Michelin 4S installed. Stayed with stock sizes (it's been an expensive month). Impressions so far: Very grippy! I'm quite pleased with these bad boys. I also had an alignment done, the results of which I'll upload when I have a chance. As noted, my rear camber was out, and my rear tires were badly and unevenly worn. I was also getting unusual pull and a disconcerting "shimmy" when driving at times, and that has completely vanished. Enjoy a picture of my dirty car, stock sport wheels, and new tires!

Bonus: When you're a musician, but the Z is your DD, you find interesting ways to transport your guitars.

Would like to hear about the music you do.

Sure! Here's a quick render of a rough recording from a few years back. No vocals, but it'll give you an idea.

https://youtu.be/rZAR0nB2F_I

Very cool my brother! I would buy your CD. lol

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

High praise sir! Thanks for the kind words!

Bout time you did a journal.:tup: Nice write up. And thanks for the mentions.:tiphat:

My clutch has started slipping if I accelerate hard, so this is my next project right here. I'm not going to have time to start it this weekend, tiling a shower stall in my bathroom, but going with the Z1 midweight clutch/flywheel setup. This will big the biggest project I've done since my headers, and I'm doing it on ramps/jack stands. Wish me luck!

Glad I got to meet y'all, and thanks so much for letting me join y'all for a run up and down the Dragon. I had a blast and look forward to doing it again next May!

Definitely man, it was great meeting you! Hope to keep up a little better next time :)

I mentioned earlier that I was using a Shift Knob extension. Normally, I'd probably have gone through TWM, but after reading some of the modern horror stories about delayed shipment/poor communication, I decided to find another route. Ended up locating this on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Nissan-Manual...knob+extension

For $13 it was pretty hard to pass up as a test item. Attached a pic of my shift knob + extension installed. It's not very pretty, but for now it does the trick. My plan at the moment is to have my brother make a custom extension, matched to the diameter of the shift knob itself, with 2 small set screws on about halfway up the barrel to hold the shift boot.

Shift knob is about 1 lb. Between that and the TWM short shifter setup I've got, it rows through the gears like butter.

Ordered HD CSC and MC. Planning the clutch work Saturday.

Fast Intentions Long Tube Headers
 

Adding my previous review of Fast Intentions headers here, so I can find it later. Headers were installed in mid December 2017.

Review and commentary (longish post) - A few weeks ago, I picked up a used pair of Long Tube Headers from a guy going TT. They were in good shape, but had obviously been used for a little while. I did a bit of reading and settled on ceramic coating them through Jet-Hot.

I had planned on doing the install myself, taking a weekend on jackstands and hoping for the best, but an acquaintance of mine from a local VQ enthusiast group (henceforth referred to as 'Craig', 'The Great Craig', 'Blessed be the Craig' or 'Craigster') was kind enough to volunteer his work space, complete with a lift. This made a huge difference.

Craig and I had this on the lift probably just after 8:30 am Sunday morning. If you have any interest in installing these and have read any of the DIY guides, you know the basics - remove intakes up top, remove undershroud below, disconnect cats at exhaust, mark your steering knuckle and disconnect, remove existing setup, replace with new setup, profit! This was the basic plan we followed, with none of the usual headaches, and all of the unusual ones.

Our first complication came in removing the intakes, specifically the hoses connected to the valve covers. I'm running Z1 intakes with the Z1 hoses and I will say that Z1 makes an excellent hose; it absolutely seals strongly and we actually broke the plastic connector that mates with the valve cover trying to get the hose off to remove the drivers side intake. Not good. More on this later.

From there, the header removal was pretty straight forward, and by 11:30 we'd removed the heat shields and the bolts/studs fastening the headers on both sides (pour one out for the Craigsters arm hair, destroyed in the line of duty by carefully sharpened AC line brackets and other random clips in the Japanese torture tunnels). Passenger side was relatively easy.

Lunch break and beer!

Steering knuckle was marked and disconnected around 1 and headers were off a couple minutes after that. We took the headers and cats out as a single unit, saving any struggles with the demon bolts. We really had no issue pulling out the drivers side heat shield either, once we were ready to move it as a unit.

Complications 2, 3, and 4 all occurred shortly thereafter, and they were the real time wasters. Complication 2: Fast Intentions requires you to shift some of the studs for the headers, and unfortunately one of the tapped holes on the engine block appears to have been tapped incorrectly. I destroyed a stud trying to thread it back into the block, had to use the double bolt trick to remove it. We were able to use a much shorter bolt in place, and that appears to have done the trick (no exhaust leaks yet - fingers crossed)!

