350Butcher

Its a ton of work to install all these parts........its not a particularly difficult engine to work on but it is a labour intensive one.

The claims of the results though are absolutely ridiculous........and he's talking wheel hp too so the 377 is around 437 engine hp!!

370z (from Nissan website) = 323hp (87hp/ltr) after Z1 parts 437hp (118hp/ltr)...........just look at the numbers!! With no modification to head castings or bottom end at all. No doubt those mods would make gains and improve response and drivability but nowhere near these claims. 

If you just want additional power and to go faster then superchargers and turbos will always be the better route and £/hp the best result by some margin.

I know it's been a while since last post......but I've just seen and caught up with this build!

I'm doing some homework on 350z weight saving and found this build and have enjoyed reading about the tons of good work and hard graft that's gone into the car. Any idea what the weight of your half cage is?

I actually saw you at Anglesey GP layout back in May '17......had a look around the car and it so well finished and tidy for a car that gets tracked which is always good to see and a credit to you and your commitment to it!! I didn't find you on the day to have a chat about the car but did see you on the way home and shared a thumbs up!!

I was a bit dissapointed that I couldn't hang on to you round Anglesey but reading this thread and seeing you have 200 more hp plus 80kg weight saving I'm feeling much better about that now!!

1 hour ago, davey_83 said:

Hmmm Brian Cowler porn!!!! That's a healthy bump in comp. Should yeld strong gains arcoss the rev range 

That's the plan Dave.........35HR is 10.6:1 and 37VHR went to 11:1.........so pushing it a bit further with my build. Will be mapped to V power and I may throw in a bottle of Millers CVL turbo when on track days just to be on the safe side!

Santa arrived early and in a DHL van this morning!!........

CP pistons

If you haven't followed my build..........they are custom 12.5:1 CR to work with the longer 35HR rods and the 37VHR crankshaft. Feature coatings to crown and skirts, steel pins as well as a few other features to save weight, friction and increase performance.

BC Rods

Pretty typical 4340 steel items, come with ARP2000 bolts. Save weight and add a lot of strength over stock items.

You can see here the difference to stock with the raised pin height to accommodate the longer stroke of the 37VHR crank and the built up crown for increased compression 

Weight was of real important consideration so I pulled out the scales to compare!

Stock 35HR items

Piston 398g

Pin 109g

Rods 656g

TOTAL 1163g

CP/BC items

Piston 365g

Pin 95g

Rod 575g

TOTAL 1035g

Saving 128g per cylinder (x6 is 768g off total rotational assembly and they'll more once its calculated what can be removed from the crank too when the whole assembly is balanced)

Given that pistons at 7000rpm can be subjected to g forces well over 3000g's the saving of 128grams is a massive reduction in forces acting on the components inside the engine.

Looking forward to getting it all to the machine shop very soon

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year!!

21 hours ago, nissanman312 said:

Good info thanks 

Yeah that's how mine feels on some really bumpy roads the 370 wheels are some big old wheels 

Just tried to be helpful and weight stock disc vs the pfc floating assembly's I still have kicking around for but the stock disc (from a spare upright I built my brake kit from) is JDM size!

It gives you an idea though, standard JDM disc 296mmx24mm and much larger Brembo size pfc disc 324mmx30mm both weight 7kgs!

If the car is lowered and quite a handful over rough and undulating roads I can highly recommend installing these, made a big different to mine now its not bump steering all over the place when the road gets choppy when pressing on!

http://www.splparts.com/spl-pro-front-outer-tie-rod-ends-370z-g37/

Read the "note" on these down the page, worth knowing in case you do swap wheels at some point

1 hour ago, nissanman312 said:

I'm looking into my next mods and wondering just what difference some light wheels would make to the drive/handling of the z 

 

Curently on stock 370 19s 

I've also been looking at the z1 2 piece discs which claim to give a weight saving 

Good to get rid of as much unsprung weight as possible, does make noticeable difference to handling and chassis performance

Cant speak for the Z1 discs but I’ve run pfc discs since owning my 350’s, reduces a massive amount of weight over standard items, well worth changing to. Not cheap........but is anything good cheap........would be nice for a change eh!! 

Its also the reason I run the 18” lmgt4’s.........heavy wheels feel like dumbbells in each corner and over bigs bumps you can feel the dampers struggle to control them. 

11 hours ago, nissanman312 said:

Interesting view on it 

Even with the supercharger the gears feel so long 

And when climbing mountains on European trips I find the z very frustrating in and out of the hairpins! You just get Into the power and you got another corner 

I've always been put off by the thought of high rpm cruising but seems ok from what you are saying 

Agreed.........sometimes you want to snatch 1st to take hairpins as 2nd isn't quite there but I think the 3.9 makes 2nd so much more usable in tight stuff rather than screaming in 1st or bogging in 3rd.

As we now know you're only 15mins down the road you con have a run out in mine and see what you think before going for it yourself

12 minutes ago, andy james said:

Very interesting read. I'm in the process of building a Quaife diff to replace my Kazz 1.5 as looking to soften the driving experience a little. Totally agree that the Z is very long legged even when you add a lot of power. Might have a chat with Alex and try this.

Think you'll be happy with the results........it gives way more than it takes from the cars performance and the driving enjoyment/experience

I installed a 3.9FD in my HR 350z at the same time as installing my lsd and its a great mod!

I do a good amount of track days a year and wanted the advantages for track work but also use the car on road and for large trips for hols so was a little bit concerned about the negative effects it may have on motorway cruising etc but I think the 3.9FD is the perfect choice for the type of use I do with my car. (As do Nissan as they installed the 3.9 to the Nismo 370z models)  

On track it pulls through the gears noticeably and usefully quicker and allows you to keep the engine in the higher revs and in the power more of the time........I felt when on track the car was regularly bogging down in gear and waiting for the engine to pull through on every track from Cadwell to Nurburgring!

For road use I don't feel there are any down sides at all to having this installed over standard FD, motorway cruising is at slightly higher rpm but even driving to the south of France and doing whole tank of fuel with cruise set at 90mph never bothered me at all so it's in no way as full on as "like being in 5th instead of 6th"

Installation wise, I installed mine myself and it really isn't a difficult job for anyone comfortable with taking a spanner to your car and definitely not £000's of pounds worth to get done by third party! 3 bearings/ 3 seals a new crush sleeve and your chosen FD is all you need to get the job done. The hardest part is tightening the pinion nut onto the crush sleeve as its got to be tightened till the pinion requires 5nm to rotate (from memory.....check the FSM) and this requires a special and expensive gauge to test as you continue to tighten. (I ran down to a local transmission guy with £20 and he was happy to help with just this part of the job and with me borrowing his gauge.......top man!). I reused the same shims either side of diff and on pinion and when it was all assembled, backlash and pinion/crown wheel mesh checked it was perfect! Maybe I was lucky..........maybe the tolerances that Nissan manufactures its FD's to is plenty good enough.

Obviously I can only give my view on the 3.9FD but I would say its perfect for fast road/track car and 4.08 would be superb for a track bias car but bit tiring on motorway runs if you do do the odd x000mile road trip. If you're installing an aftermarket lsd I think its a no brainer to add a new FD to your shopping list

16 hours ago, reeceybeaney said:

I'm loving the internals/engine block of the VQ, working with historic Jaguar D Type and E Type engines on a daily basis, these are much more interesting

Looks like you're going to have a beast of a N/A VQ 

It is a very well engineered engine, it’s a pleasure to pull apart and reassemble! Things have moved on since the D and E type big cats I suppose but I’d love to build one of them up and go for a drive!! 

Thats definitely the target..........should be 100/litre fairly easily (I say carefully), 370 n/a hp will suit the Z really well.

Then all that’s left after that is to put the car on a major diet to raise it ability in every aspect..........but that’ll have to be on my winter 2020 plan! 

3 hours ago, nissanman312 said:

It's a deal 

Yeah we are lucky for good roads by us 

Keep the updates coming as well it's a great thred to read 

Cool!

Sadly I can feel the slow brigade are slowly starting to build and choke up n ruin them all just like they have in Surrey but they're still plenty to enjoy for the time being.

Will do.........think there will be a delay now while I get everything ready and find some time for assembly again.........glad you're enjoying reading it as I have enjoyed sharing it all on this forum!

14 minutes ago, nissanman312 said:

That would be good to take a look 

Oh blimey yeah you are just down the road I'm in meriden 

No problem.........will definitely keep you posted and sort something. I'll swap you a few laps round Donington for a passenger ride to sample your nearly 500hp Z!

15mins down the road!......Few nice roads from you out towards Nuneaton!

Managed to just nip out to garage to finish stripping down the engine................before nappy and cuddle duties call!!

Rods all out and good to see the bearings looking in good nick

then undo in sequence the retaining bolts

a really nice touch is that you remove the external bolts and then relocate them into a threaded tapping that then presses the two sections apart!.........Like that!

then all that's left is to lift away the crank! Again good to see main bearings looking good and everything spotlessly clean as I bought the engine imported from Japan with no paperwork or proof of mileage etc......always a bit of risk attached to that.

Being a bit of a nerd I love the machining and engineering involved in the steel inserts into the ally 

Loosely bolted the sections back together again, covered up to keep protected and clean before running it all to the machine shop to get all that side of work done ready to begin reassembling into something hopefully pretty special!

Hollow engine!.......

