JLarson's build thread
 

This thread is a little late, as I'm currently just about 1 year deep into ownership of my 370, but since I greatly enjoy reading all of your build threads, maybe you'll enjoy mine too! I'll try to tell the story in such fashion that you'll enjoy it ;)

If you want nothing but info on my 370, start with post 2, but in post 1 I'm going to talk about who I am, and how I came to love Z cars.

My name is Josh, and I'm the Director of Quality Assurance for a manufacturing company up in northeast Philadelphia. I've been a Z owner for about the past 12 years, and a true enthusiast for maybe the last 5 or 6.

My accidental love affair started with a 1985 300zx, non turbo. The interior was classic 80s - complete with the digital dashboard, and the voice of "bitching Betty" reminding you periodically that "Door is open" and "Lights are on". The tape deck didn't work, the air conditioner didn't work, and the exterior appeared to have been repainted by a palsied seizure victim using a textured gray suitable for covering concrete floors; but by God, that car ran.

And ran.
And ran.

By the time I bought it at age 22 or 23, it was already a 20 year old vehicle, but it gave me 5 virtually trouble free years of operation, reliable through some of the hardest times in my life.

Prior to the housing market crash in 07/08, I worked in a family business doing construction. Initially, thanks to strong customer loyalty and a large backlog of jobs (we had a 2 year waiting list - we were the kind of family business you actually wanted doing work for you) we were insulated from the worst of the crash, but that eventually ran out. By early 2011, my savings were gone (the sort of savings you build up buying 20 year old vehicles, and eating knock-off brand knorr packaged noodles instead of going out with your friends on Friday nights) and our business was basically dead. I'd get maybe a week of work in a given month. I couldn't hold out any more, so I went to highway construction for a blessedly brief period of time, sometimes driving over 100 miles per day (not compensated for it by my company). The Z held on.

A friend of my dad's gave me a referral which helped get me in as a QA clerk in a local aerospace machine shop. Within a year, by the grace of God, I was elevated to QA Manager. I was still driving my aged 300zx. Still faithfully carrying me to and from work, day after day, but I knew it was approaching the time where I'd have to put ol' Betsy out to pasture. The digital dashboard now functioned only intermittently. One headlight occasionally didn't come up. My wheel bearings were shot. Suspension hadn't ever really been good, but was getting much worse. I fantasized about a working air conditioner!

So my search for a new vehicle began. My pay had risen with my new position (not by much, but a fortune compared to what I had been making) and I set my eyes on a Z32. My Z31 had been so reliable, I naturally (and foolishly) assumed I'd have the same kind of experience with a Z32. I wanted a TT, but I had an NA budget, and eventually found a 1990 300zx that appeared to be in decent enough shape in NJ. Turns out, that was a lie. The aftermarket exhaust hid the whine of a failing differential. A test revealed tragically low compression in all cylinders. The radiator began leaking like a sieve. I was quoted $9k to get it in working order - money I did not have. I had no skill to do the work myself.

I started walking to work, hitched rides when I needed to. Pondered my next move. My dad did the initial research on the 350z, told me to check out one of those. I didn't have the money, was averse to a loan, but it seemed like the only path forward. I found a 2006 350z Touring at a local Subaru dealership, and went for at test drive. The car hugged curves like a good pair of underpants. It had a working stereo, and air conditioning. Heated seats. It was so far beyond what I had ever driven that I couldn't believe my good fortune. I bit the bullet, financed the car.

Meanwhile, I still owned the 300zx, and my mind still slowly processed what to do with it. I determined I would learn about cars, not just what I liked, but how to maintain my own. I had no tools, but I had the internet, so I read everything I could find on the Z32.

I had never even changed my own oil - I could build a house, but not replace my brake pads. I had become a rocket scientist (not exactly, but it sounds good) and I had never checked an intake filter.

I started buying tools, acquiring what I would need. I worked on the 350 first, because it already ran. Installed a 5/16ths plenum spacer. I felt triumphant. Installed ART pipes. I was a hero. A Motordyne TDX V2 exhaust. This was awesome. I could actually do this stuff myself!

I started planning and acquiring parts for the 300zx to perform a TT swap. Picked up a used TT engine that would need a rebuild, intercooler piping, leather seats in decent shape. Engine hoist, engine stand, ramps, more tools, more sockets.

I left the machine shop and started a new job at my current company. My salary more than doubled.