Complication 3: O2 sensor on the passenger side cat did not want to come out. Fine. It was a stupid O2 sensor anyway and it shall be replaced by a better one. Plugged the O2 bung on that side after wasting more time trying to extract it.

Complication 4: The 2012+ 370zs have a factory oil cooler (that is or is not effective depending on who you ask). The Fast Intentions kit has a plate to block off the oil cooler line from one side; but either I missed something in the instructions, or they simply don't provide a solution for the other side where it continues to drain forever. I don't blame them, I probably missed something, but I needed a solution. Autozone was closed (WHY?! WHY ARE YOU NOT OPEN PAST 5 ON SUNDAYS, AUTOZONE?! THIS IS WHEN PEOPLE NEED YOU!) but once again Craig came to the rescue with a rubber cap that we were able to creatively resize with a knife to the appropriate inside diameter. Coolant leak solved, we continued on.

We had new headers on the car relatively quickly, maybe 45 minutes for the reinstall plus the slow time consuming process of tightening all the bolts. Great, finished!

Back to complication 1... the solution for the broken plastic tube was a plastic epoxy. This involved me holding the component in place for about 30 minutes while we waited for it to harden. The good news is it worked. After all of this, started the car!

Annnddd no exhaust leaks!

Sound: I've always dreamed of piloting a fighter jet. Since I was too lazy to join the air force, instead I'll drive a car that sounds like a fighter jet. Sound on this is massive, huge low end rumble. Do not install these headers if you are weak of will, lacking in testicular fortitude, pregnant, lactating, or low in iron. There is definite drone from 2k - 2.5k, the VQ hiss is audible on deceleration, and you will definitely discover whatever pieces of your cabin are loose. Solutions: Gut your cabin for weight reduction (and The Great Craig says to clip those pesky AC lines that make installation of the drivers side headers so annoying while I'm at it), drive at 3k rpms, and never decelerate! It's actually less drone from 2.6k rpms onwards than I had with just the Fast Intentions catback. I'm enjoying it.

Performance: There is a definite boost in low end torque, but since I'm running fairly lean at this point, I'll wait to really test this until I'm tuned.

Update as of 6/11/18: I eventually swapped my unresonated Fast Intentions midpipe for a 12" resonated version, and that cut drone down a lot further. It did reduce my volume outside the car pretty substantially, and there are days when I miss it - but it makes the car a lot more livable for long trips.

Supercharger?
 

So I'm to the point where it's time to plan the next stages of my build. I've made just about all the NA power I can realistically expect to make, and removed every reasonable restriction to flow.

My rules with mods are pretty simple - I can do anything I want, but I have to install it myself. It's a decent balance point, because it prevents me from doing anything too stupid, and continues to enhance my knowledge of my vehicle. Additionally, my Z is a daily driver, so nothing I do should compromise that.

With that in mind, I'm considering Topgunz A2A supercharger kit. I've been through the FI threads once, and I'll have to dig in a few more times to have a really good idea of what I'd be tackling, but I'm fairly certain at some point in the next year, that'll be on my list of purchases.

For any of you out there reading this who have gone FI, is there any wisdom you can pass on to me that you wish you'd known before hand? Components that aren't often listed but that you wish you had purchased? Strange heat shielding that is never mentioned but should be?

BP turbo kit. You can do it yourself. :rock:
If it was my DD, idk if I would tackle it myself.

I did consider the BP turbo kit, and it is still something I debate. Big reason not to: I'd have to remove my long tube headers, and that's a real pain, not something I desire to go through again.

oh thats right, forgot about those.

Since you have long tube headers and you don't want to remove them, going twin turbo is out as any decent kit requires you to use oem or custom manifolds.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Correct, and my goals don't really align with a need for a TT kit. Since I'm planning to stay daily driven, 500ish whp is more than enough. I do like the elegance of the turbo setups - free power as opposed to belt driven. If I were to seriously consider a turbo, the BP would be at the top of my list.

BP is a good and FI is better imho. You can safely daily 600whp now. I quit driving mine on a daily basis when I started tracking but I do drive it other than just the track. I'm not sure how many miles you put on the Z a year as I have been boosted for just over 4.5 years and 30k miles and the car still runs strong as ever. The secret is no different than being NA, just don't uselessly beat up the car, use good fluids and change them regularly.

