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My clutch had been slipping at low speed for some time but didn't really bother me enough to care about it. That is until the day I stopped for some food at Portillo's. I was in the drive-thru and crawling, but modulating the clutch right to where it started getting friction caused the clutch to shudder madly. The chatter and vibrations rippled through the car violently. There was no way I could stand for the situation.
That night, I placed an order for a new clutch kit. Went with a ZSpeed EZ-Street Quiet Clutch & ZSP Billet Flywheel + CMAK V2 since I'm still NA. What I was looking for was something with a higher clamping force to handle my track driving where I am in the high rev ranges. Our engines rev high but does it in a bit of a lazy way. The lighter flywheel was also something I was looking forward to. I wanted something freer revving so this was the cure. I could have went with a 17lb ZSpeed or the 18lb Exedy flywheel, but the 20lb ZSpeed was recommended as a matched flywheel for the type of clutch disk I was ordering. Lastly, I was going to be in the trans anyway, so I looked at upgrading the hydraulics. Everyone recommends going with any heavy duty CSC at the minimum with our car. But I wanted something better, and eliminate any chance of the internal CSC cooking in the future. There are two movement alteration kits right now, one is the Z1 and the other the ZSpeed kit. I really didn't want to adjust the Howe racing slave in the Z1 kit so I went with the ZSpeed kit due to it being a simpler push slave design.
I spent a free Saturday dropping the trans and got everything installed. Holy heck is the trans a pain in the behind to get out. It took about 5 hours of slowly and carefully taking everything apart, but it finally came down. Assembly took about another 4 hours to get the old pilot bushing out, new bushing installed, CMAK installed, new insulated SS clutch line installed, run out to get gear oil, and bolt everything back up. Somewhere along the install, I ended up taking the trans off the jack and bench pressing it into place. It was also 105 degrees that day so needless to say, I am an idiot.
In the end it was all worth it.
Pros:
The car now pulls a lot harder due to being able to transmit more power down the drivetrain.
Engine braking slows the car more and attributed to the lighter flywheel, which I like.
Cons (not really cons to me but more like caution to others):
Harder to maintain a constant speed due to the more pronounce engine braking.
Clutch pedal is a bit heavier. I don't care since it like left leg day. Just have to even it out with leg presses using the right leg at the gym.
Finally, my RJM Rev3.1 came in the mail today. You guys know what I'll be doing this weekend right?
My clutch had been slipping at low speed for some time but didn't really bother me enough to care about it. That is until the day I stopped for some food at Portillo's. I was in the drive-thru and crawling, but modulating the clutch right to where it started getting friction caused the clutch to shudder madly. The chatter and vibrations rippled through the car violently. There was no way I could stand for the situation.
That night, I placed an order for a new clutch kit. Went with a ZSpeed EZ-Street Quiet Clutch & ZSP Billet Flywheel + CMAK V2 since I'm still NA. What I was looking for was something with a higher clamping force to handle my track driving where I am in the high rev ranges. Our engines rev high but does it in a bit of a lazy way. The lighter flywheel was also something I was looking forward to. I wanted something freer revving so this was the cure. I could have went with a 17lb ZSpeed or the 18lb Exedy flywheel, but the 20lb ZSpeed was recommended as a matched flywheel for the type of clutch disk I was ordering. Lastly, I was going to be in the trans anyway, so I looked at upgrading the hydraulics. Everyone recommends going with any heavy duty CSC at the minimum with our car. But I wanted something better, and eliminate any chance of the internal CSC cooking in the future. There are two movement alteration kits right now, one is the Z1 and the other the ZSpeed kit. I really didn't want to adjust the Howe racing slave in the Z1 kit so I went with the ZSpeed kit due to it being a simpler push slave design.
I spent a free Saturday dropping the trans and got everything installed. Holy heck is the trans a pain in the behind to get out. It took about 5 hours of slowly and carefully taking everything apart, but it finally came down. Assembly took about another 4 hours to get the old pilot bushing out, new bushing installed, CMAK installed, new insulated SS clutch line installed, run out to get gear oil, and bolt everything back up. Somewhere along the install, I ended up taking the trans off the jack and bench pressing it into place. It was also 105 degrees that day so needless to say, I am an idiot.
In the end it was all worth it.
Pros:
The car now pulls a lot harder due to being able to transmit more power down the drivetrain.
Engine braking slows the car more and attributed to the lighter flywheel, which I like.
Cons (not really cons to me but more like caution to others):
Harder to maintain a constant speed due to the more pronounce engine braking.
Clutch pedal is a bit heavier. I don't care since it like left leg day. Just have to even it out with leg presses using the right leg at the gym.
Finally, my RJM Rev3.1 came in the mail today. You guys know what I'll be doing this weekend right?
Thanks for the review! Pedal effort will lighten slightly as the clutch breaks in, So give it a little time.
This kits pedal effort is fairly light though compared to other "Performance" Kits that will hold similar power.
Does the 17lb flywheel make more noise? I'm on the fence between the 20lb vs 17lb flywheels when I do go with the EZ Street setup.
Thanks
Latez
EZ-Street only comes with the 20lb flywheel, There are no other options with this particular kit.
The 17lb forged flywheel will make "slightly" more noise on low RPM starts than the 20LB Billet unit that comes stock with the EZ Street kit as the billet steel absorbs vibration/noise better.
A few weeks ago a Jeep Grand Cherokee pretended I didn't exist and backed right into me while I was sitting in the car. Fun stuff. I was f-ing livid because the guy acted like it was an innocent bump and wanted to take off. Told him not so fast and whipped out the phone and started taking pictures. The resulting damage was a completely destroyed grille, scuffed up bumper and hood. I then forced the guy to swap info with me before I would let him go. As he drove away, I called up his insurance then mine. All that was left was to get the car fixed.
After the emotions settled down, I laid out a plan for what I would do. I took the car to the body shop to get looked at and a preliminary repair estimate. With the list of repair and replace items in hand, I went on the web to look at some upgrades. I knew I wanted to update the look of the car and picked out the midnight black grille and 2010+ sport bumper. I like the look of the IPL bumper, but the asking price for the front facia, side skirts, and rear bumper was a non-starter for me as I track with the car and don't care or need expensive body panels with no performance benefits. With the decision made, I put together a shopping list with OEM part numbers and prices from the Infiniti eStore. Gave this list to the body shop and they were amazed at the prices available to the consumer. They couldn't even touch to price. So, I order the parts and dropped them off at the body shop. The bumper fits in the coupe with deforming btw.
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It took 3 weeks for my body shop to free up, but here is the result. The Infiniti had the emblem on back order so it's coming in later. You might be wondering why I have no fog lights but went and bought the shroud. Well, there are some mods in my future and the diameter is a perfect fit so stay tuned.
Been MIA for a while. Lot's of things were happening and just couldn't bring myself to posting. Now that things have been cleared up, I'm back to the old hobbies.
NGK DILKAR8A8 spark plugs (AKA GT-R plugs) came in the mail. Same heat range (NGK 8) as the OEM Denso (24) in the G/Z. The gap on the GT-R plugs are smaller at 0.032" vs 0.044" on the VQ37VHR.
Bought a set of seals to rebuild the Akebonos that have torn dust boots. I figure it's time to refresh everything else on them.
Bling. Bling. Not really. My hoses cracked so I got silicone ones because why not. The overflow tank hose need to be replaced as seen by the coolant residue on it, but that will happen soon enough.
Installed the poly trans mount. Shifts are much more direct and confident. I took it off because the NVH is out of this world for DD duties. Specifically, the resonant engine pulses this thing transfers into the cabin is unbearable and makes the car sound like it has a V8 without any of the smoothness. This is going on for track duty only. Luckily it's an easy 30min job.
Some more parts came in the mail. Too bad Stillen neglected to send the kit with a pulley installed. I guess I just have to get started on the fuel upgrade this weekend.
Great build! I should have posted on this sooner. Love the progress.
Did you ever do anything about your LCA bushings? My suspension is fully upgraded for the most part and worry about other stock suspension parts, being as I have 125k miles.
Rochester - thanks! I keep a low profile and am not a prolific poster. I didn't intend for things to get to this point but, I find things that could improve and the next thing I know, here we are.
jpowersjr2 - I thought about it and just went with a new arm. The new arm solved some of the clunk. I wasn't comfortable with spending so much money on 2 bushings but no solution for the ball joint that joins up with the spindle. The sound from the trans bushing drowns a lot of the other NVH out. I did go with the SPL tie rods that dialed out the steering dead zone.
I was really bummed when doing a parts check out that the SC drive pulley was not in the kit.
Not to be deterred,. I went ahead and upgraded the fuel pump with the Deatchwerks DW300 direct fit kit. It wasn't exactly direct fit since I had to file down the 4 feet on the pump base. On the flipside, I didn't have to rewire the power connector. It was a direct fit from my type 1 (per the Stillen install manual) pump assembly.
Finally, the SC instructions say to relocate one of the 7 rib idler pulleys on the motor to the SC assembly. Instead of reusing a high mileage part, I bought a new one. You can see it in the first picture.
05-23-2018, 08:50 PM
