350Butcher

Mk1 Nismo looks so good.....like the silver/grey too as they all seem to be white!! Wheels work so good with it. Shame they’ve gone the way they have with following model as it doesn’t look a patch on this. It’s the one I’d buy if I ever part company with my 350

I’ve just seen the thread title below this one in the “videos” section and I’m already feeling sorry for him! Brace yourself mate!!

Well I’m glad everyone is enjoying this thread I started and we’re not all pulling things out of context or anything!

Evo magazine have always given the 350-370z 4-5star ratings..................HR 350z made Ecoty at release in 2007

Yeah remember watching that....does look like they've sourced the worst spec 370 available though which I'm sure didn't help.....8/10th cars aren't a bad place to start modifying from though. I didn't realise they did that......terrible idea and worse that its not a good sound they've piped in either, I'd be turning that off straight away Don't want to offend but from what I've read the Nismo is a set of springs/dampers and simple breathing mods over a GT (excluding all the styling changes) so I've never really viewed them as being a different breed of model like say the M models over stock 3 series for example. I thought it was a good review! In the world of turbo'd 350hp Civic type r's and 400hp+ M3's the old Z's are starting to feel slow, where chassis is concerned, although I really love my 350z as stock they do fall apart when pushed down a technical bit of road but with a few select mods they can be elevated to a different league.......motoring journalists review from the factory cars and not modified/altered so just take their opinion as no more than that. Also, after flying round in GT3RS Porsche's all day I imagine when climbing in a Z and hitting the track it does make it feel pretty rubbish.

Do like Chris Harris! Given its 10years old now I think that's not too bad a review. I actually think the appeal on the Z is greater these days for its old school approach to going about its business with its old fashioned n/a engine and manual 'box........do wish Nissan went a bit more all in with the Nismo models though and took out a lot of the squidge that's in the chassis and controls plus gave it more aggressive cams to add the top end fizz it deserves........

looks like I’m a little rusty on axle advise. Apologies. Its the flat tip short axle pictured on the far right you’d need.

No problem Its only one that needs cutting down

Is frustrating when things are "direct fitment" and require such work! As Alex has said cutting down may not be easy or pleasant but you've got nothing to lose giving it a go if you have time if it doesn't go to plan If you're not changing final drive and just swapping crown wheel to the new diff you probably wont have to adjust the pinion shaft at all but still check the toe/heel contact and backlash after install I think the non lsd import models had this shorter shaft fitted from factory so all UK cars with the viscous LSD's will have the longer shaft installed. Hope it goes well for you!

Sounds like you did have some material transfer on to the disks but glad you managed to deal with it and get a bit more time on track. I've found my passenger caliper does run hotter than the drivers side on track.......did it with factory caliper and still does it with my AP's so must be something to do with the distribution from the system! On your points 1) Yes the factory seats are terrible on track, slide all over the place dont you! I used to hurt my legs digging them into the car just to stay in front of the controls 2) There's obviously loads of variables that may be causing your understeer. I'm gonna contradict myself now but it may have been too cold to really get any heat into the tyres or if you were really pressing on then the front tyres especially cook under the loads of steering and stopping 1500kgs while soaking up all the heat from the brakes too. Watch the pressures and keep the AD08's at 34psi hot. As Mark has said stiffening the rear will help the front end as will throwing extra rubber at the issue with the 255's

That diff bushing is looking very sad! Plenty of aftermarket solid bushes to choose from to swap it out for that'll help cure that wheel hopping. I've on a few occasions spent more on a car than its worth and my 350 is very much one of them but I've always justified by looking at those who drive new and far less capable cars who throw away £££ in huge depreciation while the car remains the same over years and years...........I know what I'd rather do with my money!

Hi Thomas, I can’t offer any info regarding the Zed performance crank and it may be absolutely fine however just to give you my thoughts, I think in your position I’d either reface the crank you have and use + bearings or source a replacement oem part so you’re not introducing any unknown into your build, sounds like your build is gonna be serious given it’s FI so I’d go with peace of mind and a route that’s been tried, tested and proven a 100 times over. Would be horrendous to have a crank let go and write off an otherwise sound engine. Good luck with your build!!

No problem.....happy to! On top of the geo settings I've got Eibach arb's (middle setting rear/softer setting front) and my spring rates are 600lbs front and 300lbs rear (coil over conversion)......what you doing with your sus? Looks like a decent list but you'll want to do a complete ground up rebuild while doing all those parts!.........a weekends work! If only things could happen that quick! I'm happy that this thread has some good discussions and info on it from different people! Start your own but make sure you still contribute to this one!!

Totally agree with this! Great choice of engine too, I’ve had the privilege of a few laps at Donington in a fully built R34 and the engine dominated the experience!! 400-450hp for me is the sweet spot where it is more than fast enough for road use, great fun on track while leaving you free from driver aids to keep it all in check which keeps you “the driver” at the center on the fun too! Reliability comes into play over this too, you’ll break things, melt things and in the real world you won’t be going any faster for the downsides.........and you’ll be terrified by something you’re meant to be enjoying!! Looking forward to following your progress with it

I'll do my best, you should go for it! It always starts as a small project and builds in to something much bigger! Cars handling is neutral / bias oversteer, doesn't understeer at all in the dry with very slight oversteer on corner entry just to rotate a little and keep the front in check and then will oversteer on throttle but again not in drifter style but the car just loads the outsider rear really nicely so it just drives out the corner without losing time or speed. Diff does help loads as there's no slip to lose time/speed on exit and also drives across the rear axle instead of overwhelming the inside wheel. Its worth it if you can for exactly that.....I'll be keeping the stock HR heads from the donor engine and fitting them to my stock bottom end when its out giving me a 45k mile HR engine for sale when I'm finished which should fetch £2.5k which will be very welcome! Also if there's a issue getting parts or something delayed or money drys up then it can just wait without having the car frustratingly off the road! Agreed I think the top end is all the issues with the DE and you can throw mega money at it that you could just use to transplant an HR straight in and have same power from a better engine from stock............thought of that at all?? Cheapest way to tax an HR car too!! Here's my current geo setting to for reference

Ahh got it!

No problem at all Mark! Yeah that’s fair enough, it’s pricey and there not too many 35HR’s out there really. Good work......are the new looms any lighter then factory? After pulling the loom off my spare engine was really surprised how heavy it all was!!

Do syvecs do a plug and play for the 35HR engine? They didn’t last time I asked. Having to buy their ecu to drop in the VHR does add a couple of £000 to the job!! Whos Dave! I’m Martin.......I’ve been called worse so no probs!

If it’s a DE 350z it’ll be lot more work as you’ll need to change front panel of the car for twin intakes along with everything else but Mark@abbey has done that so he could tell you verse and chapter of what’s involved there. With an HR 350z it would be all the ecu that would need transplanting over and I wouldn’t know how the synchro Rev match gearbox (from the 370z) electronics is tied in with all that but I suspect a major headache!! But if you have a HR 350z then your block is identical to that of the 3.7 VHR so you can drop your 35HR heads straight on top the 3.7 bottom end, leave all the loom in place and away you go.......nearly!! The pistons from the VHR engine have no valve relief on the exhaust side in them which would be required due to the head swap so pistons are required (or machining of pistons possibly may do) to work with that set up. To change it a bit more you can run the 3.7 crank, longer rods from 35HR (for a more favourable rod ratio for high revs) and then a custom piston to work with that mix or parts from both engines. Hope that makes some sense!

The VHR is the 3.7 engine and from discussions we've had regarding our builds that's the route we are both going down. I'm planning on using the longer 35hr rods in mine though instead of the 37vhr 5.886" rods. I'm sure Simon will be along to confirm his specs though.........as you say, great results!

Yeah it looks like its on rails......don't think you'd see which way he went down a B road! It's a guy called Chris Van Woensel but he campaigned this car a few years back now and has moved away from the big Z these days. Engine was a 400hp IES build here in UK. Great results mate.......got to send me a copy of your dyno sheet? Did you keep the standard rods and rod bolts? Still finalising specs but 370z 86mm crank 35HR 5.974" forged rods with ARP2000 bolts 96mm 12.5:1 high comp custom pistons to suit "long rods" (possibly looking at CP's, what made you go with them?) Then drop my modified HR heads on and see how it goes! Glad people are still reading it..........makes it worth keeping up to date. Yeah the rod end made a great change to steering, very worth doing. Do really rate the SPL stuff........really happy with my chassis set up as it is now. Donor engine is for the above build.......getting another engine means car stay's on the road and there's no pressure or rush to complete it. Sounds like you got plenty to get on with!! Cheers! No I'm not fast enough for that...........others get issues driving to the shops!! Seriously though, never had a problem, I don't drive on track with less than an indicated 1/4 of a tank which is actually more like half the tanks capacity just in case and it's always run fine through very fast, tight or long right and left handers so I'll just carry on doing what I've been doing for years now.

If you’re happy that’s all that matters........good result!! From that I would say the stock front bar is very soft on the 370's and giving the front end some bar to deal with the weight of the engine is giving a big improvement......I'd still order up the rear bar to match up to the front you've got as I bet you'll notice an improvement again!

I have no huge experience of the 370z but running a stiffer front roll bar can create more understeer, you'd want to stiffen up the rear bar to encourage more oversteer. Regarding geometry try and go somewhere that will give you the geometry you want based on how you want the car to handle and not just dial in something standard or without the knowledge and understanding of what does what with what effects. If your car is understeering, sadly just flooring the throttle will just push the nose wider and wider of the mark!

Donor engine collected! And up on the stand........

Cheers mate.......I'll do my best!