For those that also have an '06 6MT, here's my take on it.

First, total cost to ship to Canada (from EverythingG35.com) was about 380USD, from 272USD (199USD for CAI + 72 USD for Z-tube). UPS brokerage, Canada duties + taxes. Not complaining about that, I expected it to be around this much.

Second, install. Word of caution: i am not a mechanic. I have barely touched a tool in my life to be honest. Yes, the Stillen photocopy instructions are pretty **** poor but honestly when you open up the hood and see what is connected where, it's not too hard to sort of just use the instructions as guidelines. Anyway, I started with disconnecting the negative from battery. Probably not necessary, but after about 2 hours disconnected, the ECU will reset.

I only had one big issue during install:

1) Attaching the K&N filter, velocity stack, the urethane housing unit to the MAF hose with the 4 nuts was a real bitch. Very difficult to get it all to line up properly. Helps to have a buddy hold one part of it while u screw in and line it up. Before suceeding, I dropped several tools and a few nuts/washers into the pan below

Third, the drive. Put everything back, fired up the car. Ready guys? No sound difference so far. Certainly not the stuff that pre-'06 (I assume they're pre-'06) owners rave about. Drove it around my neighborhood, punched it a few times up to about 6RPM. I seriously hear no sound difference at all. Went through the gears - no sound difference. MAYBE it was a bit throatier but honestly not substantial enough for me to say "yes there's DEFINITELY a difference". I know the 6MT already has an agressive growl - not sure if it was supposed to be improved here.

Forget any noticeable power increase (wasn't expecting any). Mind you, I'm going to drive it around more after work. Will post up if anything changes. But so far, for that amount of money, not worth it. '06 6MT owners might want to pipe up here. Not complaining here - just sharing my experience.

Waiting for my MRev to come in - I hope i'll be more pleased with this Ah well, at least I learned some DIY with the car - it's kinda fun voiding the warranty!!!!! (JK...i really hope my dealership won't say this)

 

Oh yeah, my questions:

1) A lot of threads i read on installing this talked about the AC line. keep away from the AC line, make sure it doesn't rub the AC line. Even the instructions say to remove M6 bolt from AC line (or something to that order, can't remember). Later it says I will use the same bolt to bolt down the housing unit. Some threads talked about having to reach in and bolt it down. What AC line?? I never had to remove such a bolt on the 06, and I still don't know where the AC line is...

2) This may be a stupid question...how do I retrieve what I dropped on the pan below? Hoping I don't have to jack the car up

3) I keep hearing about heat shield - someone explain what it's for? The Stillen CAI didn't seem to come with anything liek that...

 

oh yeah one other thing. I did NOT remove the drain below (I understand it's not used anymore after putting in the stillen CAI). Should I remove it for better sound? Heard it's a real PITA...

 

The sound when you first reset your ECU you willl not notice the intake that much for sound/power. It took my car about a good 50-75 hard driving miles to wake it up and the intake got real loud and the car is stronger.

You will get a power increase once the ECU LEARNS.

 

First off, let me say my car is a 2004.5, but I wanted to share my results and try and respond to some of your questions because I just installed this set up yesterday on my car and I did a lot of research on install on this before buying it. These are some good, actually make that great links that deal with install of intakes and z-tubes with pictures of the ac line and ac bolt you mentioned. These helped me a lot.

http://www.6mt.net/mod-g35-350z-intake.php
http://www.imagestation.com/album/si...d%3D4287496321
http://www.performancenissanparts.co...ide/g35pz.html

I just got my Stillen Z-Tube and Stillen Hi-Flow CAI yesterday and installed it after work yesterday. Keep in mind I am a novice as I said in my other post on this subject, the only mods I've done are changing the clear corners and the pedals. This intall was a piece of cake, after looking at pictures online and other instructions from others and doing my research, it took me about 40 minutes to swap everything out. When I started it up, I didnt notice any difference, nor do I notice any difference at normal driving which is actually nice, but ...... when I punch it at about 3.5 to 6k rpm it really starts to sounds a lot deeper and louder and mean, definately noticable to me and I like it a lot, now I am forced to punch it all the time :-). As far as power, didnt really notice anything, maybe its in my mind because Im constantly stepping on it now :-), but it feels strong, maybe a slight bit stronger on take off.

The ac line that there is concern about rubbing is a thin line located just above where the mass air flow sensor connects to the z-tube, its very tight there, I have heard of horror stories of the line becoming damaged from the rubbing of the metal clamp on the z-tube to the ac line, it would probably be best to protect it with some kind of wrap or insulation or somene created a little gap by using a ziptie to the z-tube to pull it away from it, you should make note of it cause I've heard the friction can wear a hole in the ac line over the years and costs hundreds of dollars to repair.

The bolt that is removed which hold down the ac line is a different line, it is located below the air box after you remove the stock one, you should see it if you look straight down. This bolt is removed and the bolt that is supplied by stillen is used to bolt the stillen air box down through the same hole, it holds the box and the ac line down and the stillen bolt is longer which is why you have to use theirs. As everyone else stated and I agree, "that bottom bolt was a b_tch to install", you have to be triple jointed to get your hand down there.

I did not remove the drain, in fact, there is a hole in the stillen airbox that should line up perfectly with the drain, I left mine in, I doubt that small drain would have any effect on the sound.

The heat shield from what I understand is the box around the air filter, it shields the engine heat from getting in to the intake (in theory atleast) so you get air from outside (mostly) through the ram air into the box and filter instead of drawing from under the hood like other setups.

I did not reset my ecu because I heard it will learn as others have stated over the course of a week or two depending on how much you drive, I didnt want to deal with reseting all my presets, navigation addresses, and xm stations. If the sound and performance does change, I would be very happy and I will look forward to that and post any changes if I see any after a week or two.

Overall I'm happy with my setup, its a good quality filter, and the sounds is very nice at 3.5-4k and over. It was also very satisfying installing something myself and getting dirty under the hood, especially when it was a quick and clean install and I haven't done anything else on this car or any other for that matter.

 

Haha, i just realized I probably missed this bolt completely so my CAI is not bolted down (was wondering why it would fit so loosely). Ah well...may redo it tonight if I have time. I have a long ratchet extender so hopefully i can reach...

Thanks for explaining the AC line...i'm going to try and locate it, make sure it's ok.

 

Installing the Stillen airbox was a breeze, yesterday afternoon. I removed the Z tube to afford a bit more flexibility to the Stillen set-up when bolting down the M6 bolt. The install took all of 45 minutes after reading over the ambiguous instructions a couple of times. The small AC line was not an issue. There remains a good 1/4" between the said and the connection at the MAF and Z tube. I do not anticipate any rubbing related issues/problems.

 

i also have the stillen cai and the car is still shutting off after redline in 3rd gear and up, and i have put like 500miles on it so i wondering is it really cuz of the ecu please tell me.

 

A breeze??? how are you people getting the bolt on the very bottom on? I spent at least 30 min. on that bolt alone.. and gave up after my arm got all cut up.

 

Oops! There is a bolt at the bottom?

 

No, resetting the ECU is not mandatory. It is not the ECU. Recheck what you did. I'd even go back to stock and try again...

 

I got a little scraped up getting to the bottom bolt, but I had a deep socket ratchet that helped, took me about 5-10 minutes just on that bolt getting it in and then tightening it, it sucked but finally got it in, that was the only hard part.

If your car is shutting off after redline, you might be hitting the feul cutoff safety feature designed to protect your engine when you rev it above redline to prevent damage to your engine, just my thought. I haven't had any problem like this, but I try not to take it past redline. I haven't reset my ecu, its been a week and its still purring like a little kitten.

 

i did that and rechecked everything and still the car shuts off after 3rd gear when i redline it, and my buddy in his 350z said the same thing use to happen to his car. i have no problems with the car i mean its running better than ever and its sounds like a beast but it just shuts off but no performance has been lost

 

That bottom bolt is the worst design flaw I've seen in a long time. As posted above, unless you have kids hands or special tools, you will cut your hands up. Plain stupid. Worst part about it is that you'll need to deal with that bolt every time you want to clean the filter (you can't remove the filter from the housing without removing the housing). So I did what others did and forgot about that POS. And no problems, cause my intake is rock solid without that bolt attached. The intake sits on that piece, so it's supported none the less.

 

im really glad no one has ever encountered this problem