Jump to content

GMballistic's Zed ~ Supercharged 2003 Gun Metal GT Coupe (Vids added)


GMballistic

Recommended Posts

Thanks for the praise all and glad you're having a good read. :thumbs:

 

Couple more bits arrived following some more research. After trying to digest as much as I could regarding the PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) system on our Zeds from American sites and this site I eventually bought all the bits to do my system.

 

Breathersystem_zps008f1e66.jpg

 

^^ Above is: a Rutland mini oil catch can, 10mm nylon non-return valve, mini oil breather filter, jubilee clips & some 10mm I/D Gates fuel/oil hose.

 

 

The reason this is important is because the VQ35DE is not designed for forced induction so you need to address the PCV system in order to avoid the boost pressure from the plenum boosting the crankcase which can cause all sorts of problems.

 

Boosting the crankcase when FI. Usually manifest as excessive smoking under heavy load conditions but also you can experince excessive deterioration of engine oil soon after service, excessive moisture in oil, failing seals and gaskets, rough running due to loss of piston ring seal, premature cylinder wall wear and reduced compression leading to reduced performance. This list goes on

 

More info here: http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/82588-vortech-supecharging-technical-and-reliability-thread/

 

 

 

I also stumbled upon a "how to" written by Sam Mcgoo about doing a CAI (cold air induction) for the Vortech supercharger although as he mentions in his thread it could just as easily be used on an na Zed. B)

Thanks for the great write up & instructions Sam. :yahoo:

Link here: http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/59915-how-to-diy-cold-air-intake-cai/

 

 

After collecting all the parts I needed to build my CAI this is what I had created in preparation for my build.

KampNCAI1_zps31bab2e2.jpg

 

 

 

KampNCAI_zps7a6002ca.jpg

 

 

Wouldn't know until I eventually got the supercharger fitted whether it would work or not but I followed Sams measurements to a T so was pretty confident. :D

 

Update again soon. ;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok so I don't have any pictures of this but the next important thing for me to get done on my Zed was the paint.

 

For a 10 year old car tbh it wasn't too bad but there where a few places on the car which annoyed me and one place in particular that definitely needed body shop attention. Basically below the fuel filler flap it had several rust bubbles under the surface ~ I suspected it was from a poor repair as I knew my Zed had been to a body shop before due to a small bit of over spray I had found on the rear light when I had removed it to replace the rear indicator bulbs.

 

I booked my car in with a local body shop which was an approved body shop for some local car dealers. Sort of knew the owner as well through a family connection as his mother in-law had worked with my father at one time so I did get a good deal for everything I wanted doing.

 

The list to do was;

  1. Respray entire roof (just to hide two stone chips)
  2. Respray front bumper (again stone chips)
  3. Respray side skirts (marked by previous owner who was obviously a Cowboy as I think he wore flippin' spurs or something)
  4. Repair & respray rear quarter and blend in with side panel/rear bumper.

All this for £550 incl VAT. :scare::D

 

Ok so if I'm honest despite the great price this was a fu**ing nightmare. :lol:

They took almost two weeks to do this, then the rust bubbles on the rear quarter came back the very next day after I got my car back as they had just filled over the shoddy repair rather than cut the metal out. So I went back, rather annoyed, but I asked them politely to redo the repair so lost my car for another week odd.

 

The owner who felt bad was great & tbh I think the problems I had where more down to his work force than him ~ in fact he felt so bad about it that he gave me this as a courtesy car....

 

001_zps8f7d51e9.jpg

 

 

Not too shabby and definitely better than a Micra. B) Still preferred driving my Zed though (someone please revive Ekona if he's just read that! :surrender: )

 

Eventually my car was finished and finally I could hand back the Porsche keys & get back to happy Zed motoring.

 

 

Anyway whilst all this was going on I had some good news in the form of a group buy on here arranged by Chris from Tarmac Sportz. :yahoo:

I intended to try and buy as much as I could from Chris with the Vortech V3SCI being the biggest part of my shopping list. Initially the price was as advertised at a little over £3.5K just for the kit but with the group buy the price was significantly reduced thanks to some other Zeditus sufferers.

 

A few will remain nameless (basically because I don't know who they where?!) but thanks to ChrisB, Mouthwash, Vlad and cmck13 who all came in on the group buy and helped make it a great success in bringing the price down for us all. :clap:

 

More to follow...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i will keep looking for a bodyshop for mine i was quoted 6K for a respray yesterday i have the same little bit of rust near filler cap and wanted the skirts color changing the rest was just a Go over same color maybe abit of flake in it

 

so your 550 is super cheap in my eyes haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i will keep looking for a bodyshop for mine i was quoted 6K for a respray yesterday i have the same little bit of rust near filler cap and wanted the skirts color changing the rest was just a Go over same color maybe abit of flake in it

 

so your 550 is super cheap in my eyes haha

It was a family acquaintance though as I mentioned so I was lucky with the price and tbh at first they where only going to do the drivers side skirt (along with the roof, bumper, rear quarter) but then they did the passenger side one as well because they didn't match afterwards. :scare:

I have OCD sort of so pointed that out to them and the owner said we'll do it for free whilst we fix the rear quarter "again".

 

Luckily second time around was the charm as they cut out the rust properly this time and it's been all good since they did the repair.

 

I really wanted the paint sorted before I fitted my supercharger as there was no way I would have felt comfortable leaving a supercharged Zed with any garage for any length of time out of my sight. Only feel comfortable leaving it with Jez at Horsham Developments tbh as I'm sure he's driven much faster. B):D

Edited by GMballistic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Car looking mint mate! And great write up :thumbs:

That CAI looks pretty awesome as well!

Thanks Vlad.

 

I'm pretty pleased with the way the CAI is on my Zed. It also has another benefit as I'm not tied into using the Vortech type filter so can use pretty much any filter that will fit behind my front bumper & onto the end of the pipe.

 

I decided to use the same K&N filter though as Sam Mcgoo did for his CAI as if something works well then why change it. B);)

 

 

Edit: spelling. :blush:

Edited by GMballistic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So after the group buy had closed, I paid Chris from Tarmac Sportz for all the parts I wanted and then it was just a waiting game. :dry:

 

It didn't happen overnight but Chris kept me well informed of the progress and then one day I got the news I had been waiting for, ...the superchargers had arrived. :yahoo::bounce::clap:

 

A few days later I had the biggest box I've ever received via delivery apart from alloy wheels. It contained lots of parts but the highlights where:

 

A Vortech V3 supercharger.

VortechV3Superchargeri_zps6db579a0.jpg

 

 

Vortech front mount intercooler.

VortechIntercooler_zps0b4de796.jpg

 

 

Vortech BOV.

Vortechblowoffvalve_zps338e742a.jpg

 

 

 

I did obviously buy other parts to support my build including an AAM competition fuel return system, Deatschwerks 600cc fuel injectors, a Vortech 3.12" pulley and I also managed to grab a rather nice one piece air intake pipe from a certain helpful member on here.

 

I won't name him though to protect his identity. :disguise:

 

Vortechcustommade1piecepipe_zpsf35347aa.jpeg

 

 

 

 

:lol: Thanks Adrian. ;)

 

 

The rest of the parts I needed for my build including cooler spark plugs, an up-rated fuel pump and a GT UpRev MAF sensor I intended to get from Jez at Horsham Developments as he gave me the best prices on those items.

 

 

 

 

Slowly but surely it was all coming together and I now had a massive box full of parts ready for my build. I was supposed to be saving cash to pay the garage bill for fitting as I knew that would be a fair chunk but then I bought these....

 

98_zps953a53de.jpg

 

 

Aluminium Zed kick plates from Steve at Redline Styling (Thanks Steve). The forum made me do it!! :ninja:

 

 

...And then literally with only a month or so to go Ian decided to sell a set of 60mm "Defi Advance BF" (black face) gauges with all the sensors & hardware included. This was too good of an opportunity to miss.

I knew these gauges where good as my mate has them in his JDM Impreza Type RA so after a few messages I did the deal and was a very happy man as Ian even delivered them in person right to my front door. :D

 

Hard to make out as they are black face gauges so the faces appear completely black when not turned on but you might be able to make it out from the picture ~ oil pressure gauge, oil temperature gauge and a boost gauge.

 

DefiAdvanceBFSeriesgauges_zpsecd16b66.jpg

 

 

Defi mini controller.

 

DefiAdvanceBFSeriesgauges1_zps8eaf87aa.jpg

 

 

 

Of course I couldn't just have the gauges flapping about in the wind so bought a single 60mm gauge pod from eBay and then got a decent two gauge A-pillar mount pod holder from Chris (Tarmac Sportz again).

 

Fitted the gauges in place with a hot glue gun so no chance of them coming loose and then added a small piece of rubber trim around the top to finish the pod holder off nicely.

 

APillartwingaugepodholder_zps76c7d69b.jpg

 

 

More to follow, ...almost D-Day. :kicking:

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loving the defis. I have them in my scoob and they are expensive to buy but quality is superb

Oh me too ~ I'd always loved them since witnessing the "opening & closing ceremonies" they do whilst I've been in my mates Impreza. :lol:B)

 

Ian (a fellow forum member) on here was selling them at a very reasonable price and I hadn't even intended to get gauges for my car until after the supercharger was fitted but decided I couldn't miss out. Very happy with them. ;)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...