JLarson's build thread

[JLarson]

The whipple supercharger setup was on display, picture 2. I hear it's a powerhouse!

[JLarson]

The weather abruptly cleared, and we're talking bright sun and heat! Madwi, EastWest, Memphis370 and I decided to take a run at the dragon behind a pack of GT-Rs.

Madwi already posted one great shot of his car with mine; attached is a shot of Madwi and EW, and a shot of my car on its way back.

As for my impressions on the dragon - wow. This was my first real test of my car, and my driving, on anything substantial. We just don't really have roads like this at home, though navigating traffic on I95 has its own challenges... Anyway, the first run through, EW did a great job leading us, and it let me start getting the idea of how to handle my car. I rapidly found that what my car could handle was way higher than I was capable of handling as a driver. Even with (mostly) stock suspension components, my 370 was impressive.

We stopped at a turn around most of the way through, let vehicles and drivers cool down, and then headed back with Memphis taking point. Following him was a challenge! He drove like a bat out of hell, but with perfect and precise control. I did what I could to keep up, but after slowing down at one of those scenic overlooks to avoid people walking in the road, I lost him entirely until he pulled over to wait. The ride back pushed my skills to the limit. Awesome. Would absolutely do it again. My heart rate was high enough my FitBit logged the drive as exercise.

[JLarson]

After the finale and raffle give away that evening (digressing for a moment... this was honestly the low point of the whole event. It seemed like the organizers were poorly organized and easily distracted. I guess I'm just surprised that after so many years, it's still a little rocky) we said our goodbyes out on the deck, and headed out for an anniversary dinner at a nearby lodge recommended by Rusty and his wife. The name of this lodge escapes me. Edit: Tapaco Lodge I think?

On the way down, a young gentleman in a boosted Z urged me forward at great speed; the drive for food was definitely more aggressive than I'm accustomed to. My wife was a champion co-pilot throughout.

The inn location was beautiful! Right down beside the water. The sounds of nature mingling with the gentle roar of modified Z cars cruising nearby Now that's tranquility.

We wrapped up the evening by following a questionable gps signal through back roads in the mountains to our AirBnB location. At a few points I was seriously wondering where we'd end up, but turned out ok. Did the drive home the next day. Spotted 1 guy trailoring his Z on the way back, and had an obligatory stop at Golden Corral for a food orgy and carb coma.

[Memphis370Z]

Originally Posted by JLarson

The weather abruptly cleared, and we're talking bright sun and heat! Madwi, EastWest, Memphis370 and I decided to take a run at the dragon behind a pack of GT-Rs.

Madwi already posted one great shot of his car with mine; attached is a shot of Madwi and EW, and a shot of my car on its way back.

As for my impressions on the dragon - wow. This was my first real test of my car, and my driving, on anything substantial. We just don't really have roads like this at home, though navigating traffic on I95 has its own challenges... Anyway, the first run through, EW did a great job leading us, and it let me start getting the idea of how to handle my car. I rapidly found that what my car could handle was way higher than I was capable of handling as a driver. Even with (mostly) stock suspension components, my 370 was impressive.

We stopped at a turn around most of the way through, let vehicles and drivers cool down, and then headed back with Memphis taking point. Following him was a challenge! He drove like a bat out of hell, but with perfect and precise control. I did what I could to keep up, but after slowing down at one of those scenic overlooks to avoid people walking in the road, I lost him entirely until he pulled over to wait. The ride back pushed my skills to the limit. Awesome. Would absolutely do it again. My heart rate was high enough my FitBit logged the drive as exercise.

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!

[JLarson]

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

[JLarson]

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.

[JLarson]

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

[JLarson]

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.