thanks for the compliments, i really appreciated it. I actually have a video of my car right after the day i picked it up. The main thing is that i don't own a decent video cam, all i can use is my iPhone. The day that i do get a decent video cam, i will put up more videos.

 

Update,

Today i got together with my buddy at speedoptions to swap my berks HFC with ART testpipes. Over all the install was very straight forward. We used red rtv plus gaskets, and just from the drive back home, the car sounds so different and quieter. As it turns out the ART testpipes doesn't interferes with the trans cooler lines at all, but the passanger side does come very close to the trans oil pan, so much so that the wire clip that is used to hold the O2 bug wire has to be removed, see pics following


Now some pics of the failed gasket, it's much worst then i thought Just to clarify, these are the Berks graphite gaskets, i ordered them together with my HFC, they have been on the car for a total of less then 15,000kms.
Let's start with the driver side.



Now, passenger side



The lesson here is use RTV plus gasket at anytime. Fully cured RTV is like really soft rubber that is completely flexible, it is formed for a perfect fit, and will seal everything up really nicely. Put them together for that extra layer of security

 

Good job, I'm glad you got everything to work.

 

I'll say! That thing must have sounded like a real jalopy with those leaks.

 

Not fully yet, still need to do more tests. I'm parking the car for a while again to let the red RTV cure, but also because it is snowing again when it cleans up a bit, i will go out for a longer drive to test if the check engine light comes back on again. The code i got before clearing was 2x P2A00 and 2x P2A03.

Oh yea it did, sounded really rough (yes that's what she said )

 

Very nice build, looks like it would be soo much fun to drive!

 

I had the same issue with those Berk gaskets on my friend's G35. We blow them out every 6 months or so. Do you have a link for the RTV sealant you used? Thanks.

 

Well, he mentioned using the RED kind (#81160), but I think the Copper kind (#81878) is even better for that application. I've used it before and had excellent results. Look at the comparison chart here:

http://www.permatex.com/documents/Ga...erSelector.pdf

Notice two things.
1) its temperature rating is the highest of any of the RTV's (including the RED)
2) it is designed/intended specifically for exhaust manifolds, headers, etc.

 

I used Wurth red rtv, it's the same as permatex once, they are all rated at the same temp, i just used it because my friend had it on hand, so we didn't have to go out and buy another tube.

Technically Copper is only rated 50F higher, and that difference is quite minimal, don't think our exhaust will get anywhere close to the 650F mark. What i have read on the370z forum is that the Copper takes much longer to cure and settle, so if you are doing this at a shop, it is not recommended that you just drive home afterwards. With the red RTV, it will obtain it's shape and solidify much quicker. I think this is the reason that Tony at Motordyne has provided when someone asked why not use the copper.

 

^^ I can see why a shop might want to rush things in the interest of better profits, but I fail to see why the average DIY guy needs to be in such a rush. I mean, how often are you really ever going to need to do this task? You even noted yourself that you were waiting for the RED rtv to cure; a few more hours is a rather small inconvenience IMHO.

Drying times aside though, IT IS actually the superior product for that particular application though. It's not just silicone and chemicals, it's literally got copper added to the mixture for better performance with exhaust conditions.

 

Well when anyone uses RTV it's not just as simple as install and drive out right away, i let my car sit for about 2 hrs before driving hom. I guess if you are doing this install at your own house and don't need to move the car for a day, go ahead and use copper. As for shop install, not many people is willing to complete a install and let your car take up the hoist for half a day just to wait for some rtv to dry.

Please understand that I'm not trying to say that red is better then copper, it's just that according to all the information i have read, red is more suitable for this install, which is why Motordyne and Fast Intention is supplying red rtv with any testpipe and HFC orders.

In my case, I'm using both gasket and rtv together, so i doubt that the extra copper flakes will make any difference.

 

Hey guys,

So on friday, i drove up to lightspeed and got the car retuned. Cam is without a doubt a very capable guy and did very well for the short time he got with the car and the limited information he had. The end result is 447.7whp and 315.1wtq @9psi this is done on a dynapack. Because we weren't able to obtain my original tune from Sam intime, Cam had to started everything from scratch.

As for the car, everything runs fine and well. What Cam really improved on is the idle, now the car idle much better then it did before, there are still a bit of fluctuation, but very minimal. Most of the time the car idles at around the 800-900rpm mark which is what i'm looking for. However, the thing that Cam didn't do as well on is that the hot start issue is a lot more prominent then before. So starting at anything higher then 70C engine oil temp, i have to start the car with the gas pedal.

To be perfectly honest, the car doesn't feel faster then it did before, and the driving dynamics is still about the same. I guess this does prove me wrong when i doubted Sam's original tune. But the original tune from Sam certainly could have improved on the idle rpm.

Overalll, I'm happy with lightspeed's service, they are a bunch of great guys that know what they are doing. The plan now is that i need to get Sam to send me his original tune and go back to lightspeed on another day to let Cam do some analyzing and see if there is anymore room for improvements. My final goal is to get the G with the current Cam's idle and Sam's start, and just maybe a little more power.

 

Despite some of the issues, I'm glad you are putting down some healthy numbers. When I first had my car tuned, I also had some hot start issues. When I had it retuned by a more experienced tuner, who took his time, my hot start issues were fixed. Hopefully you can squeeze a little more power out of your car and fix all of your issues.

 

Just curious if you have any updates on your car?

It's been a while since I've been on Driver, but I now have almost 30K miles on my GTM SC and everything has been running great. I actually just got me first CEL since the install, so I need to get out my code reader and find out what that is for, but everything is running perfect, so I don't think it's anything serious. I need to get the car into GTM sometime soon to have the Rotrex fluid changed out and talk to Sam about building up my tranny next.

 

You still running stock transmission?