Originally Posted by Swaglife81

Hey all. I haven't had to much of a chance to get really active on this forum. I recently acquired a 03 G35 Sedan Auto, Premium with Sport Suspension, Bose, everything but 18's it seems like. I've been working a lot and moving the last 2 weeks. All along with the G35 in my life for the first time so its been a hectic week.

I have a few quick questions in general to clear my mind. A lot of searches I do on the G end up with really outdated threads, some go really far back as its a 14 year old car now. I just want to say I'm mainly a DIY unless special tools are required and I do have close to 20 years modding/maintenance but mainly Mustangs.

On to the specifics.... When prowling around this car the last few days. I couldn't help but notice how new some stuff is. Keep in mind this is a 200k even mile car. The rear end assembly looks like it came off the assembly line yesterday and thrown under the car. The master cylinder is brand new along with something else close to it that's also brand new. So either this car was modded, the previous owners never drove it in the rain or everything broke at some point and all was replaced recently than sold (almost like a restore). Being new to these cars its killing me not knowing what has been done or hasn't been done recently. This 200k mile motor just does not run or feel like a 200k motor. The motor being around cars all my life has not been cleaned in a long time but its really clean. You know what I mean by certain areas of the motor that would be clean clean if someone did clean it. So with the car running very very well I kinda think it has had a rebuild or its used low mile engine. I always use AutoCheck when buying a new-to-me car. It will tell you the honest basic details of the car's history. Carfax is a joke these days so I won't even go there. On the freeway at 60-70 MPH and kicking it, the car pulls harder than my 280 RWHP 03 Mustang GT. The mustang was a manual car with a 3.73 and 4.10 gears so I remember the feeling. Hmmm I'm surprised by this, not what I would expect but congrats. Your G is probably dangling somewhere around 210-220 RWHP depending on what kind of dyno you're on and the damn thing weighs in somewhere around 3300 pounds.

1. Can I run numbers on a engine to be able to tell if it has another build date maybe? Not sure but my guess is yes. Almost everything these days can be found if you look in the right place.

2. 70 MPH at 2500 RPM's and 60 MPH 2000-2050 RPM's in my auto. Assuming I have a stock gear. That's right where you should be with the 3.3 diff on an auto. I haven't owned a auto in a long time but when touching the gas any time it seems to do a slight rev like a manual car does or even a manual car with a aluminum flywheel. Does that make sense. Yes The rev would be like a 1000-1500 rpm jump when your foot was on the clutch. That's what this car does when first applying gas but its a auto. Is this just way technology is with these cars. Yep again, for some reason Nissan designed the auto's with rev-matching. Seems like a useless feature to me (but definitely not on a manual). Maybe I've just been missing something for the last 7.5 years lol. (Keep in mind I was a owner of a 5 Speed Mustang GT since 2002, everything was straight forward and like no options, basic everything.)

3. Since my car came with the Bose system but someone installed a Pioneer without steering wheel controls, can I assume that they installed with integrated factory amps? The Bose has just 1 amp and it sucks ballz. I had a option in the past to bypass all factory amps in my old car. I used the same wiring connectors/adapters but I unplugged and removed the factory amps. This removed a lot of dead weight. So if I have a headunit strong enough I would probably go this route. I know this goes in audio but do most people keep factory stereo wiring or do they bypass it. Most of us have re-used the speaker wires but that's it. I'm pretty sure the factory sub is not on. The music sounds amazing to be honest. Must be the new HU and possibly aftermarket speakers hidden in the stock locations because again, the Bose system is crap. I don't know how good the Bose was but whats in my car is great. I will check in the next few days.

4. When it comes to seat upholstery. What do most people do? I only need the center of the driver side butt area fixed. The lower part of the seat. It has a diamond shape cut out in it and its killing me seeing it. As its a 5 inch spot where I can see foam. I know factory seats are really pricey, Can upholstery shops sew in 2 center inserts rather than do a whole new seat? Not sure but I do know if you don't get that spot fixed it'll spread pretty rapidly.

5. I've seen mixed opinions on how to tell if the car has factory sport suspension installed. From the factory my window sticker says it did but what color shocks/struts/springs am I looking for? I know on the 05 sedans the shocks were red and the 06's supposedly grey. Might be a question for Google unless someone here chimes in later.

6. Almost done. What is the deal with the outrageous Cold Air Intakes for these cars. The factory setup doesn't look all that restrictive. I'm not a $300 air filter/plastic tube guy. The parts don't cost that much to make. Is there any reason not to just do a DIY pipe setup with a K&N. Bottom line is almost all intakes for the G will actually lose you power because they don't seal out the hot air from the engine bay and all you're sucking in is hot air. There probably will be a flood of people who will chime in here and defend the power gains they got from their intake and how bad azz they are. What you choose to believe is your business but the only 2 aftermarket intakes I would run are the R2C and the Stillen. I run the R2C because it does seal and only draws air from the front of the vehicle. They also have a proprietary dry/washable filter that is the bomb. They make most, if not all, filters for the US military. All intakes sound cool though so I guess the rest have that going for them. Bottom line is on our motors intakes don't really produce any noticeable power gains, just look kinda cool and sound good.

7. With $500 to spend what would be the best bang for the buck performance mod/need for a 200k auto that runs really well. Its going to be a street only car with at most 20 miles on the freeway to and from commute to work daily. IMHO do sway bars before anything else. Best bang for the buck mod as they will completely change the handling dynamics of the car. Engine mods like the plenum spacer, intake, throttle body spacer (don't even get me started on that one) and the like are not worth the $$$ spent. Nissan tweaked the VQ motor so well there's not a lot of room left in gains unless you want to commit more than $10 grand to properly do a turbo or supercharged set-up.

Thanks in advance guys. Looking forward to hearing from you