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

[cupcakez]

Updated with some progress photos!

I just didn't take a picture of the new engine in the yellow car (which we last did).
Oops!

I'll add it... some time lol

[cupcakez]

~Quick Update on the Z Life~!

After a lot of thought, weighing in the pros, cons, and using my audience life line (Asking a bunch of my friends for opinions), I decided to sell my first beloved car today for a total of $2350.
I sold the headlights to one customer for $600.
Then, I sold the rest of the car to someone for $1750.
He is local, and is sending a tow truck to come pick it up tonight sometime soon.

I sold it on the basis for that price + him performing labor to remove the aftermarket suspension system, the entire pumpkin differential piece, and taking out the modded fuel pump that is supposed to go with my supercharger unit system. I think that the labor + the cash he paid is more than a fair deal for me -- as it saves me and anyone who would have helped me in the future time and energy as we planned to remove those ourselves.

Although it does suck to see my first vehicle go, but I have a 2nd Z in the garage right now -- a 2009, 370z, Sport Package, 370z, 7AT body of ~92k miles.

The engine and everything in it will pretty much be brand new (<1000 miles on it).

I now have freed up space in my garage, which is a big relief and a burden off of my shoulders.
I also made a good amount of money from parting out the car / selling it, as it is one less thing I have to worry about now.

All of the aftermarket parts will be transferred to the Yellow 09 Z, as it will be my new beast of a daily driver soon.

Onto the 2nd chapter of the car life!
Tomorrow, My friend is supposed to come by and help me start putting together the stuff back onto the Yellow Z.
Hopefully we can accomplish a lot tomorrow, will keep you all posted.

Thanks for being patient <3

Attached is photos to the images of the final car as it is before it goes.

[cupcakez]

Got some things done this week.

She's starting to look like a car again <3

Hopefully by mid-next week, she'll be alive and exercising (:

She's been sitting on her butt too long, D:

The things that are left to do so far is:

1) Install the rest of the A2A Kit

2) Remove demon bolts from one of the headers so we can isolate the cat and put it into this car (The unit is completely out of the vehicle already so it's okay)

3) Hook up the 2015 Red Z ECU to the Yellow 09 Car -- ByThaBay put the correct and most up to date firmware on the ECU to have it work and fit into the Yellow 09 Z.

4) Put all necessary fluids in:
- Transmission Oil || Coolant || Engine Oil || Etc... ||

5) Put the bumper and hood back onto the car

6) Torque a few things down to spec

7) Hook up the battery

8) Put the shift linkage spacer / gasket spikey thing back in

9) Hook up the PCV lines near the TB's which I have no idea where they go still...still need to figure that out

10) Hook up the headlights

11) Put in the modified fuel pump from the original Stillen Supercharger Kit

12) Start the car...hope she turns on correctly!... And after she runs correctly, will install the KW V3's again onto the suspension, and slap on the Quaife Diff (Which is already inside the pumpkin unit, so really, just need to swap pumpkins)

WE'RE ALMOST THERE FOLKS!

STAY TUNED HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE FOLLOWING THIS THREAD SINCE THE BEGINNING, SUPPORTING ME, ETC.

Love you Z Family <33

[Elmo370z]

Better change that paper oil galley gasket.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by Elmo370z

Better change that paper oil galley gasket.

If you mean the timing chain cover, that was changed 4 months ago to a new one. Nothing went wrong with that so we didn't touch it during the transfer process xD

[cupcakez]

Here are some photos of what the car looks like now.

It's honestly done in my opinion, but will wait for the same mechanic who worked on it 4 months ago and put everything together including the engine swap, just to be safe.

We managed to put the BPV behind the bracket of the IC, and route the hose to the BPV in a nice way as well, yay!

Check them out!

To be honest, there is a kink in one of the coolant lines right under the throttle bodies, and I have no idea how to fix that...
I will leave that for my mechanic who will come on Monday to triple check everything before we pour all the fluids in and start it up.

He is also the same person that worked on my car and put everything together for my build in the thread, so I completely trust him.

As you can see I did remove the black support bar that was kinking the coupler connecting the upper left intercooler opening to the Y pipe so it looks A LOT better now.

I also went to the store to buy a 2.5" to 3" coupler (the blue one on the bottom right of the IC) because the last coupler that was used on there (the one that came with the a2a kit) was scraped and damaged, so it was definitely a goner.
We managed to clamp it down enough so there's nothing escaping, it looks fine and feels extremely tight to me so it's all good now.

The car should be up and running by Monday!

[Spooler]

Good deal. Glad to see you have it just about ready to fire up.

[cupcakez]

Quick Update!

My mechanic came by this afternoon!
My car is 99% done.

Dude forgot he left his tools somewhere that he couldn't get until later tonight (which unfortunately, because I work graves, wont be done today)

BUT...

He said the car is just missing a 10mm bolt for the supercharger bracket, a line needs to be run through the headlight or something (dont remember which line), and the two 10mm bolts needa be tightened down near the fuel line / throttle bodies. He bent a line a bit to fix the throttle body plug wiring spacing issue

He will be back tomorrow morning/afternoon.

