Kam-80

You'll need to verify RHD fitment of the TT kits you look at, I'm pretty sure the GReddy is LHD ONLY. From memory not a lot of people make RHD kits anymore...You can get HKS Single turbo, APS (if they still make them), GTM and maybe power enterprises. I think it has to do with manifold design clearing the steering hardware. A lot of VQ FI tuning comes out of the states these days, contact Adam at Z1 Auto ( www.z1auto.com ), he's pretty good and may be able to find a solution for you. Otherwise Sam @ GTM ( http://www.gtmotorsports.com/ ) or you can order the HKS kit from Nengun. For fitment there should be a number of reputable turbo shops in your state...if you're in Vic RE Customs, Chasers, Status Tuning just to name a few (most of my work is done at RE customs).

Hi all...I have a tyre wear question, what does it mean when my front tyres are noticeably more worn on the outside half of the tyre? Looking at the tyre from th outside to the inside, the wear is very severe on the outside edge to the point where the grooves are more-or-less gone. 1/4 way across the tread is down to (or past) the indicator. At about the half-width the tyre steps up by about 3mm (there's literally a line going around the whole tyre with defined edge). At 3/4 width some of the tyre is down to the indicator but for the most part there's about 1mm-2mm of meat left and the inside edge still has usable tread. Car was aligned at Centreline and front settings are about 3.5 degrees negative camber, also feels like there's a bit of toe-out. I didn't have the same wear with my RE55s on similar settings, these are A050s. I'm thinking maybe it's not alignment but they could be over-inflated past optimum? On my RE55s I found the car worked best at 32 PSI hot (and produced very even wear), but was told to run these at 34 PSI hot...I didn't ever check the tyre temps on these and now that it's time for a new set, I want to try and maximize their lifespan.

You will have more trouble getting out of the hole with a TT than a supercharger, if you can get the power down (maybe fit some massively wide tyres) then 0-100 for TT should theoretically be faster than a supercharger, because your torque-band will be much wider. Also TT > SC in 0-400. As for cost, you can do an off-the-shelf SC for < $7K if you're handy with a spanner and have a free weekend. TT you'll be looking at maybe $12-$15K and DIY will be pretty damn hard (it'll probably take you a full day and half just the change the exhaust manifolds).

I remember when I reading back through one of the Zed forums, there was a post with heaps of info. It said you can fit the kit onto a V35 but it's not a completely direct bolt-in, some modifications are required either on the frame or with the piping, I don't remember which. There is also a big difference in the frame between VQ35DE and Rev.Up motors, so make sure you buy the right kit for your engine.

USDM Vortech kit fit my 350Z, no reason why the V35 kit would be any different...

Have some Power Enterprise 380CC injectors. These were sold to me as "440CC" injectors but after closer inspection turns out Power Enterprise only make 380CCs that look suspiscously like this these...so I'm assuming that these are not 440CC and are 380CC, also look remarkably similar to RB25DET factory 370CC. Barely used... Located in Melbourne, Suits RB25, VQ35 $220 posted to your door. Send me a PM if interested.

10-12rwkw sounds about right...main restriction in the exhaust will be the cats, but off-the-shelf bolt-in jobs are hard to find...and when you do find them, they're expensive as...my 350Z on the dyno yielded about... fuel trim + small timing advance 10rwkw custom high-flow cats and Y-pipe 7rwkw Didn't do a dyno pre and post intake mods / cat-back exhaust. With some breathing mods and tuning V36 should make in excess of 200rwkw easy.

Not really, the tuning scene for V-series / Z-series isn't nearly as big as Silvias ans R-series Skylines. Keep an eye on 370Z forums in the states. Because the cars are relatively cheap there, you'll find a lot more people churning out fairly powerful examples and the platform sharing betwen V37 and Z34 should extend to engine, drivetrain and suspension.

Assuming the engines are very similar to 370Zs, I've seen dyno runs of around 200rwkw with cat-back exhausts, but printouts didn't show the base runs without exhaust. I think it would be safe to assume around 10 - 15 rwkw if you did exhaust and high-flow cats and another 10rwkw or so with some fuel-trim and timing advance. Other than that there's not much you can do to them (NA-wise) without big costs and sacrifices. Is your number plate the same as your forum name, I think I've seen your car around?

Thanks for the info guys...guess I can strike that option out as I'm too tight to buy 17-inch race tyres!

Great review and an awesome time...glad to hear the Akebono's held up, as I've heard mixed reviews. Am I correct in assuming that these won't fit under a 17-inch wheel?

Around $1K for EMU + harness.

E-manage Ultimate has much better options list than Haltech Interceptor. (Side note: if your car supports phasing on inlet AND exhaust cam, Haltech Interceptor won't work). EMU is quite comprehensive, but like Scott mentioned you are effectively bound by factory ECU programming ... there are good and bad points to this fact however. That said I am having trouble with my own EMU install, so if anyone can help (and sorry to hijack thread) ... my EMU is reading a constant +5v TPS (5.07V to be exact) at startup which is triggering anti-foul mode on the EMU and cutting fuel. So the car is cranking with spark (presumably) but isn't starting...I haven't had a lot of time to get into it but suspect either faulty harness or some sort of interference. I don't think it's a wiring issue, but could be wrong. EMU is running latest firmware and using supplied N13 harness. It has actually started a couple of times, but for the most part...no go. Not sure if anyone has had similar issues with their installs? I haven't tested the TPS voltage coming out of the ECU yet.

On the Zed there is a method to retrieve CEL information (not sure if this will work on your V but I don't see why not). Manual Method from 350Z-tech... 1. Confirm that accelerator pedal is fully released, turn ignition switch ON and wait 3 seconds. 2. Repeat the following two procedures quickly five times within 5 seconds: 1. Fully depress the accelerator pedal (HARD). 2. Fully release the accelerator pedal. 3. Wait 7 seconds, fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it for approx. 10 seconds until the CEL starts blinking. The CEL blinks in a series of long and short blinks, indicating which errors are occuring. 10 long blinks = 0 1 long blink = 1 If there are multiple errors it will blink out the errors and repeat. Just my 2c, but I don't think installing extractors will have been the root cause of your TPS issues. What most likely occurred was that your mechanic removed the trottle body for better access to the exhuast manifold bolts and it was mishandled during installation / temporary storage / reinstallation. The throttle body electrics are very sensitive and prone to damage if handled roughly.

Not sure what the dealership is talking about, 350Z track-specs came with VDC standard, If it thinks you are understeering, the system will actuate brakes on the front outside wheel in an attempt to regain front-end grip.

Oh yeah sorry my bad =)

Also didn't notice a difference either way, but thinking about it I'm not sure how it would improve fuel economy? The spacer allows the plenum to flow more air and more air equals more fuel? I did read somewhere that the two cylinders at the end of each bank closest to the front of the car can go a bit lean from the stock plenum design, so with a spacer you could get a safer, leaner tune, which would save fuel, but that's a bit of a stretch.

Sorry guys had a camera in the boot but totally forgot about photos :-) Nice to meet you Juan, your V is a great representation of the model, super-clean and the rims are pimp!

Haltech Platinum 350Z would have been 1st preference, but I can't justify the difference in cost, around $2,500 vs. $1,000 for the Emanage Ultimate, it has pretty much all the features I was looking for (datalogging) plus a couple more like being able to influence the fuel and timing maps based on radiator water temp or intake air temp. Actually I was wrong, on their website for compatible cars they list the Silvia with a * note that interceptor does fuel control only. Not sure why they listed the S14 and not S15 with the same note though...

Just a reminder that this is on TONIGHT, hope to see some of you guys there!

The interceptor is too simple to support it, I think it would need to tap and adjust the crank-angle-sensor signal and adjust it so that it's in phase with the camshaft-position signals, that's an extra input/output and a bunch of extra programming. What I ended up doing was delete the entire ignition timing map on my interceptor and just use the fuel trim map (so it ends up working like a better resoultion SAFC). I've just bought a GReddy Emanage Ultimate with harness as it was the only interceptor I know of that can handle and adjust VCT cam-phasing. It's either that or buy a full replacement ECU for a whole lot more. The hassle isn't really worth it on an NA VQ, as their factory timing is really good and you can only adjust by 1-2 degrees to suit 98RON petrol, so the net gain is only about 1-2rwkw through the rev-range, whereas you'll get an easy 5 - 8rwkw of top-end by tuning a leaner AFR than factory (not sure about VQDET engines though). I'll eventually be hanging a super-charger off the front of my engine, so need to be able to reliably retard ignition timing without the whole ECU lighting up the dash like a christmas tree

