I’m glad I held off on this piece. Thanks for the heads up Rusty.

I should clarify that I didn't leave a review (yet). 😁 I think one of my posts made it sound like I did.

The only time this will be awesome is if you get wheel hop. That is when the rear diff stud may break. If you get wheel hop, let off to protect your parts.

Mine just showed up last night. I knew I should have waited. Dang it. No worries, I will make Chicken soup out of Chicken poop.

When in doubt pull out! LMAO

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Kinda like how I just bought a Z1 radiator cap from someone one the forum, only to receive it and realize it is the same kPa as the stock one. 137. My bad. I should’ve looked closer.

I'm glad I waited, that's pretty crappy of Z1 to remove reviews.

..:eek:..

This is the review that I'm posting again. :icon14:

If you have exhaust like FI that are close to the diff. This brace won't fit unless you trim about 1 3/8" on the corner of the brace. The other problem is that the upper mounting hole does not line up with the hole in the sub-frame. It's off by a bolt hole diameter. They say to loosen the diff bolting up to the diff so that you can move the diff around and get the holes to line up. Problem is if you have a solid bushing like SPL. When tightening the diff bolting back down. This will put stress on the bolting that you don't need. If you have the stock rubber bushing. you might get away with it.

The other thing that I noticed. There is weld beads on both sides of the bends of the brace. It looks like when bending the metal to shape. The metal cracked at the bends. So they welded over the cracks to hide them.

Rusty

Just seen this on the Z1 website.

"Thank you for your review. It has been submitted to the store owner for approval and should appear shortly."

All you can do is be honest... and sounds like you were...

You won't find a single bad review at Z1 or Stillen or any small vendor, their products are always excellent every time.

Except when there not and those don't get approved.

Z1 routinely deletes negative reviews from what I can tell. I've had a couple deleted and know several others that have experienced the same thing.

Personally I have only had poor quality parts from Z1 and am told to shut up because everyone thinks Z1 is god. I feel bad for you the brace didn't work but when I read it's a direct fit for the 350Z and you need to unbolt the diff for the 370Z, I knew corners were cut. They used the same piece for two different applications to save costs. Shame

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I am bmpboosted and it is on Instagram. I posted the picks plus everything else I post under bmpboosted and their reply is still there. Not sure what Rusty is looking up.

Rusty just meant that he himself is not on Instagram, not disputing your post, lol

My bad!! Sorry Rusty.

Bell Raceworks makes a slightly different brace for those with stock diff covers. I'll let you all know how that one fits (if it does) when I install it.

Interesting....Z1 states (in my question via their website and Instagram) that, although specifically designed for the Z1 diff cover, the same brace does fit OEM and Nismo diff covers. So I am surprised there is actually a slightly different version of this brace specifically designed for the OEM cover.

That's what I read too. That it will fit both stock and Z! covers.

My guy put my car up on the rack when he was prepping it for it's next round of magic from Seb and looked at a way to modify the brace to work with the FI exhaust. He said he would have had to hack off so much material on the brace that it wouldn't be structurally strong enough to do any good. When I get my car back from Seb he's going to fabricate one from scratch.

I am not sure as to the decision to make both, since I've heard the finned one fits both too, but the "standard" one mounts differently. See the link below for pictures.

https://imgur.com/a/ZVmzc48

https://bellraceworks.bigcartel.com/...ck-diff-covers

It's been raining in LA all week and has finally stopped. Weird problem I'm not used to, haha.

Hmmmmmm.........Z1 only shows the one. The one you show, will not fit any exhaust that is tucked close to the diff. There is a lot less room then the one I got.

Been reworking the diff brace. :tup:

To recap of how bad of a fit the brace is.
It's too big on the bottom to allow a FI CBE to fit.

1st pic. The brace before I trimmed it to fit the exhaust.

2nd pic. After I trimmed it to fit the exhaust.

3rd pic. The hole in the frame that the brace gets bolted to.

4th pic. The brace installed, and the holes don't align up.

5th pic. The gap between the brace and the frame.

6th pic. What the brace looks like installed on the diff cover.

1st and 2nd pic's. Prepped the brace for welding.

3rd pic. My 1/2" thick copper backup bar. I use this to keep the welding puddle from dropping out.

4th, 5th and 6th pic's. Welding up the holes.

7th pic. This is what my copper looks like after welding on it.

1st and 2nd pics. All welded up. Welds dressed down. Hole redrilled to new location.

3rd pic. Brace installed. holes align up. You can see the gap.

4th pic. Here's the bend that has to be straighten out some.

5th pic. All straighten out.

6th pic. Installed, no gap between the brace and the frame. :tup:

1st and 2nd pics. All painted up and ready for install tomorrow.

Jeebus, this was supposed to be a simple bolt-on

Looks good. With as much as you had to cut away is it structurally going to be strong enough to make a difference?

Might actually be some meat to that thing if they hadn’t of water jetted a damn B into it.

Good job Rusty!

Yep. :shakes head:

Should be. The load is along the support and there looks to be an inch or so material there now that he’s welded the B up.

The way it's designed. It's to keep the diff from pivoting around on the diff cover stud. It's controlling the up and down movement.

Well, that B is welded up. It's gone. :rofl2:

:tiphat:

Exactly! Axial load in the brace.

Here's a good pic of the diff and sub-frame. You could make a brace that's goes over the top of the diff, top 4 bolt holes. and bolt to the top of the sub-frame. That would really lock the diff into place. But you would have to drop the sub- frame to install it. Something many are not willing to do.


Chit, now I have an idea running loose inside my head. :shakes head:

Has your comment been “approved”? I only see one good review on Z1’s website.

Just checked. Hell NO!. I figured as much. :rofl2:

The diff brace is installed. :tup:

1st and 2nd pic's. This is the nut piece that goes in the sub-frame.

3rd pic is where it goes.

4th pic. Here's looking at the hole from where the spring bucket arm mounts to the sub-frame. The nut gets installed from this side.

Install the brace to the diff. Leave the bolts loose so that you can wiggle the brace a little to help getting the bolt started into the nut piece

1st pic, I put the nut piece on my wrench and put it inside the sub-frame, and put it into the hole.

2nd pic. The bolt is tighten down.

3rd pic. Tighten the bolts on the diff.

4th pic. Installing the sub-frame back into the Z. :tup: