after doing a little bit of research from 90% posts on this site and promotional advertisements of aftermarket parts with dynos, i've come to a conclusion...there are hardly any gains to be gotten from aftermarket parts for this car while keeping the reliability of the engine...

there is however the piggybacks etc...that may help with the ecu management of these aftermarket parts (a/f mainly to help assist these parts b/c it seems our nissan ecus don't appriciate them). so that being said...for someone who hasn't done anything performance wise to their car yet...would the best first mod be an emanage, technosq, or something similar rather than ie. an exhaust system that will eventually just lean out the a/f...

any advice guys? or am i completely wrong...?

 

You're completely wrong.

 

Well stated...helpful, informative...I'm glad we have people like you to put the curious in there place.

 

but being curious, why have people not seen significant gains from spending 2,000 dollars...

to me it seems a waste, i just want to find out the best way to do it for the best money and also the smartest way to gain power from the engine...to me it seems to be through the ecu.

do maximas really have the same ecu as our cars SETE?

 

sorry i just want to learn the efficient and reliable way to figure out power gain from the motor

 

After going thru the entire bolt on route. For the best bang for the buck, I'd do:

*Plenum (either 1/4" spacer or Crawford/Kinetix/APS)
*No Cats
*Flywheel (aggressive as in UR/Tilton)

These will not affect the reliability of it, but may decrease your gas milage. The only thing to be weary of is the type of Tilton flywheel you'd potentially go with as they are a radical departure in the weight department, much less engagement type which will immediately effect your daily driveability.

 

I answered the exact question he asked honestly. Where is all the info you provided?

 

No need to apologize.

There are alot of very knowledgeable people on this forum. I come over here from the Maxima boards to learn from them. You should go back and re-read the posts. Many guys are making safe reliable NA power. When you get into FI things get much trickier.

Usually piggyback or ECU flashes are the last thing people do.

Good luck.

 

There are people making gains. What I truly believe is that since hardly anyone can provide base and modded dyno's on the same day, that there are too many skeptics. I truly believe that true dual exhausts gain more than y-pipe exhausts on the 350Z. I recently made a list of what I think would be a very powerful n/a VQ35DE. I can post the list if you would like, although this would be very expensive, I believe something along these mods would be needed to make, say 400rwhp or more n/a. I do believe there is a hold-up in the VQ35DE that is limiting n/a power, but, I also believe that in a few years or more or less someone will eventually figure out what it is. It's taken 300ZX and Supra guys plenty of time to figure out what works and what doesn't, it's the same with us, it's just going to need trial and error until someone finds out what the main error is.

Anyway, hope this helps.

 

i think that is exactly what i've been seeing...i think the best route for me is to start in the air category. i will probably leave the stock air intake but may begin with headers. i just want to go the best route and not buy parts and be disappointed

thanks for the replies guys

 

it's going to be expensive

The car has a lot of potential with FI, but you'll need to redo almost the entire engine to really make it worthwhile. There's a lot of guys here blowing up engines - not even driving hard too. The VQ isn't meant for real boost unless you start upgrading internals. That's a big pill to swallow.

I have most of all the NA parts you can get. The car is faster for sure, but not holy **** faster. Was the NA performance worth all the money I spent? Well probably not, but I wanted mods now while I wait for everyone else to figure out the issues with this engine to make it more reliable. I really haven't been all that impressed with any of the FI numbers with the stock engine. You spend all that money and all that hassel just so you can be doing low to mid 12's

For comparison, there's a turbo kit coming out for the lotus elise that'll take that car into high 11's with stock engine parts and it's probalby more reliable than the VQ. And that's a single turbo, not a twin.

 

I have to disagree with you with a few points. The people that blew their motors, a few of them were just not being smart (and they admitted that), I believe a couple went out without tuning it... Plus, we aren't sure if the crank angle sensor wire contributed to these blown motors or not yet. I believe once people with APS TT kits start posting in the near future, we'll realize that they are capable of 400rwhp or more on stock internals with proper tuning. And about the Elise, it's got a very good power:weight ratio. To each his own though.

