2003 Nissan 350Z: How Nissan should have done it

[old school]

mrmephistopheles gave me permission to post my build thread. Is it complete? No, but my builds rarely are finished. There is always something to improve upon. Having said that, most of you will call this car done...or overdone. LOL. So without further a due..

Before I get to the pics and mods, here's a little history.

I bought this car in 2005 with 11k miles on the clock. Started off with a few bolt ons (i/e/h/plenum spacer/utec/test pipes/brakes/nitrous) and a decent stereo system. Drove her everyday and put roughly 16k miles on her before I decided to go balls outs. Breaking a ring land on 150 shot didn't have anything to do with it

Started on the motor, of course. Fully Built motor, sleeved, fuel system, twins, HKS VPRO, and all the supporting mods to go along with including changing the exhaust out, etc. Within the following months I started tackling other areas of the car like suspension, wheels, plethora of tires (drag, street, road racing), interior finishes, and subtle exterior mods.

Today, really the only things I have left to mod are a couple of suspension components and bigger brakes. I also have a few body kit pieces (AMUSE) that I have yet to paint and install. Still up in the air if I want to even put them on as I love the sleeper /oem look. So here you have it, start to finish (almost)...my build.

350Z Twin Turbo Build - Start to finsh pics - Boosted Imports.com

OLD SCHOOL's SLEEPER.

Under The Hood
FULLY Built Motor
Darton Mid Sleeves Bored .030 over (decked, honed, bored, line honed, bearings)
CP pistons 8.5:1 compression
Carillo Rods
Ferrera 1mm oversized Valves
Titanium Valve springs
Valve locks
Spring locators
5 angle valve job
Tomei 268 cams
Balanced Crank
Revup oil pump
Nismo thermo
HKS metal head gasket
Custom L19 Studs
ARP Rod Bolts
ARP Main Studs
Walbro 255 fuel pump
RC 750cc injectors
Fluidamper Harmonic Crank Dampener
Cooling mod (DA Tank, lines, fittings, etc)
Greddy Twin Turbo Kit (turbos, BOV, piping, etc)
Greddy Intercooler
Greddy PRofec B-specII Boost Controller
SGP Racing oil cooler
SGP Racing fuel return system
Aeromotive FPR
SGP Racing Wastegate reloction kit with open dumps
SGP Racing 3" downpipes
AAM Dual 3" exhaust
Cusco air deverter plate
Nismo Oil cap
Samco Hoses
PWR Radiator
Carbonetics Triple Disc Clutch / Flywheel
Nitrous Express wet kit
Nitrous Express purge solenoid
NOS intercooler spray bar
Zex Bottle heater
Dynotune Nitrous TPS/Window switch

Suspension/Brakes
HKS Hipermax III coilovers
Custom front upper a-arms
Eibach Sway Bars (front and rear)
SPL Rear Camber Arms
APS strut tower brace
Stoptech Stage 2 Brakes
(Axxis Pads, Steel Braided Lines, Slotted Rotors, Race fluid)

Interior
JVC DVD audiophile headunit
Farenheit 7" screen in navigation cubby hole
Infinity Reference components 6.5"
Infinity Reference coaxils 5.25"
Diamond Audio (2) 8" subwoofers
Memphis Audio 1000D (1100 x 1 @ 1 ohm...running at 300 x 2 watts @ 4 ohm)
Phoenix Gold ZX475 titanium amp (75 x 4 @ 4 ohms) OLD SCHOOL Phoenix Gold.
Defi Boost Gauge with Defi Controller
Aspec Titanium Shift Knob
FCON VPRO Stand alone EMS (with Knock AMP and Wide band)
Uprev Osiris reflash on ECU
Blitz Throttle Control (no more drive-by-wire lag)
Hidden NX bottle in gym back - switches in ashtray
Clifford Alarm with remote start

Exterior
S2000 Antenna
Custom fender emblems
2008 LED Tail Lights

Wheels/Tires
Rear setup
Drag -BFG Drag Radials (275/35/18) on Stock 18s
Street - Street tires BFG KDW (255/40/18) on stock 18s
5zigen fn01r-c 18x9.5 Toyo Proxy T1R (285/35/10)

Front setup
BFG KDWs (245/35/18) on stock 18
5zigen fn01r-c 18x8.5 Toyo Proxy T1R (255/35/18)

About to put some Toyo R888s on the 5zigen and use them as a track wheel

As she sat with bolt ons and nitrous...Old Rims too...


