how far can you push our motor n/a and keep it a daily driver? has anyone gone this route? ive come to the conclusion this is the way i want to go.. im gonna build the block.. if anyone on here has done this.. i would love to pick your brain and get some feed back.. if i cant keep it a daily than no worries..

 

I would say 300-350rwhp. Depends on what you consider a daily driver.

No one on here has built the motor while N/A, well, the only building done has been rod bolts done by Z350Lover. But all others have not, I am 90% sure. It's unfortunate to all of the other members that no one will go this route. The reason is that there are more advantages to turbocharging this motor than going naturally aspirated, price, performance, and experience are the main ones.

I sincerely think you can't go past 280rwhp on a true daily driver, because you are going to need some radical cams and that is going to get to be annoying, and lightweight flywheel + clutch that has a pressure plate that allows the engine to stall alot would get annoying.

 

I will be going N/A. But it will be a slow process over the next couple of years. I may eventually TT her in a few years and make her a dedicated track car...

 

over 280 has been done already, and with a very streetable idle (Tomei's) - clutch wise, a stocker will easily handle it

 

Didn't say it hadn't been done, just that, IMO, a daily driver Z with 280rwhp would be a little annoying (for most people, not for me, but most people).

 

Why would it be annoying?

Aftermarket clutches can be annoying but I dont think any other NA mod is annoying. If your refering to the loss of power down low with cams then I would disagree with you. They just need to be implemented correctly with the Nismo VTC pulleys and an appropriate aftermarket ECU solution that can play with the CVTCS system. This will result in zero power lost anywhere in the rpm range and gains made from 2300rpm all the way to redline.

 

Rough idle with the cams and flywheel. Stalling the clutch. Rasp from the exhaust. Some people don't see a problem with those, some do. I've seen quite a bit of people complaining about one of those though.

No, I am not referring to the power loss down low.

 

I know of 2 people on here with built N/A engines. The only one I specifically know about (mjedens) is now in the process of rebuilding for FI.

On his N/A build he had slightly higher compression forged pistons bored over, a little head work, tomei cams, better valves, and all the bolt ons (ALL of them). At one time he was running 301 HP at the wheels.

I think 320 HP will be the max streetable N/A setup. I think you can get to 290 with bolt ons (w/ cams) and basic tuning, but the rest will come from internals and advanced tuning. Of course the price of this will probably exceed the price of a turbo kit. LOL

 

Actualy esprit has a 350ps fairlady using: esprit z33 ecu, Camshaft, esprit hi comp pistons, power intake, Titanium exhaust manifold, straight pipe and their titanium mufflers. the car was featured in the Best Motoring video: Rotary Reborn, and was wicked fast.

 

Thing is, I think there's not enough R&D going into this motor at this time. At least to eclipse the 300 to 350 rwhp mark in naturally aspirated operation... If staying NA is your goal and you want a strong, daily drivable, relatively high HP motor your best bet would be to bore/stroke it, over sized valves, raise compression and a custom ground cam to match all of this. You may even be able to get away with using a piggy back like the emanage because a lot the timing/fuel parameters will obviously need to be changed a bit. I posted an alternative to the AEBS stroker in another thread which I'll attach to this one. Just something to kick around, but definetly a cheaper route at stroking the motor. Only thing, it requires a bit R&D on your part to come up with the numbers..

Have you guys ever thought of doing the "old school muscle car way" of stroking the motor. A lot cheaper to go this route than the AEBS kit.

Here's a possible set up:
Sleeve the block using Darton MID sleeves. This will allow a bore increase of up to 100mm. This is roughly a 4.5mm increase over stock bore.

Offset grind the stock crank by 2mm which would change the crank throw from 40.625mm to 42.625. This changes the overall stroke from the stock 81.25mm to 85.25mm.

You can then have the rod journals spray welded and machined down to fit small block chevy rods. The reason for the SBC rods is availability, a saturated market of any style you can think of and PRICE.. Keep in mind the rod to stroke ratio when choosing the length. Stock R / S ratio is 1.77to1. Using a 5.7" SBC rod and your new stroke brings the R / S ratio down to 1.7to1 (nothing to worry about as u don't want to go below 1.55to1 on any motor).

Of course with the longer stroke and rod length, your compression height will change. So along with your custom made 100mm pistons you'll also have to move the pin height up and choose compression ratio 11.5 - 12 to 1.

You source everything right and you'll come out cheaper than just buying the AEBS stroker MINUS machine work.. The above set-up would bump displacement up to 4.0 litres.

 

I thought Esprit's hot car was running the high CR 3.8L stroker kit (which is a ridiculous $12k) they produce. Anyone confirm me wrong?

 

offset grind the stock crank?????first i am hearing this one!!!and what about balanced? and maybe AEBS kit needs less machine work to run

 

Its worth noting that you can have the same issues on a FI motor with the same mods.

 

Depends on the setup, with F/I you don't have to go as extreme on those. Such as the higher duration cams (JWT seems to be doing pretty well, though, personally, i'm going with Tomei 268s), pressure plate on the clutch can have stock feel (ATS 1100kg), and rasp from the exhaust is virtually eliminated with turbos (at least most of it).

Like I said, I don't feel this way, but I KNOW i've seen people complaining about these issues. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Offset grinding basically moves the centerline of the rod journal either out further (stroking) or inward (de-stroking).
AEBS kit is expensive on its own + you're looking at machine work. There is a lot of machine work involved in stroking the motor using the stock crank, but also a lot cheaper.

 

The same can be done on a NA motor, use the JWT cams or Nismo + VTC pulleys, use an ATS clutch(though they arent silent in operation), and choose an exhaust with resonators which has no rasp.

It all depends on the particular parts you chose and what steps are taken to make sure the things that annoy you dont appear. But I can see how people who dont know what to look for end up with an annoying setup.