Uprev, am I ready yet?
 

09 370, 7AT sport package. I put Stillen gen2 COI and a 25 row Stillen oil cooler in the last few weeks. I live in Austin, TX and the weather is starting to cool down. After the oil cooler the car feels much more sporty. I don't drive fast but I like to get to speed fast. My next planned mod is uprev tune. I think the package is $500 and just checking with the community if that is the best place to put the $500. Thinking maybe a new plenum and then Uprev or just uprev and then down the line plenum and a free etune. Any thoghts? I like torque.

Put on all the bolt ons you plan on putting on before you get the tune. That way you get the most out of everything.

Uprev, am I ready yet?
 

Call me lazy but bolting on is not my deal so off to the shop it goes. That adds up quick. I know there is pain in the process but I'm trying to figure out if I will get torque qith Uprev and all the other little nice options, valet, track mode...

Call me, looking for the path of least resistance.

you will get VERY little from the tune except for the extra maps and some added driveability. I would get all the mods you want before even thinking about a tune.

that said if all you're currently looking at is a motordyne plenum, definitely get that before the tune. without a proper tune you lose power and torque, iirc.

if you like torque I would suggest HFCs or test pipes. a catback will also add some torque, although not until a bit higher in the rev range, i.e. past 3000.

you can also extract more torque by getting lighter wheels and getting stiffer mounts (poly-u trans mount). the z is known to have very soft mounts for comfort purposes. I'd also include a diff mount but our diff mounts make no sense, as they are nonserviceable, and only a handful of owners have gone the trouble of trying to change the mount. suspension mods will increase the amount of torque getting to the ground as less of it is spent on flexing the suspension geometry. things like springs, sways, tower/ladder bars, struts, shocks, etc.

such things are very intense and can radically change the feel of the car. you also mention you're not a bolton person so I don't know how you're going to get your torque if you don't have bolt-ons.

ultimate torque solution? turbocharging or supercharging. you'll have more torque than you'll know what to do with.

I agree with 370Z purist regarding the intake manifold. Definitely get the manifold tuned after install. You will still make gains, but not as much as a proper tune will unlock. Speaking of torque, you bought the wrong car if that's what you were looking for. It's hard to get unless you turbo. I would recommend pulley's from NST and a clutch/flywheel setup if your trying to get some more torque down low. More so the flywheel than the clutch, but doesn't make much sense to upgrade one without the other.

That said I would beware running a pulley. The VQ shows very little gain from such a thing and also, it likes to be dampened. I would not do a pulley merely from the risk of resonance blowing your motor.

Now, if you found a Super Damper, then maybe you should replace the pulley.

The best way to get more torque is to remove as much of the comfort dampening as possible. Namely, our 28-32 pound, dual mass flywheel. I believe a vendor here (Zspeed?) makes a lightened steel flywheel that doesn't chatter too much and still weighs 20-21 pounds. Rotating mass is huge (literally). The VLSD tends to absorb a lot of the torque as well, although it is more driveable than a locky clutch type or an expensive as all hell gear type.

Poly-u engine mounts might also help quite a bit, but again, more NVH.

If you're indifferent, like me, you'd run all your mounts as polyurethane. No need for solid mounts, because that's just insane.

While I agree that upgrading the crank pulley is a controversial upgrade for this platform, I have no ill effects with mine after about 7k miles. The stock pulley on our vehicle is not a dampener and does not have a dampening system built into it, just a piece of rubber that tends to rot out quickly. I will say that because it is not as heavy or thick as the stock pulley, it is structurally weaker. This is my own opinion; I don't think that rotting piece of rubber is the line between a perfectly running vehicle and potential catastrophic failure. The crankshaft in the VQ37VHR is internally balanced to remove resonating frequencies. Many vehicles from a decade ago or more, relied on some form of external dampening system.

Don't mean to thread jack, but would the oil cooler be something that you should be getting before a tune? I have a CBE and TPs already, getting my CAI soon and an oil cooler sometime in the distant future... Was planning to get a tune right after my CAI, would that be a bad idea?

No, you can add the oil cooler at any time. Oil temp isn't going to change your tune, but the ECU will make adjustments when the oil gets hot.

The only thing I would recommend is fabbing a block off plate and also getting a thermostatic sandwich plate. This will make sure that you don't end up "overcooling" your oil and making it difficult to get up to temperature. These motors might be designed to run immediately after being started, but oil needs to reach a proper temperature to function and lubricate properly.