The off season is perfect for building up, and this is my first one with the car.
I forgot to mention in the last post but before she was tucked away, Kira spent a little time on the rollers down at RSMotors when I crashed the MNSubaru dyno-day with a Nissan.
The result was impressive. 278 HP and 244lb/ft of torque with only only a cat back and some K&N filters. There's a fair bit more to gain by freeing things up, that's become more of a priority. Also, a few upgrades to increase track reliability will probably be in order.
The First batch of gear to pick up was the bushings. 350z bushings are notoriously bad for failing and flexing in the wrong directions. I'd already taken care of the differential and subframe bushings when I dealt with that whole thing, so now I'm down to.. only every other suspension part of the car. I went with Whiteline Bushings as they seemed to be the stiffest ones I could find, and have some of the best durability. On top of that, historically Whiteline has had some of the best customer service I've ever dealt with. Big thanks for the hook-up on these from Race Suit Rentals.
The next round of parts came at thanksgiving. Surprisingly, car part dealers have started doing black Friday deals. An order went out to Stillen for one of their oil coolers and and set of Goodrich brake lines which are a big deal for the z, being the front lines are about the length of my arm.
Also on black Friday, Z1 Motorsports was running some specials of their own. I grabbed a pair of their urethane engine mounts, and a urethane transmission mount. With all these upgrades, shifting and putting power down should be significantly more effective. There's not going to be a whole 'lotta rubber left in this car.
With those sweet dyno numbers coming back, I had a new goal. I wanted to make 300hp at the rear wheels on RS's dyno.. so I had been keeping my eye on the my350z.com forums.. and stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for... a used Osiris Up-Rev with Tuner license. This gives me full tuneability of the stock ECU, lets me add cruise control (after installing a few parts) and does some cool things with launch control and map switching. I'll be able to optimize the ECU for all the modifications i'm doing, as well as utilize higher octanes when it comes to the big show.
With Christmas rolling around, I wound up with a pile of amazon gift cards... and while sure, there's plenty of other smaller things I could have checked off the list.. but screw it.. go big, or go home, right? I grabbed a set of OBX 370z Long Tube Headders. Now, they say 370z on them, and fit them... but they work fine on a 350z according to my research with a little bit of "forceful persuasion" around the steering shaft.
Well, with those puppies in, I'll have to address the catalytic converter situation. When I replaced the exhaust system, I took a critical measurement:
That measurement there is a a critical one, as it's the distance from the flange to the surface of the last catalytic converter. This means from the surface of this flange, I can move the catalytic converter a further 3.5 inches down wind. Well into the y-pipe. So just about any header option can be used, as long as the cats are in the y-pipe.
So, speaking of catalytic converters.. I'll need a pair of 'em. This time, I contacted Ciro Racing, as they have 100-cell metal core race cats that have passed SCCA checks historically (In STU I might add) for not a terrible price.
So with that out of the way, I figured I should free up the intake just a bit. It's been proven that some of the more basic intakes actually cost the HR engines horsepower, as the airbox systems on these are pretty good. But, the pipes connecting those airboxes to the throttle bodies are a little lumpy, and have a few baffles attached. Since the serious upgrade long runner intakes are on the fence legally still (i should really take those pictures, and write that letter..) I opted to just grab a set of silicon intake hoses from Mishimoto to smooth things out a bit.
With all this acquired.. there's really only one big purchase left.. and I'll tell you about that when I do it.
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