Just saying hello again after a long absence
 

Hey everyone, I've been gone a pretty decent amount of time so I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still here.

School's been pretty hectic as of late, and along with other stuff that's been going on I hardly have time for anything. But devoting time to school has paid off: I got a 3.954 GPA first quarter and will be looking at a 3.980 for this quarter if all goes as planned (finals are this coming week). :yipi:

So the last time I really touched my Brushless RCs (or any RCs for that matter) was at a SoCal bash with MetalMan, TDC57, jnev, and a bunch of the other great guys I can't quite recall off the top of my head. During this meet my front dogbone popped out.

So over winter break I took of the back end and the tranny to get the dogbone back in there, and ended up taking the tranny all apart. Finally just last week I got it all back together and will give it a test one of these days. I did check on a few of my lipo's and those seemed to be in good shape. No dead ones or anything like that. (Knock on wood).

But I will admit my attention from RC vehicles has been stolen away by a driven vehicle we recently acquired. :whistle:

Here's a pic:

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/9545/35249144.th.gif

(It's the one that's closest).

Anyway, just wanted to say hi. Notice I'm posting at nearly 2 am. I guess that's testament to how little time I really do have.

Welcome back! Congrads. on the great grades as well:yes:

Congrats on the grades AND the car. Is that in M5? :oh: Nice acquisition.

Glad to see ya back here!

Welcome back!

Wow, its been a while. Welcome back. Will you be going to RCX this year since you're so close?

Man your neighbors must hate you... I sure do! Some time you must give me a "full tour" of the new car.

I shouldn't have included the side vent in the picture. I guess it was too much of a give away...

But yes, you are correct, it is indeed an M5. And I must say it is one hell of a car. Pulls like no other too. Triple digit speeds come up so quick it's surreal.

Here are some more pics:

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4875/34334135.th.gif

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4770/35142601.th.gif

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/921/46259637.th.gif

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/9939/34106378.th.gif

Anyway...didn't really touch the RC's since the last post, so I can't really update on that. :whistle: But I have used launch control on the new car...and I don't think I've ever felt so much acceleration come from any car I've ever been in...not to mention a 4000lb+ sedan.

Thanks for all the nice words guys. :yes:

P.S. MetalMan, I'm rather convinced at least 2 of our neighbors are indeed jealous to the point of despise...:lol: And if by tour you mean ride, yes, I'll definitely give you a full tour if you so wish.

So who's car is this? A full tour would be most excellent!

Dad's...its like a war every time I try to drive it. I generally win though LOL!

M5!. That has been my dream car for as long as I can remember.

<so so jealous>

Oooh, an M5. I personally would prefer the M3, but hey, I'd be more than willing to take an M5! :smile:

welcome back, BP (i've been on a bit of a hiatus myself for the past 6 months or so...)

nice M5... i'm more interested in the G35 tho, lol. i just got its little red-headed stepbrother, the Z. any mods to the G35?

kulang,

The E60 M has been my dream car since it was released. Notice its been my avatar with quite some while. Too bad this one isn't mine...at least I get to drive it though. :mdr:

Brian,

As I directed to kulang, the M5 has been my dream car for quite a while. I will admit after driving it around a bit I did, at first, feel it is a little large for my liking (being used to my G35 and all).

For a second I was thinking an M3 would be better suited as a dream car for me but after I started to give it a little pushing in M mode you really do not feel the size. You feel it is a heavy car, but it isn't at all held back by the weight.

And it's great because the other day I had to cart around the few of my friends and I asked my dad to drive the M (and he agreed - coolest dad ever) and the usable back seats were exceptionally convenient.

ClodMaxx,

Mods to the G include a modified Injen Cool Air Intake, lightweight pulleys, a Stillen Engine Damper Mount, Stillen Sway Bars, and Mintex pads with AP Racing Pillar Vane Slotted Rotors in front (will go with these in the rear when they eventually wear out). I also have a Stillen Rear Strut Bar in the trunk - that one kind of sucks though cause it really eats the already miniscule trunk. But it does make a world of difference for making rear-end stability consistent. There's also the obvious tint but that's not performance related at all.

