First post in a looooong time.

My car now has ~63k miles on it. It's an 05 6MT, so it had the factory sports suspension. At ~11k miles(actually, the day the Hurricane Katrina hit), I swapped out my suspension for the stock suspension from an 04 coupe. The springs were rated at the same rate, and the should I believe are valved the same, but I was looking for a mild drop. The combo had over 20k miles on them. That means that I've now got about 70k miles on my shocks and springs, and I was looking for stiffer shocks, and more of a drop.

They arrived today. I got a sweet deal on a used OEM suspension from an 08 nismo z. I should get a better drop, much stiffer springs, and the shocks should be really nice.

The new setup should compliment my existing suspension mods: stillen front and rear swaps both set to medium, and a front strut brace. Even with the sways and strut bar, I don't like how my car handles and drives. I really think the rear shocks are totally shot - there's a lot of movement that shouldnt be there from the rear end over uneven pavement.

And the other thing that I'm worried about is my tires. I go through tires way too quickly(on my 4th set already), so I tend to by cheaper tires that have decent treadware rather than really sporty tires. I'm running some General Exclaim UHP right now, 245/45/18, which have *excellent* straight-line grip. However, the sidewalls are crap, and taller than normal(by almost a half-inch versus the stock tires). Going into a corner, you turn the wheel, wait for the tires to roll a bit, then the front end settles. I'm afraid that with new shocks and stiffer springs that the tires are just going to be even worse.

Regardless, it's not going to be a slamming drop or anything, but the suspension should be much sportier than what I have presently.

 

Congrats on the new suspension! Post up some picks when its installed.

 

Here are the pictures:

The left spring is the OE sedan sport spring. The one on the right is the OE nismo spring:


Here are the front struts(nismo vs sedan):


Sedan OE front spring:


Rear struts(sedan vs nismo):


OE nismo spring:

 

Nice! What are the nismo spring rates? Shocks are rated stiffer than normal Zs?? Should be a great setup!

 

Welcome back, can't wait to see the final result and hear about the driving experience.

 

It should make a dramitic improvement on the car's handling. Recenty drove a nizmo Z and it was very nice considering the car was stock. It had minimal body roll and a very sporty ride. I actually did a canyon run (***** out) against one back when i had my s-techs and i was very surprised how that car handled for being bone stock.
Congrats, u will love it.

 

Congratulations on the used Nismo suspension. I bought the kit for the G35 coupe from Japan a few months ago and LOVE IT. Here are some of my pics and review comments...

From the Stickied Post on this forum OEM Front 314, Rear 342 -> Nismo 448, 504










...The car is now even more sensitive to changes of steering angle. There is very little time between moving the wheel and the car reacting. Before you would have to wait as the weight shifted and the outer front tire loaded up before the car would turn...that has deminished greatly. On the other hand, the car does not react, or should I say over-react, so much to adjustments in the throttle. For example, you are taking an exit ramp spiritedly which has a decreasing radius and you lift the throttle slightly to tighten your line...or you are at the track midturn and the yoohoo in front of you brakes unexpectedly. With the oem suspension you feel the rear lighten up and start to rotate but it can be too abrupt at times if the suspension is near its limits. That sensation seemed more controlled yesterday on a local freeway ramp that has a decreasing radius. There is less squat under braking and hard excelleration. There is another ramp that goes from being a tight left hander then crests to a slight right hand bend as you merge onto the freeway. Before you could feel the rear get light as you transition from left to right while going over the crest...that feeling was also more controlled. Basically I am getting used to the stiffer ride and the spirited handling on the streets by my first impression...ROCKS!

 

I don't think anybody officially knows. The Nismo S tune suspension is a known commodity, but the suspension from the Nismo Z is *not* the S tune. Dothemath has already(later in the thread) quoted the S tune rates.

There's some rumblings over on my350z that suggests somewhere in the neighborhood of 35%. Gsedan35 has an interesting post here: http://my350z.com/forum/5694684-post18.html

If the 35% figure is correct, then the fronts would be ~424, and the rears would be ~576.

Now, the +35% would be relative to the revised rates, not the 03/04 rates(which, like I've said, I'm running 04 coupe springs now). The fronts didn't change between the original and the revised springs, but the rears went from 342 to 427. So compared to the springs I'm running now, I should see a relative increase of ~68% stiffness in the rear.

 

Thanks man. I'd like to get these on as soon as possible, but I'm going to wait until the temp drops from atmospheric reentry levels.

It should be a simple swap - I was surprised when I opened the box to find the fronts had the topmounts with the springs already compressed.

 

AH...Thanks. I did misunderstand I'll be checking back to see your pics.

 

I'm planning to install the same setup this week in my 04 sedan non-sport together with 350z NISMO sways. I compared stock 350z springs with the 350z nismo tuned springs and i expect a drop of at least 1.9 inches all around. The front springs are shorter than regular 350z springs by 15/16 inches. The rears are progressive so there is no point in measurements.

350z front springs: regular vs NISMO tuned


350z rears springs: regular vs NISMO tuned

 

Good information man. Post up some pictures when you get them installed.

Just curious - what did you pay?

 

Trey, looks like you might need some camber correction if it lowers the Z almost 1". Normal Z springs lower the G sedan about 1". You will roughly be at 1 15/16".

 

Yup - that's something that concerns me. I need to get some kind of camber adjustment, but that stuff is just too expensive. I might just get an alignment and go with crappy camber for a while.

 

We definitely are going to need camber adjustment. I have ready SPL for front and SPC for rear.