Performance Parts Zone

Whats the deal with Carbon Fiber (C/F) these days?  It seems as though its everywhere in the automotive industry.  The question is, why?  Is it because of its performance benefits? Or maybe because its the latest trend in styling made popular by many Japanese race cars.  Can it be both?  I dont know that it can, and here is why.

I just dont buy into the whole, “I put a Carbon Fiber hood on my car to save weight as i drive to school and work everyday a little bit faster” way of thinking.  Don’t get me wrong, i like C/F (more on this later), but as a performance enhancement on a daily driven car, come on, seriously.  Carbon Fiber is used in F1 cars, Time Attack Cars, and now in airplanes. Why?, because its lightweight, strong, and stiff.  Entire car bodys are formed in C/F for the Time Attack cars, the cockpits in F1 cars are entirely C/F.  In both cases, its for the huge gains that can be had by simply reducing the vehicle weight.  Carbon Fiber weighs 1/5 of what steel does and is still considerably lighter than aluminum.  Of course, C/F also costs almost 5x as much to produce as aluminum, which is why you dont see it in mass production coming out  of Nissan, Mazda, or any of the other car manufacturers. 

Carbon Fiber for looks? I can buy that.  Like i said earlier, i like C/F, i have a C/F Hood on my car and love the way it looks.  It’s obvious that young tuners across the world like C/F for its aesthetic qualitys.  The weave, the offset of color, the clear coat on top, all lead to a visually appealing modification to any car.  Carbon Fiber for looks is fine by me, but please dont tell me you want a C/F hood on your car to make it faster.  Especially after you just showed me the crazy fiberglass stereo install you did.

Carbon Fiber right now is currently becoming hard to come by. Several airplane manufacturers have been buying all the raw C/F material they can to build a new era of airplanes out of them.  This has caused C/F prices to soar and while they have leveled out, it doesnt appear that prices will be coming down on it anytime soon.  In my opinion, this is going to increase the popularity of C/F among tuners.  It was just about played out, everyone had it, but now its not going to be so easy to get.  Like any market, low availability drives what’s hot and what’s not.  The C/F market is no different and if you are going to stay on top of the game, put together your C/F wish list now and start saving.

In this business, one of the most common misconceptions i hear, concerns fuel efficiency.  Most people assume that Fuel Efficiency equals better gas mileage, and lets face it, thats an easy assumption to talk yourself into with todays high gas prices.  For most people, when they buy a performance part that promises better fuel efficiency, the placebo effect kicks in and they might believe they are getting that extra mpg, but in reality, its just not true. 

Let’s use a Green Drop-In Air Filter for example. The common sales point is better gas mileage and more power.  While you can expect to see a small hp gain, your gas mileage will not increase, but you get your increase in power through fuel efficiency.  If you stop to think about this, it makes perfect sense.  You are adding more air to your motor, which in return, tells the ECU to supply a little more fuel.  Due to the increase in air within the cylinder, more of the fuel going into the motor is burned, thus creating a more complete combustion cycle.  It explains the power side of things, but more fuel will never equal better gas mileage. 

With that said, Fuel Efficiency is nothing more than the % of combustion that occurs within each cylinder on the firing stroke.  As tuners striving to squeeze every bit of power out of our engines that we can, fuel efficiency is something that we need to consider when bolting on parts to our car.  We can throw parts at it all day long and we might see some more power. But what if we add those same parts, and then add a few more that promote fuel efficiency.  We will see the total hp gain of each part increase, due to the more complete burn of the fuel in the chamber.  For instance, we recently added a SUN Auto Hyper Force Voltage System to a customers Mitsubishi Evo 8, and saw gains of almost 17hp.  Why, because it burned almost every droplet of fuel sprayed into the engine. 

 Pretty simple isnt it.  Unfortunately, it is one of the most overlooked areas among new tuners and enthusiasts.  I hope this helps explain what fuel efficiency really means when a company tells you that a particular product offers that, and just maybe, you can tell them what it really means.  You guys are going to mod your cars, you already expect a small decrease in gas mileage, so, you may as well make it count.

Lets hear your opinion on this article- Leave us a comment please.

So after lots of talk, The APS Twin Turbo C6 Kits are finally on the way to us.  We have always typically stuck with import performance, but this kit is too good to pass up.  The guys at APS make some of the highest quality turbo kits on the market today.  OE quality, top of the line parts, and precision fitment are what these guys are all about.  Did i mention that this kit is good for almost 700 horsepower at the crank?  The APS kit will also come with everything you need to make your Corvette perform, including twin intercoolers and all the hardware. The APS C6 Twin Turbo Kit also includes its own fuel management and pre-set fuel maps.  APS has been around for a long time and they have got the knowledge to build turbo kits of the highest quality. 

We are looking for some interested C6 owners to get this kit installed from us.  We are offering a killer deal on a kit install for the first 3 that purchase a kit from us.  We just want to get one on a car and see what kind of numbers we can lay down on our dyno.  If you own a C6 Corvette and are interested in this twin turbo kit, let us know.  They wont last long at their introductory price. 

While we dont have a definitive plan for the RX8 just yet, we went ahead and ordered some of the parts we know we will need during this build. Today we focused on ordering parts to help keep the car running cool no matter the circumstances or performance modifications, i.e. Turbo or Nitrous.  

Its common knowledge that the Rotary motors found in the Mazda RX line of cars, run hotter than most any car on the market.  To keep heat from becoming a factor while tuning we ordered some necessary updgrades to the cooling system today. 

