Christian370Z's Progression Thread
 

I figured I would start this up just to give me some additional motivation to get stuff done to my new Z after seeing all of the amazing build threads and journals before me. Firstly, my goal for the car is to keep it relatively tame and low key (FI is in the distant future) with the trying and true parts and methods for extracting some extra power out of my Z.

Well, I did my first modification to the Z today! Two 6000k LED bulbs for the parking/city lights to give the front end a bit more of an edge which I think worked well. What do you think, yay or nay?


Before:


http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0001_1018.jpg

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0002_1019.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0003_1020.jpg

After:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0004_1021.jpg

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0005_1022.jpg

50/50 Shot, the LED is much brighter than the stock bulb in person:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0006_1023.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0007_1024.jpg

Matches the Bi-xenons nicely

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0008_1025.jpg

Tomorrow, I am driving to the Z store in Orange CA to pick up the Berk high flow cats and then I will stop by Stillen for the sway bars. I also have a new Stillen G3 intake enroute thanks to a fellow member and that will get powder coated textured black to match the plastic in the engine bay.

What's the bulb number? Are they 3157? Where did you get them? They look nice!

great headlights!

Thanks Phil! I got them at VLED, here is the link to the exact same ones: 2 V-LEDS 6K WHITE 194 13 LED LIGHT BULBS 158 168 2825

The bulb number is 194 for reference.

Those look great. I'm going to pick some up.

easy to change those lights??

Nice looks good

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Very easy. You simply remove one little clip in the wheel well (plastic push style) and then bend the wheel arch lining back to reveal the rear of the headlight assembly. Then, you remove the parking light bulb by twisting counter clock wise. Remove the stock bulb and install the new bulb but be careful because the LED bulb I linked is polarized so if it doesn't light up, just flip it over and reinstall.

Made some progress
 

Today was a very good day, I was bummed that the Z store did not have any Berk HFCs in stock (they ordered a pair, 2-3 days and I will have them) so I stopped by Stillen to check out their headquarters and to grab a set of their sway bars. It is amazing how large their operations are; they have 3-4 buildings just to handle their inventory and operations not to mention their mechanic shop where all the good stuff is. So I walked around a bit and paid for the sway bars and drove home to install them.

Let me just say that the front was super easy, but the rear was much more of a pain. Dropping the exhaust and rear subframe cross member and brace were not bad but it was just a bit time consuming since it was my first time working on the car. I then made the blunder of putting it in the wrong way round so I was sitting there trying to figure out why it wouldn't fit. All said and done, I enjoyed the install and it was a nice way to check out the mechanical layout of the car and get my first mod under my belt!

Pictures of Stillen:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Photo1442.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Photo1438.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Photo1439.jpg

I know this car looks familiar, I remeber the red wheel faces from one of the threads I looked through but I can't think of it... Anyone here? It was in the last stages of getting tuned:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Photo1441.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Photo1440.jpg

My little spending spree at Harbor Freight:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0011_1028.jpg

The Sway Bars:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0009_1026.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0010_1027.jpg


If I am honest, I could not feel a huge change between the stock and Stillen sway bars driving around town but once I hit the highway and took some on and off ramps, holy mother of jesus. It had no percievable body roll and felt pinpoint accurate. Honestly, I could only imagine what a good set of coilovers could do for this car but I think that the only time they would make a difference is on a track because there is no way you can use the handling potential and prowess this has even with just sway bars on almost any public road. Since I had to disconnect the muffler, I also started it up sans muffler and it sounded awesome which made me lust for some exhaust mods.

Stay tuned for exhaust and intake work!

I just found it, I think it is Phimosis' Z.

Looking good Christian. I have the Stillen sways down on my list, glad to hear they are working well.

I put a few miles on the Stillen Sway Bars and I have to say, what little body roll there was stock is now solidly erased. It just corners so hard and flat with the rear sway set to the softer setting and feels very well balanced with no hints of understeer or getting light in the rear which is exactly what I want.

Moving Right Along
 

I went to the Z store to pick up my Berk High Flow cats today which was a lovely drive through gridlocked traffic on the 405. I knew that most if not all G37/370Z owners have painful stories to tell about removing the stock cats and trust me, I was second guessing myself about halfway through. First, you have to remove the Y pipe which was easy enough and I had that out in 30 minutes. Next, I undid the clips holding the O2 sensors to their wiring loom on the body. Now, the truely fun (or dreaded) part: getting extensions, and a 30 inch breaker bar and accessing the top stud on the cat through the engine bay. Now, I am a noob to mechanical work so I was very nervous about going any further (no mechanic in CA will touch non CARB stuff).

I have the tendency to confuse which way to pull or push to undo bolts when I am under the car so I caused myself a little more grief but mother of god, those bolts were unbelievable for a car with 200 miles on it (see picture). After breaking a stud, I was scared that if I couldn't get the rest, I was screwed. But I found a few tricks online about gaining leverage with a wrench daisy chained to the bottom of another and finally got the stockers out:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0012_1029.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0013_1030.jpg
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0014_1031.jpg

Eat my shorts nasty stud:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0015_1032.jpg

Stock versus Berks (in middle):

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0016_1033.jpg

Next on my list is to ditch this puny Y pipe with a full cat-back or a Tanabe:

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0017_1034.jpg



Thankfully the Berks use new hardware with nuts and bolts versus studs which will make future work on it much easier (and without a Nissan gorilla tightening the bolts). I have to say I am not very mechanically inclined but I feel very accomplished for successfully completing an install that a lot of people would have brought to a mechanic. Bottom line is if I can install these, anyone can!

On Road Impressions:

Even with my limited time with the car (I am also adhering to the break in procedure), I can feel that there is more power in all areas of the power band. The most noticeable change was in how much harder the midrange comes in which feels like a surge. And the sound: I am extremely happy with this part. It now has the type of exhaust note it should have come from the factory with. It sounds almost stock under 3k rpm but once you give it some throttle, it growls and the signature Z exhaust note emerges. I would say it is double to triple the volume of the full oem exhaust, but it does not add rasp. Rather, it sounds deep and smooth which is something I was not sure what to expect after reading alot of reviews saying it sounded raspy.

Up Next: Stillen intakes that will be powder coated texture black to look more OEM+.

http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/u..._0001_1035.jpg

Cold Start with Berks
 

For some reason, the embedded video is not working so here is a direct link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QXVknKdjHE

I am going to get my Stillen intake powder coated this week. Does anyone know how much power can be picked up with a good custom tune? I might look into SpecialtyZ down the road.