so I'm very new to this forum, not new to driving or infiniti's but new to caring about cars and wanting to learn about them.

first purchase was fresh out of highschool. paid 10k for a 2003 rwd automatic with 120k
spings were cut so it was low as a hell
sat on g37 rims with 265/55/r19's
full sound system
rear window lip
front lip
cold air intake

drove it, beat it, crashed it, crashed it again, sold it for 3500 with 2 flat tires no title and 141k miles

round 2

8 years and 2 kids later
2004 g35x 5at? so ive been reading for days and ive come to the conclusion 5at means 5 speed automatic transmission?
anyways its bone stock and now that I'm older ive gained some interest in cars and would like to teach myself about them and how to work on them. so far I can change my own oil LOL

anyways
this on has 120k and I paid 4800 for her, shes in good shape but id like to start modding her
heres what ive come up with so far from my reading



I want to get the md 5/16 plenum spacer with the iso thermal that's going to run me about 310 form what ive gathered ive also read a lot of good info about jwt pop charger and a z tube but all the searching and googling ive done I can only find the stillen z tube and the pics ive seen on here of z tubes appear to polished metal the stillen z tube looks to made from plastic and help with that? id like the more ascetically pleasing metal one

id also like to get headers and an exhaust but ive seen a lot of ppl say headers aren't a good idea and I'm not sure why

is it worth it to invest in a borla exhaust system and then go back and do the headers after or should I wait til I have the money to do it all at once?

after the intake and exhaust in plenum spacer what should I do next?

I was also looking at astrut tower brace but when I ppop the hood it seems I have a lot of things in the way of my strut towers does anyone have a pic of an 04 g35x stock engine bay because I cant find on un modded

brakes
lights
front lip back bumper side skirts
breaks and suspension are all on my list then some day once ive learned more ill work on building the engine

any other ideas or help with my plans would be greatly appreciated

or just comments and opinions on weather or not I'm off to a good start

thanks gentleman

ill upload pics later

 

Headers are a good idea

After you sort the breathing out go FI with a turbo or supercharger
Brembo brakes buy cheap ones from rock auto and paint yourself you can get rear caliber set for 250 front is around same

 

What is fi? and how much do brembos cost?

 

fi = force induction. turbos or supercharger.

brembos are usually around 1000 dollars on the forums. or you can go and get the akebono brakes and the adaptor plate to make them fit. but to each their own

headers are cool, but for the time/cost of installation its not worth it for the power you make. when i had my nismo headers installed cost me 6 hours of labor just to put them in.

i would do standard maintainence on it first before you do all the mods. change all your fluids. oil, trans, differential. check your coolant level. check all of your brake pads to make sure you have plenty of life left. at 120k miles i would assume you need a tune up also. change spark plugs, and check all your injectors. also check all the suspension bushings. make sure all of them are in good shape and not torn. change them as necessary. also check you shocks to make sure none of them are leaking.

 

You're not going to get much more out of mods other than the spacer, hi flow cats, and exhaust. You'd want to go with a supercharger (might need a new hood) or turbo. Google All-Girls-Garage G35 turbo and they actually have a whole episode where they install a turbo in G35. The girls are pretty cute also, so you get both benefits, lol. My wife compares it to **** basically, lol.

I did some cosmetic mods on my G with lights, clear corners, and some Diode Dynamic mods (haven't installed them yet).

The Z-tube is just an intake tube from a 350Z, so look for a used 350Z tube. I had both the z-tube and jwt pop charger, I didn't really like the pop charger and I sold both on eBay. In my opinion the pop charger makes the engine look ugly, because it has that cheap *** ugly stupid heat shield. I think K&N starting selling one recently.

At 120K I would worry first about changing out all the fluids: coolant, power steering, ATF (Nissan or compatible), brake, ATF, rear diff (you might have front/center diff) I don't know too much about the AWD G. Spark plugs look for oil and check the valve cover gaskets. Check your bushings to make sure they're not compromised and do a compression test before you decide to do any engine work.

I wouldn't mess with the headers it's expensive and time consuming. Look for an HR Y-Pipe (It could be leaking now); I think you can use that on an AWD drive sedan, but I'm not positive. Some people install a Transgo valve body upgrade it helps with AT shifting. You can also swap out the rear diff for a different gear ratio, but again I'm not sure if anything different needs to be done for an AWD vehicle.

 

Those girls are cute, my wife considers it **** too, funny. They did a coupe, I think a turbo on an X is way more work and money, honestly you'd be better off buying something with a V8 if you want that kind of power. A turbo kit alone is close to twice as much as he paid for the car.

Use a Z tube or Stillen (plastic) not metal, it will cause heat soak and cost you power. Instead of the pop-charger use a rev-up air box (05 and newer manual DE) or the Stillen air box.

Headers are worth the work if you don't mind doing it, not so much if you're paying someone, install high flow cats with the new exhaust otherwise their a waste of money.

To get the most out of the breather mods you'll need a tune, 04's don't have wideband so you'll need to have a dyno tune (no e-tunes)

I'm not sure a strut brace is worth while at all, I'd start with sway bars, poly bushings, decent wheels, sticky tires and Brembos or newer dual piston front brakes at the very least.

Of course you want to do a full service including a compression test before you do any of this, nothings worse than spending a ton of money on a cars that blows up right after you're done.

The X already has 3.55 gearing so it's better than standard auto gearing. since the front and rears have to match just leave this one alone.

Body mods are personal taste, do whatever floats your boat, have fun.

 

I just bought Borla Exhaust but still have the stock cats on my g coupe, are you saying the exhaust will do nothing with the stock cats ^? because I've come to understand hi flow cats barely do anything and what you really need are test pipes, can you comment?
because I am willing to switch them

 

I'm saying headers are a waste without cats & exhaust, there's definitely power to be gained by replacing both exhaust and cats with stock manifolds. Test pipes will get you better flow than cats but you have to deal with cel's and that smell, good cats are legal, don't throw codes and the exhaust doesn't stink.

 

ok I just misread you didn't see the headers part