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Heart Transplant: Scott’s 240z

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 12:05 am on May 30, 2013

 

Z-car owners will go to extraordinary lengths to ensure their cars stay on the road and not in the driveway. Scott W bought this blue (below) 240z from Terry H, and Z Car Garage made extensive upgrades to it. At the heart of this Z was a 3.0L stroker with triple Mikunis and a host of supporting goodies.


Unfortunately for Scott his Z got wrecked. With all of the work put into the engine the best solution was to find the proper donor Z chassis.  Stars aligned and Scott found the perfect donor to host his drivetrain: Rob J’s beautiful S30 (Rob’s story later). Let the heart transplant begin!

From L to R:  Scott’s old Z with the 3.0L in place, wrecked chassis and 3.0L extracted:


The engine bay on the donor car had been painted black so we took this opportunity to paint it body color and perform general tidying. As usual William’s worked his magic to match the dark metallic blue body color.

 

New hydraulic lines/plumbing and wiring harness cleanup make this engine bay pop

 

We treated the engine to several upgrades including an MSA 6-into-1 exhaust header, new intake manifold with rebuilt Mikunis, JWT HD clutch/flywheel, Koyo aluminum radiator and of course what every triple-carbed L-series needs: a ZCG heat sheild!

 

 

The stroker motor produced good power with 235hp/217tq to the wheels!

 

The new body is definitely worthy of this drivetrain. Bye-bye dirt and grime…

 

Scott’s Z also got the ZCG HID kit. We performed this mod on Gary R’s 280z restoration with great results: stock appearance during the day with HID brilliance at night:

 

Scott is now Enjoying The Ride with a familiar heart behind the steering wheel of one very pretty S30!


Check out more pictures in the gallery!
…[read more]




A Better Way to Commute: Peter’s 350z

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 12:23 am on May 23, 2013


Peter  has been with ZCG for a long time and we’ve been maintaining his 350z to keep it reliable for his commute. Peter eventually decided to turn up the wick and make the Z a bit more fun when driving over the hill from Santa Cruz into the South Bay via HWY 17. To sharpen handling we installed Hotchkis front/rear sway bars:


A Bassani exhaust system frees up some power while increasing the already melodious VQ-note:

 


A Motordyne 5/16 plenum spacer followed by an UPREV tune rounded out the power mods.  +22hp/16tq to the wheels is sure to make Peter smile on the drive to work  🙂




Tony’s 350z

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 12:03 am on May 16, 2013


Tony N came to ZCG to discuss tuning for his Z33.  After a bad MAF and plenum leak were discovered and sorted, Rob UPREV’d the Z with great results. Peak gains of 16hp/23tq for a total of 267hp/257tq to the wheels is a significant improvement in power. More impressive is the area under the curve after UPREV tuning:  From just under 4000rpm to redline Tony’s Z is now making a solid +25hp/34tq to the wheels!


Tony would like to give a shout out to his crew, High Octane Tuners. We like the 19″ Z34 wheels filling the fenders especially in the pictures below. Enjoy the Ride!




Dan’s 350z

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 11:08 am on May 12, 2013

 

Dan F is a hardcore autocross and road course guy. His weapon of choice: Nissan’s 350 Zed. Last year Dan made the jump to forced induction and we did a full Vortech supercharger install, check it out HERE. Dan came back to ZCG for several performance mods including a Bassani exhaust system, switch to waterless coolant and A/C removal.

 

Stock vs Bassani exhaust:

 

Weight reduction: Check. Efficient cooling: Check. Free-flowing exhaust: check. Go get’em Dan!




Octavio’s G35 Coupe

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 4:47 pm on May 8, 2013


Octavio came to ZCG for bolt-ons and tuning. Here are the goodies: Motordyne MREV 2 lower intake plenum,  5/16″ plenum spacer and JWT pop charger


(Left)MREV2 plenum vs stock and (Right) 5/16 spacer :


To complement the improved breathing the stock intake was replaced with a JWT Pop charger:


The bolt-ons alone yielded gains of 7hp and 14tq to the wheels:


What is even more impressive is how Rob’s UPREV tuning takes advantage of the bolt-ons improving the baseline 251hp/227tq to a final 270hp/254tq to the wheels. Overall gains of 19hp/27tq!




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