Read some of the build threads. Mine will show you on how to do things and what to expect. I have a couple of DYI threads linked on the first page.

http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

Noted

At some point I will do a thread on my build. I am just not a journal kind of person. I finally completed my build list that is just over two pages and it shocked the chit out of me. The thing is most want instant gratification and they don't have the means to do as many of us have done and I am 8.5 five years in too modding my Z and as far as I can tell it will never stop unless I sell it or wad it up at the track! So for those that want to know how much it costs to build a Z Time Attack or race car they can price out all the parts and then triple it and they be pretty close to the actual cost of labor, parts and do overs. Oh and let's not talk about consumables, tools, trailers and lifts for those that think they want to go all in.

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Yeah I've read all of Elmos, all of Spoolers, and all of cupcakes. I've been meaning to get to yours and hotrods if he has one here as well.

The bucket thing holds true for anything you do in life. Starting a new job, starting a new hobby, this project that you are planning on.

LMAO, I was 52 when I got my Z and a total nob! Age has nothing to do with it. How welling you are to listen and heed the advice of those in the know hear will save you tons of headaches. We have all been shown the way of others before us and then continued to learn and progress as many of the OGs are gone but a few are still here including those of us that learned from them.

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"maintenance nightmare" is a bit strong; it's more like a "maintenance uncomfortable dream", think being in class in your underwear.

You and Spooler's rabbit holes turned into black holes. :rofl2:

I want to learn to work on the car over time. I'm going to take some mechanics classes as well. And do some online courses. I have plenty of time to complete this project. I want to do everything "right" even if that means taking 5x as long as spending 3x the money. That's why I said in my first post don't expect any fast moving progress. I'm only really considering the FI turbo kit. And I won't be going that direction without a built engine. That's why I want to try a SOHO supercharger kit first, probably around 7-9 PSI of boost only. I may stop there, i dunno yet, might be too much or enough power for me. I doubt I will stay there forever tho, I need to have a project going constantly.

I've been building cars and bike since I was teen. Thought I out grew it in my 30's. Here I am looking at 65 in March and back into it. :icon14:

It is a free fall full of love and hate! LMAO

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Same here. Once it is in your blood it just is part of who you are. My wife's car is the only stock car we have. LOL

Talk to Solidus. That is where I am getting my opinion from. I haven't had to touch my car once except for oil changes and Air filter cleaning and that is normal maintenance. The headgasket letting go has nothing to do with the FI TT kit. I just didn't build enough motor. If I have to touch the TT kit once, I will be bitching. That is why I bought what I did.

I’ve never heard of anyone having an issue with the bp kit that wasn’t 100% user error.


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JL had a few issues doing the install that wasn't his fault. It was BP's. I was there and can verify.

If i wasn't a glutton for punishment. And didn't enjoy doing all this research and building things. I would have just got a c8 corvette instead. But yeah, no thanks to that this process is what's most fun imo.

Your timeline is totally unrealistic for your experience. Listen to these guys. Spend the first 4-5 years learning to drive the car, buying tools and increasing your mechanic skills, and building up the reliability of the car with various appropriate mods. That should keep you plenty busy before you consider boost.

I was where you are when I purchased my Z. I've spent the last 10 years buying parts and (sometimes) installing them on my Z and I'm still a ways off from getting even close to my end goals. Now it was a DD for 6 years, so that slowed things down; also I am a stellar procrastinator. But in that time I learned to drive the car and even had a few track and autoX opportunities. I had a garage and I purchased a ton of tools with still a lot more still on the wish list. I do all my own maintenance and have learned how to navigate the factory service manual (FSM). The last few years I have gotten more serious about purchasing track parts. I still have some more fuel system and suspension and rear drivetrain parts to install before I start doing some local on-track driving instruction courses. I'm well north of $10K in parts at this point with almost no increase in hp. But if I wanted to go boost at any point in the future, the only parts on the car that are incompatible are the intakes and exhaust, and pretty much every single supporting mod is already installed.

I know you don't want to just buy a fast car. But you might find it easier to just buy one of those and learn to work on it and do all the maintenance yourself and whatnot without all of the hassles that boosting the Z poses. Also, those stock cars are designed to handle the power. The Z in stock form is already too easy for young or inexperienced drivers to get into trouble. When you add boost to it, even experienced drivers find it to be an incredibly difficult vehicle to put down that much power. At higher hp numbers 1st and 2nd gears become essentially useless and just spin the tires without more advanced forms of traction control (some guys are putting in motec ecus and whatnot to address these problems). Not trying to dissuade you. Just something else to consider.

It seem like you have the potential to heed advice and be patient enough to be successful in your endeavour unlike some of the other clowns mentioned. It'll be interesting to see how it goes for you. Good luck :tiphat:

Thanks! I will do my best to accelerate my learning. First thing I did after I bought the car is take advanced driver training at a track. I will be doing hundreds more hours of that kind of thing. I have no interest in buying any other car but I plan to do driver training in other cars, there are a few services I'm looking into.

You've gotten some solid advice from people here, so I'll be brief. I think part of the issue with your lists is that although they're logical from a "my build should have this" perspective, there is a pretty large difference in difficulty between say the install of a Wavetrac diff and RJM Pedal, both of which are in the same 'stage'.

