We make Zs better.  It’s what we do.  In this case the customer brought us a fairly low mileage Z32 300ZX Twin Turbo that was in need of some more power.  At first we were headed down the normal road of simple exhaust mods consisting of new downpipes and mid pipes with high-flow cats when things got a little hairy.

We also had plans to place all four shocks, switch to braided steel brake lines for improved pedal feel, and install a set of Stillen sway bars for more stability in the corners.

As you can see from the baseline dyno (bottom of post) this car had serious issues when it came in.  The owner had reported hesitation and overall poor driveability and it was up to us to figure it out.  After the suspension and brakes were handled we dove head first into the quest for power.

The computer was shipped out to Jim Wolf Technologies for a reflash to accept the bigger NISMO 550cc injectors and added boost, we also picked up  a new clutch from JWT to handle the new power.  After all the modifications we completed the car was reassembled and test driven to make sure everything was copacetic.  Unfortunately it wasn’t.  All we could get out of it was seven pounds of boost.  Not good.

We suspected a turbo issue so the car was taken back apart for inspection.  The turbo had failed and was grinding the compressor wheel into the housing.  (see above photo, and for comparison see the other good stock turbo above)  There were metal shavings everywhere, really not good.  Now we had to get new turbos as well, and we were going to go bigger.

Jim Wolf once again came to the rescue with a set of their Sport 500 turbos.  They are the perfect combination for the power levels that we were looking for.  Now with no further complications everything was re-assembled and we proceeded to cycle countless quarts of oil through the engine to make sure we had all of the debris cleaned out.  Then it was back to the streets to do some test driving.  After another oil change we loaded the car onto the dyno to see what it could do.

You see from the graph above that the car has made a complete u-turn in both driveability and performance.  I’m happy to report that the customer was overjoyed when he drove the car for the first time after the upgrades.  That’s just the way we like it.

Long Live the Z