Critique my parts list...
 

Amended list:

Stillen SC, impeller upgrade and 9psi pulley
FrozenBoost 101 Intercooler
Bosch 850cc injectors
K&N filter, right on the blower
Greddy FV BOV
Relocate MAF to charge pipe
Speed density tuning
Walbro 485 pump
CJM hat and 10mm return kit
GTR Plugs
AMS Alpha GTR 4 bar MAP sensor
AEM AIT sensor

OS Giken 1.5
Whiteline Diff bushing
SouthBend Stage 3 Street clutch and flywheel (quiet one)
CSC Elminator

AEM Failsafe Boost/AFR Gauge

Upgrade oil cooler to 34 row (will try it out first)

Ecutek reflash

Possibly custom charge pipe with long enough Y to put MAF right at each TB. Will see how it goes.

Clutch/flywheel/csc. Also, those gears may be a bit much for a boosted Z. Traction will be an issue. The CJM oil pan is a nice piece. Maybe one of the ATI dampers.

Yeah I'm struggling with the gears if it is a good idea or not. Going to run a 325/35 drag radial for some bite but don't know if it will be enough.

I'm in denial about the clutch/CSC lol... I only have like 7k on the car so hoping to get away with it for a little while. Fingers crossed

Diff bushing should be on the list

Aren't those dampers for dry sump setups?

Forgot GTR plugs (heat range 8 correct?)

ATI makes a stock replacement pulley. If you're DRs all the time, gears may be ok. If you plan on running street tires, it may be too much. You need a new clutch, csc, etc. And you need it installed before the SC, so you can break in the clutch before you're dyno tuning the car. Correct on GTR plugs.

That could be a problem. The entire build will be part of a winter teardown, and winter here means snow so pretty hard to break a clutch in. I'll also be e-tuned by Seb until he comes up here mid summer, then he can tweak it on the dyno.

Then you need to take it easy until the break in is done. Which is a tall order when you're boosting the car. Drive like a grandma on the base map while you break it in, then get dyno tuned and beat on it to your heart's content.

Chase, what was your reasoning for going SC instead of Turbo/Twin Turbo? Just curious.

BTW, I'm located in Edmonton :D

AEM boost and AF gauge.

Wideband Failsafe Gauge | AEM

It will log the data while you drive. It has a two hour continuous storage buffer that you can down load to your laptop and plot the data out. Works great!

Going to have to granny drive while Seb e-tunes it anyhow for the first while. And yes, it's going to suck BAD!

Cost mostly. If money was no object I'd have probably went with a set of twin screw twins, but, well it is a factor. A big one. Plus I see the SC as easily daily drivable. Not that I wouldn't DD a couple hair dryers too of course.

Very cool. It was one I'd glanced at but didn't realize it did all the logging too. Not like I'm going to have my laptop plugged in all the time so that's a real nice feature. Does it need a separate controller or anything?

How does the AEM Failsafe compare to Zeitronix ZE-2 Multi gauge (controller)

Any insight?

They end up only $20 apart..

That spectre 8161 wont fit. I already tried. You do know the A/A comes with a filter right? What is the reason for the 8161?

Actually I didn't. Does it fit right onto the blower?

Doesn't a Stillen SC + A2A put you in the same ballpark as a Boosted Performance turbo kit that doesn't need to be "fixed" ?

Yes sir, it does.

Just from a past plan, not sure if it helps.

~34 Row Oil Cooler With blockoff plate
AFR/Boost/Oil Psi Guages
Z1 Mounts Motor
Test pipes and Exhaust upgrade
Misc Fluids and Materials Oil and Coolant
EcuTek
Silicone Hoses

Tires Brakes
Steel Braided Brake Lines
Brake Pads XP10 Front XP8 Rear
Brake Fluid RBF600
Tires 275/35 305/30 RE11

Drivetrain
Zspeed Clutch, Flywheel, Elimination, Nismo pilot bushing
Wavetech Limited Slip Differential
Fluids, oils Clutch, Transmission, and Diff
Whiteline diff bushing
Replace all diff bearings and seals since it will be open anyways.

Misc
CJM Fuel Starvation Fix Kit
Adjustable Clutch Pedal
Other Fluids Water Wetter and PS Fluid

If that is the must have list on top of the list above then I may as well sell the Z and get a GTR lol

Critique my parts list...
 

Honestly, that's always a concern on building a turbo z. The final out the door cost puts you in a used gtr or similar car. Not to mention boosting a z pretty much destroys the resale.

I'd almost be tempted to run the SC alone this summer and do the A/A over the following winter, but I know I wouldn't be happy 'settling' for the stock Stillen package. Most of these costs will be amortized over the winter since I can't drive it anyhow so shouldn't be so bad. Just trying to be judicious what I upgrade and when.

I didn't buy thit car to sell it so not really worried there, however what can be done can always be undone. I keep all my stock parts.

Your list is pretty much on par with whats the bare minimum needed, the 25 row oil cooler would probably be the minimum sufficent for street driving.

The OS Giken Diff is a lot of money and if your not racing I would say it's over kill. Not to mention it needs regular service. Finned Diff cover is not necessary for street driving either. I would recomend doing all the drivetrain mods I listed, are they required no, but your CSC will eventually fail if not your clutch with the extra torque. Also not required but with more power comes more speed much faster so brakes need more stopping power. Tires are very important as well because spinning your tires can be fun sometimes, but it isn't productive, and why did you spend all that money on power if you just spin it away.

The OSG is only a couple hundred more than a Cusco or Quaife if you watch pricing carefully. Fluid changes are expected and I just consider that routine maintenance. Also, being as I have a Base the OSG should be pretty much a drop-in. Couple hundred bucks for top quality is well spent in my opinion.

The car will see more than just street driving, both road course and occasional 1320. I'm looking at limiting tire spin not inducing it. It gets you nowhere except back into your wallet for replacements. 325 MT ET Street S/S Drag Radials out back.

The CSC is an issue I haven't addressed yet as the car was brand new just this past spring - and am fully aware it will need to be. Haven't decided what clutch/flywheel I'll run but it wasn't directly relevant to the SC install so I left it off the list. Sidenote: I did add LSD and gears to the list because I'm curious of others' opinions on the 4.08 R&P coupled with FI.

Easy enough to upgrade the oil cooler if need be but this one I'll wait and see how it goes. We don't really get staggering items here even in the summer, but will put it on the track for final decision.

I'm dealing with a close but out of town wrecker on stock Nismo brakes they have on hand right now actually. Depends what they come back to me with. If it's a good deal then I'll go for it, but will need 19's to clear them as I don't think the 18's will - though I prefer to stick with 18's. Will see what happens there.

Guess the short of it is just trying to piece together a plan for this winter's teardown, certainly doesn't mean I'm going to stop there. It also doesn't mean I need to do everything all at once either. Need a realistic list for now and try to not do or include anything that will have to be swapped out or upgraded again later. FI isn't cheap and I don't want to do things twice. Already sold most of my bolt-ons to go this route and we all know how much of a hit you take on used parts.

Oh, and I get bent over by the exchange rate every transaction too so that's not exactly in my favour right now. :(

At least the only real labor incurred will be the rear end. I turn my own wrenches but don't set gears.

18s will fit with sport (nismo) brakes, a number of people who track got with 18s for better selection of tires and savings with each set.

Road course and quater mile are going to make brakes and fuel starve fix more of a requirement then a nice to have.

With that I think you're good to go!

Very good to know about the brake clearance. I hadn't looked it up but seemed reasonable that the giant-by-comparison calipers would need a larger wheel or offset.

Ironically, I've found there to be much LESS selection of 18" tires nowadays, at least in the larger sizes above 305. Pretty much anything is available in 19" though. I guess 19 is the new 18..

