wstar's Journal

RCZ · 06-20-2009, 11:35 AM

Good to know wstar, thanks for the update, I've been waiting for someones review on these.

ChrisSlicks · 06-20-2009, 01:54 PM

My driving results were similar (I gave a brief review somewhere here). I have my rear sway set to full stiff which seems to be a good track balance if you are a smooth driver. If you are throwing the car around in high speed auto-cross like I was last weekend it was actually a little too much and I will probably dial it down to the middle position for that.

The downside to the large front bar is that there is more low speed understeer with aggressive turn in as it is much harder to load down a front corner. An adjustable front bar would be ideal for those that do both auto-cross and track. On the freeway on-ramps the car feels very flat and balanced, feels like it adds a fair amount of grip in that case.

wstar · 06-25-2009, 01:26 PM

Re: oil changes and oil cooling:

It's about time for my next oil change (it's about 200 miles out now, which is really nothing for me, by monday for sure). I had been hoping to see what oil cooler kit upgrades Stillen came up with before this change, but looks like they're not quite ready yet. Apparently their original kit is out of stock right now as well, so I can't even get that here in time as an alternative for now. I strongly considered picking up the GTM one, but really I don't want to get into the install issues with that one, being a universal kit.

In any case, I do have the oil change supplies and AAM's VQ37 oil pan spacer here in my garage, which should add some capacity and help a bit for now. I think I'm going to just go forward with my change without a cooler (again) this time around while I wait out the Stillen situation, and maybe do my next change earlier than necessary as soon as the cooler becomes available (and say ouch at the $$ on an extra Motul change).

On a related note, I was calling several Stillen resellers today trying to find anyone that might have an oil cooler kit in stock somewhere that nobody knows about. One of the shops did have one of the official Nismo 370Z coolers (21300-SS370) in stock and on hand to look at, which was surprising considering it seems like nobody here has first-hand info on this kit. They said they ordered 3 and had gotten just 1 in so far, were planning to use it on their in-house car but were willing to sell to me.

I passed on it at $795, but did get to confirm some details over the phone from the guy who had it in his hands: Yes, it's a Setrab core, and a larger one than the 19 row unit in the current Stillen and GTM kits. The sandwich plate is not a thermostatic model, it's just straight though (which was a negative point for me, esp at that price). Also the guy commented on the lines looking larger diameter than the Stillen ones, but I think that's just eyeballing, I don't know what the sizes of either are specifically. If someone's seriously interested in trying to pick this up from them before they put it in their own car, send me a PM.

wstar · 06-25-2009, 03:45 PM

Editing my oil change plans again, looks like Stillen will have one good to go early next week, so I'm going to hold off on the oil + spacer + cooler until Tuesday.

ChrisSlicks · 06-25-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Editing my oil change plans again, looks like Stillen will have one good to go early next week, so I'm going to hold off on the oil + spacer + cooler until Tuesday.

Interesting. Any word on the core size?

miguez · 06-25-2009, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Editing my oil change plans again, looks like Stillen will have one good to go early next week, so I'm going to hold off on the oil + spacer + cooler until Tuesday.

Is this the oil spacer you are referring to, the one for the G37?

travisjb · 06-25-2009, 06:53 PM

My shop should be announcing an alternative next week as well

miguez · 06-26-2009, 09:49 AM

Alright, keep us posted on the fitment!

wstar · 06-27-2009, 06:59 PM

Got my brake stuff installed. In a rush to get ready for the evening now, but some quickie updates on the process/parts:

Speed Bleeders: I'm an idiot, and didn't realize there are two bleeder screws per caliper on this car. I ordered 4, you need 8. I left the speed bleeders all on the front calipers at the end, and my final bleeding for air bubbles solo suffered a bit I'm sure as I swapped the speed bleeders in and back out in the rear to do those calipers.

RBF600: I bled 2.5 bottles through the system as I went, saving some in case I need to fix any leaks and top off. Once I get more bleeders I'll probably bleed another bottle or two through to be sure.

Braided Brake Lines: routing on the front ones is not obvious. I suspect the path I took is not what was intended, but I checked for clearance/stretch/etc and I think it will work, we'll see. Rears are easy to see. On the front I basically ended up with a straight shot between the hookup points, with a lot of the length coiled in a loop for suspension/steering travel (as opposed to wrapping around the arm/shock like the stock one).

Pad Swap: Akebono deserves an award for these calipers. Pad swap is super easy. Once you have the wheel off, you only need needle nose pliers and a small clamp to compress the pistons. Caliper doesn't come off the rotor to swap pads, you just pull two cotter pins, two large pins, and slip the pads in and out of the back side of the caliper.

