GrooveStyle's Build

GrooveStyle

And thanks Carlitos and Maestro. I have done exhaust, springs, swaybars, triple gauge swap, and the clutch/flywheel before tackling this project. The tech manual is an amazing thing that will help to negate fears of working on your car. I also had help with Jayhovah giving a heads up on possible problem areas. Other than that, I've had some basic mechanical knowledge as I work on transmissions for my job. I never worked on a car before working on my Z.

All in all, though, I think anyone can work on cars. You just need to be willing to put in the time, effort, research, and money to do it right. If you can do that, sprinkle in some beer drinking and cussing at the correct times, you can tackle anything. Just take your time and be organized.

GrooveStyle

UPPDAAYYTTEE!!!

Let's get to it!

Finish clamping IC piping & remove material for 90 deg coupler fitment by IC uppers

I took my dremel to my radiator support to allow for clearance for the couplers


I have some contact with my radiator hose and the IC piping, I'll be sure to keep an eye on that. I also better tightened down that coupler after this pic


I also found close contact with the passenger side air filter, so I removed some plastic that protruded towards it




After getting the IC piping fitting well, I removed the from IC's to allow for work on the power steering cooler and oil cooler, and then went to install the downpipes.

O2 sensor connection on the driver side was very tight to water line plumbing, but got it to work with the help of a buddy.


Then I went on to tighten down the locknuts on the downpipes. Got creative again, using a ratchet with a crow's foot on it


and yet more creative for places that didn't allow for a ratchet due to the passenger side fuel line heat shield


I then began fabrication of oil cooler brackets to hold up my 48 row tru cool oil cooler and beefy oil lines I had made


I made a sort of strap to go across the top, and a u-shaped bracket on the bottom. Definitely not the prettiest, but it functions fine and looks good once installed. I have measurements that I can pass along to anyone interested in making some for their cooler. Feels really solid.


locking nut hardware I used


trial fitting


it was too cold to properly paint the brackets. First time I tried to shoot the paint was all sputtery (learning moment). I'm not gonna wait till spring to tear it all apart again and paint during nice weather, so I set them in front of my space heater and the parts under my halogen lamps. After they warmed up, it sprayed just fine



While the paint was drying, I started work on the oil pan.



I washed it out the day before and got the metal dust/flakes from the casting removed, reinstalled the baffle and loctited it in.

Surprisingly enough, getting that oil pan off of the car took an incredible amount of force. Nissan must use some hulk-level strength RTV, it was really weird. After a fair amount of prying and working it with a pry bar, I got it off.


pan:


I thought I was over the hill after getting it off, but that OEM oil cooler caused some issues with fitment to the oil pan. It was close, but the oil pan would contact it a little bit.



I tried bending the tubing a little, but ultimately I ended up shoving the pan on and progressively tightening the bolts until the oil pan mated properly. This bent the oil cooler more, but at least this caused it to bend in all the correct places to allow the hammer head pan to be installed.



After the pan was trial-fit, I put RTV on and bolted it up. The drain hoses followed.




The oil cooler brackets were then dry. Don't they look purty?


Oil cooler installed


You can see my mounting points really easily here. I used the two bolts on the far right and drilled a hole in the support in the center for the top strap. The u-bracket sits in the holes of the lower support

I've heard heard many people have had success with home-made hoses, but I've heard one too many horror stories about failure of oil lines for me to feel comfortable making my own. I went to the local Napa and had them make me some lines out of their high pressure hydraulic line. I KNOW this is overkill. The store owner said that the lines should outlive the car. I told him that was the idea!



Then I pre-filled my oil cooler and hooked up the hoses. Good to go!


Pic of the hoses hooked up to my Mocal sandwich plate


With that done and out of the way, I moved on to the power steering hoses. Got them on to the cooler


A quick shot of the passenger IC and Oil cooler.


That's the only time I can show it off. Once the driver's side IC is on, it's really sandwiched in there


Oh yeah, I had to bend the horn bracket a little bit to fit it back on


Then I moved onto the fuel pump!


Removed


I thought the fuel level sensor was cool. Never saw one up close before. The float is attached to a wire that rides along this area:


Here's the new fuel pump ready to go in. It came with a sleeve to hold it in the pump.


I had to remove some plastic in the pump, but didn't want plastic particles from a dremel. Turns out a sharp knife will cut out the plastic quite well


I did some wiring, and the pump was complete


ready to go back in


I connected my steering shaft coupler, and noticed that my oil drain line was very close to the shaft, as was my coolant line. I cut the oil drain line a little more to make sure that there was always clearance to the steering coupler


Then test pipes went on




And I was pretty much done in the engine bay besides sensor wiring.