Sorry but I do not have first hand experience with the Zeitronix.

The AEM Failsafe is super easy to install and the logging feature is really nice when a problem comes up such as a bad fuel pump. I know this because it happened with me. At first he AF was ok and then slowly started going leaner and because I had proof of the problem Stillen replaced the faulty pump with no questions asked. The interface is a USB cable that I have coiled up in the glove box. It comes with a Bosch WB sensor and bung. When I had Fast Intentions make my CBE I had them install a WB bung for me. Worked out great. One other nice feature of the AEM gauge is that it is easily user programmed for what you want it to do. The failsafe feature lets you control whatever (from a beeper to a boost controller) with a programmable relay that you get to set the parameters to trigger it.

Thanks. I've read up now on the Failsafe and satisfied that's the way I'm going to go.

Now just to figure out if I'm going to make my own pod or go with Gale's. His is clearly OEM quality at a minimum, but need to figure out where my dollars are best being spent.

Gale's is beautiful but I felt the same way and made my own. For something small like a pillar pod it's pretty easy.... of course not nearly as fancy as Gale's.

I haven't attached dollar amounts to each line item on my list thus far and totalled it. Maybe I'm better off not doing that lol

Do you have any pics of yours?

Should I/Am I going to need a fuel pressure regulator?

Think I'll back down to 750 injectors. The 1000 was just in case I ever ran e85 but the closest pump is like 10 hours drive from here lol. Will plan on having a 103 race gas map however.

I can recommend the Gale single pod as mine is excellent work done. Jason lives in the Durham Region of Ontario. Nice guy.

He is a good guy. I've bought from him before. :tup:

IMHO saving a few hundred bucks here and there (or at least having that mentality) is one thing that helps me keep my TT budget under control and far away from the 20k estimates that so many people throw around here. So I say total it up =)

I was a little hesitant to post pics of my pillar pod because I am not 100% happy with it and plan to work it a little more in the future... but here ya go! =)

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...2&d=1480697992

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...3&d=1480697992

Saving a few hundred here and there is exactly what I'm trying to do. Before you know if you've saved a grand, then two..

The pictures aren't the best but from what I can see so far that pod is looking great! Definitely want to see it when it's done.

I started thinking yesterday I might just recess the gauge into the center cubby and even leave the lid on for a bit of a stealth look. Easy enough to pop it open when I want to see it. And still leave room for my sunglasses, which is pretty much the only thing I ever put in there anyways. Plus the price on install is $0.00 :p

I am always a fan of $0.00!!!!

Yeah sorry the pics are so junky... I just snapped them this morning when I pulled the car out, but I was already late for work. =) Hopefully I will have a chance to redo it some time... since it's currently functional redoing it has moved to the back of the list =) I'll be happy if it gets done some time in the summer.

I hear that. From what I can see it looks darn good though, more than good enough for the time being.

Can't wait til I've collected enough parts to start this install :)

I love my Gamma oil pan. No oil cooler, TT, and Florida summer heat and so far no oil temp problems. I do not track, though, so I can not speak to the performance in that setting. Also changing the oil filter is more of a pain.. planning to relocate mine.

What are your power goals again? If you are going to skip E85 and 1000cc injectors... you can probably also skip the regulator, fuel return, Walbro 485 pump/accessories as well. Just retrofit the stock assembly with an Aeromotive 340 to go with your 750cc injectors and factory pressure regulator/fuel system. This would save a huge chunk.

FYI - I am only running 600cc injectors and a Walbro 255 in my otherwise-stock fuel system and have not had issues though I do feel it is a little small. If I had to do it over again I would do what I suggested above. This all depends on goals of course. I am in the mid 500's and do not have plans of increasing.

Thanks!

