Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

hey guys,

im selling my 33 and im looking at upgrading to a 03/04 350z. can anyone give me some advice on these cars? all the pros and cons? ive been told they go as good as mildly modded 33s, is this true? is there any turbo kits for the Zed thats not going to cost me a fortune. any help would be awesome.

cheers dan

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/225156-r33-upgrade-to-350z/
Share on other sites

Hi Dan,

Isn't there a factory warranty still on this car till 03/09?

If so, were you intending to still turbo it before then?

Just wondering...

Cheers,T

PS really lovely car though

Edited by Terry_GT-R34

from personal experience

if you like speed & acceleration dont do it, or you will own it for a few months and go back to a skyline like me :)

modding a Z costs a fortune compared to the power gains you can achieve on a R33. Most parts are in in america as well. check out the forum 350z-tech.com i believe it is from memory.

you will be very happy with a 350z regardless, i loved it.. only that it wasnt gtr love :)

You better ask the Z enthusiast on here all we all get a flaming.

I had a 280ZX that was really fun to drive and thats pretty much the experiance I have with Z's.

If you are in Melbourne, Air Power Systems (APS) make a Twin Turbo kit for the 350Z and its bloody fast, 11sec down the quater from memory. (Can't remember what Tuning Stage that was tho.)

As far as I know the VQ35DE has the potential to be a killer of an engine. Its got the power there just waiting to be opened up.

hey guys, cheers for your replies. i wasn't looking a sticking a turbo on it for a while, just wanted to know if there was any kits under the 7k mark to start saving. while i do love my speed and quick take offs, i like not getting pulled over every 5 mins more lol. they are a awesome looking car but its alot of money to spend only to be disapointed with the performance later. from what my workshop here has told me they still seem to perform alright.

decisions, decisions lol.

cheers dan

I've owned both

I've got an 06 built so it's got 220 odd kw (new ones have about 230kw and better torque/rev range)

First thing you notice is the body rigidity when powering along corners, the traction is awesome almost like a big heavy go kart hehe.

Mid range acceleration is definitely better than a gtst due to larger engine, put it in 3rd and plant your foot and there's v8 like torque on tap

Unless your gtst is more seriously modified (say 250kw+) you won't be disappointed with the stock performance of a Z.

Try to have a drive of one and see yourself.

although I do admit I only have the Z until I can get my hands on a v36 skyline

3.7VQ 333hp from factory, can't wait! :D

Edited by Yo-Yo

Hey mate nice thread. I'm hoping to do the same thing myself... but hopefully to an 07 model. Just be sure you know what you're getting into... like other's have stated, you could buy a gtr for that kind of money, but you won't end up with something that quick...

I've decided on a Z as I wanted a good looking, modern luxury sports coupe... something that was relatively new with 2 doors, leather seats etc. but could still give me the same if not better driving pleasure I get from my R33 gtst...

There seems to be quite a shortage of contenders with the above criteria... you either have hot hatches like the golf gti or r32 or your left with the RX-8, Monaro or the V35...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
×
×
  • Create New...