We finished the relatively easy task of putting a modified 350z back to stock for starters last week.  This car came to us from another shop with a massive oil burning and smoking issue.  The car was running a built engine, GReddy TT, full fuel system, and so on.  It turns out that the other place believed that the turbos were the issue so the original set was trashed and two new sets were installed before the owner decided to bring the car to Z Car Garage.

The engine was disassembled and the inspection discovered that it had been subjected to massive detonation and was no good.  It was torn down and all good parts were saved for later use.  A stock engine with low miles was sourced and was installed.  The car ran great when delivered and most importantly the owner was happy.  The car went from being on the lift with no engine, trans, etc. to being a runner in less than a day.  Nice job Fred.

As for the turbo kit, it will be going on a built 3.8L VQ in a customer’s car that is from Tennessee.  It formerly had a custom built supercharger but we knew from the beginning that it would be getting turbos.  The car now features a fully built automatic transmission, rear end, and axles to accompany the rest of the drive train.  It was meant to be a brutal daily driver that will stand up to the abuse of back to back runs down the drag strip and it already features a nice set of Volk Racing SF Challenges for street duty and a four-wheel Rotora big brake kit.

The first two pictures below are of the car with the old supercharger setup.  The last one is of the engine running normally aspirated this morning before it was taken apart for the GRreddy twin turbo system.

…and finally this “morning”….

We should also be receiving the carbon fiber hatch back from our paint shop back today for a really trick twin turbo 350Z that we work on.  This car, seen above, was featured in D Sport magazine last year and it is truly something special.  Look for a full rundown on this car once this stage is completed.

More updates to come today.  I have a lot more to write about.  ZCG

We had this beautiful twin-turbo 350z leaving today and the rain was nice enough to stop for a few minutes so that I could get a few pictures.  This car features an APS twin turbo kit with JWT cams and a custom 3″ down-pipes made by us.  It has full Tein coil-overs, Stop-Tech big brake kit up front, and beautiful Volk Racing TE37 wheels.  On street fuel (91 octane here in CA) this car makes over 450hp to the rear wheels.  Awesome.

Baseline dyno and stock pictures:

We are all aware that the HR version is at the top of the hill as far as the 3.5L engines go.  But now we have some hardcore proof of how strong this engine is with just a few bolt-ons.  This car belongs to a good friend and customer of ours and it is now starting to put down some serious power.

Earlier this year Z Car Garage installed a Bassani cat-back exhaust system with cross-over pipe.  The baseline dyno for the new mods (high flow cats and intake) was done with the exhaust system installed.  The Bassani exhaust post on My350z.com can be found HERE.

The Stillen high-flow catalytic were first on the list to be installed after today’s baseline dyno.  They installed in about a half hour with no real complications.  Then our Innovate wide band O2 sensor was then installed to monitor the air/fuel ratio.  Off to the dyno!  The gains we saw were a pleasant surprise and we are very happy with the overall result.  This mod also brought out some more roar in the Bassani system.  It sounds mean…

Next on the list for this morning was the new Injen Intake System for the VQ35HR engines.  This new system uses twin POP style filters and drastically moves the location of the filters all the way down and into the front radiator opening in the front bumper.  This move ensures that tons of fresh, high pressure, air will be crammed into the filters.

As you can see form the graph above we also picked up some massive whp gains from the intake as well!  In uncorrected form this car put down over 300hp to the rear tires, WITH ONLY A FEW BOLT ONS!!  All of the dyno graphs listed here are SAE corrected to even things out.

This post should brighten the days of more than a few HR owners who cringed when they heard of the imminent release of the new 3.7L engine.  Only time will tell how much more normally aspirated horsepower we will make with this engine but you better believe that we have more HR parts on order as I write this.  Can you say experimental ECU tuning?  Ummm… I love the smell of power in the morning.

All three runs below: (click for larger)

More Photos After the Read More

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With the release of the 370z just a couple of weeks away at the LA International Auto Show everyone is out to get the first hands on experience with the new Z.  Z Car Garage will have your fix on the 21st of November with the coming of Nissan’s official “Follow the Z” tour!

There will be TWO pre-production 370Zs on show at Z Car Garage on November 21st from 3-7pm.  Other attractions include gaming stations staring the newest installment of EA Games’ feature “Need For Speed: Undercover” which stars the 370z!  Sponsors will be supplying the show with a DJ, giveaways, free food, and other attractions.  There will also be a chance to win a trip to the next Tokyo Auto Salon!  Who wouldn’t love to be in Japan for that?

SPEED tv is also rumored to be following the tour across the country to make some sort of a show out of the whole deal.  There will also be celebrity appearances such as race car driver Tanner Foust to add to the entire driving experience.

Of the 15 stops on the tour, Z Car Garage is the only Z ONLY shop to be included!   We will be going all our to prepare the shop and all of our best cars for this very important event;  AND YOU BETTER BELIEVE THAT THE ZCG R35 GT-R WILL BE HERE!!

If you live near the shop make sure you take the time to check this event out.  It is going to be amazing!  More info to come as soon as I get it.

Check the link below for the official tour site.  I will be adding more links to sponsors as I receive the information.

Official site of the tour:    www.followthenissanz.com

There was a great turn out at the annual Monterey and Pebble Beach Z and Meet.   Even though the weather was less than favorable the turnout was very high with 40 to 50 cars showing up for the drive.  The meeting point was held at MY Nissan in Salinas, CA.  Zs and Gs packed the parking lot with a few other cars mixed in including an NSX, S2000, Pontiac GTO, Mitsubishi EVO, and a 60’s Ford Mustang.

The drive wound it’s way through the hills of Salinas, Monterey, and Carmel and continued onto 17 Mile Drive with the first leg ending at Bird Rock right along the famed Pebble Beach golf course.  From there the caravan conituned on to a buffet style lunch at Poppy Hill.  If you live in the Northern California are this is the end of the driving year event that should not be missed.  Without further delay here are a few pictures that I took of the drive.  Hope to see you all next year!!

See all the photos by clicking below…

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