Good idea, I might visit my local muffler shop sometime this year to have that done! Thanks for the idea!

I have successfully have it set up to where I do not need to worry about smog checks in CA anymore, so I am now free to mod the car however I want. :) I have stock cats on there right now, but I may remove them in the future

You might as well remove them right now, they're going to get destroyed from excess heat. Get a set of test pipes.

Fixed. ;)

You need a serviceable pipe? I know you like creating a lot of work for yourself but how many times do you plan on servicing your pipe? (No pun intended)

Haha, Idk that's just what was suggested I do. I personally don't have a problem with the way the pipe is now, but if I am going to have someone work on my car in the future for any reason, I'd like to accommodate that person if possible.

I guess it's because the pipe was really hard to put in, and if we took it out, it would be as much of a pain to put it back in -- not sure if we installed it wrong or are doing it wrong, but that's just that lol.

I think he just wanted it more user-friendly to remove and put back in without hassle - i could be wrong though

That sounds rediculous to me... almost as rediculous as putting the stock exhaust on because it has a flex joint.

1000s of free flowing exhausts out there and never heard of a problem without a flex...not once.

With stock cats and stock exhaust you will make like 18psi though if that's your thing. Except you will lose 50+whp easily.

Well it is what it is. Part of what is posted on here is so that I can look back, the other part is so that I don't forget what others suggest / say to me in case I need to look back at it.

For now, I just want a working reliable car, lol. I don't really care about power levels at the moment since right now it is a big fat zero! :O
And Eugene is graciously providing that for me even when he doesn't have to help me out and could have refused to. Although we don't always see eye to eye on everything, I can understand where he is coming from. I trust him fully with my vehicle and that he is taking care of everything, so I definitely take his suggestions into strong consideration since he is the one working on my car.

I do take your guys' constructive feedback as well very strongly because I respect a ton of you on here too!
But for now, I will focus on having a reliable car that I can drive to work every day and such as a DD, then pay everything off, then worry about upgrades if I still want it after all is paid off! :D

03/01/2019 Update

THE CAR TURNED ON!!!! I HEARD IT FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! (via phone) lol!!

(1) Belt he bought works and fits -- some pulleys were rearranged to make the longer belt fit.

(2) High pressure cooler reservoir was rubbed on by the previous belt we had on which means it was not installed correctly, so he replaced it with the OEM older version non-pressurized coolant reservoir despite the car having the correct plumbing for the newer pressurized one. He replaced it because the coolant was leaking due to the belt rubbing on it.

(3) Transmission fluid is being adjusted now as the car is on.

(4) Eugene will take it to the gas station to fill it up with gas and then drive it around right now

(5) So far, no leaks or anything was found as the car was idling in his shop

(6) I'M SO EXCITED!!!! LETS HOPE NO MORE PROBLEMS ARISE FROM THE TIME HE DRIVES IT, TUNES IT, AND TESTS IT!

I owe sooooo much to Eugene for helping me out when he could have refused to.
He is such a genuine and honest person, I don't know what I would have done without him fixing the issues my car had. (So many I could write an encyclopedia on it).
I am so glad he reached out to me in the beginning when I had my red Z, and I am even more happy that I joined these forums. I have learned so much through everyone here and their support, can't thank you all enough!

I really hope that I can finally daily drive the vehicle normally with a little spirit once in a while without having to fret about something popping off or breaking!

One of the lessons I learned was:
- Do not let multiple people touch your modded car, only let one person and one person only touch it otherwise ... it can be a snowball of issues! (My car is a living testimony of that).

*** More Updates Coming ***

03/02/2019 Update

- Eugene has done everything he could to get my car reliably running, tuned, and making sure that parts didn't fall off when driving it for ~1 hour of all kinds of pulls.

- He has done his part, and is now willing to return the vehicle to me, so I will pick it up sometime later today.

- The issues he saw was:
(1) Boost peaking at 6psi (He isn't sure if it was before red line or at red line), and didn't make anything higher during the hour he was driving it. We aren't sure why exactly it changed from it peaking to 6psi and how it was before the pulley fell off when I was driving it (2 weeks ago) -- which was peaking at around 9.5 PSI when the pulley blew off.

(2) I will take it to Seb later this year to see if he can figure out the boost issue as I don't want anyone else touching the vehicle other than just Eugene and Seb at this point. I learned my lesson, lol.

(3) I sent an e-mail to Seb a few minutes ago stating my general problem of boost peak issue, and then telling him the specs of my car, what's on it, etc. I also asked him if he would be willing to look at the vehicle sometime later this year and figure it out and find a solution to it as I'm sure he is capable of doing so if he wanted to. I just also asked for a ballpark price range on what it would cost to do this, so I know how much to save up as I finally get to start paying everything off this year (Eugene comes first!)

(4) I could always remove the air filter (assuming I don't have to remove the supercharger bracket or anything...IIRC I can remove the filter on and off while the blower and everything is still inside the car, but I don't know for sure, so I'll ask Mr. Kao! If not, then I will leave it as is -- as I'm already really happy that I have a reliable working car even if it only makes 6psi max for now.
I'd rather have a working reliable low PSI car than a 0 psi non-working car (Like I've had for the past 1.5 years), and be able to pay things off than be greedy, go for more PSI and create more issues due to me being greedy, NOPE!)

(5) There is a slight leak on the passenger cam cover side of oil, its not major but it should be addressed sometime this year when possible, but the other major oil leaks that the vehicle had is fixed, Thanks to Eugene!

(6) We changed the belt to Gates Micro-V K071056HD because the previous stock belt that came with the stillen kit would not fit with the current pulleys that was on there. Why you may ask? Because the person who worked on my car before, did something odd with the idler pulley that flew out 2 weeks ago. I don't know what size or type of pulley he used or put there, but it had to have been smaller than what we have on the engine now. Eugene said all the lines are solid, so there's no leaks in his opinion as he checked them. He knows the a2w systems do around 7 - 8 psi, and the way he changed the serpentine belt side increased contact with the crank pulley so definitely shouldn't be slipping.

Eugene says it is running like a stock blower a2a instead of a2w, and that's what it seems like to him. The only pulley he re-arranged for the new belt we got was the idler pulley near the crank, and everything else is the way it was.

There was a ribbed pulley near teh tensioner he replaced with an extra Stillen idler pulley that he had, and the original idler he removed it. This allowed him to route the belt slightly different in that spot to increase tension with the wnew slightly longer belt. This should have no impact whatsoever on the rate of rotation of the supercharger... I mean if the crank moves the belt 5.7" the belt will still move 5.7" everywhere, right?

But if we change the blower pulley, or the crank pulley then it's a different story -- but none of that was swapped out.

--- We are not sure what kind of idler was on it before (The one that popped out of the engine), but Eugene put a stock 370z idler on it and it was impossible to get the belt on. He says he just replaced one on another g37 with the Stillen Kit and he had no issues installing it, but on my car, the belt would not even fit hence why we had to buy about a 1 inch longer belt. ---

Maybe the kind of idler pulley that the last mechanic put on there was a smaller one? Who knows. The way it is now is a really snug fit -- it could be a little tighter with another subaru idler pulley, but not really as it's already difficult to force the belt over the idler as it is.

Now we have an extra Stillen pulley, and the stock idler is no longer on there due to the belt not being able to fit.

*** More Updates when I get it back ***

-PS- I'm just really thankful, grateful, and happy that Eugene did what he was asked to, and now I have a working, reliable car despite the boost peaking at 6. That's alright. I am definitely willing to take this over a 0 psi non-working car and not being able to pay stuff off lol.

03/04/2019 Update

I am going to take my car to my high school friend's cousins performance shop that is also conveniently located about 13 minutes from my house!

His shop is very legit and also has a dyno machine, does tons of fabrications, etc. Check it out for yourself and let me know if you guys would take your car to this shop if you were close to it!

https://m.facebook.com/Genuine-Motor...1117477061782/

I will go to his shop this Wed morning after work and give him this exact list of issues I want fixed and ask him how much he or at least, a ball park of how much he will charge for the following:

I can have a max budget of $3,000 for the following repairs if needed.
He charges $125/hr for labor. I am hoping $3,000 is enough to pay for the following issues to be resolved. The $3k includes paying for any parts needed too!