And then I met this woman! On our first date, she couldn't stop smiling when I hit the accelerator in the Z, and she loved the sound of my exhaust. On weekends, we'd work on my Z32. We went hiking in the white mountains, visited Switzerland. I proposed on top of a mountain. We bought a house, and sold her house. We were married 1 year and 1 day after our first date.

She urged me to take a look at a Z34 when I mentioned in passing that I'd seen some I liked, and when I picked out Magma Red, it was an emphatic YES from her. She was now driving my Z33 periodically. The attached photo is where we stopped by my parents' house on the way home, with my 2014 Touring Sport 370z. Very briefly, it was unmolested.

First mod: Window tint. This was my first car with tinted windows, so I stayed legal - 35 all around.

Next, Z1 intakes, purchased from a guy parting out his Z.

Z1 ported upper manifold followed close behind. While my intakes had been no big deal, the manifold proved a little bit more tricky for me, for 3 reasons.

First, I'm an idiot.
Second, the DIY on the forums didn't mention that the upper plenum has a gasket (as do the throttle bodies).
Third, the gasket doesn't actually fall out of the plenum when you lift it. That would've been a strong clue for me that I needed to transfer the gasket from the old plenum to the new plenum.

Started the car, and it died immediately. WTF. Sweating profusely, with the temperature in my garage slightly higher than the surface of the sun, I dissected my setup, reassembled it, started it - died again. By now it was close to 10 pm, the sun was gone but the heat remained, and I turned to the internet, eventually stumbling over a thread which provided the necessary enlightenment. Cursing my foolishness, I vowed to return!

TL;DR - I transferred the gaskets, and the car started. May your own installation be easier than mine. On the flip side, after 3 uninstall/reinstalls, I got pretty good at it.

Fast Intentions catback followed. I found a good deal locally - $700 for a setup, in perfect condition. I'm fairly obsessive over details (hence my job), so I'd determined I wanted the gains from the Fast Intentions. I'd also heard good things about the sound of the exhaust. Those went on the car without issue, but even unresonated, they were a bit too quiet for my taste (and for that matter Megan's).

Around this time, Megan and I started going to local meetups with a group called VQPhilly. Lot of awesome people, and this is where I met Craig, also known as the Craigster, and He-Who-Helpeth-Install-Headers. More on that later. Craig was running a built 350z with close to 700 whp from a supercharger that he'd modified himself. The sound of his car was like a freight train powered by all the fires of hell. It was amazing.

Megan really enjoyed the car group, and since she was in the market for a car, the next logical step was to find her one that suited her more practical desires!

The solution was a G37x sedan. Yes, I know a coupe is way more sexy. Yes, I did try and argue in favor of that. But she wanted an AWD sedan, with real passenger space, not just seating for leg amputees. We drove this home the same day Mike (Socce) from the forums came to do some work on his car with me.

Mike and I tackled his intakes, upper manifold, lower manifold, front rotors, and oil cooler before we ran out of time. We did run into a few hiccups - he'd been sold Stillen Gen3 intakes from a G37, not from a 370z, and we didn't have the tools to modify them for his use. He kindly sold them to us, so my wife had intakes on her vehicle the first week of use. She did have a few moments of panic when I pulled out the dremel to cut the rad supports to make room, but this subsided.

Although the G37x was mostly suitable for Megan, she did find herself missing the roar of the exhaust on my 350z.

So her birthday present was something a bit special.

By now, we were into early November, and I had enough projects to keep me busy for a while. I knew my next procurement would be Long Tube Headers, if I could find any priced reasonably. I really wanted Motordyne, since they have the swappable catalytic converter, but I found a deal on Fast Intentions that was entirely too good to pass up.

They arrived still heat wrapped. I needed to see what was underneath, so I stripped it off, and sandblasted it at my shop. After talking with Rusty, I determined a coating would best suit my needs, and JetHot provided me with a nice red high temperature solution.

Installation of the long tubes was accomplished in December, the week before Christmas, by the grace of the Craigster (who has a lift - blessed be his name!). 14 hour install time. My review is written elsewhere on these forums. Paired with the sound of the unresonated FI catback, I can tell you that I no longer felt it was too tame. Holy God. I set off car alarms, frightened small children, and inspired lactation in the unwary.

I was racing the clock now, with a dyno tune scheduled for the 26th of December @ RT Tuning. My Christmas gift from the wife was 63mm throttle bodies. My in-laws gave me Z1 Bushing Inserts.

I picked up the z1 intake upgrades, and modified my crash bar using a sawzall and metal cutting blade. Welded it at my shop.

