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I thought I should probably create a thread for this, since most of the development on this is scattered in multiple threads. I'm assuming there will be a decent amount of interest, since there's plenty of people running the stock Stillen kit.
__________________________________________________ _______________ Basic Concerns with Stock Kit
Let me begin by mentioning that the stock kit "should" run perfectly fine as long as you don't mess with it. I've seen plenty of builds end up with a blown block due to increasing the boost without taking consideration of the necessary supporting mods. This is mainly due to some design issues, which were probably done in order to make the kit CARB legal.
Here are my concerns of the stock kit as it stands now.
1. Stillen's canned tune - Stillen will not honor warranty unless you run this. They also do custom tunes remotely as well, but I've yet to really see any desirable results in either case. After running both Uprev and EcuTek tunes, I find that EcuTek is much better in terms of features, adjustability, and support.
2. Cooling - The cooler that comes with the kit is a bit small and it's very easy to heatsoak. The FrozenBoost heat exchanger is a great alternative that will keep the temps down and it's very easy to install. Temps cannot be monitored properly though unless you add your own sensors. This brings me to my 3rd and largest concern.
3. MAF Placement - The MAFs are located right before the blower. The big issues with this is that the IATs (Intake Air Temps) will ALWAYS read ambient air temps.
Why is this an issue? Let's say you are running the car very hard whether it be on the road, track, or strip. Your heat exchanger will eventually heat soak, which will result in your IATs to increase. In a normal blow through setup, the ECU will adjust your AFR accordingly depending on your IATs. Since your IATs do not change, your ECU will not compensate for the extra heat. This can lead to issues or in the worst case, irreversible damage. This has been very apparent, especially when you see those who try to run more boost than intended for this kit.
The most recently 'solution' to this is to tune by Speed Density via EcuTek. This is a totally different system and does not rely on the MAFs. To keep it brief, it changes the way the engine load is calculated by disabling the MAFs and running calculations based on engine speed, manifold pressure, etc. It is definitely a much safer way to run the kit (even with a little more boost), but I wouldn't call it a complete fix.
__________________________________________________ _______________ Solution
The Air-Air upgrade kit was fabricated by Topgunz on the 370z forums. It features a custom 2.75" Y pipe for the throttle bodies with relocated MAFs. It was already tested on the dyno to be able to accurately monitor IATs unlike the stock kit's design. The kit also includes a new air filter, which will replace Stillen's dual intake design and a Treadstone FMIC, which requires you to remove the oem crash bar.
Additional info can be found here: Topgunz - air to air upgrade - Nissan 370Z Forum
__________________________________________________ _______________
I am currently in the process of having the Air-Air conversion done on my 2011 G37xs. I do not have a build thread, but I will post updates here as regularly as I can. I've also recently created an IG, so people can also see progress pics over there as well (@kaoboybibimbop).
Ran into an issue over the weekend. In pic 2, you can see that the Y-pipe is not lining up with the throttle body. It's far enough that I can't even use a hump silicon coupler to compensate. I'm going to let the shop cut a piece of the Stillen charge pipe and weld it as an extension on the Y-pipe.
I spoke with TopgunZ about this and there was a couple possible reasons for this. I actually purchased the Y-pipe that was originally on TopgunZ's 370z. Because it was one of his pre-production models, the end of the Y-Pipe was a bit short. I'm going to have to assume that that + the fact that our nose may be a little different from a 370z is the reason why it's misaligned even more.
Another possible reason was because my shop installed the FMIC brackets upside-down. They flipped it and it made no difference unfortunately.
It's hard to say if the kits TopgunZ is selling will need modification or not for the G37, since mine wasn't exactly perfect. If I had to guess, I'm assuming everyone should be good as long as they get a longer coupler (4"), preferably one with a hump on it. We won't really know until the next person tries though.
Yeah, that's the first thing I asked them. Apparently, there wasn't any more wiggle room. I'm not there in person, so I can't say for 100%, but I have full trust in this shop lol. Here are some pics of the bottom portion near the FMIC. It really does look the same as the 370z to me. My shop informed me that the nose does not have as much room as the 370z though.
Do you have any photos of the intercooler core being removed from the manifold? What was the process of removing it? Do you happen to have the dimensions of the original core?
how far into the intercooler coupler do you have that pipe? Looks like too much? maybe?
It can only go so far because it's a 2.75" - 2.5" coupler. My shop is finishing up the welding today, so the car should be ready for tuning tomorrow. The only other thing that needs to be done is the gauge wiring and the external MAP sensor.
Do you have any photos of the intercooler core being removed from the manifold? What was the process of removing it? Do you happen to have the dimensions of the original core?
I don't have pics of this, but I can get you a pic of the original core sometime later in the week. You can either remove the intake manifold and unbolt it or slightly raise the intake manifold and cut it out (obv not the cleanest method, but it will work).
So it's more than just unbolting the 4 bolts on the front then... Yes, pics of the process would be great, and dimensions of the core itself would be very helpful. I've been on the list for this kit, but my plans might be changing - I may be moving to CA, so might have to stay CARB legal.
UPDATE: We ran into a snag with the fuel return yesterday, but the car is running now! We are going to hopefully get some logging in and get it road tuned by tomorrow. No ETA on dyno time unfortunately.
UPDATE: We ran into a snag with the fuel return yesterday, but the car is running now! We are going to hopefully get some logging in and get it road tuned by tomorrow. No ETA on dyno time unfortunately.
Ah the wonderful delays of the aftermarket tuning world. Always something to eat up more time. Looking forward to the results! I was going to go SC before the a2a kit came out.
Yeah, apparently the fuel sump tank in the G37 is shorter than the one in the 370z, so the fuel return line needed to be shortened. Every time the car started, the line would kink because it was too long.
UPDATE: Logging beings today. I drove the car a bit on the weekend, but stayed in the lower rpms because I'm running on a base map Seb made me.
Are resonated test pipes cool to use with the SC? I have FI RHFC now and I've been told those are no good for FI. I'd like to get the AAM resonated test pipes as they have the elongated J bungs for the 02's and have read good things about AAM in general. Thoughts appreciated.
05-06-2016, 10:56 AM
