Realized it was probably time for a journal update!

Got the KWV3's installed and had a corner balance done a while back. The rear is very slightly lower than before, front is at the same height (As it was with the swift/Koni combo). Also, I removed the rear GTSPEC 2-point brace as it seemed to be interfering with getting the toe within spec.

Had the Z Dyno tuned by Specialty Z, they flew up here and tuned a bunch of Z's over a couple days at a local shop (Horsepower Solutions).
Dyno Sheet:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...dyno-sheet.jpg

#'s aren't too high considering what people have achieved with the same mods on other Dyno's, but it's impossible to compare one Dyno to another. Important thing, car feels WAY better to drive now, like a whole new beast.

I finally got around to installing the JL 13TW5 with the WickedCAS stealthbox. Went with a JL XD600/1 amp and the Audiocontrol LC2i LOC. Eventually I'd like to replace the speakers with Focals, the amp with the HD900/5 to power it all, and use the JBL MS8 for LOC. That's likely a long way down the road now though, I just got engaged so Z funds have been redirected for a while haha.
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...321-jl-sub.jpg

Another small mod, was getting tired of the PWJDM SS Shift Knob, wanted to go back to the stock one, but after sitting in the ZL1 at the last auto show, I'm obsessed with touching Alcantara lol. So I sent my stock shifter to Carbon Fiber Element to get wrapped in Alcantara and some CF accents:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...shift-knob.jpg

Gotta get the steering wheel done next!

That's it for now, I'm gonna play with a new way of mounting the lap belts for my harnesses soon to make it easier to adjust, will update after that.

Looks good Ed!

:iagree:

Had a fairly productive day with the Z today, got the oil cooler block off plate installed so that I can enjoy the last month or so of driving season here without worrying about the oil temps being so low. I also ran ducting for the G3's and installed the front chin spoiler that has been sitting in my garage for 3 years!

Block off Plate:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...-off-plate.jpg

Ducting:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ucting-g3s.jpg

Ducting installed with mesh grill:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...mesh-grill.jpg

It was a bit tough to get the bumper back on as the 3" duct and oil cooler lines on the passenger side made things pretty tight. The bumper is in pretty rough shape too after hitting a couple shingles that fell off a truck on the Hwy :( Looks like next spring it'll be time to peel the clearbra off the bumper and get a new one put on.

After going for a cruise and monitoring the new intake air temps, I can confidently say that the ducting for the G3's does work. It is 18 degrees Celcius here today, and after everything was warmed up (oil at 90 degrees, coolant at 83) while idling the intake air temp was around 38-40 degrees Celcius. As soon as I started driving again I could watch it dropping to around 27 degrees, and once moving faster 23 degrees Celcius. That's about where it stayed with Highway driving, 4-5 degrees C hotter than the ambient air temp.
This is a reduction of about 5 degrees from before I had the ducts. (I would see about 28C as the low temp on the hwy given the same ambient temperature) It'll be interesting to see come next summer how close to ambient air temp the IAT stays as I used to see intake temps of 58C when it was 28C outside :icon14:

As we know each drop of 1 degree Celcius is equal to roughly 2.71 WHP, so when I appy the formula 5*2.71 we see I picked up around 13.5 WHP! :driving:

Lol

Well this is certainly a good news / bad news journal update.. Bad new first:

While taking my summer wheels and tires off to throw the winter/storage ones on, 3 of the 5 lugs on the front left rim seized up and after trying to wrench them off, the studs stripped out. So now the rim is stuck on there as 3 lugs and studs are just spinning... gonna have to drill them out and replace the studs. I haven't even tried the other wheels yet, I just stared in disbelief for a bit, then turned and left the garage and shut the door.

Once I finally get all the wheels off, I'll probably throw the stock studs back in the hubs and then next season I'll switch to some non-aluminum lugs. Either Ti or some chrome-alloy. I thought about going to the ARP studs at the same time, but I found out they are even longer than the ones I have in there, and you actually have to remove the hubs from the car to install them, neither of which I wanted.

Time for the good news - before I parked the car, I got some night shots downtown. Enjoy!

http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73763-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73762-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73761-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73760-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73759-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73758-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73757-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73756-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73755-a.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...ure73754-a.jpg

Badass!!!!

Sick car!

sick shots

Wow Ed the car looks awesome! Take care buddy and sorry to hear about those wheel studs!

Were those the studs from the H&R Spacer kit from Stillen?

Thanks for the love guys! Yup they sure were Mark.

i just read the aluminum part.... steel studs and aluminum lugs no matter what brand volk, work, kics, you name it will marry each other. I make a killing with the amount of cars that roll in my machine shop to have them drilled out.... TI lugs or regular steel ones are the way to go... :D (i know you said you would go that route but im just throwing it out there for other people ;) )

So the stock steel lugs are fine with the extended studs... just not the Aluminum ones.
Am I right in thinking that the aluminum lugs caused the issue versus the studs?

Yup right on both counts.

meh, I blame the pink lugs.... :stirthepot:

Haha well now they will be purple! Should fix the issue.

