Anyone with updates on how their cooling is performing? I ordered yesterday and will be installing whenever she arrives. Like every task I undertake with this car, I'm sure it'll be a chore.

I don't have a track day until the end of the month. I'll be going by feel though. I don't have a pyrometer. Someone might have one I could borrow though. But I've never did a avg. measurment of before either. So mostly going on fate. I nned to get my new pads bedded in this weekend also.

Yeah, not an exact science for me either. My ultimate hope is that my dust boots survive the season without requiring a caliper rebuild. I may see the temp change with an infrared temp gun just for $hits and giggles.

I didn't have much luck using a temp gun for accurate readings as things cooled down a lot on the way into the pits thanks to the cool down lap.

What did work was the rotor temp paint and the caliper temp stickers. They are a bit on the pricey side but it was good data. There is a track day in 2 weeks but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it with my current work schedule, still have to rebuild the calipers, change the rotors, install the ducts.

Also have to replace the ball joints in the SPC camber arms, mine have a bit of play in them now.

I'll be taking an infra gun with me to the track next weekend (Apr 21-22), but I don't have a solid set of comparison numbers anyways, what with the various brake problems and hardware changes that have plagued my last couple of trips. Hoping all of that's sorted out now, and the ducting should only help :)

you could always duct tape the vent openings... not a pure test but will give an indication of temp difference across two sessions

Hmm good idea. Maybe I'll order some temp strips/paint before then too.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a pyrometer. Once you start getting above 300 degrees or so the increases and losses are instantaneous. I don't see how you will be able to even get an idea of how the cooling kit is working with a pyrometer. However, paint stripes on the rotor and caliper temperature stickers can give you an indication. My only concern would be if you ran it closed first, then open second. If you seal off the air flow prior to the cooling test, it won't really give you an accurate reading because the higher temperature reading would have already been taken meaning the paint and stickers have already "cooked."

To perform this test, you would have to run the cooling kit first, then record your results, then run again with the cooling kit blocked off.

If you're pointing a temp gun anywhere in your wheel wells, direct it at your tires.

Yeah, that's mostly why I bring one with me, to check tires. I have strips+paint ordered, but it's up in the air whether they'll arrive before that weekend. I'm going to ignore the A/B testing and just run with ducts open and focus on my driving most of the weekend, and I'll get a good feel for the temps I'm running, some fresh strips/paint occasionally, etc. On one of the later runs on the last day I'll try the duct tape with another fresh set of indicators and see how it goes.

Kyle, what's the timing on getting these kits shipped out? I ordered on Tuesday and haven't heard a peep about them shipping yet.

Nismo RC Ducts Please

thats for the stillen bumper version. If you go through the option and do stock, its 291 Chris.


Alex, they sold a lot more than they thought they would really quick and the hoses are on backorder on their end.

Oh:icon14:

Well damn! Just send me the hub and fascia brackets and I'll find the hoses somewhere else!

Yes please!

Haha, that's why when I noticed them for sale, I placed my order before I bumped any threads about them :)

I apologize for the delay in getting the second batch of kits out guys. As I told Mike. I was actually in charge of this project and to be honest, had no idea how popular they'd be! We will be getting more hose in this coming week according to our vendor. I'll chase it up on Monday and see how we're looking.

Thank you very much for your patience!

This is probably mod of the year IMO.:tup:

Is there a group buy available for this product? I am also very interested

I doubt there ever will be

:iagree:

Heck, there was a group buy for G3s at one point... :P

Good news everyone! The hoses are on their way, we have tracking information. We're expecting them to arrive on Thursday. As soon as they arrive they will be re-packaged with the necessary hardware and will get right back on the truck heading out to you.

Received my kit yesterday and installed it today. Very nice little kit...just what you need to get the job done. I didn't need any of the shims for the hub mounting plates, but I could have used a few more zip ties.

The only part of the job that turned out to be a PITA (there's always one step that is) was removing the hub. Everyone beware that your hub may be corroded a bit and stuck on there like crazy. I removed the four bolts and she didn't budge on either side. A trip to Autozone and a rental slide hammer got'er done. Plan on four hours for the install and minimal frustration (but get a slide hammer!) if you have all the tools and have done most of the steps before (fascia removal, caliper/rotor removal, etc). If you've never done any of it before, double that time estimate and prepare to be frustrated.

And for what it's worth, don't do a little drive around town and then touch the front rotor thinking it's going to be cool because of the new ducting. It'll still burn you. (I may have touched the rotor :))

Nice. Yea my hub about fell out after removing the last bolt. But my car is only a year old and garaged, so maybe that helps a little.

