[Build Thread] -- Journey to 700+ WHP [Supercharger]

[cupcakez]

Here are some photos of what the car looks like now.

It's honestly done in my opinion, but will wait for the same mechanic who worked on it 4 months ago and put everything together including the engine swap, just to be safe.

We managed to put the BPV behind the bracket of the IC, and route the hose to the BPV in a nice way as well, yay!

Check them out!

To be honest, there is a kink in one of the coolant lines right under the throttle bodies, and I have no idea how to fix that...
I will leave that for my mechanic who will come on Monday to triple check everything before we pour all the fluids in and start it up.

He is also the same person that worked on my car and put everything together for my build in the thread, so I completely trust him.

As you can see I did remove the black support bar that was kinking the coupler connecting the upper left intercooler opening to the Y pipe so it looks A LOT better now.

I also went to the store to buy a 2.5" to 3" coupler (the blue one on the bottom right of the IC) because the last coupler that was used on there (the one that came with the a2a kit) was scraped and damaged, so it was definitely a goner.
We managed to clamp it down enough so there's nothing escaping, it looks fine and feels extremely tight to me so it's all good now.

The car should be up and running by Monday!

[Spooler]

Good deal. Glad to see you have it just about ready to fire up.

[cupcakez]

Quick Update!

My mechanic came by this afternoon!
My car is 99% done.

Dude forgot he left his tools somewhere that he couldn't get until later tonight (which unfortunately, because I work graves, wont be done today)

BUT...

He said the car is just missing a 10mm bolt for the supercharger bracket, a line needs to be run through the headlight or something (dont remember which line), and the two 10mm bolts needa be tightened down near the fuel line / throttle bodies. He bent a line a bit to fix the throttle body plug wiring spacing issue

He will be back tomorrow morning/afternoon.

I will purchase 2 extra jackstands tomorrow morning on the way back from work and extra Amsoil ATF from a local dealer, that way when we do the ATF leveling procedure, we will be good to go and not have to make an unnecessary trip to the store if needed during the middle of the procedure.

1 more day folks! Positive vibes!!

[cupcakez]

SUPER HAPPY! *Here's Why*!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed work into my vehicle. I know it has been an extremely long, difficult, crazy journey, but we are finally going to make it to the finish line.
Tomorrow, my Z is completely restored.

I drove her around the block about 15 times while bleeding the coolant and making sure the coolant operating temperatures were stable -- and it was.

0 leaks, 0 codes, 0 errors at the end of today's work.
All codes that popped up was fixed today.
No check engine light on -- and if it was, it was fixed.

HUGE HUGE HUGE SPECIAL THANKS TO....
At least 10 people whose names I will keep anonymous since this is a forum and not a personalized account who helped one way or another through the skills, knowledge, support, and specialized ability to do this type of work correctly.

HUGE THANKS TO THIS Z-COMMUNITY...
For supporting me throughout the entire time from the July 3rd accident up until now.
- TopgunZ for his a2a kit contribution and also his support, knowledge in aiding me along the process of putting the car back together.
- "Z"en & Redondo & Topz for supporting me when I was sulking down in the dumps having nothing but negativity going through my mind but yet still managing to find supportive words for me.

This job could not have been done without each and every one of your specialized hands, skills, support, and knowledge.

Throughout the various trips to the store because we forgot something, needed something, or purchased the wrong item just to return it again;
Throughout the various issues we ran into that was squashed only because you guys had the knowledge, skills, and ability to solve it.
And throughout the countless hours spent on this vehicle...

The fruit is soon to be perfectly ripe.

The patience was well worth it, and that is probably the most valuable thing I learned from all of this thus far -- because, as Topz once said... patience is one thing that is critical for people to have within this hobby.

Unfortunately, I could not make any videos of it firing up or driving for the first time today because my phone was pretty much out of battery (4%) but I will try to make some videos tomorrow of it!

Just need to finish some fine adjustments for tomorrow and she is back on the road, healthy and good to go.

[Spooler]

I am glad you got it back up and running and didn't give up. Stuff happens sometimes. It's just part of it. I will have to do the same as you if my car get's trashed. Get another, swap all the parts over, etc. I hope not but life is an adventure. That's what makes it so great.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by Spooler

I am glad you got it back up and running and didn't give up. Stuff happens sometimes. It's just part of it. I will have to do the same as you if my car get's trashed. Get another, swap all the parts over, etc. I hope not but life is an adventure. That's what makes it so great.

Absolutely right.
I hope nobody has to go through what I went through.
It isn't a fun process, a lot of crazy like what ifs go through your mind.

Worrying about things beyond our control, etc.

Just gotta hope that you don't get it trashed cause depending on how it did, depends on how many parts are still good to swap over.

I got extremely lucky and had none of the aftermarkets trashed, but a lot of the things were like 2mm. away from death lol

[cupcakez]

First video of Z-Resurrection!

She's not tuned in the top half of the RPM's yet so it isn't the best it could be.
But this is to show that the car is working fine, and no leaks other than the supercharger spouting excess oil again like it did before the accident on July 3rd, 2018.

Good thing I know a fix to that already -- not hard just annoying.

