New Parts Installed

[BLISTC]

Hello everyone

I havent been spending money on the car at all over the last year, except for a few cheap parts.

I decided i was finally going to get an exhaust since it was the one mod i wanted to complete this year.

I also was going to finish off the intake side of things.

And finally, i needed to take care of the clutch as it was on its last legs (friction point way up high)

So i contacted Riverside Infiniti and put my order in for a Stillen Air Box as well as a Motordyne Shockwave Ti Exhaust. I also ordered a USDM Battery cover but more on that a bit later.

I ordered and paid for the parts and once i received a tracking number UPS was at my door 4 days later with a fairly large parcel. Very quick turn around time for delivery from america!

So first thing to go in was the stillen intake. I decided against the popcharger due to legalities. I dont want the police to look under the bonnet and then ping me for having an exposed air filter. The hot air from the engine also gets sucked into the Popcharger, making it not as effective / rendering it useless. Tests by independant people also show that the stillen airbox is one of the only airbox to acutally record a decrease in intake air temps. Another great thing is that it utilises all the stock air intake parts making it look even more stealth and stock looking. Also gets more air into the box.

The stillen unit is fairly straightforward to install and assemble. It comes with the surround, a K&N air filter but braned STILLEN and finally a velocity stack.

First started by removing the old air box along with the AFM. Disconnected the AFM from the airbox and re-assembled as the stillen unit.

I ran into a problem when fitting it back into the car. Since this part is designed for the americans, we will need to cut away and modify the box slightly, because we have the main power cables running down the strut tower. in the american cars this cables are on the other side and not in the way. So i slightly modified the box and ended up with an excellent fit.

The car produced a much louder induction note after 4000rpm but not as loud as the popcharger would sound. Also, there is a slight "sucking in air noise" when you step on the throttle which is coming from the airfilter. Sounds good!

Next up, i drove the car to PROconcept and Josh and i fitted up the exhaust. The exhaust is a beautiful piece of work from the guys at Motordyne. The bolt on was fairly straight forward. Only thing which worries me is how low the center part / main big resonator sits to the ground. My car is allready low and this doesnt help! Only problem i have with this item installation is that the rear has not aligned up 100% perfect. They are in the middle but one tip is higher than the other. You cant really notice it but i will get it fixed after the weekend.

The exhaust also comes with a Y-Pipe and its design means that interchanging parts is very easy due to the band clamps used on the exhasut instead of bolt on flanges.

Everything is supplied, and for our car also the extender pipe is supplied too (as the exhaust pictured above is for a 350z system)

Wow, well what can i say! This thing just sounds like AWESOME. It has retained the VQ Sound but just made it sound 100x more agressive and meaner. It is actually quieter than i expected though! Might have to get the resonator out and put a Test Pipe in! hehehe it will sound something like this if i do that!

This exhaust is very quiet on idle. Not much louder than stock. However when you rev the car under load especially around 2500-3000pm mark it is very loud. Sounds BEASTY. however the good thing is when you are just cruising around, there is no drone. No rasp. The exhaust itself is actually quiet! Until you REALLY step on the gas it doesnt come back to life again so it is excellent for just crusing with also. As you can see in the video as he is driving it normally through the gears you cant hear it, then, all of a sudden all hell breaks loose!

The next thing i decided to TRY and i said TRY install because it didnt work as planned.... was the battery cover. The usdm battery cover sits too high in our engine bays and also there is no mounting points to clip it in like the battery cover side. I could not get it to fit any which way. I might take it somewhere so they can fabricate some brackets or what not but im not too sure if i want to spend any more time with this part. Be quicker to fabricate some carbon fibre sheet to just sit over that section anyway.

Finally, whilst i was at PROconcept, Josh asked if i wanted to test out their new line of clutches and lightened fly wheel for the 350Z / V35 / VQ Family of Gearboxes. I happily obliged to be a test mule and so far i say i am very happy and impressed with this clutch.

First off the pedal feel is LIGHTER than my stock pedal was! It is very easy to drive with the pedal very nice and soft feel yet firm down low.

Secondly, the lightweight flywheel is very very quiet. There is no chatter when cold or in driving conditions when there is little / no stop start. However as the clutch heats up it does get a bit louder on the chatter side, especially when the car is under load just when you have selected a higher gear ( < 2000rpm) and also on idle. However now with the exhaust i can barley hear if not completley eliminate any chatter sound at idle or gear changing hahaha~!

Finally, with the lightweight flywheel, the car revs out MUCH faster and just has pull all the way to the redline. Feels like a different car almost.

So there you have it, has been a busy weekend for my little car, happy to answer any questions

Loving the car even more now!

Cheers

-Mark

Edited November 7, 2009 by BLISTC

[CRISP 35]

good work on da exhaust dude. I really want to upgrade my exhaust too. I was thinking of HKS, but now after seeing urs, i mite change my mind. Im bit ignorant wen it comes to exhausts, so il ask u , did it come wid extractors and everything?, and if u don mind tellin me how much da exhaust set u back.

Thanx

[whtbox]

i did the USDM battery cover already. you have to cut them like the G35 have to cut the JDM battery cover. There is no way to fit them without cutting them. Take me awhile trimming it with Stanely knives lol.

Also is yours exhaust y-pipe comes as a Straight or with Resonator on it?

cheers

[BLISTC]

All up it was just under $2000 AUD delivered for the Exhaust, Stillen Box and the USDM Battery Cover. The exhaust alone paid $1070 USD.

I was originally going to get the HKS but that would of been $2000 AUD alone delivered. Best price i got on the HKS was $1799 USD delivered.

The HKS is a nice exhaust as well. I havent seen a car with one yet. I opted for the motordyne because more and more people in america are liking the motordyne over the HKS. so i decided to give it a try, and i dont know of anyone with their exhaust in australia yet. Plus i kinda like the sound more, as it keeps that VQ engine growl, but just makes it louder and more deeper. It kinda sounds like a muscle car!

If you look at the above picture of the exhaust the Y-Pipe has 2 flexi pipes in it (like the stock one), then after the Y-Pipe there is a resonator. You can get a straight pipe or a High Flow Cat instead as well as a resonator. I am waiting for Motordyne to develop their test pipe and then when they do i might take get one.

The good thing about the exhaust is that it is all bolted up together with the high quality band clamps. No flanges here.

No the exhaust didnt come with extractors / headers. That is a seperate purchase. Motordyne dont make headers yet. I dont think they will either. I am waiting for this particular brand of long tube headers to be released but they will be ~$2000 USD apparently when they come out. I dont really know if i want to spend that much money on headers. Might just get the tomei ones at the end of the day.

pw350gt thanks for the info! I remember seeing a thread on G35 driver about the installation of the battery cover. It skipped my mind to try the same thing on the USDM one! Lucky i kept it and didnt chuck it out cos i got pretty shitty when it wouldnt fit! lol

-mark

[CRISP 35]

All up it was just under $2000 AUD delivered for the Exhaust, Stillen Box and the USDM Battery Cover. The exhaust alone paid $1070 USD.

I was originally going to get the HKS but that would of been $2000 AUD alone delivered. Best price i got on the HKS was $1799 USD delivered.

The HKS is a nice exhaust as well. I havent seen a car with one yet. I opted for the motordyne because more and more people in america are liking the motordyne over the HKS. so i decided to give it a try, and i dont know of anyone with their exhaust in australia yet. Plus i kinda like the sound more, as it keeps that VQ engine growl, but just makes it louder and more deeper. It kinda sounds like a muscle car!

If you look at the above picture of the exhaust the Y-Pipe has 2 flexi pipes in it (like the stock one), then after the Y-Pipe there is a resonator. You can get a straight pipe or a High Flow Cat instead as well as a resonator. I am waiting for Motordyne to develop their test pipe and then when they do i might take get one.

The good thing about the exhaust is that it is all bolted up together with the high quality band clamps. No flanges here.

No the exhaust didnt come with extractors / headers. That is a seperate purchase. Motordyne dont make headers yet. I dont think they will either. I am waiting for this particular brand of long tube headers to be released but they will be ~$2000 USD apparently when they come out. I dont really know if i want to spend that much money on headers. Might just get the tomei ones at the end of the day.

pw350gt thanks for the info! I remember seeing a thread on G35 driver about the installation of the battery cover. It skipped my mind to try the same thing on the USDM one! Lucky i kept it and didnt chuck it out cos i got pretty shitty when it wouldnt fit! lol

-mark

K thanks mark, Yea i currently have da fujitsuibo exhaust,(Came wid da car from japan) , its good, but da mechanics reckon i need to do up da front end if im to benifit. A pair of extractors fitted including taxes is round $1700, quite a bit. Yea i saw da sound of the motordyne Exhaust on youtube and it sounds awsum. so do u feel a lot of power gain wid da exhaust. and one last question, how exactly did u contact riverside infinity, was it jus through ebay, or did u email them separately.

Cheers

[BLISTC]

i contacted riverside infiniti through the G35 Driver Forums.

It does feel faster and there is more power however i need to get it on a dyno to see the full results.

Also the headers most of that cost is in the installation, as you need to lift half the engine out i hear to install the headers! If you were to install cams thats another bitch of a job!

-Mark

[robbo33]

yeh my headers took about 5hrs to install at autosport

[dodes47]

Congrats on the parts. A job well done I must say!

Gee , I didn't know it was illegal to have an exposed air filter.

I got a pop charger under my hood. Maybe it's a state law?

[BLISTC]

it comes under emissions laws

if spotted by an officer you will get fined / defected and it will have to be removed.