I was really excited to get the KW Variant 3 coilovers on the 350z. We decided with the guys at KW  Suspension that it would be cool to take the car down the street to the Rancho Cucamonga UTI campus. The guys at the school were a great help and got right to work on the car.

The Variant 3 suspension offers independent rebound and compression adjustability. I had heard from tons of European guys running the coilovers that they ride like stock and I was dieing to find out if it was true. A true testament to the product is their product is approved by the German Technical Control Board (TÜV) which is a prestige given to very few aftermarket companies in Germany.

The students at UTI got to work on the rear suspension. This is the easier side to tackle so we took apart the rear pieces holding in the suspension and removed the factory pieces.

Within no time we were setting in the rear suspension and bolting the car back together.

Once the rear of the car was put back together I snapped a photo of the KW Suspension V3’s sitting in the rear of the 350z. We dropped and aligned the Z to tuck the factory 18’s preparing us for a super aggressive look once our 20’s get installed.

You can see the old rear suspension sitting on this table. The wheels are going back on the rear suspension of the car to complete the installation.

Ripping out the front suspension we also have to remove the front strut tower bar to get the new front suspension inside.

The students quickly got to work with dismantling the front suspension.

Some of the guys finished up tearing apart the front suspension while some other students removed the hats.

You need to retain the factory suspension hats and the UTI campus has a machine that the students were able to use to take the front factory hats off and place them on the KW suspension.

After we had the factory hat one of the professors showed how to install the factory hat onto the KW suspension.

The whole front suspension has to be put back together including the front strut tower bar we disconnected earlier for access to the front coils.

Finally everything was put back together and putting the front wheels back on was all we had left to complete the suspension install. Once the car was ready to go we put it on the alighnment rack, made some last minute adjustments to the compression/rebound/height on the car and drove off back to the Wrecked Magazine office.

We’ve had the suspension on for a few weeks now and it does in fact ride like a stock setup so mad props to KW Suspension for building such a great piece of suspension that has great ride quality and performance at the same time.

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!

Today we brought our Project Nissan 350z to the Universal Technical Institute campus in Rancho Cucamonga, California for our KW Suspension installation. I wanted to thank everyone at the campus including Dennis Rudolph that helped us connect with the students for the installation. The suspension has great independent rebound and compression adjustability that makes the 350z perform top notch!

A full installation will come later but I wanted to thank the students that helped us out today on the install. They include Tyrone Campbell, Richard Beard, Saul Ramirez, Lee Woods, JJ Chen, Justin Pinnix, Oscar Perez, Sean Ford, Jose Guerrero, Tim Olesijuk, Cicel C., Hussain H., and Miria Ryekas.

Appreciate all the help students!

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.

We hiked it out to Walnut, California and picked up our Seibon Carbon Fiber hood in matte finish. Here it is siting in our living room waiting to get installed. I ripped the wrap off so you guys could take a closer look at our hood we will be installing.

Here is the matte finish with a Speedlite flash firing directly at it. The finish looks great and will go well with our matte paint job coming on the car.

Here is the hood completely unwrapped and ready for installation. Once we start tackling the exterior this will be installed quickly and easily on the 350z and add a great look to the car. Thanks to everyone at Seibon for being a part of this project and helping us out.

We scored a KW Suspension  Variant 3 kit for our 350z. A big thanks to the guys up at KW Suspension. We opted for this kit due to it’s over the top race engineering behind it. With it’s many options in adjustability we can produce a great “race ready” package for our optimal driving but also have a great daily driving setup.

To Learn More About the KW Variant 3: http://www.kw-suspension.com/en/30_Products/20_KW_Coilovers/30_Variant_3/

Last week while making my rounds through Los Angeles I swung way down south and picked up the radiator for our Nissan 350z. This completes our engine overhaul we are doing on the car along with our Brian Crower cams, B&M Oil Cooler, and Vortech supercharger.

We will be doing a fluids refresh with Mobil 1 while doing our engine build this weekend. Our next part on the radar for pickup is paying a quick visit to Seibon Carbon to grab our hood and start the exterior project on our Nissan 350z.

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!

Another Christmas arrived at the office when I got back from Formula D Round 6 in Sonoma. Brian Crower had shipped us some Stage 2 cams for our VQ35DE! The stage 2 cams are able to run the OEM spring and are plug/play cams so it seemed like the right choice for this project.

While the stage 2 has a shorter duration than the Stage 3 cams that Brian Crower carries we wanted the ease of use and tuning from the stage 2’s since the car will be driven. The stage 3’s offer an increased lobe lift for greater RPM potential and much more horsepower. However, the stage 3 kit does require an ECU tune and the BC0220 valve spring/retainer kit.

We are planning to install our Brian Crower cams along with the Vortech supercharger and some cooling elements here soon so stay tuned to the blog and drop us a line if you have any questions on parts we are using or the build in general! Enjoy two more snapshots of the cams below as well.