So I've been suffering through some long hard times with my g37s (mostly due to my unwillingness to spend large amounts of money).

The back story:
There I was (10 years ago) with my 550hp EVO 8. Because I were younger and without money it was my daily driver. (Side note: never daily drive your racecar).
Things were always breaking. 3 clutches, 2 transmission, 3 transfer cases later i decided i was done fixing this thing and decided to sell it. I traded it for a truck. Dont ask me how much i sold it for because it hurts my heart to this day. This was during the height of the gas crisis and a month driving 30+ miles to and from work was hurting my wallet.. not to mention gas at this time was 5.50 a gallon.. so i took a huge loss and decided i wanted to get rid of the truck (2010 gmc denlai). so off i was going to the absolute worse place to buy a car at the time (carmax). I browsed through a few cars.. found a nice 2010 camaro ss in red that i really liked. took it for a test drive and fell in love. Well i was about 2000 short for the financing so had to settle for a g37s or pontiac gto (6.0) but was that ugly sky blue color.. yuck.. so i settled for the g37s. I say settled becuase it wasnt what i really wanted.. but it was a good settle. drove amazing. decently quick. nice and luxerious. rowing through the gears was nice.

Kept it stock (besides the intakes). After a few years i got married and was starting a little family and my little coupe just wasnt cutting it anymore. I had a friend that really liked the g37s and said he would take over the payments.. so he did. And i purchased a 2009 cadillac cts-v (stick shift)(around 2013). drove that bad boy for a while. Talk about speed and luxury. I sold my house and moved into an apartment so we could buy a larger house. During our few months in the apartment my wife cheated on me so .. yeah... that was over and I was a single father lol. Shortly after that My friend that had taken over the g37s payments which because of my negative equity was about 600 a month stopped paying .that went on for 6 months before i could go out there and repo the vehicle myself. well.. when i repo'd the vehicle it wouldnt rev over 3500rpm and ran like total garbage. I took it to a local shop and he said it would be cheaper to just get a used engine and swap out the old one.. so thats what i did. I sold my cts-v because money was tight with paying 1700 rent for an apartment, 750 for the cadillac, 600 for the g37s and bills here and there (especially credit cards i had loaded up on after the breakup). i drove the infiniti (because it was fixed, nice and running well). drove it for a couple years. 2nd time around started acting up again. and i didn thave my friend to blame this time. LIMP mode.. didnt rev past 3500. wierd thing was if i turned it off and turned it back on it would rev all the way to redline. wierd.. i know... anyways since it was acting up and it was my daily i decided to pick up another vehicle. 2007 jeep wrangler jk unlimited. drove that around a couple years while the infiniti sat.. and sat it did. until i was ready to break into that bad boy and see what the issues were.

The day came. i was on vacation. didnt have anything to do. (still didnt wanna pay 4500 dollars for the stealership) So I cracked into that bad boy. Low and behold.. gallery gaskets were in fact blown.. ((If you want to see me go through this process i put it on my ig)) can give you the hashtag if you want. since i had everything off the front i threw in a new clutch and some race headers. fixed it. buttoned it all together and drove it. a few weeks later boom! wouldnt rev passed 3500rpm then it wouldt start at all. I parked it and let it sit again. I wasnt ready to break into it again.....

There I was bored again. figured... lets just break it apart again (3rd time)... and see what the problem is. the stupid top tensioner had given out and needed to be replace.. so i replaced it. putting everything back together again this weekend and should be good to go again... so now the question...

I'm going to be selling my jeep here shortly (dont offroad as much as i use to). Was going to sell my infiniti as well becasue of all the headaches but it should be perfect now lol (crossing fingers). (jeep pics available if you want). oh yeah... the question...

Sell the G37s and buy something cheap and fix it.

or

build the g37s for some boost.

I've got some money now. I've also got the down payment to my house ready. I've paid off all my credit cards and (besides the jeep) have zero debt. Selling jeep to have absolutely zero debt.

If I were to sell the g37s i would build an iroc camaro. I absolutely love that year camaro.. they are fairly cheap. The plan would be to get an lq4 or lq9 block or 4.8/5.3 block. get a t56 and boost it. I'd have a cool older car that is fast with none of the great modern day aamenities (ac/back up camera/headed seats/luxery etc)

98-2002 camaro's would already give me the ls1 and t56 i want in the iroc but i hate the body style of it.

or

2nd route would be to custom build a twin turbo kit for the g37s. I saw from z1 they had a rods and piston package that lowers compression to 8 to 1. I've had an idea of a twin turbo kit in my head for this car forever and I purchased a mig welder so i can do all the piping and manifold etc.... (its been a dream of mine to weld and im an extremely fast learner).

With the IROC they are pretty much all clapped out in the range that i'd be looking for and i would have to do alot of maintenance restoring things that are either old or outdated. with the g37s everything is pretty much done. its modern. the body is pristine and it still looks super beautiful. I will no longer have to worry about gallery gaskets failing or anything of that sort. everything inside that area has been fixed and or replaced. I low key answered the question for myself lol....

anyways.. what are your thoughts? This would be my 5th turbo'd car.

 

So if you sell your jeep is the G going to be your only car?

 

no I bought a 1998 honda civic lx to daily. completely stock and its staying stock lol . i drove that to and from work because it gets great gas milage and its stupid reliable. I say "bought" but it was sitting in my cousins driveway fading away. he said it has one hell of an exhaust leak, registration was a year or so out, and wont pass smog. he said i could have it since it was just taking up space in his driveway. i drove it home (thankfully i didnt get pulled over) and pulled off the exhaust manifold. there was bolts (2 of them) missing . i tried to take apart the other bolts so i could put 4 new bolts in and the only 2 that were holding it together snapped lol lol lol... so i said f it. and welded all the way around and the two holes. was able to take it to a smog shop (thankfully they didnt do a visual inspection) they would have saw the welds and legally they say thats "modified". it passed. i got the pink and everything squared away and now i own a 1998 honda civic for like 200-400 dollars i put in. ps: i did try to find a used exhaust manifold off of offer up and facebook marketplace but i couldnt find one. and i wanted it done asap.

 

Sounds like you could take a break from modding cars for some time. It's a black hole and you will spend a lot of money and time on it. In the end, is it worth it? My opinion

 

Last car I really modded was my Evo 8. I havent modded any of my cars in a long time.. maintenance on the other hand...

 

In that case I go with option two. I believe the iroc will come with rust may be wrong but body work is not my cup of tea,too time consuming. Like you said a newer car will have a few more amenities but still have to put in work. I feel like the Camaro will be more of a headache especially when it comes down to parts.more down time on it. The G you can build it as you go and see what you are missing or wanting from it as I'm sure you will be driving it more often as your completing the build. Plus it gives to the opportunity to work on your welding skills for the twin setup. Might be more of a Custom job to be proud of than the older v8 Ls swap everything muscle car theme

 

I thought the same thing. Thank you for your input. Plus.. zero iroc's came stick shift.. they were all automatic. so putting in a 3rd pedal. having to do the complete swap.. probably more of a headache than i want. maybe one day when my son gets older me and him can build one of those from scratch.. and it could be his car. something he can learn to wrench on etc. I'm kinda sold on the g37s. But like i said i'll take anyone's input. plus just getting rid of the infiniti after all i've put into it. idk. just wouldnt seem right. soon as im done im ceramic coating the whole dang thing. our cars look soo good when they're clean.

 

I'm with spoolin on this. It reads like your life story and your car stories are all intertwined, and maybe not in a good way.

Lease a new 400Z 6MT this summer, don't mod it, live your life.

Well maybe not the 400z... just looked, and that's not going to be available until late 2022. What the heck? Anyway, the opinion still applies. Get something rewarding but uncomplicated. And maybe relocate somewhere that an apartment doesn't cost over $20k a year. OMG, California...

 

I agree with the rest of the other folks. I mean you said it yourself dont daily your race car and here we are to this day trying showing this risky behavior. You have a kid now and this little guy will need your attention and focus and it's difficult to do that If you're stressing about the oil drain on your turbos leaking or that burnt clutch or the thousands of dollars in tuning and tuning issues. Then you're probably going to entertain e85 etc. You see a pattern of behavior in your story and it looks like if you start going down this route the universe might try to send another curve your way so is best to be prepared for this. The g will take loads of $ to have the reliability you are asking.

 

Do whatever makes you happy since one day you'll be lying on your death bed one day reminiscing about your decisions. Unless you know a guy to pay off to help you pass smog, not worth modifying it. Now if you do, since I see you're located in felony valley, why not just go all out and swap in a VK56VD instead? They use the same motor mounts as the Ms, you'll get an even better V8 than the LS/LQs all for the price of a turbo kit and it's maintenance upkeep. Best of both worlds, plus it will sound a whole lot better than the VQ.

 

well the whole reason im selling my jeep is to get out of debt (debt free) and buy a house. yeah.. the houses in the area im looking for are actually cheap (mid to high 400's). i have a paid off daily. my g37s is also paid off. i want something fun again. nothing brought me more joy than rowing through the gears, windows down, blasting my music with no destination.

 

I have a daily driver. its a 1998 honda civic. like i said before this will be my 5th turbo'd car. Its either build an iroc from scratch or turbo the g. there is no in between. I have the down payment for my house. i make the money now. just want something fun. and my little one will be 11 this year lol. im teaching him how to drive stick in the honda lol

 

I've had the same smog guy for 10 years lol. what is a vk56vd? never heard of it. I've had my infiniti forever but i'll be the first to admit i dont know much about nissan culture. like i said im open ears. i'd love to hear about it.

 

Its the 5.6 V8.

 

Since you already have a daily then turbo the G for sure. It'll be faster to complete and possibly a bit cheaper in the long run in comparison to an IROC and much more comfortable
I suggest you do some more research, mainly realistic research as these cars break the common knowledge. We are now seeing a reliable 500whp, an average of 600+whp for those with the supporting drive train mods and a couple in the 700s all rocking a stock block.
The lower compression for boost myth is seeing another light, back in the day computers and tuning just could not keep up which an 8:1 compression would be forgiving enough. Today WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY(). The only time you would realistically need to forge the internals is if you're aiming for even higher numbers which speaks in lengths about the capability of these engines. This means you'll have a baby GTR.

Overall if finances align boosting the G platform is one cheap way of going fast. This is why the G/Z chassis is now the New 240sx, tech wise this car is up there with Germans and boosted puts you in the class of boosted/luxury.