Direct “bolt-on” products from aftermarket manufactures are a lot of times, less than perfect. In this case, the intercooler piping was far from fitting correctly. After conferring with the customer, we decided to modify the piping as well as the intercooler to fit nicely on the car. The kit now fits, and the project continues.
Black Out: Head and Tail Light Tinting
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
During a brief visit for a TPS wiring fix, our customer with the SRT-4 stated he would like to get his tail lights tinted. I figured since Jeff was going to be in the booth I would get my lights done on the G35. 1 Day turn around and the cars look great! What a huge difference it makes in the overall appearance of the cars. No worries about legal tint laws either, GA law states that the lights have to be visible from 500 feet away. Headlights should only be used on show cars or race cars, not legal for street use. I went a little darker with mine because the LED’s are much brighter than the standard filament bulbs. Tail light or headlight tinting service here at BG will run between $100-$150, depending on the size of the lights getting done. In the case of the SRT-4 it was $100. For a full
bar like an S14 240SX figure $150. Turn around time is one day typically, if you were to drop it off in the morning we would have it back to you by the end of the day.
04′ Infiniti G35: Surprise Surprise, look at what I found.
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Back at Import Showdown on May 2nd, we did not have a shop car present to represent the shop. Justin brought out his Lexus IS300 to see if he could better his personal best. This time he had a little bit more power and some ultra sticky M/T E.T. Streets. I brought out my G35 and equipped it with some E.T. Street radials. I spent the entire day trying to lower my 60′ time and never broke the 2.0 second barrier. Near the end of the day it actually started to get worse and on my final pass I heard the dreaded sound. As I was trying to push the accelerator pedal through the floor pan the RPM’s suddenly jumped. *oh S#!T* On the way home the car seemed to be ok in 1st through 3rd but as soon as I went to 4th or higher and pushed the pedal the RPM jump happened. I have dealt with this for the last 3 weeks.
This past week I finally got a replacement clutch and installed it after work one evening. The original equipment unit I took out had nearly unraveled and was a nice shade of blue/purple. After 97,000+ miles and then taking it out and launching in on drag radials, to say I found the service limit would be a mild understatement. I also had been putting off replacing my spark plugs. Again, out with the original equipment and in with some new ones. The platinum plugs I pulled out didn’t look too bad, except for the 2 rear plugs on the driver side. The platinum tips had been melted down to nubs. Maybe that explains the random miss-fire and hesitation I have been experiencing since I bought the car in OCT.
Upon finishing the work on the car I crawled under the dash to adjust my clutch pedal. While I was under there I noticed a little flashing light coming from a blue plastic box. I don’t have an aftermarket alarm so what could it be? I pulled it out, lo and behold my car has a performance chip installed! So after all this time and only after I was forced into replacing a clutch- I found a golden ticket. One little bonus during an otherwise uneventful process. The car feels great now, I had previously dyno’d at 248 whp. That was with the bad plugs and suspect clutch. Now the car feels like its making 20 more whp. I can’t wait to get it back on the Dyno and see what its making. I think I am going to do a little experimenting too, runs with the chip vs. runs without the chip. We will find out if it does anything at all.
Come Get Some! Batlground Inventory Clearance
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010I have much much more to list and I am trying to post up fresh items daily until I don’t have anymore. We have lots of Z33 used parts, Lots of NEW and USED STi/WRX parts, and some Honda/Acura used parts to list today. Our pricing on NEW parts will be AT COST prices. That is the price Batlground paid for these items. Most of the USED parts will be HALF OFF MSRP. If you have any questions about any of the parts please give us a call 770-319-9605 for the most prompt response. If you cannot call us email batlground@gmail.com, it is the next quickest way to have your questions answered. I will try to keep up with your comments but this will be the last place I look and will have the longest time before response. If you don’t see something here, ask, we might have it and I didn’t post it. Thanks everyone!
