2012 Nismo GTM Supercharged Saga TST

jman497

Hello,

This is my first Thread on my 2012 Supercharged Nismo. I bought it sight unseen (lemon squad inspected LOLZ) from Tennessee, around last Christmas (2021). Car has 50k miles on it, looked to be in immaculate condition. Arrived 2 days later to Socal, and I've been loving it ever since. it has not been a smooth road at all!

Car showed up with what I thought was wheel spin, turns out it was clutch slippage! I put some new tires on Hankook RS4's and that only made the slipping worse. That's when it clicked the clutch. Bummer.

So called Joe at Zspeed and went with their Stage 3 setup Cmak and light weight flywheel. Also installed a ATI super damper while i was at it. Did my best to baby the clutch for the break in period finally ticker over the mileage and now i was ready to experience full power andddddd the car stops reving past 4k ish. Bummer.

So drop I it off at Specialty Z with Seb who is the master. Wait and little and find out the high flow cat collapsed blocked the Exhaust pipe. Bummer

So we lost the Cats, got it tuned up by Seb and made 450 Wheel horse power on 91 octane! The car is Running at GTM stage 2 supercharger kit with a Rotrex c38-91 super charger. Seb and I were extremely happy with the numbers on 91 with 9 psi of boost. Win.

Got the car back and loved every minute of it. the power was great, the repsonse was great, handling was something i needed to get use to. So i went and got some Swift Spec-R springs lowered the car a bit, a more racey alignment and thing was a dream! Until the clutch pedal started to to go to the floor. Bummer

So drop it off at my local shop that installed the clutch Precision Z and Called up Zspeed. Joe is on his way out and George from Soho is taking over, George sends me out a new OEM master in hopes that's the issue (shop didnt think it was but they didnt have time to drop the Trans at the moment) throw in the master and Doesnt help at all. Bummer

A few months before that I had approached Zack Klapman from The Smoking Tire. They were looking for modified cars in the Socal area and i had offered up my Z for them to review. We had set the date months early, and there was also a Twin Turbo Z that was going to doing the shoot with us. So without having time to fix the issue i decide to do the shoot with a jacked clutch (we still weren't sure what was exactly wrong with it). Bummer

We do the shoot on a hot day as well which didnt help the oil temp issues the car has had. The shoot day itself was an absolutely awesome experience, Everyone from Zack to Alfredo(twin turbo owner) and his brother with an M3 were awesome to hang out with. Great guys, great convo's, true car guys. Unsurprisingly my car did not behave itself and got too hot was just not making power along with the clutch being a PITA. Bummer

Go check out the shoot on youtube.

Right after the shoot, i dropped the car off at Precision Z and the pull the trans. the pressure plate friction disk springs had warped! So the pressure plate was not on square and was causing the clutch to never fully disengage. Bummer

Called Zspeed went back and forth with George he helped me out on the price and we got the cltuch back in! Time to break it in..... AGAIN. Bummer.

So breaking in the new clutch I went extra long on the break in period to try and avoid any issues. I would get off work and just street drive for 250 ish miles. My left leg became twice as thicc. Finally able to put the power down and use the clutch properly (although I'm extremely paranoid about it now.) i get back to driving and enjoying the car! Win.

Unfortunately this is summer in socal and the Z does not want to stay cool, even with 2 Giant oil cooler I was very limited how long i could push the car up the in the mountains before oil temps would climp. Bummer.

So started working on better oil cooler ducting and in any other little improvements i can make. i shrouded the oil coolers to get a direct air feed, looked into better more efficient ways to remove the heat then dumping it into the wheel well, anythin i could do, and it worked! i could full throttle up the mountain for nearly 30 mins straight before temps would creep to the 250's. Win.

After getting most of this sported i was loving the car, it was a dream come true. Ever since the V1 Nismo came out while i was in highschool i thought it was the coolest thing around. the Lower HP number had kept me away but 450 wheel felt like where the car should be, although i found myself wanting more. Then the car stopped revving past 5500 rpm. Bummer.

Back to Specialty Z and Dr. Seb to see what the issue is. At first i was very confused, thinking it could be a fuel, ECU, electronic issue. I really had no idea. so wait a little bit and get a call back, the Rotrex C38-91 is on its was out. Bummer.

Rotrex superchargers dont have a direct drive from drive pulley to impeller. so when they start to fail, the internal gear box slips and after 5500 RPM the supercharger stops spinning and because an air restriction. Bummer

That brings this to present day (November 2022). Almost a Year into ownership and lots of money later, I'm deciding on what move to make. i could get another C38-91 slap that baby in and be back to breaking whatever else part I can abuse. OR jump up the the big dog C38R supercharger like in Aarons top guns kit. the price difference on the super chargers is less than $300 but the R would require alot of upgrades around it to run right. The entire Cj motorsports Fuel catalog, ID1300's, ETC ETC. talking to Seb 650 whp would be very attainable. Just on the fence about making this plunge only to break something else lol.

TLDR Bummer count: 12 Win count: 3
Was buying a sight unseen supercharged Nismo from across the country a good idea.... Probably not.
would I do it again?
You bet your *** I would.

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ZontheRocks

Fun read. Way to stay in it with the Z!

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

jman497

Thanks! Glad you liked it. V1's were always my dream so i don't like a few...(major) issue along the way are gonna stop me from living that dream!

Aspectinc

Sorry to hear about the issues you have had. I’m running a GTM kit as well but seem to only make 4-5psi on boost. Through your experience do you have any idea why ?

jman497

It's all good, I need to write an update on just installing a new supercharger! For your situation, first question how long have you had it? 4-5 Psi seems really low to me. Sounds like a boost leak or a really worn out supercharger. Is it the C38-91 or? With my new supercharger i gained 0.5-1 PSI over the entire rev range So it could be just time for a new unit.