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wstar · 05-16-2013, 09:32 AM

I was a little worried I bit off more upgrades than I could chew between track weekends this time around, but it looks like I made it, fingers crossed. Later this evening will be my first real street test-drive on all the new setup, it's all buttoned back up now and it's been through a little static stress-testing in-place on the lift. A few notes I can put out now without having really driven the car yet:

7AT Fluid Swap without Dealer, and to non-Nissan fluid

I had a dealership change my 7AT fluid last time, around 20K miles in, right after I added the small (series-1 and very short) trans cooler from Stillen's kit. Now that I'm just a hair under 40K and upgrading the cooler, I did another swap and did it myself this time.

The new cooler is a Setrab Series-6 19-row (the one used in the 19-row oil cooler kits commonly for this car - where mine came from). I've switched from Nissan's factory Matic-S to the Motul Multi-ATF that Z1's selling. It's one of the very very few aftermarket ATFs to claim Nissan Matic-S compatibility, their marketing materials on it talk specifically about being suitable for latest-generation semi-autos, and I trust their brand at this point, so I expect this to go well.

As for the whole dreaded issue with Consult-III temps for fluid change: through some mild experimentation I think I figured out this isn't as bad as it seems. To recap the service manual: you can only swap 3/9 quarts at a time via the drain/fill holes, and a "full change" in the SM is three of those swaps (which leaves 28% old fluid in the mix, that's ok). I'm probably more like 10 quarts with the add-on cooler/lines. After the final fill-to-overflow cold, you're supposed to fire it up, warm up to a Trans Temp of ~104F, roll through the gears in-place, raise the lift, and open up the overflow again to let it spill down and get the level set at that temp.

With an IR thermo, you can get close enough for government work. If you shoot the IR thermo at close range on the bottom pan metal near the overflow/refill port itself, you'll read ~5-10 degrees F lower than the actual fluid temp in the pan. So basically, warm it up until that spot on the pan reads around 95-100F. When you pull the plug and start draining if you carefully shoot the dropping fluid up-close, you'll see it around the 100-110 range, which is close enough (the SM allows for some variability there anyways). Keep in mind I was in a garage at reasonable ambient temps around 70-80F and little wind and the car was pretty cold having been on the lift for days and only fired up a few minutes at a time. YMMV in other conditions, esp if the pan/trans is already heat-soaked from previous driving.

Setrab 9-Series Oil Cooler fitment

Now I know why all the easy-install oil cooler kits use Setrab's 6-series coolers (in 19/25/34-row heights).... I went with a 25-row Series-9 which is considerably wider. It seems like a better airflow fit for our grill opening, since at 25-row you're not getting much more airflow height between the bottom edge and the crash bumper area. The reason most of the kits don't use a Series-9 is it really doesn't fit well at all with our stock radiator core support and that center strut that holds the ambient air temp sensor, etc. I had to do a ton of cutting and customization to make it work. I also added a top-mount by drilling holes in the backside of the crash bumper, so it's mounted (with anti-shock rubber) top and bottom for stability.

I suspect the Series-9 25-row is about as ideal as you can get, just be warned there's a reason the kits use the Series-6. Stock up on dremel cut-off wheels and be prepared to do major surgery and relocation of factory bits to fit the Series-9.

APRacing/Stillen brake kit notes

So far so good, I did ~200 miles of rotor break-in before the car went on the lift for other surgery a couple weeks ago. The one little note I wanted to add, since I discussed this stuff randomly both here and in other threads and never reported the final decisions: I've kept AP's pad clips in all 4 calipers in the end. Apparently it's functionally fine to leave them out for a track car, according to Stillen. I didn't think I'd care about NVH, so why not leave off an excess part that could cause a problem? Because the noise really is worrying. Without the clips the pads bonk around in the calipers a lot. I have a hard time telling whether that's just my clipless rear pads I'm hearing or maybe my suspension is falling apart in the rear because I forgot to torque down a bolt or something. At those kinds of ugly noise levels, IMHO the clips are worth it just to make it easier to diagnose other noises.