I will purchase 2 extra jackstands tomorrow morning on the way back from work and extra Amsoil ATF from a local dealer, that way when we do the ATF leveling procedure, we will be good to go and not have to make an unnecessary trip to the store if needed during the middle of the procedure.

1 more day folks! Positive vibes!!

[cupcakez]

SUPER HAPPY! *Here's Why*!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed work into my vehicle. I know it has been an extremely long, difficult, crazy journey, but we are finally going to make it to the finish line.
Tomorrow, my Z is completely restored.

I drove her around the block about 15 times while bleeding the coolant and making sure the coolant operating temperatures were stable -- and it was.

0 leaks, 0 codes, 0 errors at the end of today's work.
All codes that popped up was fixed today.
No check engine light on -- and if it was, it was fixed.

HUGE HUGE HUGE SPECIAL THANKS TO....
At least 10 people whose names I will keep anonymous since this is a forum and not a personalized account who helped one way or another through the skills, knowledge, support, and specialized ability to do this type of work correctly.

HUGE THANKS TO THIS Z-COMMUNITY...
For supporting me throughout the entire time from the July 3rd accident up until now.
- TopgunZ for his a2a kit contribution and also his support, knowledge in aiding me along the process of putting the car back together.
- "Z"en & Redondo & Topz for supporting me when I was sulking down in the dumps having nothing but negativity going through my mind but yet still managing to find supportive words for me.

This job could not have been done without each and every one of your specialized hands, skills, support, and knowledge.

Throughout the various trips to the store because we forgot something, needed something, or purchased the wrong item just to return it again;
Throughout the various issues we ran into that was squashed only because you guys had the knowledge, skills, and ability to solve it.
And throughout the countless hours spent on this vehicle...

The fruit is soon to be perfectly ripe.

The patience was well worth it, and that is probably the most valuable thing I learned from all of this thus far -- because, as Topz once said... patience is one thing that is critical for people to have within this hobby.

Unfortunately, I could not make any videos of it firing up or driving for the first time today because my phone was pretty much out of battery (4%) but I will try to make some videos tomorrow of it!

Just need to finish some fine adjustments for tomorrow and she is back on the road, healthy and good to go.

[Spooler]

I am glad you got it back up and running and didn't give up. Stuff happens sometimes. It's just part of it. I will have to do the same as you if my car get's trashed. Get another, swap all the parts over, etc. I hope not but life is an adventure. That's what makes it so great.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by Spooler

I am glad you got it back up and running and didn't give up. Stuff happens sometimes. It's just part of it. I will have to do the same as you if my car get's trashed. Get another, swap all the parts over, etc. I hope not but life is an adventure. That's what makes it so great.

Absolutely right.
I hope nobody has to go through what I went through.
It isn't a fun process, a lot of crazy like what ifs go through your mind.

Worrying about things beyond our control, etc.

Just gotta hope that you don't get it trashed cause depending on how it did, depends on how many parts are still good to swap over.

I got extremely lucky and had none of the aftermarkets trashed, but a lot of the things were like 2mm. away from death lol

[URBiN~HURMiT]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Absolutely right.
I hope nobody has to go through what I went through.
It isn't a fun process, a lot of crazy like what ifs go through your mind.

Hows this ...

Sent my Z in to the shop to rebuild the SC'r and upgrade the fuel and tune late in 2012 ...
It was in the shop for 5 months. Got it back and the motor blew in less than a day...
Back to the shop - decided to build the motor and looked in to making more power... it's been in one shop or another since then.

After a full year the SC'r shop backed out of the build and I sent the car in pieces to AAM in Maryland for twin turbo's.
AAM had the car for just about 2 years and then THEY blew the motor - and tried to get away with it.

To add insult to injury they sent me a bill for $5,ooo+ to do a leak down test and check the piston rings.

No No No ... you've got to be kidding me (but it is typical of AAM's unethical business model and their shady billing practices)

I took the car out of AAM (formerly Altered Atmosphere Motorsports- go ahead and google it)

Shipped the car to MA-Motorsports (also in Maryland)
MA-Motorsport's reputation is superb - but it's now been there for just short of 2 years as well.
They had to totally undo (and then start from scratch) everything that AAM messed up - and it was substantial - including replacing the AAM $2,ooo twin fuel pumps which are too complicated to work - and converting their 7163 twin turbos to external waste gates because of boost spikes and boost creep.
All this took time to diagnose and come up with a plan.

(Good news tho' - it's very near done - final Dyno is complete and only buttoning up the car before I go down to pick it up - just in time to mothball it for the winter)

Count it - That's almost 5 years (over 5 1/2 years if you count the 6 or 7 months of research and planning before originally committing to upgrading the Stillen SC'r...then add in the cost of not one, but 2 motor rebuilds + labor.

I'ts been a very very expensive project and an excruciating wait to say the least ....

[cupcakez]

First video of Z-Resurrection!

