Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Snapped a Few Pictures

Update: Ive decided not to go with the 3'' downpipes/test pipes until my car has larger turbos. Instead ill be ordering a JWT ECU upgrade and boost jets this week.

I was out for a ride and snapped a few pictures. Here they are:















Tuesday, June 24, 2008

New Intake

Installed my new intake in a few months ago and figured it was time to update the old site.

The Intake I decided to choose was the Jim Wolf Pop Charger. When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was a lot larger then I expected; In fact at first glance I didn’t think it would fit.




Anyway, back to the install.

The first thing I was taught to do when removing the nose panel on a z32 was to mark it with tape. This makes it a lot easier to line the hood back up when reinstalling it.
















The nose panel took a lot of fidgeting to loosen. Once I got it off this is what you see:



For whatever reason the instructions sent to me from JW tech. were inaccurate. This could be due to the fact that my car is a JDM car. Either way, I marked the locations of the bolts you need to know about so you don’t make the same mistakes as I did. NOTE: In addition to these locations there were two bolts that attach to the air damn underneath the stock air box.

1) Remove the MAF (red circle). There is an aluminum clip that secures this. I used a set of glass screw drives to open this clip and it comes off easily.

2) Remove the four long scews that hold the top of the air box onto the bottom. Once these are removed you can pull off the top of the intake:














3) Next, remove the clamp screw that holds the MAF in place.

4) Once the plug is removed and the clap is loosened, the MAF should slide out with a bit of twisting.

5) Remove the rest of the bolts that are visible.

6) There are two bolts attached to the support brackets that are impossible to see. You must take these off to save you a lot of pain in the near future. For some reason (again it could be due to my car being a JDM) these bracket screws are connected directly to the air box.

NOTE: Here is where you must remove the bolts attaching the air damn (under the filter) to the air box. I was unaware until way to late that this was attached. It is not too important since the air damn can be removed all together but still pissed me off. Here is a picture of what I am talking about.



As you can see the location of the two red circles are where the bolts were in my car. Not sure not to remove these without taking off the bumper.

7) After these bolts are removed (or not in my case) you can push the air box down and sort of slant it. This allows you to pull it out with minimal effort. A little maneuvering may be required since this air box is huge.

8) Attach your MAF to your intake with the supplied hardware:




9) Another optional step would be to remove the extra ducting that was used by the old intake. I left mine in since it requires the removal of the bumper to get at.

10) When putting in the new intake, first poke a hole the size of the screw on top of your intake into the air dam.

11) Place the intake into the empty opening and put the screw into the hole you poked.

12) Reattach the plug into your MAF and refasten all the bolts and clip.
























13) At first your intake may be to far up (and rubbing against the metal of your bumper. I just pushed my hosing downward until it sat correctly. Then secure it to the air dam. (The hose you see is for the headlight washers... they are not on my car so I dont use it).

4) Reattach your nose panel and line it up with your hood so that the gap is not unequal.


all done :D.


I also installed a turbo timer around the same time… I will update my site about that gong show at a latter date. The harness on JDM cars is different then domestic but I didn’t want to cut any wires…. Tune in next time to see the dramatic conclusion of…. Turbo timer pissing me off.


Next Major step: 3'' downpipes, test pipes, exhaust. Then the JW ECU upgrade.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Finally Bought My Car

Ive wanted a z32 since the age of 16. When I was 18 I bought a Z31 and promised myself one day I would "trade up"; that day came one week ago.

I have been hunting for my z32 for years. I was attending University at the time so I wasn't in a position to buy a "weekend" car. About a month after graduation I figured it was time to reward myself.

I started looking much more seriously. I found many around the $8000-10,000 range; however, upon further inspection, in most cases they were driven into the ground. I didnt want to have problems with the car I have wanted for so long, thus, I decided to pay more for one that was in great condition rather then buying one that will turn into a money pit.

I bought my Fairlady Z for considerably more then I wanted to spend. It has 57,000KM on the engine, a custom stereo system and new rims, lowered. Other then these additions the engine is in pristine condition and so clean you could eat off of it. I asked some Z fanatics and they assured me that paying more for a car like this would be worth it on the long run. After seeing so many abused Z's on my path I knew I had to buy this as soon as I laid eyes on it (pictures to follow).

The point of this blog is to track my long progress as I modify this car. This will not be a rapid process, so please don't expect updates daily.

This is the base stats of the car currently:

2-door coupe with 2 seats and the 3.0 VG30DETT V6 Engine.
The dimensions of the car are {length X width X hight} -- [4305 mm (169.5 in)] X [1790 mm (70.5 in)] x [1245 mm (49.0 in)] and weighs [1610 kg (3550 lb)]

It produces 300 HP and 283 ft·lbf and performance varies from 0-60 times of 5.0-6.0 seconds depending on the source, and it had a governed top speed of 155 mph (249 km/h).

The z32 was named "Ten Best" by Car and Driver every year of production (7) and even after production stopped magazines have continued to rave and award the Z32 years later.
  • 2004: Automobile lists the Z32 as one of the 100 coolest cars of all time.
  • 2006: Automobile lists the Z32 on both the "20 Greatest Cars of the Past 20 years" and the "25 Most Beautiful Cars in History".


Here are some pictures of my car (these do not do the car justice. It is about 2 or 3 times as clean in person.

Pictures of the general car.







This is the inside:










This is the Engine






This is the best i could get of the Undercarriage:



These are the tires:





Not Bad for a 16 year old car;)