PN-Mad

OP- PM "Jetwreck" or "Andy65b" for a English lang conversion. I too am waiting for the S2, but I don't need english to tell me my fuel consumption!

They are very similar, hence buying the HKS kit! The differences I know of is two places. One, the front driveshaft/diff, and two, the 350Z has a hole in the front composite brace thing. Thats where it ducts cold air to the air filter. This is something that I have to work around as the intercooler outlet travels back through that hole on my kit. In the APS kit, its where that blue hose would sit. I also except the divers side turbo outlet would have to be modified, as the diff sits where that oil filter/pipe goes.

Difference between 350Z midpipe and stock. See the extension? Turbos in the car... sort of... Stockies SSR Type F's More to come

Yeah, I know, I have pics floating around. I PROMISE I'll upload them, just not now. I'm going sailing!

Hi All, Well, I've been thinking about making this thread for a while now, so I thought I'd just go for it. Straight away, I apologise if the updates are not so common, the photos are a bit shit or you came here thinking it is a 1000hp GTR build thread. It will show my story turning a stock car into a different daily drive. The main use of the car is a daily for my Mrs, much like other peoples stageas I guess. I hope you enjoy it, but mainly it'll be something for me to look back on and figure how stupid I wasAnyway here we go- THE CAR - Its a MY05 Nissan Stagea 350RX Four. Bought from Northshore Prestige on 21/8/2010 with 45068 km. Stock as a Rock. Colour- Silverstone WV2, which only came in the series 2 M35's. It has options of reverse camera, and the popup screen with satnav/tv/trip comp/sushi hunter. The motor is a VQ35de, same as V35/Z33 spec. It as a 5 spd Auto, with a electromagnetic Attesa AWD system. I had it on the dyno stock as, it turned out 147.3kw at all 4 wheels- not a bad figure. Mods so Far- The very first thing to get fiddled was the tiptronic auto. Nissan in their wisdom thought it a great idea to make the upshift action a push away form the driver, instead of a pull backwards. Out with the centre console, an a snip of the wires, plug them back together, and it makes sense to drive- I'm not down shifting when I want to upshift any more. Then the memory gets a bit hazy as to the order of things. I bought R32 GTR 4 pot front brakes wanting to fit them. The stock front brakes are woeful. They are 350Z touring spec items, which just don't hold up to a 1650kg car. The new brakes sat in my garage for ages- they didn't sit behind the stock 17" wheels. Next to come about the same time were some uprated springs thanks to Jetwreck, and in the same couple of weeks uprated sway bars (GB from went on front and rear thanks to Daleo. These two items made a MASSIVE difference to how the car felt. Cornering is now much flatter, car feels more connected to the road. Springs are stiffer, and lower. Thanks to lowering, the stock wheels with +45 offset looked ridiculous. They sat way in the guards- something needed to be done! Twas about this time where a HKS turbo kit suitable for 350Z's came into my life. I had nil intention of buying a turbo kit/car, but you know that point where you see something for a insanely low price, and you just buy it- well, that was me. The kit came with everything from pod filter to cat converter. All manifolds, dump, wastegate sump, etc. It runs a HKS GT3037s with a 1.12 rear, and a 60mm External gate. All thats missing was the injectors, fuel pump, and engine management. I got it, and stashed it in the garage. I couldn't fit it right away, even though I wanted to. It was like Christmas opening all those boxes! Next up was a bit of exhaust fiddling. Looking around the US G35 sites, like 350-tech, G35 driver etc etc, it seemed a popular upgrade for V35/G35 sedans to pop on a coupé midpipe. Looking at my car, the hangers looked identical. I put in a few calls, and Northshore had a 350Z midpipe sitting around. It was the same but a little short- I got it extended a bit, and slapped it on. Great. Its just a resonator, as opposed to that massive mid-muffler that we seem to have. Great budget upgrade for exhausts, larger pipe diameter, SO much lighter than stock- and a great growly note. I then ordered some wheels- long story, but I got stuffed around by one company for 10 weeks, before giving up. I ordered some SSR Type F's from JDM Concept. 19x8.5 +22. I got the size from BBenny, whose Enkeis are the same size, and fit very nicely. I went for the Matte Black, gold and silver just were not doing it for me. I then went O/s for work for 2 months, and O/S on holiday for 1 month.... it was all quiet... On getting back, I sorted tyres- tirerack was the go here. Continental tyres 225/40/19- over they came from the US. I finally had the wheels on! The R32 GTR brakes went on shortly after- adapter sleeves from Scotty, and PMu pads from somewhere in QLD. Great upgrade. Much more confidence in the brakes now. Then came the stuff to get ready for the turbo kit- Transcooler from PWR, with a thermostat from Jetwreck (not installed yet), who also installed the Transgo shift kit that he's been doing- legend! I now feel the GB should hold up to what I'll put into it. Shifts are great- smooth when on part throttle, and firm but not harsh on WOT. And thats pretty much where it sits today. I've got the GSS342 Walbro, and some 600cc injectors on the way. Posts/Pics on the turbo kit to come- ">

So true- however it has to be some real variety. Not the kind that we see now, where its just a badge stuck on the front. If they make Toyota/Hyundai/whoever run the same diff/box/brakes/susp then no ground has been achieved. Its just playing by rules that Current manufactures can control. Sort of like as a kid if you go to another kids house, and they only let you play with some of their toys, only when they want.... For example V8's Car of the Future / NASCARs differentiation by stickers.

Its Bathurst. Supertaxi's are going round. I wish there we some real competition out on the mountain. You know, a mix of cars, V8's / 6cyl turbos/ 4cyl emos and rexs/ GTRs and euros even. This has got to the stage where they have flogged that old horse far to long. Don't get me wrong- the drivers are no doubt talented and courageous, but its like a one make series now. Maybe we could get some exchange students from DTM, and send 1/2 the supertaxi fleet to Germany?

I'd say it was the Lumpy idle RS260 Front and centre in the group shot. Afraid I don't know the owner of it. Someone will oblige.

Yeah, drop in replacement. Don't really need 1000's - Not going to go for E85. Lol... cheaper that what they want in Australia!

Deatschwerks 600cc, about $100 each when shipping is added on.

Ordered some injectors.... Muhahahaha

Same with Iain, very happy to hear it wasn't a Stagea roll over. Hope the people are ok. Again, wonderful day despite the rain. Great to see so many people out and about. Looking back at my photos, most of them are of rainy car windows But here are a few.

Well, AWD vs RWD is pretty self explanatory. No, your not going to have any traction problems in a normal environment- RWD has traction control anyway. The AWD models don't. Neither model has stability control. However, when I had old tyres on my car, and had a very wet slippery corner I knew that all I had to do was plant the foot and point in the right direction. The car sorted out the rest. Thats the advantage of the AWD system. There is nothing unsafe about the rwd, it has traction control to keep you in check. I guess its down to your preference. With some decent tyres on your 19's you'll have heaps of grip. Just expect it to occasionally step out in the worst conditions. Oh, and the Attesa system drives the awd car in rwd most of the time anyway. Its only when it senses slip it steps in to move torque forwards.

Made it home and the Sun came out! Thanks to Nick, and all the Execs, TSI, Matt and everyone else involved for a great day! Look fwd to see the group shots!

Washed, detailed and loved. And polished a big black turd to boot! See you all tomorrow!

Yeah, that would be me- off to see a Mechanic friend at Col Crawford Nissan.

Isn't your car a VQ30DD which means direct injection? VQ35de injectors wont fit, they sit in the intake manifold - not the combustion chamber. A Performance workshop you seek- and expect to pay a reasonable amount of money for small gains Things like Intake/exhaust is where you should look.

Sunkist- Car needs more cotton wool. And Airbrush. And White leather. And Sex Dr number plate. And Monster Tacho. Missin that Aaron bloke, he was funny.... On a Ceral note, that new Stagea bloke managed to find a motor yet?

Lol... yeah- thats going to be cheap compared to what I'm going to fork out over the next few months! Need a spare key really- I have heard some horror stories about the cost of keys, up to $800! Its blatant rip offs I think. Plus, tow truck from teh edge of bum f nowhere would be far more painful! If only it was as simple as the door lock coding thing! Trust me, I tried it, before I contacted Chris Rodgers. Your pretty much stuffed if you don't have the Nissan system.

Hi Mate, and Welcome to SAU. Hope you enjoy your stay. If you haven't found it yet - the forum has a great Search function, so utilise it- loads of good info. I have the 3.5 awd model. Honestly, its about line ball with a turbo model when it comes to fuel consumption. It is just a little bit better, than the turbo, but really its negligible. All the figures above are believable. Depends very much so on the traffic conditions, and how you drive it. On a winding road, with a bit of a squirt here and there i'll get 10l/100kms. Long run freeway, might go a bit lower. Round town its thirsty- 12/13 upto 15 litres is not uncommon. Rwds could be expected to get a bit better economy - less weight, and drag. But its not going to be drastic. If you have a long traffic filled commute (sydney style!), you'll pay for it. And forget about M35 2.5 and 3.0 NA models - can't be complied! Peformance-wise - stock to stock the cars are just about identical. The 3.5 is much nicer to drive around town, better response, better suspension setting, better gearbox settings, and a nicer interior IMO. The turbo car is much easier to extract performance out of if your going down that route (obviously). I'm heading for the best of both worlds!

Got a spare key coded this morning. Mine is keyless entry/start - so cannot be programmed with the lock door procedure. Hornsby Nissan did it - $178.60 for the remote (without emergency key, as its not needed) and $134 for the code (about 1hr labour charge I think) So, spare key - $312.60, pretty good I think.

The answer was positive. ECU is pretty much the same as the 350Z / R35 unit. Able to be tuned! Had a quick look inside, and confirmed it. So looks good on that front. Now just to get my ass into gear and get a pump and injectors! I did ask about your ECU, Andy, got a pretty generic answer about still trying to crack it. To be honest, I think if you call em, they'll be happy to give it back. I don't think any progress is going on.

Front trim off and ECU out, to take down to SAS to see if they can chip it for tuning the Turbo Kit! Fingers Crossed!

I didn't know they were any different! Mind you, when Jetwreck was under my car, all I heard was "mmmm, thats different, thats different , thats different"!!! There seems to be more and more they changed S1 to S2. Have to check it out Sunday. Hope we get some good weather.

DP