It has a little umph, but no where near the 400hp/370tq my M5 had. I like the appearance of the 350z better, but my question is...

How do I get more HP out of this thing at a reasonable price? Before I was left with only a few options: Dinan (overpriced S2 never really produced the 470hp), the Nowack (another ripoff that only produced about 430-440hp), and the RMS Supercharger which was only ever installed on 1 vehicle.

So guys, help me please. I've been reading around all weekend and come to several conclusions. There's posts around with claimed 280 rwhp but the guy who I PM'd said it was confidential and he promised not to tell. What fun is that?

Starting with 235hp base, 6 for exhaust, 6 for the groundwire kit, 6 for the CAI still leaves about 27 hp missing. What other mods are there and what gains can be expected?

 

troll

 

GradZ:

Welcome to buying a car before the mods catch up to it! I am frustrated too in that no turbos are out yet to buy and even the ones they are working on, no one will can really say what they will be putting out. Stillen has a SC out but i believe in is about 60-70 hp and you need to change the hood which adds cost. Greddy is the most talked about turbo kit out but who knows if it will be the best one out later? Another drawback right now is the ECU needs to be modified to get more HP. Seems the current ECU set up tends to change back settings thus reducing even moderate changes made thus far in a negative way from optimal.

My plan is to wait until summer or maybe even fall to see what turbo's and SC are out and compare them. I keep praying for Nissan/Nismo to come out with one but there is no word that they will for sure. My personal goal to get the hp somewhere between 375-400hp without changing internals in the engine and keep it dependable but i am not sure (or is anyone else at this point I believe) if it is possible for sure.

My suggestion is to upgrade other things first while waiting for best mods for hp come later. Tires, wheels, suspension have good things availible right now. You might want to consider some coil-over set ups or even the NISMO S tune suspension to really optimize your cars handling. Really good brake kits are availible from at least 3 maunufactures as well.

I hope this helps, jeff

 

didn't seem like a troll post to me...

 

are these "SECRET" mods that increase HP so much ever going to come out?? hopefully they are in development, and we can someday enjoy the increase to.

 

Troll eh? Call Regal Nissan at 770-998-8686 and ask them if a 2000 M5 was traded in for a 350z. Here was my VIN: WBSDE9343YBZ97011. 2000 BMW M5, Carbon Black, Sport Nappa Interior, Full Options except the Phone, 41k miles.

I was also a very well known poster over at bmwm5.com under the name GradX.

I didn't expect the car to have the performance of the M5. My first mod is definitely exhaust cause the B&B TriFlo exhaust on the M5 sounded very mean and aggressive whereas this one isn't.


All I want is to increase the damn HP cause I'm in a performance type looking car without the performance of a 5 liter V8. The handling seems a lot smoother with a lot less weight to throw around.

You are right though, I should start looking at the suspension and wheels. I was thinking about the Veilside Ver 1 or Nismo kit with the Veilside Ver 2 wing (Porsche looking), some Volk SF Winning or LE37T. For suspension, I was wanting something similiar to the AC Schnitzer DFC (3 way electronically adjustable) suspension with 3 settings, normal, sport, and track.

Brakes, I'm not sure about yet. StopTech had a good deal on brakes for the M5 and talked about how theirs was superior to the Porsche Mov'Its. I'd like the Porsche Ceramics (Yellow Calipers) if they are reliable and don't create a lot of brake dust (which was a big problem with the M5 stock brakes), otherwise I'd probably go with StopTech or Brembo.

Thanks zland for taking my post seriously. I hated having a car that was difficult to mod and got rid of it to get rid of the hefty payment (1830, 25k down 55k over 36 months). There wasn't any real performance gains on the car except maybe 65hp from the Dinan S2. Only problem with that one was you were paying 25k or so for the complete S2 which meant suspension, wheels, exhaust, etc. A few bmwm5.com members with the complete Dinan setup (although varying aftermarket exhausts) had problems verifying the 470 claimed hp. Most got around 450ish. It also sacrificed torque for hp, after the S2 kit their torque dropped to UNDER the stock torque curve! The RMS Kit was suppose to put 500 hp at the wheels but that Stage 3 is around 25k and the only known RMS SC M5 is in Bahrain. Is it reliable? he's only had it for about 3 months.

 

Right now the only two options for real HP gains are the Stillen supercharger (personally I wouldn't buy a key chain from them because they are so FOS) and nitrous. Nitrous is a good way to hold you over until the turbo kits come out. Just make sure you have it done by someone who will tune it safely, and you shouldn't have any reliability problems. It will also compliment a turbo kit in the future, you can just run smaller jets, and it will actually raise the amount of boost you can run when in use. Beyond that, be patient, the aftermarket is hard at work on this car, but it is still early, and we aint seen nothin' yet.

 

Yah... suspension, wheels, and brakes are a good investment and they are available now. Tein suspension with the EDFC ( 3-way electronic adjustment) is probably what you're looking for. Besides you'll have to eventually upgrade them when you start adding more HP to the Z so might as well start now.

I think the Nismo kit is the most conservative kit ( which I like ) but it's a pricey set.