OFFICIAL "What Mods Should I Buy?" Sedan Thread

[4Dr.Madness.]

My mods so far:
Performance: dc headers, kinetix hfc, stillen gen 2, md 5/16 spacer, stillen engine damper, crank pulley, grounding wires (only for ecu and tranny), iso thermal gasket, coolant bypass mod, design chaos tb spacer, jwt popcharger with z tube, 3.5 gears with VLSD, Osiris.

Suspension- z tanabe nf210 springs, z revised shocks, rear spl endlinks, eibach sway bars, gt spec front tie bar. getting hks ls hipermax coilovers in a couple weeks.

Aesthetics- 50% windshield tint, 35% f&R, bump style clear corners, white dome leds, kurookie front bumper, rhd battery cover, debadge, emblemless grille.
Coming soon: rookie sideskirts, molded trunk spoiler with shaved trunk, nismo rear lip.

Tires/Rims- rpm 505, 275's in the back, 245's front. one flush sedan

[Sagemark]

Originally Posted by LiquidTension

Hi all. I've had my '05 sedan 5AT for about 6 months now. I've been reading on here for quite a while about various mods, because now that I've got a car with some power I'm addicted and need MORE

First thing I did was get the windows tinted (20% all around). That one was a given and doesn't really count as a mod, I guess. It does look slick with the dark blue paint though. After that I continued to do some reading.

I got in on SxExCx's group buy for the grounding kit. Blue, of course. Today, FedEx tried to deliver my MD 5/16" spacer and clear corners but I couldn't get to the door fast enough. I think the dog scared the driver away I've got a K&N in the car already, still looking for a z-tube. Also still looking for an HR y-pipe and a revup airbox. The airbox especially, since the place that changed my oil last broke the mount for the line off the back Warranty won't cover it since they broke it, and they deny they did it so they won't pay for it. ****ers.

There is a track not far from my house that I would like to go to at some point (www.carolinamotorsportspark.com). With this in mind, I think I need some sway bars. I can't really do anything to the suspension that will lower the car because of the way my driveway is sloped. I have to hit it at a very precise angle to keep from scraping the bottom of the car. I'm not sure exactly what I'm scraping as I don't have a way to lift the car yet. Waiting for the jack/stands to go on sale as I am poor.

I really like the looks of the MD VQ exhaust, but I just don't have that kind of money to throw around at the moment. Anything I get has to be the same or lower profile than the OEM exhaust for the reason mentioned above...that will take a little more research. I want a good deep sound, but I don't want it to be loud. This is my everyday driver, too loud and it will just annoy me.

At some point after the warranty is up and the car is completely paid for, I want to do some sort of FI. That's years down the road though and not really a consideration at this point. Basically here is a list of things that I want to do in the fairly near future:

Sway bars
Intake/exhaust as mentioned above
LEDs inside and out
Tinted overlays
Tune (Osiris?)

Any input on what order I should do these in? Obviously the tune should be after the intake/exhaust mods are done.

Things I don't like about the car:
Wood trim. HATE it. Unfortunately this was the only G available within 100 miles of me for less than $20k and I had to grab it because my Civic died in the bank parking lot while I was getting approved for the loan.
Garage door opener. Read the manual plenty of times, can't get it to work.
AM antenna. Not very good. Can hardly pick up a local station that I listen to all the time.
Amber interior lights. Oh, how I despise them. Eventually I'll swap them out for blue, but I just don't have that kind of time on my hands currently.

Can't wait to get the spacer installed this weekend

Couple things...

Regarding order of mods, everybody's got their own ideas, but for me it's handling/supension, then brakes, then power mods. I think it is unwise to work on going faster before working on stopping and handling.

Since you don't want to lower your car big sways will help. I got the Hotchkis adjustable bars. They work for me, stiffest setting in the front, softest setting in the rear. Set stiffer than the softest setting in the rear and the car will be prone to sharp oversteer in corners. Extra pressure in the rear tires can also help compensate for this. If you stagger your tires it'll help with that too, personally I prefer same size front and rear, that way I can rotate front to rear. I was running 245/45/18, on 8" +30 coupe wheels. Now I have 255/45/18s. With stock shocks your results may be different from mine, but I have my front shocks stiffer than the rears and still had trouble getting the car balanced. With stock shocks the problem is likely in my opinion to be somewhat worse.

(If you do lower the car you need to replace the shocks with stiffer ones or the rear will bounce unacceptably over humps or dips. Springs only doesn't work, I tried it. I put in Tokico D Specs they're great. You then have to put in camber adjustable front upper arms and rear lower arms to get the camber right when aligning.)

