Tonight I gotta drop the exhaust so I can get to the rear bar and finish removing the evap system and harnesses... yay!

Rear bar on, evap canister assembly out. The canister is surprisingly heavy, at least 5-6 pounds.

Also removed the last of the redundant heat shielding in the back of the car. One less thing to rattle and annoy me. (Full exhaust is wrapped, so that flimsy piece of metal wasn't doing anything)

you can even spray the where the metal shield was with a high temp paint...that's what I did...

What kinda exhaust do you have on?

It's a fast intentions non-resonated exhaust with 3" plain stainless steel tips.

Got the bars on and everything buttoned up.

Weird thing, one of the studs/nuts on the front bar stripped when I was putting them back on. Basically as I was torquing it down the threads gave out so the nut was just spinning.

I had to cut the nut and press the stud out. Just replaced it with a bolt and nut. Whole thing only added about 10 minutes of work, but geez. I'm thinking when I tear it all down in a few weeks for coilovers I may replace all the studs with grade 8 flange bolts and nuts, the stock studs are made from like pot metal or something. Super soft.

Love seeing all the update pics. Keep em comin!:icon18:

Seat + Harness + Bracing back in the car tonight... Should be able to take it for a spin with the new bars tomorrow.

Pics tomorrow, was too dark.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1376482984

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1376482984

Nice!

I know your seat is close to the bar but have you considered a seat back brace at all? Those aluminum seats have more flex than you might want without it.

It's actually touching the bar quite firmly...

I actually have a brace, but there's simply not enough room between the seat and the bar to use it.

If, in the future, I move the seat forward an inch or two, I may have room to use it. Until then, I don't see how I can. :-/

I'll continue to investigate it though, since it costs me nothing to use the materials I already have.

Ah ok. Given that you are touching you should be okay. By the time you get strapped in it will pull you into the bar even more firmly. With straps that short you will have very little stretch under braking.

I'd be interested to see what the car weighs when you're all done with it.

Yeah, it's really wedged against it pretty firmly. That's why I have the rubber between the bar and the seat (it's black and zip-tied onto the bar in the photo if you look close).

The strap lengths are super short, so stretch should be almost non-existent, hopefully.

Yeah, me too, haha.

I see you left in the stock horizontal bar back there. I was planning to pull mine after the rear cage was in, figuring its contribution to stiffness has to be a rounding error with real bars in place. Was there some thinking that maybe it really helps?

Just the butt chassis strain gauge.. haha

The cage doesn't actually brace the two sides of the chassis together in that respect. It contributes, for sure, but the stock horizontal weighs next to nothing and seemed to stiffen the chassis noticeably.

I just painted it so it didn't look so blah.

link to the interior handle strap!

everything looks great man!

I made all of those..

I could make you some, if you wanted. ;)

...

lol...

I'll just email you instructions on how to make them.

...

Check your email.

Hey send me a copy of that! :)

Post it. :P

Put about 80 miles on the Z this weekend with the cage and all.

Wow. All I can say. Cage + Bracing + Harness + New Bars = Holy crap.

Can not wait to get the coilovers and some real rubber.

Just got back from the dyno touching up my tune.

I picked up 1hp on the top and 4-6 throughout the entire rev range.

Here's a comparo of the best old run vs today's final product... notice the curious humps in torque with the FI exhaust vs the OEM Nismo (the only meaningful change in the engine).

Keen eyes will notice the large difference in AFR.

Let me just say, that the difference in AFR is not where the power difference came from. When the car was at Uprev being tuned (by the guy who created Uprev) there were zero (0) gains in going from the low 12's to the 13's on the car. We ran the AFR up to almost 14:1 and saw zero change in the power delivery, just higher coolant and oil temps. Knowing that (at the time) the cooling system in the car was woefully inadequate, we decided to keep it rich and call it a day.

Now with different parts and a larger radiator (to put it mildly) the AFR naturally ran up higher (and I boosted it a bit as well) and we see the gains we have here.

To qualify that a little, look at the chart where the two traces nearly intersect, note the large gap in AFR? If it were just running leaner making the difference, one power curve would be higher than the other... this isn't the case.

Anyway, I think I'm running into some kind of flow limit. I'm not sure which part is causing the limit.. I hope it isn't the headers (collectors, really) but I suspect it may be. You can see how changing the exhaust really let them honk up at 6k+ but then they fall back on their *** right away. If I can figure out what is slowing the system down above 7k, I think I could get some pretty insane numbers.

We'll see, for now, the car is much happier feeling and I'm satisfied with where I'm at (especially since I tuned it myself and only had to pay for an hour's dyno time).

Knowing you got the FI Exhaust and PPE header, your next step from what I have seen is the intake side.

I dont know what is the diameter of those Nismo Intake but you might want to look into a bigger TB and intake tubbing if they are too small.

If you remember, I mentionned all of this in my thread and at both occasion where I tested back to back , there was gain of 7-9whp with a bigger TB & CAI & Maf Tube.

Does it matter where the main hoop is mounted? Like 2-3" further back or forward? Mind taking close ups of the other mounting locations?

Have you weighed your car yet?

Well, the Nismo intakes are 2.75" ID, I somehow doubt that those or the TB's are an actual restrictor, but I suppose it's possible...

The "cut" so to speak, is between 6200 and 6400 RPM. This corresponds with the point at which the MAF flow #'s clip. Basically it hits like 266 G/Sec and stops. (I think it's 266, it's been too long since I looked at it, I need to start logging that stat now I guess)

Problem is, I don't know how that reading possibly affects anything when the MAF Volts continue to climb/index on the table.

I may need to send some data to a pro tuner and see what they think might be happening... if the lump at the end there extended from 6100RPM and then rolled off closer to redline, I think we would see much more impressive top end numbers. It seems aborted, the way it is right now.

Any knock? The AFR was rising till that dip point then it fell along with the power and TQ

I wasn't looking @ knock counts, but timing wasn't pulled, so I can pretty safely assume that there wasn't excessive knock.

There's a dynamic around that area that I don't understand, and I honestly don't know if any of the tuners really understand it either, because I'm pretty sure it all revolves around VVEL.

I didn't log VVEL position (You always think of these things afterwards, not while you're sitting in the car sweating) so I can't try and correlate any of it to that.

Maybe a pro tuner can help me figure it out... It may be as simple as a plumbing issue though. Definitely looks like there is a specific flow limit it reaches and from there on, it's down hill. It happens later in the rev range on the old exhaust/tune than it does now, but it's the same limit.

I have seen vacuum building up in the top end, this is why I ended going with an oversized TB which proven gain. Twice

the 266G/sec is the max number on the Uprev table. the way it was explained to me in the beginning was that as long as you can give fuel with the MAF Table the G/sec is kind of useless

this is a copy/paste of one of my concern on this topic with Jared @ Uprev

I don't think I've ever seen the g/sec go down while the V was rising, but I honestly don't usually look at the g/sec since that parameter becomes totally meaningless once you change the K fuel multiplier for a different MAF or injectors.

Groovy.

Yeah I need to start logging manifold pressure, sounds like.

don't lose your time with the OEM MAP sensor on the 370z.

it will be better with an actual gauge that can read vacuum properly.

Have to say, I'm impressed with the build quality for the money.

Might replace those bushings with some monoballs in the future (looks to me like they could be pressed out easily) but for now, I think these will be great.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1380467050

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1380467103

:tup: What I like about them is that the ride height is independent of spring preload.

Some pics.

That last engine pic looks likes JPL's rover on mars..with that thermal gold wrapping!! Can't wait to here the Long time review the coil overs....going to upgrade suspension soon enough.

Pics of the kinetix arms because I decided it was silly to leave the shredded boots on them, so I cleaned them out with some Teflon oil and then greased with extreme duty Teflon grease.

Even when totally flushed out, there was zero play in the ball joints, so they're a good part, just the boots are garbage.