[ ] Slight oil leak coming from passenger, top side of the engine. Camshaft or timing cover area, somewhere up here in this area there is a slight oil leak.

[ ] Replace non-pressurized coolant tank with newer 2012+ model pressurized coolant tank, also put a regular coolant cap on without the spring. (Need to buy this cap as well - ask Eugene part number and where it goes again? Either on coolant tank or the coolant reservoir pour hole entrance?)

[ ] Cut car frame a little larger so there is room for the slightly bigger supercharger to fit and breathe - that way it doesn't rub onto the frame itself when reversing the vehicle, which impacts the engine in the long run

[ ] P2A03 Code: either replace cats with test / down pipes, or find out what's causing this code and fix it

[ ] Smoke/Boost leak test to fix P2A03 code possibly, as well as find out why the 6psi peak max issue is occurring according to Eugene

[ ] Either replace stillen exhaust tail pipe with a stock one or, keep it and tie it up using strong metal wire to hold it in place , that way it is stable and does not fall out of the hook again while driving

[ ] Possibly replace the supercharger pulleys that have metal showing that way it does not eat my belt and wear it out faster over time

[ ] Fix one of the lug nut studs that Eugene was talking about, as it is lower than it should be since we took out the spacers in the wheel that it had before, and replace it with an OEM sized or get a whole set of OEM lug nuts and put those onto the wheels - get rid of all the aftermarket, extended ones on the car currently

[ ] Raise the car a bit because the oil pan spacer is now the lowest part of the vehicle, so raise it a little maybe so it's less dangerous when driving out and about

[ ] Replace the front brace under the engine with a new one because the current one is bent due to someone using a jack on it and bending it - disallowing the proper hole alignment for the splash undercover to be put back on

[ ] Get a driver side (LH) fender liner because the last one was busted

In the span of 48 hours, you have changed your mind from:

To:

Yeah cause I forgot about the guys shop that was near my house and that his work is solid. I know, seems hasty and all but reason why i forgot about his shop was cause last time I contacted his shop he never got back to me so I forgot all about it.

Plus it's closer so less chance of me being stuck in the mid of CA while driving down to LA.

So you’re taking it to your friend’s cousins’s roommate’s sister’s boyfriend’s Honda shop and you think it’s going to turn out well? You thought the last guy was a good idea too and he completely messed up your car.

There isn’t a single picture of a Nissan on that shop’s Facebook page, much less a Z. Why not let a shop that has built boosted Zs work on your car?


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Take this advice from me: have Seb work on and complete your car. Specialty z knows their sh!t. I had a shop who works on Lambos and exotics install my supercharger. Botched the install. You can tell because my Defi gauges are zip tied to my dash. So install errors everywhere. Then I had it tuned by a legendary tuner in the industry. But here’s the thing, he only works on Honda’s so he’s familiar with the platform but not the z platform. Tune sucked and has been misfiring and running horribly for years. I finally said it was enough and towed my car 100 miles to Seb. He’s been working through the issues one by one and has kept me updated with every step of the way. I highly recommend Seb and wouldn’t take my z anywhere else.

Whoever you pick, pick one guy and stick with it. You're not helping yourself by bouncing around all over the place. Slow down. Take a breath and make a plan before your enthusiasm costs you even more money. You seem to be going about this project in a "ready, fire, aim" fashion and that is never good for the wallet or the blood pressure.

Thank you for all your feedback everyone!
I will take it to heart and listen for once lol.

I emailed Seb just now asking if he would be able to fix said issues (the ones listed above) with a budget of 3k or less, but instead, I also included dyno runs because I want to make sure the car can run safely throughout the entire power band without parts falling off, breaking, or things leaking.

I have been talking to Seb this past weekend via emails, and I tried to inform him the best I could regarding my car'a condition currently


Do you guys think its safer and better for me to spend some money and tow it from Sacramento to Sebs place or, or just risk driving it very casually (cruise control at 70 or so the entire time to LA) in Hope's that nothing will make it so I cant continue the trip alone?

