While being just five pounds of metal, it single-handedly decides the volume of air in and out of the motor. Brian Crower Cams has taken the import scene by force creating up to five stages of cams for unyielding motors. We got our hands on their stage two cam for our Project 350z and dug right in! Note that installing camshafts is a long and tedious job and sadly the way the 350z loads the camshaft the engine must be pulled adding tons of time to the installation. So to keep the article under novel status we have cut down the process. Purchasing a factory service manual such as the Chilton’s Nissan 350z Manual is recommended as it will let you reference anything needed on the motor.

First order of business is to disconnect the battery. Remove the strut bar, intake assembly, cooling fan. Drain all fluids and remove all hoses going to the front of the motor.

Once the motor is removed you will need to remove the upper intake manifold. The lower manifold and fuel assembly can stay put unless you plan an upgrade while it’s apart.

Remove the a/c compressor, power steering pump, and alternator. You have just enough room to move them to the side and not disconnect completely.  Now remove all remaining brackets on the timing cover. Then next remove the Timing cover which you can see completed above. Now remove the timing chain and primary timing sprocket assemblies (for those who always wondered how VVT worked, this is how variable valve timing is controlled).

Now we can take off the valve covers and look at those useless factory cams. Remove the camshaft position sensor and intake valve timing control solenoid. (Be very careful not to let any metal shavings or magnets near the camshaft position sensor.)

Loosen the camshaft bracket bolts in several passes to alleviate the pressure and prevent any possible damage or bodily harm. With that complete you can remove the factory camshafts.

This is the new Brian Crower cam that we are going to install. It is a Stage 2 High Performance/Race camshaft. The cam has a short duration but is a very street-able camshaft for daily driving and performance. The camshaft has a slight pitch or lope at idle which you will notice after installation. You can run an OEM spring which we opted to do with the BC cams.

Now you have to repeat this on the other bank of cams to complete the Brian Crower camshaft installation. You just do the installation in the reverse of disassembly with the exception of aligning the new camshafts. Consult your factory service manual for the correct alignment procedure.

Once you have removed the OEM factory steering wheel you will need a NRG steering wheel hub that is made for your specific vehicle application.

Once the wheel is mounted onto your hub it will look like this from above. The quick release system they provide is super simple to use and will help you get out of your car so much easier with the racing seat.

Here is the wheel sitting properly replacing the OEM factory steering wheel. The steering wheel is real suede and has a great gripped section for perfect handling and control compared to the bigger 350z wheel that comes factory. We also shredded some weight by removing all the electronics in the steering wheel and airbag.

Issue 14 came out today and inside features a huge piece on the Project 350z. Over 10 full spreads show the KW Suspension install at the Rancho Cucamonga UTI campus. To complete the story it features our 20 inch HRE 540R wheels which we wrapped in Falken FK452 tires. Only three issues left and Project 350z will be completed. So make sure you check out Project 350z while it is still featured in the magazine!Let us know what you think of the new stance and our big burnout!

Read Issue 14 of Wrecked Magazine:

http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue14/issue14.html

The first step to install our racing seat is to remove the factory 350z seat from it’s current position. You can see the four bolt holes from where the old seat rails are located. If you cannot figure out how to get to this take (removing your front seat) you probably shouldn’t continue this installation on your own. Our Bride Low Max VIOS III came to us from YoParts.com which is the first true wholesale club for the automotive industry. Just imagine Costco online with more car parts than you could ever order from one website.

With a couple bolts you will have the adjustable Bride seat rail attached to your Low Max VIOS III seat. The new “Low Max” design is optimized for the lowest possible setting a seat and seat rail combination can currently offer and also have the steering wheel centered to the driver.

Here is a shot of the Bride seat and rail sitting just outside the car before installation. The low setting I touched on above in the 350z is key unless your a male under five feet nothing. Especially if you plan on needing a helmet the roof line will find your head very very fast.

