I was browsing the Facebook marketplace and find 2 items of interest.

The first one was a complete hatch with a V2 nismo wing out of a 2007 350z. It was unfinished. I drove 90 miles to get it. The V2 wing is not really a good wing but it should at least get rid of the rear lift at speed.

The second one was a carbon fiber front bumper lip. The unusual thing about it was that the lip extended all the way back. It was a undershroud/lip combo. I like the idea a lot since it would prevent the sagging of the front bumper and make the lip pretty solid.  So I went with my wife to pick it up. There is no brand or markings that would identify the make but I brought it home and installed it the next day. Now the car looks more track ready than ever.

Well, Like any good backyard mechanic, when you work on something that old, something in the way is about to break. So when I removed the bumper to install a mishimoto oil cooler , I broke the tabs that hold the bumper to the headlights assemblies. So I went off to ebay to buy some new Depo Lights. Install was really easy and now the car is even more aggressive looking

Category: Modifications

OK, its March now , and I haven't worked on my car for a while but during the winter months, I've noticed a few things.

1. my rear brakes rotors are done and I need to replace them soon. So I am thinking about brakes kits.

2. my upper control arm ball joints are dry. I guess the grease leaked out without me seeing it.

3. my transmission shifter moves a lot under decelleration. time to check the rear diff bushings and it was shot.

So , I spend a good month online to read reviews , diy repairs and shopping sites and decided on the following shopping list. At that point, I was fully aware I am building a split daily/track car. 

1. Wilwood brake kit.

Front 6 pots with 14" rotors and rear 4 pots with 13" rotors. I choose this kit because of very few people run them but every single one person "Love" them. I ordered them from TCE Performance which helped a lot in my decision making. the kit comes with BP10 pads that are great street pads but I also ordered the BP20 pads that are better for track use.

Installing took a long time across 2 days, mainly due to the fact that shimming the calipers is a long process of trials and errors. But once every thing was installed it felt great. One piece of advice: Be patient bleeding the new caliper. It takes a long time getting all the air out of the 2 piece calipers.

2. More suspension upgrades

I decided that I will need the camber/toe adjustments so I ordered the Voodoo13 front UCA , rear camber arms and rear control arms. While I am in there, I keep reading about swapping swaybars to the hotckins one and ordered a set from ConceptZPerformance.  Installation was easy. I had to pause working on it since as I worked on the front UCA, I finished destroying 1 side of my front lower compression arm bushing. So I had to order new compression arms. now the front suspension is almost brand new. I did changed the tie rod ends while changing my lower arm ball joints.

It tooks me 3 days of spraying pb blaster on the bushings to be able to remove them. Nissan could have done us a favor by putting some anti-seize on this one. 

3. Diff Bushing replacement

When I ordered the whiteline bushing from Z1 , I also ordered the rear diff bushing and it has been sitting there waiting to be installed. This is not a easy task, since you have to remove the exhaust, the rear swaybar and carefully secure the driveshaft and axles out of the way. The pumpkin itself weight a lot and I needed to involve my wife in dropping it. The rear bushing is not that bad to replace. You do have to destroy it by using a reciprocating saw and a drill. the 2 front bushing were a mess since they were still fluid filled when I removed them. but nothing a good weekend mechanic should be afraid of.

As I was replacing the swaybar, the rear upper control arms ball joint had a slight play in them, so I ordered a new set and replaced them while everything was still out.

All in all, this next round of upgrade put my car on jackstand for about 3 weeks. I could only work on it maybe 4 hours per week as my job was working me 12 days on, 1 day off.

Once everything was installed, I've run into a ABS issue while doing the test drive. the solenoid would activate at low speed and after an hour of driving the ABS unit failed on me. Yikes. Another unscheduled expense. So I went to the dealer who confirmed one of the ABS solenoid was bad and I needed to order a replacement. Nissan stopped production of their ABS units. so I had to order a used one off ebay. Stealer wanted $700 for a used one ! 