I'm also not the best camera man... I need a go pro + dash cam to the car sometime in the future lol.

Also, I apologize for the extremely filthy windshield -- car hasn't been washed for 4 months++, feels like she has dragon scales on it lol.

Hope you guys enjoy the video.

I scream like a little girl cause I haven't felt that speed in a long, long time -- almost forgot what it felt like.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/U4SHzqON3QA

[cupcakez]

Car runs amazing since last night.

Not sure if last night's pulls had anything to do with today though.

Anyone can solve this mystery? If it is one at all...or am I tripping?

The vehicle wobbles right after a complete stop. it wobbles more than it should I feel.
It was not doing this yesterday during my hard pulls on the street, but today I attempted to go to the store and as I braked and came to a complete stop in my neighborhood attempting to get to the main streets, it wobbled as shown in the video.

The best way I could describe the feeling is:
- You drive up to a stop sign
- You make a complete stop to 0. No movement of vehicle.
- Right after the above step, the car has an after effect -- the vehicle wobbles forward and backward like a jello motion if you poked a piece of jello.

Here is the video of what I'm talking about for my car.

I've had so many varying responses to what the issue could be, I figured to ask the big community to see what the audience says.

I've heard it could be the coilovers, but someone else said no way.
Another person said engine mount, but another says it can't be because they had a bad engine mount and it never did this effect.
Another says the driveshaft may not be torqued down to spec, as it was only tightened using a hand held tool.

Another says it could be bad rotors. (Steering wheel DOES shake when braking) so I am getting those changed out soon.

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance. I appreciate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWuz...ature=youtu.be

[URBiN~HURMiT]

Originally Posted by cupcakez

Absolutely right.
I hope nobody has to go through what I went through.
It isn't a fun process, a lot of crazy like what ifs go through your mind.

Hows this ...

Sent my Z in to the shop to rebuild the SC'r and upgrade the fuel and tune late in 2012 ...
It was in the shop for 5 months. Got it back and the motor blew in less than a day...
Back to the shop - decided to build the motor and looked in to making more power... it's been in one shop or another since then.

After a full year the SC'r shop backed out of the build and I sent the car in pieces to AAM in Maryland for twin turbo's.
AAM had the car for just about 2 years and then THEY blew the motor - and tried to get away with it.

To add insult to injury they sent me a bill for $5,ooo+ to do a leak down test and check the piston rings.

No No No ... you've got to be kidding me (but it is typical of AAM's unethical business model and their shady billing practices)

I took the car out of AAM (formerly Altered Atmosphere Motorsports- go ahead and google it)

Shipped the car to MA-Motorsports (also in Maryland)
MA-Motorsport's reputation is superb - but it's now been there for just short of 2 years as well.
They had to totally undo (and then start from scratch) everything that AAM messed up - and it was substantial - including replacing the AAM $2,ooo twin fuel pumps which are too complicated to work - and converting their 7163 twin turbos to external waste gates because of boost spikes and boost creep.
All this took time to diagnose and come up with a plan.

(Good news tho' - it's very near done - final Dyno is complete and only buttoning up the car before I go down to pick it up - just in time to mothball it for the winter)

Count it - That's almost 5 years (over 5 1/2 years if you count the 6 or 7 months of research and planning before originally committing to upgrading the Stillen SC'r...then add in the cost of not one, but 2 motor rebuilds + labor.

I'ts been a very very expensive project and an excruciating wait to say the least ....

[cupcakez]

Hey guys!

Here's a quick update on what's happening!

Car runs fine, just a few minor issues to take care of.

(1) Car stalls for about a second at an idling stand still after I brake for a red light, or stop sign, etc. When I press the accelerator, sometimes (not all the time) the car will stall for one second as I press the accelerator and then suddenly jerk forward as if it just woke up -- like "OH (#&*$( time to go! and the car runs forward" causing a jerking like motion.
It definitely shouldn't be low on fluid because I brought it to Nissan Dealership to make sure the fluid was correct at operating temp. They found out it had 3 extra quarts of transmission oil, and drained excess.

Prior to that, I drove the car around the block for a total of a few miles then drove it to Nissan Dealership which is 2.3 miles away, so maybe about 5 - 6 miles total driven very casually and extremely slowly (yes even on the public street on the way there) 20 - 30 mph average or less with the extra 3 quarts of oil.


(2) P2A03 code thrown intermittently (aka) O2 Sensor Circuit Range/Performance Bank 2 Sensor 1.
- In my logs, I checked both short term fuel trims and normally, both bank 1 and 2 should be the same wave lengths. However, Bank 2 is more wavy than bank 1, which means there is a slight leak somewhere around the Passenger-Side upstream o2 sensor or even could be from the downstream o2 sensor that could have thrown the code. Not sure. I am going to have to check that out too. Maybe it wasn't tightened down all the way or something when the passenger side cat was installed.

(3) Extreme pulsation / vibration when on highway / cruising at ~60MPH. The vibration is so bad that it shakes the rear view mirror so intensely that I can't even see what is behind me clearly because it makes it all blurry. Almost as if I had an insane sound system that vibrates every mirror on my car with an extremely low bass sound -- except I have no such thing in my car and I was also not playing any music / radio / etc.

