Oh, and the Quaife is fantastic. Now I can put the power down! Coming out of a turn is now so much more fun without any craziness going on. Very predictable and quick! As soon as I get the brakes bedded in and some miles on them I can really play with the car.

Leak test scheduled for tomorrow evening. Today is my birthday so I'm going out to dinner with the family. 62 years young today! Living the dream!

Right on man! Old guys with young minds rule!!! :p

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Happy Birthday! :vuvuzela2:

I'll probably hold off on the leak test to this weekend. I ordered the FI tow bar and it should be here by Friday so while I have the front end off I can go ahead and install that piece of hardware.

It was a happy B'day yesterday. Thanks!!

For those of you following this, I would like to say how happy I am with the support from Seb and Topgunz as well as a bunch of you that have chimed in at times. These guys have been great and very patient as I work through the process of boosting my Z. While I am not where I thought I would be (whp wise) I am very happy with how the car runs and drives. It is waaaaaaay faster than stock and quite fun to play with so I'm overall happy with the results.

It is looking like I will need the Si impeller upgrade to reach my goal of 450 whp so that may have to wait until next year as I am rapidly running out of my summer break to get the car finished. My recording and video business is starting to book up and it is what pays for the "toys".

The new brakes are bedding in nicely and boy do they not only stop but there is a big difference in the brake feel. With the SS brake lines and Stoptech pads the pedal is very firm and gives great feedback as to what is going on. The drilled and slotted rotors cannot be heard over the exhaust so that is a bonus.

Overall the car has been greatly transformed since I started turning wrenches back in June. Has it been worth it...............4ell yeah! Would I do it again..........4ell yeah!

I'm hoping by the end of August I can reach a good stopping point of the build and just enjoy the car until next summer when I will have time to do some upgrades. When I get to the end of the month I'm planning on starting a thread on "Lessons Learned about Boosting a Z". Why you may ask, well it is because I have had a lot of PMs, text messages and direct phone calls about what I have done and besides I feel I need to give back to the Z community. Thanks guys!!!!!

Gonna try and catch up on this thread tonight but if you need any help tinkering let me know. Pretty sure you are close to me like we talked about in PMs. From what I've seen so far it seems like a really nice build!

Hey next time we have a Z&G crew meet in Alabama you should come out. Also if you need some time on a Dynojet and don't want to drive that far we've got a guy in Birmingham who charges $60 for 3 pulls and $100 for an hour for tuning purposes. Derraj06 and have spent a decent bit of time there with my car. Call me if you're ever in Birmingham. Brent bonham 205-901-3735.

Thanks Brent, that's good to know. We have a dyno here in HSV too but I'm not sure if it is a dynojet. I can ask my buddy Jimmy, the crazy guy with the Supra.

I was following the Z&G site for awhile but have been side tracked with getting my car done.

Here are the latest updates on my Z.

Saturday I spent most of the day trying to fix the toilet by working on the sink.......what I thought was a boost leak has turned out to be a belt slip issue. After working on the SC to IC plumbing for several hours trying to get the 45 degree coupler to work I gave up and went back to my 90 degree way and then did a leak test. I found that I had to really crank down on one of the clamps to get it to stop leaking. It wasn't a big leak and it didn't show up until I got to 7 psi.

What I did to perform the leak test was to disconnect the 90 degree coupler from the SC and rotate the coupler 180 degrees so I could put my homemade leak tester on. The leak tester is made from PVC pipe and electrical tape. The electrical tape was used to build up the end of the pipe so that it would stay clamped to the coupler. It worked like a charm. To introduce the air I used a spare air hose coupler I had and simply drilled a slightly undersized hole for it and then screwed it into the end cap. Next I used some 15 minute epoxy to lock the fitting to the cap by putting epoxy on the threads that were protruding on the inside of the cap.

Next I closed the regulator on my air compressor and put the hose on to the leak tester. I then turned on the car (did not start the engine) so that I could monitor the boost gauge. Then I slowly turned up the air pressure until I found the leak which took about 7 psi for it to show up.

