Congratulations to Patrick Chio for his 2nd place finish in the Modified RWD class in Round 6 of the 2013 Redline Time Attack race! He has been a top contender in this series with 1st/2nd place finishes. Recently he added a Vortech supercharger and this compounded the 350z’s high oil temp issues under hot race conditions. Read Patrick’s report and how Z Car Garage helped tune his 350 to survive the blistering temperatures and demands of the Auto Club Speedway:

Due to a City Tech Auto Body track day at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca we missed the practice day on Saturday. Arriving on Sunday early morning we completed the check up, tech, registration and temperature was rising to 77 degrees right before our first session.

Auto Club Speedway is known to put a lot of stress on the motor because of the NASCAR banking at high speed. Our Z hit 5th gear, full throttle, 6k+ rpm on the bank over 140mph. During the first time attack session, our Z was able to keep the oil temperature just about 200F through out the whole session at around 82 degree ambient temperature. However, during the 2nd session ambient temperature rose up to 100F+. We saw many M3, STi and highly modified cars forced to pit after the 2nd lap. Despite the high heat, we managed to finish the full session and oil temperature reached 260F right before the checker flag.

We were amazed that a supercharged 350z was able to last the full session in this harsh environment. Rob and his crew at Z Car Garage have done an amazing job again keeping our time attack Z alive! Below is the video in one of the session (Count how many super cars we have passed):

 

Keep up the superb driving Patrick and thank you for letting ZCG work on your Time Attack Z!

 

                    

ZCarGarage is performing their first Stillen Supercharger installation for the 370Z. You might recognize this sharp Z from its great power gains with the Stillen exhaust system and Berk high-flow catalytic converters. It also received several suspension and cosmetic upgrades since last year.
Here are a few pics of the supercharger kit, note  how the dual throttle-bodies are oriented compared to the stock location:
      

        

Keep an eye on the blog for more install updates and you can count on some dyno action too as this boosted 370 makes some serious power!

Normally when customers come to us to upgrade their cars we start off small with an intake or an exhaust system and slowly progress to suspension and brake upgrades until we arrive at a need for forced induction.  This time it was the exact opposite.

This G35 came in bone stock (albeit with a nice set of HRE’s) and the owner wanted an instant boost in power.  Needless to say we were happy to oblige.  We contacted Vortech Engineering and had them send us one of their REV-Up Supercharger systems with a self contained oiling system.  The kit comes complete with everything from the upgraded fuel pump, supercharger, piggyback computer, the works.

The installation was performed flawlessly by Josh here at ZCG and we were on the dyno in no time.  Looking at the graph you can see that this car made awesome numbers for having stock exhaust, catalytic converters, and a full stock exhaust system.  Also in the interest of time and money we left the Uni-Chip with the factory program installed per the customer’s request.

There is so much more power potential with this car after a full exhaust system is fitted and a custom tune is done.  This car could easily have another 50-60+ wheel horsepower in no time!!

Only time will tell if the car will be allowed to reach it’s full potential, our dyno is waiting.

This car came to the shop a couple of weeks ago with the normal bolt-on mods and a shiny set of wheels to roll down the street with style.  This 2006 convertible with an automatic transmission entered our doorway with a Stillen cat-back exhaust system, Kinteix Velocity Manifold plenum, and a few other nice dress up pieces.  Then came the time to add some real power!!!

The basis of any real power addition with a VQ based drivetrain really needs to come by way of forced induction.  For this reason a Vortech supercharger kit was ordered as a starting point in this build.  Not wanting to stop there and be left wanting more, Rob and the the car’s owner went the full monte and also ordered a set of JWT camshafts, Stillen headers, and a set of high flow catalytic converters.  This isn’t going to be your everyday convertible after this transformation.

After the top half of the engine was taken apart and reassembled with the new bump sticks all of the new exterior power-adders were installed.  This car features the recently improved Kinetix Velocity Manifold and accompanying intake cover, and the new look with the supercharger left us wanting a bit more under hood bite, visually.  The decision was made to paint the engine cover to match the battery and brake master covers and off to paint it went!

While we were waiting its return, the final tune was performed and power numbers were recorded on our Dynojet dynamometer, but this isn’t where this story ends.  This car needed big brakes.  We knew it, the owner knew it, it had to be.  Rob made a call down to our good friends at StopTech Brakes to secure a four-wheel Big Brake Kit for the next day, and guess what… it was just what the doctor ordered.  The color-matched plenum cover went back on and the build was complete.  Wicked

From the dyno sheet you can see that the power gains are very impressive for a VQ35DE with an automatic transmission.  But wait you say, I said this was a 2006?  Yes, unfortunately Nissan did not put the improved “Rev-Up” engine in any of the convertibles for this year.  What’s even stranger is that this generation DE engine uses a few engine castings that are different from the first generation DE, strange.

Anyways, you can see the power is still climbing on the graph but the Nissan nannies step it to limit the fun at just under 6,500rpm.  There are software changes on the market that up the rev-limiter but they have shown to reduce the DE’s reliability down the line, and that is not an option.  We want this car to be enjoyed for as long as possible.

With the car now complete it was given a full detail before the owner came down one last time to take delivery.  This time he brought his son and a few of his friends to enjoy the occasion.  With all the test rides he gave that afternoon there is not a doubt in my mind that we will be seeing him for a set of rear tires very soon.  Enjoy the Z my friends, you have done well.

There are a few more photos after the ‘read more.’

…[read more]

I’ve been away from the blog for over a week to concentrate on a few other things around the shop but do not worry, WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE, in fact we are doing everything we can to make our customer cars the best they can be.    I’m going to try to get all of you back up to speed on the recent shop happenings today.

I also have a ton of new, and AMAZING, parts for the Behemoth 240z with the RB28 stroker here at the shop.  This will deserve it’s own post so look for that either late today or tomorrow.

Let’s see… where did we leave off?

We installed a Vortech supercharger on  350z last week.  The blower assembly in this project was a sealed unit from Vortech which means that all the fluid required to lubricate the supercharger is self-contained and does not use the engine oil what-so-ever.  This reduces the install hassle greatly on a Z and there seems to be no performance difference.

The only annoyance with this setup is that you now have to change the supercharger oil separately from the engine oil every 7,500 miles.  The normal Vortech kits use engine oil for lubrication so you end up servicing the supercharger every 3,000 miles when you do a standard oil change.

We also installed gauges to monitor the engine vitals and one of our custom ZCG oil cooler systems to keep things in check.  The car has a few other bolt on modifications such as an Apexi exhaust, upper intake plenum, etc. and the new power curve is right where it should be for an early VQ35DE with a Vortech.   The best part about this car was the customer’s face after he came back from the test drive.  He had an ear to ear grin and kept saying to himself that he needed to be careful while he adjusted to the new power.  Awesome.

Another car that we have been plugging away at is a VERY SPECIAL 300zx Twin Turbo.  This car is pristine inside and out and out and has enough one-off modifications to make your pocket book wince.  The engine let go awhile back due to an ignition system failure and over the past few months we have been building the power plant that this car deserves.  The old engine made over 600 wheel horsepower and the new engine should make a decent improvement over that.

This car has so many cool little (and big) things about it that I wouldn’t be doing it justice to leave them out, so there will be more pictures, info, and dyno graphs once this phase of the project nears completion.  We can’t wait!

And last but certainly not least is the Red 280zx restoration….

The interior parts that we have been waiting to get back from the dye shop were picked up last week and they came out great!!  We are planning on clearing part of our week out to focus a generous amount of our attention on finishing this car for good.  As it goes together I’ll be adding pictures right here on ZCarBlog.