I read that this issue is due to me not having a wheel alignment and/or tire balance correctly done on my vehicle since the transfer of parts.
So I will try to get a wheel alignment and tire balance completed as well today if possible and if there's time.

(4) Slight engine oil leak occurring because when I came back home after the Nissan Shuttle drove me home, I saw in my garage fresh engine oil leaks. I checked to see what oil it was because the transmission fluid is vastly different color than the amsoil engine oil (Ruby Red [vs] Thick apple juice colors). I will see if Nissan can find the source of the engine oil leak as well while they're at it.

Other than that, the car internally runs beautifully according to all the logs.
Once those issues above are fixed, my car will be ready to go!

And now that I learned patience throughout the last 2 months, I am definitely not in a rush and am willing to wait as long as possible to make sure the vehicle is 100% healthy before I can continue tuning it! Yay!


PS: Someone said my car is making too much torque which is why the transmission is stalling, and because of that, my stock 7AT is not able to handle the mods I have in the car and therefore I will need a new Tranny -- I hope this is not the case though. He said based on his own experience, he had the same stalling issue I did or similar at least, and it ended up being his tranny not able to handle the amount of TQ his Z was pushing out. which was... 450 WHP / 390 TQ

So idk.

We'll see folks.

Stay tuned!!!


EDIT:

I did a bit of research.
The culprit for issue #1 /could/ possibly be dirty throttle bodies.
Here is 4 things that I experienced which match to my vehicle.
*See Screenshot*

[ZontheRocks]

Everything listed *could* be linked to lack of proper attention during installation.

Too much transmission fluid? Possible incorrect install of catalytic converters? Drivetrain vibration at everyday speeds? An oil leak that is moving fast enough to spot in one day?

If you had taken the car to get the install complete and it came back to you like this, I would assume that you'd be livid. Yet you state that it drives fine?

Take your time to iron out the kinks in the system before you continue to smash the gas.

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by ZontheRocks

Everything listed *could* be linked to lack of proper attention during installation.

Too much transmission fluid? Possible incorrect install of catalytic converters? Drivetrain vibration at everyday speeds? An oil leak that is moving fast enough to spot in one day?

If you had taken the car to get the install complete and it came back to you like this, I would assume that you'd be livid. Yet you state that it drives fine?

Take your time to iron out the kinks in the system before you continue to smash the gas.

Right...
Did you even read what the post said?
Fluid is not the issue...lol

Drivetrain vibrations only found out if i went 60mph otherwise it would have never been known..

Not an incorrect install of cats. They only go one place or nowhere at all...lol

As for your infornation i am ironing out these kinks but alot of them could not have been known without driving the car in the first place

Thank you
And yes. The car drives fine given all the things that was put into the car at once and to only have these current small minor issues is a huge accomplishment in my opinion.

Esp knowing a million other things could have went wrong and way worse.

So yes. I am taking my time....>.>


[Update]

Nissan Dealership gave me an update:

They said they are still charging me for 1 hour of labor, but it looks like it won't be done until tomorrow.
So either they never brought it into the shop yet and it's still in the service parking waiting area or, they did bring it in and they are doing who knows what to it, but still charging me 1 hour.

I /do/ know the guy who took care of me is hooking me up for 1 hour of labor when they told him they wanted to charge for 2 hours, which is nice of him.

He assured me he would take care of me and when I was talking to him in person, I could tell he really meant it too.

And he said they wouldn't do any labor and charge me for it without calling and asking my approval which, is perfect cause I was scared they were keeping it so long today and doing more labor only to charge me like 50 more hours out of nowhere lol. Just wanted to make sure they didn't do anything shady because we all know how them dealerships can be nowadays...!

So yeah, that's the update so far

[JARblue]

Does the shop that did the install not have anyone capable of driving the damn car?!?! A complete install IMO would include miles of test driving to 'iron out the kinks'...

And from what I can tell, you complemented the dealer for doing nothing and charging you for 1 hour of labor instead of 2 hours

[cupcakez]

Originally Posted by JARblue

Does the shop that did the install not have anyone capable of driving the damn car?!?! A complete install IMO would include miles of test driving to 'iron out the kinks'...

And from what I can tell, you complemented the dealer for doing nothing and charging you for 1 hour of labor instead of 2 hours

It was not a shop that did the install, it was a different people helping out.

I complimented them because they wanted me to initially sign for 2 hours of labor but he cut it down to 1 for me for the diagnostic they are doing today / tomorrow to help find out the source of the minor stalling.

I did however think of just asking them to double check the car and make sure it drives okay according to their standards, which yes, then would include miles of test driving and fixing any kinks they find along the way.

Its not a bad idea.

[JARblue]

Diagnostics are typically in the neighborhood of $100 which is pretty much an hour of labor. Depending on your region. So you're complementing them on not screwing you out of double that. See where I'm going with this? And you think the dealer is going to help you with your homemade boosted install? They'll be happy to charge you hourly, I'm sure

Well, if you didn't have a knowledgeable shop do the install after the first debacle, then I don't know what to say. Good luck, I guess.