Irl N. heard about Z Car Garage from our friends at Stillen. He purchased several parts and wanted them installed correctly on his 2017 Q50s Red Sport. We started with the Stillen cat-back exhaust system:

 

Stock Vs. Stillen:

  

Next, an AMS Heat Exchanger:

   

The suspension received SPC front/rear control arms, lowering springs and a rear sway bar:

  

Braking improvements included new rotors (from Irl) and we provided the Stoptech 309 pads that we love:

   

With just a few upgrades Irl’s Q50 really boogies now!

 

We have worked on the new Q’s before and now they are beginning to come through our doors often–look for more VR30DDTT goodness on the blog!

Jose B visited us in April to troubleshoot some noises and install his Motordyne exhaust and Stillen intakes. We also UPREV dyno-tuned the 370Z, making an impressive 345hp/265tq to the wheels. Jose recently came back to ZCG for a big-brake upgrade.

 

We installed Jose’s Stillen AP Racing Big Brake Kit, replacing the stock front calipers and rotors:

 

The 14″, 6-piston calipers finished in red really fill out the Nimso 19″ wheels:

  

We like the new look with the rear spoiler and lowered suspension:

 

Thanks for letting us be a part of your build Jose, Long Live The Z!

Paolo M came to ZCG for a differential build on his 370z. The G35/350z and G37/370z cars all share the same diff bushing failure due to aggressive driving or simple wear and tear. From Nissan, the OEM diff bushing is filled with silicone, and will burst/leak this fluid resulting in a noticeable clunk when shifting.  Paulo’s Z34 had the tell-tale sign of the diff bushing failure, with visible leakage on the cover:

 

Nissan will not replace the bushing alone. By design, Nissan wants you to replace the entire rear subframe at a substantial cost.  Fortunately, Whiteline makes a really nice bushing that can be installed and it is a mandatory solution whenever we perform a diff job at ZCG. In addition to replacing the diff bushings, we replaced the bearings, changed the final drive and installed an OS Giken limited-slip unit:

 

The diff is removed from the Z and OS Giken LSD prepped:

  

We check the pinion depth by testing the wear pattern on the ring gear with paint:

   

For an added piece of security for the differential we installed a NISMO diff cover. Its extra oil capacity and finned design aid in cooling for hard driving. The unit was filled with OS Giken gear oil:

 
We finished with an engine oil change and Paolo was back on the road. He’s visited ZCG several times and we like working on his Z34. Enjoy The Ride Paolo!

 

Maximus Y is from the valley and spent the day in San Jose with his wife while ZCG we tuned his 2014 370z. Max supplied the Power Package from Z1 Motorsports, consisting of test pipes, tubular exhaust headers and a modified upper intake manifold:

 

Since we had not installed these parts from Z1 before, we dyno tested them followed by UPREV tuning.

First, we installed the Z1 upper intake manifold:

 

Baseline before installation of the Power Package was 297hp/248tq at the wheels. The Z1 intake added ~5hp/6tq:

 

Next, the exhaust parts were installed. OEM vs Z1 exhaust headers:

  

OEM vs Z1 test pipes:

 

From the Z1 intake to headers/test pipes we saw gains of 20hp/13tq to the wheels. The dyno reveals significant mid to high rpm improvement:

 

Finally, Rob UPREV tuned for even more gains of 10hp making a total of 322hp/256tq to the wheels. An improvement over baseline of 30hp/14tq at the wheels:

 

We chatted with Max and with 27k miles on the odometer he will be visiting ZCG again to supercharge his Z! Stay tuned!

 

Kassem L hails from San Francisco and he brought his 370z to Z Car Garage because he was having warranty issues with the dealership. After some some discussion and guidance we installed a new clutch and transmission.  For piece of mind the troublesome internal slave cylinder was switched to an external unit using the CMAK upgrade from ZSpeed. We went through the car and fixed all the little things missed by the dealership when they did a warrantied replacement engine (replaced b/c of oil-burning issue). Minor items like re-learning the windows and parking adjustment were comped.

 

Kassem visited ZCG again for suspension upgrades. We installed HKS 4GT coil-overs,  SPC F/R control arms,  and a Hotchkis sway bar set:

 
 

SPC front/rear control arms. After suspension installation we aligned the car and changed the oil:

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Kassem was going for a very JDM feel/build and chose his modifications accordingly. We installed an HKS intake system and the Power House Amuse R1 Titan Extra STTI full titanium exhaust system:

Before and after:

  

More exhaust details:

 

HKS Racing Suction twin intakes replace OEM units:

 

After the coil- over suspension was installed Kassem came back in to have the car lowered just a bit more. We handled this for him as well and the Z looks fantastic sitting over pretty Volk Racing G25 wheels and Bridgestone RE-11 tires:

  

Enjoy The Ride, Kassem!