Christian370Z's Progression Thread

[christian370z]

Thanks AK, I was thinking about PM'ing you that I got them but I figured you have a lot on your plate already!

[christian370z]

Just got my appointment at SpecialtyZ to have a Stillen 25 Row Cooler installed on wednesday the 6th (october)! The price was super reasonable and I will be filling her up with Redline as well. Goodbye high oil temps, hello canyon/auto-x/track work!

[christian370z]

I stopped by Seb at SpecialtyZ this morning to have my Stillen 25 row oil cooler installed and can say that again, I cannot be happier about how smoothly everything went. The price of the oil cooler, labor, and Redline oil/filter cost less than many places quoted me for just the oil cooler/labor.

The notable change to the install was that Seb relocated the oil cooler to the driver's side where most other aftermarket oil coolers are placed because a) Stillen supplies way too much hose and b) it avoids moving the P/S fluid cooler or obstructing the airflow to it. New holes were measured and drilled into the mounting bracket to allow the cooler to be placed on the driver's side, and there was still enough hose to reach the cooler in its new location.

After the initial startup for leaks, the first thing I noticed was that the car ran more smoothly and with less valvetrain noise than before; the factory oil came out pitch black after only 1,500 miles.

On the drive back through Malibu Canyon, ambient temperatures were in the low 60's so if I was cruising along driving normally, the oil temperatures were sitting just below 180 (was 220 on the drive to SZ) and sitting in traffic never went above 200. Once I started to keep the rpms high in the canyon, I could not get the car over 185-190 at all.

The third and best improvement was the power delivery. While the evidence suggests that engine oil temperature does not affect power output, I believe that it certainly has an effect on power delivery. The throttle reponse is much sharper and punchy now, the car accelerates with more immediacy than before. Between the oil cooler and my new tune, the throttle response is much better and feels more like a highly sprung N/A car should in my opinion.


Anyway, big thumbs up from me for Seb at SpecialtyZ!



Excuse the dirt, darn rain!

[Jamaica]

Looks good my friend. I need one lol

[christian370z]

Thanks Andrew, I will be putting it to good use next weekend on the monthly canyon run! I have some really nice routes planned too so that will be a whole lot more fun on the driving end of the meet.

[christian370z]

Update: sitting in traffic with 80 degree ambient temperature only brings the oil temp up to 210. As soon as you start moving, it never budges from 180. The car feels so much more responsive and the reduced valvetrain noise with the Redline oil is great too, the only two downsides I see right now is that I need to relocate the exterior temp sensor and that it takes a long time for the car to warm up.

[Darkii]

Nice looking parkers, if only V-LEDs shipping was cheaper to aus. Cost as much as the item =(

[Seb@SZ]

The Z34 TT is back in my hands! Dyno tomorrow! (Saturday)

[christian370z]

Uh oh, I hope you get some footage of it! That car will be so gnarly, I miss the surge of power I used to get with my gt28 Saab that you can only get with turbos.

[6spd]

Do you have any vids from behind the car revving, or from outside accelerating? If you could post those or take some I'd really appreciate it.

[christian370z]

Hey 6spd, I do not have any right now apart from a few cold and warm starts with my current exhaust setup. Once I get my new video camera, I will be taking a bunch of high quality videos and will post them. Also, I got an offer from a professional videographer to have a free pro-level video of the car in action so I will post that if it happens too!

[6spd]

Wow, lucky man! I cant wait to see what happens, youve got the exact mod line-up I would love to have one day!

[370zsport09]

Originally Posted by christian370z

It took me about 3 hours to install my Stillen intakes but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a much easier job than I was expecting. I used the dremel to trim back the air intake passages in the front core in order for the pipes to clear which turned out very nice, then it was a matter of getting all the pipes where I wanted and then tightening down all the fasteners and clamps. Once I finished, I reset the ECU in car and started it up to check for any issues to which there were none.

The bumper went back one and I finally got to look at the finished article; it is perfection in my opinion, the look is exactly what I wanted as it looks sleek and oem but yet the texture black powder coat has just a bit of sheen to give it that something extra. I am very happy with it, now to head out for a nice drive!


How the filters sit in the front bumper recess:





All finished, love it:






Next up will be the Tanabe Y pipe and a custom road tune!

in' the STEALTH LOOK

[christian370z]

This is more of an excuse for me to test out my new phone's video quality but it pretty much gets the exhaust note down well on the cold start.
If you want to cheat and skip to the exhaust section, that starts around 0.50 seconds.

[nurseryboy]

Nice! So this is the stock muffler with the HFC's and Y-Pipe?

Is there any rasp to it? It's a little difficult to tell from the video. (It sounds like there might be, but it might be that the phone's mic just distorted some of it because it was loud.)

Great quality video by the way! What kind of phone?