On behalf of Z Car Garage and all of it’s staff I would like to welcome home our good friend and Z owner Chuck G.  He has been in Afghanistan for quite some time now and we are happy to report that he has returned safely.  We have been storing and working on his car while he was overseas and we can’t wait to get it back into his hands.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with his project here are the basics:

• 3.8L Stroked VQ35
• GReddy Twin Turbo kit
• Fully built and upgraded automatic transmission (peppermint lattes!!)
• Upgraded axles
• Rotora Big Brake Kit
• VOLK Racing SF Challenge Wheels

Click on the three links below to follow the previous stages of his build.  The car currently makes 500whp and 500wtq through the auto tranny on only its base tune.  Now that Chuck is back the tuning will be finalized and he will be free to destroy as many tires as he pleases.

Again, welcome home friend.

• 3.8L Nears Completion
• 3.8L Lives!
• 3.8L Baseline Dyno
  

I know… I know… Many of you have been waiting patiently to hear what has been going on with this 350z project car.  Now I am here to feed you a just a teaser of what is to come!   From the graph below you can see that the car made 500whp and almost 500wtq at 15lbs of boost on our terrible CA 91 octane fuel.  Remember that this car has a built automatic transmission, with a drive train loss of over 20%.   That puts the crank horsepower rating at or above 650hp!!!

If you are wondering why the car hasn’t made more all you need to do is consult the dyno graph again.  Just as the torque converter locks up the numbers seem to go flat.  This is because the car has a mere fifteen degrees of timing in it.  When fully tuned this car will run close to 18 or 19 degrees of total timing which will smooth out the graph and bring this engine to life!

REMEMBER THIS WAS JUST THE BASELINE RUN WITH THE NEW TURBO KIT

After more timing is added and the air fuel ratio is adjusted, we expect to see the graph continue to climb into the atmosphere.  Only time and tuning will tell, and for that you will have to wait just a little bit longer.  Drool away.

I know that we have been putting up a ton of GT-R related posts lately so here is one for the 350z owners.

Now… Back to your regularly scheduled Z programming.  The 3.8L GReddy TT engine is back in the chassis and all mechanical connections have been made.  Next on the the agenda is to re-install the inter cooler and all the the intake piping that goes with it.  At the same time the all electrical connections will be made and then gone over again to make sure that we don’t have to go back into the engine bay after we are done.  This car also runs a Haltech engine management system that uses a MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) sensor instead of the factory MAF (Mass Air Flow) equipment so the final tune should be fairly straight forward.

Wikipedia will do a better job at explaining the differences:  CLICK HERE FOR MAP vs. MAF Wiki

This car should be close to being buttoned up near the end of the day and running on the dyno early next week.  This car will be tested extensively by us to make sure that the customer is entire satisfied with the end result.  We may even make a trip to Infineon Raceway for their infamous Wednesday Night drag race series.  With drag slicks or wrinkle wall tires the quarter mile time should be able to meet or best our GT-R.  Seriously.  Z Car out!