Stillen Gen III ultra long intake?
 

I have a quick question. I'm new to the car world, I just bought a 370z, and I'm looking to purchase the Stillen Gen3 intake. My question is, how long before they come out with a superior intake for the 370? Am I better off waiting a few months? I'm also debating on which Exaust I should buy, I'm thinking the 5Zigen ProRacer SP Exhaust ? Thanks.

A lot of the basic performance attributes of our car are nearly identical to the G37, so while there are some delays with mfgs officially tweaking and releasing parts for the 370, it's really not the same as a normal "first model year", in that they're mostly re-using the designs from the G37 where they already worked out what works best. IMHO, the Stillen Gen 3 was the best-performing intake kit on the G37 from what I've read, and it's unlikely to be bested on the 370Z either (assuming your focus is performance, rather than just obtaining a certain sound. There's always room for debate on what sounds the best. The Stillen intake sounds awesome though).

There are a ton of exhaust options for this car to suit everyone's needs. It really depends on your priorities (performance with an otherwise stock system? performance with lots of other upgrades in play? sound? (and what sounds good to you?) light weight? cost? ease of install?)...

You're safe buying the Stillen IMO... other mfgrs will argue that the dyno numbers are a little misleading because with a car sitting on a dyno it doesn't benefit from the ram-air effect of being at speed, and that in real world conditions something like the JWT pop intake would perform the same... but even if that's true, the Stillen's are easy to install, sound great, look great, and are reasonably priced. Go for it!

Travis, i thought i read in one of the forums here that the install was not that easy because we have to remove the front bumpers and make a hole on something?

You do have to remove the front bumper to install it, but that is really not difficult. As for a hole, you're not actually making a hole in anything but rather enlarging an existing opening, which is also rather simple. I was able to do this at home with no problems.

Thanks alot for all the info, but like I said before I'm just getting into the car world, and I have ALOT to learn. I know a couple people that can help me out and point me into the right direction. I think I'm going to go ahead and order the gen3 intake today, I'm also looking at the Stillen z/g header, I wish I knew exactly what to buy because I want to start modifying my Z, I have the money, but I don't know exactly what to buy, I'm getting very frustrated. Taking the enitre front bumber off does seem like alot of work, I'm going to have to take the Z to a bodyshop to have them install everything, how much do you tink something like that would run me?

not a bodyshop... find a shop that works on race cars... go find your local nasa or scca group and ask them to refer you to a few shops... find a place with a dyno and good reputation

the headers are a difficult install... don't do that yourself

the intake you can do yourself, just follow the directions TO THE LETTER, and come back here and post if you have problems

good luck

If you need any help, PM me. I'd be glad to help you out.

Thanks alot guys, I appreciate it. I'll PM if I need some help.

jimmy99 i was the first to purchase the gen3 from stillen and installed it.yes you will have to remove the front bumper and do a little cut to fit the pipe.both filter's will be sitting on top of the bar w/c i thought was a good idea away from dirt and water.the only downfall to this is when youre carwashing..eversince i installed the 3gen theres always water getting in bcause of the removal of the stock intake box if im not mistaken but other than that 3 gen sounds great and ull feel the extra power ur z gain.exhaust wise..stillen exhaust is good price and performance..talk to my buddy dean hell try to give u some discount..tell him its john from san diego with the silver 370z..he knows wats up..hope this helps

nice.... Thanks alot Nizz. I probally will go with the Stillen exhaust since I'm already ordering other parts from their site, but I'm really liking the Proracer SP exhaust. I've been reading a little and I'm not so sure it is worth the extra cash. I'm more interested in performance output then looks.

Who here posted this YouTube video?

[YOUTUBEHQ]Y_6bSgW3TFk[/YOUTUBEHQ]

It's part of the Z Car Garage blog (it's currently their most recent post) - here's the link - it makes very interesting reading ....

Z-Car Blog

I believe what these guys write - They get good wheel bhp results from the intakes and the Stillen exhaust, but they're less keen on the quality of fit on the parts. Perhaps Josh would like to comment, as Z-Car Garage say they believe that Stillen are addressing some of the issues.

Well..... After seeing that article and video, I think I will hold off on any purchases untill Stillen possibly gets these problems fixed. It looks like the intake can be easily fixed with some brackets, but we shouldnt have to modify their products in order to make it work. This is quite disappointing considering I was going to make my purchase today. Thanks for the post.

I'm not sure what Z-Car Garage did to install the intakes, but it seems to me that they made the holes for the intake tubes way too large. I enlarged mine so that it is just barely large enough to fit and my intakes are very solid - no shaking whatsoever. Seems to me more of an install gone wrong than a problem on Stillen's side.

Thanks Chubbs!

This excerpt is taken from Z-Car Blog regarding the video:

Now comes the time for improved power. We ordered the Stillen cat-back exhaust and the new Gen-3 intake system to help our car breathe better on both sides of the engine. Before I even get to any sort of dyno results I need to say that everyone here at Z Car Garage was let down by the fit and finish on these two products. The exhaust rubs and hits in at least two or three places, its painfully annoying. The intake system comes with no brackets of any sort and the front part is left to bounce around to rub on and destroy anything it pleases (see video below.) We have made our own brackets and changes to the intake to prevent any sort of serious damage, we were even forced to wrap the air conditioning lines on the driver’s side to prevent the intake from inevitably rubbing through. Stillen is a huge company with tons of R&D time in these products, I don’t understand how they could ship a part like this and expect owners to be satisfied.

I agree, they cut the holes out too much. I got my driver's side cut out just right, but I made my passenger one very slightly too big (not as bad as they did though). I fixed it by using a ziptie to affix a small section of slit (flattened) rubber hose to the bottom of the hole to firm things back up. Protecting the A/C lines on the driver's side with a piece of hose is a known issue as well, I'm pretty sure it's covered in Stillen's installation instructions (the breather tube pieces they provide are longer than necessary: you cut those to size and use the leftover to protect the A/C lines).

The cat-back fitment issues have been covered on this board extensively. Apparently if you know how to do the install just right (like Stillen's own garage), it was possible to get no contact/rattle issues even with the original setup. However, enough of us had problems with contact at the rear tunnel brace on our own installs that they've made some slight changes to the shape of the exhaust to correct that issue going forward. Even with the original configuration, it's not hard to fix with a torch once you see what the problem is.

guys!the problem on this video when they installed the 3gen intake..they made the whole too big and what i did on mine to avoid this shaking or vibration is wrap the part of the funnel where the whole was made with a rubber or any tape.

They should rename their video and call it 'Installation skills fail'.