Testing the fit after the sawsall cuts - I wasn't entirely sure how my fabrication was going to turn out.

Welded, installed, and intakes in place! Ready for my tune!

Dyno completed on December 26th! Results were about where I expected to be. Vince was also kind enough to give me my dyno results overlayed against a stock 370z to show comparative gains, since I didn't have a baseline.

334 whp / 278 wtq.

Somewhere in there, I found time to dynomat my trunk and wheel wells. OldGrayDog, also a forum member, pointed me in the right direction with a knock-off brand product that is every bit as good as dynomat, and a fraction of the price. But I won't tell you what it is.

Because I can't remember. Looks like I'll have to check my private message archives.

:icon17:

Zspeed undershroud, added shortly after Christmas. Mostly what I remember about this install is my hands were so cold I lost feeling. An unheated garage is painful in the winter.

That was the last of my modding for a little while, until the weather got warm again. Z1 Bushing Collar Inserts went in sometime in March or April, when I had a random warm day to do it. No pictures of that install. It was mostly me on my back trying to figure out how to drop the necessary parts of my suspension, and not drop them on me.

Pro-tip: Supporting your differential is key! I did successfully install them. My impressions - not enough change for me to notice, but my launches seem a bit more solid with less wheel hop.

I followed that with the Z1 poly transmission mount. Now THAT was a winner. Better launches by far and incredibly easy install. I still have some engine mounts, but I have no interest in installing those... probably will wind up in the classifieds once I remember to take a picture.

Next was the TWM Short Throw Shifter. I drove Megan's uncles Camaro, and came away impressed not with its power (it felt heavy) but with its shifting. I sought to emulate it. Found a guy selling his TWM, BNIB.

Install with the DIY on the forum was a piece of cake! The throw was too low-set for me, so I followed that up with a $10 three-inch shifter extension on Amazon. Nailed it. Shifts are crisp, mechanical, and easy, especially paired with a 1 lb weighted shift knob.

I'll have pictures of this setup when I remember to take some, but my brother will be making me a custom shifter extension in his lathe, to match the diameter and appearance of my shift knob.

My last mod before Zdays was the RJM V3.1 pedal.

For all those reading, do this mod first! Even if you don't hate the way the 370z shifts stock, the customization of the RJM is amazing. You can tweak just about every aspect of it. I love it. Paired with the aforementioned shifter plus extension, it has truly changed the shift characteristics of my vehicle, definitely for the better.

Also, somewhere in there I did 20mm front and rear spacers. With stock wheels, I'm basically flush with my wheel wells. It's a nice improvement.

Now I've got to go do some real work, since people are finally responding to my emails. I'll be back later to add pictures from Zdayz, and my impressions on my Pilot 4S tires, installed last night.

You have been busy, good to see its going well!

Thank you sir, hope you and your wife are doing well! Any updates on your car?

Madwi, that picture of our Z's on the dragon captures one of my favorite memories from the trip.

That was a good run with Thomas and D. :driving: :driving:

Great stories, Josh. Thanks for sharing :tiphat:
Looking forward to seeing what you do to it :driving:

I'm over 7 years of ownership now ... still yet to start a build thread :o

Side story on the installation of the Motordyne... As we were installing the rear canister, I was under the car holding it in place so the bracket aligned correctly. Megan leaned down to look under, while operating our rather torquey drill to fasten it in place. Overtorqued it, spun the drill butt into her lip.

She ended up almost biting through her lip. Few minutes later, she mentions to me she might need stitches after we finish. I hadn't seen the injury, so I look up and see blood oozing from this very deep and ragged looking gash. Prepared to drop everything and take her right then.

Like a champ, she says "No, we're almost done, let's finish my exhaust."

We wrapped it up, fired up the car, and the deep rumble fills the garage. Classic Megan quote: "I really want to smile, but that's going to just make this start bleeding again!"

She's a REAL car girl and quite the trooper.

I said I'd talk about Zdayz 2018. I had mentioned in passing to my wife that Zdayz looked like a lot of fun. It also just so happened to coincide with our 1 year anniversary weekend. She startled me by being hugely in favor of the trip! So we planned our trip, leaving Thursday evening, and returning Sunday.

What a trip! We left around 4 pm from just outside Philadelphia, PA. By the time we hit Virginia, we were experiencing pretty constant rain, and it became painfully apparent that my rear tires were not holding the way they should (uneven wear caused by an alignment issue, as I discovered later). For the first time in its entire existence, my traction control actually came in useful, when at one point my entire back end broke free and almost snapped me out of my lane. (The good news - our near death experience was a good way of convincing my wife that I needed Pilot 4S tires. Thanks to Rusty for the advice!)

