onthemove MOD's

When I first started to mod the FX, a bit over a year ago, I got this scangauge 2. It was inexpensive & most seemed happy with it's accuracy, but most bought it for gas mileage tracking. I didn't have much done at that time. Had these crappy Kumho's, z-tube with drop in k&n and deleted/plugged the remaining baffles, pulled the spare tire & hardware and that was about it.
I tested it with, iirc, about a 1/2 tank of gas, a passenger and favorable temps. Wish I would've taken a photo or saved the time in the unit, but the best I could muster was a 7.1 second 0-60 time. With an 1/8 tank and no passenger, probably would've done a 7.0 to 6.9
Fast forward to today when running an errand I ran 2 0-60's on two different roads. The 1st was flat and got a 5.8. No photo of the first road but the 2nd one is below. The photo is after the run. I pulled over on the way back. It was slightly inclined but still got a 6.0
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Incoming air temps were great and not too much fuel.
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I snapped a shot while driving on a flat road at 50mph to show the mileage as well.
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Not so sure about the accuracy of mileage as your supposed to log your fuel fill info at every fill up and I never do. The combination of things I've done so far has made a positive impact on mileage, just don't know how much. Before, when the FX was in the state it was in as I wrote above, mostly stock, I'd see low to mid 20's. Now, mid 30's. I did use water to internally steam clean, which probably helped out a bit with all the miles this thing has on it.
Changing the diameter of the tire made have adversely affected the system's ability to effectively read mpg's but regarding 0-60, little to none. Besides, these tires were on making the first runs over a year ago and those 0-60 times I mentioned above look to be in line with stock times.
 
Here's the 1/8 mile time. Just got one. Someday soon will get a 1/4 on this thing. Scanguage sits until 1 mph is registered via ecu. I'm thinking this thing is pretty accurate and definitely a great tool for testing/tuning without the b.s. associated with the drag strip closest to me. Can't stand the tar they put down and the bleachers and trees help create a vortex that amplifies an already windy situation. If you cannot hook up without help mr. muscle car, your upper body is too built for your scrawny legs or in other words, if you can't put down the power, you have too much of it. Walking on the track last year, I felt like a fly on flypaper.
Get'n close to a stock g35.
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While bouncing between this, that and renovating the interior, I decide to de-sticktify the engine bay. I cut the handle off the oil dip stick back when deleting hoses, wire tucking, ect. It's a short-throw dip stick. I know where it is and that's all that matters. I went over the underside of the hood with a majic eraser during that time and thought it came clean but discovered it wasn't while removing the two large stickers on the hood. Infiniti meant business when they put those things on. They have a clear sticker over them that didn't want to come off and the only way to get the actual stickers off was to use acetone. The stickers on the headlights and core support came off easily.
I used an ancient bottle of meguiars cleaner/wax and elbow grease. Could've sworn it was clean before. My ass-scratching fingers are sore as hell now. Damn. Gotta switch hands for a few days.
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I still need to fix the front diff seal, get new rubber, finish the interior, get a quote from a top body shop I found recently & get a new shop that I'm trying out to do a compression & leak down test in 1 1/2 weeks. The shop I had been to 3 times is apparently on it's way out. I'll need a good tune, someone that can get it right without blowing up the FX on the dyno, lest my hand be broken upon their face. Besides tuning my rizide twice, I gave'm some easy to-do's that I easily could've done myself to get a feel for the work they do and see if they can do it without tearing my shit up. They did good work. Oh well.
I've got 99% of everything worked out regarding vortech & associated b.s. with a very cool and price-negotiable online retailer-shop. I have most of what I need to know regarding install. The only thing that's still an unknown is the ic piping. Will it fit with a little finesse? Guess I'll find out.
 
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If you're in the NYC area, I would look up turbocad6's shop for body work... And Vinny Ten racing has experience with boosted 1st Gen FX's...
 
