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So I am thinking about doing a mild N/A build thanks to this forum. My car is approaching 140k and has been nothing but fun as a daily and track car for the past 120k. I would like to do some N/A modding this coming winter. My goal is to add power while doing some maintenance on my high mileage motor.
I have the money and an extra long block in the garage who knows what will happen. The long tubes will be done soon. I also have ordered some stuff for a 3.5" cold air intake. I must stop the thread jacking. On topic this freshen up with cams will end up costing 5k no less if you have to pay for labor. If you are only spinning to 7k the tomei's are not the best choice, more lift look jwt or brian crower.
I have the money and an extra long block in the garage who knows what will happen. The long tubes will be done soon. I also have ordered some stuff for a 3.5" cold air intake. I must stop the thread jacking. On topic this freshen up with cams will end up costing 5k no less if you have to pay for labor. If you are only spinning to 7k the tomei's are not the best choice, more lift look jwt or brian crower.
Thanks for the advice. gabe3ds cam install is what I was looking to do. What JWT cams would you suggest?
If I decided to just do cams/springs would that be a waste of time without doing any head/valve work? I would just like to improve power a bit while freshening up the motor.
i went the N/A route for awhile...bored now...so saving up so i can eventually go FI...lol
It's because you don't have a NA built car, you just have a normal bolt-on car. There is a lot more to do then the current mods that you have. The NA and FI route requires different kind of appreciation and if you just want big numbers then NA is not for you.
If I was doing a budget freshen up semi performance build this is what I would do:
The revup oil pump
Find a full set of grade 3 revup internals and have your block bored and honed to match, use new stock rings and new revup rod bolts.
revup cams or jwt s1, s2, or c2 with the jwt springs.
Balance the rotating assembly
The gasket kit is a rip as you can totally reuse the exhaust and most intake gaskets if you need a set of head gaskets pm I will sell them dirt cheap.
To have what I had done to my heads cost $700 and if I had it to do over again I would skip the tip grinding. buy the ferrea valve seals(set on ebay right now for $45 shipped. get on it!) they are cheaper than stock if you don't buy the full gasket set
New stock bearings
Toyota rtv is black looks way better than that orange/brown nissan stuff IMO. Don't use anything but factory rtv I learned my lesson so you don't have to.
Ultimately how much do you want to spend and how much do you want to kill your mpg. This is my .02 cents I am cheap as hell and patient. Doing an engine gets expensive fast, I spent over $1300 in machine work. I didn't pay labor. If you just wanted to do cams figure on spending some coin on a few new buckets. All new timing chain components are between $400-500 with the mileage you have its a must. The nismo cams pop up cheap in here sometimes and they aren't a bad choice either.
Thats just all suggestions. The most helpful advice I can give you is get a plan that includes a solid budget, then start collecting parts. Don't be afraid to buy used sometimes you find great deals that way. Sounds like you have an idea of what you would like to do and I wish you the best of luck. Get more detailed and start asking yes or no questions and you will get better responses. Lets start with what grade pistons are in your engine?
If I was doing a budget freshen up semi performance build this is what I would do:
The revup oil pump
Find a full set of grade 3 revup internals and have your block bored and honed to match, use new stock rings and new revup rod bolts.
revup cams or jwt s1, s2, or c2 with the jwt springs.
Balance the rotating assembly
The gasket kit is a rip as you can totally reuse the exhaust and most intake gaskets if you need a set of head gaskets pm I will sell them dirt cheap.
To have what I had done to my heads cost $700 and if I had it to do over again I would skip the tip grinding. buy the ferrea valve seals(set on ebay right now for $45 shipped. get on it!) they are cheaper than stock if you don't buy the full gasket set
New stock bearings
Toyota rtv is black looks way better than that orange/brown nissan stuff IMO. Don't use anything but factory rtv I learned my lesson so you don't have to.
Ultimately how much do you want to spend and how much do you want to kill your mpg. This is my .02 cents I am cheap as hell and patient. Doing an engine gets expensive fast, I spent over $1300 in machine work. I didn't pay labor. If you just wanted to do cams figure on spending some coin on a few new buckets. All new timing chain components are between $400-500 with the mileage you have its a must. The nismo cams pop up cheap in here sometimes and they aren't a bad choice either.
Thats just all suggestions. The most helpful advice I can give you is get a plan that includes a solid budget, then start collecting parts. Don't be afraid to buy used sometimes you find great deals that way. Sounds like you have an idea of what you would like to do and I wish you the best of luck. Get more detailed and start asking yes or no questions and you will get better responses. Lets start with what grade pistons are in your engine?
Amazing post! Thank you! Still deciding what I want to do. Going to be a long winter
At the beginning I also wanted to reinvogarate my engine because of high mileage, but got talked into doing tests instead. I spent a few hundred on tests that I regret doing since that money could have been spent on the rebuild. Even if it passes the tests now, how long will it last?
That is something I should have asked myself, but at the time I was only thinking of minimizing spending.
The other thing I would say to you is try to think hard about what your future plans might be. I originally planned to only add a spacer and inttake, then that turned into a full breather upgrade. Afterwards it turned into new headers and cams,then to a new intake system, to now a full motor build. If I gave it more thought at the beginning like cocky did, I would have saved a lot of money.
Those tomei cams are a good choice. Tomei cams in general have more aggressive ramp profiles than JWT/nismo r-tune/Brian crower etc. It's not all about advertised lift/duration. Think area under the valve lift curve. My suggestion for the rest of the motor:
ARP rod bolts. Your bottom end will be good to 7500 RPM easily.
OEM HR valve springs with an extra 1mm valve spring seat to increase seat pressure. This setup has been tested to 8k (with JWT S1 cams @ 10.9mm lift) with no valve float in a VQ30 (which has heavier valvetrain components). Actually perform better than nismo and JWT springs (offers more spring pressure at mid-high valve lift). Probably the best performing single spring setup availabe for the VQ that you've never heard of.
Stock main cap bolts are sufficient
OEM HR pistons (in a DE block will increase compression to about 11:5:1) They need to be slightly modified to clear the quench pads but that's no biggie. Documented here http://forums.maxima.org/all-motor/5...hout-mods.html
OEM bearings (meh...would suggest ACL but not totally necessary I suppose)
Concerning a valve job.....some valve jobs can actually be worse than factory. On top of that, the valve lash will need to be reset; usually done by grinding the tips. Extra expense you might not want.
Revup oil pump for peace of mind (not any more effective/efficient than the non-revup...inner gear is just stronger) You can probably leave this off the list as well but hey, if the motor is already apart...
This setup should be dead reliable up to 7500 RPM. Beyond that you might run into bottom end balance issues. That's all I can think of at the moment. Taking a break from studying lol.
Last edited by nismology1; 09-08-2009 at 09:55 PM.
Inspired by the NA Builds forum
My suggestion for the rest of the motor:
all suggestions are on point. 
