psi wastegate spring. The car was in such bad shape it couldn't make a full 4th gear pull without cutting out. His existing AVC-R boost controller would also reset itself at any given moment.
On his second visit, we focused on adding more power now that we had a solid foundation to work off of. We added 2.5" IC piping, Massives, TBs, and a Blitz i-Color Spec-R Boost Controller along with our SZ Tune Switcher. This is a before and after with the above added parts.
Finally we tuned on 100 octane fuel. Since the Z has high flow cats we couldn't run it on Q16. Congrats to Joe on his beautiful show stopper Z.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Built Vortech Z33
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
Brandon's Z33 features a built up long block with forged rods & pistons, BC cams, Kinetix intake manifold, ID 720cc fuel injectors, PMAS, and a Vortech blower pushing 12 psi.
Tuned for 91 octane. 417 whp & 341 torque.
Titan Drop-In Air Filter
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
This 2010 Titan was dynoed to see how just dropping in a simple K&N air filter performs.
Blue run was on the OE air filter and red performed with the K&N air filter. Good gains for only an air filter. Mixture leaned out as a result of the increased air flow.
NISMO 370Z RC Track Car
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
Nissan is offering the 370Z track ready for the serious racer\enthusiast.
From Nissan:
If you’ve ever wanted to extend your love of the iconic Nissan Z-car from the street to the track, now is a good time to take action. Nissan Motorsports is now offering Nissan 370Z race cars for customer orders. The track-ready Nissan 370Z NISMO RC is based on the street legal Z-car, but is significantly lighter and fitted with a FIA-compliant roll cage, fire extinguisher, racing seat and numerous NISMO performance upgrades.
The Nissan 370Z NISMO RC has been designed to conform to International FIA GT4 and World Challenge GTS class specifications. With some modifications, the Nissan 370Z NISMO RC can also compete in the Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge GS class.
Weighing in at 2,954 lbs., the Nissan 370Z NISMO RC features NISMO race exhaust, NISMO tuned ECM, high capacity NISMO clutch, flywheel, engine oil, transmission and differential coolers and a Recaro racing seat with 6-point racing harness. A Sparco racing steering wheel and a revamped and race-ready carbon fiber switch panel are also part of the RC package. The 3.7 liter Nissan VQ37VHR powerplant is rated at 355 horsepower and 276 ft. lbs. of torque. Numerous hose and connector upgrades have been added to meet the rigorous demands of track use.
Nissan Motorsports provides an easy way to race its 370Z in a competitive professional racing series. Interested parties may contact Nissan Motorsports at 1 (888) 833-3225 for more information.
Twin oil coolers sitting below and race muffler.
Octane Vs. Boost
Posted by Sebastian Chacoff
I figured it would be a good idea to offer a post on boost vs. octane to help Z owners make educated decisions for themselves, regarding how much boost they can safely run.
Not all Z engines are going to have the exact same threshold for knock for a given PSI, but I can offer what the norm is based on tuning hundreds of Z cars, and tuning with a Knock detection system for some time now.
The following is the safe norm for most standard set ups that are properly tuned in the mid to low 11 to 1 air fuel ratio range with standard 8.5 to 1 compression.
91 octane 14 PSI
93 octane 16 PSI
94 octane 17 PSI
100 octane 20 PSI
These would be the average safe boost numbers for the given fuel octane with conservative ignition timing in the maps, running more aggressive ignition timing would require running even lower boost for the given octane.
Of course there will always be anomalies.......
I have seen where 10 PSI wants to detonate on 91 octane, I know a car that can only safely make 13 PSI on 94 octane, that is with only 13 degree's ignition timing in the top of the high load areas of the map. That car put down great numbers that appeared as though is was running normal boost and timing, this was because this car had abnormally high compression.
Some cases you can make higher PSI for the octane than the numbers I am offering, but they are not common, typically it is because the engine has lower compression.
It is possible to safely have a small higher spike as long as most of the boost is in the suggested range.
Many built engines need to run even lower boost levels than the ones suggested because they have higher compression. As the engines get older, some blocks have been decked more than once and some heads have been milled more than once, some piston companies are also making the pistons to slightly higher compression.
When tuning, several things are juggled to stay in the safe range that offers no detonation.
Compression, Boost, Ignition Timing, Cam Timing, backpressure, and heat are the main variables.
If the engine has higher compression, you will need to run less boost to keep from having detonation.
If the engine has less compression, you can run more boost. The final power numbers that are safe for a given turbo size and group of parts are commonly similar no matter how you get there as far as higher compression with lower boost or higher boost with lower compression. Basically you can only have so much pressure in the cylinder for a given octane fuel, before the fuel will ignite from heat.
Less heat from removing exhaust restriction can allow you to go a little higher, and more efficient intercoolers can allow you to go a little higher as well.
Bolting on bigger turbos move more air and allow more flow on both the intake and exhaust side, this allows more power at the same boost level. Bolting on a larger turbo does not allow you to make more boost with the same octane as a smaller turbo, at the same pressure you still have similar heat that wants to ignite the fuel at the same pressure for a given octane.
If a engine has experienced a lot of detonation, it will be more detonation sensitive, this is because detonation causes pitting of the heads and the top of the pistons. These small pits have sharp edges that glow red with heat much easier than a smooth surface. These "hot spots" will start detonation very easy and require running even lower boost to prevent detonation.
I use to believe it was safe to run about 1 PSI more than I listed, this was before I invested in a knock detection system.
After tuning with a knock detection system only a couple times, I can not believe I ever tuned without one.
With the proper tools, it is very easy to hear knock and know the real knock threshold for that cars set up. It is amazing how much knock can be present without being able to hear anything with the human ear, inside or outside the car in a dyno room.
I am offering the octane vs. boost guide based on what I have found to be average safe levels with tools that allow me to know if the engine knocks and not just a guess or thinking everything looks fine.
No matter what a tuner tells you, I would not recommend running higher boost than I have listed unless the tuner uses a knock device to know your true knock threshold.
You can also install a knock detection system and the system can be set up to pull timing if knock is detected like a lot of newer car systems.
Enjoy the boost, but keep it safe!