 

Thought you were flaming an honest question...Anyone relying on just the forums for information might come to the same conclusion.

My advice would be to:
1. Put what you read into perspective. Realize mod. failures generate many more posts than successes because these people are looking for help. The successes are out having fun driving their cars. =)

2. Find a local Z club with knowledgeable members that can point you in the best direction for results and service in your area.

3. Read this if you haven't already: https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=50429

 

this one, too:
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....&threadid=8638

 

the Z, and many current "performance" cars are being tuned to the ragged edge of reliability these days to provide the high horsepower numbers desired by the current public.

and they're doing so with a lot less displacement than in years past.

back then, hp numbers were fudged to present bigger numbers to the public (non-SAE numbers, flywheel numbers instead of wheel numbers, "ideal" numbers based on "ideal" situations...etc.)

nowadays, as we are running the ragged edge of reliable tuning with "small" motors, there are no "secret keys" like in years past to uncork a motor and provide insane amounts of power. a 350ci V8 used to be capable of only 200hp back in the day, even less during the 70's. through design changes and increases in efficiency that are already in use on the VQ motor, the GM350 has increased it's power by leaps and bounds, but of course not close in the hp/litre arena where Honda seems to rule the roost by using square motors, sacrificing torque for hp numbers.

but the VQ is making hp/litre near the peak of current GM350's.

it used to be said a pair of headers, intake, and flowmasters would net you over 15% increase in power on a poorly tuned V8... but now even they arent able to make those dramatic gains anymore as those gains have been made already by GM, or in our case, Nissan. but if this was still 1989, our "170hp 350Z" would be easy to bump up to 287hp with cams, headers, exhaust, intake, and ignition... even dumping the cats. even cat tech has improved so much as to where only minimal gains (less than 3%) are seen when running a testpipe. cats arent nearly as restrictive as they once were.

now if you're looking for 100 hp/litre or more like the S2000's motor is able to do, you'll need to square up the rod/stroke ratio by destroking, toss some high rpm cams in there, beef up the valvetrain, and let her rip to 9000rpm at the sacrifice of 80+ ft/lbs of torque... but at least you'll get the hp numbers you're looking for.

as for computer programming, sure you can retune the eeprom and try to milk more power, but you'll be doing so at the risk of the treehuggers chasing you down in a Geo Metro and opening up a can of organic whoopass on you (i live in a CARB wannabe state), but even then you're not going to find any genies in a bottle as they are tuned to the ragged edge of reliability.


and then there's the old twister vs. torquer debate...

 

drift350, I agree with ur points. Car manufacturers nowadays know all about the aftermarket, and why not use it to their advantage and make the money themselves.

I'm sure NIssan could of easily guessed there would be a huge aftermarket support for the Z. And with that knowledge in mind, they tune the Z to the point where reliability, efficiency, performance, emissions, and cost all come to an equilibrium.

I really think nowadays that car manufacturers have caught on w/ aftermarket car tuning and using it for themselves.

Another thing is car tuning methologies. Till this day, most if not all ways to raise hp/tq is nothing new, no breakthroughs in recent history ( not cost effective atleast ie FI ). ECU tuning has been a breakthrough for the public thanks to computers. That has given companies a very powerful tool to re-tune their engines to the max w/o diverging from "the equilibirum" I described above.

I honestly think cars in the future will be less and less tune-able. Maybe when hybrids have become commonplace in the world, then those engines might re-live the glory days of ultimate car tuning.

Plus, I think the 350z already came a pretty tuned car already anyways :P The engine is a gem, 287 hp from a NA v6, not many cars, if any can match those numbers stock.

 

Nicely said and I agree. If you look back we have already passed the "muscle car era" of the whole jdm experience. I think cars built between the years 1986-1998 will gain you the most horsepower per dollar spent. Want big and I mean big gains buy a older jdm.