I am enjoying your build thread and I had a great time hanging with you and Magen at ZDAYZ.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

We had a great time with you too man!
In your experience, what sets FI apart as the top tier kit?

The number one thing in my opinion that sets FI apart from the rest is craftmenship and fitment. All are spot on and time proven.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

If you don't want remove the lth. Look into TopGunz full sc kit.

Agreed! You can easily hit 500whp or more and stay daily drivable!

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Yeah that was my first choice. Not just for that reason. If I go ahead with this build, it'll be my first vehicle with forced induction. From all the reading I've done, the SC will be an easier install, and easier to maintain. Every step I've taken with learning my vehicle has been aimed at progressive growth. Since I didn't grow up doing this stuff or knowing people who did, my knowledge of trouble shooting is limited at first to my ability to research through forums and google - so I want something that gives me those first steps, a good add to my power, and does it as a reasonable cost. The money isn't really an obstacle either, except money earning me interest does a lot more than money in my car.

But I can't drive a high interest generating account :driving:

Unrelated to my vehicle - bathroom build is progressing!
Old bathroom was an eyesore. Removed the fixtures, poured self leveling compound across the old floor to bring it up to the level of the hardwoods I installed previously. Toilet flange was a mess...

Floor tile went down easily. Pretty similar to what I installed in my kitchen. Sanded the glaze off the wall tile, glued bead board over top.

The problem with this kind of remodeling construction instead of truly gutting the room is nothing in this room is actually square, by default. I had to buy a small protractor just to work out my trim angles (84° by 45° cut in one corner). Also, modern plumbing that's up to code comes out of the wall. This was old-school, came out of the floor. It made modifying the vanity a pain in the peniz. For trim, I took large molding and ripped it down to cap over the edge of the bead board.

It's been tiling the shower stall which has truly been grueling. My wife picked just about the smallest tiles possible for this task... I think I'm going to make her do some of the work so she realizes when I say it's unpleasantly time consuming, she understands. Took me about 5 hours to get it level and do a half dozen rows. That does factor in mix time for the masonry and setup, etc.

When I redid the bathroom. The toilet's metal flange was completely gone. And the wood around it was shot too. Had to replace both. :shakes head: I feel your pain.

Clutch done!
 

Update 6/18 - Clutch is done. That was a hell of a job on jack stands. I'm going to copy some of the text from the DIY on the forum with a few comments, in the hopes that if someone else does this job it'll help. As with all tasks like this, the first time around has a huge amount of wasted time where you're figuring out how to get it done.

First, thanks to Djtodd for the DIY! I certainly wouldn't have attempted this without it.

-I went in to replace my clutch because I was starting to experience slippage when I'd hammer the accelerator.
-A forum member had shipped me the flywheel and pressure plate from the Z1 clutch setup from his part out with 0 miles on them so I figured Z1 was a good choice for this.
-I picked up the mid-weight flywheel, after reading reviews that their lightweight fw has extreme chatter. Not much difference in weight, I'll give more feedback on sound when I finish getting my exhaust on.

First portion, removal, was pretty smooth. I've done numerous exhausts, so starting first thing Saturday morning, I removed mine and the driveshaft, heat shield, and shifter, had all of that done around 10 am. No tricks necessary here.

Started on the transmission itself at that point. DIY mentions removal of the wiring from the outside of the transmission. I spent way too much time on this. Something I did here that proved to be incorrect was putting my transmission jack in place as described in the DIY. I should've waited.

I'd recommend removing the transmission mount to let the transmission drop down slightly to give yourself better access to the wiring/clips. Passengers side is easy, drivers side has 2 connectors and 1 pin in a god awful spot - without it being dropped it's tough to reach and you'll waste an hour+ like I did. It's also easier just to unbolt most of the little brackets from the transmission itself than it is to unclip the wires.

I stared at the bleeder valve, soft line to hard line hookup also for way too long, trying to figure out what I was looking at. Eventually unbolted it. I'd prepared for the clutch fluid draining by picking up some vacuum caps, then wrapped with a plastic bag and zip tie as described in the DIY to minimize leakage.

As others have mentioned, you do not need to remove the crank shaft positioning sensor. Bolts around the transmission housing from the trans side are mostly easy with the exception of the top passenger side - I couldn't see this one until the trans was dropped down a bit (lowered the transmission jack). The 4 bolts and cover plate from the engine side are tricky to get to but only because it's a tight fit. They aren't torqued like crazy, so as long as you can get a small socket or wrench on them, you'll have no trouble. Slid everything out! Woo!

Lowered the trans on the jack. Didn't have it centered. Trans tipped forward, dumped a bunch of fluid on my garage floor, and squished my thumb. Ouch - bummer. I was stupid, that's the price I pay. Center your trans jack, and strap trans in place before lowering.

I did this on jack stands, so I had no clearance to pull the housing out from under the car. I moved it down the trans tunnel to give myself room, and tackled the pressure plate + flywheel removal. Item on the tool list that's not in the DIY - you'll need a T55 torx bit for the flywheel bolts. Ideally in 1/2 inch, so that you can use an impact gun on them to break them loose. Unfortunately, autozone carried only 3/8ths. As I attempted to break the bolts loose, the flywheel would rotate. So I had my brother-in-law lock the flywheel holder tool in place and hold while I applied my socket to break them loose. It did work, it just wasn't ideal.

Removed the bushing with a bushing puller I rented from AutoZone. Ignore the tricks with bread and grease unless you're desperate. Bushing puller did exactly what it was made to do.

Excellent! Everything removed! Time to put the new stuff in. Bushing was easy. Went to install the flywheel; 3 of the Torx bits have thread damage. Hmm. Fiddle around for a while. Eventually find the correct die, recut threads, install. Wasted a lot of time on this. Got it installed, torqued to spec. Rest of the clutch portion was easy. Switched to transmission housing. Installed ZSpeed HD CSC. Ran the new lines. Centered the housing on the transmission jack, moved it up into place - couldn't get it to slide home. Tried for 2 hours, finally gave up. By this time I was pretty thoroughly soaked with brake fluid, covered in grease, and other car-related ejaculate. I used my "phone a friend" ability.

My buddy, a legitimate mechanic - not the shade tree variety like myself - showed up, wiggled the trans, and it slides into place. Wish I could say I had some pointers here but no. It was aligned, just took a fresh set of hands to get it done. Buttoned everything back up. Installed fresh master cylinder. Bled clutch per Zspeed procedure until pressure returned. I had a few things to handle for the rest of the day, so exhaust will go back on tonight, but everything else is done!

My hands are destroyed, but my spirit is unbroken (although tired)!

Getting the tranny to slide back in is always the worst part. Wiggle and a Jiggle is your friend as you found out. Sometimes they slide right in, sometimes they are a pain in the butt.

Everything is reinstalled, car is off of jack stands. Will not shift into gear. I believe I've improperly bled the clutch, so tonight that's my project. I'll enlist my wife to work the pedal. Hopefully that's my issue.

Also learned how to drain and refill my transmission housing! Redline MT-85, and used this pump here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Surprisingly good product for sub-10 dollars. Took me only a couple minutes to fill the transmission casing.

Regardless of the fact that this project has been way more work than I anticipated (and I anticipated a lot) it's certainly been informative.

That's the same pump I got from Habor Freight for $6.00. :rofl2:

When working on cars. Sometimes thing don't go your way. Then you have to figure out on what you need to do.

I feel ripped off ;) At least I didn't have to go anywhere to buy it, Amazon delivered it to my door same day.

If you have pedal pressure, maybe double check the shifter lock-out plate is properly positioned?

Good thoughts, I did check the lock-out plate and it appears correctly positioned. I lost pedal pressure immediately when I started the car, so I'm thinking there's a bubble. Also when I did the bleed previously, I didn't have anyone to operate the pedal while I bled it, so I'm guessing when I closed the bleed valve with the pedal in the "up" position, I probably had sucked air back inside. Does that sound like a fairly reasonable assumption?

Yup. Did you pump the pedal yourself and then close it? Definitely get air in the system that way. Gravity bleed the last bit and you should be good to go.

I did, I was flying solo by that time. Never having gone through this process before, I didn't quite realize what I was in for ;)

Yeah, you got air in the system. Get your wife inside the car. Have her pump the pedal 3 times and hold down on the last pump. you open up the bleeder until no fluid comes out. Close the bleeder and have your wife repeat. Do this a couple of times until you see no bubbles. It's best to have about one foot of clear hose on the bleeder to see if any bubbles are in the fluid coming out. Keep the reservoir full the whole time you are doing this.