After I had determined that I no longer had any leaks I put the new Fast Intentions tow bar on. It fit perfect.

By this time the sky was not looking very friendly so I knew that if I wanted to get a data log run in I had better do it quick. Drove the car to get it up to temp and then did a quick 3rd gear run. Got back home and dumped the log data and saw that the boost was STILL not where it should be. I started studying the log data and saw that the boost had built up pretty linear up to about 6K rpm and then started flatting out at 7 psi and then as the rpm increased the boost actually started to go down. By the time the engine was at 7K the boost had DROPPED to 5 psi. This looks like a belt slip issue.

I was going to spray the serpentine belt with some CRC belt dressing to try again but the rain had started. Looked at the radar and saw that it was going to be staying for awhile. I'll try again sometime this week and see if the belt dressing helps.

My next battle plan is to use Pauly Z's idea of using an additional idler to get more wrap of the drive belt on the SC jackshaft pulley. As soon as I get the items needed I'll be doing that mod.

Can you send me a pic of your supercharger? I think I asked this in the other thread too. If you don't have it rotated correctly, the 45 won't fit. It seems to have worked on all the other builds but this one.

After seeing the picture of your supercharger in the other thread:

The volute isn't clocked right. Clock it per the instructions sent and it will fit like the rest have fit.

Way up at the top of the L pipe where the coupler is, is the fulcrum of that pipe position. If it is turned off the volute 1 inch then that translates to 5 inches at the connection point to the coupler.

Its like taping a straw to a quarter. Rotate the quarter a half inch and watch the other end of the straw move 10 inches.

It really has to be installed correctly in order for it to work.

Great thread btw.

Thanks!

It's all a process and patience is a must.

I have the pulley and belt on order to do the Pauly Z belt mod. Everything should be here tomorrow along with the 8 rib belt.

Last night I looked at the spare K071045 belt I have (stock Stillen serpentine belt) and it sure looks like the belts are made from a big wide belt and simply sliced to width. All I need to do to the 8 rib belt (K081088) is cut one rib from it so that it is a 7 rib belt that is 109 3/8 inches long. The K0X portion of the belt number is the number of ribs so my new belt will be a K071088 which doesn't exist......

Cutting off one rib will either be very simple or very hard. The simple way is to use a utility knife and lay the belt flat and simply follow the gro0ve to slice off one rib. If that gives me a problem I will set up my lathe to do the cutting. That will take some time to work on a tool holder mod to hold a utility blade but it will give me a very precise cut. If that is what is needed I can make these belts for you guys at a very reasonable cost. I am hoping that the first method will work and you can make your own.

My plan is to install the belt mod this weekend.

This week is crazy busy, our main garage door broke sometime Sunday night when the helper spring broke. That is supposed to get fixed tomorrow. I'm also not in shape to work on the car right now as I got two spider bites Sunday afternoon while driving my Z to go and visit my dad. I felt a sting on my shoulder but didn't think much of it and then another sting in my arm pit. Smashed the SOB then. It was under my shirt so I never saw it and there wasn't much left of it after I ground it to mush. I'm itching like crazy!

All of the new belt parts are in or made.

I used the NAPA pulley that Pauly Z found for us:
Pulley- 54 mm #36375
Belt- Micro V 6 rib #061093 OR MODIFIED K081088 along with a 12x1.75x50mm bolt, a 12x1.75mm hex nut and 6ea. 7/16 inch washers for spacers. I had to make a spacer to make up the difference between the inside diameter of the pulley and the 12mm bolt. A step up shank bolt would be best but you use what you have available. If you need a spacer let me know and I can make one for you. I may just go ahead and design a step spacer so that I don't have to use all of the washers. Let me see how it fits and then I can go from there on the design.

The belt cut down will happen tomorrow night (the wife has plans for me tonight). The belt I got is the fleet HD belt so it should hold up well. The bad part is that it is green........Heck as long as it doesn't slip I don't care what color it is!