We will see what Seb says! :D

The last time you drove it when you weren't 100% sure about it you had to replace the entire ******* car. Tow it.

Haha ok. I think it costs like 1k+ to tow it that far but it probably worth it

Doing it the other way has already cost you that much many times over. The rest of your build needs to be you doing things the right way, not the fast way or the cheap way.

Alright

If Seb is booked out at least three months (90 days) consider getting AAA and upgrading to the highest plan as soon as you can. I think it’s about $110 a year or something like that but you get a free 200 mile tow once a year and the rest are 100 mile tows. Towing to Specialty z is obviously farther than that but you’ll only be responsible for the overage past the first 200 miles. That’s how I covered my tow to specialty z and I’m going to drive the car home once Seb is done with my car.

I have been working with Seb for six years and I tow or drive the my car to his shop. I am about five hours away from his shop which is about the same distance for you. It is worth every penny.

Also, you have spent a truck load of money for car that does not run safely and now you are going to take it to one of the best Z mechanic in North America with a budget? Seb will not gouge you but he ain't cheap, it will be done right and he will stand behind his work. He will probably not give you an estimate because he doesn't know what he will find even as detailed as you are with information. Anymore, I don't ask I just open my wallet because he has never let me down and he will always ask my me if I want to do something more than what I brought the car in for if he thinks it will beneficial and the cost is high. If is less than 1k he just does it because he knows I'm good with his decision making.

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Haha 90 days out, my build hasn't budged and we made plans and he started ordering parts the first part December 2018. He has plenty of time to change his insurance!

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I dont mind waiting a lot of months and saving up the appropriate amount, I just don't want to bring it to him finding out that it will cost way more than I planned for, cause then what?

I much rather save up a huge budget to cover everything. I would think 3k is more than enough to fix the listed issues, but what do I know? Not much.

I have AAA and have three more rows left for this year, at 100 miles each. I can tow it 300 miles and the remaining would be about 63 miles left to be exact.

I wonder, would Triple AAA make me call 3 different drivers for all 3 remaining rows? Lol.

The place is exactly 363 miles from my house.

Hmmm...I like that AAA idea.

You might need a larger budget than that. That way you prepare for the worst but hope for the best. I had my car towed to Specialty Z expecting all sorts of sh!t to go down but Seb will work with you and give you a complete list of everything he recommends having done and will let you decide which ones you want to tackle first and which aren’t as important and can be done further down the line when finances are better. Things like the CEL are probably more important than getting a fender liner. You know what I mean? Let me know when you’re in town! I’d love to do a side by side comparison of the TopgunZ a2a kit and my baby HKS SC setup lol.

cupcakez, Personal experience says take the car to Seb. Especially don't take it to anyone , not even a freind that is unfamiliar with VQ's.
This is precisely why my car made only 669whp and could'nt hit peak boost on the dyno. I took my car to a friends shop to have my built motor installed. I had many issues prior to the car being done. First I had to personally talk with Charles in the middle of the night , then the mechanic sat and questioned whether or not Charles knew how to install his own fuel system. Second these people "Literally" called Ecutek (unbeknownst to me) in England to question whether or not Seb knew what he was doing with the tune. But the gift that keeps giving is the fact that when the VVEL solenoids were swapped to the new block they did a scientific wild a$$ guess as to the voltage and sync.
You will pay for this lack of knowledge up front or somewhere down the line but it's gonna be paid for. I'm scheduled to drop my car off Tuesday to a Master Nissan Tech who happens to also build engines for teams. That I can trust. I don't care how much it costs I just want it done. And by some of your previous problems you may suffer the same issue as me seeing as you're not getting your boost. Good luck and quit trying to out do me on the Murphy violations.

I was talking to Seb guys! Good news! I am going to take my car to Seb once I have enough saved up.

I had asked him if 3k was enough and he suggested to save up a little more than that, and then we can schedule something later down the road!

