Think you can help a 350Z Brother across the pond? :)

[Chromatic]

-- So far it looks like finding a Nismo S tune just isn't gonna happen

 

So.. maybe you guys can help,.. even though we are across the pond.

 

I need help (obviously if you can find a Used nismo S tune exhaust (even in the UK).. PLEASE let me know..

 

But besides the perfect exhaust..

 

I'm working with two issues here -- 1) Budget of $500-$800 (800 is pushing it for me.. ) -- And 2) Want Nismo S tune.. but doesn't look promising, so need something AS close to the Nismo S tune as I can get (BUT) that fits in that $800 or less budget shipped.

 

Obviously used can help here.. but there are some new exhausts that are really close to that 800 mark. --

 

So if anyone feels like it.. would you look online, ask around, etc and see if you can find first the Nismo S tune.. and secondarily (and more likely) an exhaust that fits my needs and budget? Then post it here, pm me.. text me.. whatever.

 

Also.. what are your thoughts on using this as a "second best" option instead of Nismo S-tune that fits in my budget?

 

 

http://www.summitrac...CFeJF7AodxXYAHQ

 

^^ That's the Exhaust (new) actually.

 

Now that exhaust is a bit loud, drones a bit, and is a little raspy.. but it's VERY well made.

 

SO.. what people do is put a set of Vibrant 1792 Resonators on it (2x resonators welded inline) -- And they CLAIM it takes away the drone and rasp that is there.. and then you have a great sound and true dual exhaust for a good price.

 

Here are the resonators they use:

 

 

http://www.summitrac...-1792/overview/

 

The Exhaust is basically $566 shipped. The Resonators basically $100 shipped. So $666 shipped. Def. in my budget. Which is why I need your input lol.. If it's really a good sound, not obnoxious, those resonators really sort of "perfect" it .. then I don't see why not to get it?

 

Otherwise.. the exhausts you guys think are good alternatives to Nismo S tune.. see if you can find any in my budget range.. if so please link them!

 

Thanks so much for anyone who feels like helping.

Edited January 31, 2014 by DoogyRev
Removed Phone and Email Address

[DoogyRev]

I have removed you phone number and email address since this is a public forum to save you being spammed

 

You will be pretty lucky to find a S-Tune . . bit like hens teeth. I had a Miltek which sounded good, even better with some HFC's. Perhaps PM Tarmac, one of the traders on here and he may be able to help you since your on the correct side of the pond

[Chromatic]

Heh.. I'm not worried about the spam -- I have it all over craigslist right now in a "WTB" for the Nismo S tune.. literally in like 20 states. It's my last ditch effort to see if I get any responses,.. if I don't in about a week I'll probably buy something else.

 

Miltek -- That's one I've not heard of yet. Is it "quiet" at idle,.. Does it "drone" at any rpm's/cruising speed in cabin? (By quiet I don't mean I want it as quiet as the stock exhaust.. that'd be pointless.. but by quiet I mean I'm aiming to be around the dB level of the Nismo S tune.) -- my budget is limited.. $800 just isn't much to work with when you are buying an exhaust for a 350Z -- (If I had a mustang or something I could get a great Flowmaster exhaust for like $300.. that's one bane of these cars.. is nothing is "cheap" .. hell my two K&N filters on this HR motor cost (IIRC) -- $80-90 a piece. .. Maybe it was $100 for the pair, I forgot.)

 

I'll hit up Tarmac, thanks. And.. everyone else that is bored, or just wants to try and help -- Maybe you can find stuff online (or through contacts/friends, etc) that I can't. I'm trying best I can though lol.

 

This went from.. Yeah I want exhaust.. to ok now I know which one (Nismo S tune) -- To ok.. now it's a MISSION cause of how hard this is becoming to locate.

 

Thanks Z Legend.

[KyleR]

Nismo exhausts are over-rated and over-priced. Yes it's nice to keep it in the family, but there are much better out there. The Miltek like Doogy mentioned is very like it, quiet at low revs then sounds nice when you open it up. I'd have thought there would be many many more options in the states for much better prices than here TBH

[Almeida1234]

Been looking for S-tune for a while, but with no luck.

I am more likely to settle for either invidia or tanabe medallion touring this exhaust is close to nismo one

But indivia is true dual exhaust and all thenowner swear by it.

 

[Chromatic]

Been looking for S-tune for a while, but with no luck.

I am more likely to settle for either invidia or tanabe medallion touring this exhaust is close to nismo one

But indivia is true dual exhaust and all thenowner swear by it.