Some of the items you've got are easy tasks, both in terms of the tools they require and the time commitment, and some... well you won't want to do it in an apartment parking lot. Car knowledge is cumulative. Get a couple different kinds of sockets, do your intakes, your RJM pedal, change your oil, put in your bushing collars. Each one of those small things gets you closer to making a major change. My 2 cents.

I live 30 seconds from my mechanic shop. There’s an automotive strip on the street I live with with about 8 mechanics or all types. A body shop and some other stuff. I don’t know how to properly set backlash in a diff and I have no illusions that I could install it in my street parking spot. But I trust the mechanic shop next door to do it.

And that’s 30 seconds walking. I could push my car there if it comes to that.

I'm also blessed to live in the same area as https://whiteheadperformance.com/ who specialize in Z cars (remains to be seen how good they are tho)

And https://www.onpointdyno.com/ Who you may recognize from all the articles about "the worlds most powerful all motor VQ" in their Kels race car

We ALL know about Sasha and what he has done. :tup:

I'm thinking about adding a dash cam, with backup camera. heated seats. and a few usb power and 12v power.

I think i'm going to finally install one of these in something Neutrino PDM

Been wanting one for so long but haven't got around to buying my ADV bike yet so I'll put one in the car.

Maybe make my middle brake light flash on fast deceleration. Automatic heated seats is nice too. Lots of other things I could use it for.

I may also grab a 4x40amp relay block and lay the wiring for my eventual radium surge tank and fuel pump upgrades.

And hopefully I can find whatever is rattling around in my a-pillar/dash. While I'm at it.

Other things I need to wire are some way to force the rad fans on. Another way to manually control the passenger airbag for when I swap seats.

And since the neutrino provides battery alerts I can get rid of that battery gauge without worry.
Maybe fuel temp and pressure would be nice to have instead.
Need to upgrade the oil temp one to be oil temp and pressure I think when I do the oil cooler upgrade. Does the ecu automatically cut fuel if the oil pressure drops?
I saw a switch that does that, might be good to add if the car doesn't automatically do it.

No

As I think about blinging out the engine bay

I want something as nice as this

https://cdn.z1motorsports.com/images...leBodyGTR.webp

That will work on the vq37

are there any options? Is there some way to make GTR TB work?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3f2sf4hsi...8.48.jpg?raw=1

Kind of a **** picture but I got some password jdm carbon junk pretty cheap locally. Think it looks pretty good. That plastic reservoir is really starting to bug me tho.

Don't bother unless you really want the headache. All the aftermarket TB kits are more likely to be a PITA than work right it seems :(

You want some real bling? Get a Top Secret titanium strut bar :yum:

Yeah I was literally talking about that bar to the guy I bought those covers off of. Probably has to happen.

Good luck. The last one I came across I offered $2500 for it knowing that offer was an insult. I think I could have gotten him to come down to around $4000 :eek:

yep that's pretty crazy. I wonder if I could have something almost as cool fabricated locally. Sure it wouldn't have the same cool factor. But would still be bling

Just signed up for the full tuning package from High Performance Academy. I really like their teaching style and their content is fantastic. Also for whatever reason I find this tuning stuff really interesting.

I'm thinking about getting a Racepak CL2

Seems to be well reviewed and it pretty cheap compared to other loggers. Anyone have one of these?

You can. Just depends on if you know a good welder (or a good company to leave your project in the hands of) and how much you're comfortable spending.

i might just end up getting the stock one painted

AIM Solo DL or get an APEX since you are just getting started. There is a reason race pac is so cheap. I'm not saying it doesn't work there is just better on the market and you got to pay to play.

Here is my spend philosophy, if a tool or training is going to make me faster which means more fun at the track and it cost less than a set of tires which will only last 16 heat cycles or even 20 then it worth it. Don't cheap out.

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Oh I guess that the Aim Solo DL I can use standalone on track on motorcycle too. That does make it more appealing.

It does seem like the software is pc only, and I don't have a windows machine.

Would be nice to have one that has an iOS app

EDIT: oh dang the apex pro looks like exactly what I should get as a beginner. Thanks!

for whatever reason I want a GR yaris

Meet HKS's 475hp Toyota GR Yaris - Speedhunters



Always wanted a golf R actually. But I would take this thing over a golf R any day. Only 3 cylinders to build!

:wtf:

Cost just as much money as a 4 banger. Cute car tho.

Got some useful stuff from amazon. Going to do my first oil change on the car. Usually I can't be assed to do these things myself but I wanted to add an oil spout "just because"

not terribly interesting to most of you probably but it is what it is.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1p1lg7cmvu...8.15.jpg?raw=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sshwied0xh...8.53.jpg?raw=1

And for when I put the spacers on, if z1 will ship them already!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsnaaoixdp...8.44.jpg?raw=1

Did you get the bolt on spacers? If so, just make sure you get some thin walled sockets, thick wall won't fit for the install.

I had planned to do extended arp studs and slip on. Until I realized I couldn’t find shank style open ended lug nuts. So I switched to the z1 bolt on style in 20mm front and 25mm rear.

This is the socket I ordered do you think it will work?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbg9jx4r12...1.42.jpg?raw=1