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My recent 350z mods. - Click HERE for Original Thread

aarrgghh

Hi all, thought I'd write up a thread on my recent mods (with lots of pictures). I've recently installed a JWT Pop Charger, a Motordyne iso thermal plenum spacer, and a Fast Intensions Intimidator exhaust (dual cat back). If you haven't heard of Fast Intensions, they apparently make the Specality Z exhaust stuff. I got the exhaust, spacer and pop charger from Mike at Z-tune in Vancouver. They're great, I got great responsiveness from Mike on shipping info and quick quoting on the parts even though they didn't carry the exhaust (yet) or the spacer. The heavy exhaust was drop shipped direct to me from the factory in the states and it was great not to have to deal with the border duty, brokerage crap. Mike got me all of the parts in time for our dyno day which was great. I'd like to give a big thanks to Gord for helping me install the spacer and Tim for his help with the exhaust.

Here's the exhaust as shipped:

This is the exhaust unpacked. This exhaust uses an X pipe close to the cats, and then dual 2.5" piping to the sebring mufflers.

Fast Intensions can polish the extire thing, but I just got the default tips and mufflers (which are very well polished):

You can sort of see in this picture how the bends are non-pinched and they also weld the flanges on from the inside and then grind the weld down perfectly smooth so there's no disturbance in the airflow:

aarrgghh

For reference, here's the stock look:

The first instuction is to 'remove the stock exhuast' which is at least 50% of the work. Out of the 10 bolts we had to remove I think at least 3 we could get to with the impact wrench :). Also the metal posts that go through the rubber hangers have a barb on them that makes it very hard to remove, especially the muffler where they are located above the muffler. Here's what the stock system looks like when we finally got it off:

Next the cat to x-pipe tubes go on:

Then you have to slide the x-pipe over the rear brace, that was hard, we needed two poeple, one to pull the brace down (it was loosened) and the other to slide the x-pipe in from the back. Then the two mufflers are hung. This is how the tips sat with all the bolts loose! We had to rotate one muffler slightly to center the tip. Thats it, it fit perfect.

Here's it tightend down:

And from below:

My only concern with the install is that you have to cut a heat shield from the fuel lines on the right muffler. They provide some wrap for the closest fuel line, but plastic zip ties. I'm going to get some more wrap and steel ties to be on the safe side.

The sould of this exhaust is great. I'm always wanting to go for a spin in it again (my car is 3 years old now). The exhaust is just as they advertise, it keeps the original flavor of the car but with more presence and is not boomy, blaty or droney. Originally I felt that it was a little loud just around 2k rpm, but I think I've changed my mind on that score (that and with the great sound I drive at slightly higher revs now). It's no so loud that my neighbours hate me everytime I drive home, but load enough that people notice.

Here's some video of the sound of the exhaust on the car:
Inside, windows up.
Inside, windows down.
Roadside.
During the last autocross.

Inzane

Very nice Jeff!

And nice pics, nice write-up, nice vids.

From the time in the autox video, I take it that was your 9th or 10th run on sunday?

aarrgghh

Next the spacer. This makes the intake plenum bigger in volume and also includes a gasket to stop (or slow down) heat from getting to the plenum from the intake runners.

Here's the starting point (with the pop charger already installed, I couldn't wait):

First the strut brace is marked and removed:

Then the motor cover, intake and MAF are removed:

Then the upper half of the plenum is removed with the throttle butterfly:

aarrgghh

Next the lower plenum is removed after disconnecting all of the hoses on it:

We removed the stock intake gasket and covered the intakes:

Here's Gord using an entire can of brake cleaner to clean up the lower plenum. We needed two cans to do this mod:

Next we wetted the new thermal gasket with oil in the shipping bag to make this less messy (as you can see Gord likes to keep his hands clean :D ):

Then the gasket and lower plenum are replaced and torqued down in sequence (and three progressive rounds):

Next the internal support spacers are added over the bolts. These have to go the right way up or it won't seat. Also there where three different bolt lenghts for the upper plenum spacer (all new and longer) that need to be in the correct places:

Then the actuall spacer is placed on the lower plenum:

aarrgghh

And then the upper plenum is installed over the spacer (which is 5/16" BTW), and torqued down the same way:

The intake and maf is reinstalled:

And then you're supposed to test run to check for any leaks before re-installing the strut bar. We forgot to reconnect the electronic throttle butterfly which meant my engine would not rev past 1800 with the pedal floored. Quick fix but then it through a code later that Gord cleared the next day for me.

