It’s about time we made some real progress on my car. I lost all summer due the ITB project from hell (that I’ve since abandoned, and am much happier for it). After drowning my sorrows of all the wasted time, thousands of dollars, and useless complimentary mods (HR rad support swap anyone…) in some Red Stripe, we’re back at work on her. I figure Summer is here for a bit longer, and Fall is perfect driving weather, so it won’t be a total loss.
First, I got the Cosworth plenum back from the machinist. After putting in on the flow bench, and basically determining that we couldn’t build an engine (NA) that would support what this thing can put out, it’s about to go back on my car. I picked it up from our good customer and friend, Viet (see his amazing FX35 here). Hopefully it blesses my NA engine with as much success as it did on his FI’d FX! Of course, since I sold all the components of my old setup (buh bye stock throttle body and Gruppe-M intake), we had to start from scratch. Not to mention, we had to grab a spare collector and clean that up so it was gasket matched. Here is what we ended up with:
75mm throttle body originally designed for a late model 4.6 liter Mustang. The bolt patterns are very close between the stock TB and the Mustang one , so we were able to slot the holes and machine the outer portion of the body to allow the bolts to slide through. I still need to spec out the right length bolts as the ones provided are a touch too long. Next up, we grabbed a 45 degree silicone elbow, 3 inch in and out. That will connect to a short intake pipe, and culimate in an HKS universal filter. I had one laying around the shop in the display case forever, that as it turns out, had a cracked lip. Some 5 minute epoxy later, and it was good as new. It’s got a 4 inch outlet, so once again, we used a Vibrant silicone connector (4 inch to 3 inch reducer).
Still left to do – swap the driver side valvecover back to one for a Z(and I get to spend tomorrow making the new one wrinkle red to match the other side…oh joy. Another thing I should have just left well enough alone!), ez-out one snapped valvecover bolt that I noticed, coat the lower collector, plenum, and intake pipe, and reinstall! Also need to do a bit of playing around on the throttle linkage, as it’s super close to the metal divider that encloses the master right now. Then, get this thing tuned finally and see where we end up!
I also picked up one of the Hondata gaskets for the collector to manifold connection. As you can see from the pics, this thing is much thicker than stock. I really don’t know if it works or not, but a few shops told me they have measured good results on Honda’s and Evo’s, so it sorta became a ‘while we’re in there’ thing. I’m still sorta baffled as to how this thing doesn’t leak, considering it has no crush ring surfaces, but we’ll see. Hopefully it’s thickness won’t create clearance issues with anything else. If it works, we’ll offer it for sale (yeah, I know its years late, so what!). If it sucks, we’ll use the stock gasket that Cosworth provides with the manifold. Note to self: take stock gasket to the dyno just in case.
All I know is in the end, this better have been worth all the time and money that’s been wasted. What’s done is done and I can’t get it back (and in the process I learned alot), but I won’t lie, I’m really hoping for some solid figures.
Almost forgot, grabbed a rear strut brace cover for the 06 + Z33. They are a darker grey which matches the Silverstone paint nearly perfectly. Small detail, but that’s what makes the car IMHO.
Kwame
Z1 Performance
Jonathan
Corner Balance 