370z GT Edition

The windscreen was scratched from the arcs left by the wiper action. The visibility was significantly reduced in the dark, because the glare would extend along the fine scratches. A new ‘dealership glass’ screen was fitted by National Windscreens today. A pair of new wipers was also fitted, just to be on the safe side.

With the weather dry, I applied a rain repellant coating called Gtechniq G1 in the order described in the product video.

Costs: 

Windscreen: £50.00 (excess)

Wipers: around £68.00

Another unfortunate event

P1 service, supercharger lube change, charge cooler coolant change, new discs and pads at the front, as the discs were worn. Great service as usual from Horsham Developments. Discs: DBA 4000 T3. Pads: Ferodo DS2500.

Costs

£155.78 P1 service and supercharger coolant change

New tyres for Reggie: Michelin Pilot Super Sport! The fronts had worn badly (to the bead!) thanks to the consequences of a badly fitted set of end-links, consequently causing the car to fail its first MOT test. The front tyres went on today, for a re-test tomorrow morning. The rear tyres are on order, and will go on early next week, together with a proper alignment setup. 

Costs: 

£40 MOT

£372 MPSS tyres front + fitting

This exhaust combo sounds amazing — the properly naughty sound that a car like this should make! It is an Ark GRiP system and Motordyne Resonated test pipes on the Stillen supercharged 370z.

Temperature problems solved

Reggie has never had problems with oil temperature. I followed the generally accepted wisdom that an oil cooler is a good precaution as the VQ37 engine does run hot, and bought a Mishimoto Oil Cooler kit.

The kit was installed at the same time as the tuning work at Horsham Developments, who I would recommend in a heartbeat for work on your 350 or 370z.

You can see from the photos that the oil cooler radiator was placed in the middle of the fascia. It butts up against the intake shield that comes as part of the Stillen kit.

The oil radiator runs really hot, and was warming up the air going into the intake as well as the heat exchanger for the charge cooler. I believe this caused the heat problems. The screenshots from DashCommand show air intake temps of:

41 degrees — after a gentle cruise down the motorway, pull up at some traffic lights. Usually this would rise to the low 40s. 

28 degrees — always within moments of starting the car.

18 degrees — after a long motorway run without the oil cooler.

The hot side of the heat exchanger system is the expansion tank, measured here at 53 degrees after a normal drive on a warm day. I can’t imagine the heat exchanger would take out 20 or so degrees to make this more useful so I assume it wasn't working that well either.

The ECU has a range of strategies for detecting and managing pre-ignition, and on a hot day it would switch down to a super rich map, to protect the engine. My OBDII monitor (DashCommand) shows a normal air-fuel-ratio (AFR) of 14.7:1 at idle. The super rich map ran at 10:1, with a black exhaust, popping on overrun, loss of power.

I first became aware of this with popping from the exhaust when cruising in 7th gear, after which the CEL came on. I found ECU codes P0131 and P0151 due to the very rich map.

Last week I arranged to have the oil cooler removed, and it seems that the temperature issues have largely vanished as a result.

The Stillen kit does suffer with heat soak after a long time, or when sitting in traffic, but this is the only remaining issue. It goes away when you get underway again. I tend to be light on the throttle in this situation.

During this work the oil filter was changed, and the oil topped off.

The tune was adjusted a little more, that uplift in torque at the low end was a bit high, and contributed to the knocking. It has been slackened off a little for safety (there’s no noticeable difference as I drive the car).

The tale of the wobbly pulley

The pulley which is relocated during the supercharger installation had failed around its bearing. I ordered a replacement 7-rib idler (from a VQ35 engine) from ZMANALEX.

It looks like the original bearing lost its grease so it should be possible to rebuild it should the issue recur.

This video shows the pulley before replacement, making lots of noise. It is the black one on the left, beside the dipstick.

The nearside bulb failed, so I replaced both with a pair of Philips D2S 4800K X-treme Vision Bulbs from Auto Bulbs Direct.

370z HID bulb replacement guide on the 370z US forum. You go in from the wheel liner. Hence why I got Horsham Dev. to do it whilst they were removing the oil cooler.

Forza vs. real life

We got an Xbox One (mostly for our daughter to play Minecraft), but a little go on Forza Motorsport 5 and it didn’t take long for me to find the option of customising my ride. A little geeky, perhaps. I don’t like the spoiler on the Xbox version of my car!

POWERRRRRR!

A slight map adjustment means a little more torque at low rpm. About +25ft.lbs at 2000rpm (about +10%), and around +50ft.lbs at 1500rpm (+20%).

Photos all round

I washed Reggie yesterday ready for some photos I have to provide for the insurance policy.

This is just after a return from a check-up at Horsham Developments, where:

The gearbox was checked over and fluid changed completely (a procedure that is fussy about temperature). I did this for peace of mind.

A loose bolt on the exhaust that was rattling was fixed.

Relocate the ambient air temp sensor so it is not right next to a hot oil cooler, so now it says the correct outside temperature and not 30 degrees all the time!

A little more torque at the low end (ignition timing) and then a tighter, faster map for the gearbox. 

*yes, two of them!

It is renewal time, and I’ve insured the car fully comprehensive with all modifications declared. I’ve also paid for an agreed value policy to cover the cost of modifications and labour should there be a total loss.

It costs about double the premium before the modifications, but it is an affordable luxury.