Last Friday I bite the bullet and purchased an '06 G35 sedan with the 5AT, sport package and moonroof from Grubbs. I would have liked the premium package, but I was on a mission to keep my payments as close to $350 as possible on a 60 month note (with 13k down). So far I have been totally thrilled with the car.

Now I am starting to think about which mods I want to do. This website is a huge resource of information, but it can be difficult to find the right info. So far all I have done is the aluminum pedal set which we all know is good for something like 20 hp Now I am considering doing a GroundingGear 10 wire kit, Z pipe and the Stillen airbox. My main concern is keeping the car quiet. I don't mind a little growl when I get on it, but I don't want too much extra noise. What are your thoughts on these mods?

My next question is do you guys have weekend mod days or something like that? I like to do most things myself (my father-in-law owns a garage/ wrecker service so I have access to a lift), but it can be very helpful to work with someone who has previous experience modding the G.

I look forward to your responses.

Kevin

 

CONGRATS on the G bro!!! I hope you enjoy the heck out of it.

If you are going for mods that will keep it quite and still grab a few extra ponies out of hte beast I suggest going with the Z tube (it will resonate when you get on it more since it is an aluminum intake tube instead of the standard plasticy/rubbery one but nothing serious) The grounding kit won't skyrocket your HP numbers but it looks cool. If you are trying to keep your sound down a get good power out of it I would go with a Motordyne intake plenum spacer with the iso thermal kit. People (including BeerViper, myself and other guys makre great HP off these and they are like $300 to $375) By great number I mean if you are FI you'll see about 15 to 20 WHP!!!! Outside of that High flow cats are always a good idea and won't increase your noise too much. Headers I would steer clear of (they are IMPOSSIBLE to install) That's about all I can come up with for now.

As far as mod days. If you are local and want a few extra hands to get some work done.....POST UP! Try to give everyone a week or more in advance to clear schedules but a lot of guys on here have turned a wrench or 2 on these guys. I've done all the basic bolt-ons and the upper spacer a few times. But you'll get a lot of help if you post up and ask for it.

Once again welcome to the group and enjoy your stay!

 

Hey Kevin, congrats on your purchase and welcome to the forums. We will be neighbors soon once my house is finished in Keller!

I think Dave (HyperliteSMU) hit just about everything in his post. The biggest bang for the buck mod (and without a change in sound) is the Motordyne (or AAM) plenum spacer with ISO thermal. On a stock engine you will typically see 8 - 12 horsepower at the wheels!!! All it really does is isolate the upper intake manifold from the lower to keep the temperature down for the intake air and it really makes a huge difference. You won't find that kind of horsepower in that price range with any other mod.

Changing the intake to a Z-tube or other cold air intake will allow the engine to breathe a little better as well with minimal increase in noise.

The grounding wires have been shown by countless numbers to improve the shifting on the 5AT tranny. A member on this board sells them (Gordgee) and has actually posted before/after dyno sheets to show increases in horsepower. I recently installed them on my supercharged G coupe but did not notice an improvement (didn't expect one). Mainly it helped to dress up the engine bay .

A high flow cat will free up the exhaust considerably although it will probably only provide negligible improvement in power without going with a cat-back exhaust. The cat alone will probably make the exhaust very slightly louder with the stock cat-back. Any cat-back will of course change the sound considerably (mainly due to the muffler).

Also agreed about the mod-days, just post up on the forums and I'm sure there will be plenty of people to help out. Which reminds me ... I'm doing some work on my fiancee's Eclipse this weekend and told another forum member (JJ) to stop by and we could work on installing some test pipes on his G coupe at the same time!

 

HAHAHAHAHA that stupid Mitsu. What a piece. It's because YOU own it. HAHAHA!

 

Dude ... look who's calling the kettle black here ... I do recall very recently


At least the mitsu has 80k miles on it for it to be throwing a SES light Anyways I'm just replacing the alternator, belts and hoses. Maybe you should think of replacing that load-o-crap Greddy setup for a reliable Vortech Then I don't hear excuses about why you're afraid to run me at the track

 

Oh yeah.....well.......you're a big.......stupid head!




Take THAT!!!!

 

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I guess my first mod needs to be the spacer. I guessing this is not too difficult to install? I will also probably get the grounding wires not because of any possible power gain, but to smooth out the idle and improve shifting speed. Do you think I will notice the difference on an '06?

BeerViper, what part of Keller are you moving to?

Kevin

 

If you are relatively mechanically inclined, the spacer should only be a 30 - 60 minute job or so. I don't think the 5AT trans has gone through any significant changes so the grounding wires would probably still make a noticeable difference.

Kevin, my fiancee and I are building in a new community just east of 377 about a 1/4 mile south of Southlake Blvd (1709). We're building with Newmark Homes in the Flanigan Hill subdivision. Where are you at in Keller?

Jon

 

Jon!! lol thats right near me !! i live off 377 and kroger drive which becomes Heritage Trace Parkway.... live in the Heritage Sub Division we have some pretty good houses out here.... lol could have been my G buddy living next door ! =] lol

 

Hey Kevin, Welcome tom our club and forum. We have some very fine members here who are always willing to share their expertise and time. I hope you find just what you are looking for, and I'm looking forward to meeting you in the future.

 

Jon, I live in far west Keller (I'm actually in Fort Worth, but Keller school district and Keller mailing address) in a subdivision called Crawford Farms off of 1709. D.R. Horton built my house, but Newmark builds in our community. I actually run a cabinet manufacturing company in Colleyville that supplies cabinets to D.R. Horton so they gave me a smoking deal on my house.

I pulled up the intructions for installing the spacer and it does look like a pretty simple job. I will probably wait until my first oil change before I start modding the engine just in case a nasty problem shows itself during break-in.

Kevin

 

Kevin, yes we actually looked in Crawford Farms although we only looked at the Newmark Homes there. They have the same floorplan there that we are building in Flanigan Hill for about $40k less!! The differences were the lots are a little smaller in Crawford so we couldn't fit a 3rd car garage in the lots they had left. In Flanigan Hill all of the garages have to be side entry so the third car garage made our house longer instead of wider. The price difference is mainly a different "series" of house whereas Flanigan Hill basically everything was upgraded 1 - 2 levels over Crawford Farms in addition to standard granite countertops and $12k included upgrades.

Yeah you might as well wait until your first oil change and the engine is fully "broken in" before you open her up for surgery

 

[QUOTE=BeerViper]Kevin, yes we actually looked in Crawford Farms although we only looked at the Newmark Homes there. They have the same floorplan there that we are building in Flanigan Hill for about $40k less!! The differences were the lots are a little smaller in Crawford so we couldn't fit a 3rd car garage in the lots they had left. In Flanigan Hill all of the garages have to be side entry so the third car garage made our house longer instead of wider. The price difference is mainly a different "series" of house whereas Flanigan Hill basically everything was upgraded 1 - 2 levels over Crawford Farms in addition to standard granite countertops and $12k included upgrades.

QUOTE]

My wife and I are actually in the process of house shopping because I want a 3 car garage and around an acre lot. It looks like I will have to move toward Azle or Weatherford to get what I want without spending $500k plus.

Kevin

 

just make sure when you reinstall the plenum not to get torque happy with the bolts...they snap easy

 

Kevin, yes it's going to be hard to find an acre lot in the area. You will most likely need to go even further west to find something that's reasonably priced. I want to say that there's a new subdivision in the works just north of our at the corner of Bear Creek Pkwy and Whitley Rd that is doing 1 acre lots that you might want to take a look at.

g35rcr makes a good point about the plenum spacer, now that I think about it you are supposed to use an INCH-POUND (not the normal foot-pound) torque wrench to meet specs. Not many people own one of these because they are used so rarely unless you can find one that has both in/lb AND ft/lb...