I decided this needed a thread of its own....

You know, it seems to me (being a 350Z owner and casual observer) one good way to determine how tweaked out a motor is from the factory is to look at other vehicles in the manufacturers line up that use the same engine and see what kind of HP/TQ is being generated. Nissan puts what I think is the same engine into the Pathfinder, Murano and Maxima. These vehicles generate from 240-245HP.

The 350Z generated 287HP. This is a 17% increase from intake/exhaust/fuel mapping tweaks that Nissan engineered into the 350Z. I don't know how much power %-wise you guys have been able to tune out of previous naturally aspirated vehicles that you have owned, but 17% seems like a lot to me. I just don't think a lot of performance is left on the 350Z without negatively affecting driveability (lightening the flywheel, etc)

Also, if these bolt on mods each created 10HP (or whatever they claim), then when you bolt all 5 of them, that should equal 50HP right? I haven't seen anyone do an ECU+Exhaust+Intake+Plenum+Flywheel+underdrive pulleys and then post before and after dynos that showed the 50HP (or whatever it adds up to) that should be there.

I'm new at modding but it seems to me from reading quite a few posts over the last few months that there might not be 20-30% n/a gains possible with the 350Z.

Maybe it will just take a few years for the after market to catch up?

What do you guys think?

 

I believe running 92 ocate, you can probably get as high as around 320-330 rwhp. Now at the crank that would be like 380 horsepower. There is already a thread concerning this issue that has received quite a few responses which you may wanna look through to give you ideas on how to get to figures that high.

--Justin

 

The easiest way to gain N/A power is to increase the torque at the top end of the RPM scale (unless the torque curve is already flat). Since the Z's torque curve drops significantly after the peak at 4800 RPM, anything that can be done to reduce that should help the power quite a bit. So far, it looks like Dougs Plenum is an excellent way to improve performance, with a 9HP or so gain at peak power and a 20HP gain at redline, and their headers seem to do well also. If you are adventurous, new cams would make a big difference as well.

Finally, if you can maintain the torque at high RPM's, another great way to make more power is to increase the max RPM's. It sounds like some ECU's are changing the fuel cutoff to 7100 RPM, which won't do too much on the stock engine since the torque is dropping so fast, but with the improved headers and some CAMs those extra RPM's could make a significant difference.

I definitely agree that the Z seems to be tuned very well from the factory. The intake, exhaust, and ECU seem to have left only slight room for improvement. Other than the intake manifold, most mods seem to be fighting for added HP.

Right now I would consider the Borla Exhaust (or Injen if you like the style), and possibly the Plenum, but I don't want to loose the stock strut brace. The headers are a bit too pricey for me.

-D'oh!

 

The potential for this enine is pretty big. The VQ30 we ran in the Sr2 car unrestricted could pushclose to 500. Now that was with individual t bodies but...it was only a 3.2 ltr if i remember correctly.
This motor can be made into a monster in a NA setup....the key word is "money"

 

I'm still trying to find out if individual throttle bodies are actually street legal. Does anyone know? Toda used to market them as Race only parts.

And that wasn't the same as "cat pipes are only for off road use". I think that meant they were strictly race pieces. Can anyone clarify?

Dan

 

yes they are legal, BMW m3 has em.

 

Why does the lightened flywheel negatively affect driveability?

 

A lightened flywheel revs down just as quickly as it revs up, so it is easier to stall as well as you have to shift very quickly before the RPMs drop.minor annoyances but a bit of a pain in stop and go traffic.

 

ya thats what i figured, but im sure you would asjust quickly and it would be worth it.

 

Actually, if you had 5 mods that individually would increase the engine by 10Hp, if you did all 5 you should expect more like 55Hp+.

Squeezing 50Hp out of a N/A engine is expensive and very difficult. Bang for the buck, you can't beat FI !

 

In car modifications 5 (mods) X 10 HP rarely = 50 HP. It is most likely much less. I also seriously doubt that the stock ECU/fuel system could add enough fuel, etc. to add 50 HP if what you suggest actually would be true.

 

I totally agree with you that adding 50Hp is doubtfull (almost inpossible with bolt on's alone).

If you installed a cat-back and nothing else lets say you got 5hp.
If you installed an intake and got 3hp.... or
If you installed headers and got 8hp....


If you installed all three you should get much more than 16hp... possibly as much as 20.... Not quite 1/2 way to the 50 you're looking for but most things you do after the above are not bolt-on's...

 

Thanks for all the replies..

this is pretty much what I expected... nothing out there is giving too much of a bang for the buck other than the plenum.

I think plenum and FI are the way to go. Hmm, just gotta save up some cash for the ProCharger

 

The price of NA upgrades to a car really do add up after the first few... lets say dozen ponies.

Besides increasing air/fuel, easier breathing, and good tuning, NA cars have to increase their compression ratio and redline to get serious gains. This is where the $ part comes in. The serious NA tuner will require rebuilding the engine with lighter, stronger, and balanced parts. Then add in ALOT of fine tuning.

This is ball park guess but im thinking for around $20k, you could turn your 350Z to an ~320 rwhp car with engine characteristics simular to the S2000.

 

If you started with I/H/E, then a set of aggressive cams and valve train upgrade and an ECU to take the RPMs' higher you could get very impressive numbers without changing anything in the block. You could get to 300 easier than you think and nowhere near $20K. Just allow some time for the aftermarket to catch up.

 

with cams/intake/exhaust/headers/grounding kit/pulley you should gain 50ish the exhaust and intake alone is 23rwhp if you get injens kit and then the not aggresive nismo cams are 15rwhp then around 3-5 for the grounding kit and 5-10 for the pulleys

 

We have been pushing the VQ35 for sometime. a 1/4 mile at a time...

Bolt on's equaling about 320 HP and we have about fourty Runs with bewteen 225 hp and 300hp of NOS...

soo she can handel 600 + HP, again 1/4 mile at a time.

This engine is strong...

as for the potential, LOTS...

not sure about the effects of a turbo or SC yet.. But she responds well to the NOS

 

Most of the power of the 350z comes from minor tweaks that you mentioned and also increased compression ratio.

Bolt on mods aren't going to add a world of difference, but you can't use the 10hp x 5 mods = 50 hp. Basically it is all an equation of air flow and fuel/timing. If an intake adds 5 hp by itself and and exhaust add 10hp, together they might add 20hp just becuase of the increased air flow through the engine. The 350z is very new on the market, you need to give the aftermarket time to catch up.

Once it does, 280whp should be within reach for mild mods and who knows what FI will reach.

 

I accidentally miss shifted from 6th to 2nd gear yesterday going about 75mph. The tach rocketed to about 7500 rpms, or maybe higher. I didnt get to see, it all happened pretty fast. The needle bounced up and down into and out of redline like 3 or 4 tim3es before i could get my foot back on the clutch. I drove home a lil pissed at myself, but the car is running like nothing ever happened.

One tuff azz engine. *<8-D

 

Well... I use the "street method" to see the gains of my mods... My brother have a Z also so when I put a Mod I race with him to see the difference... all mod that I have at least gave one car lead over him(equal a 10 whp) the best mod so far are the Cats Pipes (3 cars +- 30 whp) but yes this is street method... maybe in the Dyno the #'s are different... I care more for the streets that some Dyno #'s... but thats me, in my opinion the Z can see 50HP with Bolt-ons easily, is just a matter of how you combine your Mods.