 

I'm looking closely at those two as well.. I just can't get a sure answer if the Invidia Gemini drones at any speed while driving.. I get some yes's.. and some no's.. lol.

[Chromatic]

Well, just purchased the Invidia Gemini -- Based on reviews and what everyone says it should be great!

[Ricey]

I think every exhaust mentioned in this thread are top quality so I wouldn't be concerned about any of them

 

Good buy

[GMballistic]

Well, just purchased the Invidia Gemini -- Based on reviews and what everyone says it should be great!

Great news ~ I'm sure you'll love it.

 

Just to add I've never noticed any so called cabin drone with my Gemini.

[Chromatic]

I think every exhaust mentioned in this thread are top quality so I wouldn't be concerned about any of them

 

Good buy

 

Agreed -- I had a list of about 6-8 exhausts and I think I would have been happy with any of them. To name a few.. Nismo S Tune, Bassani, Invidia Gemini, Fujitsubo Legalis-R.. etc. But half of those or the majority were not dual exhausts.. they were just like the factory exhaust muffler with single pipe to a Y-pipe. So bang for buck horsepower wise.. I think this Inivida true dual exhaust may give me another 1-2hp that the others may not have even on a NA car like mine. I don't expect any HP gains that can be noticed.. But I do know that realistically this exhaust should give about 4hp at the rear wheels.. (Not the 22hp claims Invidia makes lol).

 

You will get that 22hp gain after you have Forced Induction (twin turbos) , Proper intakes/throttle body, Headers, HFC's or Test pipes, etc.. THEN the exhaust get's maximized to it's full potential.

 

My ULTIMATE goal for this car is Forced Induction .. Twin Turbos (done right) -- But, done right is ALLLMOST the price of the car itself.. I paid 17.5k for this with 26k miles (41842 kilometers).. and from what I read is you can do a Turbo system the CHEAP and wrong way for a few thousand.. (and you ARE going to have problems) -- or you can do it the right way for minimum 10k,.. and most likely 12-15k. So that essentially means it's never gonna happen lol.

 

Well, just purchased the Invidia Gemini -- Based on reviews and what everyone says it should be great!

Great news ~ I'm sure you'll love it.

 

Just to add I've never noticed any so called cabin drone with my Gemini.

 

First .. man you guys are SO MUCH DIFFERENT than the people on the US forums! That's all I will say,.. You guys (and ladies) Rock!

 

I'm sure I will love it too!.. I'm excited -- And, great to hear there is no drone with it.

 

With my new stereo install.. even when I have it on moderate volume I cannot hear my engine at all.. and while I can shift fine.. I'm so ingrained to shift by engine noise it feels so weird. Hopefully this exhaust will give me a little noise in the cabin to hear the engine.

 

Let's say it's NOT loud enough for my needs.. (hey it happens) and I want to basically JUST increase the dB (loudness) but not alter the tone/pitch of the exhaust. What would you add to the car down the road when you had the cash? Test pipes? (If so what kind).. HFC's? (If so what kind?) -- Headers (If so what kind?) -- Those three are about all I know that would amplify the noise.. but I do know if you buy cheap or the wrong kind of either of these you will dramatically alter your exhaust sound.. for the worse

 

I can see me wanting more performance down the road (I'm tapped on cash right now).. and going with another bolt on on the exhaust be it Test Pipes, or HFC's (They are cheaper than headers I believe)..

 

Also.. while I'm at it -- How many mods do you think are "ok" to do before you really should get the car tuned professionally to take advantage of the mods?

 

All I have on this car's HR motor is/are Dual K&N filters and Gemini Exhaust.. A tune I know would give me a few more horsepower even with these two mods.. but it's not enough HP to justify the price of a tune -- So just when does that point come in your opinion? I'm not a fan of blowing $500 on a tune for an extra 7hp..

 

And when I do, eventually, get to the point of needing a tune to take advantage of my bolt-ons.. I will have done the final step to turn this Base model fully into the Enthusiast level. (as I've added the Homelink rearview mirror, have integrated Bluetooth on voice commands, rear view camera (that might not be a factory option),.. have power seats, etc etc.. even bought the $70 Touring Mat that goes in the Hatch with the Z logo (Base models don't have this) -- but the final step is to buy the couple switches that go under the pedals, steering wheel controls,.. wire up the already existing connector behind the headunit into a PAC or similar connector so controls all work.. THEN, to get the Cruise control (that is built into ALL models of the 350Z but just not activated on the base models) I would during a tune, have the guy flash the ECU up to an enthusiast, touring or similar model.. which would make the Cruise button work. So that makes a "tune" worth more to me since it basically adds cruise (after you spend oh.. $200-$250 on the parts to make it work like factory, switches on pedals to disengage it,.. steering wheel, etc..).

[Ricey]

Christ. ...someone with a realistic attitude to FI costs and gains.

 

We should have you stuffed and mounted at 350z-UK Towers (if we had any!)

[Chromatic]

Christ. ...someone with a realistic attitude to FI costs and gains.

 

We should have you stuffed and mounted at 350z-UK Towers (if we had any!)

 

 

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..)

Edited February 2, 2014 by Chromatic

[KyleR]

Thats some list of to-do's

 

You have the HR motor, though, so it's good for 500 bhp without upgrading the internals. Good news

[Chromatic]

Thats some list of to-do's

 

You have the HR motor, though, so it's good for 500 bhp without upgrading the internals. Good news

 

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.

[GMballistic]

If the exhaust isn't loud enough Chromatic and you want a bit more noise/performance I'd recommend the Berks HFC's as that's what I've got.

 

De-cats though would work well too & make it even louder/better performance but I didn't want those as it's more likely to fail the UK MOT test with those (but don't think you have a test like that to worry about ).

[Chromatic]

If the exhaust isn't loud enough Chromatic and you want a bit more noise/performance I'd recommend the Berks HFC's as that's what I've got.

 

De-cats though would work well too & make it even louder/better performance but I didn't want those as it's more likely to fail the UK MOT test with those (but don't think you have a test like that to worry about ).

 

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.

[GMballistic]

I believe most de-cats (test pipes) will throw up the EML light but I've found my Berks HFC's do to occasionally. It's because of the darn O2 exhaust sensors.

 

This can be resolved by a re-map though which will greatly improve the car even with minimal mods. Also from what I've read the standard ECU actually restricts the throttle response in relation to how hard you press the pedal through 1st-3rd gears. This can be altered to a 1:1 ratio during a re-map making the car more lively.

 

Next step after exhaust/cats would be air induction if you haven't already then a re-map. You won't see any gains really though without a re-map.

[Chromatic]

I believe most de-cats (test pipes) will throw up the EML light but I've found my Berks HFC's do to occasionally. It's because of the darn O2 exhaust sensors.

 

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..

 

This can be resolved by a re-map though which will greatly improve the car even with minimal mods. Also from what I've read the standard ECU actually restricts the throttle response in relation to how hard you press the pedal through 1st-3rd gears. This can be altered to a 1:1 ratio during a re-map making the car more lively.

 

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..

Next step after exhaust/cats would be air induction if you haven't already then a re-map. You won't see any gains really though without a re-map.

 

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

[GMballistic]

If you do get the EML come on at all you can always do the "pedal dance" ~ you can find out how to do this in the guides section it's basically an ECU reset which cancels out the light.

 

The re-map is about £400 here but it is worth it to unlock the potential of any mods done to the car.

 

Have you looked at "Tarmac Sportz" website? lot's of great stuff for our Zeds on there just to give you ideas.

[Chromatic]

If you do get the EML come on at all you can always do the "pedal dance" ~ you can find out how to do this in the guides section it's basically an ECU reset which cancels out the light.

 

The re-map is about £400 here but it is worth it to unlock the potential of any mods done to the car.

 

Have you looked at "Tarmac Sportz" website? lot's of great stuff for our Zeds on there just to give you ideas.

 

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..)

[GMballistic]

That's a tough question! Probably the exhaust & de-cats (test pipes) for the best bang/per $. Weight reduction is always good too but I like my creature comforts too much to lose anything from the Zeds interior.

 

My car's the older DE engine model (so it is different from your HR) but I know mine will benefit from a plenum spacer which is a reasonable gain per £/$ but yours is different so unsure.

 

Maybe start a thread asking the question to see if other HR engine Zed owners can give you some better ideas from their experience.

[Chromatic]

That's a tough question! Probably the exhaust & de-cats (test pipes) for the best bang/per $. Weight reduction is always good too but I like my creature comforts too much to lose anything from the Zeds interior.

 

My car's the older DE engine model (so it is different from your HR) but I know mine will benefit from a plenum spacer which is a reasonable gain per £/$ but yours is different so unsure.

 

Maybe start a thread asking the question to see if other HR engine Zed owners can give you some better ideas from their experience.

 

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.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Chromatic