I replaced the Injen Filter included with the intake with a K&N filter. The Injen filter requires you to remove the bumper to properly access the filter element. I replaced it with the K&N which is thinner (but longer, to compensate), and it allows me to remove it without taking the bumper off. I had to cut a bit of the intake tube to compensate.

The Gold Brembo Calipers you can see beneath the rim are actually OEM equipment. They came standard on all Manual 04 G Coupes (yes, mine is a 6MT).

What about your Z, any mods?

My dad said that we could take it to a track day (I'll go with the G, and he with the M) pretty soon. The clutch on the G is getting pretty weak, however, and I figure it will be absolutely toast after that, and he agrees. I'll likely go with a lightened flywheel and more robust clutch. Stillen has a nice set where the flywheel is about half that of stock and the clutch holds about 40% more power. It costs half as much as getting an OEM replacement from the dealer as well.

you've got some nice stuff on your G! lots of stillen. :whistle: i just got my Z a couple months ago (it's a black '04 ZR), and so far i've done tints and a custom plate (XTA Z), a Jim Wolf Technology cold air intake w/heat shield, a Z1 motorsports plenum spacer, and F1 resonated test/race pipes.

down the road i'd like to do a full stainless exhaust (borla or fast intentions), and a set of 19" volks. and eventually i think i'll have to replace the vinyl soft top with a quality canvas top by a company that makes them for BMW and Porsche (forgot their name... it's bookmarked at home).

so, my XT8 is on the back burner for a while. waaaaaay on the back burner. lol.

Ooo! Plenum Spacer. I've been looking into those. How did that work out for you? Isn't that a mod which requires a tune/ecu flash?

I've been wanting to get an exhaust as well, but the extra loudness and cost is what keeps me held back. I want the Stillen one since it has the most stock-like look and sound (it sounds exactly like stock except at high RPM full throttle). Too bad its 1200 bucks.

I have this thing about keeping a stock look - I don't want to break it as the cops hassle you a lot less if they think your car has 0 mods.

And as for Stillen, their headquarters is about 15 minutes from where I live. So I just take it there for stuff like brake service (and soon, clutch service). They cost 1/2 as much as OEM and I get better products in return. Their work is very exceptional and I've always been pleased. My rear swaybar broke at one point and when I brought the car in for new front pads they replaced it free of charge.

PS. You'll want too look into the Stillen Engine Damper Mount and the lightweight Pulleys. I felt no perceived loss in driveability but the engine spooled up so much quicker. Engine vibrations are slightly reduced at high throttle inputs too.

i'm installing the plenum spacer and CAI this weekend. the spacer doesn't need an ecu flash, but i plan to have that eventually done anyhow after all my performance mods. i'll send my ecu in to technosquare, as that'll be less expensive than getting a tuning unit...and i'm not putting twin turbos in after all, lol. the rev limit mod alone that technosquare does should warrant the cost.

i should be over 300 horse with what i currently have.... at the crank. dyno's supposedly make grown men cry... i'll have to get there eventually. not too shabby for a 6 cylinder!

wow - i can't even imagine the damage i'd do ($$) if i had stillen 15 minutes from me! lucky you! heck, what am i saying. you've got an m5 in your driveway. heh!

check out my350z.com - almost all mods, esp. our years, work in both vehicles. or, G35driver.com is a sister site. good info on those sites... tons of z and g mod/upgrade/maintenance info.

i won't have to worry about flywheel/clutch upgrades.... the only downside to my car is that it's an 5 speed AT. :no: if i had my choice, it would've been a MT.

Well, one thing I have to say about Nissan/Infiniti tiptronic is that they don't upshift for you. I ABSOLUTELY HATE "manual modes" on tiptronic cars that upshift for you like 500RPM before redline. The loaner 328i we got when the M was in for service did that and I just about went ballistic lol. It drives me nuts!

From what I heard the plenum space helps to move the power band on our cars, is this true? Keep me posted on how your car runs after the mods. (However, from what I hear, it takes about a week for our ECU's to fully adapt to mods.)

I'm on G35driver, I think. I posted a thread once with no replies, so I gave up.

And yeah...having Stillen that close is a double edged sword for sure...

i heard audi tiptronics will upshift from first to second automatically from a stop...but then let you control from then on. that would be irritating. what's the point, then? i will say it's probably the smoothest AT i've ever driven, and the manual mode is better than others (volvo's, for example).

i'll keep you posted on how the z reacts to the spacer. the negative on the battery needs to be disconnected for at least a half hour to restart the ecu, and from there it adjusts to the increased air. same thing with the CAI, which is why i'm installing both at the same time. i'm not sure about how the powerband moves, or where though. i know i'll lose torque but gain top end speed with the test/race pipes, not to mention the increase in noise. she's already pretty loud!

I've never heard anything about disconnecting the battery...Maybe I should do this...hmm.

update:
this past weekend, i attended a local z club 'mod party' where we all brought what we needed to install, and all the guys (most have a lot of experience modding z's and g's... a couple guys have over 500whp) chipped in to help out. i already had my cold air intake installed (which did add a noticeable amount of low end power), and i added my plenum spacer and race pipes. the spacer only took about 20 minutes.... the race pipes took about 3.5 hours, as just about the entire exhaust system had to be dropped to remove the cats and add the pipes.

the result? it's been less than a week, but i notice a big gain in the mid-high end power band. i had the top down and up to 125-130mph on a major highway in no time. of course, with no cats, it's pretty loud now. :tongue: but the spacer is supposed to add 8-12 horse (dyno proven), and the race pipes add at least that much.

just one thing: most guys in my club got the motordyne iso thermal spacer. get that one, if you're going to do it. i got the z1 spacer, and had a number of problems. z1 is a top-notch z/g tuning company in GA, but pay a little more and go with a company like motordyne that has years of tuning/racing experience.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...rch2009117.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...rch2009122.jpg

here's mine (and my leg sticking out from under, lol)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...rch2009130.jpg

and a coveted 370z even made an appearance! :surprised:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...rch2009142.jpg

Very nice!

I think the plenum spacer is next on my list. But right now I have to worry about my clutch and brakes. I'm nearly at 60K miles so I think its time for a brake flush and new fluid. When I have this done I'm having stainless steel lines installed.

Also, as I said, my clutch is going so I need to be ready to take care of that.

Anyway, I did the ECU reset by removing the battery connections for a bit over a half hour and the car started running a bit better. Not sure if its faster, it might very well be. I have yet to really do anything more than a few second and third gear pulls. However, it does this weird thing at start-up. When cold, it starts fine. It does its standard computer-initiated rev to 1500RPM and then drops to 1300 or so and slowly falls as the motor warms.

However, when I start it when the car is already warm, it revs up, but then the RPMs drop all the way down to the lowest line of my tach (which signifies 500RPM) and then you can hear and feel the engine struggle to stay running. Then the engine will recover and proceed to idle as normal (at 600 to 700RPM usually) or it will die. After many tests it seems to stall out once every 15 or 20 times. Any insight?

Another update regarding vehicle's on our end (again). We ended up buying a new truck to replace our 2002 Ram 1500 Quad Cab SLT (which has a 4.7L V8).

We got a 2009 Ram 1500 Quad Cab SLT with the 5.7L Hemi with the MDS and VVT. Its nuts. It gets better mileage than our old 4.7 but puts out 390hp and over 400 ft-lbs of torque (compared to 250hp/300ft-lbs). The truck is very very nice. Ride is incredibly smooth (rides like a luxury car) and it is very quiet. We opted for the 509 watt Alpine sound system as well (one of my favorite parts of the truck). I think my dad was more satisfied with this buy than the M5, interestingly enough.

I'll get some pictures up this weekend.

Any more future mods for your Z?

What did you do to your clutch for it to go out after 60k miles :surprised: I consider 200k miles good life for a clutch, there better have been some track time involved...

Your stalling problem is most-likely electrical, see if a code scanner can pick up anything wrong once you get it to stall (the computer should store error codes for ~50 starts) and see what it says.

wow... that's strange with your idle dilemma. i honestly have no idea... could be any of a handful of things. my guess is that it's somehow sensor related...since it only does it when the motor is warm. do you get a check engine light at all? if so, you can take it to someplace like pep boys and they can check the light for you, and see what it means. otherwise, once every 15 or 20 times probably doesn't warrant a very expensive trip to the dealer to have them diagnose it for you....

heh - unsullied beat me to it. :mdr:

your truck sounds niiiice! for the first time in my life, i'm considering a truck. a beater 4x4, for my winter car... so i can store the z. my dad has always had trucks...and his latest GMC sierra rides like a cadillac. they've come a long way in terms of power and luxury!

the next thing i plan to get is an exhaust system...but that won't be until later in the summer at the earliest. things are pretty shaky here in detroit in terms of the job market...for everything. i'd better sock more money away in case a very rainy day comes....

report back if/when you figure out the stalling problem. i'm curious now.

Sounds like the idle issue is MAF related. Try unplugging it and see what happens. Normally (at least on GM) it will simply go into speed density. That should tell you if its the MAF at least. Some times when more air is introduced, such as from a CAI it takes the computer a while to "learn," in a manner of speaking, where the extra air is coming from basically.

It was fine before the ECU reset. I think it is a matter of relearning. The ECU everything engine related except this small thing.

The clutch has taken quite a beating. My brother drove the car really hard when he did drive it. I learned to drive stick on that car and I drove it somewhat aggressively for 10k miles or so and my dad drives it pretty hard everytime he drives it. It has never been tracked officially but we have subjected it to a fair share of power shifts and drag launches.

I think 60k miles is VERY good for the life of a clutch. I'd be happy if the clutch in my car last 20k...

Wow, you guys are hard on your clutches. Mine is going strong on almost 60k. Of course it's on a 4-cyl :smile:

Actually, during normal driving (non-aggressive), I don't even use the clutch beyond 1st gear.

Well my car is make in excess of 500hp, so I don't expect the clutch to last to long, especially with my driving. :whistle:

Since all a clutch does is absorb the difference in wheel vs engine speed, just time everything so the syncros are lined up and it won't be so bad on the clutch. It's those starts where you rev to ~3k and then dumping the clutch, or riding it so the launch isn't so abrupt that's bad for them.

500HP eh? I bet you pass anything on the road... except the gas station! :lol: :wink:

wow...sorry, man. i hope it 'learns' fast. :lol: i sure hope something i suggested didn't cause any permanent damage. i unhooked the neg on my battery overnight (i did it for a half hour when i installed my CAI) and it's been purring like a kitten with no idle problems. there's someone in our local group that has a G37... i'll see if he has any insight.

i had a '02 saturn that had a clutch that outlasted the car.... over 160k. :lol:

squee - what do you have?

We'll see what happens. It doesn't do it if I blip the throttle during startup. So its no big deal.

It really depends on how the clutch is treated vs how you drive the car. My clutch is actually "fine" if I was just doing regular everyday driving. But for performance driving it is shot, it slips for a 1/2 second into each gear under hard shifting and no longer holds under hard launches (you let out the clutch and RPM's will sit at 5000 or so until speed builds then the RPM's drop to 4000 and start climbing with the speed).

So since I plan to track the car very soon (this summer), I'm 99% sure the clutch will die sometime during my first track day, then I'll replace it and hopefully do another.

Clutch life varies so much with use. If you powershift and launch the car all the time, the clutch might barely last 20K, but if you sit on the highway all day with almost no start/stop then you can get well over 100k no problem.

Even under hard acceleration I still take my time with my shifts. The faster you try to mash together objects rotating at different speeds the harder it is on them (hard on the syncros to shift too hard). Before I'll even buy a car with a manual I have to shift it into 2nd really hard, if it grinds rather than go in it has been driven hard and will probably be a maintenance hog as long as I own it. Granny shifting may be a little slower and not look as cool but it sure helps your car last longer.

On the track it's a different story but to me it isn't worth it to drive hard on the street. Last time I saw a transmission go out in a German car it was $8,000 to replace and that was just a normal manual. Doing a clutch in a German car will run you $1,000 - $2,000 depending on several factors. I can replace the tranny and clutch in my Mustang myself easily and for a fraction of the cost but I still don't do it.

I guess it is bad then that I like the feeling of a power shift. To be slammed into your seat as the car lurches forward is an awesome feeling for me.

Anyway, a lightweight flywheel and sports clutch installed on my car is 1500 bucks, which is awesomely cheap compared to a stock one at 3000.

Last time I checked, a clutch on a BMW M5's SMG Transmission was 2800 Euro's, or about 4000. An entire transmission replacement is 25k!!! Good thing we have the 100K mile warranty on that thing...

It's not a bad thing to like the feel, I'm just picky about my vehicles and I know I can't afford to replace a transmission. That is a very good price on the flywheel and clutch, for a BMW that is. Good thing you got the warranty, every German car I've ever owned has been a total disaster :(

I have a '00 Camaro SS. When I bought it had stock shortblock, cam, LS6 intake, UD pulley, valve springs, and a STS turbo with 5lbs of boost, making right at 500hp. Unfortunately, I blew the motor in about 20 miles (I knew it was weak and wasn't gonna last long at all when I bought it and for now I'm driving my '69 C10). On the bright side though, it came with a 383 LS1 stroker with a kryoed forge crank, Scat rods, Wiesco pistons, Patriot heads, etc, (was built with the turbo in mind and would have made roughly 1000hp) and I just bought the rest of the stuff I need like cam, lifters, etc. I'm just gonna go NA for now with a HUGE cam (232/236 and .595 lift on a 110 lobe center) and then sell the turbo and most likely go with a Magnacharger in a few months time. I'm hoping for right at the same it was making with the turbo, and probably around 650 (to the wheels of course) with the supercharger.

Basic mods are:

Moser 12 bolt
adjustable lower control arms
adjustable panhard bar
Centerforce clutch
Pro 5.0 shifter
stainless longtube headers
Borla adjustable catback
electric cutout
high flow cats
yada yada

I could go on for ever.

wow. just..... wow. :surprised:

fast cars are nice, and i've learned they're also expensive to upkeep (not to mention the really expensive things like blown motors and trannys). heck... new tires on my car will be a minimum of $1k.... they're staggered, and need to be low profile/performance. so, i need to make sure i don't.... 'play' too often. :lol: and i can't even imagine the damage another added 200hp could do to them! they'd dissolve! lol.

Yea, I hear ya. I'm running 17" Torque Thrust M's with 315s out back and 275s up front (17x9 up front and 17x10.5 out back). Luckily Sumitomo makes 315s for $100 a piece. There no high performance tire, but at half the cost, I can deal. I just got the TTM's a few months ago, but when I get the rest of the car like I want it, I think I'm gonna go with 19's up front and 20's in the back with probably 315's on 19x10.5s up front and 345's on 20x12.5s out back. Not sure yet.

nice. 20's in the back, 'eh? will mixed sizes mess with the accuracy of the spedo? i love big wheels on performance cars. they lose performance (compared to smaller ones), but the just look mean.

my current stock 17" setup is getting replaced next year with 19's - 19X9.5 Front (265/35/19) and 19X10.5 Rear (285/35/19). that way i won't have to roll my fenders or get adjustable camber links (even with new coilovers to drop it a bit).

do you drag with that beast?? 315's in the back... wow. heh.

Yea, 315's in the back for now, but when I go with a new set of rims it'll be 315's in the front and 345's in the back. :D

The 20's in the back won't mess with the speedo, just ABS, but I plan on doing away with it anyway, as well as the airbags. No need for airbags with 8pt. harnesses (don't have em yet, but when I install the cage I have, I'll add em).

No, don't really plan to do much drag racing, maybe some autoX or roadcoarses.