NotMyBday

Hi all,

I recently traded in my 2012 Z for a BMW Z4M and a friend of mine thought it would be cool to write on this forum about my build and my thought about how each piece of the puzzle worked with the others.
My car wasn't crazy modded, but here it goes. At the time I sold her, she had the following mods:

-K&N air filters in stock airboxes
-Z1 Motorsports mass air silicone tubes
-Z1 Motorsports cored OEM intake manifold
-Z1 Motorsports headers
-Z1 Motorsports high flow cats
-GT Haus Meisterschaft Y-pipe and mid pipe
-Megan Racing axleback section
-UpRev tune to 310whp and 298 wheel lb-ft on a DynaPack (redline raised to 7800rpm)
-15mm Z1 wheel spacers
-Miscellaneous cosmetic mods

I have to note, before I got the headers and cats I was running AAM short tails (the muffler delete pipes). My advice? Don't use these unless you have no other bolt-on mods. The car is way too loud otherwise!

So anyway, what did I think of this combination?
1) The high flow cats definitely kept the rasp down, especially since GT Haus' mid-pipe is non-resonated.
2) I definitely wouldn't have minded owning Stillen's Gen3 intake instead ogf the MAF tubes so get some induction noise out of the motor. The VQ is so quiet!!
3) I had also tried tying the GT Haus pipes back to the stock muffler before I went with Megan's. Don't do this, not enough 'noise' for all the work you'd have put into the car.
4) Warning: Careful when trying to tie any of the Z's piping to the Megan muffler. For some reason, Megan's inlet pipes are HUGE! You WILL eventually get an exhaust leak, so keep up with the gasket replacements. Otherwise, the best bang for your buck axle-back out there IMO.
5) Definitely get in touch with Z1 about coring your intake manifold, especially since the Z doesn't have too many other options in this department. Great mod that actually seemed to give the hp that they claimed. Also, the burnt blue tips look pretty cool.
6) As most of you know, replacing the Z's headers/cats is a royal pain in the a$$. It took my friend and I an entire day to do this job. Honestly, if you weren't thinking about swapping the headers before reading this post (and you're not looking for the most hp possible out of your VQ), then keep that attitude! I think the high flow cats were the only piece of this mod that gave me any hp. The headers' design definitely looks a little smoother than OEM, but I struggled to see the point of these aftermarket pipes.
7) GT Haus' pipes are LOUD. No other way around it. Their mid-pipe is not resonated, so expect some rasp (it sounds damn good though!). I didn't even attempt their axle-back section, looks more like a big resonator than a muffler....
8) Go for wheel spacers. Cheap mod that I did with the help of the DIY sections of this forum. It gives the Z a great look that it should have had from the factory.
9) The dyno-day. I got the car dyno'd and tuned with all of the mods I listed above. The guy that did the work for me was really struggling to make any high-end horsepower with the tune! My baseline was running 309whp, so we worked to get my mid-range up, which went very well. He truly believed the high flow cats were the 'choking' point in my mods list.
10) Miscellaneous cosmetics. Really all I did was install a GT-R start button and replace the cabin lights with red LEDs. I think it looked cool with the red accents in the cabin, feel free to call me a ricer. Also had Stillen's front license plate relocation bracket.

All in all, I'd describe the exhaust note that resulted from my mods as not that of a typical 'trumpety' Nissan. The high flow cats and non-resonated mid-pipe gave it a sort of 'Italian exotic' note. I really did like it.

Anyway:
1) Thanks for reading, I still plan on keeping up with the370Z. This car definitely treated me well.
2) I have a few of the parts listed above up for sale. I can put them on the 'for sale' section if there's some interest in them.
3) If you'd like pics of anything I listed above, let me know and I can add them to the post (if I have them).