Two Chicago winters for my Z. She was showing her disgust today. Seriously, my hubs didn't even need the four bolts. They were so stuck, I bet I could have driven with them completely unbolted.

mine came off easy too, but a tip for others if its stuck.

Put the rotor back on and secure it with a couple lug nuts and use a rubber mallet on the outside of the rotor to whack it off,,,,haha I said whack it off! ;)

^lol

Hmmm, good idea. While it could have worked, I didn't want to damage my new rotors. FWIW, I'm not sure it would have gotten them off given how stuck they were. Renting the slide hammer was key. For those who don't know what it is, imagine a 5lb weight that slides on a metal bar. On one end is a thread and the other end has a stopper to limit travel. You put the threaded end through the hole in the hub, screw on a big bolt on the back side of the hub, apply traction so the bolt is up against the hub, and then ram the weight into the stopper on the slide hammer. 10 good whacks and it pulled the hub out. Cool tool.

One trick I saw a guy do once was put the wheels back on with the lugs a little loose and then go drive some figure 8's :) I don't think it is very good for the studs but works in a pinch (red-neck mechanics 101).

...sticky rotors = defeat purpose of cooling kit.

Ran the new ducts at MSR Houston this weekend. No front fade or ice-mode issues all weekend w/ the ducts running and the new XP10 front pads.

I duct-taped off the fang intakes for one session (2nd of 4 sessions on the second day) as discussed earlier to compare. With the ducts closed, about 2/3rds into the session I was getting some front pad fade and extended braking distances. Also had one hiccup of ice-mode late in that run that was easy to correct quickly with the pedal. Un-taped the fangs for the next run and the system went right back to zero fade for the rest of the weekend.

I did get the rotor paint and caliper strips shipped to me in time. I ran the same spot of Genesis rotor paint all weekend. It stayed in the "bright red" range (679-804F) all through my first 5 sessions with the ducts, then it bumped up into a somewhat browner color (804-1074F, probably at the lower end of that range, not a huge change) for the one run I taped off the ducts.

I put the Alcon caliper temp strips on the outsides of the calipers (over the Nissan logo) and they never even blacked out the lowest section (250F), regardless of the duct situation. So either my caliper temps are awesome anyways, or it's just stupid user error with me putting the temp strips in the wrong place (do they need to go elsewhere to feel the heat, and/or does the thick grey nissan caliper paint insulate them too much?).

In any case, pretty pleased with the results :)

Great info ... thanks for sharing. Going to look into those cooling strips and paint.

...noob question though...I thought the caliper was actually the item that was most responsible for heating the fluid to the boiling point ?

also I wonder if it would do any good to drill some holes in the dust shields ?

It is, for getting to that fail point. However you will get pad fade and typically experience ice-mode long before the fluid boils. You see higher caliper temps when there is less pad material left, but he had brand new pads in this case.

At that point you might just as well remove them altogether.

Your rotor temps are in-line with what I would expect for your setup. Instantaneous surface temps on the face of the rotor are several hundred degrees higher.

I put my caliper stickers in the same place, got the fronts up to 400F which can be enough to boil the stock fluid, on one occasion I did see 450F. Ambient temperature does play a significant role in that as well as session duration and track layout.

Good results for the ducts I would say.

Great info. As MSR Houston used to be my home track, curious where you would see fade on the track. I never had any issues with my STi, but I got some fade occasionally on my brother's vette.

Mostly my fade spots would be the two areas where I see double braking zones back-to-back going the CCW direction: just before Diamond's Edge, and just before the Bus Stop. In both cases you've got a hard hit on the brakes at the end of a straight to come down from e.g. ~115 -> ~80, then a very brief steady throttle, then another brake hit all the way down to ~45 or so in a very short distance (give or take whatever for car/skill). Whenever I've gotten fade on the track and/or ice-mode problems, it's usually the second brake zone in one of those two spots.

(for those unfamiliar with this track, here's a PDF with the major corner names labeled: http://msrhouston.com/pdfs/RoadCourse-corners.pdf . The first case I'm talking about the braking zones and just before and just after Turn 3 going into Diamond's Edge, and the other pair straddles Turn 7 heading down into Bus Stop).

Here's a video of me going through that sequence: MSR Houston CCW - TDE 20120421 - 370Z - YouTube. The second pair at the end of the back straight looks a lot tamer in that video than it generally is, as on this session I was braking earlier and softer than usual.

Thank you very much for the excellent write-up. By the way, little racers tip, "duct tape" when used on a race car is referred to as "race tape" or "100 MPH tape." If you exceed that speed, you then refer to it as "200 MPH tape." LOL:tup:

:bowrofl: