drw

What is the best mod for torque? I have a base model, so my first
mod is going to be a Nismo LSD (no brainer) but I'd like to do another mod that will increase horsepower but not at the expense of low end torque.

No offense but it seems to me that intakes and plenums are tacky mods that make the car sound like sh*t with whooshing and whining sounds. Other mods seem to cause all kinds of problems (cats run lean, rattles etc) A quality exhaust can give the car a nice exotic sound but not much gain.

I'm leaning towards Stillen headers cause if their claims are true it is a single mod that will give a nice gain (11.5 @ 6200rpm and Torque pumps the vehicle up another 18.5lb.-ft. @ 3800rpm). I saw a post with good indepedent dyno #s for Nismo headers but it turned out they weren't SAE corrected. Maybe the equal length stillens put out more.

Anyway, I figure about $1400 for the stainless headers including installation and I will have a mod that increases power and unlike an exaust will not make it apparent (to other people) that I changed anyrthing. I know that the bottleneck would then be the cats so if I later added the stillen racepipe would it even be necessary at that point to change the exhaust?

FLY BY Z

Best single mod for torque is nitrous oxide. Cheaper than headers and about 100 more HP and ft lbs of torque.

Road Warrior

iTrader: (16)

maybe so, but at the expense of the longevity of your motor...out

drw

Good point!! Man, when you look at the money you have to spend
NA just doesn't do it for me. I'm now thinking of a supercharger or turbo with a camp system plugged into my Alpine screen to simulate the PSI gauges. That would be sweet. Do you think it could work?
(the camp system for a 350Z I mean).

http://www.scienceofspeed.com/produc...efault_sub.asp

FLY BY Z

only if you are completely retarded about how much juice you squeeze and if you are cheap on the setup.

FLY BY Z

Just read around the forums and you will learn a lot. Use the search function, it's valuable. I don't know much about the electrical side of the aftermarket, just the mechanics and race aspects. Maybe someone else will chime in about the CAMP.

zxsaint

ok so we just went from lsd, to torque, to headers, to nitrous, and now we're talking about alpine psi gauges?

You're looking for a quiet mod yet now your considering a TT/SC?

What's your question?

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

cats do not make a car run lean BTW.......

as for "best" - where in the rev range are we looking at?

Yes the CAMP works on any car....we sell em all the time

drw

Sorry, your right I've been rambling. My original question is whether or not headers are a good mod for low end (lower rpm) torque and do you agree with my reasoning that with Stillen headers and racepipes that aftermarket exhaust may not be even necessary. Would this allow somebody who wants a totally stealth look to get maximum gains from exhaust modification? In other words, wouldn't headers and racepipes develop as much gain as any other exhaust type mod?

I am just thinking that its probably overkill to replace everything
since 20hp is probably about the max gain from ehaust type mods. And I'm not interested in mods that increase high end horsepower at the expense of low end torque so are headers a good solution?

FLY BY Z

No.

zimbo

iTrader: (4)

FlyByZ is right. Cheapest is NOS. Next best bang for buck is forced induction, IMO. There are folks on this board spending upwards of $10K just to get to 275 HP at the wheels.

Put that $10000 in the bank as an insurance policy on your NOS!!

--Steve

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

agreed..headers will give you the power up top...not really much you can do down low on the cheap

D'oh

I forget what the Stillen torque curve looks like specifically, but I do feel that if you go with headers then Stillen is probably the best value.

If you look at the stock Z torque curve, you will see that it is very flat up to 4800, at which point it drops fairly rapidly. I therefore believe that the engine was optimized from the start to have a good low end punch, and sacrificed some high end power to reach that goal. Because of this, I think you will have a hard time significantly increasing low end torque (say, anything below 3500) and if that is truly your intent then you would be better off saving up for a S/C or Nitrous install.

Headers, plenum, exhaust, and HF Cats seem to help the high end the most.

If I were building up a N/A motor, those would be the four areas I'd change first. After that, I'd probably just change the cams.

I'd leave the stock intake alone.

-D'oh!

o snap its eric

iTrader: (5)

If my target to get the most amount of TQ between the range or 4-5RPM Which will be the best?

R/T Cats are only good for High end speed? Does it do anything for the low end?

PoWeRtRiP

I was under the impression that a good cai will give you good torque down low, the injen dynos show about a 5-8 torque down low.

PhoenixINX

I have driven countless 350s equipped with a barage of mods.

The single mod that stood out the most that made BIG low and mid-range torque was the headers.

Strictly personal opinion, after driven mjedens car with the NISMO headers... the car felt no different than it did with the stock exhaust manis.

After driving both Dougs and Adams cars... with the Crawford headers - the change in power was huge.

Example being, while it won't be AS HUGE on a stock car... mjedeng's Tomei 268 equipped car made 40 ft-lbs down low when he dropped the NISMO headers for the Crawford.

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

I don;t think the Z has very good power down low at all....its my biggest complaint considering engine size and compression, and was also the biggest complain of most of the Japanese press.

As for gaining power in that rpm range, it really all depends on the rest of your mods...everything has to work as a unit

PhoenixINX

Adam... you REALLY have to drive a Crawford equipped car.

phile

What mods did mjedeng's 350 have?

Here's another question....I know very little about engines. My father has a 69 chevy truck. It came stock with a 350. Obviously a bigger engine, and cheaper to mod, but a guy told me boring it out, blah blah, etc (insert technical sstuff I dont' understand), and I can make the things do a 10-11 sec quarter mile...This is NA...So my second question is WHY is it so ****ing hard to make these fast? What would "boring" it out do?

I'm guessing it's a combo of emissions standards/small market segment/obviously smaller engine?

350zdanny

I'm still trying to figure out why a plenum is a tacky mod?

In my opinion, I don't agree with Paul Walke... uh I mean Fly By Z :P. NOS ain't the answer for me because it's not an on all the time mod. Plus, there is always that impulse to turn it up a bit, or hit it way too often.

I think someone already said it, but I'm convinced there is no cheap, one shot remedy to add low end torque in abundance. Sure, quality headers like Crawford will add some good torque down low (maybe not 40 ft-lbs if it's your only mod), but that is hardly cheap. Once you look into headers, cats, and the install, you probably already spent $2k. And headers can make a bigger audible change than switching out the exhaust for a Borla system.

Do some research. Figure out what direction you want to go in, whether it's N/A or FI, since you'll be scrapping headers if you go with a twin turbo down the road anyway, and then set some goals.