We stayed in an AirBnB in Roanoke, Virgina, and continued the trek the following day, arriving at Fontana Village late afternoon. For the first time, the Z was starting to look fairly common...

Once we registered and entered a few raffles, we went looking for food. From stalking everyone on the forum, I recognized Madwi and EastWest hanging out on the deck. I wandered over, introduced myself, and they welcomed us warmly!

We spent the evening hanging out with JC Hammond, Zoren, JarBlue, Rusty and Mrs Rusty, DePointFive0, Madwi, and EastWest. Best group ever. Incredibly nice people!

My plan for Saturday morning was to join up with the guys on an early dragon run. However, we awoke to light rain, and after my experience on Thursday with hydroplaning, I decided that wasn't smart. So instead, we hung out drinking coffee, and headed down into Robbinsville to pick up some supplies. Literally every road in this area was fun to drive. We spotted a couple Datsun's on the way back, but didn't get pictures.

We made our way back in time for the start of the car show and parked beside the field. Walked up to the vendor area, and spent some time talking with Hotrodz about his incredible car. Met the guys from Fast Intentions. Great group of people!

We stopped by the Soho table too, talking a bit with them about their single turbo kit. Turns out, they can custom fab something for the G37x sedan to get around the transfer case... intriguing!

Our quest at that point was to locate Madwi's car. I wanted to see that bad boy in person! So we made our way up the hill towards the main lodge, and happened to bump into the whole group. Rusty and Zoren showed off their rides. Rusty's custom fabrication is just as impressive in person as it is in his thread.

Madwi's car is similarly excellent, with a lot of attention to detail, especially in the carbon fiber add-ons. I was so impressed I forgot to take a picture :ugh2: I did manage to find JC Hammond in the wild, as well as Spooler, before we headed back down to the car show.

These cars are stock, right? :driving:

More car pr0n. The custom water bottle setup in pic 5 is interesting.

A+ thread.

The whipple supercharger setup was on display, picture 2. I hear it's a powerhouse!

The weather abruptly cleared, and we're talking bright sun and heat! Madwi, EastWest, Memphis370 and I decided to take a run at the dragon behind a pack of GT-Rs.

Madwi already posted one great shot of his car with mine; attached is a shot of Madwi and EW, and a shot of my car on its way back.

As for my impressions on the dragon - wow. This was my first real test of my car, and my driving, on anything substantial. We just don't really have roads like this at home, though navigating traffic on I95 has its own challenges... Anyway, the first run through, EW did a great job leading us, and it let me start getting the idea of how to handle my car. I rapidly found that what my car could handle was way higher than I was capable of handling as a driver. Even with (mostly) stock suspension components, my 370 was impressive.

We stopped at a turn around most of the way through, let vehicles and drivers cool down, and then headed back with Memphis taking point. Following him was a challenge! He drove like a bat out of hell, but with perfect and precise control. I did what I could to keep up, but after slowing down at one of those scenic overlooks to avoid people walking in the road, I lost him entirely until he pulled over to wait. The ride back pushed my skills to the limit. Awesome. Would absolutely do it again. My heart rate was high enough my FitBit logged the drive as exercise.

After the finale and raffle give away that evening (digressing for a moment... this was honestly the low point of the whole event. It seemed like the organizers were poorly organized and easily distracted. I guess I'm just surprised that after so many years, it's still a little rocky) we said our goodbyes out on the deck, and headed out for an anniversary dinner at a nearby lodge recommended by Rusty and his wife. The name of this lodge escapes me. Edit: Tapaco Lodge I think?

On the way down, a young gentleman in a boosted Z urged me forward at great speed; the drive for food was definitely more aggressive than I'm accustomed to. My wife was a champion co-pilot throughout.

The inn location was beautiful! Right down beside the water. The sounds of nature mingling with the gentle roar of modified Z cars cruising nearby ;) Now that's tranquility.

We wrapped up the evening by following a questionable gps signal through back roads in the mountains to our AirBnB location. At a few points I was seriously wondering where we'd end up, but turned out ok. Did the drive home the next day. Spotted 1 guy trailoring his Z on the way back, and had an obligatory stop at Golden Corral for a food orgy and carb coma.

That's some hard camber on the rear only of that trailer Z! Maybe broke some'n.