I've got $8,000 to spend on mods for my 370z. Need some advice.
 

alright guys, i bought my 370z a month ago and around Christmas i plan on modding the car a bit. the problem is i'm a complete noob when it comes to this sort of thing.

i want to add HP to it and make the exaust sound a little meaner as well. ideally i'd like to add around 100 hp to it. how would i go about doing this and how much does this sort of thing usually cost?

i'm a complete noob with this as i've said. any of you have any ideas as to what i should do to my car performance -wise with an $8,000 dollar budget?

thanks in advance.

Supercharger.

Stillen SC

Search button, it's free.

guys i don't mean to bug you, but i have no idea what a Supercharger is. can someone explain in more detail and list a ball park price. thanks

okay then i'll do a search. thanks!

subscrided :icon17:

dude not trying to be mean but if your this new to cars.. save the money for a yr at least learn the car then spend your money >.>

:rofl2: Great meme, great movie.

One thing to know about performance parts. There is a cost that goes way The price tag for the actual part.

Supercharger is like a turbo charger. It works to suck more air into the engine increasing horsepower. One maim difference is the turbos are powered but exhaust and superchargers are powered by the engine.

I would take that 8k and spend it on paying off the car if it isn't already imo.

Wasn't trying to be rude, just in all seriousness, if you are as much of a noob as you self-admittedly claim... Type in the things you don't know and read up on them.

If you're into performance gains, unless you want to go Forced Induction (Supercharger/Turbocharger) the main areas are Intake/Exhaust.

If you want to go for looks and make yours original, then you can look into a good set of wheels/tires.

If you want a comfortable ride, you can look into coil-over suspension or swaybars, or just springs/shocks.

All of this info can be found using the search feature as your friend. Not saying don't ask questions, but just make sure you search and see if there was another noob who wanted to know the same info you do. :tup:

I have to agree with the earlier post about doing some research in an effort to garner a knowledge base for yourself and thereafter making an informed decision.

Superchargers and turbos are an investment that (based on the build and the amount of additional added power) generally require further investments to support the addition of said forced induction.

We'll be happy to answer questions that may arise based on your research, but help us out here a little.

This wiki article will give you something to start with.
Supercharger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good luck with your research, congratulations on the purchase of your Z, welcome to the group...and be sure to contribute often.

Ps. And by the way..the Stillen supercharger will run you ~$6k, which does not include installation. :tup:

Most modders get exhausts, intakes, test pipes or high flow catalytic converters, ECU tune, wheels & tires, and springs/coilovers. If you are going to take the car to the track, then you should also get an oil cooler, brake pads, brake lines and fluids, and go to a driving school. $8000 will not be enough to really take advantage of a supercharger, so the best you will do is add about 40 hp with the above mods.

am i missing something here :tup: ;)

This is the type of thread that if everyone jumps on the bandwagon and frags the OP for not searching a subject first it will get locked of it goes too far.

What he said.

i might go that route instead because from what i've read Supercharger mods, etc. require a quite a bit of investment in addition to the mod itself. might just look into better tires/rims and upgrade my sound system. i think i'll be set with that.

Hey man, glad you got a Z! In all honesty though, what I would do is save A LOT of that money and put it away for a little while. In this economy just dropping 8 grand all at once is pretty crazy to do. There are some minor mods you can do that will yield great results and will likely surprise you.

Modding gets very addicting and take it from me and many others as well and they will tell you, most of the time the more you mod, the more problems you will have and if a shop knows you don't know anything about cars... they will RAPE you with no lube.

Everyone will have their opinion on this, but putting in say 2 grand into the car and keeping 6 in the bank will do plenty for you right now.

One thing you could do is take your car to a road course where they will teach you to drive the way you should.... it's easy to pick up seconds on another car even if you are completely stock just knowing how to drive better. Ask around or just do a google search in your area and ask about driving classes.

Well since you cant buy commen sense I recommend you selling your Z, adding your 8K and buying yourself an education. After all that you should be able to change your oil, flat tire, etc.. If not just stick to the next best car with the longest available warranty.

well tbh i've been sitting on my 8k for a while. it's actually part of what i won in Vegas two years back (won 15k). and i'm itching to do soemthing with it. The Z was actually a present from my dad. his first car was a z too.