  We started by ordering a Koyo Radiator to keep the coolant temps down.  Not only is the Koyo Radiator built to OE specs, but the all aluminum radiator should be easy to install and reduce engine temps by 20 ro 30 percent.   Next we ordered a set of Agency Power Silicone Radiatior Hoses, not that they reduce heat, but they do increase coolant flow and we dont have to worry about busting a radiatior hose during tuning if we boost the 13B.  To top off the cooling parts list, we ordered the Greddy Air Diffuser Panel and Greddy Oil Pan.  The Air Diffuser Panel should help the cooling process by diverting air directly across the radiator core.  The Greddy Oil Pan not only increases cooling by holding another qt of oil, but its aluminum construction has cooling fins built around the entire oil pan.  Any air coming across the bottom of the car should keep the oil cool.

  I think with the above modifications, we will not run hot not matter what we decide to do to the Mazda.  Hopefully ill have all these parts in stock and on the car with in the next week or two and ill update you then. Im going to avg the cars running temp now for the next two weeks and then avg it again after the parts are installed.  I may even do a before and after run on the dyno to see if the decreased temperatures had any effect on performance at all.

For all you Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35 enthusiasts out there, we want to invite you to check out 350Zforums.com.  Feel free to check it out, sign up and start posting.  Its a new forum and not real active yet, but with your help and activity, it wont be long until its the fastest growing VQ related forum on the net. We cover a wide range of topics concerning the Nissan and Infiniti platform including various forms of racing and performance, both aftermarket parts and tuning.  

We are about to start the buildup of an 04 Mazda RX8.  I figured i’d let you guys in on it from the beginning, so feel free to subscribe and check back for updates and pictures as we build this car with the ultimate goal of a magazine feature.
We want this car to have a clean look with a hint of race car attitude, but we also want the car to have some power to back up its styling.  The car came to us with a set of 20” HPD MSR wheels, Mazdaspeed replica body kit, a Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood, and a Magnaflow Exhaust already installed on it.  We may leave the hood, and even the body kit, but the wheels have to go because they just don’t work with our theme for the car.  We have yet to decide what performance parts we want to use and that’s where we would love to hear from you.  Let us know what you think we should use in the build-up of this car. Give us your thoughts on exterior styling, performance parts, and suspension pieces.  For the next month or so we will be sourcing parts, so send us your suggestions soon. 
More to come soon….
 

I have customers ask me everyday about Volk Wheels and why they should spend the extra money on Volk, when they can get a simialr looking wheel for less.  I want to take a minute and explain my thoughts on the matter.

People will always argue about wheel weight and its affect on a vehicles performance.  I believe it’s just one of the many factors you should consider when starting a new project build.  There are many companies out there that manufacture lightweight wheels, but seldom can any company combine lightweight, strength, and style the way that Volk does. 
A little about Volk Racing Wheels and their dedication to performance in the sport compact world. 
Volk is a product of RAYS Wheels based in Japan and distributed in the states by Mackin Industries.  Volk wheels are designed with performance in mind and can take anywhere from 2 t 6 months to be design before going to production.  The style of the wheel is not finalized until after the wheel’s purpose has been decided.  Do they focus more on wheel weight, wheel strength, or both?  In most case the answer is both.  Volk Racing Wheels are made to withstand the harshest track conditions as well as your everyday city street by using the highest grades or magnesium and aluminum.  The use of higher quality materials adds to the cost, but when you buy a true racing wheel such as Volk, you’re buying top of the line.  Look at the wheels used on JGTC and Drift cars, all Volk, look at the wheels on the cars that consistently win top honors at national shows, once again, all Volk.  If you want a wheel that looks as good as it performs and sets your car apart from the crowd, a Volk Racing Wheel is what you need.    
 

So i am sitting here at my office today adding pictures to our Gallery, lots of pictures.  It had been a while since i updated it.  Ive got pictures from the Hot  Import Nights Shows we have attended as well as Sema 05 pictures.  We have pictures of both our project cars there as well as some spec sheets.  Check it frequently, ill be adding new pictures all the time.

If there are shows that you all attend / photograph, and would like to see your pictures published online, contact me and ill happily post show pictures for you.  All i ask for is quality pictures and a little information about the show.  I also ask that you submit at least 15-20 pictures, but more is fine.    Submit pictures to Justin@InjectedPerformance.com

That’s right.  We have been working closely with ARP to develop a set of L19 Head Studs for your Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G35.  Why is this such a big deal? Weren’t there already some on the market? Yea, there were, but they required you to machine the engine block and cylinder hear to accept the larger studs.  Not only is this costly but also time consuming and dirty.  The new ARP L19 Head Studs we have developed, require no maching of any kind and will fit your stock engine block.  The L19 Head Studs also have 1000 psi more clamping force than a standard ARP Head Stud.  If you want to make serious power out of your VQ35, this is one upgrade you cannot afford to skip. 

We are in the final stages of tuning on the Injected Performance Nissan 350Z.  Id like to invite everyone to check it out.  The 350Z has been re-named the Nissan 430Z since the addition of the 4.3L AEBS stoker kit.  The car features a custom made turbo setup currently making almost 700hp at 19 pounds of boost.  We plan to tune the car to almost 40 pounds just to see what kind of numbers we can lay down on the dyno.  Check out the full spec sheet and pictures at the link above or check the car out at a Hot Import Nights show near you.

Subscribe to this blog to keep updated on our progress. Ill post regular updates.