2019! Let's see if I can update this to match MyG37
8/2/2016:
Car still isn't running as it should since the clutch has been slipping since March but I couldn't resist the itch. Have been waiting on maintenance parts and should have them soon..
9/5/2016:
A lap from this past weekend's track day at MSR Houston.
I ended the weekend at MSR with some yard work:
Apparently a Carbon Signal lip is not good for mowing the lawn..
9/20/2016:
Alright, I guess it's time I stop being lazy and actually update the thread. Life has taken a higher priority so car activities (and funds) have gone down quite dramatically this year.
I will begin with the DSS driveshaft - the car seemed to drive fine after installing the driveshaft but when I got up to 90 mph there was an annoying vibration which only got worse as speed increased. By 120mph the car felt like it was going to wobble itself sideways. After removing the driveshaft there were plenty of gouges on one side which meant it was either not true (straight) or it was unbalanced. Sorry, I have since gotten a new phone and I don't have access to my backup pictures right now to show the gouges as they are on my desktop, in a box, in a storage unit. :52:
After putting the stock driveshaft back on, the one piece was sent to back to DSS for them to check it and/or rebalance. DSS had turned the driveshaft around pretty quick, but I figured I would hold off on opening the box and installing it until I got my new clutch...
You see, my Southbend Stage 3 Drag had began to slip after a few months at 713whp/680wtq. So, around the time I sent the driveshaft back to DSS (March) I had placed an order with a local 'business' named Jester's Toybox for an OS Giken Triple plate.
After months of BS / broken promises June rolls around and, long story short, I got screwed over by said 'business' and ended up filing a PayPal dispute to get my funds back.
PSA: DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH Jester's Toybox
I guess the name should've been forewarning enough, but he was local and seemed like a 'good' guy so I thought of giving him the business.
Ron, the mad scientist/engine builder/mechanic, was able to promptly get me a Clutchmasters FX850 Twin Disk and we began the install these pending things:
Just checking the width of the driveshaft that was refinished/rebalanced and sent back to me.
Oh, I forgot to mention that along with the slipping clutch my CSF radiator had started leaking.
CSF was amazing and sent a new one to us, they have gone above and beyond what I would've expected from them!
After getting everything buttoned up, I went on a test drive to see if the driveshaft was fixed. Unfortunately it was not and when we removed it it had completely new gouges! I'm sorry I don't seem to have taken a picture of them again (fail!). My assumption is that the driveshaft is still not straight, we are in contact with DSS and trying to get a Carbon Fiber replacement. In the mean time the stock driveshaft, which I have since named 'Old Faithful', is back in. :dunno:
Which leads to the last few posts where I took it back to MSR Houston to learn how to drive it faster!
And ended up with the lawn mowing posted above.
Giving me the title "King of the Broken Lips"
It has finally pushed me to repaint my bumper which I have been putting off for almost a year.
That's pretty much it for now, hopefully the next update won't take 6 months! :icon30:
9/22/2016:
Suburbia Cruising
Coming back to form..
9/24/2016:
Fresh detail by my good friend for #wekfestprep
12/9/2016:
Lack of updates here lately, but life and holidays has taken over. Unfortunately the head lifted on the motor back in September/October and the car has been sitting in storage ever since. Won't get around to fixing it until Spring at the soonest, but I'm still on the fence as to which route to go for the fix.. At least there is a good quarter of a year to think about the options at hand.
1/3/2017
I was able to drive the car over the holidays and the head was still lifting after 4-5 pulls at 21psi. I only had a few hours to spend with the car so I loaded up the Uprev ROM Editor, dropped the boost controller to 16psi, took some timing out, and fixed the AFRs. The car stopped pushing coolant and appears to run just fine. :dance:
The main reason I took the car out was to get a festive picture for the holidays; it didn't come out quite as well as I had envisioned since there was traffic, but it was decent enough.
I should have some more time at the end of this month, but I think the plan will be to learn more about Uprev tuning and street tune the car on 93 since I am only running 16psi now. Once that is done it will likely stay untouched while I develop the plan (and funds) for the next stage. :icon30:
3/13/17:
^ Thanks! I'm sure Mike's car will be insane once he gets a full tune!
I had grand ideas for the car at the end of '16 but the reality of '17 seems to be punting those further down the roadmap.. I did manage to change the oil when I first got it back:
I have been messing with the car's tune and found that 18-19psi seems to be the threshold where the headlift occurs and coolant starts to push.
Since I no longer can run high boost levels I decided to switch back to 93 and start a new tune at 14psi. It's been fun learning how to tune the car myself and I am looking forward to getting it to a point where I can put it on the dyno to make some power runs - mainly to see if I'm "doing it right" :icon30:
I did find some old unedited pictures when I setup my computer in the new house and have slowly started editing them:
3/28/2017:
^ Oh you kids and your toys!
5/9/17:
Currently hanging around..
5/18/17:
Finally on the ground after weeks (months?) in the air because I've been too lazy to finish the maintenance. Maybe I'll actually drive her this weekend after I charge the battery.
5/31/2017:
After the head lift last fall I have been preparing to rebuild; I guess every great story eventually has a reboot?
The motor started knocking recently so I think time is running out, it's too bad it is on it's last leg but considering how I drive the car it's held up quite well. Overall the smiles per hour over the past 2+ years have made everything worth it and I've learned a lot about our platform.
Fortunately some pieces of the puzzle came in yesterday.
I have acquired a few smaller pieces in preparation but haven't taken pictures of them:
Z1 Solid Motor Mounts
ATI Super Damper
ID1300 Injectors
CJM VQ37VHR Fuel Rails
VQ37VHR Crankshaft
Synolimit Ported Upper and Lower VQ37VHR Intake Manifolds
Synolimit 63mm Ported TBs (s/o to Upscale Speed)
Hopefully I can get everything else that I want/"need" in the next few months and be the first ever 2007 G37 Sedan VQ37HRTT?
7/25/17:
The inventory of parts is near complete, the reboot should start sometime around October unless I decide to get a couple last items which could push things to around December.. What's another month or two right? :dunno:
RJ Manufacturing Closed Deck Block
VQ37 Crankshaft
Carillo VQ37 H Beam Rods w/CARR bolts
CJM VQ37 Fuel Rails
ID1300 Injectors
Tomei ProCam 272 10.8 IN/EX
Tomei Valve Springs
Tomei Titanium Retainers
Cosworth HR/VHR Head Gaskets
ARP 625+ Head Studs
ATI Super Damper
EPS Oil Gallery Gaskets
Z1 Solid Motor Mounts
Synolimit Ported VQ37 Upper/Lower Intake Manifold
Synolimit Ported Throttle Bodies (s/o to Upscale Speed)
BW/AAM High Pressure Wastegate Actuators
AdminTuning Combo Tank
Rods
Head Gaskets
In the meantime I'm still puttin the car around @ just 14psi
7/28/17:
RJ Manufacturing Closed Deck is in, will probably start building this outside the car and do the swap sometime later this year.
9/19/17:
With Harvey having such a huge blow to Houston there are so many things that the city has to deal with. Thankfully my family and I were blessed enough to make it through the storm fairly unscathed. A roof leak sprouted in our home, but it is so minor and insignificant compared to what my neighbors and community have gone through that it doesn't even register on the scale.
Things have slowly started to go back to normalcy the past two weeks and reevaluation had to be done as far as the car rebuild is concerned. I originally wanted to wait a few months to upgrade the turbos, but with a property tax hike looming that is just not in the cards anymore.
That means this is one of the final pieces of the puzzle - a
Suckerpunch Motorsports Oil Pump! This combined with the Tomei cams and ATI Super Damper should allow me to safely raise the redline to 8500rpm and possibly even 9000rpm (if we are daring enough to try).
The only thing I'm waiting on now is for a new set of custom pistons which have been ordered and should be 3-4 weeks out, after which the rebuild will begin. :JAMIN:
9/25/2017:
As I've mentioned before I started tuning my car on Uprev by myself since the head lifted back in November and now that I am getting close to the rebuild I wanted to get the car on the dyno to get some numbers for the tune. A friend recently had his car retuned at DD Performance Research which has a 4wd dynojet. I originally intended to hit up both DD and Kozmic on the same day to have comparisons between DD's dynojet and Kozmic's mustang dyno, but another friend went ahead and put his car on DD's dyno first as he originally had his car tuned at Kozmic. His car made 380whp on Kozmic's mustang dyno and 382whp on DD's dynojet. Seeing as how there was only a whopping 2whp difference between the two dynos I decided to not even have my car run at Kozmic.
Here are the results for my self tune on 93 at 14.5psi:
Smoothing 5 applied:
The tune needs a little more work, but at this point I'm calling it good as I will start a new tune from scratch once the new motor is put in. I'm pretty stoked that my tune was pretty much able to match the numbers that the car previously made on 93 and Jtran's tune. :JAMIN: