How To: Install An Intake On A G35

It's one of the worst-hidden secrets ever, but most people you'd ask wouldn't know exactly how alike a Nissan 350Z and an Infiniti G35 are. It's really pretty shocking; after all, they are two entirely different automobiles.  One's a 2-seat lift-back sports car, the other's a 4-door luxury sedan for the BMW crowd.  Under the skin, though, the G35 and the 350Z share more than a little DNA.  In fact, they've got the same engine, transmission, suspension (largely), differential...  you get the point.

What this means is that the aftermarket that exists for the 350Z is largely compatible with the more "pedestrian looking" G35 Sedan and Coupe.  So G35 owners looking for a bit more grunt don't have to look far.  I got to get my hands dirty with the install of an aftermarket intake setup on a G35 recently, and took some pictures to share with you all.

The car the intake was installed on was a 2005 G35 6MT sedan, which has the 6-speed manual, sports suspension, LSD, and the higher-output VQ35DE.  In stock trim this motor delivers a more-than-adequate 298bhp, but it doesn't quite have the snarl that a punchy powerplant like this deserves.  To solve this problem, a combination of a 350Z intake tube and a JWT (Jim Wolf Technology) POP-Charger setup were selected.  More on both later.  Time to get started...

First, remove the engine picture cover, which is secured with two 10mm screws and two 10mm nuts front and rear.  With the cover off, you can see why Infiniti chose to go with an engine cover: the VQ doesn't have what I'd call a beautiful intake manifold.  No matter, it makes tons of power and sounds awesome - what more do you want?

POWER !DUCT!  Oh yes.  This is the stock airbox, which is both goofy-looking and somewhat restrictive.  It actually gets air from two sources; basically the plastic ducting pulls air from the grille into the box.

This is the engine with the stock pipe removed, but the MAF housing and the airbox still in place.  You can see the throttle body and housing at the back of the intake manifold, and the wire running across the gray pipe on the back of the airbox goes to the MAF sensor.  Removal requires loosening two worm-gear clamps from each end, and also removing a thick vacuum line that connects to the bottom of the pipe with a spring-clamp.

The stock G35 intake pipe is on the left; the OEM Nissan 350Z pipe is on the right.  Can you see what the advantage is?  The Z-car doesn't have the multiple, goofy, pointless baffles on the intake that the G35 does.  Well, they're not actually pointless - but they're there to reduce intake noise, and frankly that's one of the things the VQ35 does best.  You'll also notice the Z pipe is straighter, allowing less restricted flow into the throttle body - always a good thing.

And this is with the entire airbox (and intake ducting) removed from the engine bay.  The airbox actually comes out pretty easily; secured by two easily-reachable bolts.  Almost as if they knew this was going to happen...  You can see the VQ's large heads with all this junk removed from the engine bay.  Now to start putting this together.

This is with the 350Z pipe in place.  It's secured with a worm-gear clamp as well as a 10mm bolt, and it's fairly rigid.  The vacuum-line port on the tube is in a slightly different location, but thankfully it's not a problem to stretch the stock hose to reach it.  Otherwise, it's a creepily perfect fit - and this is the stock part from a 350Z!  Not so different, are they?

This is with the heat shield installed, but the MAF housing and filter not attached yet.  The heat shield connects to a pinch weld at the bottom, and to the intake ducting on the left side.  It mates to the intake ducting to provide fresh air to the cone filter that JWT provides with the kit.  Which looks like this:

Now that's pretty trick, isn't it?  The filter is located by the rod that connects the MAF housing to the front of the strut tower, and it all bolts together beautifully.  With these two pieces in place (the Z pipe and the heat shield/filter, which JWT calls a POP Charger), the VQ35 is breathing in both more and colder air, which means more oxygen - and more power.

And here it is with the engine picture back on!  It doesn't look OEM, but it sure is clean and well-designed.  And the best part?  Totally smooth operation as usual, but when foot meets carpet, the G35 lets out some of the most beautiful induction noise you've ever heard.  More pictures and video of this car to come soon, I promise.

Thanks to MyG35Mods.com for the concise, accurate, and easy-to-understand directions.  Top notch.