I would recommend you start installing anything you can right away to save time later... for instance, go ahead and install/wire your gauges and route the sensor wiring to the engine compartment.. That will save you at least half a day when you are like THIS CLOSE to driving it for the first time =)

Also anything you can complete in stages and will help, especially if you have parts ahead of time. For instance, install the whole fuel system and ask Seb to provide you a stock Map scaled for the bigger injectors... That way you can check-out that portion of the build and troubleshoot it without having changed a bunch of other things (if necessary)... and it will save you a day or more when you get the parts for the rest of the install.

Looking forward to your build!!

If I can hit 500whp I'll be a real happy camper. How realistic that is I'm not sure, but it's a goal regardless. 450 would be acceptable but would leave me wanting more I think.

I was starting to think along the same lines. That Walbro is only $135 from Seb so don't mind that cost. The CJ hat and return system is a like $400 not including the regulator which is another couple hundred, so might consider holding off on that and see how it goes. There's another $600 plus shipping I can try and get away with - and can always add later if need be.

What are you running for a clutch? That's one area prices are all over the map. Seb did recommend his kit for $1500 plus the CSC, but realize there are some lower price alternatives. Looking at maybe a Southbend Stage 3 for $600 plus flywheel and CSC. There is another $500 at least back into the budget.

There, just potentially saved $1200 usd. I certainly don't want to take a chance at running lean and causing problems though, so whatever my list changes I will certainly float past Seb for his expert opinion. He is the one that has to tune the car with these parts at the end of the day!

I've been told a way to save on the A/A and yield similar results but want more information on it first. Theoretically there's another $1000 to be saved easily but am approaching this cautiously.

I don't expect to pare it down to nothing, and don't want to push things into the trouble zone but not getting things I certainly should, but Im pretty sure there is middle ground to be found where things will still work out as planned.

Skip the Specialty Z clutch. Buy it from Z1 or Zspeed. Specialty Z royally ****** me over with a defective clutch that ended up costing me an extra $1k between labor to replace it and the rental car while it was down. Plus they're the kind of guys that tell you they'll pay some of the labor overage, and then weasel out of it once it comes time to pay up.

The walbro pump is reasonable! I don't know what all you need to install it though - the Aeromotive unit will retrofit into the factory assembly pretty inexpensively.

For clutch I went with the Z1 Clutch/Flywheel setup and ZSpeed HDCSC (That I scored for $200 new in the classifieds!) - it's way cheaper than any other combo. I am perfectly happy with it, and the full face disk handles my torque just fine. Drives a lot like OEM with a little more pedal effort.

The CSC elimination kits seem to be increasing in popularity, but the HDCSC gets the job done perfectly fine, is cheaper, is closer to the design intended by the Nissan engineers and will be compatible with other mods.... For the sake of example - if you decided you wanted to do a bigger power build in the future and bought yourself a BP kit, I am pretty sure any of the CSC Elimination kits would be incompatible. I think people are jumping all over the elimination kits because the OEM CSC is such a PITA its like of like giving whatever QA jerk who approved that part a big middle finger. And it feels good to give that guy the finger. (Not to be confused with fingering that guy, which also may feel good depending on your persuasion).

I would absolutely NOT skip the Air-to-Air kit... Even if you get over the heat soak issues with the stillen design, keeping your ECU in the dark about what your intake temps are seems like a recipe for disaster to me.

I looked at that Z1 full face clutch kit as well; they also offer it with the CSC elimination kit at a bit of a savings. I was wondering about pedal pressure with the EK. I actually do want more pressure than OEM just don't want to overdo it. I drive the car just about daily in the spring/summer/fall.

Clutch is further down the list anyhow. I'll get to it, but prioritize the other things first. Same with the locker.

I don't mean skip the air to air, just piecing it together a different way. Still moving the MAF up the charge pipe towards the TB'S, still putting filter right on the blower, adding big intercooler etc. However these guys are leaving the aftercooler in place which I'm not sure I agree with. When I have and understand all the info that's been mentioned to me about building it that way I'll pass it along and see if it passes muster. I have ZERO intention of running the Stillen kit as is.

Install kit for the Walbro is like $30-40.

No fingering going on either way lol :icon17: