Eh Folks.

Don't have the tools, time, knowledge, ambition (did I mention knowledge) to do some of the exhaust mods I have in mind- and thinking of doing that Stillen auto transmission upgrade at some point too.

A couple of the other forums I've read say it's easy- but most say it's a pain in the ***... Frankly- I'd rather have someone who knows what they're doing put their seal of approval on it.

Wondering if anyone in the area has had any luck finding such a place in the Calgary area. Preferably somewhere you've had some work done before.


Drop me a line!



Eno

 

Have you tried checking out www.beyond.ca ?

 

Red Deer, not Calgary, but www.lightspeedinnovations.com has a good rep among the Central AB guys.

 

Lightspeed has done a bunch of Twin Turbo G35s, Single Turbo G35s and Super Charged Zs. They have more experience with our platform than any other shop in Alberta. However they are not cheap and its often a lengthy wait to get in so book sooner than later. They can get Stillen parts as well they are an authorized dealer for several major companies.


The seriously moded Gs in Alberta are on this site, I wouldn't ask Beyond or 780T00ners where to get your car modded its mostly people in there teens that hang out on those boards.

 

Thanks for the leads. I'll have to take a closer look at lightspeed- They offer a lot of products I haven't seen mentioned in the forums here...

I'm open for more leads, however- so if anyone has other good advice I'm all ears (eyes).


eno

 

They are also the only authorized Jim Wolf Technology dealer in Alberta. Ask to talk with cam the lady at the front desk will try to help insist on Cam (trust me on this) he is very busy so its almost best to send emails the address is on the web site. Good luck modding and if you have any questions feel free to PM me I have a heavily moddified car and I am always willing to answer any question about mods.

 

Probably the most well known shops in Calgary are Speed Tech and Tunerworks. But ask around on beyond.ca as stated earlier as there is a ton of people on there with input on those and other shops in Calgary to give you a better idea of where you want to go.

 

Holy crap Sylvan- just checked out your ride... and you're not kidding. Just the type of guy I was hoping to bump into. I'll take your advice and not even think about taking it to that level... insane! But if you did all that yourself... THAT'S what is most impressive. Let me know when you're leaving it out and I'll lift it for ya. But then YOU'LL have to do ME a favour lol.

I'm looking at some pretty superficial things right now. Doing the plenum (big deal lol) next weekend and after that I'm going for the high flow cats and probably a similar exhaust to what you're running (the stillen).

Most of what I've read so far suggests that I won't need to reset anything following those mods- any thoughts on that?

And bomber- thanks... I'll look into Speed Tech and Tunerworks!

Eno

 

The first "go fast" mods I would recommend are a cold air intake/JWT popcharger (I had a Nismo CAI i liked it but there may be better i know the Pop charger is popular), an intake spacer (I had a Skunk II I had no complaints but some say motordyne is better), Hi-flow cats/resignated test pipes ( I had fast intentions resignated test pipes I was also very happy with) and a dual catback exhaust (I was always happy with the Stillen). If you have a rev up(05+) I think the motordyne lower plenum provides good gains? You have a automatic so if you can find gears from a 6mt car that will give you more go off the line 5at have 3.3final drive 6mt have 3.6FD. You can often find them in the market place for a good price or guys with turbos will often trade straight across. After that you need to decide what you are doing with the car. Headers provide gains but are VERY expensive to install so if you plan on twin turbos it's not worth it if you plan on a super charger then you may want them, if you want all the naturally aspirated power you can get with bolt ons do the headers and look into cams both are expensive installs but if you want to ring out all the NA power you can they would be required. At that point it would be time to start looking at a piggy back engine management system there are several used on this platform i had an apexi SAFC it is a waste of money these cars run on the lean side with the intake an exhaust mods so a piggy back that can control fuel and timing is the way to go. Utec is one I have heard good and bad about it maybe red35 can chime in and mention what gains he got from it NA he had an Injen CAI, Skunk II spacer, headers, test pipes, and cat back exhaust tuned with a Utec. I am not sure if Cobb has anything out for our cars but that would be something to look into also ECU reflashes but at this time none are availible in Alberta so you can send away and get a generic tune I wouldn't trust one of those myself. Also decide if forced induction is in your future if it is skip the piggy back and get a standalone like a Haltech or ViPEC they are both faily expensive by the time they are installed and tuned it will be $3000-4000. Some guys like do handling mods after the Intake and exhaust mods. Wheels, sway bars, lowring springs with shocks/struts or coilovers depending on budget when lowering rear adjustable camber arms and toe kit are a good investment.

It all depends on you plans/goals with car adn how far you are planning on taking it it sucks to have to buy things twice because you didn't have a plan. I usually over do it on most things so as I advanced I didn't outgrow parts. I let people talk me into small turbos when i wanted big ones I ended up buying bigger turbos same with the fuel pump I ended up rebuying after that i started over buying to avoid that. red35 had similar experiences he bought a piggy back ECU and had to upgrade, he bought injectors he may need to upgrade, he bought headers then went TT. So we will both tell you get a plan even if you have to take it slow it will save you money and head aches in the long run. red35 is mostly a lurker but he went farther with NA mods than I did so if you call him out he might give some advice

Feel free to ask more specific questions if I missed anything or you have further questions. I am not that up on NA power mods I was only NA one summer before going TT. Several Calgary guys have some NA mods they my give there reviews here hope that gets you started.

 

Once again... thank you! It's certainly given me some food for thought. I think I'll stick NA... take it that far and see what happens. I have the motordyne plenum (that I'm doing next weekend), the z-tube (like everyone) and Stillen's high flow intake as well.

This is some of the best info I've received since I got on the forums a few months ago- so once again I thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

I think I'll take it as far as I can go NA... I hadn't seen much about headers and the UTEC so I'll look into those and see what more I can learn from you once I know what we're talking about a bit better.

At what point did your car become a maintenance nightmare? I'd like to try and stay away from that!

Eno

 

Well at the start i went the route of going N/A. I installed a Injen CAI, Skunk 2 plenum spacer, Alphawerks headers and test pipes and a Injen exhaust. This was about 250whp on the dyno. I then went out and bought a UTEC and had that installed and tuned. The power went up to 276whp. The only thing i can say is get some resonated test pipes because things get a little raspy if you don't. All the work was done by Lightspeed innovations and they have a good background on our cars. Search on here and you can look at my car. Not quite the beast Sylvans WILL be but its a start.

But all the parts made a big difference and if you just want to stay N/A then go this route you wont be sorry. But if you have the mod bug like a bunch of us do then like Sylvan said save then money and get a supercharger or twins if you want.

Oh yeah and the gearing is another point. Before i went TT i bought some 3.9 gears which would help all the n/a parts this would be another option to look at. I kept the gears and still went TT. I am happy with them.

It only becomes a maintenance nightmare when you go really big sometimes the reliability goes away. I know Sylvan was at 400whp, it never had a issue and mine is 480whp and have had really no issues. I took mine all the way to Vancouver and back and did not have one problem. I go to the track as well and drive it super hard and still no issues.

 

I changed too much at once I went with a new standalone EMS, 1000cc injectors, twin fuel pumps, return fuel system, bigger turbos, bigger rad, cosworth intake and a built engine and a Big Brake kit all over one winter. It was to much to do by the end I felt like I spent every weekend of the summer working on the car and I was just sick of it then when issues came up i got in a rush and made mistakes that caused more issues or the same issue to come back. If I were to do it all again i would buy a built long block from one of the site vendors like Injected, Forged, GTM or Sound Performance. My issues have been 90% related to my long block and the odd leak here and there. Also if i had a shop do the work it would have been nice to just take it back and say it has a couple leaks fix them i'll be back at 5 to get it. But i am stuck under the car trying to chase down leaks and fix little issues it gets old fast.
When the car had a Jim Wolf 530bb Twin turbo kit on the stock block it ran flawless and I never had any issues. red35 has the Jim Wolf 700bb kit on his stock block and it seems to work well. It is expected to lose some reliability and have issues when you start making 3 times the horse power the car was intended to make so its not like I though it would all bolt up and go with no issues. If i did it again i would still go twin turbo but stay on the stock block at about 400whp. If i wouldn't have sold my 530bbs they would be on the stock block and in the car today.

 

I had with my non-rev up engine(so not exactly apples to apples) skunk II spacer, Nismo CAI, and Stillen exhaust and I put down 230whp on the same dyno. So if all else was equal the headers would be worth close to 20whp and the Utec another 25whp or so you would have to talk to red about the cost of the headers and utec but i dont think either were cheap by the time they are installed and tuned.

**Edit*** I didn't get my test pipes until i went TT so my 230whp was with OEM cats.

 

I have Sylvan's old Skunk2 spacer, red35's OEM wheels and springs/shocks (and other bits), plus a Stillen CAI and sways. I *had* a Stillen dual catback but on the AT it was just too drony so I went with the 350z midpipe and stock muffler instead. I can't give you any number cuz it's never been on the dyno, but I do like the way the car runs, handles and looks (could use a Nismo kit, LOL).

*IF* I were to go to the next step, I'd skip any more NA mods and go for a simple FI setup like a single turbo kit from 350Z T, aim for the 350-400whp range on the stock block and call it good.

 

You sound like you're thinking the same way I am, Swivel. I'm still trying to figure out what people are describing as "raspy" vs "drony" vs "ricey" ... I like the lower growl and not that presumably "ricey" register. What's THAT growl called?

I wanted to take a peek at the JWT items and that's taking it a bit beyond what I'm prepared for right now...Okay, I lie... WAY beyond. Talking headers and that UTEC (still haven't looked that up) sounds like my league. Then I can play around with the springs, rims... I saw a Stillen upgrade for the transmission valve body upgrade. I'm hopelessly AT and that won't change any time soon- and this looks like a reasonable upgrade? Any feedback on that? Any reasonable alternatives?

Red, btw... thanks again for your input as well. Between the lot of you I have done some hunting around for info and think I have my path set. I hope you don't mind if I keep you all in mind as I move forward with my baby. Doing some research on those Alphawerks I came upon your headers. Wish I'd met you a month ago.

Here's the plan... got the Stillen Hi-Flow Intake kit w/ Z tube, Motordyne Engineering 5/16ths Plenum spacer... heading towards Alphawerks Headers (right now on sale for 50% off by the looks of it- 550US from a place called speedstash.com. Anyone heard of them? Hi-flow Cats and dual exhaust (both by Stillen sound reasonable? Though the Greddy systems look promising too). Topped off by a UTEC and a tune for spring / summer? One thing I'd like to preserve is that deep throated authoritative throttle sound... anything in particular I'll need to add?


Okay- and now that I've got you guys here... What do you do for oil? What's the REAL deal with the Ester Oil? The guy at Nissan told me that was more for the newer Gs... guys in the forums call that poppycock and say Ester is the only way to go.


Opinion?

Thanks again...

Eno