350Z Experience
Discussion
I was reading the "Elise to 350Z" post and thought I'd give my experiences.
I went from a TVR Tamora to the Z and whilst I liked the drive after a year I wanted something quicker, so I paid the £7k and had it supercharged and a sports exgaust fitted. Now we were into TVR perfoamce levels. I must confess I wasn't gentle with it, living in Milton Keynes the temptation with the dual carraigeways is just too much.
Anyway, 5 months and 6k miles later the clutch went. Too much power. Twin plate replacement was sh*te, just about 1/4 inch play so went with a single plate Nismo job ... another £1500 later we're back in business.
In the meantime, due to a short in the supercharger wiring the engine management went up the swanny and new cats had to be fitted after the originals melted.
A year after fitting the supercharger the engine management light came back on and it started stalling and idling very badly and oil consumption went through the roof. Turned out one of the head gaskets had blown which overheated the middle cyclinder which then seized, scoring the bore and f*cking the engine. So now we're another £3.5k down following an engine rebuild and steel head gaskets and half way through running the thing in again.
Okay it went like a rocket while it went, but the problems and costs subsequent to supercharging it far outweigh the pleasure ... and will it ever be reliable again? I'm not sure and not filled with confidence.
Perhaps I should have stuck with the idiosyncrasies of the TVR ... who knows, maybe I've just been unlucky, but I've now got a 350Z that I've spent nearly £40k on. C'est la vie I guess.
I went from a TVR Tamora to the Z and whilst I liked the drive after a year I wanted something quicker, so I paid the £7k and had it supercharged and a sports exgaust fitted. Now we were into TVR perfoamce levels. I must confess I wasn't gentle with it, living in Milton Keynes the temptation with the dual carraigeways is just too much.
Anyway, 5 months and 6k miles later the clutch went. Too much power. Twin plate replacement was sh*te, just about 1/4 inch play so went with a single plate Nismo job ... another £1500 later we're back in business.
In the meantime, due to a short in the supercharger wiring the engine management went up the swanny and new cats had to be fitted after the originals melted.
A year after fitting the supercharger the engine management light came back on and it started stalling and idling very badly and oil consumption went through the roof. Turned out one of the head gaskets had blown which overheated the middle cyclinder which then seized, scoring the bore and f*cking the engine. So now we're another £3.5k down following an engine rebuild and steel head gaskets and half way through running the thing in again.
Okay it went like a rocket while it went, but the problems and costs subsequent to supercharging it far outweigh the pleasure ... and will it ever be reliable again? I'm not sure and not filled with confidence.
Perhaps I should have stuck with the idiosyncrasies of the TVR ... who knows, maybe I've just been unlucky, but I've now got a 350Z that I've spent nearly £40k on. C'est la vie I guess.
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