Good suggestions. Don't know much about turbocad except he had an ambitious project going on with his FX and then disappeared last I read. VT is a shop I've read about that's apparently one of the tops for the VQ. I contacted Dynosty and Hal's willing to make an appointment with me to tune or whatever I want to do which is great but he's a days drive away. It'd sure be nice to have a shop that's close. Found one that's got a top tuner on the east coast but they do mostly subies. Contacted soho's months ago and apparently they are to good for my greenbacks.
 
Yeah... John (turbo) isn't active any more, but he's super OCD about bodywork... Only heard great things from people that have gone to his shop... He's in Brooklyn if I remember correctly. Although he probably doesn't have his FX anymore, he still has his shop...

Imagine how hard it is for me in Canada to find people that do good work! I used to drive down to Long Island to get all my electronics done :P
 
Ran the same 2 roads today. 5.8 0-60 on both. 2/10th's improvement on the slightly uphill road and no change on the flat rd but got minor tire spin on flat rd so there you go. Temps and fuel level near identical to 2 weeks ago. 2/10's and 3 mph improvement on 1/8 but 13 ft shorter than previously recorded run. Would've loved to get a few 1/4 mile passes at the track before the new Continental Extremecontact tires. Oh well. No time. Will shoot for a 1/4 mile scanguage time sometime soon. Would be looking for a low 14 at this point and if not, still have a few weight loss tricks up my sleeve to help the cause.
Mpg's look unbelievable but this is just steady cruising on a flat road. It doesn't account for inclines, declines, stop and go. It does show me that on a relatively flat road, steady 2k rpm in 5th that the mileage seems to have improved a bit once again. When an improvement has been made, whether it's a drastic weight reduction, a proven increase in power or a change in the calculated difference to the final drive via smaller diameter tires, wot is one way to tell but I'm not at wot often. I am at a normal rate of acceleration 99% (normal for me) of the time and that's my average, typical way of driving and when I can clearly notice that I don't have to apply as much pressure to the accelerator, that's a conformation that something positive has changed.

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N/A doing 5.8? With VDC pulled, I'm thinking it might be possible. I pulled that fuse just to see what FX would do. Was a monster. Felt unsafe when accelerating at a turn. Tons of wheelspin & ABS was lost, so I put fuse back in.


Bottom of post ;)
Driving & Track Blog
 
Ah, thought you had issues mechanically or electronically speaking between the smaller diameter & vdc pulled. The wheel spin I can testify to. AWD, so didn't have that problem until these tires. Wouldn't call it a problem, but they broke loose on dry pavement just a little. Launching at 2k plus on wet pavement with the Crapho's, I could get all 4 to break loose for about 3 seconds then they'd hook. Couldn't leave a patch if I wanted to either way.
I haven't done the calc's yet but r&p is 3.7 awd with 29" tires should be 3.9-4.0. G35 with 3.53 iirc and 26.5" tires is 4.10. Wheel weight on G35 50lbs and I'm now at 50lbs also but still a larger tire diameter wise so the weights still out a little further from the hub. Weight typically around 3400 for g35 and I'm 3960 but a reasonable power bump in the FX helps that out a bit. I just use a G35 DE to compare to because everything is so similar except wheel size and weight. Think I'll pull the stats and see if there's a G35x with the DE and start using that. An 07/08 weighs between 3500-3700 lbs and has the 3.9 r&p but I think it's the rev-up with 306/268. It runs a 5.1 to 5.4 and 13.9 to 13.7 respectively.
Forgot to mention I never lost abs. Not before and not now. lights are on the dash from pulling the relay yet abs still lingers. If I could, without too much effort, I'd remove it and vdc. If you know how to drive well and I know GTO does, you don't need or like me, even want it.

Chill day today and yesterday so I thought I'd throw this info out here. Better to compare the fx to a g35x so I threw 2 of'em up. A DE and an HR. Similar weight, awd, one a bit under powered compared to the other 2 but close enough. This may seem unreasonable but just based on the stats I collected below, it looks legit. Get the stigma out of your mind that for some reason the FX is just inherently slow or don't pay attention to the model of the three Infiniti's below and just look at the numbers and it's hard not to see my point. My question is, and I thought I knew this but I'm questioning it now, just what does the manufacturer use to determine final drive? I think it's referring to the ring & pinion only but I wonder if they do or do not account for tire size in the equation? Just can't find the answer to this question.
My 1/4 mile time and mph is just a guestimate but unless the scanguage, my kill list and I are all conspiring against me, it's got to be pretty close. All weights below are dry weight I believe. I know mine is.

--- 2004 G35x AWD 5 spd AUTO DE --- 3,675lbs, 260/260, 0-60 6.1, 0-80 10.6, ¼ 14.7 @ 94mph, 215/55/17, 26.3" diam. tire, 14.1lbs per hp, trans 1st-3.54 2nd-2.26 3rd-1.47, F.D. 3.53

--- 2003 FX35 AWD 5 spd TRANSGO DE --- 3,932lbs, 310/300, 0-60 5.8, 0-80 9.4, ¼ ?14.2? @ 97mph?, 255/55/18, 29" diam tire, 12.8lbs per hp, trans 1st-3.54 2nd-2.26 3rd-1.47, F.D. 3.88

--- 2007 G35x AWD 5 spd AUTO HR --- 3,700lbs, 306/268, 0-60 5.4, 0-80 9.2, ¼ 13.9 @ 100mph, 225/55/17, 26.7" diam tire, 12.1lbs per hp, trans 1st-3.84 2nd-2.35 3rd-1.53, F.D. 3.69

So by removing 275lbs with 32% of that being wheel weight, adding 30hp/30tq and reducing the diameter of the tire in an effort to get a bump in gearing on the cheap, I've dropped the 0-60 by well over one second which should translate into the 1/4 mile giving similar results.
I'm not putting this out to puff up my chest. I like to come back and read what I wrote and I think sometimes it comes across that way. I'd love to have the slowest FX right now so I can figure out why it's so damn slow. I like the process of modding and the gratification of seeing positive results. I post like there's no tomorrow because I want to share what I've found with others as it was others sharing on the web that have helped me learn so much about health and trading stocks to flipping and modding the FX. The web is the last bastion of truth and even much of it is bullshit. This is good info and if you can stomach swapping the big wheels among other things, you'll get the same results:).
 
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Had to remove the passenger side front tire to figure out if the diff is leaking from the 1/2 shaft seal as I believe or the case seal as the tech who looked it over believes while doing a state inspection. So I took a few photos and weighed the tire/wheel assembly with balancing weights, valve stem & air. 51lbs and 0 ounces. I never did weigh the wheel/tire assembly of the stock 18's but I did weigh the stock wheel at 30lbs and a few ounces iirc and called bf goodrich for the weight of the tire which was 40 lbs so I imagine aired up probably 71lbs? Whatever.
Disc. Tire road matched the wheels to tires and I think did so using the hunter road force balancer but when matching I don't know that it matters. Some wheels have a third of the weights that they had with the crapho's while others just over 1/2. My only gripe with Disc. Tire is they are no longer allowed to carry any adhesive remover of any kind. When I bought these wheels, I did it myself anyway, pulled the weights and removed the adhesive before getting'em balanced to give the tech one less thing to fuck up. These guys at DT are a different breed though and I would've been fine with them doing it. Figures.
Not a huge difference visually regarding size (Conti left, Crapho right) but the Conti's are just under 7 lbs lighter each than the Crapho's. Softer too. You'd think a larger tire might have a better ride, all things considered, because of the larger sidewall but not necessarily so apparently. Very similar tires though Conti's are asymmetrical and Crapho's directional. Bought the Crapho's long before I decided to keep and improve the FX. AWD has no use for directional imo and directional tires tend to be problematic in many ways. Conti's are better in every way.
Gorilla sent me new hardened steel lugs for free. USA sales manager Jon's a pretty cool guy. Bought mine a year ago and they already had rust on'em. No salt on the roads here. WTF? If you need lugs, get the hardened steel or better if there is better. Don't know and don't care, just don't want rust.

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Found out today at 60mph I'm really traveling at 57mps and at 80, 75 using my gps. Damn. Forgot about influence on gears from tires translating to mph being off. It also screws with the scanguage in terms of feet measured.
My 5.8 is probably more like a 6.0. This was also on a slightly inclined rd working against me so need a safe high mph flat rd and a readout from 0 to 63mph for accuracy. Run below went to 61 so pretty close. Don't need multiple runs to average out. The FX and I are very consistent. Only inconsistency is temperature affects on iat's.
The 0-80 is probably more like 9.6 to 9.8 so need to do the same as above. Either way it's damn close. Gonna find a long flat private rd, speak with the owner to get his/her blessing so I can safely go to 110 and hold it to see if mph is off any more than 5mph and make note of this. I can go 0-110 and save the run and figure out adjustments for amount of mph it's off and compare to the G35's above. Minor setback but great tool to use for testing.
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Post a video doing your 0-60! That would be a different view than other ones on YouTube since you removed your vdc fuse
 
Got a t-rex grill in yesterday. Had to clean up the area between the grill and radiator. Too much shit in between. Deleted one of 2 horns with it's wiring and relocated the other, attaching it to the a/c canister bracket. When I did the wire tuck I routed the loom for everything up front the factory way. Moved it today so it's not visible through the grill or in the air dam. Deleted the front bumper guard bar. Wanted to delete crash bar and will soon but need to address the air bag sensor potential issue 1st. Hand painted anything that wasn't black black except for the hood latch bushing. Just missed it & ran out of time. Painted the sides of the bumper black so they don't stick out. Before the body shop I'm gonna take the dremel to the sides and most of the bottom.
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The t-rex weighs 5.8lbs and the stocker 3.8. All in all, lost 3 lbs. T-rex looks good but what a porker! No doubt more air will flow through this, especially with much of the b.s. out of the way. Looking at some tomei headers which should bump up the power a bit, shave a few lbs. and wrapping'em instead of ceramic coating for superior heat retention and scavenging. What I've done so far + wrapped headers should give some big relief to the engine & trans regarding heat. Maybe some customized heat shields for the hfc's attached to the headers and stretching beyond but not below to keep the heat off the trans.
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Here's a few more shots. T-rex gots to get replaced cause it's chipped at the top brackets. Brand new, unopened box. Unbelievable.
Edit - Contacted T-Rex today and they've got a new powder coating process. Said I might've gotten an older unit. I bought another directly through them. I'm sure I'm the 1,000th person to buy one of these but it looks dope yo, so whatevers.
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This was in automatic. Can't hold the camera and shift and not about to tape the thing to my head. I can do a little better in manumatic mode. This is actually the first time I got on it in auto in a long time. Bout the same gas and temps a few * higher.
1st photo 1mph shy of 0-60 due to tire diameter. 2nd photo at 83, 2mph short and 3rd at 87, 2mph over as 85 = 80mph, so 10 sec 0-80.
Photo 4 is short but photo 5 is probably damn close if not over. Need to do the math but too lazy for all that. I let off at 101 and traveled 80ish feet coasting still running a 14.6. Need to get to 105-106 to = a true 100mph. Fell a little short.
I'll try again someday soon in manumatic. Get need to figure out how to hold the camera.
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Here's the vid fresh off the press. You can hear 2nd and 3rd chirp slightly even with the windows up. Might've caught 4th just a little? These tires are a little softer so they don't bark the way the crapho's did in 2nd. Bummed about that. Surprised it did it in auto though. The thing just jerks and I couldn't keep from getting tossed back a little. Makes me laugh. I did get whiplash shortly after installing the shift kit, no joke. If you have a shift kit but no chirps and your tires are = to or less than stock size in diameter, try valvoline max life synthetic trans fluid and pull your vdc relay.
The vid below mine is a 2006 awd. We both bring the rev's up before launch but you still have to play with it a bit to get the timing right between the 2.
 
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