Taking your car to CMP is hard on your car. The max speed on that track is only about 100-105mph but at the end of that main straight it's hard down to 40mph for a very sharp left hand bend. The is murder on your brakes. The '04 sedan's brakes are insufficient for the job, I know because I have an '04 and I destroyed my front rotors within a 40 minute session there. I think the '05s might be the same, or they might have upgraded to a two piston floating caliper, which is slightly better but probably still not good enough for that track. Now I did have drilled rotors which are generally a no-no for the track. I swapped in new high grade blank rotors at the track after the first session and did ok for the rest of the day but heat was still a problem.

You must replace your brake fluid before going on the track If you do not replace your fluid, it will boil. Your pedal will then go to the floor and you may well go off. I saw this happen to someone who showed up with an unprepared G35 coupe who decided to go out anyway.

High performance pads are needed or the pads will overheat and fade badly. That's when you start pushing really hard on the pedal to try to get them to work and the heat really starts to build up. I was using Hawk HPS and needed a higher temperature pad in front. If you take your car out with the stock brakes (rotors/calipers) I'd go with Hawk HP10's in front and Hawk HPS in the rear, or similarly spec'ed pads.

Keep your sessions down to 20 minutes and give the brakes time to cool down. Do not stop driving until they are cooled.

I have upgraded to Brembos in the front and find my car's braking entirely acceptable now. I will not take my car to CMP again, I'm looking forward to VIR though.

I have heard that many Z's and G's go through a set of rear pads in a single track event. I have not had this problem. I believe this is because I have disabled the Yaw Sensor in the VDC system preventing VDC from over using the rear brakes in a somewhat misguided attempt to reduce inside wheel spin.

Plan on emptying your wallet to participate in track days. You need a recently certified racing helmet, club track car inspection, the cost of the track day itself, a tank or two of gas, a pile of brake parts and you'll burn a fair whack of tire. If you throw in a motel and a bit of travel it can cost a grand.

[Sagemark]

Originally Posted by j 4 lD

Hey quick question-

I have an 03 sedan w/ stock 17" wheels and tires. If I was to get 19" coupe wheels or M35 wheels (or any after market wheels for that matter), would I need a drop (either with coilovers or just springs)? Would the car look funny with out being dropped?

And would I need a camber kit to adjust the wheel degree? I'm assuming the tires will be at least 8 inches wide and possibly up to 10 inches.

I'm wondering because if this is the case, the investment would be significantly more and I'd have to wait so that I could get them at the same time. Thanks.

No you do not have to drop when putting on bigger wheels. No you don't have to adjust camber with new wheels.

When you drop with springs you need better shocks. Whether you drop using springs or coilovers you have to get adjustable camber arms front and rear. Stock there is no camber adjustment. While I have read about 10" wheels on our sedans I can't see how, I have 18" +30 Coupe wheels and the offset puts the wheels as far outboard as I can imagine (certainly lowered) I have rolled my fenders to accommodate. I've measured how much wider would fit and I can see 9 1/2 in the rear with 275 tires. Other folks may disagree and I do not have experience with anything bigger than the 8" +30's I have.

I looked at M35/M45 wheels a while back and I think the offsets are all wrong.

[Sagemark]

Originally Posted by j 4 lD

Would the hight flow cats cause any drone, or make the exhuast too loud? Right now my exhaust is quiet in low RPMs but when I hit the gas it growls nicely, especially above 4k rmp. Also, would the hi flow cats cause me to fail any emmissions test? Thanks.

I've got AAM metallic substrate HFCs. They add some rasp and make the exhaust quite a lot louder under open throttle, not bad as long as you keep it low. They should be fine for emmissions, however, one of mine has lost efficiency and needs replacement. I think it may have been messed up by a stuck injector problem I had 6 months ago. Using anti-foulers fooled the ecu for long enough to get past the "not ready for testing" mode and get me through inspection but I'll have to replace it sooner or later.

HFCs DO boost power, although once you make intake and exhaust changes, a tune is really required to get the most out of the setup. Improved flow with no change to the tune leads to sub-optimally lean conditions I believe.

[Sagemark]

When I went for power, first I installed a lightweight flywheel, which frees up torque. I liked it!

I did the plenum spacer and was impressed with the additional power, then I did a Z-tube and drop in filter, that made it sound cool but not much power gain, then I did the cats and got more power, added a coupe mid-pipe, made it louder and added some drone and no noticeable power, then I did the Osirus tune and got more power.

Not counting FI/NOx or lower final gearing/better LSD, does anyone have an idea how to get more go-go? I seem to have run out of worthwhile power mods without building the motor. The only other next power mod ideas I have are cams, maybe headers, maybe an HKS back box or cat back system. I don't expect the HKS will make much more power. I've read headers aren't worth it, but I've also been told that cams and headers together can make +20-30hp. That would be fun. It's kind of a lot of money but 20-30hp I might pay for. I don't like the idea of spending anything over a couple hundred bucks on power mods that won't yield a big power gain.

I'm not ready to go FI, the way I drive my car I think I'm better off NA, don't want to spend the big money or deal with reliability issues. If I track it heat would no doubt be destructive plus on the track I've had my sedan suffer fueling problems on hard corners, would need a surge tank or a turbo could lean out... the whole idea scares me on my daily driver.

[ttrank]

Next good move if you are not going to boost would be gears.

[Sagemark]

Originally Posted by ttrank

Next good move if you are not going to boost would be gears.

Yeah I keep thinking that may be the best next thing to do. The stock VLSD isn't great so I'm thinking of a better LSD when doing the gears.

What LSD do you run TTrank? I've read the article here http://www.350z-tech.com/zwiki/Limit..._Differentials

I am torn between whether a Quaife might be better for me or a clutch type. I'm inclined to think that a 2-way clutch type at 80% would be best for me but not having driven cars with either I have a hard time knowing. Since I do track occasionally and lifting a wheel is certainly not impossible (even on street) I'm concerned that the zero torque potential of a Quaife makes the design risky to run, but are my fears overblown? The dynamic biasing sounds like a good thing and the low maintenance is a plus.

For overall fun and trackability my instinct is to go clutch type. That article referenced claiming ATS is best with its carbon discs. Comments?

[thatsmyG35]

reading all of this makes me so jealous, money has just been way to tight for me to mod but Im bout to have spare money to do cheap stuff which brings me to my question, if I paint my front grille black will it have to be painted every half year or so? since its chrome I figured the paint would have a hard time sticking.

[$EMoney$]

Ive got an 04.5 5AT s3dan-Mods include:Stillen Intake & Z Tube,Obx TB Spacer,MD 5/16 IsoThermal Spacer,UR Crank Pulley,Stillen Gen 2,Gutted Cats(14.00 @ 99.98, 2.18 60ft on these mods only) DC Ceramic Headers,Stillen Ground Wires,Hawk Ceramics,D/S Rotors,G-Stop Brake lines....Love my car love to drive it every day its loud as hell and sounds awsome..new track times commin soon with some better tires nitto 555's FTL!

[Ken_Masters]

What's up guys!!! Just came back to the G35driver forums after many years. Still have the 03 Sedan. Checking out the new mods for this car. Any suggestions on new tech?

[Viper98912]

Has anyone successfully put 4 front coupe 19's on their sedan to offset the rear bulge/rubbing when staggered? Also would give you tire rotation ability. Only thing I was able find via search was a guy putting 4 Z fronts on his maxima.

[ttrank]

You can put coupe front and rear 19's on your car. I have a set for spare wheels. Depending on your drop and camber you may rub with the rears and require a mild rolling. If you do fronts all around there will be no issue.

[azzkikr]

What's a short ram intake guys? Is it better than the motordyne 5/16" spacers?

Whats the pros and cons between the two?

[mesias]

I finally got 4 coupe rears 19" that i'll wrap in 245/40. I hope no to have to roll the rear fender.

[4mermarine]

I know these subjects are covered extensively and I've been searching/reading these forums for 2 days. I have a specific desire and thought maybe I could get some help from the community on my particular needs.

Exhaust...
My desire here is to gain a little sound over stock. I'm not worried about power and all that. Just looking for a little more exhaust note without breaking the bank and gutting the entire exhaust system. Most of the setups I've researched here are pretty aggressive, so how about it? Maybe the HKS muffler only??? It retains the dual outlet stock look and I like the sound of most of the clips although many of them have a midpipe of some sort as well. Any ideas or experiences would be very helpful!

Suspension...
Same goes here, nothing real aggressive so far as drop and such. Currently the suspension feels a little mushy, especially in the back (only 53k miles). I've read that the 350Z enhanced springs (04-above ?) give a little drop (1/2 inch ?) but stiffen it up just right. If I can find a set of Z springs, which shocks/struts should I match them up with??? Keep in mind I'm not looking for crazy expensive, but I'm willing to pony up if the result is the desired one.

I love this car... I've had many including a CTS, 3 Series, and others, but this by far is my favorite!