She's not tuned in the top half of the RPM's yet so it isn't the best it could be.
But this is to show that the car is working fine, and no leaks other than the supercharger spouting excess oil again like it did before the accident on July 3rd, 2018.

Good thing I know a fix to that already -- not hard just annoying.

I'm also not the best camera man... I need a go pro + dash cam to the car sometime in the future lol.

Also, I apologize for the extremely filthy windshield -- car hasn't been washed for 4 months++, feels like she has dragon scales on it lol.

Hope you guys enjoy the video.

I scream like a little girl cause I haven't felt that speed in a long, long time -- almost forgot what it felt like.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/U4SHzqON3QA

[cupcakez]

Car runs amazing since last night.

Not sure if last night's pulls had anything to do with today though.

Anyone can solve this mystery? If it is one at all...or am I tripping?

The vehicle wobbles right after a complete stop. it wobbles more than it should I feel.
It was not doing this yesterday during my hard pulls on the street, but today I attempted to go to the store and as I braked and came to a complete stop in my neighborhood attempting to get to the main streets, it wobbled as shown in the video.

The best way I could describe the feeling is:
- You drive up to a stop sign
- You make a complete stop to 0. No movement of vehicle.
- Right after the above step, the car has an after effect -- the vehicle wobbles forward and backward like a jello motion if you poked a piece of jello.

Here is the video of what I'm talking about for my car.

I've had so many varying responses to what the issue could be, I figured to ask the big community to see what the audience says.

I've heard it could be the coilovers, but someone else said no way.
Another person said engine mount, but another says it can't be because they had a bad engine mount and it never did this effect.
Another says the driveshaft may not be torqued down to spec, as it was only tightened using a hand held tool.

Another says it could be bad rotors. (Steering wheel DOES shake when braking) so I am getting those changed out soon.

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance. I appreciate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWuz...ature=youtu.be

[cupcakez]

Hey guys!

Here's a quick update on what's happening!

Car runs fine, just a few minor issues to take care of.

(1) Car stalls for about a second at an idling stand still after I brake for a red light, or stop sign, etc. When I press the accelerator, sometimes (not all the time) the car will stall for one second as I press the accelerator and then suddenly jerk forward as if it just woke up -- like "OH (#&*$( time to go! and the car runs forward" causing a jerking like motion.
It definitely shouldn't be low on fluid because I brought it to Nissan Dealership to make sure the fluid was correct at operating temp. They found out it had 3 extra quarts of transmission oil, and drained excess.

Prior to that, I drove the car around the block for a total of a few miles then drove it to Nissan Dealership which is 2.3 miles away, so maybe about 5 - 6 miles total driven very casually and extremely slowly (yes even on the public street on the way there) 20 - 30 mph average or less with the extra 3 quarts of oil.


(2) P2A03 code thrown intermittently (aka) O2 Sensor Circuit Range/Performance Bank 2 Sensor 1.
- In my logs, I checked both short term fuel trims and normally, both bank 1 and 2 should be the same wave lengths. However, Bank 2 is more wavy than bank 1, which means there is a slight leak somewhere around the Passenger-Side upstream o2 sensor or even could be from the downstream o2 sensor that could have thrown the code. Not sure. I am going to have to check that out too. Maybe it wasn't tightened down all the way or something when the passenger side cat was installed.

(3) Extreme pulsation / vibration when on highway / cruising at ~60MPH. The vibration is so bad that it shakes the rear view mirror so intensely that I can't even see what is behind me clearly because it makes it all blurry. Almost as if I had an insane sound system that vibrates every mirror on my car with an extremely low bass sound -- except I have no such thing in my car and I was also not playing any music / radio / etc.

I read that this issue is due to me not having a wheel alignment and/or tire balance correctly done on my vehicle since the transfer of parts.
So I will try to get a wheel alignment and tire balance completed as well today if possible and if there's time.

(4) Slight engine oil leak occurring because when I came back home after the Nissan Shuttle drove me home, I saw in my garage fresh engine oil leaks. I checked to see what oil it was because the transmission fluid is vastly different color than the amsoil engine oil (Ruby Red [vs] Thick apple juice colors). I will see if Nissan can find the source of the engine oil leak as well while they're at it.

Other than that, the car internally runs beautifully according to all the logs.
Once those issues above are fixed, my car will be ready to go!

And now that I learned patience throughout the last 2 months, I am definitely not in a rush and am willing to wait as long as possible to make sure the vehicle is 100% healthy before I can continue tuning it! Yay!


PS: Someone said my car is making too much torque which is why the transmission is stalling, and because of that, my stock 7AT is not able to handle the mods I have in the car and therefore I will need a new Tranny -- I hope this is not the case though. He said based on his own experience, he had the same stalling issue I did or similar at least, and it ended up being his tranny not able to handle the amount of TQ his Z was pushing out. which was... 450 WHP / 390 TQ

So idk.

We'll see folks.

Stay tuned!!!


EDIT:

I did a bit of research.
The culprit for issue #1 /could/ possibly be dirty throttle bodies.
Here is 4 things that I experienced which match to my vehicle.
*See Screenshot*