Car is still on jack stands, I'm getting ready to go out for the night. Going to think about things more, doublecheck everything, put wheels on and test things tomorrow sometime.

tru_Asiatik · 06-27-2009, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Got my brake stuff installed. In a rush to get ready for the evening now, but some quickie updates on the process/parts:

Speed Bleeders: I'm an idiot, and didn't realize there are two bleeder screws per caliper on this car. I ordered 4, you need 8. I left the speed bleeders all on the front calipers at the end, and my final bleeding for air bubbles solo suffered a bit I'm sure as I swapped the speed bleeders in and back out in the rear to do those calipers.

RBF600: I bled 2.5 bottles through the system as I went, saving some in case I need to fix any leaks and top off. Once I get more bleeders I'll probably bleed another bottle or two through to be sure.

Braided Brake Lines: routing on the front ones is not obvious. I suspect the path I took is not what was intended, but I checked for clearance/stretch/etc and I think it will work, we'll see. Rears are easy to see. On the front I basically ended up with a straight shot between the hookup points, with a lot of the length coiled in a loop for suspension/steering travel (as opposed to wrapping around the arm/shock like the stock one).

Pad Swap: Akebono deserves an award for these calipers. Pad swap is super easy. Once you have the wheel off, you only need needle nose pliers and a small clamp to compress the pistons. Caliper doesn't come off the rotor to swap pads, you just pull two cotter pins, two large pins, and slip the pads in and out of the back side of the caliper.
Car is still on jack stands, I'm getting ready to go out for the night. Going to think about things more, doublecheck everything, put wheels on and test things tomorrow sometime.

good to know thanks for the info on that

wstar · 06-28-2009, 12:07 PM

I think later this evening I'm going to make some more attempts at routing the front cables more "correctly", I can't imagine this is what's intended:

Although it does technically seem to work in terms of clearance/rubbing/suspension travel, etc. I'm going to want to re-bleed after getting more speed bleeders in this week too, as I'm pretty sure the rear calipers aren't bled very perfectly.

miguez · 06-29-2009, 07:55 AM

To me the interesting result of the routing on the picture you show above is that it allows for suspension travel and wheel turning with plenty to spare, while remaining relatively fixed other than that, given the inherent stability that loop gives the hose. At least that's what it would seem.

wstar · 06-29-2009, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miguez

To me the interesting result of the routing on the picture you show above is that it allows for suspension travel and wheel turning with plenty to spare, while remaining relatively fixed other than that, given the inherent stability that loop gives the hose. At least that's what it would seem.

I sent the pic to coz@czp, he told me what I did wrong, I just need to fix it today. I'll get some pics of the correct routing (afaik) on the front and rear before I put the wheels back on.

wstar · 06-29-2009, 01:03 PM

Coz got me sorted out on the brake line routing, this is what they look like now:

Rear (sorry, blurry pic):

Three views of the front:

Also, here's the box-o-parts from the OEM stuff that came off. Between all the brackets and fittings that went away and were replaced with the simple braided line, seems like I probably shaved a tiny amount of weight with this too:

I just now stuck the wheels back on the car, haven't even torqued the lug nuts down yet or lowered the car, gotta get some real work done here before I get back to that. I probably won't do any "driving impressions" for a few days, because like I said earlier I didn't order enough speed bleeders, and as a result I'm pretty sure I have air bubbles in the lines, which are going to cause more problems with mushy pedal feel than the braided lines could ever make up for

Once the new bleeders come in later in the week I'll re-bleed again and see how it feels. For now I'm just gonna take it easy and not trust my brakes much.

Josh@STILLEN · 06-29-2009, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

I sent the pic to coz@czp, he told me what I did wrong, I just need to fix it today. I'll get some pics of the correct routing (afaik) on the front and rear before I put the wheels back on.

Are you sure this is the routing path they specified? I would make sure you can go full lock without tugging those lines hard. It would appear (from the pictures) that if the knuckle was turned fully, it seems short on slack.

On the steel locator bracket, does it appear that over time it will chafe with the stainless line moving, or am I missing something?

06-25-2009, 01:26 PM	#3 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Re: oil changes and oil cooling: It's about time for my next oil change (it's about 200 miles out now, which is really nothing for me, by monday for sure). I had been hoping to see what oil cooler kit upgrades Stillen came up with before this change, but looks like they're not quite ready yet. Apparently their original kit is out of stock right now as well, so I can't even get that here in time as an alternative for now. I strongly considered picking up the GTM one, but really I don't want to get into the install issues with that one, being a universal kit. In any case, I do have the oil change supplies and AAM's VQ37 oil pan spacer here in my garage, which should add some capacity and help a bit for now. I think I'm going to just go forward with my change without a cooler (again) this time around while I wait out the Stillen situation, and maybe do my next change earlier than necessary as soon as the cooler becomes available (and say ouch at the $$ on an extra Motul change). On a related note, I was calling several Stillen resellers today trying to find anyone that might have an oil cooler kit in stock somewhere that nobody knows about. One of the shops did have one of the official Nismo 370Z coolers (21300-SS370) in stock and on hand to look at, which was surprising considering it seems like nobody here has first-hand info on this kit. They said they ordered 3 and had gotten just 1 in so far, were planning to use it on their in-house car but were willing to sell to me. I passed on it at $795, but did get to confirm some details over the phone from the guy who had it in his hands: Yes, it's a Setrab core, and a larger one than the 19 row unit in the current Stillen and GTM kits. The sandwich plate is not a thermostatic model, it's just straight though (which was a negative point for me, esp at that price). Also the guy commented on the lines looking larger diameter than the Stillen ones, but I think that's just eyeballing, I don't know what the sizes of either are specifically. If someone's seriously interested in trying to pick this up from them before they put it in their own car, send me a PM. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

06-25-2009, 03:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Editing my oil change plans again, looks like Stillen will have one good to go early next week, so I'm going to hold off on the oil + spacer + cooler until Tuesday. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

06-25-2009, 06:53 PM	#7 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 189	My shop should be announcing an alternative next week as well __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

06-27-2009, 06:59 PM	#9 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Got my brake stuff installed. In a rush to get ready for the evening now, but some quickie updates on the process/parts: Speed Bleeders: I'm an idiot, and didn't realize there are two bleeder screws per caliper on this car. I ordered 4, you need 8. I left the speed bleeders all on the front calipers at the end, and my final bleeding for air bubbles solo suffered a bit I'm sure as I swapped the speed bleeders in and back out in the rear to do those calipers. RBF600: I bled 2.5 bottles through the system as I went, saving some in case I need to fix any leaks and top off. Once I get more bleeders I'll probably bleed another bottle or two through to be sure. Braided Brake Lines: routing on the front ones is not obvious. I suspect the path I took is not what was intended, but I checked for clearance/stretch/etc and I think it will work, we'll see. Rears are easy to see. On the front I basically ended up with a straight shot between the hookup points, with a lot of the length coiled in a loop for suspension/steering travel (as opposed to wrapping around the arm/shock like the stock one). Pad Swap: Akebono deserves an award for these calipers. Pad swap is super easy. Once you have the wheel off, you only need needle nose pliers and a small clamp to compress the pistons. Caliper doesn't come off the rotor to swap pads, you just pull two cotter pins, two large pins, and slip the pads in and out of the back side of the caliper. Car is still on jack stands, I'm getting ready to go out for the night. Going to think about things more, doublecheck everything, put wheels on and test things tomorrow sometime. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

06-28-2009, 12:07 PM	#11 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	I think later this evening I'm going to make some more attempts at routing the front cables more "correctly", I can't imagine this is what's intended: Although it does technically seem to work in terms of clearance/rubbing/suspension travel, etc. I'm going to want to re-bleed after getting more speed bleeders in this week too, as I'm pretty sure the rear calipers aren't bled very perfectly. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

06-20-2009, 11:35 AM	#1 (permalink)
RCZ A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami Posts: 6,403 Drives: '09 370Z Rep Power: 1119	Good to know wstar, thanks for the update, I've been waiting for someones review on these.

06-20-2009, 01:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
ChrisSlicks A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: North East Posts: 6,203 Drives: 09 370Z Sport M6 Rep Power: 654	My driving results were similar (I gave a brief review somewhere here). I have my rear sway set to full stiff which seems to be a good track balance if you are a smooth driver. If you are throwing the car around in high speed auto-cross like I was last weekend it was actually a little too much and I will probably dial it down to the middle position for that. The downside to the large front bar is that there is more low speed understeer with aggressive turn in as it is much harder to load down a front corner. An adjustable front bar would be ideal for those that do both auto-cross and track. On the freeway on-ramps the car feels very flat and balanced, feels like it adds a fair amount of grip in that case.

06-26-2009, 09:49 AM	#8 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 182	Alright, keep us posted on the fitment!

06-29-2009, 07:55 AM	#12 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 182	To me the interesting result of the routing on the picture you show above is that it allows for suspension travel and wheel turning with plenty to spare, while remaining relatively fixed other than that, given the inherent stability that loop gives the hose. At least that's what it would seem.

06-29-2009, 01:03 PM	#14 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Coz got me sorted out on the brake line routing, this is what they look like now: Rear (sorry, blurry pic): Three views of the front: Also, here's the box-o-parts from the OEM stuff that came off. Between all the brackets and fittings that went away and were replaced with the simple braided line, seems like I probably shaved a tiny amount of weight with this too: I just now stuck the wheels back on the car, haven't even torqued the lug nuts down yet or lowered the car, gotta get some real work done here before I get back to that. I probably won't do any "driving impressions" for a few days, because like I said earlier I didn't order enough speed bleeders, and as a result I'm pretty sure I have air bubbles in the lines, which are going to cause more problems with mushy pedal feel than the braided lines could ever make up for Once the new bleeders come in later in the week I'll re-bleed again and see how it feels. For now I'm just gonna take it easy and not trust my brakes much. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

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