Christian370Z's Progression Thread

[christian370z]

I ordered up my GReddy LED headlight accents when they first came out since I was never a fan of the landing strips but did not really see any real options for LED running lights due to the tight space between the bumper and the headlight lense. I should mention that I am not looking for these to be daytime running lights; these are merely a cosmetic accent for the headlights to complement my VLED parking lights however I do want them to be decently bright during dawn and dusk driving to make the car visible to others. These lights accomplished my goals and I could not be happier (well, I think they are overpriced and the free shipping shennanigan).

Fit and Finish:

The acrylic that the LEDs are seated in is perfectly curved and shaped to match the dimensions of the headlight housing which is a big plus. The spacing of the LEDs is identical in each DRL and 3M double sided tape is already in place. The problem that I encountered is that the black (ground) wire is long enough to be grounded to a bolt underneath the headlight housing but the red (positive, power source) wire is way too short to reach the green wire I used as my power connection. I simply used high quality crimp connectors to over come this and it worked well.

It is a pain to try and tap into the parking light wire (green) as I did not remove the fender lining which I could have done but chose not to for the sake of time. Everything else is straight forward.


Results:

I am very happy with the look this endowed on the front end. I was shooting for LEDs that would not over power the VLED parking lights but would still be bright enough to pair well with the LED parking lights. I was not expecting true DRL output. This is where I believe most people who are disappointed in the initial review have their issue as these are not even close to being true DRLs. If they were advertised as LED accents, it would have been a non issue.

I will update the thread once I get back to school tomorrow when I can use my DSLR to get completely accurate pictures of what the true output is but some of these are very close. However, these pictures will serve well to compare how the GReddy LED DRLs match with the VLED parking lights (much brighter than stock to begin with) for those who have a similar setup in a few lighting conditions.



Side View:



Underexposed to show even spacing and how they match the parking lights:




Under bright light:




The following are an accurate representation of their output:





For those who have stock parking lights, this is how much brighter the VLEDs are compared to the incandescent stockers:

[christian370z]

Here are some daytime sun shots in high quality to show how the GReddy LEDs look and their respective light output. Just note that the VLED parking lights are very bright but look how dim they look in the sun, keep that in mind when looking at the GReddy DRLs.








Two gratuitous shots of the Z in it's parking spot at school. I even turned off the two sprinklers around it so that it would not get blasted haha.

[christian370z]

And night shots:

[Jamaica]

man good thing I didnt get the kit. It would be total overkill since I have the led strip.
Good job. Looks better at night.

[christian370z]

Thanks Jamaica, it looks killer around dusk and at night but the only real time I can drive with just the parking lights and the DRL is at dawn/dusk or maybe in parking lots at night. It does look menacing though!

[tbonesteak]

Nice! car's coming along nicely. Is the canyon run this weekend? I wanna check out how that y-pipe sounds with the hfcs.

[christian370z]

Originally Posted by tbonesteak

Nice! car's coming along nicely. Is the canyon run this weekend? I wanna check out how that y-pipe sounds with the hfcs.

Thanks Tim! The Canyon run is this weekend in Malibu which is super convenient for me since I am at Pepperdine. Meet at the Malibu Country Mart at 9am.

We can definately take another spin too, I am getting a full custom tune from Seb at SpecialtyZ on wednesday so I will get a good idea of where my mods put me between the HFC/Y pipe/intake combination but I am hoping for somewhere close to 300whp.

[chippy]

Subscribed (for when I get round to installing the HFC & Y pipe!)

[christian370z]

I am getting the car dyno'ed and tuned tomorrow so I will post external videos of the dyno runs and it will also give me a good idea of what kind of power this has all netted!

[christian370z]

I got my car tuned by Seb at SpecialtyZ today and came away a very happy Z owner. I drove down to SpecialtyZ and as soon as I got there, Seb immediately got to work on hooking the car up. The first two runs were baseline runs, and revealed that the Stillen intakes really leaned out the car to the point where very slight detonation was occuring above 6krpm.

First two runs:

-301whp, 243.95ftlbs

-304whp, 246ftlbs


The car seems to be pretty strong compared to other Z34s that have been dyno'ed on the same rollers but the big problem is that the car was leaning out. So, Seb did a number of dyno pulls as he tuned the car to get it within a safe AFR while bumping power up across the whole rev range. Needless to say, while peak power did not significantly increase, there was an easy 6-10rwhp gained above the highest baseline run and torque picked up in similar numbers as well.

The final dyno sheet:

-309whp / 259ftlbs





Driving Impressions:

I did not know what to expect as this is my first real tuning experience with the 370z. The first thing I noticed was that whatever throttle hesitation that I had before was gone. The throttle was beautifully linear and responded as soon as you touch the throttle. The next thing I noticed was that the engine was much smoother than before. I drove over to Fast Intentions with Seb to drop off his DP for his TT370z and that was the first thing I told him haha.

The added torque made for the acceleration at lower rpms and at part throttle feel much better; pickup was improved and the car accelerated effortlessly from any rpm. Once I began testing it out on Malibu Canyon rd, the car felt so good. It pulls very hard and felt much sharper and more responsive to throttle inputs. My butt dyno approved. If I punch the gas in 1st, the tires just break loose immediately. Second gear traction was a bit sketchy but the car felt poised and ready to take off with an eagerness that wasn't there before.



I give SpecialtyZ two big thumbs up, I could not be happier and feel much better about knowing the car is running safely and with much more enthuZiasm!


Sorry for the car being a bit dirty:

[Jamaica]

good results. MAy i ask..how did it cost ya?

[christian370z]

It was $550 which includes 5 maps, the Uprev license, and a bunch of dyno pulls. For me, it was worth it in the peace of mind that I am running a safe and powerful tune.

[fairladyZ34]

^nice! thats a good price and good numbers you are putting up! makes me wanna start modding and tuning my car

[christian370z]

I will always be the one to say "mod her up!" There is one catch, once you start you don't stop. Trust me!

[Jamaica]

Originally Posted by christian370z

I will always be the one to say "mod her up!" There is one catch, once you start you don't stop. Trust me!