Sleeved block in the bag...woot!


bagged up heads with tomei cams...




motor on the engine stand...being put together.






progress on the engine stand...



its in!!!




Break in Tune after the rebuild....(UTEC EMS)


HKS VPRO ems on 13psi months after break in.


More recent photos...rims that are on it now. These are my road racing wheels. Still have stock 18s with DRs and street tires on another set of stock 18s.










And a video of me terrorizing the track at MSR Houston for Texas Z Party last year....extremely fun event!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1KglDDprG0

Comments welcome...

[Brian]

You should put a VeilSide front lip on there. The stock bumper looks ... too boring.

[old school]

Originally Posted by Brian

You should put a VeilSide front lip on there. The stock bumper looks ... too boring.

I agree. One reason I have a Amuse front bumper in the garage. it hides the intercooler well tho.

[deolio]

eh... not for this forum...

[mrmephistopheles]

Originally Posted by deolio

eh... not for this forum...

Shush .

[mrizsuki]

nicely done,, post the pics after the rest of the job is done

[old school]

Originally Posted by deolio

eh... not for this forum...

Did i screw up again and put it in the wrong place?

[sirfallsalot243]

Originally Posted by old school

Did i screw up again and put it in the wrong place?

Just ignore the haters and the forum sticklers.

Thats a beautiful car that deserves mad props on any forum, in any subcategory.

I think my biggest complaint is the red samco hoses. Which says something if thats the ONLY thing i can find that I dont like. Car is straight sex, man.

[franklin93zx]

Looks great! but i think it needs a little more pizzazz

[Bushido]

how do you like that jvc stereo?

[93nismo]

i love z's.. looks great man.

[JDM Sil4ty]

great build, better front bumper imo .. lovin the TT's

[irax]

Originally Posted by old school

Did i screw up again and put it in the wrong place?

no, some people for get there is a Z in zilvia.net
keep it up! I love the fact that its stock looking

[old school]

Originally Posted by sirfallsalot243

Just ignore the haters and the forum sticklers.

Thats a beautiful car that deserves mad props on any forum, in any subcategory.

I think my biggest complaint is the red samco hoses. Which says something if thats the ONLY thing i can find that I dont like. Car is straight sex, man.

Yea, at first I didn't give two shits what color the hoses were, but now I'm kinda glad I went with red. Gonna use that color as an accent on the car when I start focusing on minor details like calipers and seats. It looks bad now, it'll look better later

Originally Posted by franklin93zx

Looks great! but i think it needs a little more pizzazz

yea, I get that alot...but the suprised look on the retired guy's face when I leave his Z06 makes up for it.

Originally Posted by Bushido

how do you like that jvc stereo?

Not really a fan of JVC at all...Always looked at them as a budget stereo. This unit has changed my mind. I had an alpine dvd in it at first that failed the day i put it in. I needed something that could play dvd's and had an video in for future HKS CAMP2 install. This had it along with a ton of other features...and is the best sounding head unit I've had to date. And I can take the face off and you'd never know I had 2 amps, 2 screens, subs, etc etc.

[Enna]

I would just get better sized rims and lower it a bit. But that's me. Otherwise its pretty sweet. Love the fact that its stock looking.

[old school]

Originally Posted by Enna

I would just get better sized rims and lower it a bit. But that's me. Otherwise its pretty sweet. Love the fact that its stock looking.

yea, I would love to lower it a bit more...unfortunately this car is engineered for one exhaust pipe (2.25") and I have (2) 3" pipes running underneath her...AAM's exhaust doesnt have the best build quality either. We had to modify it because the flex pipe drug on the ground. I have about 3 inches of clearance from the ground...damn pipe hits speed bumps and all kinds of shit.

bought the rims because they are small (18s), light, and will fit any size BBKs. Hard to find on the 350Z. Only other wheel I can think of that will fit are the Enkies everyone uses for road racing. fang/mesh style. FP01s or something like that.

[drift freaq]

Nice car, though I have to admit, I was thrown off by your title about how Nissan should have done it.

You do realize, that close to or 300 HP out of a NA 3 liter V6 is pretty damn impressive numbers to begin with?

I laugh at how people scoff at those numbers these days. Shit a LS1 puts out 350HP only 50 HP more but its a 5.7 liter.

So yes its cool that you twin turbo'd it, with a fully built engine but get real, how Nissan should have done it?

Price point my friend, they could never have brought in at the price they did, with a TT setup.