Yeah you "feel" you're going faster because the throttle body is open more relative to the position of the accelerator pedal. It does give the impression of going faster, but 0-100, 0-400 would be identical and you might be slower around a track, depending on how finitely you drive the car with the throttle. With the Sprint Booster you'd probably pull a better result rolling 40-60, 80-100, etc, with the difference being the micro-micro-seconds it takes for a normal car to get to WOT and the amplified Sprint Booster signal to get you to WOT. Only initially. Throttle input of about 1-5 percent (this is how they normally program drive-by-wire, not sure about VQ). The ECU detects slight throttle pressure, and advances ignition timing instead of opening the throttle body. The ignition advance gives about 1-2rwkw more power and the car accelerates veeeery slowly. It only does this from cruising and if you want to accellerate slowly. The reason for this is strictly for emmissions and fuel-consumption related, not performance. But you're right, normally ingnition timing is taken from a fixed 2D map that plots load & rpm points. If you have a car that does cam-phase timing (or VCT, or whatever Nissan call it), the problem occurs because you tap the camshaft-position sensor and modify the signal to do ignition timing advance/retard. This works OK but I found after a while I got a CEL indicating CAM-phase-timing was not working correctly. So I think what happens is the ECU compares the signals from the crank-angle-sensor with the camshaft-position-sensor, notes that the signal timing is different and throws a CEL. (This is only with the interceptor, Haltech list cam-phase-timing as a feature on their full-replacement ECUs). I got my mechanics to ask Haltech but Haltech say it should work, but if you look at their compatible-cars list on the website, it only lists cars WITHOUT any form of VCT (like S13, S14 but not S15 and R32, R33 but not R34).

On the Zed the wires on the throttle body are hard to access, as they're encased in a big plastic plug, but if you want to try and test it from there I think it's pin-1 on the plug. The throttle body is also said to be quite sensitive and doesn't like being fiddled with. If you have pin-out diagram for your ECU you should be able to either splice the wire or access it straight from the harness (it's pin 50 for my car's VQ35DE rev.up motor and there's a secondary sensor at pin 69). The throttle body's sensitivty is calibrated to the car (there's a calibration process that can be done by pressing / depressing the accelerator pedal in a certain sequence) but fully closed should be around 0.3V and WOT is in the high 4.6xV - 4.7xV. The sprint booster works by intercepting the voltage signal generated by the accerlator pedal and increasing it by a factor. Accelerator pedal (ECU pin 90 on my car) is also 0-4.7xV with a linear relationship between voltage and how far down the pedal is depressed (I haven't tested this but the workshop manul diagram illustrates a straight line relationship between pedal position and voltage). Ignition advance happens at very small throttle inputs above 0. The sprint booster tricks the ECU into skipping this step completely as the small inputs are amplified into larger throttle inputs, so the ECU starts opening the throttle body immediately. As you move through the accelerator pedal's range, the sprint booster continues to increase the voltage signal by whatever its pre-programming dictates; I read somewhere that the multiplication effect is reduced the closer you get to 5V so the effective increase in response you're feeling is more in the early range of pedal movement. This is just conjecture at this stage, but I think the ECU also has multiple programmings for how quickly the accelerator pedal is being depressed as there are 2 sensors on the accelerator pedal that deliver varying voltages to the ECU. I'm not sure how, but I think it can tell by the voltage delta generated how quickly you're pushing the pedal. Again the sprint booster would negate any low-input mapping. I learnt all this after installing the Haltech Interceptor on my car and trying to figure out why it was giving TPS CELs (I arrived at the conclusion that the Haltech intercept signal and return signal were marginally different and did a recalibration) only to realize that the current Interceptor doesn't support cam-phasing.

Whoops double post...

Actually, I think we all know the car is drive-by-wire, possibly by the fact there's no dirty big cable attached to the throttle body. Unless you actually know What the system actually does, i.e. you've seen the programming somewhere, then you're making some sweeping generalisations. Normally, what a drive-by-wire system actually does when you start to depress the pedal, is advance ignition timing one or two degrees, then as you depress the pedal more, it starts to open to throttle body return to the standard timing map. The ignition advance gives a slight increase in power & response without consuming fuel or generating emmissions. The sprint booster would bypass this stage entirely as the ECU now thinks the pedal is depressed further than it actually is. You've also got to be joking if you're suggestin WOT doesn't occur until 5000rpm? The only time you will notice the throttle body does anything other than what you tell it to is at the rev-limit, where the throttle body will start to close. Non of the reflashes, Osiris, TechnoSqure, etc do anything do anything to the throttle body / accelerator programming. Haltech repalcement ECUs don't have a map setting for throttle input / throttle body opening either, so I'd be really interested in seeing exactly which ECUs or reflashes you're talking about? Or maybe you could use a Haltech interceptor to read the return voltage signal from the throttle body to determine what opening it's at...oh wait, I've done that and OMG what a surprise, WOT on the pedal turns out to be WOT on the throttle body too!