I checked the K080188 eight rib belt last night and the rib size and spacing is exactly like the K071045 (stock Stillen) belt so removing one rib will make the correct belt for us at the 109 3/8 length. This is way cheaper than the $10K setup fee and 100 minimum buy from Gates.

Success!!! Modifying the 8 rib belt to 7 ribs was very easy to do. Just make sure you have a new blade in your utility knife and take multiple cuts. Don't try and do it with one cut, the belt is pretty tough. The blade will follow the groove so just make about four passes with the knife cutting about 4-6 inches of length at a time. Keep the blade perpendicular with the cutting surface (I used a hobby cutting mat). When I had finished the belt fell on the floor and when I picked it up I could not tell which was the original side! Perfect!

The whole operation took about ten minutes to do and saved me $10,000.:happydance:

I have worked up a design for a custom spacer for the new pulley. I'll see if I can scrounge up a piece of 1 inch aluminum rod at work tomorrow to make it. I'll post pictures of the work as it progresses. I NEED MORE BOOST!!!!

PDF of the spacer design is a 3D PDF. You can use your mouse to rotate the spacer to see the design.

There is one thing that I have gotten very good at, finishing a Z project in time for a rain storm........

August in Alabama means a 75% chance of rain every day around 4-7pm. At least the showers cool things down some but the humidity! You can work up a sweat just standing.

Well, the 8 to 7 rib belt mod and additional jack shaft pulley have been installed. I did wound up making a custom spacer out of 6061 aluminum bar stock. I just didn't like all of the washers acting as spacers, it just wasn't worthy of my Z!

The HD Fleet belt is slightly thicker than a regular Gates Micro-V so I would think twice about using one. I will, however check with the Gates racing division for the racing version of the K080188 belt in BLUE to match my Z.

Pauly Z has already posted a picture of the setup but this is what mine looks like IN RACING GREEN.

The swap out doesn't take long at all and the belt, pulley and hardware runs about $100 and it should not slip! Look at the wrap around of the belt on the jack shaft pulley. Awesome!

Tomorrow the weather is looking good in the morning so I will try another log run and see what happens. Wish me luck!

If you really won't to get a nice log run in come to Birmingham tomorrow morning. Bama GZR is having a meet, photoshoot, and brunch.

Sorry but the weather here this morning sucked. It was afternoon before it was dry enough for a test run.

Okay, another log run and the same results! Boost starts to drop off around 6300 rpm.

This time I paid close attention to what was going on and I think I have found the problem. When the engine gets to around 6K rpm the traction control light starts flashing which I think is pulling the throttle back. I need to remember to TURN THE VDC OFF!

You can see in the graph that the boost flattens out around 7.6 psi and drops off from there as the VDC is trying to correct the wheel spin. That MUST be it!

I feel like an idiot.........

That has got to be what is going on. It is cool that the rear tires are breaking loose in third gear at that speed!

I'll try again tomorrow.

Lol, you know the ecutek functions are disabled when the vdc is on!

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Actually, no, this is the first time I have heard of this. What functions are you talking about?

Yeah, when the factory traction control is enabled it takes over and therefore the ecutek tc, flat foot shifting and launch control does not work. When I forget to turn the vdc off and launch the car hard or accelerate hard the car will just bog and is non responsive.

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Thanks for the info.

No problem!

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So, Sunday after doing the log run and seeing that I still was not reaching my boost level, I decided to wash the Z and have a couple of cold ones. While washing the drivers side rear wheel a saw several spots of black on my wheel. When I rubbed it it smeared like grease. Well it was grease! I looked in the wheel and saw a ring of grease on the inside of the wheel. I crawled under the car (barely) and looked at the backside of the rear hub and there was the problem. The CV joint boot had failed and it was slinging grease out. The rubber looks good but something is wrong.

I decided to drive the car to work this morning and left the stereo off so I could listen for any strange sounds and sure enough, as you slow down coming to a stop you can hear a click, click, click coming from that area.