Nissan 350Z/Z33
-USED Tein Flex Coilovers 15k miles on them $1000
-USED B&M Short Throw Shifter $115
-USED HKS Twin Power DLI $237
-USED Nismo Exhaust (from Y pipe back) $500
Subaru STi/WRX
-NEW 04-07 STi Racecomp Coilovers $1650
-NEW 02-07 STi/WRX Racecomp Yellow Springs $256
-NEW 02-07 STi/WRX Racecomp Black Springs $256
-USED 02-07 STi/WRX Racecomp Yellow Springs $200
-NEW 02-07 STi/WRX Racecomp Carbon Fiber Brake Ducts $330
-NEW 04-07 STi Carbotech CT1001-1521 “Bobcat” Front brake pads $196.25
-NEW 03-07 RS,03-07 Outback, 03-08 Forrester, 03-07 Impreza Wagon, 03-05 WRX Carbotech CT1004-1521 REAR brake pads $112.00
-NEW 07 WRX Carbotech CT460/647 XP10 Front brake pads $185.94 (also fits 300ZX)
-NEW 12/01-01/03 WRX, 7/98-01 RS Carbotech CT770-1521 “Bobcat” REAR brake pads $110
-NEW 03 WRX Carbotech CT929-1521 “Bobcat” Front brake pads $119
-NEW 04-07 STi Carbotech CT961-1521 “Bobcat” REAR brake pads $147.88 (2 sets)
-NEW 04-07 STi Carbotech CT961-XP10 REAR brake pads $149
-NEW 04-07 STi Whiteline Front Sway Bar $200
-NEW 04-07 STi Whiteline REAR Sway Bar $200 (2 available)
-NEW 02-07 STi/WRX Whiteline FRONT Spherical End Links $90 (Open Bag)
-NEW 02-07 STi/WRX Cusco FRONT Pillow Ball Mounts $300
Honda/Acura
-USED Skunk 2 B18 GSR Intake Manifold $145
-USED AEM 25-300 “Bolt On” type Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator (RED) $70
-USED/NEW B18c1,B16A2,B16A3 Mahle Pistons ACR181189F01 W/ Wrist pins, NO RINGS. Two of these pistons are used and two are brand new. $300
MISC
-NEW KONIG Hotswap wheels 18×9.5, 5-114.3 bolt pattern, +25 offset. All hardware and accessories included (center caps, Carbon Fiber “look” spoke covers, cover bolts) $500
Intake Manifold Epic Failure
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Since I bought my G35 back in Oct. I have been doing small bolt ons. A shorty intake, headers, Y pipe, and 3 inch exhaust have all been installed for engine performance. I had seen the Z1 intake plenum spacer work pretty well on one of our customer cars. I had looked into getting a whole new intake manifold but didn’t really want to spend that kind of money right now. Since I love the fabrication aspect of this job and feel I am pretty good at it-I decided to take a stock intake manifold and modify it. I cut the top off the manifold and took some sheet aluminum and shaped it to my liking. I was going off of some pictures of other manifolds out there and in all honesty guesstimating at the demensions.
Last night I finally finished the manifold. I did a baseline run on the dyno with the stock manifold to get an apples to apples comparison. My G put down a cute little 238 whp. So I installed the new manifold and did a run. The car sounded absolutely crazy! However it didn’t feel very crazy. The dyno confirmed what I felt, 217 whp. It lost 21 whp. Not only did it lose peak power, it lost power everywhere in the power band except the last 300 rpm. What did I do? I did another run. Nope, no better, actually worse. Down another 2 whp. Something did sound different though, I got out of the car, looked under the hood and HOLY S#!T!!! The intake manifold collapsed into itself. It looked as though someone had jumped on top of it. EPIC FAIL!
I feel more humbled today. I feel disappointed that I didn’t really learn anything from this except that I apparently used too thin a gauge of sheet metal. I do have some ideas that I am going to try before I scrap this manifold. I still cannot justify $1000 for a new manifold, and I would like to get more out of it than with a plenum spacer. Back to the drawing board. Just thought I would share my failures as well as my successes. I talk A LOT of smack, but I have enough humilty that I can admit it when I am wrong. Enjoy!