I had already run my gauges for my triple gauge cluster (defi red racer boost, oil pressure, oil temp), but I still needed to set up my AFR and EBC. I decided to tap into the power for the passenger 12V lighter and use an already established ground by the cabin air filter.






I'm going to save you the details of all the soldering and wiring.... but it was kinda involved. Long story short READ BOTH THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GAUGE AND FOR THE SENSOR. I thought they were one in the same, but the wires for the gauge harness do not match up with the colors to the main harness..... I also was not shipped instructions for the gauge. It wasn't until trouble-shooting my weird afr values that I discovered this. Just read both manuals 5x and you'll be good.

Here is my chaos:


I drilled a hole in my cubby to feed the wire to my Greddy EBC and fed the boost controller through.




Since I had a boost gauge already and now have a boost controller, I needed to hook up my vacuum reference to both gauges. I mounted them in the wall of my battery compartment together.




I also had my buddy Jon over and he made a bracket for the boost solenoid and we mounted that outside of the batt compartment (i need to add a pic here)

It actually all worked really well. I also cut a hole in that wall to feed a vac line and another on the top of the wall to feed my AFR O2 sensor wire. I think it turned out quite nice.

I also got my CJM Fuel pressure gauge in the mail! Very easy to install, looks great, great price, fast shipping. Check it out, it'll be great to help when tuning.



Before:


After:




After that was all working, I filled my fluids, flashed my tune and was ready to fire her up!


Videos are coming, having issues uploading them currently. Anyone have any questions? Things they want to see? I still have some buttoning up to do, this is a great time for me to show what I've done if you're looking for any additional info/pics.

I will finish my cubby up, finalize my A-pillar mount, and do some further tidying up. Should be on the road doing some data logging once this snow clears off.

Jayhovah

Great stuff luke!!!!!!

Have you refitted the crash bar yet?

I literally haven't turned a screw on my car yet since I drover her home from Texas... first on the list is still to get that crash bar fitted properly. I am dubious that it will fit, but Gamma has sent me the proper hardware.

__________________
2013 Gun Metallic Sport - Gamma V3 Twin Turbogized
DIY Gamma V3 TT Install * Jayhovah's Gamma V3 TT Install Pic'Z and Vid'Z * DIY: Washer Reservoir for the Boosted

GrooveStyle

Thanks! yeah, I used the aluminum spacers in between the bolts and the bar (which Gamma shipped in a later shipment). It allows for the crash bar to be re-assembled, not a lot of engagement on the nuts, but enough.

jwick

That's quiet an update post

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'10 G37T 6MT Graphite/Graphite - BP - G37T Build

Nyght

Subbed for updates ! I will be installing my kit soon !


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SwissCheese

"Videos are coming" he says a month ago . . .

__________________
Current Ride: 2012 Nissan 370Z NISMO #0389
Mods: Fast Intentions Resonated Test Pipes and TDX Exhaust with 18" Resonators (#1054), K&N Drop-Ins, GTR Start Button

GrooveStyle

Yeah, yeah I know.... lol.... I've got to reflash an updated ROM I've received from Gamma today, and I'm going to try to get it on the road this week if I can. It was throwing the P006a code which was causing some issues. This new update should fix it. Haven't gotten it into boost yet, but hopefully this week....

GrooveStyle

And yeah, Nyght, let me know if you have questions, I'd be happy to share/help in any way I can.

killrain

Awesome thread/build. But after seeing all this, think ill stick with the Stillen supercharger.

Nyght

Thanks man! I will be asking you and Jayhovah questions whenever I install my kit !!

Nyght

Hey groove, which fuel pump relay kit did you get from summit? I want to get the same exact one you got. Thanks!


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GrooveStyle

Well, after talking with Jason (tech/build guy) at Gamma, he said you don't really need one until you are running a much larger fuel pump system, so I didn't install it yet. If you are staying with a stock block, might be ok without. He said it can't hurt, but really isn't needed for the numbers we will push on 10psi or so.

Jayhovah

I also didn't bother with the relay mod.. Also on Jason's advice.

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__________________
2013 Gun Metallic Sport - Gamma V3 Twin Turbogized
DIY Gamma V3 TT Install * Jayhovah's Gamma V3 TT Install Pic'Z and Vid'Z * DIY: Washer Reservoir for the Boosted

Nyght

Ahh ok. I probably will do it anyways just to be on the safe side. I mean if it doesn't hurt , I might as well do it.


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