I'm super excited to be working with him for the first time! As it sounds like he will be able to resolve the rest of my issues all at once from the positive things the community has to say about him -- seems like I can't go wrong. Eugene could have done it himself, but he is a one-man person with a lot on his plate, and to be quite honest, he did a very fantastic job with what he did for the 2 weeks he had my car. He did me a favor bigger than you guys will probably ever know, and I appreciate that man so much. He also recommended I take my car to Seb to finish the job, so that is what I will do.

Seb wrote me today and told me to save up a bit more.
I wrote him back saying I could meet him sometime at the end of June, around June 27th - Thursday, so we'll see if he is okay with that appointment or not!
I can have $4500 - $4900 saved up for a budget assuming nothing crazy comes up between now and then that forces me to spend that budget! (Life events etc)


I am also confident the car is driveable now, and won't be needing a tow.

I took the car today to the exhaust shop in Sacramento (Muffler Tech) which is very reputable in what they do, very honest and well priced. They welded up the exhaust that fell out of place / was disconnected for only $45 and also did a smoke test to find out where the leak was coming from free of charge! Told me it was coming from somewhere in the exhaust manifold passenger side but cannot exactly pin point where, since they'd have to remove the heat shield to find out. But said they were 85% sure that the leak is coming from somewhere up top in the manifold or something.

The car drives very nice other than that issue. I am going to test it this weekend and drive it to work 1 hour 15 minutes away with windy roads going up a mountain ~1700 feet to where my work is.

And drive it around town the next few days before work to see how it feels and goes.

If I am confident (cause I have the highest level of paranoia right now), then I would say that's a good thing!

Otherwise, I won't chance it. And will use three AAA tows after driving out toward Chatsworth from my house about 60 - 70 miles then calling AAA three times to get it to Seb, haha.

Thanks guys for the recommendations, I love the community and will definitely be taking my car to Seb.

Those of you in So Cal, I will let you guys know when I will be down there probably about 3 - 4 months from now so if you wanted to check out my problematic car, you can, lol, at Sebs shop!

Where would I sleep while the car is being worked on? No idea. Maybe I can find a family member or friend who can house me for the days that he is working on my car. Not sure. Didn't figure that part out yet T_T

EDIT:

Nevermind. I think I will just take the train back and then fly back down when its' ready or something. Lol.

You driving the car around. I would not go WOT until you get it back from Seb.

WOT is not even in my vocabulary lol. I have learned my lesson xD

[Build Thread] -- Journey to 700+ WHP [Supercharger]
 

I wouldn’t leave closed loop fueling, which is basically impossible to do.

You can just bring a tent and sleep with the homeless. Just need to dress up like a crack head. :roflpuke2:

I think to be safe, I am going to just keep the car sitting in the garage until it is time to bring it to Sebastian 4 months from now. The P2A03 code is annoying, and I just had a smoke test done today to see if there was any leaks from the engine bay ... nothing was found other than smoke coming from the air filter of the supercharger, lol which is normal since everything leading to there was closed and sealed off. So that eliminates a boost leak I would assume, which leads me to believe either the belt is slipping (hard to believe cuz the belt seems tighter than a stock car belt since Eugene wrapped it around very well, and even wraps around most of the crank pulley.



I am going to save up every penny possible until then so I can have enough funds to fix every remaining issue found that needs fixing.

He told me he is going to be out of town the week I wanted to drop off the car but we can still schedule it for that time for me to bring it in (Week of June 27th) so I asked him if I could bring it in the week after when he comes back, since I told him I want him to be working on my car. Unless he is okay with me bringing it in the week of June 27 and then him working on the car when he returns? Going to wait on his reply for that.

The way I will transport the car from my house to his house? Not sure.
Either I will pay a shipping company to flat bed it all 363 miles, or I will call AAA and have them tow it three times (100 miles each tow) after I drive it out about 70 miles from my house toward that address then having AAA tow it three different times which would be a hassle but would get the job done. Then I'd take a train back or fly back home, until he is completely done with the car and then fly back down there to pick it up and drive it back home, worry-free.

If all goes well and as financially planned, I should have 4500 - 4900 saved up to pay Sebastian. I hope this will be enough to fix all the issues. We'll see.

And if after getting it back, something else goes critically wrong, I am thinking to just sell the entire car to someone else lol, for like 20k or something. And buy a different vehicle, keep that stock, and only modify cosmetics. I'm thinking a Lotus Evora or something!