10 hours ago, nissanman312 said:

Ahhh ok cool

I'd like to pop along to a track day one of the days and check the car out it looks great 

 

Am I right in thinking you are not that far from me Midlands  or do I have that wrong? 

Happy to have you come along, say hello and see the car............hopefully we don't get 6months of salty roads this year/next year and I'll be booking something up again from March..............I'll post up what I've booked on to as and when

Yes, I'm in Warwick............where about's are you?

8 minutes ago, nissanman312 said:

Congratulations on the new arrival 

 

Is that a 370 engine or a 350 

Thanks very much!!

Its a VQ35HR engine......same blocks, I have a new VQ37 crank in the loft, and I get to have a spare pair of HR heads buying this engine. 

Other upgraded parts I've ordered for it I've now added to the bottom of that post.

7 minutes ago, SuperStu said:

Amazing mate, congratulations!

6 minutes ago, davey_83 said:

Get in the pal, congratulations to you both. Nothing compares 

Thanks very much guys! 

I did get a bit of time on the spare engine before my girl arrived.................when I popped the front cover I was very happy with the condition of the engine, no signs of poor maintenance with all totally clean castings........so a good start!

The common oil gallery gaskets have started to fail though!

Kept going, pulled the heads and bores look good, removed the sump and nothing but super clean and good base engine to rebuild up into my new 3.7lt screamer!!

Have placed my order for all hardware for the build.............so final spec will be

VQ37 86mm crankshaft

VQ35HR Brian Crower ProH2K rods (ARP 2000 bolts)

Customs CP 96mm 12.5:1 pistons spec'd with

- accumulator grooves,

- double pin oilers,

- anti detonation grooves,

- X forging

- Ceramic crown and Moly skirt coatings

- 9310 steel pin upgrade

Also adding.........for full rotational balancing  

OS Giken STR2CD clutch kit

ATI super damper crank pulley

I'll carry over my current upgraded heads/cams and all other upgrades

So after a 9 month wait a very special, 8lbs2oz delivery arrived!

All the Dad's on here will know how amazing it is when your little'n arrives............very special time indeed!

Good choice of tyre too..............love a fresh set of Yoko AD08r's!!

The above kit is what I have fitted to my HR 350z, very good kit with oem level of progression and bite but is worth noting the pedal weight is increased quite a lot in case that's not your thing............or if you share the car with your mrs! (can I say that these days!?)

I actively avoid these sort of keyboard discussions that seems to be the end of every post on this forum these days regardless of the original question or reason for thread but can’t help but respond here. 

I thought I made a safe assumption as your post was not in line with someone who uses heel n toe technique

As for evidence, I can’t help feeling you provided it all in your last post

7 hours ago, Ekona said:

Actually that's when it's easiest, as it's numbed down so that any body can make a decent attempt at it if they know the basic theory. A remap with a sharper throttle and a lightweight flywheel would make rev matching more difficult, so the opposite way round to what you've said  

Paul W, that does all sound normal and as others have said, would be great if you could share some pics as it sounds like quite a project youve taken on there and I’m glad you’ve saved the car from a different fate. 

Sorry to do off topic. 

Ekona.....you clearly don’t heel n toe yourself as Daves right there. Factory lazy throttle paired with heavy flywheel makes for easy smooth shifts under normal driving as revs don’t drop when you depress the clutch so you can swap cogs no problem. Under more enthusiastic conditions and you’re standing on the brakes and blipping throttle to heel n toe you need fast response to give flare of revs to sync with the down shifting / heel n toeing. So remapping to a more 1:1 ratio on the throttle and paired with a lighter flywheel/clutch assembly will give you just that. 

And the Corsa will get on to all of the straights quite a bit faster than a Z with that spec and there’s just not enough to make up the difference and then pull it all back too

Obviously as stated at the start that driver skill will ultimately decide who’s quicker but if both can get the maximum from their cars in question then I’d still pluck for the Corsa over a lap

Think I'd put my money on the Corsa for this one.

Those tyres and brake pads will cope far better with the lighter car and the weight saving will be a bigger advantage if its wet.

Hanger straight is long but the little Corsa should come out of the Maggots/Becketts complex quite a bit faster so I don't think the Z will be able to rein it back in.

Happy to be wrong...............and I hope you guys have a great time finding out!!

On 08/11/2018 at 18:13, Killick.z said:

IMO (very biased) MK1 over 2 for aesthetics all day long and the fact you rarely if ever see one. The rear in particular with the wing looks superb and not forgetting the Ray's. 

Sorry mate, stalking you today! Really like your Z

Totally agree with what you’re saying regarding the rear and for me it’s the way the line over the front wing continues down the front bumper and with that front splitter element it all looks proper race car rather than showy, I can’t even say I like the styling on the Mk2’s onwards as it’s all choppy and a bit pony for me. Each to their own though obviously! 

As always Davey, cracking pics of yours on this thread!