The ABS unit number ends with CD003 but the seller sent me a CD303 unit. clearly 2 different models. So I took it upon myself to raise hell and burn the bridge with the seller. for $60 it wasn't worse it for me to return it so I decided to install it to see what would happen ? SURPRISE ! 

While looking into the engine management of the car , I've noticed the traction control is not in the ECU but in the ABS Itself. Basically ,the way it works is that the ABS unit detect individual wheel speeds and when it detects traction issues, it sends a command to the ECU to reduce torque to the wheel while the abs activate the brakes on the wheel that is spinning.  This relationship between the ECU and ABS unit needs to be configured by a nissan dealer before it actually works. So since I don't have the tools , the link is broken and my car does not have traction control activated any longer while still having the ABS fully functional. That's a great surprise since Traction control couldn't be fully disabled in my enthusiast.

I am pretty happy of all those modifications. After tweaking the ride heights, setting some mild camber and zeroing out the toe. I also tried to zero out the swaybar preload with some adjustable links. The car feels way more responsive. It now tells me everything that's happening and I now can setup my car in more ways that I probably need to.

The car is now ready to go on track for the first time ! Or I believe it is.

Category: Modifications

Sitting at 129K miles, my car is now due for some really deep maintenance. 

1. Cooling system.

Well, it is bound to happen with radiator sandwiched in Plastic. The OEM radiator is leaking from the bottom seal. I decided since I am going to track the car to upgrade to a KOYO race radiator with a mishimoto thermostat.

The koyo radiator does fit in the oem place but they moved the radiator cap opening to the upper intake tube.  I had to cut the intake tube a few inches to enable full flow otherwise the hole will pinch itself. the radiator is a lot thicker than the oem one and should provide some great cooling at WOT on track.

The mishimoto thermostat replacement is a easy task. I like the low temp opening but I also really like the wider opening at 190F. It feels like a lot more flow is happening at operating temps. This is not so great for daily but I imagine for track use, this is the best option out there ( other than running without thermostat).

2. Valve covers.

I've noticed that the cyl5 plug is submerged in oil , so I order a new set of valve covers. Replacing everything was a pain since you have so many things to take out before reaching the covers. but 1 afternoon was enough for this job. One issue with the cover is the plug tube seals leaking all the time. So I took some rtv and surrounded the seals with black rtv that is resistant to oil. So far , so good.

3. Plenum spacer,

while I had the whole intake plenum out, I installed the Z1 5/8th angled spacer. It was easy but 1 bolt was bad and sudendly I had to redrill and retap a center hole in the lower plenum. It took me a few days to get the right tap for the job.

So NOW it is time for some trackdays.

Category: Modifications

It is now end of December 2017 and the weather is getting nasty up here in WV and the tires are starting to show some belts when I rode them before the bad alignment.  I was never a fan of the ESR wheels that came with the car and the dealership couldn't get the original wheels from the previous owner. So I spent about 1 week browsing Tirerack and forums to get a good set of wheels and tires.

I ended up ordering the following.

2 Enkei TS-10 front wheels 18x8.5 ET 25 wrapped in Goodyear Eagle F1 Assym All season 245/40R18

2 Enkei TS-10 rear wheels 18x9.5 ET 35 wrapped in Goodyar Eagle F1 Assym All season 265/40R18

They came 2 days later mounted and balanced. They included brand new lug nuts and the center cap for the wheels. Took me about 2 hours to install them. The rear wheels are a little sunked in but not enough for me to care.

Before the swap, I did weight the wheels and tires.

That is 46 lbs for the each front wheel/tire and 47.5lbs for the rear ones. I was surprise that 1" of extra width didn't make more difference in the weight. The wheels themselves are supposed to be 19lbs. So that means each rubber weight around 27 to 29lbs.  The ESR wheel that came on the car were 49lbs front and 51lbs on the rear so I shaved a few pounds while being a tad stronger. 

Now the car looks a lot better. 

After getting an oem alignment , this new set really performed well in the cold/wet and I've taken it in the snow a few times and I had a blast. It feels planted and have tires not stretched allows more control.

Category: Modifications