I was curious to what kind of luck the 350z owners have with their FI options considering all the aftermarket support they have. All I can say is wow. I only spent a couple of minutes browsing, but there are alot of posts about somebody blowing their motor, or having detonation issues. I only know of 3 people on here who have blown a motor due to FI and 2 of them were completely understandable and were due to a shop screwing something up. So I wonder what the difference is. Are the kits less aggressive for the 8, is the Renesis that much stronger, are there just far less 8 owners with FI, or are 8 owners more cautious with their FI?.

 

I heard their bottom end is pretty weak. Needs to be upgraded if going FI. Frankly, if I had that car, I'd be going n/a, as good gains can be had.

 

Their bottom end goes at like 375-400 whp. I have personally seen 2 G35's with engines come into the shop in boxes, that was working on my FMU. HKS actually set a limit on their SC unit, and said they could have gotten another 100 hp on top of what they got (about 80 whp) with turning up the boost, headers, hi flow cats & exhaust but that it would blow the engine.

 

My friend has, woops sorry had a G35 Coupe running a Supercharger with 9psi of boost pressure, the crawford intake, random technologies cat, and I think Greedy exhaust. Anyway he had all of that and the car was quick, had no trouble getting the power down, but it was involved in an incident a few weeks ago and was totaled. Anyway, he sent me a copy of his dyno graph which I present now as reference only, a 350z would have similar results.

Note: These numbers apply at the wheels, not sure what dyno was used.

 

Plenty of options for the Z, TwinTurbos, Single Turbos, Superchargers really get it done for the Z.

 

there aren't any Zs making more 300 hp NA that I've heard of.

 

Well you have to consider the ratio of stock power to upgraded power. Im not sure of those ratios but i dont think the z is significantly more aggressive then the 8. The z is making more power but starts with more too. the greddy 8s are making less power but start out with less too. I may be wrong but im just throwing out numbers but the 8 about 180:245 or a 3:4 ratio and the z is about 250:375 is a 2:3 ratio. just for kicks, throw in the PTP turbo. They have a 180:365 which is a more agressive ratin then the g35 mention above.

 

NA G35 gets up to around mid 12 seconds in the 1/4 mile, while costing about the same as the super chargers (5-6 thousand bucks). The supercharged Z/Gs are actually stuck in the low to mid 13s range. the main NA mods are 3.91 gearing and headers. There are NA Zs runing 300+whp with these mods+the usual intake, exhaust+tune.
The best bang for the buck cheap mod is the motordyne MREV, which is a plenum spacer+lower plenum combo for +18whp and +25wtorque for $460 bucks.

http://www.airpowersystems.com.au/350z/g35/g35.htm
APS single turbo and twin turbo are the way to go for the Z and G35 right now for the best hp on stock internals. the APS tt gets up to around 470whp on 93 octane while providing low end torque thats not possible on the super chargers. They are extremely expensive though, about 10,000-12,000 bucks for the parts, install, and tune. Theres Z and Gs running higher whp than that, but they no longer have stock block and rods.

the new 300hp engine for 2005-06 G35 6mt and 2006 6mt Zs has upgraded internals, so they are supposed to be able to handle more boost than the old motor.

 

How about the stock 2006's? They're rated at 300?!?!

 

cretinx probably meant 300whp.

 

the con rods in the 350 (the first gen) were actualy made of paper-mache, some kind of production mis communication....the new rods are a little stonger, but dont last for long with any more than about 100 hp above stock.

 

Nissan 350Z = Japanese Mustang GT.

 

yep, it is indeed the Japanese Mustang GT
combining the japanese world class sports car handling with 50/50 weight distribution advanced chasis and areo dynamics and multilink front and rear suspension
together
with the raw power of American style muscle car
for the win

 

Now if only it was lighter...

 

yeah, itd always be nice to be lighter, but the world isnt perfect so ya cant have everything . its sharing the heavy skyline/G35 FM platform afterall, thats one of the biggest reason why Nissan is able to sell it at a sub 30k price point. I also think weight is not the only thing that effects handling, theres a lot of different characteristics involved. Nissan simply made the best of what they had to work with. The end result is a very good balance of power and handling.

btw thanks for that link to the video, its interesting to see the new C6 corvette is also using the same FrontMidship layout as the Z to get optimal weight distribution.

 

Im not sure its 50:50. It has 3% weight that shifts back and forth depending on braking. Generally it's considered below the standard of the S2000, and still below the RX-8 in handling. It does have tons of torque and zero lift for high speed stability.

 

its 53/47, as you enter a corner and step on the brake weight gets shifted to the back and becomes 50/50 during cornering. the 3% imbalance is done on purpose. and yep, its not at the level of S2k, which is a super cornering machine. Gan-san on BMI commented that the s2k's handling is so good, its somewhere between the NSX type S and the NSX type R (they say the type R its the best handling and fastest JDM). I think the 350Z closer to the RX8, which is also a notch below S2k. the RX8 tend to suffer a lot more bodyroll with its softer suspension compared to the Z, but its more nimble due to its light weight. So id say handling wise its S2k>RX8>350Z. The Z is still a great handling car. IMO the 350Z is a better track car (RX8 has never come close to the 350Z and S2000 during BMI races) while the RX8 is better on the Touge (twisties), especially if it has upgraded suspension.

 

Z seems to have terrible brakes though, it seems like whenever they are doing the 5 lap tsukuba battle the Z is usually faster than the s2k in the first 3 laps, then by lap 4 the brakes starts to fade and by the 5th lap the car tend to be significantly slower. im not sure if they use the brembo equipted Z or regular brakes.

 

Last I checked, weight shifts foward when you step on the brakes.

 

i got it mixed up then. its probably the otherway around

 

The VQ engine in the 350Z is all aluminum (block and heads) and has an open deck. Along with a high compression ratio, this car is about as perfect for FI as a BMW E46 M3 or an S2000.

 

If i remember correctly the Z is front heavy under normal condiions. Whatever, ill have to check the video again. I have that same 350Z Shock video, Gan-san i thought was really harsh on the Z.

Back on topic, i found some info about F/I on the Z. Apparently the gearing the Z is too agressive to handle most of the F/I solutions out there. The car has serious traction problems with some turbo kits. Sentry65 does a good job explaining in detail. See the link below

http://www.350zmotoring.com/forums/s...t=supercharger

 

How about the 2.0L ecotec with all aluminum block, heads, and pistons at 12.5psi and 9.5:1 compression ratio. Also used in Saabs under boost for some time now. Aluminum and CR have an effect on the Z's FI capability but manufacturing cheapness is the biggest factor. Bean counters run the world after all. It just wasn't built for FI, so it can't be expected to be an ideal platform for it.

 

gan-san is pretty harsh with just about any car hehe, except the s2k which he loves to death.

yeah obviously an engine thats not made for FI is incomparable with cars made for FI. light wieght parts and high compression is bad for FI. as far as NA engines go though, i think the APS tt kit making 470+whp is pretty impressive. thought it cost a ton, and its not worth it IMO, still impressive none the less.

 

No, you had it right. It's 53:47 f:r, same as the new Mustang, incidentally. Part of the engine sits in front of the front axle, though the centerline of the VQ is behind the axle. The Corvette, on the other hand, has its whole engine behind the front axle, and has for the last few generations of the car IIRC. This helps give the Corvette a better weight distribution than the Z despite having a slightly heavier engine with less overall weight.