You could do a simple breakout like this:

Intake: $500
Exhaust: $1000
Tune: $1000
Wheels: $3000
Tires: $1000
Springs: $500
Stereo: $1000
Total: $8000

Numbers are inflated to cover worst case scenario on tune and if you go for looks/quality vs cheap, but more than likely you will have leftovers.

Holy... :roflpuke2:

:shakes head:

thanks! any idea what that would add on to performance

How old are you bro?

23

ahhh ok... I myself am 33 and i'll be honest... if I had 8 grand i'd still be tempted to use it on my car, but think about how nice having 6 grand in the bank would be if you decide to sell the car at some point, or if you want to put some money down on a house. You can easily use 2,000.00 and add 30 whp (wheel horsepower) which is a nice jump from stock.

I HIGHLY recommend you do go to a course if for no other reason than to learn everything about the car with no other cars around just to be in a safer environment. I had 2 AWD cars in the past and coming back to a RWD let me tell you, with 30 more whp you can't screw around with this thing... it will snap right around on you if you aren't careful.

Our engines are pretty much very efficient, you can't really expect massive power gains without Forced Induction, unless VVEL gets cracked anytime soon, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

With an exhaust/intake/tune... you're looking at maybe picking up 50-60whp. That's a ballpark figure, no flame guys. Some have seen more, some have seen less, but it's a good avg. I know you said you were looking for 100hp more, but don't worry. You'll do fine with 325ish at the wheels.

If you do have any leftover cash though, I would invest in looking at a performance driving school to learn how to drive your car. Not saying you can't, but it's still fun seeing just what exactly our cars are capable of. :tup:

Your money spent will have more gratification if you research what each part does at least. Idk if this is a troll post or anything as I couldn't imagine someone getting a z, and willing to dish out 8k without knowing what a supercharger is.
So first things first, don't spend a dime until you understand performance parts, and gain an appreciation for cars.

:iagree: If you have to appease the mod bug, just do half/half.

4k will put you where you wanna be power wise, and you'll still have some left for a rainy day situation.

Seems like your dad is a modest person.. Why are you looking for our advice on 8k instead of his??? (even if u won it on a slot machine)..

But.....
For starters,
Get Stillen Generation 3 cold air intakes (abbreviated as Gen 3 CAI)
Stillen or Berk High Flow Cats (HFC)
Stillen, Fast Intentions, or other brand name exhaust system (CBE)
UpRev ECU tune
Swift R springs

If you don't have the sport model you neeeeed to upgrade your brakes and all their components. You can look up the different components.
This will give you about 50hp. After this you should know if you want more, whether it be a supercharger or twin turbo kit, and what the differences between them are

Chris and Methodical u guys have been esp. helpful. thanks a lot. after taking your advice (afterall i asked for advice in the topic), i'm going to lean to what both of you guys are generally saying. i'll dish 2-4 k of the 8 grand on performance and save the remaining for another time.

the wheel horsepower sounds interesting and i'll look into that.

definitely! Learn about each mod. We'll start here.

1.Cat back exhaust or CBE... it will give you from 5 whp all the way to about 20 whp
2.High flow cats or HFC .... your stock cats or catalytic converters are extremely restrictive and so changing them will yield pretty big power gains.
3.Test pipes or TP are simply just a tube with no cat, they have higher gain than HFC's but are illegal to have.
4. Cold air intakes or CAI are long tubes that are outside of the engine area, they suck in cold air from outside and so far have had the highest hp gains.
5. Short ram intakes or SRI are intakes that are less restrictive as well, BUT the engine bay gets very hot and hot air equals less horsepower and since these intakes are kept inside the engine bay they are less effective, which is why many go with the CAI's instead.
6. Pulleys. Pulleys are all of the little things in the front of the engine that run multiple things at once through a belt, the aftermarket pulleys size are adjusted to add more throttle response.

These are the most common mods for bigger power, but as said already... you aren't going to gain massive amounts of power unless you add a supercharger or turbocharger... which I do NOT recommend... good way to hurt yourself.

:tiphat:

Just because you have 8k doesn't mean you have to spend 8k.