Though, its a very nice car and I am not hating it or on it. Just your misleading title. LOL

[jspaeth]

Originally Posted by deolio

eh... not for this forum...

Oh you mean he actually has some money and did everything the right way?

Oh and his car doesn't look like it is owned by a 19 year old drug dealer?

[TooFortyEssExx]

I have that same knob. Ballin' outta control.

[omgRWDgoodness!]

Very, very nice! Glad to see someone actually doing something to a 350Z once in a while, what with all these damn posers driving their stock-ass ones around here. +1

[jspecusa]

may i suggest some brake upgrade?
also the flaw in your setup is the intake manifold.
if I were you I would find a way to lower the engine abit
and make a custom intake manifold with 2 or more throttles.
clean build and good luck,

sam

[Aki180sx]

Impressive numbers! I agree with you sleeper/oem look is cool but you will get tired of it and put the amuse stuff on.

[.emerson.]

Beast on the inside. Normal innocent on the outside. A Z thats TT is always awesome in my book stock looking or not!

[Future240]

Zomg a Z build on Zilvia...... and it's awesome....... and complete (for the most part).


*faints*

[Z33dori]

Originally Posted by drift freaq

Nice car, though I have to admit, I was thrown off by your title about how Nissan should have done it.

You do realize, that close to or 300 HP out of a NA 3 liter V6 is pretty damn impressive numbers to begin with?

I laugh at how people scoff at those numbers these days. Shit a LS1 puts out 350HP only 50 HP more but its a 5.7 liter.

So yes its cool that you twin turbo'd it, with a fully built engine but get real, how Nissan should have done it?

Price point my friend, they could never have brought in at the price they did, with a TT setup.

Though, its a very nice car and I am not hating it or on it. Just your misleading title. LOL

236whp is not close to 300 at all.. lol

LS1 makes like 350whp

I think he was referring to Nissan selling them as Twin Turbo factory cars like the Z32

[franklin93zx]

Originally Posted by old school

yea, I get that alot...but the suprised look on the retired guy's face when I leave his Z06 makes up for it.

That must feel nice haha

[old school]

Originally Posted by drift freaq

Nice car, though I have to admit, I was thrown off by your title about how Nissan should have done it.

You do realize, that close to or 300 HP out of a NA 3 liter V6 is pretty damn impressive numbers to begin with?

I laugh at how people scoff at those numbers these days. Shit a LS1 puts out 350HP only 50 HP more but its a 5.7 liter.

So yes its cool that you twin turbo'd it, with a fully built engine but get real, how Nissan should have done it?

Price point my friend, they could never have brought in at the price they did, with a TT setup.

Though, its a very nice car and I am not hating it or on it. Just your misleading title. LOL

See Z33dori's response below. They don't sell a Boosted version of the 350Z and the GTR wasn't out yet when I built this car...so I made my own version of what I thought this car should have been. Z32TT sold for 50k+ (significantly more than the Z33). Now the GTR for 75k. And for what I have in this car, I could have bought a GTR.

Originally Posted by jspaeth

Oh you mean he actually has some money and did everything the right way?

Oh and his car doesn't look like it is owned by a 19 year old drug dealer?

I LOL'd. yea, I'm old...I'll be 32 this year. Been building imports since the early 90s...back when the domestic guys would point n laugh.

Originally Posted by TooFortyEssExx

I have that same knob. Ballin' outta control.

word? Looked at a few, this one and the ARC...every ARC shifter had imperfections in them, so I went with Aspec and love it.

Originally Posted by jspecusa

may i suggest some brake upgrade?
also the flaw in your setup is the intake manifold.
if I were you I would find a way to lower the engine abit
and make a custom intake manifold with 2 or more throttles.
clean build and good luck,

sam

Akebono 370Z conversion with stoptech rotors (14s in the front, 13.8s in the back) will soon be put on. Keep the OEM look with BBK performance. They did a comparo in Modified....shit doesnt see brake fade at all on a road course...my stoptech stage 2s were fading by lap 3...BAD! All I need is in this pic is the calipers, rotors, pads, and bracket. I have everything else already. Probably run me $1500


The plenum is fine with the spacer in it. There is only one manifold I would consider as all others don't increase power or flow....and that would be the cosworth plenum. Adding a second throttle body will just look cool and make me redo some piping if I were to do that. Really no advantage on the DE motor for doing that...in fact, it will complicate things a bit for really no payoff. If I wanted a dual inlet/throttle body...I'll build an HR. Already planning a LS2 build...not sure what its going in tho..maybe another 350Z or perhaps a kit car.

