Well, we had our club's Dyno day yesterday and ended up with 15 Z's 10 of which were 350Z's and also a G35C. And we ended up with some interesting results that are also somewhat puzzling.

The highest HP for a 350Z was an ATI SC:
Max HP 345
Mods: ATI SC, Nismo Headers, RT Cats, Stillen Exhaust
He was running rich but better safe than sorry.

The highest HP for an NA 350Z was ME :
Max HP 254 with AF ratio of 12, maybe a little rich
Mods: Kinetix Plenum, Japtrix Y-pipe, Fujitsubo Legalis R exhaust, Nismo Flywheel, UR Crank Pulley
I was very happy after that, I was looking for 255-260 based on my previous 240 after which I installed the flywheel, pulley and plenum, but I think I lost some because I removed the Injen rubber tube and placed the filter like the JWT but without a heatshield and my first run was the best while everyone else got better second or third runs, so I think it started to suck hot air which I also think wasnlt helped by the Street Scene Grill, I might take that off.

I was happy until the G35C ran, he got 253!!! with AF ratio of 13 so leaner than mine.
His mods were: 350Z intake tube, JWT Pop Charger, RT Cats, Borla exhaust
Unlike me his second run was the best but still his first was 251, what the **** is going on here, he had more than other 350Z's with similar mods.

A 350Z had 247 HP with the following:
JWT Pop Charger, Stillen Exhaust, Borla Headers, JWT Flywheel, UR Pullies.

Other interesting results were:
A 350Z Track model with only Injen intake had 247
A Base 350Z with TS ECU and JWT Pop Charger had 231
A Base 350Z with Nismo CAI and Nismo Exhaust had 222
The best money to power ratio was a 350Z with only Japtrix Y-pipe, Japtrix Mid-pipe and grounding kit, he had 245!

Interesting results not sure what to make of them though, the 350Z Track Model and the G35C 6MT seem to be the ones with the best starting points, and the Base models had low results. Different ECU parametrs???

Here are some pics http://www.sfzcc.com/Events/2004/dynoday03/

 

that doesnt make sence! why would a car with less mods make more power? I am new to this car stuff but this confuses me.

 

Not every engine runs as strong even though they should be the same, Engine breakin can play a role, possibly different wheels and tires as well.

 

Its really amazing some cars can have such different numbers with similiar to exact mods....its almost insane.

 

Part of this equation might be combining different mods. Some mods complement each other while others may take away.

We all know you can't just add up the HP numbers of each item to get a total, you have to take into consideration how each mod reacts with the others.

This is part of the thinking of staying with a single mfr for all your mods. The assumption is that all the parts from a single mfr (like Nismo) will complement each other. Not always the case, but thats the idea.

As for the same cars with almost identical mods getting such different results. That's probably the complexety of the ECU coming into play. There are so many factors that are taken into account when controlling these motors, that wide ranges of results should be expected. I have heard from many sources that our ECUs are very sensitive to coolent temp and the amount of time a car is warmed up prior to dynos has a dramatic impact on the results.

 

Does the factoy LSD make any difference on power? I see that the base model runs low...but the track model runs higher, maybe its because its equipt with LSD?

 

Mileage definitely plays a roll. Did you happen to notice what kind of mileage the different cars had?

-D'oh!

 

No two engines are the same. Nice numbers Westpak, thanks for sharing!

 

I got some:

Mine has 15K
The Base with TS ECU & JWT Intake has 9100
The Touring 6MT with Japtrix has 14K
The Track Model with Intake has 9600

So mileage doesn;t seem to be a factor in these.

 

Out of the comparisons what kinda wheels did the cars have on them? Big wheels with fat tires is gonna have less hp.

 

I gotta get an ECU....

 

One of the Base models had stock wheels and the Nismo one had Nismo wheels in 18".

A Performance with big 19 wheels got 242 with just Stillen Exhaust. I just didn;t see wheels making a huge difference.

Just comparing the Base with Nismo Intake and Exhaust to the Track with just Intake there was a 25 HP difference, that just seems like too much to me.

 

I have the Touring 6MT with the Japtrix and grounding Kit. I have 14K miles on it, took care to break it in (keeping rpms down under 5K for the first 1500 miles or so. I have OEM 18" rims and tires (Touring). So really the only mod of significance is the Y and mid pipe. Just in case, I do run Mobil Synthetic oil, switched to it at 5K miles, change it every 5K miles.

The Japtrix pipes I have had for well over 7K miles or so, so I am sure the ECU is well adjusted and it is all warmed up. Also, I drove a good 100 miles tot he dyno, so everything was in normal operating temps. Oh, I have Samco hoses on it, but I wouldn't expect that top make much difference.

Next I am set for the Kinetix Plenum and High Flow cats. I wanted this as a "baseline" dyno. So when I get those, and after some time, I will repeat at the same Dyno location...

I want to take a moment to thank Gus for a great event. Everybody had lots of fun. And Roger, the guy from Japtrix. He is an A#1 dude! Everybody got the runs they wanted. I thought it was an outstanding time!

 

Yes thank you Gus for organizing the event. I had a blast meeting up with everyone seeing my car on the dyno for the first time!

I own the G35C and have right under 10k miles. I followed similar break in procedures as slaponte.

It sure was hot on that day. My chart records that during my runs, the temp was 93º outside.

 

You guys are welcomed, I had a blast and will probably do it again soon aftet I install the test pipes and redo my intake and also do the exhaust on the 300ZX.

 

Your 300 seems oddly low. Are those numbers SAE corrected? It should put down at least 240rwhp peak from the factory...

Michael.

 

The 300 was low, I was expecting 240 as well, but considering that everything is 14 years old, I mean this car was completely stock when I got it.

The belief is that the cats/precats, there are 4 total, are shot and probably clogged up, which would explain the richness, I mean the AF curve starts at 15 going down to around 11 at 4K and then plummets below the chart which has the low setting at 10 so who knows what my AF ratio is.

I am going to do the exhaust first as it seems to need it plus the mufflers are rusted through, I wanted a base Dyno before I started the power mods, I just finished the suspension mods and it rides almost like the 350Z.

 

I've got to agree with several of these points...no two engines are alike in terms of #'s and combination of mods can have +/- effect.

I have not dyno'd again since adding all of my mods, but my stock dyno (grounding kit only) was 244hp at 1400 miles.

Thanks for the post, still very interesting to analyze.

 

How do you guys feel about the ECU negating this mod?
Is anyone close to really cracking our ECU?

 

Well all dynos are different so to compare dyno results from different shops is almost useless, that is why is was so good to have a variety of cars to compare with.

My thoughts on the ECU is that it will probably negate some of the gains but not all, I don't think that the ECU exactly dials it back to stock but probably tries to retard the timing and hence reduce some of the gains.

Technosquare seems to be the only out there to have cracked the ECU so far, but not sure how good they are, one of our Z's that day had one and only dynoed at 231 and was running lean, even started to ping. He is currently sending the ECU back to be reflashed back to stock and do a redyno to see if it is the programming or the car.

Other than that there are a couple of piggy backs out there but not big campaign to get the news out to us if it works or not, just a couple of people here or there.