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NICOclub's Project G37
During our first installment of Project G37, we began
by taking the car to the track and determining its weak points in stock
trim. We found a few things that
we knew needed to address as our first mods on the car.
First we determined the car needed an oil cooler, which we added in
Part 1. We also saw issues with
the brakes and clutch. In Part
2, we went ahead and skipped the brakes and clutch and put on a set of
BC
Racing coilovers. Now we are
going to take a step back to address the brake and clutch issues and take
the car to the track to test our mods.
If you remember back in Part 1, we mentioned having
problems with brake fade after being on the track for a bit.
Also, although the stock 4 piston calipers in the front are massive,
they were designed to work with OEM brake pads for quiet, yet
semi-aggressive stopping power.
However we want to work on increasing the stopping power while we’re fixing
the brake fade problem.
We didn’t want to spend thousands on a big brake kit,
nor did we think it needed it, but we did want to increase the performance.
We called up Hawk Performance to see what they could do for us.
They sent us their Hawk HP+ brake pads, front and rear.
These pads are a proven performance pad and they just released them
for the G37. They have two brake
compounds available for the G37 right now.
The HP+’s that we chose are the more aggressive of the two, but they
also have HPS pads if you want something closer to an OEM replacement.
Because we plan on tracking the car, we went ahead with the HP+’s.
In addition to the new brake pads, we also chose to
upgrade the brake lines. For
these, we contacted G-Spec Performance.
They didn’t have anything for us at the time, so we worked with them
on a solution. After a few test
fitments, they had some stainless steel braided brake lines developed just
for us. By switching to braided
steel lines from the stock rubber lines, this will increase brake pedal
pressure. Because the steel
lines do not expand like the stock rubber ones do, you don’t have the wasted
pressure of expanding the rubber, and instead increased pressure on the pad.
G-Spec Performance
now sells this brake line kit, so if you’re using our Project G37 as a guide
to build your own G, you too can get these brake lines
here.
Installing the brake lines is a rather straight forward
process. Because you have to
bleed the brake system after installing the new brake lines, we chose to
pump out the original brake fluid and go with a higher temperature brake
fluid. We chose Motul 600.
Typical DOT 3 and DOT 4 brake fluids have a boiling point between 400
and 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Motul 600 has a boiling point of 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
If the boiling point of the brake fluid is too low, excess brake
temperature can cause the fluid to boil.
When the fluid boils, it creates air bubbles inside the pressurized
system. Because air is
compressible, when you apply the brakes you compress the air in the system
instead of forcing hydraulic pressure to the calipers.
In other words, your brakes don’t work.
It is rare that this would happen in day to day traffic, but this
very well could be one culprit in our experienced brake fade while on the
track. To prevent it, by
upgrading to a higher temperature fluid, we can heat the brakes up another
100-200 degrees without worry of the fluid boiling.
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Our first step was pumping out the original fluid.
To do this, we first disconnected the battery so we could get all
the fluid out of the ABS actuator also.
We then opened up each bleeder, one at a time, while pumping the
brake fluid out. After we
had all the fluid out, we then installed the new brake lines.
The rear brake lines have one block end fitting
just like the stock ones do.
Simply remove the hard line going into the block, unbolt the block from
the mounting bracket, and unscrew the line from the chassis-side hard
line. Remove the mounting
clip and remove the line.
The new lines come with new clips but you will need to re-use the bolt
that holds the block onto the bracket.
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For the front lines, the stock lines have two
blocks. The first is mounted
onto a bracket on the shock, while the second is on the caliper.
Remove both sections of the soft line.
The new brake lines come with a pair of mounting brackets for the
front lines. Using the
original nut, screw a mounting bracket onto the stock mounting point on
the shock. Connect the new
line at the block end to the caliper hard line, run the new line through
the installed mounting bracket, then attach the other end to the
chassis-side hard line. Use
the stock mounting nut to secure the block to the caliper, and use the
provided clips to secure the middle of the line to the installed
mounting bracket, and the other end of the line to the chassis.
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We also chose to have all 4 rotors turned while we
were working on the brakes.
Finally, we put the freshly turned rotors back on, the new pads in, and
bled the brakes using the Motul 600 brake fluid.
The final issue we wanted to address is the clutch
fade we experienced. We
believe the clutch fade was due to the clutch fluid boiling, causing the
same effect described that can happen with brakes.
The clutch line on the G37 runs very close to the exhaust, so
this may contribute to the increased fluid temperature.
We chose to bleed the clutch using the Motul 600 as well.
Just like the brakes, we opened the bleeder on the slave cylinder
and pumped out all the original fluid.
We then bleed the entire system using the new fluid.
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After we finished all these mods, we decided to
head back to the track for another track day and see how the car
reacted. This time we headed
to Roebling Road Raceway in Savannah, GA.
It seems everything we did to the car worked
wonderfully. During a 20
minute session on the track, the rev limiter did not decrease like it
had in the past. It seems
that the oil cooler we added in Part 1 was an excellent performance
enhancer. Roebling Road is a
fairly high speed track that uses lots of high RPM’s in 3rd
and 4th gear. The
fact that the car could maintain constant high RPM’s for that duration
is proof that the oil cooler was effective.
We also did not experience brake fade or clutch fade problems.
It seems that the Motul 600 did the trick.
The increased brake feel from the new
G-Spec brake lines also
seemed to help. With all the
annoying problems out of the way, we could focus on the “fun mods.”
The BC Racing suspension made a huge difference over stock.
We cranked up the shock adjustments to make the suspension
stiffer all the way around.
The suspension performed flawlessly, decreasing body roll, and
increasing the fun factor.
It was nice to be in a car that was starting to feel like a real sports
car. The best part about it
was that at the end of the day we could turn the shocks back down in
just a few seconds and enjoy a nice luxury-touring ride back to the
hotel.
Stay tuned and keep following along as we progress
with our Project G37 build.
What will we do next?
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View other segments:
Part I: Oil Cooler Install
Part II: Coilovers Install
Part III: Brakes
Part IV: To the Edge of the World and Back
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The life of a car enthusiast
From The Desk Of:
The Hitman
From The Desk Of:
audtatious
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