350Butcher

You're very welcome matey! They look really smart

Thanks! Certainly has been a lot of work and its still going on, so much to update its just finding the time to. Should all be finished for some fun to start in Spring

Santa dropped off some more top end parts for the build

Yeah the 350's front end does take a battering and a lower lip is almost sacrificial I suppose Cheers for info.........keep looking at new wheels for mine and its good to know where the limits are for fitment. Very true about tyres.....even going from the AD08 to AO52 Yokohama's in the same sizes they must be plus 10mm

Really like this Z! Is that a mines lip you've installed? Makes a massive improvement to looks on the whole car somehow What offsets are your three piece Oxigin's? Fit look about perfect..........any issues with rubbing etc? Assume arches are stock and not rolled?

As always, your Z's looking superb mate!! Great location for showing it off

I really like this new Z, think the worst bit of the launch proto has been the colour choice as its hiding some really nice creases and lines that they've given the design which I think another colour would've made "pop" more. It sharing a similar platform to the Z34 is fine by me, I would definitely rather that than do what Toyota have and hidden under the new Supra a BMW Z4, keeping it a proper Z and in touch with previous generation which most of us on here enjoy and love driving today. Such a shame it wont be coming to europe as I for one would like seeing them from time to time on our roads as a change from the mass of boring cars.

Info here

Will be soon mate

Hi Calv, To just bore to 3.9 would be taking it out to 98-99mm from 95.5 which is quite a lot of material but I believe it's been done and is the easiest and cheapest way to do it. Would just require a re-bore and pistons, the other components would be OK............still a full strip down and rebuild job to do though. The other option would be (given the whole engines coming apart!) to use a 92mm crank and VQ35DE length rods which could use 95.5 or 96mm bores and would take you to nearly 4ltr. Not sure if there would be any clearance work required to the block for the new crank and you'd need the big end on the rods taken out from 55 to 57mm to work plus the usual balancing work etc. so this would run you into a lot of £££. Probably wouldn't see much change from £8k once you're all done Gains wise 355hp - 3.7ltr = 96hp / ltr so taken to 4ltr you could expect to see 384hp ish. Whether that's worth that kind of investment is entirely up to you? Chassis and drivetrain would be up to dealing with this depending on your use road or track etc? Hope that helps a bit

Car's looking great on them new wheels too!..........As already said think they look better on non-nismo model

Me and my uncle's 370z have this mount installed now and its perfect........no noises at all and offers loads more support! Get them discs and pads bought and then bring it round for another spanner session! Hopefully it cures the issue for you Hey it didn't confuse everyone! Was a really good buy at that price too!!

Just my opinion but I suspect the factory Akebono's could easy be made to perform better than the K-sport kit and with change from your £2.5k AP racing and PFC do off the shelf rotors in 355x32mm and if it were me I would give Dave at BGdevelopments a call and see about getting him to make up a set of bells for you. http://www.bgdevelopments.co.uk/ Together with braided hoses, high temp fluid and PFC Z-rated pads would be the perfect fast road set up Throw is PFC 665 fluid and a set of Pagid RSL29 or PFC 08 pads and it would deal with heavy track use no problem!! Here's the brackets and bells I had made for my car at BG

Cheers for passing this info on...........however I wont be opening up my clearances. My opinion is, that opening them up and especially for the reasons of increased load and revs. You'll just be losing oil pressure and wearing out the bearing faster as the load isn't spread as well across the bearing surface as with tighter clearances. The only advantage of increasing clearances would be additional cooling due to higher flow of oil but at a far higher cost to dropping the oil pressure. In a "modern engine" the components and obviously with the use of high quality oils the heat can be handled so isn't so much a consideration as if you were building say an old war time classic car engine for example. As always just my thought's on it........it's your build and I'm following it with interest.

Last time someone said that to me was when I put their 400hp '86 Moonstone Blue Sierra Cosworth back on the road.............they didn't see their car for a month!!...........and I took it round Goodwood circuit too! (owner booked it) What a great car!! Sounds good mate! Need a good Hp circuit like Donny or Silverstone to let it stretch its legs!!..................get them PFC pads in though matey, we'll need to stop too!!

No problem, happy to help!! Yeah was great to be out in a Z again, especially one with a bit of boost! I really did enjoy it and I only tickled the surface..........really liked that it goes about its business like a normal 370z just with afterburners when you touch the throttle!! Appreciated you letting me have such a decent drive of it. Catch up soon mate

Even nicer now I've got a pair installed and they fit perfect.......was a bit anxious about that part given its not the most common build going. Absolutely going to check valve to piston clearances..........I'll have a degree wheel set to TDC on the crank and install some light check springs on the inlet and exhaust valve so I can operate them by hand. Attach dial gauge to an exhaust valve and turn the engine over by hand, push exhaust valve open till contact then start recording clearances at every couple of degrees before TDC and then swap dial gauge to inlet valves and do the same with them every couple of degrees after TDC. I'll add to the clearances I record to allow for high revs (as I'm checking by just turning by hand) and expansion (a little more for exhaust valves as they get hotter). This way I'll know what clearances I'll have for advancing/retarding engine when it comes to mapping to get the most from it while remaining safe!

Thanks They’re custom 12.5:1 compression CP pistons

Cheers mate...........it’s been a while coming! Looking forward to seeing how it performs next year

Just a quick update as the engine build has finally got under way!! First off just cleaning the block to get all the swarf out from the machining work took ages before being able to start any progress what so ever..........once cleaned I could install the new bearings along with, for the first time, the 86mm crank! A little bit of grease on the journals and a line of plastigauge in place to check clearances..........torque down the main cap cradle and then remove to see results They all measured up at 0.00175" which I was happy with (in a cold November shed!).....so I progressed with more cleaning up in prep for siliconing up the cradle, installing the oil squirters and then torquing down with the new main bolts. (not forgetting the o'ring that sits in between also) Next was to attach the pistons to rods and build them up with the rings that were already gapped for me to each cylinder and orientate to front of engine for each bank Then using my new tapered piston ring compressor, dropped in No.1 and 2.......I'll never use the ratchet down style tool again as always found one spot to be too loose and it doesn't lay as flat to the block so often when pushing the piston through to cylinder rings pop out between tool and cylinder and you've got to start all over again. The other benefit is as you ratchet down the tool the rings (that you've just spend time positioning so the gaps are all orientated correctly) move around but the tapered type it just pushes through so you know they stay where you put them! With No.1 and 2 connected up I wanted to turn it over and just check a) that the skirt didn't take out the oil squirters and b) the pistons finished flush with the deck and I was very happy that both were fine so custom pistons dimensions are spot on! Next up was to check rod bearing clearances so I opened up big end again, cleaned off assembly lube, greased the journal and laid on another strip of Plastigauge.......torqued down the ARP2000's and then removed again to see where they're at Unfortunately these have come in at the very largest oem specs (which are themselves large for this build) 0.0021", which I'd like to reduce so I'll measure the rest and see what they measure and may have to order a set of Grade 4 bearing which are 0.0005" thicker to get me in the region of 0.0016" which will help maintain higher oil pressure. And that's where I'm at.............I'll finish off the bottom end then I'll be turning to the car itself to remove the "old" (45,000mile) engine, remove my modified heads from that to strip down and skim before building back up and mating to the new bottom end.............and then install is the reverse of removal!

Alex is right, sadly letting batteries go flat just kills them and you'll be spending a fortune on buying a new battery every year. If you cant plug it in then removing it is the way to go and buy yourself a decent charger. Ctek chargers are the way to go, they simulate use and keep the battery in top condition. Me and my brothers cars have them plugged in all the time they are not in use and haven't had any issues for years and years. Most car storage places have rows and rows of the things!!

The Z34 platform would be a strange platform to test a “problematic component” etc I would’ve thought, if it’s in relation to the 370z then I think after 10years and at the end of its life they wouldn’t spend a penny on its development or to fix anything. Testing a new engine is a rwd car seem odd too, given it’s the only rwd car Nissan have and if it’s being discontinued then I would’ve though they’d use something else that’s in their future line up for data gathering. But maybe you’re right...............who knows! Given demand for the new Supra why wouldn’t Nissan want a piece of that

That would be amusing if it was just some bloke on a TF that had just been photographed and started all these articles for nothing!

I will agree in the past that articles just written about a replacement for the 370 have been exactly that. But as far as I’m aware this is the first being there had been any sighting of Nissan our testing new chassis, drivetrain or are you suggesting Nissan are just driving a 370z around the ‘Ring for some other reason?

Well Nissan do have a 3.8 ltr twin turbo engine that complies with all the emission regs! Detuned and mated to a manual ‘box and rear drive could be very nice indeed...............no need to go to nasty German turbo engines to make it happen