Here is the Bride seat sitting inside the Nissan 350z now. The colors flow spot on with the interior and the fitment is better than I imagined. The side bolsters hold you snug and point your arms directly to the steering wheel.

Here is the OEM bolt that we placed back on the Bride seat rail to secure it to our 350z chassis.

We also retained the factory caps from Nissan to give the seat installation a very clean look.

Each seat rail includes a small allen wrench style lever that you pull up at the same time to adjust the seat position. All and all the seat feels great (especially if I went on a diet) and it still has some adjustable rails so I really have to say this is one of the better modifications we have made to date with the Nissan 350z. Thanks again to YoParts.com for the Bride seats!

A quick way to shed some weight to our Nissan 350z and have a reliable starting power was to pick up a XS Power battery. With it’s dry cell technology you can technically mount it anywhere in the car but we opted for the factory battery area for the XS Power installation.

We mounted the XS bracket onto our stock bracket we removed by drilling two holes.

Here is the final installation of the top piece of the battery bracket.

Here we are drilling the stock battery mount after we marked the drill points for the XS power battery.

Here is what the battery looks like with the battery trey mounted back into the vehicle. The placement and mount of the battery is so clean you can hardly tell that it isn’t a stock piece. It is overall a great investment and the easiest installation we have done on the car to date.

With the help of LS Auto we tackled the Nissan 350z Vortech Supercharger install. Now I know your manly instincts will get the best of you when you get a hold of this kit but don’t throw away the 20 page manual just right away. It has quite useful information for your installation.

Tools/Supply Requirements:
2.5″ Hole Saw
1/8″, 11/64″, 3/16″ Drill Bits
Drill Motor
Stepless Clamp Crimping Pliers
Seal Cutter
Gasket Scraper
Silicone RTV
Factory 350z Manual
3/8″ and 1/2″ Socket & Driver Set
Open End Wrenches
Center Punch
Springlock 5/16″ Fuel Fitting Disconnect Tool
5 Quarts of Oil for Fresh Change
New Oil Filter/Wrench
Flat Head #2 screwdriver
Phillips Head #2 screwdriver
Heavy Grease
Silicone Sealer
Hex Key Wrench Set
Wire Strippers/Crimpers
Utility Knife

We have the supercharger mounting plate sitting in place in front of the throttle body ducting which we just started placing to ensure it wouldn’t get in the way of our supercharger plate.

Here is the same plate for another view. We are securing the air filter in the super tight location behind the drivers side headlight. The two items you see on the supercharger mounting plate here are the grooved idler and smooth idler. Once together they will run a belt connecting the supercharger jackshaft pulley to your motor accessory pulleys.

The Vortech kit comes with a complete fuel management kit to keep your VQ35 in healthy shape.The photo above shows you the mounting locations for the fuel management unit (FMU) and the fuel pump. Once they are securely mounted you will attach a ton of hoses and be on your way.

Here is how the charge cooler is mounted in front of the Nissan 350z. This is also part of the complete Vortech supercharger kit and has an easy installation process in the manual we told you not to throw away! The charge cooler has an aggressive look behind the OEM front bumper and we have an aftermarket one sitting in the garage which will make it look like a much better setup once installed.

This photo is of the Vortech Supercharger bypass valve which is LOUD and we love it. I’ve had my spin around great Vortech kits before and I think they put some extra noise behind the 350z kit for the tuners and anyone who buys it would love it. It’s not overbearing but it’s just loud enough to really enjoy under some aggressive driving.

The Unichip piggyback is seen in the top photograph and fits right next to the factory ECU. You can see both sitting together in the second photo with a wiring harness. These two items we added also come with the Vortech kit for an ease of installation. The factory panel fits snug over the two systems so nobody even knows it’s sitting there and you retain a factory interior.

It was a good chance to flush and put all new fluids in the car and then we cranked her up! The car whistled right off the bat and ran fine. With no tune we took her to the dyno after a few days of enjoyment at UTI so our untuned horsepower numbers will be posted Monday!