We needed to use both the large and small spacers for the strut bar, so to make it easier to slide both spacers under the mount without dropping them into the engine bay, we used a drop of crazy glue to hold them togther.

Here's the result. After all that, its hard to see what was done unless you look for it:

Here's the dyno results:

As you can see I gained a little bit of torque over the hole range, but mostly flatened the already flat torque curve (the red is after). The dyno bay was smoking hot (38 C) that day so heat soak was a problem for everyone, and the rpm pickup was a little noisy compared to last year. Still, horsepower is now climbing all the way to the redline and even with a torque peak of 231.7, the engine never puts out less then 200 ft/lbs from 2k rpm to redline, and spends most of the band over 220 ft/lbs :D

Invalid Zero

Those stock wheels make baby Jesus cry.

Looks like a good start though!

aarrgghh

Jason, ya that should be my best time of the day. I figured I might as well use that one.

vorpalz

Nice pics and descriptions of the installations. I second the Fast Intentions/ Specialty Z exhaust build quality and ease of installation. Having installed 2 systems, they are a pleasure to work with and the construction and fitment are excellent.

Made a suspension decision yet?

Regards,

aarrgghh

Thanks for the feedback guys. No call on the suspension yet. I've got till next spring lol.

mike300zxt

Nice writeup Jeff! Too bad about the dyno heat! I'm impressed you did that well at 38C! It sounds great in the Auto-X vid!

Not sure what your suspension goals are. But if you do a lot of auto-crossing, you might want to take a look at the SPL suspension. They make some really good track-proven stuff. Tein coil overs are also nice if you want the electronic adjustability for street/track setups. That's what I'm thinking of doing next year.

The Eibach/Koni/Tokico/KYB/Hotchkis stuff tends to be a bit to rolley-polley for track use.

Thegnome

Thank you for showing the insides of that intake manifold!! Its been bugging the hell out of me trying to figure out how they made that.

Never searched though, so this was a pleasent surprise for the lazy guy.

aarrgghh

quote:
Originally posted by mike300zxt
Nice writeup Jeff! Too bad about the dyno heat! I'm impressed you did that well at 38C! It sounds great in the Auto-X vid!

Not sure what your suspension goals are. But if you do a lot of auto-crossing, you might want to take a look at the SPL suspension. They make some really good track-proven stuff. Tein coil overs are also nice if you want the electronic adjustability for street/track setups. That's what I'm thinking of doing next year.

The Eibach/Koni/Tokico/KYB/Hotchkis stuff tends to be a bit to rolley-polley for track use.

My goals are better track times. Even though my car is my DD I want to get better handling for the autocross and odd road course. I've heard good things about the tien flex and mono flex (which may be too stiff, not sure yet). I'd had my s13 lowered on 40 series tires and that was rock solid stiff in the winter but still got me to work. Can't seen to find anything on SPL, do you have a link? I'm currently flip-flopping from the suspension to light wheels with RA-1's or R888's. Not sure what would give me the best improvement for next year (although I'd love to do the JWT TT kit, can you pm with the install cost so I know how much I'm saving for :) ).

Current suspension ideas look like the tiens with hotchkis sways and the required camber kit.

~30oZ~

SPL Parts

car sounds great btw!:beer:

aarrgghh

Never mind, found the site. Question for the group though, the recommended SPL setup seems to be their 'pro mid link' rear which I understand from the FAQ on it. However, the shocks are only rebound adjustable instead of the tien compression/rebound combination. Seems to me you'd want to adjust both. Why make a rebound only shock?

mike300zxt

quote:
Originally posted by aarrgghh
My goals are better track times. Even though my car is my DD I want to get better handling for the autocross and odd road course. I've heard good things about the tien flex and mono flex (which may be too stiff, not sure yet). I'd had my s13 lowered on 40 series tires and that was rock solid stiff in the winter but still got me to work. Can't seen to find anything on SPL, do you have a link? I'm currently flip-flopping from the suspension to light wheels with RA-1's or R888's. Not sure what would give me the best improvement for next year (although I'd love to do the JWT TT kit, can you pm with the install cost so I know how much I'm saving for :) ).

Current suspension ideas look like the tiens with hotchkis sways and the required camber kit.

Try www.splparts.com ...they have some really good pro-track stuff. We carry all their parts, although most of it isn't on our site yet. The SPL products tend to offer better performance per $ than a lot of the suspension components out there. The owners are real hobbiests that spend a lot of time tracking their own cars, so the parts are tracked derived. That's what I really like about them vs. some of the bigger brands that tend to come up with a good part on one car, and then adapt it to fit other cars.

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