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