Installing: KoyoRad Performance Radiator
Tools Needed: 10mm Socket/Ratchet
Pliers
Screw Driver (for removing fan connectors)

We tossed the car on a lift and removed the bottom pan of the 350z. We had a ton of stuff to install so this was just going to make life more difficult.

You can see now with that sheet removed you can easily see everything under the motor. At the very top of the photo is the stock radiator we will be removing.

Remove and put the factory radiator shroud and cover piece to the side as you will want to place it back over your new radiator.

The 10mm will be used to remove the fan from the back of the radiator. You will need to place this piece back on the Koyo radiator when it is installed as well.

Before sliding the radiator out make sure you disconnect the hoses. Once you have that done go ahead and pull out the factory piece.

Remove the new radiator from it’s box and your almost complete with this installation.

The new radiator is the same size as our factory one so the fitment is perfect and getting it in place is simple. Here is our new Koyo radiator sitting in it’s final position.

Our old radiator cap went in the trash for this KoyoRad Hyper Cap.

The last two photos here show the fan and hoses connected back onto our new radiator. You can see one of the bolts that holds the fan onto the radiator in this second photograph. With this installed we have no concern about overheating with the supercharger kit we are adding on next.

Here was all of our installation parts a few days ago at LS Auto x Chris Forsberg Racing. We had a long week ahead of us getting most of these parts put on the car. Here was the pile we had to tackle.

LS Auto/Chris Forsberg Racing got sent our Injen Exhaust recently and we just had to get it installed tonight. We have a full engine and cooling system ready for installation but we came by late night after hours to get our exhaust on and finally get some installations off our lap. We ripped open the box and found a great looking stainless steel exhaust.

Here are the first pieces that connect to your current car setup. The piece is polished and is a vast improvement from the factory option.

Here is the huge factory muffler in the back of the 350z factory. Injen converts this piece into a split two can piece that sounds much better and looks is leaps and bounds better ascetically. Not to mention the factory piece weighs much more than our aftermarket piece from Inejn.

The first step to installing an exhaust is to rip out the old one. This is something you can easily do with a basic socket set and some determination. Removing the large back piece is a two person job. This way you can remove the last bracket holding it up and not have it fall to the ground. Have the second person hold it and bring it safely to the ground as someone else removes that last bracket holding it up.

This is the factory rear section of the stock exhaust housing once it has been removed. If your looking for some great weight savings you can remove the heat shield trey you see above. We opted to keep it in place to protect our trunk cargo from receiving too much heat and the weight savings is not the biggest focus of the project.

Here is the front section of the Injen exhaust now installed on the car. Make sure you spend some time and tighten all the bolts.

Here is a close up of the exhaust tip and the perfect fitment on the factory bumper of the Nissan 350z.

Now that the exhaust is in place and securely on the OEM hangers make sure you re check your bolts on the exhaust so that they are tight. We even noted that we had a pretty loose one that our last second check which could of avoided us some headache on our road test later that night.

Here is what the car looks like after a simple 30 minute installation of the exhaust.

Here is a close up of the passenger side exhaust tip after we finished installation.

This is an under body shot of the Injen piece completely installed. You can see all the empty new space compared to the OEM install. This exhaust only uses the factory mounts so you have no problems with that for the install. This aftermarket piece looks so much better than that giant OEM piece. I was really shocked at the aggressive stance it gave the rear end of the car.

Here is a close up shot of the full exhaust we installed from underneath the car. Once we take the car off the lift you won’t see any of the exhaust again from the rear suspension forward.

Once we got home I snapped a quick shot from our parking spot of the 350z. Clearly I don’t have a knack for parking tonight which is okay since spot 122 is ours as well. The car sounds great on the inside and looks even better from the rear now. Big thanks to the guys at LS Auto for staying up extra late to help us get our installation done. Stay tuned to the 350z blog since we will be posting some videos of the exhaust at idle, at speed, and how it sounds from the inside of the car to truly give you readers a feel of the product.

Ask any questions in the comments about installation or anything related to the project and we will gladly answer you!