I'm not exactly sure what NA means but I know NA engines don't have forced induction. Should I stay NA or put a supcharger, twin turbo, or turbo on it???

 

NA = Naturally Aspirated

 

k thanks

 

thats up to you, turbos have lag, but offer HUGE potential. SC offer great gains, no lag, but the potential isnt quite the same.

NA is no forced induction, and since your stuck with 1atm of pressure, you must gain power by moving air through faster rather than in more quantity. this happens by raising redline, boring out cylinders and basicly making it run extremely efficient.

the NA route is the most expensive. and will not go very far before you hit into the big dollar mods.

 

But by putting turbo's or superchargers on your engine does it lower the resale??

 

Also, is the supercharger more reliable???

 

there was a bit of discussion on it here. Be aware of what your getting into

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=20327

 

Thanks for the link.

 

anything can be reliable when done properly and tuned correctly, if you over boost an engine your looking at a blown engine, if you prep the engine, you can run it forever.

as for resale, all mods decrease resale, they signal that the car has been raced, people dont add hp for the hell of it, they add it to use it. and you dont know how the work was done, or how hard it was used.

Superchargers are typicly less work. there isnt alot of tuning involved, you ussually buy a kit, install it and go, all settings are included in the kit, no further adjustments are made, you might get a smaller pulley, but youll get new adjustments.

with a turbo, you could start with a kit, but often you do some custom work from there, and are left to tune it. if you do tune it, and tune it well, and properly setupt the engine, youll be just as reliable, just have to keep up with it and do maintnence.

 

Well now i'm leaning twoards an SC, but how can I "properly tune" the car so it will run longer with an SC?? If you can tell me that would help a lot. Thanks.

 

A supercharger is no more reliable than a turbo. What I mean is, the supercharger itself is no more reliable than the turbo itself. If you are asking how reliable your engine will be, S/C vs turbo, well either can damage your engine if you don't know what you're doing.

I don't know for sure, but I guess it all depends on who's buying it. If you were selling it to me, I wouldn't pay anymore or any less for it. But I would definitely look for things like; turbo timer, EGT gauge, check spark plugs for signs of improper fuel burning, ask how much boost he/she was running for the duration of FI use, ask certain questions to make sure he/she has an understanding of fuel management, boost gauge (if they didn't have one of these I would not buy). All of these things would signal to me that the owner knows what he is doing and likely properly maintains the car and keeps it tuned correctly. If I asked the owner, "So how much boost have you been running?" And he/she didn't know, that would raise the red flag for me.

To answer your first question...NA or FI (SC or Turbo), and which way to go...I guess it depends on your goals and your budget. If you want to have 600 hp, or 400 hp, or maybe 300hp at the wheels will be enough for you. The best advice I can give you is to educate yourself. Know what you are doing before you bolt on FI or have your internals swapped out. I had a friend that blew his motor because he didn't know what he was doing and it cost him a pretty penny to get it fixed. If he knew then what he knows now about FI it would not have happened.

 

Please educate me...What do I need to know...I'm very curious of what I should know about SC's if I buy one. Tell me what other things I should put on it, etc. etc. please...thanks...

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state my relatively conservative opinions. (I guess I should put on my flame suit.)

I feel that it's unlikely most engines designed to be naturally aspirated are going to last just as long with aftermarket forced induction added in. (Assuming you do not also modify the engine's internals appropriately.)

Factory NA (natuarlly aspirated) engines are typically just not built to withstand the pressure that factory FI (forced induction) engines are. So when you start putting boost pressure into that NA engine, you're adding inforces that the factory engineers never intended to be there. If Nissan was to come out with a factory FI 350Z, for example, the engine would be built up differently. It'd have stronger internals, lower compression, etc.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against modifying engines. (I've modified my Audi like crazy, *including* a bigger turbo and more boost than stock.) FI is a lot of fun, can definitely get you some serious power gains, and can be *somewhat* reliable in the long term if designed well and conservative. But in my mind, if I intended to keep a factory naturally aspirated car for 100,000 miles, I'd avoid the forced induction modifications. It'll just wear out the engine faster.

On the other hand, if you plan to get rid of the car in 50,000 miles, slap on that big turbo (or SC) and have fun! (But beware of reduced resale value...)

 

If you get Stillen's kit, I believe you'll need the hood and I wouldn't put the SC on without freeing up the exhaust by replacing the stock one with something less restrictive. Stillen's kit should come with everything you need, but if it doesn't come with fuel injectors, I would consider slightly bigger ones. If you want total assurance of reliability, I would use lower compression pistons, forged steel crankshaft and rods.

 

Take everything in phases...

1. Handle your driving skills
2. Intake
3. Exhaust
4. Headers
5. ECU
5. Tires (rims if wanted)
6. Swaybars - Suspension (TEIN/S-Tune)
7. Supercharger

 

please forgive me for asking this question since i already have the 'newbie' label

all my turbo knowledge are from this site and i don't have any real turbo-ing experience. now i've seen some of you use the term 'blow up' or 'blown' engine.. what does it mean? does it mean that the engine is unusable or literally 'blown up' (that's not good!!) ?

 

When an engine is "blown" it has an SC on it (SC=supercharger). I don't think if it's blown it's turbocharged, not sure tho.

 

Well, my Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS had 38,000 miles and it never broke anything. It never failed on me once. I ran 28psi at the track and between 12-22 on the street. It was a stage 4 turbokit. The was NA and then i turbocharged it. It is all about how the car is tuned. If you tune it properly then it will run forever. Please spend the money and have a proffessional tune your car for you. Try to gethem to tune it on a dyno also. Also on a side not the compresion of the subaru was 10.1.1. Not much lower than the factory z. I also had stock internals.

thanks,
Greg

 

blown can mean FI, but in this case I believe he was asking about the past tense of blowing your engine. this is basicly when you break stuff.... rods, pistons, sleeves, heads, even the block, can break/bend. this can also happen simply by over revving the engine.

also, you can get detonation, which means the fuel and air is igniting before its sposed to. this is often reffered to as "engine knock" to counter this you can either raise the octane(octane is added to prevent burning, thus preventing premature detonation). or reduce the compression, as I understand this, you get pistons that are basicly hollowed out at the bottom, effectivly increasing your displacment, and it reduces the compression. maybe someone can ammend that if Im incorrect.

superchargers are very "bolt-on" there is little tuning to be done, typicly the system is pretuned for the application, you install it like an intake almost, and go. you dont get a boost controller, there is no waste gate, no blow off valve, none of that. it is totally self enclosed. if it needs something, it will come with it, where a turbo can be run bare bones, but for reliable function you better add some more stuff and tune it on a dyno.

 

I like 3rdpower's idea...and that's what i'm going to do, then go the SC route.