Hey everyone! Been lurking since last year, signed up in December, picked up a 2012 6mt IPL back in March, and wanted to introduce myself!

So far I've been doing mostly maintenance. Changed the oil, transmission, and diff fluids, air filters, plugs, o2's, and cleaned the MAF's. Still gotta do the galley and vavle cover gaskets and new belts on there. Should I throw a new water pump in while I'm in there?
Shifting into the mod phase... gonna drop the rear subframe, replace those and the diff bushings, Z1 diff cover, new axles and wheel bearings. Doing a brake refresh at the same time with Z1 2 piece rotors, Hawk 5.0 pads, SS lines, and a master cylinder brace. Just got all the parts today
Think it's still on the original clutch so I'll likely replace that and thrown on a lightweight flywheel and go to a metal CSC later this year. Probably get some lightweight 18's with PS4S's on there next summer.

I love driving and wrenching, doing 90-95% of my own work. Haven't had a fun car since I sold my 2007 STI project of 10 years back in 2019, it had 50-80 mod depending on how ya count. Spent 3 months looking for a nice 6mt coupe and ended up getting an amazing deal on this IPL with 95k on the clock. I do vehicle inspections as part of one of my businesses and this car is in great shape.
First Infiniti, happy to be back in the Nissan family. It's my fifth with a set of Maxima's, a 1995 240sx, and a Nissan Bluebird I bought while traveling in NZ.
Love the driving dynamics of the chassis, such nice and predictable throttle steer. I think it'll sharpen up quite a bit with a solid reduction in rotational mass

Pics here from the IPL's first detail and debadge. Great to meet y'all!


In some light it's black...

In other light it's purple! Took off the INFINITI lettering and the G37, left the pie and the IPL.

 

Nice car! What is the final outcome you are wanting from this car. The water pump may not be a bad idea to change out since your already in there. As far as is the Z1 diff cover goes ,that may be a waste of money.new axles and wheel bearings? Unless they ones you have are bad I wouldn't bother but then again what is your initial goal? I would recommend the cmak vs the metal csc or something external just for the ease of access.

 

Thanks! When I first inspected the car I noticed the original axles leaked their grease out a while ago, I debated on regreasing them and replacing the boot but after further inspection there's a little play in there so I figured while I have the subframe out to replace the bushings in that and the diff (ripped the rear diff bushing on spirited drive in the hills) I might as well just replace them. As for the wheel bearings... similar story, at close to 100k I'm sure they're nearing EOL and I'm just gonna get em while I'm in there.
Yeah I probably won't really need the extra cooling from the diff cover unless I'm on track, but I like the push the car in the canyons and I know the VLSD only has a limited range before it stops working so well. I also wanted to address the single rear diff mount stud setup and the Z1 diff cover in pretty reinforced there. I decided against a Z1 or Bell brace to avoid introducing metal on metal NVH.

Goals with the car is a daily driver and canyon car. Might do a track day or three in a couple years once the cars a bit more sorted. Will do some suspension and electronics then do intake, headers, exhaust, and a pro tune once it's paid off.
For CSC's, the external system is more expensive and doesn't sound like it gives many benefits to me. Chatted with some folks at Z1 and they said to just use their metal one... which is on back order til the fall so I might get a JWT instead.

 

First, welcome and congrats on your new Malbec Black toy.

Any specific reason why you are wanting to open the front end and replace the gallery gaskets and water pump? Your car is a 2012 so it should have the revised, reinforced gaskets already in place. Unless you have proven oil pressure issues I'd be inclined to leave well enough alone. Same for the water pump.

Preventive maintenance is one thing, but unneeded repairs is another. However, if you are going to crack open the timing set, obviously you'll want to check the timing chains, tensioners, and guides.

Either way, you have a gem on your hands and I'm sure you'll treat it well.

 

Excellent find! Fantastic car.

First 3 mods on that car for someone who loves handing and rowing gears:

Any brand front and rear sway bars
Short throw shifter
RJM clutch pedal assembly

Welcome to the forum.

 

The finned diff cover will work only if it has a scoop to direct air into it. It can help cool down the OEM VLSD which is it's main point in giving up. Without the scoop it does absolutely nothing.
As for the clutch hydraulics it's been mentioned many times that the main point of failure is fluid contamination and this contamination comes from the reservoir hose that feeds the pump. It turns to gelatin after 6 digit miles/10+ years.
Many folks change the entire system only to see contamination from it again, Mike Upton came up with a motorcycle clear fluid resistant hose which is the fix, though a brand new hose will work in time it will suffer the same fate.

These cars are pretty fun, I'd suggest before many performance mods that you secure a tuning program, the change from stock is insane. On just exhausts only we keep seeing these cars average a good 320whp. Seems like you're knowledgeable enough to mod the car properly. There were some areas of the car that seem questionable from a tuner perspective however when the mentality is switched to an engineering one it makes a lot more sense. As many who have entered the "firmer" feel they did not account for NVH just went along with the reinforcement mentality.

Great looking car and welcome!

 

Thanks amigo, really love the color! I had secretly hoped to find a malbec black IPL.... my first ever car was a dark purple 97 Maxima... but didn't think I could find an IPL in my price range.

I didn't know that after a certain year there was an updated gallery gasket... thanks for that! I noticed a small amount of oil leakage around the valve cover gaskets (front, top, bottom... even a TINY bit in the cylinder 6 spark plug hole.) I figured with those failing due to age fatigue that the gallery gaskets would be in a similar spot. Maybe now I don't need to open that up.

 

Thanks for the welcome! Solid upgrade list. Sways/endlinks are always on my short list of mods for any car. Will likely get to that and a few other suspension things post clutch replacement.... and yeah, was planning on a Stillen STS during that swap, along with a MVEC spring, and probably a new shifter cup. Heard about the RJM assembly... it'll probably make it in there as well.

 

Thanks buddy! Solid advice on the clutch system, I had read about the master cylinder failure and I plan on putting in a new master cylinder and stainless line when I do the clutch. Hoping with new MS, line, and CSC that I have a new clean base to work with. Think I should do some additional flushing or cleaning at that point? Is that stainless clutch line the same one you're mentioning dying from brake fluid exposure?

Ha ha, yeah I do want to do intakes/headers/exhaust and a tune but I told myself no more power til the car is paid off. Power delivery isn't bad once I did the plugs and o2's and cleaned the MAF's... I'm sure it'd be much crisper on throttle response and such though with a proper pro tune.

 

370Z / G37 ? RJM Performance

It's the thing you didn't know you needed until you drove the car before & after. Run an Advanced Search against the forum for threads with RJM in the title.

LOL, you just subbed my YouTube account, which gets maybe one new video every two years. That's funny.

 

 

Nope! Gallery gasket is on the front of the motor, under the timing cover, and when it goes, even a little, the car loses oil pressure.

Valve cover gaskets aren't a bad job. Just make sure you set aside enough time because it's more time consuming than difficult per se. Wiring harness will be in the way for 90% of the job so just take your time.

 

Ha ha, I meant similar spot in terms of condition, not location.... I have seen lots of content detailing that job. Doesn't looks too terrible but certainly a bit of labor.

Good to know that it will cause an oil pressure loss, and be more a fast leak kinda thing. My worry has been that it could fail slowly and get into my timing chain and cause potential damage before I notice.