Chromatic

Invidia is located: Invidia-USA 2656 Chico Avenue South El Monte, CA 91733 Tel: 626-448-0150 Fax: 626-448-2816 Sales: Bernard@jetworld.com or gordonj@jetworld.com https://maps.google.com/maps?q=2656+Chico+Avenue+South+El+Monte,+CA+91733&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x80c2d08f32f9e787:0x90e17bd0990100ea,2656+Chico+Ave,+South+El+Monte,+CA+91733&gl=us&ei=X_jxUr3XCcnkyQGyi4DYBA&ved=0CCkQ8gEwAA So you did get it straight from the Factory -- Mine is from a Warehouse,.. If Invidia has an East Coast warehouse that's what it is.. But I don't think so.. I think it's just a Performance Part Company, and my Vendor doesn't "stock" big stuff like this for obvious reasons and obviously gets X hundred profit from a sale as I'm sure he gets what he sold me for $800 for like $650-700 if I had to guess.. I'm sure he's making at least $100 off me. That means, as I suspected,.. Invidia sells to a distributor for probably about $400 (give or take).. and probably makes the system for $200 or less.. (Tons of meat has to be left on the bone (profit) ) With this stuff.. As there is usually at least Invidia to a large supplier, then a middle man like my guy who gets a cut -- so that's "two" cuts and markups -- The higher priced versions of this same exhaust are people who are greedy,.. or more likely just don't get the negotiated deal this dealer does. I'm sure it has something to do with you sell X volume of product you get Y price.. I dunno,.. Tarmac is a bit unique as he's the primary/sole UK Invidia dealer for the whole country? Where my guy is just one of many.. but sold a few hundred of these last year, so does decent volume I guess. (Judging by his iTrader scores and feedback). Hopefully mine will be just as "Fresh" as yours lol..

That is impressive .. From US to UK in 48 hours. Mine will be here Thursday around Noon. What I was impressed with is that I was able to haggle with my dealer a bit, and got mine shipped, brand new with my choice of tips and such of course.. For $800 US,.. I don't think anyone can beat that price to be honest. His starting price was already good.. at $850.. if you compare elsewhere it's $940 + shipping on cheaper websites and can go as high as $1200-$1350. I really think $800 shipped is a steal for this exhaust,.. and for you guys, with the conversion US $ to Pounds.. it would be $489 Pounds -- So probably .. oh $500-$550 Pounds shipped to you guys (That's giving it over $100 room for shipping cost to ship from east coast,.. which is much cheaper than shipping from West coast to UK). Though this guy , to my knowledge, doesn't ship overseas. I don't think Tarmac has anything to worry about haha.. And I don't know which currency you guys are referring to (when you quote what price you bought it for) as you have the Euro, Pounds, etc. What did you pay for that 2 day shipping (same I'm getting.. (Air 2day (48 hour) shipping) From US East coast to UK? Did you need it in a hurry and pay a little extra for that? Or did Tarmac just get it to you that quick just for the heck of it? Also, I suppose if going from US to UK.. it's pretty much going to be Air unless you want to wait a while on a boat Thanks -- So looks like that box is probably about 100cm (length) x 70cm (width) x 30cm (height) -- Rounding (As I said in my welcome/intro.. I watch primarily 99% UK television and am more in tune with Britian/UK than the US in those sorts of things..)-- So I've started to actually work on my use of the Metric system.. my brain fights me, but Inches, Feet, etc just don't make sense.. and it's nice to know how to utilize both, though I'm sure you guys can calculate Meters, cm, Kilo's etc to Feet, Inches, Miles MUCH faster than I can the other way around. If I'm even close to right.. That will fit in my hatch just fine. But is everything in that ONE box? Because some of those pieces look like they would NOT fit in such a size box. If it is one box,.. then Bravo Invidia -- you designed one hell of an exhaust AND designed one hell of a packing system for it lol. Bullet you've been really invaluable with these pictures, box pictures, and so on.. I'm going to take pictures of everything as well just to have it in archive as this kind of stuff is impossible to find on the net lol. When I add my Stock vs Gemini exhaust video on Youtube and post it to the thread,.. I'll probably have pictures of my factory exhaust and how I loaded it in the Zed,.. pictures of how that box fits just fine in the Zed,.. and when the box arrives I'll make a picture like you did and then use MS Paint to draw some rough arrows of the dimensions (takes 20 seconds to do that.. Photoshop takes longer to load lol). I'm excited,.. this mechanic is very cool.. He will let me help him with the install (I know I'm paying him..) -- But if I can help I can also help ensure it's routing, and get a little experience while I'm at it.

