400 whp = ~450 bhp so that's a 50% increase.

 

oh definitely. When my engine goes I'll prob build it and add 100 more

 

and then 100 more after another 100, then 100 more…and then maybe…100 more

 

I think the sweet spot for a corner carver is 2500 to 3,000 lb and a w/p ratio of 7:1. jmpo. lighter, traction problems. heavier, weight transfer problems.
I'm not strictly thinking of track but also curvy roads
hp/tq also has a point of diminishing returns in a corner carver. not a fan of big power anymore. I prefer to go WOT and it all be usable at the wheels.
The 290 hp in a 350Z and 250-290 in an early Boxster/Cayman is fully usable and not quite enough. assuming one has plenty of braking.
spec Miata fans will disagree but I don't like go-karts. jmpo. in the same vein I'm not a fan of single seaters like a rush SR. That's not a car, it's a kart.
@Escobar 's 400 whp might be totally usable with 100 TW comp tires that he runs. maybe 500?
I don't know if that's usable. and what I mean by that is where you have to be careful with the throttle coming out of turns.
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I don't agree that lighter necessarily means traction problems. There is no such thing as too light, the car just has to be set up correctly for its weight and the driver has to be skilled enough to apply the right amount of throttle. It's a skill just like optimizing momentum is in a low power car. Either can be fun in it's own way.

 

yea I agree, at 400 whp with 100 TW tires warm it grips like crazy. There are some turns where you have to be gentle on throttle but not very much, plus I have no aero at the moment. Like Hoon said, its just driver skill. I like the momentum cars philosophy, its definitely more challenging for the driver but I love power!

 

Having gone thru an aftermarket boosted engine on my previous track car, I'm very hesitant to go down this road again. While I'm glad to see your setup seems to be working on the track and I hope it does so for a long time to come, I can't help but wonder how much more wear is being put onto the whole drivetrain with the extra 100+ hp.

 

yea definitely, I agree, it is stressing things much more. So far, its held up for 5 years on track and 8 overall with no issues. We will see what breaks first. I kinda want the engine to let go so I can just build it and be done with it but I have a great tuner and didnt skimp on the supporting mods so Im hoping it hangs on for a while.

 

I know exactly what you're saying but let me clarify: I'm talking about W:P in terms of grip. too much power in a light body is a bad idea. you'd be using 1/4 throttle to keep from going sideways. Usable power is a waste of $. The Rush SR is a good example: 924 lbs / 145 bhp. It's a $40,000 go-kart imo, but still it can hang with most cars twice its weight. If it had much more power it would be undrivable. I think the main reason a lot of high-hp production cars are so heavy is to keep bad drivers from killing themselves. A 3000-lb 350Z with 500 bhp? I think it's a great idea, the upper limit on the stock engine. A heavily built 350Z? Maybe it would be nice to have that power on tap if you learn to massage the throttle.

 

Doesn't the DE have a forged crank and pistons? It's already "built" from the factory. The weak point might be rods, like many OEM engines. You're right, a quality tune is essential. I had to carefully monitor wideband in my S197 Mustang. Everyone said if you go too rich or lean, away from 11:1 AFR, you'll lose the engine quickly.

 

no … I dont know how you’d define the construction of the crank but it is beefy - I think well into the 800hp to 1k hp range?? But cast pistons and pretty standard steel rods. The material of the rods may be top notcht but when you compare them to aftermarket (eagle, BC, Carillo, Pauter) they are twigs.

 

yup its made very well but just not engineered for FI.

 

I’ll talk out of the otherside of my mouth (and respectively offer a different viewpoint) …

And excluding the internals -

There are a few signs that the VQ35DE was (or could be intended) to be turbo’d. There are pressurized oil ports on the sides and front of the block and there are coolant passages (albeit, one of them is for canadian market VQs) as well. Further - there are a few castings on the OEM upper oil pan that look like they could be tapped for a oil return.

There are some conveinient openings in the OEM radiator shroud that could serve as intercooler pipe pass-throughs.

Plenty of OEM plenums have a vacuum port on the upper plenum that is simply capped off.

There may be more that I’m not thinking of…

 

interesting observations. makes me wonder, perhaps Nissan originally intended the DE to also be used in the Infinity Q cars.

 

more likely castings reuse between the NA and turbo engines

 

Doesnt it share the block with the Vq30det and vq30dett.

The vq35de was close enough in block architecture to allow the vq30dett to be holomogated for racing purposes.

 

I think these are both correct … that the VQ does have turbo’d chassis it drops in so I suspect this was their ultimate reasoning … maybe they didnt know the direction of the VQDE with respect to the HR and VHR? Could the 350z had a longer run than 6years with a 350z single / twin turbo setup instead of what was the move to go with the 370z?

Who knows

 

Interesting stuff, theres just no room for anything in this engine bay! Every time I open my hood at track people are alaways like where are the turbos?! Im like you gotta jack the car up and remove the transmission basically haha

 

I'm sure you're used to that by now. The vortech fits snugly but is more accessible without having exhaust piping. I'm more familiar with twin screw so I liked the idea of the stillen but the VQ doesn't respond well to that design. I think the stillen m90 needed a larger intake manifold. One showed up on bat a while back and as I recall it was not competitive. it brought a good price though. rare bird today. I almost bid on it because it had the carb EO. which is super rare for that time period.

 

I had an M62 blower setup on the Audi, so I'm partial to supercharged solutions. I like the immediate linear power delivery, even if the overall power is lower. If I was to do some sort of a boosted setup on the Z I would probably go that route again. The weak link of the audi setup was the tune provided from the maker of the kit (PES), which was borderline at best and even with addition of piggyback computers to correct some of the shortcomings, it still had a bad tendency to kill engine blocks. But it was fun when it ran right.