I might pick up an alternator pulley in the future if I have voltage issues.

Did you ever run without the overdrive?

Yeah, when I first switched to my trunk-mounted PC680 batt, I was on Stillen's crank and the stock alternator. It all worked relatively ok, even though I still had a radio, etc at the time. But the PC680 wasn't always getting charged very well on short trips, and I had to use a trickle charger a lot, etc. The 10% alternator from NST (and probably the current lack of a Radio, too) have made the PC680 a whole lot better. I rarely ever hook up a charger to it, unless I did something stupid to drain the battery.

My PC680 works flawless for half a year now. Course no radio or AC.

WStar, how did you get the crank pulley off?

I can't budge it...

Smarter people probably take off the radiator to hit it direct with an impact wrench. But I happen to have a post way back in my journal from my silly method: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...html#post59428

Thanks man, I'm just going to have to get a buddy to come over and hold the prybar in to jam the flywheel. Wasn't able to wrangle it myself.

Excuse the use of two different type of bands... The ones with the notches in them are a real bitch to put on, so I'm planning on getting more of the plain ones.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1366116862

Here's the special tool you can use to stop the flywheel from turning, the one that the dealership uses...

Kent-Moore J-48641 VQ35 Ring Gear Stop, Infiniti


Get a load of that fuckin price.

Edit: nevermind, I was remembering wrong :P

So, for posterity's sake, I put a 12" 3/8 drive extension through the spokes of the stock pulley and braced it against the edge of the block below it to the left. That let me use a breaker (actually, the front bumper support slipped over my breaker) to loosen it up.

The Stillen install instructions tell you to torque to 33 Ft/Lbs and then make a mark on the pulley and bolt and then turn the bolt again until the marks are 90 degrees off... Which I found to be totally impossible. I used the break (sans the bumper support lmao) to turn it as far as I could and only got it about 2/3rds of the way to 90 degrees.

Wstar, were you able to?

Oh, and I got the header re-installed with some fresh gasket maker and torqued down real good. Sooo easy with the stuff taken apart. Also having them wrapped makes it pretty stress free since I'm not worried about scratching them or nicking them while moving them or tightening the fasteners.

Oh and the weight difference between the stock and the Stillen is... dramatic.

Spohn, I think you owe it to yourself to get one of these.

Yeah. I used anti-seize on it as well. If you didn't, that could've made a difference. Either way, I doubt 60 degrees is going to cause you problems.

I put anti-seize on the junction between the crank and pulley, but I didn't put any on the threads....

****. I want to try and get it off and put some anti-seize on it now...

I think I may have done the opposite, the threads but not the crank/pulley interface (this was years before GTM's big expose on how they weld together over time, oh well :P). Probably best to do both, but screw doing the crankshaft bolt twice in a row, IMHO :)

Yeah, Stillen, I guess, updated their instructions to include putting anti-seize on the interface so that they won't stick together.

I didn't put as much as I normally would (say on a bolt or whatever) just a pretty thin film, and it still took torquing the bolt down to fully seat onto the crank.

I'm pretty confident it won't have any issues. I was loath to put anything on the threads because I didn't want any of it to ooze out and get on the rubber seal that's set into the underside of the bolt head and mess it up.

I've had the NST pulleys on my car for going on 40k mi now, and haven't had any issues. Just in case you were worried about long term problems. :tiphat:

I don't know. I plan to go FI eventually. Then after seeing the video GTM put up about removing a light weight.........

I plan to beat the snot out of mine NA until it implodes, and then use that as an excuse for an LSx swap :)

EXACTLY my plan.

I understand that. And I almost would. I just can't bring myself to overlook the sacreligious part of it. Lol. A LS swap is more expensive too.

me three

Finally here!

My customized Fast Intentions exhaust system.

Tips are 3" SS that they polished up a bit. Idea being to save some ounces, make the sound more rowdy (not a resonated tip) and leave clearance between tip and bumper so I can wrap it/not have to worry about melting (already have one side melted a little from a different exhaust haha).

Also hoped it would lower the cost some, but it worked out to be about a wash. Ah well :P

OMFG, you are going to blow out ear drums. PPE's and F.I. non res CBE? I need to hear this.

I see you had Nismo dampers and Swift Springs, how did you like those?

That's the idea! hahaha I'll post some sound clips once I get the car back together.

They're actually a really, really good combo for a street or daily driven Z.

The Nismo Dampeners with Nismo springs is harsh as hell and kind of miserable to drive if you aren't on smooth streets, the Dampeners with the Swifts tho.. it was like the car was meant to feel that way.

I've sold that setup now, there's actually a different set of swifts on stock dampeners (non-Nismo) just to hold the car up until I get the scratch together for the coilovers next month. (Hopefully)

Very happy to hear the dampers and Swifts is a good thing. I was thinking it would firm up the base model, increase performance but not anything super crazy.

I def want to hear that exhaust. I'm waiting for results to play my next card on my exhaust. If mine is too restrictive, I wanted to look at F.I.'s with 12" resonators and HFC's, maybe the 18" but I don't want it too quiet. Biggest thing is rasp and excessive drone. I have a tad bit of drone, and almost no rasp, only when the car isn't warmed up does it rasp. Supposedly X pipes help with the sort of thing. Anyways, I'm definitely waiting to hear the combo.

+1 I gotta hear this thing. I'm glad the cats are checking to make sure there aren't any scratches or dents from shipping.

I think you've mentioned this before, but what coilovers are you going with?

I still have an FI catback w/ the 18" resonators, the normal tips, and the CF muffler option, from back before I had fully committed to making this car track only. Combined with FI's Long-Tube headers, the car is kind of ridiculously loud under throttle by any normal person's standards. I think, being the kind of people we are, our perception of what is or isn't "too loud" is a little warped. Flooring the car through 2nd or 3rd is a great way to find out if there are any cops within a half mile radius :) It sounds great to me though, and it's pretty damn quiet at warm idle.

Ksport Version RR coilovers.

The spring rates are the closest to what they need to be for this car, out of the box, and I'm willing to give them a shot. They have rebuild service and have most all of the bells and whistles I'm looking for. They're a good compromise until I'm ready to drop the cash for "real" motorsport coilovers (AST's or JRZ's).

I think the VVEL system allows for very tiny openings @ idle, because after the first 15-20 seconds, the car isn't loud even open header.

I've had Mandingo's old Y pipe on the car with no other exhaust (just enough pipe to keep backfires away from the O2 sensors) and have started/ran the car periodically to keep everything moving inside the engine and it barely sounds like anything beyond a modded car at idle after that first bit.

Of course, the racket it makes when you wrap it up to 4-5K without an exhaust is... well... The neighbors can't be the biggest fan of me at this point.

I got the passenger side header off, cleaned up and touched up with ceramic paint.

Got it wrapped and mostly re-installed.

What a total bitch it was. I don't understand why PPE had to make the runner layout so dramatically different on the passenger side, but it is a huge pain the *** to remove/replace. Actually have to remove a stud to get the thing in and out. We got the top nuts on and the bottom nuts started, but I ran out of time and had to call it a day. Hopefully get a chance to get out there and finish the job this weekend.

After that, I need to finish the TB heater delete and work on the EVAP delete in preparation for reassembly of the car.

Next week I should be ordering the supplies I need to finish the exhaust prep as well as a new radiator (hopefully one of the vendors I'm working with comes through) and some intake parts to re-configure my intakes.

After that I'm still waiting on Wedge Engineering to ship my seat bracket so that I can get the seat mounted and the sizing to the pedals/wheel finalized. I'm doing it this way so that when it goes to the cage builder (Hopefully early June) it will already be in the proper position and the bracket can be welded in.

Once it's back from the builder, it's coilovers, finish out the cockpit, and then hopefully some ******* racing. It'll be close to a full year since I drove the thing by then. :(

I want pics and videos!!!

Welp, looking at over two weeks before I get my damned seat bracket. Meaning an "over 5 weeks" wait for a damned seat bracket.

Both cage builders have stopped returning my calls and emails...so yeah. I dunno where I am on that. Sigh.

Hopefully get to order my radiator and other bits to finish up my engine bay this week or next. We'll see. Kinda bummed out. :-/

It's hard to build up a car and drive it too. I try to bite off small chunks and get it drive-able again before the next event, but even that doesn't always work. Right now the radiator/bumper/oil-coolers area of my car is still completely dissasembled and in the middle of fabrication/mod work involving drills and holesaws and dremel tools. I've got an event booked for 11 days from now, and a birthday party and mother's day taking up the remaining weekend. So, we'll see how that goes :)

Be happy it's only 5 weeks. I waited over 2 months for mine but at least the Z was in winter hibernation at the time.

I've got to get a new wing and maybe a new hatch too. But I don't have anything planned yet through June, maybe in July.

The aluminum is cracked on my hatch where the old spoiler mounted from the down force, and I'm switching to Aeromotions, which will mount differently, and hopefully not in the exact same area as the APR one did.

Need to do this to delete the water hardline on the driver side.

http://i1109.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6ae84cd3.jpg

Haha, something like that would be nice, but it'd need to be a lot larger, I'm thinking.

That tiny line is replacing two 1" water lines..

Size is no issue (that's what she said). But the other smaller line ill be deleting anyways.

Well it's 3 lines really, but the true bypass is 5/8", the heater is 3/4", and then there's the throttle body line that's more like 5/16". I'm guessing the thermostat closes the true bypass as it opens the radiator flow path, but the heater line remains open full-time? In either case, I suppose a machine shop could make an adapter plate that goes on the side of the engine there and connects one or both ports to a single AN fitting like Spohn's pic.

I really don't think the car needs gargantuan amounts of bypass flow anyways, just to keep from boiling fluid in the heads till the thermo opens up. I still kinda think you could get away with a thermostat-only solution, too, though. Close off the heater/bypass lines completely, and install a modified thermostat that allows sufficient "bypass" through the radiator even when "closed" (by drilling out the plate that closes it a bit - it already has a tiny hole in it, just needs a bigger one).

(Oh and for the record: I did drive mine with the stock coolant path setup and no thermostat for a couple days recently: definitely not a viable solution. What everyone says about flowing too fast in the radiator is true. The temp spikes dramatically in response to airflow and engine RPM issues, but also falls back down dramatically. It's pretty ugly how poorly the system operates without the thermo.)