How to change the oil and oil filter on a 350Z
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J’s Racing President brought in on charges of attempted murder!
One of best Honda tuning companies in Japan is now under fire as its president was arrested for attempted murder when he fled the scene of a pedestrian hit and run. As a previous owner of numerous J’s racing parts I am curious to see what happens in this saga. No matter the legal outcome for Junichi Umemoto, I hope the company of J’s racing can continue on and produce great performance parts. Story lead found on S2ki
Original Story
http://news.tv-asahi.co.jp/news/web/html/210124004.html
Here is some good laughs for those that don’t think CrossFit is the “God of workouts”
For all of the non-disciples and people who question crossfit principles. My feeling is that kipping pull-ups are the most worthless exercise. Also there is no replacement for certain lifts and TRUE cardio workouts. I guess if you are only looking to be ‘fit’, want to horrible overspend on gym dues, and not competitive in endurance or power-lifting sports the Crossfit is for you. But you can smell like elite LOL
For the FPS gamer and firearm enthusiast, a very funny video
This is hilarious, its worth the 10 minutes!
The Gauges were a bust
I installed the cockpit specialties gauge but they were definitely not up to OEM quality. I removed them after of a day of driving. The detail of the various lights is definitely sub-par. Also getting the needles to line up correctly is very difficult. After replacing the OEM gauge faces I still need to adjust both the tachometer and the speedo.
Installed the Cockpit Specialties Gauge Faces
Well I finished installing the cockpit specialties. They are not quite what I was hoping. While they look good when the car is sitting, when you turn on your lights and the gauge back lighting it is very obvious that they are not up to OEM quality. Sadly I think I will be removing these gauge faces and returning to stock. I hope at a future point these are re-engineered but I sincerely doubt that. Here a quick look at them before they go.
New Chili Red Gauge Faces for the Cooper S!
New gauge faces for the cooper. They are made by cockpit specialties I believe. I got them on clearance from MossMini. For the outlay of $50 I think they will be a great addition to the interior. Should install them tomorrow. Will update 
For the Call of Duty Nerds….A rap :)
These guys have done a couple songs alongside of RecklessTortuga
MINI Cooper S Part Install- PowerFlex Rear Trailing Arm Bushing Insert
-Written during the summer,
So I ordered these a couple weeks ago and when they showed up today I braved the 95* weather to install them. I originally got them to try a cure a tire rubbing I am only getting on the passenger side when I get a sharp impact. The other issue I was having was the back end becoming very vague and ‘floaty’ on off camber turns. I read through the installs that people have done before and honestly it is much easier than any of them sounded. It took me 55mins from the time I put the jack under the car till I put away my torque wrench after doing the lug nuts. Here is brief write up. It is very straight forward.
Here is the front of the rear wheel liner you need to pull back. There is a phillips head screw on the sideskirt that holds the bottom.
Remove this 10mm plastic nut to get more clearance
Here is the bolt that holds the trailing arm to the alignment/unibody connection. Its 18mm, I used a 3/8-1/2 conversion so I could use my bigger breaker bar. With just a 18mm socket the angle would be even better.
After removing the bolt the trailing arm will sag slightly giving more than enough room to get the bushing into place. I used a detailing brush to clean out the voids in the stock bushing but even with 86k miles it was just some dust.
Getting the powerflex inserts into place is the only thing that is a little fiddly. They fit in to the voids but like some of the motor mount inserts they are slightly oversized. What I did was get the entire lip of the insert seated in the void then as I tightened the bolt back down it fully seated into the OEMbushing.
Overall very easy install. For the price and ease of install I don’t really see a down side. Installing the poly upper shock bushings would probably complement this. I am looking forward to doing the front LCA bushings now.