I hope it doesn't get to that point, I don't want to do that but that is my backup plan in case all else fails. Need a backup plan! And that's mine, lol.

Other than that, I won't be doing anymore updates for the next 3 - 4 months until it is in Sebastian's hands.

I will also let you guys know when I am going down there in case any of you want to see this infamous problematic dirty of an engine bay car, lol.

Thanks <3

based on your issues and also living in cali (which seems like a waste to even think about modding a car now especially to your extent).......


how about you save up that 5k......


give it to me.......


i'll kick you in balls......


and we call it a day. seems to be how things have gone on this build since day 1.


:bowrofl:

:iagree::icon17:

I have followed this journey since post one...Cupcakez is it time to just grab a GTR and call it a day lol jk bro!! Good luck with the re)build! 👍

I would have just spent my money on fuc*ing dolls if I have 5K to burn!

But thats Zoren I dont know anything about cars!

https://www.loversire.com/150cm-164c...iAAEgK0KPD_BwE

Lmao.

Nah. I have the smog issue resolved legally. I found a coworker who allowed me to use their home address to register my vehicle in that county. No smog checks are done in that county. So that is a positive thing, I can modify my car however I choose to now, without worrying about that.

That, and I actually do have an update.

I ended up bringing it to the Nissan Dealership this morning, and they checked out the code. Said the voltage was off on bank 2. Also, I asked if I replaced the AFR sensors at all, I said well yeah, we did but that was last year and we did have this code for a while back then too, just never was properly addressed since then since I never really got to drive the car to see it!

They did an idle relearn and now the numbers are fine. The short term fuel trims were both identically stable at 103 103 at a freeze frame during a random time in the idling process, and instead of seeing 125% at 2k RPMs and such which was way too crazy for that RPM.

He test drove it at a couple thousand RPMs to see if the code came back, and it did not. Idled it in the shop for a while and kept the graphs running constantly the entire time -- code never came back up and graphs banks 1 and 2 are now identical. No more waviness.

They fixed the code.

Before you guys flame me for bringing it to the Nissan Dealership:
They have a tech who I have been working with the past few times I have been here, and they only have one tech that deals and knows a lot of knowledge regarding aftermarket parts, and performance vehicles. The advisor also knows me pretty well too. They both know what is on the vehicle.

Both banks ran evenly according to the graphs they showed me versus how it was before. I wish I asked for the paper work but I forgot, since I was too happy about it being fixed.

He said the code actually wasn't due to a leak but an idle relearn process that wasn't done when we changed out the AFR (upstream) sensors last year.

He charged me $120 instead of $160 which was really nice of him.
He always takes care of me when I visit, and this is why I am always going to come back. Both the advisor and tech are very honest and reasonable about pricing instead of the usual /dealer scams for money/ mindset.

I'm blessed to have both of them working at this particular Nissan dealership in my city.

They said if the code comes back, then to come back to them to let them know.

They also found no leaks due to the smoke tests they did on the exhaust system and what not, after doing the idle relearn process.

I can now safely drive the car around without worry, and will be able to drive it to Seb at the end of June assuming the code doesn't come back up between now and then - or any other critical issues. I'm still going to baby the car for a while, but the great thing is it is safer to drive than before, and I feel confident driving it.

Yay!

Next on the list is to clean the engine bay.
It is so dirty it looks like the loch ness monster is living in there.
Then detail the exterior of the car with all my car wash items sitting in my room that's been waiting to be used!

And of course, dealing with the possible boost peak issue at 6psi, if that is still an issue? Not sure. Because I haven't pushed the car hard to find out or not, since I'm paranoid from the past experiences every time I tried to make boost lol.

I'll get there slowly though! If that issue is still persistent, I am sure Seb will fix it!
Regarding Seb, I did get a confirmation email from him that I made an appointment officially to drop off the car at the end of June this year! So that's set in in stone unless something crazy happens between now and then that doesn't allow me to do so anymore! Knock on wood!

Right? You don't know how many times I seriously thought about doing that T_T
Thanks buddy! c: