BigTDogg (MA)

I shared this on TT.net and Nico, so I figured I'd share here as well. The SNs are from TT.net guys, who may or may not be on here. It's a book but you can scroll to the bottom for my graphs.

A couple of years back I debated getting Nistune for my Z in the hopes that I would research and educate myself on the art of tuning. I don?t really have the time for that any more, nor am I constantly updating my car, so I started to weigh the cost of Nistune vs. the cost of flying Greg and Seb of SpecialtyZ out for a tuning session. In the end, I decided on the dyno day with SZ. I?m glad I did :-)

So we worked out May 7th and 8th to be the lucky days. Unfortunately for some of the guys involved, it was also Mother?s Day weekend?whoopsie. We tried to do last November, but between people?s work schedules, personal issues and other things, we had to push it out to the spring. Finding a shop was a fun challenge too, as the shops near Boston asked ?are the cars loud?? Ummm? LOL, what kind of car would get dyno tuned and NOT be loud? Ugh, so I decided on New England Dyno as the location. They?re about an hour away from Boston, but their remote location allows them to run as late as necessary, and they had no problem being open on Sunday. Additionally, I?ve worked with the owner John in the past and he?s always been a great host.

Greg and Seb arrived on Friday the 6th and I was able to give them a quick and dirty tour of Fenway Park, as it was their first time to Boston. Then we had a small gathering at their hotel to talk car stuff; it was a great opportunity to pick two of the most knowledgeable brains in the Z32 world.

Saturday we started at 9am sharp at New England Dyno. Carlos (Cap927) and I dynoed on opposite days, so that the other could bring Greg and Seb to the dyno. So Cap went first on Saturday, with his immaculate 1991 PMM TTZ:









Oh wow, Bridgestone Potenza S-03s? I haven?t seen those in.. at least 7-8 years, LOL:



He actually drove it the hour and a half to the dyno, and that?s how clean the under-chassis is:



All strapped in:



Carlos, if you would like to post your dyno please do so! Any vids would be great too. Very healthy car, as you would expect for just under 50K miles!

Seb working his magic on Carlos? car:





Next up was TJ (teejay407). TJ did you end up hacking off your exhaust tips yet? LOL!





Same goes for TJ and everyone else, post your own dynos and pics if you?ve got them. I thought I took more, but I guess I was doing more talking than snapping.

After TJ his Syracuse partner in crime Jeff (Hoppy2) got strapped in. Jeff was looking for 3 tunes, one each for pump, pump with methanol, and race fuel. Jeff BARELY made it to the shop, with what, 3 engine pulls in two weeks before the date? Glad you were able to make it!







Even with 285s out back, Jeff had traction issues on the race fuel tune, so some extra.. umm? ballast was needed, haha!





The last car to run on Saturday was Silas? black TTZ. He actually ran before Jeff, but had to get off the dyno to do some repair/maintenance work. He was running lean at the upper end of the run. With dual 255/LPH Walbros and Nismo 740s with GT675 turbos, he SHOULDN?T be running out of fuel.



Greg and Seb discussing the fuel issue:



After some investigation (Greg all but diving into his gas tank):



It was found that the tank had years of deposits clogging the fuel pump socks. After two hours of cleaning and draining the tanks, Silas was ready to give it another go!



Silas discovered that windshield washer fluid is not a good source for a methanol injection set up. IIRC, there was barely a 20HP gain from without meth to with meth when WWF was the liquid used. This was news to me, as it had been all I was using prior to this day. Earlier in the day, Jeff and TJ had saw much better results using Boost Juice, which is 49% methanol. They were kind enough to donate half a gallon to my cause for my run on Sunday. Thanks again guys, definitely converted me to a BJ believer, LOL!

That was Saturday, and leaving the shop at 10:45 pm doesn?t leave too many options for food on the way back to the hotel. Greg and Seb, I apologize again for the McDonalds, I know it?s no In-n-Out burger, or Carl?s Jr, so thanks for not throwing up in my car :-)

Sunday I ran in the afternoon, as Carlos brought Greg and Seb to the shop. In the morning I finished installing my methanol injection system. I?ll have to get pictures later, as I was more focused on getting to the shop than documenting the process. I can say with an ear to ear grin that it worked out great though, and I?ll finish my meth injection install write up when time allows. I also installed the Selin elbows in the morning, which allowed me to finish the meth install. They have more room than the cast AL elbows I was using previously, and less clamps, for less leak potential. Jim, great product and excellent fit, very well done. Packed up the tools and fluids I needed and headed to the shop. If others have pics of the cars that ran earlier in the day, please post them up.

I get to the shop and watch Steve (s3trios) finishing up his runs, and got to see my old PMM Z in its current state. Doug (Turbodog(CT)) has her now, and has built her up into quite the track beast. 3? side pipe open exhaust on a VG sounds incredibly bad ass, for the record!

So I hand the keys to Greg and mention my clutch is engaging right off the floor. 4 minutes later with a 14mm wrench and my mini-Gerber he shows me exactly how much of a clutch adjustment n00b I really am. He demonstrates how well the clutch is working by doing a full throttle tailwhip into the dyno bay. I gotta admit, it was pretty cool, LOL.

So we get my car strapped down, and immediately Greg and Seb are finding issues:

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My grounds were loose, because I pussied up on the brass hex bolts. I didn?t want to snap them, and in doing so they rattled to the point where they were finger loose. My brake booster plenum fitting wasn?t tight enough, causing a boost leak. My throttles weren?t opening in parallel?and on?and on? I?ve never felt so stupid when it came to the condition of my car. But don?t get me wrong, I?m glad they found everything.

So they did a couple of pulls and found my car to be very sensitive to detonation. Great. Turns out, it wasn?t my car, but rather the fact I had put in Redline SI-1 injector ?cleaner? in the week before. That stuff will make your car ping like a coffee can full of BBs apparently. So we flushed the tank out, got some fresh Mobil 93 and tried again. After a few runs, the tweaked the pump gas run to 400RWHP/395RWTQ: (graph below is SAE corrected, standard numbers listed)



(the boost number is about 2PSI high than what was actually reading. Both my in-car gauge and my EVC5 recorded a peak of 16.4PSI on pump gas)

With all the issues they were having tuning the car on pump, I was hesitant to even attempt a methanol tune. Seb convinced me that it would be worth it to try, so I figured what the hell.

When I set up the system earlier that morning, I used windshield washer fluid to prime the pump and test the system. The first run with ?meth? was less than stellar, gaining only about 10RWHP and TQ. Then Seb asked if we were on WWF or BJ, so I disconnected the pump outlet and had him run the pump till it ran Boost Juice red. Then it was ON! (graph below is SAE corrected, standard numbers listed)



435RWHP and 456RWTQ for a gain of 35RWHP and 61RWTQ. Peak boost was 19.4PSI. 70RWTQ at 4400RPM.

An overlay of pump versus methanol:



Here?s a link to the one good video I shot of the car running. You can see the engine doesn?t move at all (for those who wanted to know about the Stillen engine brace).

19PSI on methanol

I?m very pleased with my results, even though I know the car has more in it. One thing I did to mess things up is gap my plugs. When I installed my Iridiums the weekend before, I gapped them to 0.035?. I did that just because that?s what I did with my PFR6B-11B platinums. Bad. I should have made sure they were around 0.028? so I could have run higher boost.

Also my O2 sensors are shot, so it was difficult to get a good idle, but it still idles butter smooth. Lastly my wastegates may not be synchronized. This could cause boost issues, though at higher levels like the 19.4PSI meth runs, the boost curve is cleaner than the pump runs.

I know it?s clich? to say, but the car really does run better than ever before. The power is there and she wants to pull all day long. Not only that, but it starts and idles smooth as can be. These guys really are Z geniuses.

Now I gotta thank a ton of people. First and foremost Greg and Seb for coming out here and fixing/tuning all our cars. Worth every penny, and every second. Great to meet/see you both and hope to host another day a couple of years from now. Next we have to thank John at NE Dyno for hosting. John you?ve always been a pleasure to work with, and this weekend was no different. Thanks also to Keefe (BoneZ) for using his frequent flyer miles to get the SZ duo out here. Keefe I?m so sorry you weren?t able to make it, but if you?re ever in Boston give me a shout and dinner and drinks is on me!

Thanks to Carlos for splitting the transport duties with me. Glad to have a guy like you local to us, even if you are a shady Latino character ;-D.

To all the Z owners I met this weekend, it was great to meet everyone and put a face and person with the screen name and the car. Hope you all had fun this weekend, and got as much out of it as I did. This wouldn?t have been possible without all of you either, so it was a team effort!

Thanks also to Joe (Spddracer, Z Speed Performance) for helping me with my clutch issues over the phone for 15 minutes, on a Sunday no less. Great service.