A new rear axle half shaft has been ordered and should be here Thursday. Looks like I have my Saturday planned now......

Have you rotated the supercharger correctly and placed the 45* coupler on?

No, I have not. I don't see anyway of rotating the volute without removing or at least un-bolting the SC. I can get to a couple of the socket head screws but not all of them. I just don't have the time to unbolt the SC at this point. My 90 degree coupler seems to be working fine and now that I know that I need to turn off the VDC during my log run and the boost should be in the mid 8 psi.

When the car was on the dyno at Z1, it made 8.4 psi and produced around 400whp. The temperature that day was over 100° so that probably didn't help the hp number and I'm still only on my third tune from Seb so it isn't dialed in fully yet.

Because I have been trying to do test with the VDC on, the VDC has been closing the throttle down due to the traction control system being triggered. At least that is my latest theory........ I went back and looked at all of my run data and each run EXCEPT the Z1 dyno run has had the same results. They must have turned the VDC off to get the boost number they got.

The new halfshaft is going to be delivered today and I will get it put on Saturday and then I can resume testing. I wonder, has anyone else had problems with halfshafts?

I'll shoot some pictures of what I find when I get there.

Seb sent me an email asking about what was going on so I filled him in on all of the things that I have been working on with the car. Great guy to work with!

This morning I had another email from him with another tune to try. This one with two maps, the second one with more timing to try and get the power up. And a friendly reminder to TURN THE VDC OFF.

The new halfshaft arrived yesterday and it will go on the car Saturday. I should have the car ready to drive by the time the rain starts..........

and the saga continues.......
 

Got the Z up in the air and found the axle problem, something cut the outer CV joint boot. It was a very small cut but enough to sling a lot of grease out! What a mess!

Got the axle out and compared it to the new one and the new one has a problem. I think that it got over extended during shipping and the outer CV joint came apart. The boot is extended by at least and inch compared to the old one and the axle is longer by an inch. The bellows of the boot of the new one are spread way apart compared to the original one. The Nissan shop manual warns you to not over extend the CV joints or they could be damaged. The box that the new one came it was not very tight length wise and the threaded end of the shaft was well secured but the big end wasn't.

I'll take the shaft over to the dealer and see if they can just replace the boot and repack the grease. The OEM shaft is $560 from Courtesy Nissan, the one that I got was from RockAuto and it was $78 including shipping. $78 is the cost of the two CV boots for the shaft from Nissan.

I found the Gates Racing belt I was looking for.

Gates Racing K081088 8-Rib Micro-V and V-Ribbed Belts | Autoplicity

This is an 8 rib belt that will need to be modified by cutting off one rib for the new serpentine drive.

It's blue so it will look much nicer than the green belt that is currently on my car.

I dropped off the rear axle at the local Nissan dealer so they could replace the torn CV boot and repack with grease. They said it would be done this afternoon so I might have the car back together this evening.

The other thing I want to do is to find a source (other than the dealer) for some replacement screws for the front pan. Some of those screws are getting quite worn. These are the screws that have the integrated washer, 10mm head with a cross drive (phillips head), 6mm x 1mm thread about 15-20mm long. If I find a source I'll post the link.

I've ordered some of these to see if they are what I'm looking for. https://www.belmetric.com/body-bolts...thm94fev9lv990

Axle repaired and replaced. A quick run with the VDC OFF and guess what, wrong! Still low boost! This time I couldn't even get to 7 psi.

I went back and looked at the data log from the Z1 dyno run and sure enough, 8.4 psi which is at least in the ball park. What the heck is going on? Somewhere something has changed for the worse. After all that I have done the gremlins should be gone.

If my new drive belt comes in before the weekend I guess I will take the SC and unbolt it enough to rotate the volute so that I can get the 45 degree coupler on it the way that TopgunZ designed the kit. Once that is done I'm done working on this for a while. I have been working on this issue most of the summer and I just need a break before I do something I will regret later........

One other thing I noticed in the data, on the Z1 dyno run the boost built up very linear until red line where it dropped like a rock when the throttle closed like it should. With all of my runs the boost builds up to a point and then flattens out and then actually drops, VDC on or off. When the boost stops rising and flattens out it also becomes rather noisy jumping from one pressure to another changing around 1 to 2 psi during that time. Could this be caused by a bad BOV?

If it was just a leak it should just be a loss of pressure and pretty constant I would think. If the BOV starts leaking it could be fluttering and that could cause a rapid pressure fluctuation. Anybody seen this kind of problem?

I would hate to spend the $$ on a Tial (they are sexy looking) but at this point I don't give a damn about the money, I just want the boost to be where it should be.

Maybe I should fly TopgunZ down here for a weekend to help me solve this........

Which BOV are your using now? I do remember from older thread that the plastic Bosch bpv supplied with the Stillen kit not holding boost beyond the typical boost pressure from the carb legal setup. Guys increasing the boost usually stepped up to the Turbosmart dual port 25mm BOV. if you boost levels are at 8-9 psi the bosch should be fine though.

You still on stock cat? With my test pipes, my boost levels were below what I would get with stock cats. I should be seeing 11 to 12 psi but dynoed just below 10 psi.

Yes, I'm using the stock Bosch bov. It seems to be working because when I do back off of the throttle I can hear a bunch of air being let off but it could still be leaking.

Yes, again on the stock cats. I'm only looking for 9-10 pounds of boost and I should be there with my setup.

I broke down and ordered the Tial BOV from Jegs during lunch. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I need to either give up or launch an all out attack on the problem. I don't give up easy........

I'm really looking forward to seeing what dyno numbers turn up with the other builds. It seems that with 8.4 psi I should have seen well over 400 whp or am I dreaming?

If you take a look at the stickied finished stillen supercharger builds thread, at 8psi for Stillen, the HP range from 390 to 445HP and they probably weren't done on the same type of dyno, correction factors or ambient temps. Results can vary.

I was expecting more from 9.75 psi but I only came up with about 436whp but I was tuned on 91 octane and depending on how "safe" the tune is, numbers can vary. Also, all cars are not built the same, some produce a little more power than others.

It's not like you're producing 350whp on 8.4psi. That would not be normal for a custom tune.

Did your tuner do a before supercharger dyno? Interested to see the before number for delta comparison as well. My before supercharger dyno was 288whp, so I gained about 148. Only mods I had before supercharger were Uprev tune and FI catback exhaust with stock cats.

The pulls that were done on the dyno were just so I knew where I'm currently at. The car is being remote tuned by Seb at SpecialtyZ. He just sent me an updated tune with more timing advance but I don't see much point in logging the data for him if the boost level isn't where it should be. I'm being tuned for 93 octane.

Yes, I agree that there are lots of variables with the build, dyno and tune. I have seen where other Stillen systems have pulled over 400 on the same dyno at Z1 but with the 8 psi setup. I have the 9 psi pulley and am getting 8.4 which is reasonable. The problem is that I can't reproduce the boost that they got on there dyno run. On the street I'm only seeing 7-ish.

How was the 8.4psi boost reading taken by Z1 compared to how you're seeing 7psi? Maybe two different methods? Maybe they tightened the belt system down just before the pull?

I have the AEM boost/AFR gauge with logging capability so the same measurement method was used. Since then I have added another idler pulley to the serpentine belt driving the SC jackshaft so if anything the later runs should have been higher because any belt slip should have been eliminated.

The only real difference between the two readings is that one was stationary on a dyno and the lower reading was done on the road. Now you know why this has been so difficult to troubleshoot.

Hopefully the Tial BOV will fix the problem. At the least it will sound awesome.haha

Tbatt. You need the pipe, clamp, 1.5psi spring, 50mm intake and then the 1.5" exhaust if you want to recirculate later to quiet the pissed off dragon down.