Averying's 2009 Platinum Graphite 370z Journal

Averying

Same here… DIY mechanic, little single bay garage, harbor freight tools, etc. I’ll figure it out eventually haha


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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Pulled the plugs to compare and am realizing they all look to be in fairly sh**ty condition. Looks like I’ll be ordering some plugs!

Hopefully there isn’t another issue still persisting that would quickly foul a new set of plugs as well (assuming that new plugs fixes the issue)




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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Rjk370z

Sub'n. Nice write up.

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Averying

My hunt to find the culprit of the misfire continues. My theory: it MUST be the injectors right? Can’t be spark plugs.. can’t be the coils… See full write up below:

Things I tried:
-Cleaned the throttle bodies
-Recleaned the MAFs
-Cleaned the injectors with the method of hooking up a can of carb cleaner, connecting to a battery and firing away. A couple of them seemed to spray a bit rough on first try but it instantly became a uniform spray. I also backsprayed them during the cleaning process. Also installed new O-rings.
-new spark plugs
- put in 3 gallons of fresh 93 and a bottle of Techron fuel system cleaner. The tank was almost empty so this is a pretty strong dose of Techron.

Now I’m getting most misfires on cylinder #4 and a couple misfires on cylinders #3 and #5 as well. When I reinstalled the injectors and coils, I didn’t put them back in the cylinder they came from. I reinstalled them randomly. That’s a mistake on my part.

So once I saw it was misfiring on cylinder 4, I swapped the coils between #4 and #2 (#2 had no misfires). The results didn’t change at all.


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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

As expected… bad fuel injector is the culprit!

Cylinder #4 was misfiring and cylinder #1 had no misfires. Swapped the injectors between the two and voila. The weird thing is that in between swapping the injectors, I tested it with the carb cleaner method and it seemed to spray normally and it wasn’t leaking… weird.

Now I’ll be looking to get these injectors cleaned since I cannot replace them. I don’t see a 600cc Denso option on the market for the 370z which is what came with my GTM Stage 1 kit.





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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Turns out the culprit injector is electrically bad (internal solenoid has failed) and a few others are likely on their way out.

From the people I’ve talked to, ive only heard bad things about these denso/Deatschwerks injectors. Maybe the new DW stuff is better since it looks like it’s a Bosch ev14 based unit, but the drilled denso injectors seem to be pretty unreliable.

Going to be picking up some Bosch 1000cc injectors and retuning to car. Can’t wait to get this thing running again!


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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Finally got the Z up and running!

Installed a secondhand set of 1000cc Southbay Fuel Injectors (Bosch) and got the base map from Eugene Turkov on the car. Finally
have the car driving without CEL, DTCs, stuttering, etc, etc. Now im just collecting enough data to get the base map refined and move towards dialing in the car and making some power again.

some noteworthy things:

1. Eugene required a totally different PCV setup than what was included with the GTM kit. Basically switched over to a PCV delete. previously, i had the valve cover breathers going to the low-pressure side of the supercharger intake, and the PCV valves going to the intake. he explained to me, which makes sense, that under suction there would be unmetered air coming into the manifold from the valve cover breathers, bypassing the MAF. a PCV delete got around this and should hopefully allow for a better tune.

2. after installing a base map, reset your ECU through the Ecutek proecu app. battery disconnect reset did NOT clear previously logged fuel trims which led to some odd short term and long term fuel trims. the Ecutek proecu reset fixed this issue.


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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Didn’t work on the Z too much over the winter. A couple small projects:

-relocated the Rotrex oil cooler so it is in front of the radiator, behind the intercooler. The GTM kit placed it off to the side of the radiator but I don’t think it’s in an ideal spot for airflow. Plus, this is a much better spot for when I create some intercooler ducting in the future.

-cleaned/lubed the Turbosmart bypass valve.

-started playing around with my new Adams Swirl Killer polisher. So far I’ve done the hood and front fenders. I’m doing a two stage with Adam’s compound on a blue foam or microfiber cutting pad, followed by Adam’s polish on a white polishing pad. Finishing it off with 2 coats of Turtle wax hybrid solutions ceramic sealant. Sorry, no pics of the finished product on the Z.

The Z usually lives in the garage, but it got kicked out of the garage for a snow storm while the daily driver G35 was getting a new coolant pipe.







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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

The first spring project for the Z was trying to quiet it down as much as possible with the current test pipes/Invidia Gemini exhaust setup. My local autocross site in Devens, MA has a stricter sound requirement now, which I almost exceeded last year. Also, I was hoping to kill off the drone introduced by the replacement resonators that I recently had welded into my Y pipes.