:eek: RoZy will be jealous!

This thread needs updates... :icon14:

I will have some updates hopefully by the end of the week :tup:

Your car looks like it eats other cars

What seat mounts do you have on the seats?

Thanks lol

Wedge engineering seat bases and status side mounts. Can't remember who makes the sliders.

mmmm.... sliders...... :bowrofl:

Well I did promise an update, so here it is:
Got the 6 troublesome wheel studs drilled out after a two day battle with them:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...rilled-out.jpg

Now I'm waiting on the ARP wheel studs to come in so I can cut them down to a reasonable length (probably 50-55mm) and then install those. Then I'll throw the tires back on, with some Project Kiks lugs this time.

My main project as of late has been my winter 370Z:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...-cockpit-2.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...-cockpit-1.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...8-winter-z.jpg

Gotta drive something nice for the other 7 months of the year :wtf2: Actually looking at a 458 italia later this week. :tup:

Stop playing with toys and install a turbo!


Sent from Canadia

Started tackling the front wheel hubs today, planned to put in the ARP studs in the front and test the fitment with the R40's. However when I exposed the wheel hubs, I found that the splines had stripped out on the hubs, not on the studs :shakes head:
FML. So I will be ordering new front wheel hubs tomorrow. Trying to get a feel for what is on the aftermarket, but it looks like the OEM's will be the easiest to source/best bet. Once those are in at least it will be easy to install the studs!

Trying to get the wheel hub assembly's off has been a nightmare, they are completely seized in there. I was looking back at the DIY for installing the ARP wheel studs, and it simply says 'remove wheel hub' i LOL'd a few times. If only it was anywhere near that easy!

After this nightmare is finally sorted out, I think I'll take it to Nissan to change out the rear studs. Maybe I'll just go the whole 9 and buy new rear hubs while I'm at it, then everything will be brand new. Total cost of running the pretty aluminum nuts so far: $800/12 hours of my time. BIG MISTAKE!

Wow. That sucks Ed.

But they were such a pretty pink.... X)


Sent from Canadia

Ouch. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Think of it as preventative maintenance. :| Those hubs have a tendency to fail eventually.

That is true, it's not all bad.

I bought a slide hammer on sale today, and with that at my disposal the hubs came out of the front in like 30 seconds a side. New hubs are on the way from courtesy parts (at literally 50% of the price the local dealer wanted - you Americans are spoiled rotten with your car part prices!!) so once those get here I can press the new studs in and reassemble! I'm still not sure if the studs will poke out past the R40's, I really hope they do not but based on these pics I have a bad feeling:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...h-r-stock.jpeg

The stud on the left is ARP, then the stud that H&R ships with 15mm spacers, then the stock stud. The ones that ship with the H&R 20mm spacers, which are in the rear right now are 5mm longer exactly than the 15mm replacement ones.

http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...omparison.jpeg

This pic shows the difference with the old lugs and the new ones, and the old studs and the new ones. Now with the old Work lug nuts there was no danger of the 15 or 20mm H&R stud replacements poking out, probably had an extra 10mm. But obviously the ARP studs are quite a bit longer, and the R40 lugs are a bit shorter than the Work ones. I'll have to see the final fit once everything is back together and then decide if I want to run some small spacers to hide the stud back in the Lugs. The stance sure would be wide then.. :ugh2:

As far as the rear studs go, I pulled off the brakes and looked, it really does look like if i want to put the ARP studs in I'll have to pull the rear hubs. I'm a bit worried about doing the rears myself so I asked Nissan what they would charge for labour, and they quoted 5 hours :icon14: Now the dilemma is if I tackle it myself and hope for the best or if I just run the stock studs in the back until I eventually pay Nissan to change them.

The rears are not easy, I got lucky and when a lady hit my rear end and my suspension was being replaced I threw in some rear spacers for my volks.
Here is a DIY on the rears: http://www.the370z.com/diy-section-d...t-spacers.html

I really doubt it would take a good shop 5 hours of labor, but it is probably what is 'on the books' so they can charge that.

Lol. Ya Ed! You should have called me! (My DIY)


I think he meant the hub replacement time, not spacer install...

Lol true, if only it was as easy as your DIY! I honestly think if the ARP studs were 5mm shorter, they could get in there without removing the rear hubs.

Got these bad boys installed in the new front hubs tonight:
http://www.the370z.com/members/edcon...-new-hubs.jpeg

Now that the dye penetrant test is done and everything is good to go, I can get these installed and finally get the wheels back on :tup:

Just in time for spring...

Are they going to stick thru the end of the lug nuts?


Sent from Canadia

Most likely. I'll just have to accept it. I'll use a sharpie to mark the ends black lol

Not a sharpie! The chemicals in a sharpie will cause a chemical sintering of the steel alloy, weakening it to a level that will be dangerous to operate your vehicle over 50 kmh. In turn the sintering will attract oxides that will begin a dangerous corrosion of your hub and studs. Probably end up seizing your lug nuts....













jk

:rofl2:

:icon18: