Kevin R has been a Z Car Garage customer for over 10 years. His last visit to the shop in 2013 included an entire dash overhaul, minor suspension work and carb tuning:
With close to 400,000 miles on the chassis of his 1973 S30 years of dirt and grime had taken its toll on the chassis. We decided it was time to refresh and upgrade the suspension front/rear with Tokico 5-way adj. shocks, Eibach springs and several parts from Techno Toy Tuning (T3):
The ball joints had seen better days! Fresh boots with grease and a thorough cleaning does wonders!
More front end services including new T/C rods and roll-center adjusters from T3.
New front control arm and steering rack bushings:
New Tokico shocks and Eibach springs about to go in:
At the rear we degreased the diff housing and installed new moustache bushings:
More grime and new T3 rear control arms:
Finally we mounted new 215/45/16 tires on the old-school O.Z. Monte Carlo wheels followed by a full alignment. Kevin’s Z is now ready to tackle thousands more miles of twisty roads!
We always appreciate seeing our customer cars in the media. Recently Speedhunters had a “carbs only” theme for January and featured cars/engine bays with everyone’s favorite vintage mechanical car part. In their latest installment of the carb theme they featured our very own Lou S’ RHD S30 engine bay showing off its tantalizing triple-Weber carbs. Check out the Speedhunters article here.
Stay tuned for an update on Lou’s Fairlady as it now sports a late-model(240sx) 5-speed transmission and lower gears for brisk acceleration.
Here’s a short teaser video of the 300hp Rebello L-series stroker in action. Enjoy the carburetor sounds!
Ray has been with Z Car Garage for several years and owns this limited production SMZ 300zx Twin-Turbo. In 2008 we did a fully built engine with 740cc injectors, JWT dual POP, full 3″ exhaust and mild porting.
With 15k miles on the build, the intake cam sprocket was wearing out due to the Sport 500 cams. Luckily there is BDE Performance who specializes in improving Z32 parts. They have rebuilt VTC intake cam pulleys that are designed to eliminate the noise/wear that comes when running the stock units with aftermarket valve springs/hotter cams. BDE also offers a fully adjustable exhaust cam pulley for the first time.
Intake VTC(L) and adjustable exhaust pulley:
Stock(L) and after both pulleys are installed:
This was our first time using the BDE parts and dyno tuning was much easier with the new cam pulleys. On 91 octane we made 462hp/384tq to the wheels:
Ray’s SMZ also features beautiful VOLK GT-7 wheels, TEIN coil-overs, Powertrix T/C rods and Brembo brakes. The Steve Millen aero really has aged well over time…We love it!
Ray was enjoying his Z for many miles but like most of us he wanted even more power. Since his SMZ wasn’t a dedicated daily-driver Ray was ready to make the jump to 100 octane! In preparation for more power we installed a Selin dual MAF translator, Ash-spec inlet piping, and BDE motor mounts.
We dyno-tuned on 100 octane and made 563hp/506tq to the wheels at 19lbs boost. This was a healthy gain of 101hp/116tq from the 91 octane tune!
This isn’t an ordinary SMZ. With 650hp on tap Ray should be very happy. Breathe in that 100 octane and Enjoy The Ride!
John B referred his buddy Hilton to Z Car Garage for dyno services on his 2012 Camaro ZL1. Chevy’s latest and most powerful incarnation of the Camaro comes from the factory with 580hp/556tq at the crank from its supercharged V8.
How will she do on the ZCG dyno? Hilton’s ZL1 has only the following mods: a Rotofab cold-air intake and SOLO high- flow cats. The beast was weighed in at our favorite trusty scale: 4160lbs! Yes, that’s significantly heavier than our beloved GT-R.
The Camaro made 522hp/502tq to the wheels. Look at the power delivery with over 450lb-ft. of torque from 2500rpm to redline!
Matt A bought his first Datsun 510 at the age of 14 and he’s been hooked ever since. Having owned around ten 510s in various stages since he was a teenager it’s safe to say Matt is a die-hard Datsun enthusiast. We’ve known him from the days of the famous All-Datsun Meet at Mt. Shasta (over a decade ago) and now he’s got this beautiful 510 that we are really impressed with.
Matt visited Z Car Garage earlier this week to dyno his KA24-powered Dime. Before we show you the results let’s take a brief look at the car’s interesting history. In 2010 Matt purchased the 510 from Marty Smith (of 510garage.com fame) and it was a nice shade of teal. Matt loved the car but couldn’t get the Rebello 2150cc and Mikuni’s to run at their best.
Wanting all the benefits of a modern driveline Matt decided to swap in a KA24DE and go through the entire car from paint/body to chassis/interior. The car was completely re-wired with a new fuse block and the KA was rebuilt before installation. Matt finished the interior himself and he is now going through the suspension and brakes to freshen things up. Car has a few goodies like coil-overs on all four corners, full cage, 4:11 LSD with CV axles, and Wilwood brakes.
Here is the Dime on our dyno followed by a short video:
The stock KA with intake/exhaust/header made great power! 156hp/162tq to the wheels with over 140tq from 2500 to 6000rpm:
We wonder how much power could be gained from a tune as the KA runs a bone stock ECU. Matt is on the fence about leaving it NA or going turbo. Either way but we look forward to seeing his 510 again soon. Enjoy The Ride Matt and thanks for making our day!
