350Z mild tuning

Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
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Yesterday my 350 had a few minutes attention from a guy with a laptop - see MrF's thread: Nippon Challenge Dates 2010.

It is better to drive (no more power) and I intend to follow this up with a full rolling road session.

Another problem this winter has been the rear hatch closing on my bald head! The gas struts lose strength with the cold. However the lads at Silverstone yesterday told me that there is a heavy weight fitted by Nissan behind the trim. I shall be having a look in a minute!
 
Paul_S

Paul_S

Club Member
The little tweek sounds promising. I wish that was available when I had my 350Z! Abbey say that 'feature' isn't there on the 370Z and you get 100% throttle in all gears. I might have to give that another go to prove it!! ;)

You should find the weight easily enough Rob.
 
martinmac

martinmac

Inactive
Hi Rob, two choices on the boot really, there is a guide to removing the weight which I will post up on here soon. There are also uprated struts available which make a big difference.
 
martinmac

martinmac

Inactive
Some pics so you know what you are looking for.
There is a little tool which helps you to avoid breaking the clips, its about £5 from halfrauds.



Ignore the arrows in the first pic, counterweight is ringed in red in the second pic

gallery_64_121_62154.jpg


gallery_64_121_37558.jpg
 
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Arkwright

Arkwright

Inactive
you can also get a nice woolly beanie hat for about £6.50 from Martinmac which will keep your chromedome warm and protect it from said bumps.
 
Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

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Removed - weight 2.5lbs!

You wouldn't find one of these on a French car!
 
Mr.F

Mr.F

Inactive
Conventional NA tuning on a 350Z brings mixed reviews - induction kit and exhaust should produce horsepower approaching 300bhp on an early car, but so rarely does. The ECU is very good at limiting improvements and mapping may revert back to stock. the top end runs extreme safety rich which causes improvements to tail off before reaching ultimate potential.
I started with an Injen CAI kit and Stillen dual exhaust and underdrive pulleys and saw about 15bhp across most of the range with elevated torque throughout, but the power curve nosedived at the top end as the AFR richened up.
Exhaust header manifolds and high-flow CATs should release another 20bhp - I never saw the isolated improvements for these items as they got fitted with the supercharger ...:cool:.

Getting the best out of mods will involve either piggybacking onto the ECU control inputs or converting to an aftermarket ECU. I'm assuming that there are people who can now successfully re-map the existing ECU also...
 
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martinmac

martinmac

Inactive
I will get a picture. The other way round the ECU issue is to find a nismo ECU. There arent many around though. They allow all power gains from mods.
 
R

RobZ32

Well-Known Forum User
Mr.F I note you fitting an underdrive pulley is there a harmonic damper on the 350z standard crank pulley? Lots of folks fit UD on the z32, which removes the damper. I have not gone for this mod as I have seen the results of harmonic vibration on other engines. I would think twice about buying a road going car that had modified pulleys. Has any one (who knows what to look for) ever seen a Nissan crankshaft particularly a V6 that has done high miles without a harmonic damper? In my opinion this is a mod that should be reserved for race engines which are regularly striped inspected and fitted with replacement parts.
 
Mr.F

Mr.F

Inactive
Used an Unorthodox Racing pulley on my NA 300ZX for years - no ill effects.
Used a set of UR pulleys on the 350Z until the supercharger went on - all came apart fine and the engine is still running...
 
R

RobZ32

Well-Known Forum User
May be Nissan crank material is some how better than the norm but they still fit a damper for some reason. The higher the mileage completed with unrestricted harmonic vibration the greater the risk but at some point sooner or later the bearing surface will suffer micro fractures start to break up destroy the shells lose all the oil pressure etc etc. I know that this is an easy way to increase usable power but only a small amount and lets face it we are not F1 are we.
 
Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

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Staff member
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Martin, thanks for the pictures of the tailgate by the way - they helped a great deal in locating the clips. I didn't take the whole cover off just lifted as many clips as I need to get to the bolts (scratched my arms a bit though!).
 
martinmac

martinmac

Inactive
I had a shock when I changed the battery yesterday. I turned upo with the usual tools but had to have a tethink.

Always happy to copy across any guides you need.
 
B

BRONZEE

Well-Known Forum User
Rob Gaskin said:
Another problem this winter has been the rear hatch closing on my bald head! The gas struts lose strength with the cold. However the lads at Silverstone yesterday told me that there is a heavy weight fitted by Nissan behind the trim. I shall be having a look in a minute!
Click to expand...
The uprated struts that Martin suggests are a good idea. We've had a few this end of the world that have removed excess weight from the rear of their 350's only to come back and put in a heavy spoiler as the back of the car became to light and not as planted.


Rob Gaskin said:
You wouldn't find one of these on a French car!
Click to expand...
Ressan. :rofl:

martinmac said:
I had a shock when I changed the battery yesterday. I turned upo with the usual tools but had to have a think.
Click to expand...
Removing all the cowling is a bit of a pain, but having to lift the half plastic bit (passengers side) that connects to the window rubber is an absolute nuisance. One of the things that wasn't quite so well thought out for one needs to update said battery. :rolleyes:
 
3

3FIDDYZ

Forum User
Mr.F said:
Conventional NA tuning on a 350Z brings mixed reviews - induction kit and exhaust should produce horsepower approaching 300bhp on an early car, but so rarely does. The ECU is very good at limiting improvements and mapping may revert back to stock. the top end runs extreme safety rich which causes improvements to tail off before reaching ultimate potential.
I started with an Injen CAI kit and Stillen dual exhaust and underdrive pulleys and saw about 15bhp across most of the range with elevated torque throughout, but the power curve nosedived at the top end as the AFR richened up.
Exhaust header manifolds and high-flow CATs should release another 20bhp - I never saw the isolated improvements for these items as they got fitted with the supercharger ...:cool:.

Getting the best out of mods will involve either piggybacking onto the ECU control inputs or converting to an aftermarket ECU. I'm assuming that there are people who can now successfully re-map the existing ECU also...
Click to expand...

Uprev work done for me by Abbey has turned my car into a totally different beast.... Been through a fair amount of NA mods and now the uprev to finally break the 310 at the fly on a 276 car

A few Dynos
A strong stock car (not mine) v my final result
StockvUprev.jpg


My car, Race Cats v Test Pipes
Uprev-Catsvnocats.jpg


Mine in Limp mode after unichip didnt keep the tune v final Uprev
UnichipvUprev.jpg


Also Rob, did the weight thing work? Removing the useless rear wiper can help too! but as can the uprated struts that are available now. I actually spilt a pair with a fellow owner as one uprated one is more than enough!

@robz32, I do keep thinking about the UR, there dosnt seem to be that many that have issued but there is no real proof of it working and giving the power. Final drive swap is something else to consider. Better gearing lower down the speed / rev range, but just means you top out earlier!
 
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