2006 Nissan 350z GT

[da.murf]

I take it @big_pete is the owner of PMG autocare? (Sorry, new here!)

That'll probably have to be my first stop, though I may have to give my bank account a month or two to shape up before going down the detailing / cleaning rabbit hole

He is indeed and can’t endorse him enough.

 

[da.murf]

Pre-update update tonight

so car was dropped to @carmadchris today and being worked on Thursday. Chris will be fitting

Hel braided brakelines and clutchline
New oem clutch slave cylinder
Grooved and drilled uprated discs all round
Uprated pads
Polybushing the ARB’s
New dropinks
Uprated under car W brace
Super light single mass flywheel and uprated clutch kit.
Should feel like a new car and honestly can’t wait to see how the flywheel changes it, the single mass is really meant to transform how the Rev and drive. Have a 50/50 video ready showing old flywheel vs new flywheel.
Cars mot’s been extended to June so will be back being driven from next week !

 

[da.murf]

quick update, car is currently at workshop being sorted, and hadn't planned much else for a while until this came up on the zed forum lol

recently re-trimmed in alcantara with orange stitching (matched stitch in leather seats) by royal steering wheels. Bit thicker than the oem wheel and in great shape, just needs a little clean.

will fire up photos of fitting process and how it looks asap

Will be popping this onto the zed as soon as it come back.

 

[da.murf]

So bit of a mega update here.

This has all been in the works since I sorned the car last September. I slowly build parts up as funds allowed with the aim to have a lot of stuff refreshed by this spring.

@carmadchris at Bangor Tire Services completed all the work and honestly couldn't recommend him enough. Kept me updated, went above and beyond in a lot of ways and snapped photos for my thread here.

So lets start with history. I have owned the car near 4 years now (nearly my longest ever ownership of a car) and honestly now I can't see me ever selling up.

The car has just ticked to 62k with an amazing service history and parts/reciepts listing, and when I got the car I did what any enthusiast would do and began to mod lol.

To save you reading back I quickly added

eibach springs 35mm
eibach spacers (20mm front/25mm rear)
full milltek exhaust and Y pipe
decats
south bend clutch weighted gear knob
Pentagon tints
zunsport front grill delete
double din digital radio
tarmac sports side sills in gloss black
mines front lip in gloss black

and the car ended up like this last summer :

But as mentioned going into 4years of ownership, I was beginning to be seriously happy with outside look but wanted to address the mechanics underneath.

It was a 2 fold reason 1. better the car and handling 2. refresh and upgrade any perished parts etc

So the lcar went last sept to BTS to be inspected and a list was made.

Zed's clutches and flywheels are typically a sore point on these cars, they suffer from terrible rev hang due to a silly heavy dual mass flywheel and the slave cylinder and clutch overall is a weakness. So that was the first upgrade. I planned for this kit:

Supplied by Clarke Motorsport I went for a single mass super lightweight Flywheel with an uprated organic clutch. I also added a HEL braided
clutch flexi and new oem slave cylinder. This kit keeps chatter low whilst significantly improving rev up and eliminated rev hang and a somewhat usable bit point.

Pic of it being fitted and also the old 'well worn flywheel and clutch'

I'll add a separate video of side by side rev's to show the car run before and after the upgrade but the difference is incredible.

One thing I'd noticed was fading as I owned the car was the handling. Chris confirmed this when we found the discs/pads, droplinks, arb bushes and w brace all where well past their best.

Drilled and grooved mintek discs where ordered all round with Brembo pads (fast road from memory)
Polybushed the ARB's (front and rear)
a nice new Whiteline uprated w brace ordered too.
HEL performance braided brake lines where also sorted at the same time.
OEM Nissan droplinks also where purchased.

Firstly what was removed:

They where all well ready for a change. The further we dug the more we realised that we needed to do it right, so kidney supports for the braces where also ordered (not fun spending that £££ on non fun parts lol)

And then we just ordered new bolts, nuts... pretty much most of the underneath lol

The old stuff was gone lol

As mentioned I plan to keep this now for good, so I look at this as an investment... (that's what I keep telling myself lol)

Some of the new parts fitted

I got the car back and quickly bedded in the new discs and pads. The difference is amazing, the old discs and pads were knackered anyway but the new stuff is fantastic.

the car seems so much stiffer mid bend and no more knocks bangs from droplinks & bushes etc.

Finally I treated the car to the alcantara wheel I mentioned previously.

Super easy to fit as it was a Jack Royal retried zed wheel, so just switched airbag and controls over etc. A little thicker and nice feel. Very happy with it.

To be honest it's made me appreciate the car even more, and can't wait until clutch and flywheel is bedded in correctly and to see how it feel being hammered about a bit lol.

Next plans are most likely under the bonnet with plenum spacers and a remap. Will get the video up asap of the rev difference.

But thanks for reading

Dee

 

[subie_andy33]

Pretty sure if I had a 350z id be doing it all exactly the same as you! Very OEM+ on the inside and outside. Very interested to hear back what it's like with the lightened flywheel and what sort of difference a faster revving motor actually makes to spirited driving on the road.

 

[pablo]

awesome upgrades!

 

[Lappintyre]

Great work! Really wish Id've bought one of these when they were still affordable

 

[soupz]

Fair play to you Dave, that was a brave list of stuff to do in one go, but I'm sure it's transformed the drive and handling. You have the car sitting immaculate inside and out, real credit to you. Now go drive it!lol

 

[da.murf]

Fair play to you Dave, that was a brave list of stuff to do in one go, but I'm sure it's transformed the drive and handling. You have the car sitting immaculate inside and out, real credit to you. Now go drive it!lol

its my daily until either
a) winter comes
Or
B) I can’t feed the kids due to fueling it lol

thanks mate means a lot!

 

[EF Ian]

Re-bush always makes a good difference on older cars. Good mods and nice to see it being treated properly without anything over the top.

 

[michelinman]

Awesome work - looks good!

 

[da.murf]

Great work! Really wish Id've bought one of these when they were still affordable

check out the mainland owners club mate. They honestly give them away lol

 

[Todd]

Great work, looks great!

 

[da.murf]

as mentioned here is side by side video

 

[soupz]

as mentioned here is side by side video

Are you hoping to win another M experience day for that video? LOL

 

[da.murf]

Are you hoping to win another M experience day for that video? LOL

only one entering lol..

 

[da.murf]

couple of updates coming here, big one in the next few weeks hopefully but little one today from a mod I added in the last fortnight or so.

One of the 'big' issues with the zed is that the ecu was factory set to completely disallow brake and throttle being applied at the same time.

If you had throttle applied and touched the brakes the eco automatically fully cut the throttle. Was a little annoying as its a rwd japanese car, that has a lsd and can light up the rears for fun. Also even down the line I hope to do a few trackdays etc and the ecu never follows allows you to disengage traction control or stability control which are very intrusive to say the least.

but the big child in me always didn't like the fact burnouts where impossible.... not that I planned to do a lot of them, but ya never know when you might need one lol... (man logic)

So a chap on the uk owners club is very clever with software and also computers and he created a nice piece of hardware that you can install that in essence tricks the ecu into ignoring the brake signal but only in the capacity of shutting down throttle and also fully disabled TCS and SCS. for me it ticked the boxes as it was reliable and also controllable. it came with its own little switch that you can turn it on and off etc.

Install was relatively straight forward, little bit of stripping the centre console down

The kit was great. Had pretty much everything you needed bar heatshrink and solder.

firstly had to splice into YAW sensor

Then usual of finding a power source etc for the box itself

nervous moment then of isolating pin 101 on the back of the ecu... just a few wires

squeaky bum cutting that and then wiring it off
to the hardware box and switch lol

initially installed switch low by seat switches but found it a little ‘too’ out of the way.

So relocated it to centre console and it can then be hidden when cubby slider slides over

then the test lol. Press once and relay clicks and everything deactivated. Private test road in Mexico

Video is here



Next update will be wheels are being changed to something rather special. Can’t wait! Thanks for reading.

 

[Jonny_W]

Great thread so far looking forward to the updates. Always loved these but parked beside one at GTNI a few years back and thought it was sitting perfect.

 

[da.murf]

Great thread so far looking forward to the updates. Always loved these but parked beside one at GTNI a few years back and thought it was sitting perfect.

View attachment 275944

Think that is @KyleR old one?

and funnily enough that’s the wheels I have coming lol

 

[KyleR]

Think that is @KyleR old one?

and funnily enough that’s the wheels I have coming lol

Yup, gone across the water now, never to be seen again

 

[Smick]

What you doing with your old wheels @da.murf ? Not sure about black on black but if they were decent money and in good condition I might consider them....
Mine need refurbed, have done since I bought it.

 

[da.murf]

What you doing with your old wheels @da.murf ? Not sure about black on black but if they were decent money and in good condition I might consider them....
Mine need refurbed, have done since I bought it.

hey mate, tbh I plan on keeping the wheels, they are still mint and I always keep options open when it comes to mod's and I'd hate to be running about in a few years time looking a set of oems lol.

surly polished mike in dundonald or something could refurb yours cheaper than buying 2nd hand??

 

[da.murf]

also on that note..... guess what arrived today lol

fence is being replaced before anyone says anything lol!

 

[MarkM]

also on that note..... guess what arrived today lol

View attachment 276254

fence is being replaced before anyone says anything lol!

Takes me back! My second favourite wheels ever, had them on both my Zees

 

[da.murf]

Takes me back! My second favourite wheels ever, had them on both my Zees

yup love them to bits! getting refurb'd as soon as new decals/nuts and valves etc in hyper silver