The Gemini has some straight sections where I was able to slip in 2x Vibrant bottle resonator (PN 1792) between the flange and hangers. The annoying bit is that the Gemini uses 60mm (2.36”) OD pipe, but the vibrant resonator are intended to slip over 2.5” pipe. Therefore, I needed to make some adapters from small sections of 2.5” OD pipe, which luckily slips nicely over 60mm pipe. I cut reliefs in the adapters and the resonators to allow the clamps to do their job and squeeze it all together.

These new Vibrant resonators killed all drone and tamed the exhaust just a bit to where the car is much more enjoyable to drive. It still opens up nicely and is certainly still loud when I get on it.

Additionally, as another safety measure for autocross events, I quickly fabbed up some 90deg turn downs from 2.5” exhaust bends from autozone. These are good for a couple dB of “quieting” according to the autocross veterans at Devens. The non-expanded ends of these 90deg bends slip nicely over the 60mm pipe. Same as the resonators, I cut reliefs in the pipe to allow for clamping. As a final measure to make sure I didn’t exceed the sound limit, I clamped chicken wire and stainless mesh to the ends of the exhaust bends (sorry no pics of this). No one bothered me about sound during my couple of runs at my first event of the year on 5/26, so I guess all of this was successful!










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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

06/15/2024 - Renegade Miata Club autocross #3

First autox of the season. Felt good behind the wheel. I was able to get on throttle earlier out of corners and felt more confident turning in harder. I need to work on my lines, namely looking ahead more and preparing for the upcoming segments by backsiding cones.

GoPro wouldn't cooperate, so here is a video with my atrocious iPhone mount.

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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Corded the inside of my PS4S tires with too much camber/toe. Got ~10k street miles, 2 track days, and 50+ autox runs out of them.

Replaced them with a set of Firestone Indy 500s to last until my rear PS4S are toast. 285/35/19 up front.

Decreased to 2° front camber to get a bit more life out of the tires.




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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Made up a oil cooler duct in prep for a track day tomorrow. Hopefully this keeps oil temps below 260° despite it being 90° tomorrow.

Not bad for the first version of this duct made out of a $10 sheet of corrugated plastic and some scrap I had around the house (note the drywall corner bead as angle brackets…)

Haven’t seen anyone else attach the ducts with Velcro… let’s see if it holds up!

V2 of this duct will be revised to pull in ALL of the air coming into the existing bumper cutout.







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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Averying

Video of my fastest lap (I’m still pretty slow) and review of ducting and temps below:



The car was reading 100°+ on the gauge for all 3 track sessions at the event on 7/9. I think ambient was more like low 90°s.

An update on the duct I made… it was an improvement over my previous setup, because I “only” hit a max of 250-255°F in my first two sessions with similar driving on my end, despite the hotter weather. HOWEVER, I did turn traction control off for my last session (first time driving on track without it), went ~4sec faster driving more aggressively out of corners, and hit 260°. Limp mode kicked in hard. So the duct helped a bit but I still have temp issues on a hot day with multiple “push” laps in a 20min session. It’ll only get worse the faster I get.

Next step towards a solution here is adding a similar duct on the radiator/intercooler, and making a V2 of this oil cooler duct that pulls in more air. My car does NOT have the OEM radiator “side” shrouds (GTM kit deleted those) so I’m hoping that ducting the radiator will get me some big improvements in water and oil temps.

Not sure if this is related.. but my oil temp gauge is a little jumpy at higher temps. It must be going bad. I’ll get that sensor replaced and hope I miraculously have lower oil temps haha

One last thing to note.. I *think* my oil temp has been higher in general once I switched to Mobil 1 0w-40, from Redline 5w-30. I might switch back to Redline oil and see if that brings down oil temps. However, the higher temps I noticed with the Mobil 1 COULD be attributed to a bad sensor like I mentioned above.

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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes

Rjk370z

Interesting data on oil temps. Im guessing the gtm kit is keeping your oil temps up. Usually on a 90° ambient day I see oil temps around 230. You look like a fast driver than me too. So that could be it.

That track looks interesting. Nice driving

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Averying

Haha I’m definitely not ‘fast’ just yet… the guys in advanced group were running 1:18-1:20. I’m hoping to get into the 1:27s next time I’m at Thompson.

Thompson is a great beginner track. Super easy to memorize, great visibility, just a couple tricky transitions where the road course overlaps with the oval course.


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2009 Sport Touring | Platinum Graphite | GTM Stage 1 Supercharger | BC BR Coilovers | Hotchkis Swaybar | Z1 FUCAs | AME TM-02 Wheels | Z1 2-piece Front Rotors | Z1 Clutch & Flywheel | Invidia Gemini Catback | GTM Resonated Test Pipes