Originally Posted by Z33dori

236whp is not close to 300 at all.. lol

LS1 makes like 350whp

I think he was referring to Nissan selling them as Twin Turbo factory cars like the Z32

Took the word right out of my mouth

[exitspeed]

I like. And even though I'm all for a sleeper...I'd like to see something more on the outside. Very nice build though.

[drift freaq]

Originally Posted by Z33dori

236whp is not close to 300 at all.. lol

LS1 makes like 350whp

I think he was referring to Nissan selling them as Twin Turbo factory cars like the Z32

Ah no you are wrong LS1's do not make 350WHP stock


Regular LS1's were rated at 305, HP ones were rated at around 310-320.

Ls-1 Hp - LS1 Performance Information

Now with bolt ons it could go higher. Though the same could be said for VQ35DE

I have seen stock with bolt ons V35DE's putting out 285WHP. Ask Juan aka Bardabe he has a 2003 doing that.

Stock for stock flywheel HP is all I am talking about here. The Z32TT only put out 300HP at the flywheel. So again the NA V6 aka VQ35DE in 350Z's was so close to that and the Rev UP matched it and VQ35HR bested it. All were in 350Z's.


Oh and Z33dori, I know he was talking about Nissan should have done it as a factory car.

Below I will show you why its economically unfeasible. As well as why there was no reason for them to do it. LOL


You guys are mixing facts here. I was doing a straight comparison of HP to HP.

The TT was also quite expensive for a Import sports car at 50k in the early 90's.
Were as the price of a 350Z with damn near equivalent HP was almost half the price.

To the OP, look you have a nice car, its a great build.

Just step back and realize that your title statement is bold. Realize that for Nissan to TT a 350 and have the kind of numbers you are doing would have made the car a 50-60k car easily, if not more. It also would have taken out of the class it currently sits in.

That is way to pricey for any Z and one of the reasons that TT's did not sell in Super large numbers.

Oh and this is not an intention to start a debate, its just clarification of facts, that might have been missed.

[old school]

Originally Posted by drift freaq

Ah no you are wrong LS1's do not make 350WHP stock


Regular LS1's were rated at 305, HP ones were rated at around 310-320.

Ls-1 Hp - LS1 Performance Information

Now with bolt ons it could go higher. Though the same could be said for VQ35DE

I have seen stock with bolt ons V35DE's putting out 285WHP. Ask Juan aka Bardabe he has a 2003 doing that.

Stock for stock flywheel HP is all I am talking about here. The Z32TT only put out 300HP at the flywheel. So again the NA V6 aka VQ35DE in 350Z's was so close to that and the Rev UP matched it and VQ35HR bested it. All were in 350Z's.


Oh and Z33dori, I know he was talking about Nissan should have done it as a factory car.

Below I will show you why its economically unfeasible. As well as why there was no reason for them to do it. LOL


You guys are mixing facts here. I was doing a straight comparison of HP to HP.

The TT was also quite expensive for a Import sports car at 50k in the early 90's.
Were as the price of a 350Z with damn near equivalent HP was almost half the price.

To the OP, look you have a nice car, its a great build.

Just step back and realize that your title statement is bold. Realize that for Nissan to TT a 350 and have the kind of numbers you are doing would have made the car a 50-60k car easily, if not more. It also would have taken out of the class it currently sits in.

That is way to pricey for any Z and one of the reasons that TT's did not sell in Super large numbers.

Oh and this is not an intention to start a debate, its just clarification of facts, that might have been missed.

debates welcome

totally understand where you were coming from. Any car you sell with two different engine setups as in the Z32 (NA & TT) the cheaper model will always outsell the more expensive model. More people like the look with the cheaper price tag. That can be said about the mustang, camaro, vette, Z32, evo, wrx, etc etc. This is one reason all of the japanese supercars went on hiatus. And another reason we don't always get the cool japanese cars.

Affordability is a big thing when you car shop. how much are you willing to spend? I would have been one of the persons lining up to buy a TT 350Z to mod. Had I been patient, I would have gotten in a GTR. Fortunately not though as I love the body lines on the Z much more. $50-60k 14 years ago would not be close to $80k now. So its all relative. Seeing how the Z has been boosted since the early 280 models (granted the early Z's were inline 6s.)...I didn't feel like breaking tradition. So I built what Nissan should have...another TT Z. That's all the title means.