05-16-2013, 09:32 AM	#567 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	I was a little worried I bit off more upgrades than I could chew between track weekends this time around, but it looks like I made it, fingers crossed. Later this evening will be my first real street test-drive on all the new setup, it's all buttoned back up now and it's been through a little static stress-testing in-place on the lift. A few notes I can put out now without having really driven the car yet: 7AT Fluid Swap without Dealer, and to non-Nissan fluid I had a dealership change my 7AT fluid last time, around 20K miles in, right after I added the small (series-1 and very short) trans cooler from Stillen's kit. Now that I'm just a hair under 40K and upgrading the cooler, I did another swap and did it myself this time. The new cooler is a Setrab Series-6 19-row (the one used in the 19-row oil cooler kits commonly for this car - where mine came from). I've switched from Nissan's factory Matic-S to the Motul Multi-ATF that Z1's selling. It's one of the very very few aftermarket ATFs to claim Nissan Matic-S compatibility, their marketing materials on it talk specifically about being suitable for latest-generation semi-autos, and I trust their brand at this point, so I expect this to go well. As for the whole dreaded issue with Consult-III temps for fluid change: through some mild experimentation I think I figured out this isn't as bad as it seems. To recap the service manual: you can only swap 3/9 quarts at a time via the drain/fill holes, and a "full change" in the SM is three of those swaps (which leaves 28% old fluid in the mix, that's ok). I'm probably more like 10 quarts with the add-on cooler/lines. After the final fill-to-overflow cold, you're supposed to fire it up, warm up to a Trans Temp of ~104F, roll through the gears in-place, raise the lift, and open up the overflow again to let it spill down and get the level set at that temp. With an IR thermo, you can get close enough for government work. If you shoot the IR thermo at close range on the bottom pan metal near the overflow/refill port itself, you'll read ~5-10 degrees F lower than the actual fluid temp in the pan. So basically, warm it up until that spot on the pan reads around 95-100F. When you pull the plug and start draining if you carefully shoot the dropping fluid up-close, you'll see it around the 100-110 range, which is close enough (the SM allows for some variability there anyways). Keep in mind I was in a garage at reasonable ambient temps around 70-80F and little wind and the car was pretty cold having been on the lift for days and only fired up a few minutes at a time. YMMV in other conditions, esp if the pan/trans is already heat-soaked from previous driving. Setrab 9-Series Oil Cooler fitment Now I know why all the easy-install oil cooler kits use Setrab's 6-series coolers (in 19/25/34-row heights).... I went with a 25-row Series-9 which is considerably wider. It seems like a better airflow fit for our grill opening, since at 25-row you're not getting much more airflow height between the bottom edge and the crash bumper area. The reason most of the kits don't use a Series-9 is it really doesn't fit well at all with our stock radiator core support and that center strut that holds the ambient air temp sensor, etc. I had to do a ton of cutting and customization to make it work. I also added a top-mount by drilling holes in the backside of the crash bumper, so it's mounted (with anti-shock rubber) top and bottom for stability. I suspect the Series-9 25-row is about as ideal as you can get, just be warned there's a reason the kits use the Series-6. Stock up on dremel cut-off wheels and be prepared to do major surgery and relocation of factory bits to fit the Series-9. APRacing/Stillen brake kit notes So far so good, I did ~200 miles of rotor break-in before the car went on the lift for other surgery a couple weeks ago. The one little note I wanted to add, since I discussed this stuff randomly both here and in other threads and never reported the final decisions: I've kept AP's pad clips in all 4 calipers in the end. Apparently it's functionally fine to leave them out for a track car, according to Stillen. I didn't think I'd care about NVH, so why not leave off an excess part that could cause a problem? Because the noise really is worrying. Without the clips the pads bonk around in the calipers a lot. I have a hard time telling whether that's just my clipless rear pads I'm hearing or maybe my suspension is falling apart in the rear because I forgot to torque down a bolt or something. At those kinds of ugly noise levels, IMHO the clips are worth it just to make it easier to diagnose other noises. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 05-17-2013 at 02:13 AM.