Well, like many Zed's the Cover that goes over the rear strut bar cover in hatch has issues -- Primarily on mine the Z emblem which is actually not painted but covered in a light coating of metal was peeling off badly. So I removed the cover (man mine was super brittle).. then carefully drilled out the Z emblem.. and have removed all the metal from it and sanded it down ready for Prime/Paint.. I have a fairly stock match with paint.. did my best. Here's the Emblem with everything removed.. not too pretty like this. But I'm going for an exact stock look on it, as I've seen many others who have done this elsewhere and when they do something else it generally doesn't turn out looking exactly "right" or clean to me. They don't look bad (most of them).. but I like a good clean look.. and the way it came is how I think it should remain (for my tastes). Front of Emblem after prepped with Dremel, Razorblade, and Hand sanding: The back which shows where it connected: Had to dremel those points down so I can reattach it evenly.. If you look at some others I think some people didn't completely flatten this out on all edges so their's sticks up a bit (not something most passerby's would notice.) I will say if your considering fixing this,.. be VERY careful removing this whole plastic piece.. on my car it was incredibly brittle.. I think the car was left in the 100+ F heat for years before it had tint and caused it to get super brittle. I could hear it cracking with very little pressure. -- I don't think others are nearly as brittle as mine was. Next update will be the final product on the car..

Shipping got delayed from Pennsylvania Monday.. so it shipped today. But this amazes me. It's listed on UPS.com as 72 Pounds ship weight.. and they are sending it Air (2nd Day Air) instead of ground shipping due to the delay.. and shipping cost was only $35. That's an amazing price for shipping a 72 pound exhaust system even within the US. Probably going 1000miles give or take.

Man that box looks small.. but no reference. But if you've put the factory box with invidia exhaust in your Zed.. I'm good. The guy I bought it from kept it under a car cover, so gave that to me.. Seems like the perfect thing to put the old exhaust in to bring it home.. Then I'll lightly clean it up (stock exhaust).. and pack it up in some boxes and store it. I would sell it, but I may end up needing to put it back on the car when I sell it years down the road. Stock (vehicles) usually fetches more money than modded from my experience. Thanks for all this great first hand info though.. really is helpful!

Looking at that.. man that exhaust is long.. Wonder if it's even possible to get it in my car in the original boxes. Hrmm.. I may have to pull out the pass. seat or something to transport it + bring my old nasty exhaust home with me.

Thanks.. this was a point I had in mind to point out to the mechanic on the rack.. as I've read many people who've let a shop do it and not known about this little piece and the shops invariably put it OVER that sway bar and while it works that way, it can create some clearance issues. This picture helps.. although I could have sworn that it was on the other side for my car.. lol.. may be a RH/LH drive thing? Or maybe I'm just wrong and it's the same on both cars.. Thanks

It doesnt have the necessary switches on the brake and accelerator pedals, but the wiring is there Yup.. That's the $125 in parts I said -- Buy steering wheel panels with buttons,.. The module for headunit to work with cars buttons,.. plus the brake and clutch circuit switches.. and connect the plug on steering wheel, and for audio wire it up (take about 5-10 minutes to wire).. Then flash the Rom..to work. Only expensive part is the tune,..flash.. which is why I intend on doing this but only when I'm ready and need a tune.

Read the whole thread.. good stuff. The most annoying feature the Z has though.. is what has been said,... That no matter HOW far you park away from all the other cars.. You invariably come back to your car with some assjack who parked next to you, and about 6" away from your door. This is funny, but it's seriously true! Makes me want a cloaking device.,.. Or some 6 foot razor spikes that come out of the sides of the car 60 seconds after you press the alarm/lock button on the key fob.. But,.. hard to add to this -- So I'll just put some things I "learned" when I literally took the entire inside of my Zed out 3-4 weeks ago as I was rewiring and putting in my speakers/amp/headunit etc.. 1) The Z has NO ground on the factory radio/nav harness. However, it has a black ground wire coming out , but the other end doesn't go to a ground! This is important if you are installing an aftermarket head unit,.. as if you don't run that wire to a ground point somewhere (can even be the cage the radio sits in) it will ground off the Antenna lead you plug in.. (You can confirm this visually, and with an aftermarket head unit notice the head unit won't turn on unless you plug the antenna into it (it should turn on without the antenna). -- Why is this important? With some headunits, especially if you have amps in your car like me.. Your Z will shock you when you get in and out (like a static shock) due to the lack of ground. And it can introduce noise into the speakers (like alternator whine, etc..). What the engineers were thinking here is beyond me! 2) The carpet is held in by flimsy metal square "slotted" tabs that are literally stapled to the carpet that you Pull around the clips the Door Seal panels clip into. (panels at the very bottom of the door frame). (Boring one I know). Hrmm what else.. 3) The rear speakers in your Zed are 32 ohm! If you know anything about speakers, that's incredibly high. (Most home audio speakers are 8 ohm.. and most car audio speakers are 4ohm (and many 2ohm). [This is also why some of you may have noticed after putting in an aftermarket radio/headunit the rear speakers are either very quiet, or don't output any sound at all.. The higher the resistance of a speaker (ohms) the more power it takes to .. well.. power it (make it move).] 4) If you remove your passenger seat and turn your car on with it out.. The Airbag light will continually flash. (If you ever get in this predicament when installing something,.. or making space to haul something large by removing the seat (just 4 bolts) -- Put seat back in.. make sure it's plugged in. Then Turn key to Acc position (just before you would start the engine).. watch the airbag light.. the second the airbag light goes off turn the key all the way off (you have to be fast here).. Then count to 7-8 .. and do it again (Do this 3-4 times). This resets it back to normal. 5) Built in "feature" -- When you remove the AC controls in front of the shifter.. (unplugging them).. when working on things,.. when you turn the key to acc or engine on the AC will blast at full the whole time.. (great on the battery !) 6) All models.. Even the Base model that doesn't have steering wheel buttons and thus cruise control has Cruise built into it! The wiring is all done,.. if you were to remove the front of your steering wheel you would find the plug that controls the steering wheel controls just sitting there.. (Which is fantastic for those with base models wanting to add radio/cruise buttons -- Costs $125 in parts, and you need a tune.. but I won't get into it.) That's enough rather boring facts about the Z hehe.. Oh, and taking the interior of the Z out is A LOT easier than putting it back in!

Oh,.. called my mechanic (first guy I've found that seems honest, and knows what he's doing..) plus he's a big car nut/enthusiast like us,.. he has a few mustangs himself. I sort of steered the call at first.. after I got the tech's to get me the boss, Kyle the master mechanic there.. And said "Hey Kyle,.. This is Jared with the 350.. remember me? He paused a second, and said yeah yeah.. we worked on your alignment.. how are you?.. small talk.. then I said,.. Well look I just bought this cat back after-market exhaust that's just a simple bolt on kit.. and everyone I've talked to with it says it's under an hour job,.. So I was wondering if you could put this on and what would you charge me?" He said.. well I have to follow the policy here .. and it will go under the Performance Install rate .. of $95 an hour -- So $95 is about right. I said,.. Well it's just a Cat-back that I've been on the fence about installing myself but don't want to get stuck with a rusted bolt etc.. and with your lift and impact wrenches you could have this thing on in no time.. He then starts asking questions about it (which I like about him) -- and I tell him it converts it from single (Y-pipe) to true dual.. he said, yeah yeah.. that's great. Then he asks what brand it is.. and says I keep up with all the performance parts.. I told him the brand, and he acted like he knew of it (Not sure if Invidia does a lot of Muscle car stuff.. but maybe so..)-- Then he said, well an hour sounds about right, but just bring it by Friday as I won't be here Thursday. I said.. Do I need an appointment, or just bring it by anytime? He said, oh man just bring it in any time and you may have to wait a minute while we clear the rack for you but it wouldn't be long. I said, great.. (I like shops that let you just swing by like that for obvious reasons).. He also said.. about price.. that he'd just like to take a look at it and how it goes together .. So I suppose that $95 isn't firm. But I will be sure (as it's how I am) .. that if he looks at it and thinks it's going to go over $95 (1 hour) that I'll just say thanks man, but I can't spend more than $100 for the install. Have a feeling he will be fine with the 1 hour. So that's pretty good news. ** Start of semi long story about how one shop lied to me blatantly and my mechanic Kyle totally saved the day** (Scroll down to skip this story) There's a long story about this guy and another shop.. but the short of it is another shop was alignment my new tires I got in December,.. and I got a call from them that said my alignment wouldn't go into spec so I'd need to get X, Y, and Z parts for more adjustment for the Toe/Camber etc.. I was like ok,.. I'll come pick it up and figure out that on my own. (They had a quote up for me for like $1000 to do the work themselves). Didn't sound right to me.. but the former owner did slightly bump a curb when he first got the car (he told me that).. so I thought maybe that slight bump bent something in there. I priced out new A-arms up front and a rear Camber bar kit to put on myself.. But I didn't buy it,.. I called a half dozen shops around.. and finally got this guy Kyle.. He was the first one to say.. "Hey ,.. Bring that car down here.. let me throw it up on the rack and let's make sure you need all that.". I was like ok.. I took to him,.. explained the story (was a nightmare to that point).. He put it on the rack.. and immediately within a few seconds said.. come here. Look at those rear adjustment bolts,.. they still have rust over them.. no one has even touched them (broke them free).. whoever did this didn't even adjust the rear at all. i was like.. wow! (The shop that told me it couldn't adjust into alignment was a HUGE chain shop.. not some single independent shop). He said,.. I may be able to get this into spec,.. and let me shout back the spec numbers that were coming off the $100,000 alignment rack his shop had.. (was amazing using high speed cameras and lasers) -- He said watch.. just touch the car and watch the screen.. I did.. and the alignment shifted.. .. lol, talk about sensitive. Anyhow.. In less than 5 minutes as I shouted back what direction he was going and how far out or in he was.. He had the car into "green" spec alignment . I was like man you are a serious lifesaver. Then on top of that when I asked how much it was.. He said.. "Oh man, I'm not going to charge you.. You've already been through enough with this.. ". That immediately made him "my mechanic". Master mechanic, knows what he's doing, and is honest. Told him any work I couldn't do myself, or didn't want to do .. he'd be my guy. He said, sounds good. I don't let stuff like that just roll off my shoulders -- not so much because I was "mad".. I wasn't. But because I didn't want other customers to be getting bad alignments if their equipment was miscalibrated,.. or worse.. if they were being shady I didn't want other customers being taken advantage of. -- So I went straight to the top.. Contacted the CEO of the company.. to my surprise he called me the next day. He was NOT happy to hear of this to say the least. The next day he had the head of the Region (about 150 shops in the southeast US) contact me and got the whole story .. And I didn't even ask,.. but he immediately refunded the entire money I had paid minus the tire installation (cause well, that was done right..) -- I told him, look.. I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble here.. I just want you guys to get someone in there to check their alignment rack to make sure it's in calibration and from there you can take over. The Executive guy was like.. Oh I've already got a crew headed over there as we speak,.. and I'm personally going to that store (he took a flight across the country).. to handle this. I was like.. ok sounds great, but really I'm not trying to blame any person here, .. could be an honest mistake. I have a pretty good feeling that store got a serious reality check when the boss's boss's boss's boss walks in from across the country with my 100% legit story and all the documents from both shops showing what that store had told me I needed and so on.. and the documents of the other shop getting in back into perfect alignment with nothing but regular adjustments. (I scanned everything in for him). Suffice it to say I'm not sticking my head back in that chain store again.. 1) Because I obviously don't trust them.. 2) If no one got fired.. they all probably got a warning that from bottom to top (in that single store) their jobs were on the line if this kind of crap happened again. Then a few days later.. the CEO called me back again, and left a voicemail (i didn't catch that call) -- and was so apologetic and wanted me to call him (insistently) to follow up with it and said everything had been taken care of from equipment to the technicians, and store manager etc.. My goal was accomplished -- I bet other customers in there aren't going to get BS $1000+ work done to their cars unless the employees of that store want to lose their jobs. (If you are curious the "bad" store was a Firestone -- lots of them in the US). I guess the moral of this story is don't hesitate to try a bunch of shops, mechanics.. make a lot of calls until you find a master mechanic you feel comfortable with both in their ability but also just sort of click with their personality -- If you care about your 350 as much as I do.. there are few people I'd trust to work on it,.. and this Master Mechanic "Kyle" (he's probably mid 40's or so) is the only one at this point. But I consider myself blessed to have found him with all the mechanics I've dealt with (I do all the handling of my Mother, Father, Sisters, 3 brothers, etc cars.. so I'm at shops a lot if I'm not doing a brake job, or other job myself).. out of all these places I've been to I have not felt "comfortable" with any of the mechanics. So a good mechanic who is honest and talented is really a gem to find (around here anyway). **End of the evil Shop story ** So exhaust arrives Wednesday,.. and if I don't get some itch to just do it myself Wednesday or Thurs.. I'll have it on Friday at the latest . I'll do a quick Stock vs Invidia Gemini exhaust Youtube video just to add to the collection as they do help when deciding between exhausts.. I'll use my Iphone and my digital Camera to see which one picks up the low notes of the exhaust tone better,.. As Iphone's I know have a built in high pass crossover cutoff at 200hz which limits a ton of the deep exhaust tones.

Yup.. remote starts are good for both AT and MT 350's... It's just the people who put a generic remote start really designed for an AT on a MT car that tend to end up forgetting one day and starting the car remotely and having it take off and crash. The ones designed for MT have all sorts of checks and safety features.. and work by putting your car in neutral, parking brake up.. getting out of the car -- and pressing the button and car locks and turns off. Then the system knows it's safe to remotely start. Considering the price on these. a good brand I just got quoted made/wired specific for the 350 is $239.. that's not bad. If they aren't bad to install yourself (ie: not harder than say wiring up a headunit) then that's not bad at all.

Dang.. lol. My catback exhaust that turns it into true dual is only good for 4-5hp/tq at best.. So it looks like it's about $200 per hp.. ouch Oh, and I'm with you.. I won't even remove my spare tire.. I'm not removing trim, interior parts, seats, whatever for 50-100lbs.. 100lbs = roughly 10 horsepower.. good rule of thumb. Screw that lol.

ROFL.. That'd put a grin on my face though.. I've thought about remote starts.. but I hear on manual transmissions it's not the best idea.

Heh.. yeah I'm familiar with all the nutso ways to reset the ECU's (computers) of all sorts of cars.. In my last car to reset the oil change "percentage" (it showed 0-100 percent of oil life left) when you changed the oil.. You turned the car off.. put the key at acc.. pushed in gas pedal fully.. then half way.. then fully three times.. then let go.. turned key off.. then back on.. I was like wha? So far I've only used one reset for this car.. when I had all the interior out (seats included) I did power the car back up to test things before putting passenger seat back in.. and I knew the airbag light would get stuck blinking. So I did the turn key on till air bag light went off.. then immediately (you have to be quick .. like lightning ) turn it all the way off.. count to 7 (or so).. back on.. repeat a few times, and the light went off for good. Haven't done any pedal dances yet with the Z I'm 99.999999 percent sure re-map = tune.. I've considered buying my own Osiris kit myself so I can do the tunes myself with my laptop.. Fairly simple process and similar to things I do everyday with computer systems anyways. Them main thing Is I would need access to just one file.. the enthuisast or touring file that tells your car what it is.. base, enthusiast, touring etc.. Only reason being is because I'd be putting in the steering wheel controls, and pedal switches for cruise control .. and would need that file to make my car think it's a model with cruise... which enables those switches to work. They would serve two purposes.. 1) Cruise.. 2) Allow me to change between the maps.. ie: Performance map, Run cheap petrol map, Rev/RPM limiter map for valet, Theft (engine lock) security map.. and the others.. I believe you can store 5 maps that are switchable on the fly.. And they switch via the cruise buttons. Otherwise I'd have to reflash it manually with a laptop myself. I need to really find a tuner here local to me to do this with.. that's knowledgeable about this stuff.. cause once you buy the osiris tuner license it works on one ECU/car but allows you to reflash it as many times as you want for free.. Which is why I would almost like to just do it myself.. Where with any new mods I wouldn't need to go somewhere and pay another $125 or so for a "reflash/map/tune" Cause all the tune files come with the package.. but I couldn't do a Dyno session and have a "custom" map made unless I had a Dyno in my garage lol.. But that's a little ways down the road. However, I did price out the cost of the cruise control parts.. and it's around $125 for parts, that's about the cheapest thing I would have done to the car.. but then comes the $500+ initial cost for the tune (cause of the license fee). I have glanced at Tarmac.. but Tarmac is UK's dealer ya? So I don't need to get any ideas on those parts cause shipping probably would make it more expensive than dealers here in the states? I've looked at a bunch of other dealer sites.. Just curious about the mods and prices vs hp gained from them. Let me put it this way.. I've had a few Mustang V8's .. and there were things I could do to those with some regular tools and no parts to gain 10-20 horsepower lol.. And spend $100 for another 15hp, etc.. You put 2 grand in a mustang you might get 30+ hp lol. Of course there is a limit to the cheap cost bolt ons. But for the Z's.. there isn't any freebies/cheap add-ons. Besides forced induction.. what modification gives the most horsepower for the least money? And what is that horsepower? (Generic, probably dead horse question I know.. but just curious..)

Heh.. Yes it was.. I start typing then I don't realize how much I've typed, and have a pretty good feeling it's now *beyond* reasonable attention span length so make a TLDR I just got this car so I'm careful when I have time to afford it.. but if I have to be somewhere in 5 minutes .. You better believe the car is going to have to run "unwarmed". .lol Man,,.. a cooldown -- yuck! Who has time for that? Sitting with the engine going when you are at your location,.. I could see how that would really get old fast.

Hrmm .. well a light will bug me.. lol. So I'd hunt down the good HFC's or pipes (probably only HFC's) that never throw the O2 sensor code.. Yeah.. By a re-map -- I assume you mean what we , over here, call a "tune" ? If so,.. that runs, here,.. minimum $500. Which is a lot of money to me. I don't think exhaust and better Air filters justify that money.. but.. but... maybe the best step for a 350 HR motor (or any motor) is to do a "tune" right away due to this 1:1 effect you speak of. I'm going to get a tune sometime this year.. as I've mentioned I'm going to get the steering wheel controls, pedal switches, and wire up the harness and let the Tune also be my activated Cruise control. (I think it was poor form to not put Cruise control as standard on a 2008 vehicle of this caliber.. the other models offered enough to get people to buy them. The only reason they left out Cruise on base was to push people to buy higher models,.. and what 30k sports car (or any car at that price) doesn't come with Cruise control these days? That's the ONE thing that surprised me for the negative when I first got in this car. But bottom line a tune to me means more than just a perf. increase/tune to my components,.. it's an "option" that should have been standard becoming alive as it should be. But I've scanned across some people talking about their tunes.. and they talk about getting several "settings" in the tune.. Ie: (making some of this up..) -- Option 1) Performance mode for Premium only gas -- Option 2) Tuned down a bit to actually run on 87 (lowest) octane without detonation -- Option 3) Valet/Parking attendant, etc Rev limiter where the car is limited to say 3k RPM's so people parking your car or otherwise using it can't drive it dangeously/rag it out, etc. -- Option 4) Fuel Economy option -- Car tuned down to be as efficient as it can be (with loss in power) to gain a little Gas efficiency (Is it Kilo's per Liter there? lol) -- These things would be very, very useful and cool to have. I would use the Fuel economy option and Performance option constantly.. for obvious reasons. Then it would be nice to have a way to "neuter" your car for someone else driving it.. say at the shop, or carwash, or some place you are leaving it with strangers without you in sight. lol.. Or perhaps amusing to click on before you let your friend drive the car and tell him or her they can wind it out! Or.. perhaps, is this Re-map something similar but not the exact same thing as a tune? To me a computer is a computer is a computer... so all of this is just software driven flashes of the Read only memory (called a Map). But I've been known to be wrong. As for the air induction -- Well,.. perhaps foolishly,.. I saw this car had dual intakes and thus two separate air filters -- and thought it looked like a good intake system. So I bought two K&N filters and dropped them in the first week I had the car. Now, I think.. hrmm.. maybe I should have bought the Induction kits that relocate the filters and change them to two cone filters. So if my two K&N filters count for some sort of air induction, lol,.. then yeah

TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read at Bottom of Post ) Ah,.. well I have a different view. But people are going to do what they do.. and believe what they believe on such two sided topics like "Should you let your car warm up for 30 seconds or so when it's been sitting overnight, etc.". I've run several cars past 300k miles without any engine mechanical failures.. I'd like to attribute this to my "rituals".. one of which is letting them warm up,.. even if just for 30 seconds or so. I've helped build a few engines in my time so far.. (Couldn't do it without a lot of studying by myself now.. but you really get a true understanding of how it all works visually when you put it together.).. And it makes good sense to me to let the oil circulate, heat transfer through the gear box... (IE:In our cars.. and modern cars the gears are all turning when you sit there with the clutch in or in neutral..) -- Most people think you have to actually be rolling and shifting gears for the trans fluid or gears to move-- but cars now are Constant Mesh and thus the shaft is linked to all gears on the lay shaft. So each gear on this lay is in mesh with it's adjacent gear on the main shaft,.. spinning freely. So when we actually move that shift level it just engages a gear to the splines on the main which then allows power to the rear wheels. All that to say some oppose this because they argue the gears need to be moving (by driving at low rpm) to properly get the trans warmed up but this isn't necessary now adays. I'm not Arguing it.. lol.. nor trying to re-start a dead horse topic.. Just giving my 2 cents on it. Personally it's a habit of mine I've had since I started driving,,.. not that I've never jumped in my car and taken off (not this one yet..) when I am in a huge rush, emergency, etc.. But 99% of the time I give it at least 30 seconds. Nowadays with our phones(little computers) attached to us .. I use the 30 secs to plug my phone into the charger.. check mail, etc.. and maybe adjust the volume/track on head unit and 30 seconds goes by pretty quick lol. I think whenever the Manual says to let the car warm up for 30 seconds on a cold start,.. that it's probably not a *bad* idea to follow what the engineers of said car recommend. The car spikes oil pressure and idle rpm on cold starts for a reason. When looking this "topic" up online.. you get the articles where it says something like "Needing to warm a modern car up is a MYTH/FALSE" .. and.. "Older cars in the 50's, 60's, 70's,.. even 80's needed a warm up period, but modern cars simply do not. So jump in your car and take off!" -- That's just bad advice to me. The internals of the engine are more efficient but they work the same way they did 80+ years ago. With the 30 seconds or so the engine creates clearances between "Moving" parts that aren't as wide as when you first start the car. I, (just my opinion), believe that people (and this is MOST people on the planet) who jump in their car every morning and take off immediately don't cause some major damage to the engine, but I do believe that over long periods of time (and lots of miles) that this practice causes a slight bit more wear due to the clearances not being quite what they were designed to operate at.. at.. well.. operating temperature,.. and the minute wear and tear that happens to all engines over time is just accelerated that little bit each time, which leads to engine failure sooner than if it is allowed to warm up even for just 30 seconds (ESPECIALLY in the winter). My personal ritual isn't a set time.. It's basically the outside temp, and more the way the engine sounds and acts via Oil pressure, Coolant Temp, and Idle speed. Our 350's are actually VERY much programmed to have a warm up period, as on a cold start that idle spikes twice as high as normal,.. the Oil pressure is jacked WAY up.. and it quickly but steadily lowers the idle RPM (mine idles about 500'ish when warm).. the oil pressure lowers.. and the coolant temp is rising as those two are lowering. (I know you all know this ) But, for instance.. right now in the winter when it's say.. 0c to -15c outside like it's been most of the past 2 months where I live .. I let it idle for 2 minutes or so.. But, in the spring/summer even fall.. 20 seconds may be just fine (for me). Bottom line: Jumping in your car and taking off without a warm up isn't going to cause your engine to fail at 90k miles or something .. Nor is letting it warm up everytime going to magically extend the engines life by 100k miles over average. But I do think there is some marginal benefit over the life of the car,.. and marginal degradation over time without the warmup. I think we can all agree on this though.. A good portion of people, at least here in the US,.. jump in their cars late for work. or even just going out for anything.. cold start -- take off, and haul arse... every single time. This WILL harm the engine (over the life of the car) and cause it to have a shorter "Wear and tear" lifespan that if they at least drove the car reasonably for the first few minutes.. then they can drive like a maniac lol. But,.. how many of us buy our cars and keep them till the engines wear out? I'd say not many.. For a Nissan engine that isn't a lemon or heavily modified without building the internals properly they can run 200k no problem.. and hit 300k if maintained well.. and of course some go beyond this. I've personally never had a car over low 300k miles.. And the majority of my vehicles I've sold before 100k miles and gotten something else. What's the point? I guess that these effects that take quite a long time to really manifest .. many of us will never be around to see them .. So I guess who cares! Then you have the injection of well what about that Gas you are wasting? How many dollars does that add up to? Then what about the environment.. lol .. and other such things. Call me selfish, but I'm going to let my 350 idle for 30 seconds over saving the planet. (I guess I'm just an evil guy.. ) Ok.. that turned into a monster post. Guess I'll put a TLDR down here: TL;DR -- I like to give it 30 seconds on a cold start (IIRC, it even says so in the Manual.. the engineers aren't stupid people) -- But I see both sides of the "topic" and there really isn't a right or wrong answer when it all boils down.

Hrmmm.. Should I do one of those "Stock Exhaust Videos,.. and then Aftermarket Exhaust Videos" that are plentiful on youtube? lol.. I guess the ones where the people just put the phone/camera behind the car walk up turn it on.. rev it up some.. then turn it off.. and repeat for the Aftermarket is easy enough at the least. Speaking of those videos,.. if you've watched any to see what exhaust sound you liked when shopping around.. I notice on just about everyone.. People COLD start their Z's and immediately start revving that engine up. I cringe a little.. Maybe I'm overprotective,.. but before I go anywhere.. I always have it in neutral and start it up and let it sit for 2 minutes at least (maybe 4-5 minutes if it's below 0c) before I rev, or essentially go anywhere.

True.. but I'm going to do my best to keep the Stock exhaust in tact.. to either Keep to possibly put on for resale down the road (Stock always trumps a modded car).. OR to sell for the little money you can get out of them.. Everything is worth a little bit of cash. And, that's exactly what I thought about the Jack stands on grass.. I doubt the car would literally fall on me.. but it probably wouldn't be even.. If I could DEFINITELY get it done in a couple hours, then bringing it out to my deceased grandfathers place (Grandmother lives there) that's my best bet due to his tools -- Although His driveway is a good 40-45 meters from the Shop,.. I highly doubt the Impact Guns are going to reach that far.. Hrmmm.. Using an Impact gun would make this dissassembly SO much easier .. Short HARD quick bursts are what break bolts free .. and slow,.. LONG hand turned tension/torque are what snap/break and strip bolts. I may be able to put some plywood down or something and see if the car sits level on it perhaps? But, if a shop gives me a $100 or less quote (essentially if they can do it in a quoted 1hr or less) then this won't be an issue of course.

Yeah.. I've given a little thought, but no research into products further up the exhaust stream.. ie: Next in line would be the Cats.. And.. In the US we do have Emissions tests -- But it's on a state by state basis. A FEW states don't have any emissions testing whatsoever... I happen to live in such a state lol. There are also no dB laws for exhaust here.. but that doesn't mean a cop won't pull you over with a loud exhaust.. And the bigger worry with loud exhaust and police is just them noticing you over all the other vehicles on the road. We already get the instant looks from the police because we are in such a sexy fast looking car.. combine that with the VQ35 engine sound.. which is deep, unique,.. and sounds a bit exotic with Aftermarket Exhaust quite frankly..and you get double attention. So while Joe in the Honda Accord may be going 80 in a 55.. and you 65 in a 55.. Guess who's going to get pulled over? But the biggest issue is the right level of noise in the cabin. With the stock exhaust, as I've said,.. I currently need a fair bit of noise increase.. as I cannot hear the engine while driving and I "drive by ear" I suppose.. like many people who have any time with a manual trans (All I've driven my 17 years of driving)..and while I absolutely LOVE this car.. it still feels alien driving because of that lack of Audible input. I think the driving experience is going to be dramatically increased when I can hear this beautiful roar of the engine while driving with some light music going. This Invidia Gemini exhaust is on the "Quieter" side.. but that doesn't mean it's quiet, lol. I was noticing when I started my car up last night to let it warm up for a minute or two before leaving.. that the factory exhaust is not quiet on the outside.. Which sort of perplexes me.. as some of the other cars I've had weren't this loud stock and I heard those engines while driving more than this one,.. and the 350Z is NOT known for being quiet from roadnoise , etc.. So doesn't make a ton of sense why hearing my engine/exhaust would be an issue.. but, alas, it is. So,.. yes -- If this isn't "loud enough" that's easily rectified with some Test pipes or HFC's. I lean toward High flow Cats, because I don't want any check engine or other such lights to come on due to the O2 sensors etc with Test pipes.. so maybe you can answer that. Do all test pipes generally cause issues with check lights on the dash? Or no? I know HFC's given they are still Catalytic converters just opened up generally don't cause an issue with anything. But man.. BOTH are still expensive. It's nuts how expensive everything is .. I mean you would think you could just get two pieces of pipe and replace your cats for $50 and be set.... but no.. these HFC's or Test pipes are almost the cost of the Exhaust systems.. some like ART (I think that's it) pipes are! Headers are always expensive.. On this note -- I've been wondering about the best bang for the buck (low end priced mods) for the 350 HR motor.. And by low price obviously nothing is cheap for this car... but you know what I mean. I know the older DE motors could do the Plenum Spacer and get a fair gain from it.. but the HR I hear it doesn't work like that. So beyond exhaust,. what's the next logical upgrade to the car on the under $1000 range,.. and what kind of HP are we talking about? From the bit I've read -- you can't pull hp out of this motor very easily. You spend a thousand for 5hp here.. a thousand for 4 hp there.. etc.

But she's got class too Yeah.. over on the American forum they all say use PB Blaster and NOT to take it to a shop (not one person says I shouldn't do it myself lol).. So I'm TORN! My decision will be like I did when I was pricing Audio installs.. I'll make some phone calls,.. and if I can get someone to do it for $100 or less,.. I'll use them. If they are more.. I'm going to give it a go. Worst case scenario it's EXHAUST.. even if my factory exhaust is half off the car with seized bolts.. I can still drive it somewhere to get the new system put on.. it's not a crucial part of the car to make it function (on a short term basis).

Yeah,.. I said I wasn't done lol. -- I wasn't worried with the original holes.... I drilled them randomly without thought to how they looked as the whole square was going to be cut out anyways. I was very impressed with how well the piece I ordered matched the interior.. Looks like it literally came built that way. I guess that's the goal. Thanks

Cleaned up the Fabrication work -- It's finito now.

Heh.. I've spent more hours working on the car than driving so far.. Bought it in the beginning of Dec. 2013... I probably have 120-200 hours of my own labor into the car so far.. And definitely not that much in driving. I've put about 1200 miles on it since I bought it.. sitting at 27.5k miles now. But the money is getting tight now.. So the Exhaust is probably the last thing I'm going to do to the car for a little while anyway.. I didn't expect to do anything to it when I bought it.. then one thing led to the next.. lol. We'll see how it goes.

lol! Well, I do my homework,.. and I have an attitude of not doing things half-arsed.. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. FI , especially on an import like this,.. costs a TON of money done right. That said,.. it is arguably still the best "bang for the buck" given the gains you get. From what I've read you can get about 400hp out of the stock motor without drastically reducing it's life.. Anything more than this (higher boost etc) you want to also rebuild the internals of the engine. Considering this car already stock has 306hp.. I'd say the 400hp mark sounds about right on stock internals (I'd assume that's under 10 pounds of boost.. but that's a wild guess). It hurts me when I see people who buy an "ebay" turbo for $250-$500 and put it on a car like the Z.. .. Or even get a good Turbo but don't put a good blow-off valve, injectors, proper tune, proper intercoolers and on the list goes.. It's like man, you are going to end up spending MORE than it would have cost to get a shop to do it RIGHT in the long run, I promise you! And.. maybe I'm wrong.. but there is a reason they didn't offer this car in a Twin Turbo version like the 300ZX was offered in. (Though it could have just been a "cost" thing..)