Killed a turbo 350Z owner's enthusiasm for his car
 

This happened a couple of weeks ago......a guy I know has a 350z with a turbonetics turbo running around 8 psi.

To make a long story short, I took him for a ride out onto some local roads, highway, and some nice tight off ramps. He's a nice enough kid, and I don't think he really knew what to expect. Here were his two main observations:

"I'm glad we never raced. You would absolutely rape my car."

"There is no way in hell I could ever take turns at this speed."

I was running right around 1 bar boost, nice cool weather out so the car felt like it had gained fifty hp over the summer time. I told him I was taking the car down soon to put on a different turbo setup and a full 4 inch turboback exhaust and expected to gain around fifty hp at the same boost from what he felt that day, and I thought he was going to have a heart attack :spew: :bigthumb:

Nice.

+1, so true! That was one aspect of the FD that I truely loved the most.

what turbo are u plaing on geting ?

Nice. And your car is so much better looking than a fat Z. God they're PIGS!

Z;s are nice looking cars...dont hate.

that's all you have to say? besides, it's all subjective, I think 350Zs are bloated ugly oinkers :MissileSm

i wasnt responding to you...i was responding to the guy above who called them ugly. i liekt he way they look. might be heavy but appearence wise i liek them alot.

I'm not a Z hater in any way, really. They're pretty quick, comfortable, "sporty", and not that expensive. I actually think they look great from the side. I just think that they are HEAVY LOOKING--esp. from the rear. THey have a HUGE AZZ. Have you seen the verts? HOLY CRAP THEY ARE EVEN FATTER! I also think Rich's FD is 11ty billion times better looking of a car, but that's just IMHO. I have a friend who has one (Z) and when we park next to each other, I swear it makes my car look like a go-kart :D

yeah 350s and 300s are some of the best

This kid i know has a twin turbo 350z and he wants to run me but i dont think my fd is capable of keeping up with him yet.

So Rich, you plan on answering ihavetwin's question or, is a secret?

I'm pretty sure Rich has already posted in another thread that he ordered an A-Spec 500R kit not so long ago. Even though he's part owner in Gotham. :D

Yeah, sorry guys, I thought the cat was already out of the bag.

The wait time on a dual bb GR67 was pretty excessive, mainly due to the manifold. As part owner, I don't have priority over paying customers, so that compounded the situation.

Anyway, after doing lots of research on the 500r over my summer vacation and exchanging about 50 PMs with zero-r and broken09, I decided to pull the trigger.

I ordered it up in 1.0 hotside with wg plumbed back into dp, long runner manifold, ceramic coating on dp/mani/turbine housing, and passed on the anti-lag comp housing. I had them fab me up a full 4 inch turboback exhaust with a magnaflow muffler in the center and rear section, with a magnaflow rolled s/s tip on the rear muffler.

The long runner manifold led to fitment problems with my existing m2 large smic, so I was obligated to try something else and decided on a Rotary Extreme regular V mount setup.

The plan is to run 16ish psi on pump with water inj and 25 psi on c16. Future plans call for a meth system so that I can run 25 psi fulltime :D

Damn, that was a book. You guys happy ;)?

Good story, you still have one of the best looking FDs IMO. :D

Thanks bud :icon_tup:

Any particular reason you chose to go with the WG plumbed back into the DP? Was noise the only concern? I don't understand why sooo many people opt for this option. I'd much rather have a vented wastegate considering the added benefits. Noise is overrated :). Besides I have a system that will drone everythin except my exhaust and turbo out.

At this time, my car is intermittently displaying tach problems, and I need to replace the fuel filter soon. Being an older guy who is no longer enamored with the thought of laying on my back in the garage often to fix problems, I have avoided massive upgrades.

In the ~6 years I have owned my FD, I have:

• changed the left front bearing hub twice and the right once (funny, the car aligns, but for some reason it chews up the bearings. I suspect it is because the left turn radius is far shorter than the right, and that is stressing the bearing when I make tight turns)
• installed a front strut tower brace
• installed the y-pipe
• replaced the turbo control hoses
• added a Profec-B
• gone through and fixed the water level buzzer problems (only bad rad caps, but a lot of pain to figure it out)
• had the oil pan resealed to stop a leak
• replaced the EGR (The new one occasionally throws a 16, but it is intermittent so I have not done anything about it yet.)
• regular oil changes @ 5K
• changed the prake pads once
• spark plugs twice
• spark plug wires once

The result is that the car generally is no trouble and that I enjoy the performance of. I have no need for a monster; but of course every once in a while I think about creating one.

So, I'm curious... Don't know if you answered this in any other thread or not, but compared to an average, very slightly modded FD like mine...

How much wrenching do you do on your car just for maintenance, broken parts, and keeping in the right state of tune?

i think its been a several year process.

I'm not aware of much in the way of added benefits from a vented wg. Perhaps a bit better spool, maybe 5 more rwhp. In my opinion the incremental gains don't offset the enormous drawback of the insanely loud noise, especially not a on a streetcar. Based on my exhaust system I am going to be running, and based on my deleted p/s and a/c, I think my tolerance is pretty high with regard to what I consider 'streetable,' but the noise of a dumped wg is a non-negotiable for my car :)

Yes, I am sure of that....

What I am asking is how much maintenance does he have to do ABOVE that of the average poweredf FD? Has all those performance additions made the car a little more, a lot more, or about the same in fragility and in maintenence cost?

what are you planing on doing with your turbos?

A B Z

Keep in mind my FD is no longer a daily driver, I daily drove it at a 350ish rwhp level on stock twins for quite some time.

I now only drive the FD occasionally, as I have a company car and also an fc vert as my droptop toy.

Having said that, I revamped alot of my FD roughly 9k miles ago----new ported motor, new BNR twin turbos, newly rebuilt tranny, new clutch, new engine wiring harness, oodles of new gaskets/crush washer/coolant hoses, stainless steel omp hoses etc. I have since put in a new TII diff, new 4.3 gears, new toe links and trailing arms, the list goes on.

I still have all my original bushings and pillow balls, but that's about it.

I have removed some stuff, which can't hurt reliability---all emissions, all sequential crap, my p/s and my a/c.

I don't really feel it has hurt the reliability of the car at all. I have a water injection system which comes online above 9 psi and I think that is my single best 'reliability' mod from the standpoint of protecting the engine. Although I drive the car less frequently now (2-3k miles per year) when I do drive it I flog the hell out of it :D.

As far an maintenance goes, I follow a similar schedule to everyone else, coolant flushes yearly, oil changes every 3-6 months (which is every 750 to 1500 miles), plug changes when the car needs them, etc.

I think when building these cars, esp for higher hp, you can't skimp on engine bay components. I have had zero problems with my FD in the last 3 years, zero leaks of any kind, no overheating, starts up every time. With a few exceptions, I do all my own work. Nobody loves your FD like you do :)

They have been sold :).