I made the trip over to Forged Performance yesterday to get my 3.5 VLSD pumpkin swapped for a 3.3 VLSD and happy to report back with a vendor status review and a few pics for our growing community. While I was there, Sharif was also able to free up long enough to put my car on the heartbreaker and freshen the tune up on my APS-TT built motor with over 30K boosted miles. For the community, I am happy to report that I found no new surprises during my short visit and that Forged Performance continues to excel at customer service (at times to the extreme). All of the Forged Staff are simply the nicest most honest folks you will ever meet and that means something, actually it means a lot.

So I have been asked for a review on the 3.3's by a couple of forum members. Since I'm not a drag racer and do not track my car I will obviously come at this from a different angle. Before the swap, I read both good and bad opinions/posts on replacing the stock 3.5 VLSD with a 3.3 VLSD from an automatic 350Z. The "good" being the taller gears allow a manual shift car to stay in a particular gear much longer (i.e. less shifting) and the "bad" being the difference of around 6% in gearing causes some concern the car will "feel slower" and you will loose rwhp, etc..

Overall, the 3.3's in my case made a big improvement in the overall drivability of the car. With the original 3.5's and a 460whp tune the car seemed just a little to "high-strung" for my taste especially daily driving while in 1st and 2nd gear traffic. With the 3.3 VLSD installed, daily traffic using 1st and 2nd are simply perfect. 3rd and 4th gear are now very tractable and with a solid +500whp car you can pretty much do anything you want in 3rd/4th gear with normal or very aggressive throttle. If you are at or below 450whp, then I would definitely pass on this mod because you need the extra power to compensate for the taller gears.

I've had the 3.3 gear in the car for over a day and I have to say my car actually feels faster in 3rd and 4th gear now compared to the 3.5 gearing because I can stay in 3rd and 4th much longer before a shift is required. In traffic, 1st and 2nd are easier for me also but that maybe just me. The slightly improved power curve/tune thanks to Sharif's latest tweaking on the FCON allows the car to pull very hard all the way to redline which helps significantly with the performance of the car with a taller gear 3.3 VLSD and the overall tone of this report should take that into account to be fair. My old tune was ~460whp and Sharif's latest one just put down 504whp DD with the taller gears installed (nice job Sharif).

Overall, the gear change to a 3.3 VLSD is one of my favorite mods that I have done to my car and has me wishing I did it when Sharif installed the FCON and cams last summer. I highly recommend the gear change to other FI owners if they want to ever so slightly "tone down" the bite on the 3.5 gearing just a notch, it worked great for me Sharif and Chris both drove the car with the 3.5 vs. 3.3 and everyone is encouraged to get their feedback before making any decisions to proceed with a mod like this.

My Driving Impressions with the 3.3 VLSD installed:

1st Gear - very slight if any change,… A hard launch is no different than the 3.5 gear
2nd Gear - slight noticeable change in normal day-to-day traffic; still requires modulation of the throttle when aggressive
3rd Gear - way more third gear and you can go 2nd into 3rd as hard as you want without fear of the rear coming around ( at least I can on 504whp )
4th Gear - a really long gear now; lots of fun and it does not feel "slow" at all ; you can haul some serious a-s-s while in this gear and it seems endless
5th Gear - Comfortable highway gear; car seems to build-up boost just a tad bit slower in 5th gear with the 3.3; best to shift to 4th
6th Gear - for cruise only; 70-80mph is ~2500rpms

Pics included:
Sharif's inspection pics of a 3.3 VLSD
Sharif's inspection pics of a 3.5 VLSD
Paul's car on Dyno
Forged Dyno Plot of my car at 504whp

Note: I plan to post the RECON Intel report on XKR's +1000hp short block in my next post.

 

While Sharif, Chris and Dylan were all pre-occupied with my 3.3 VLSD swap, the dyno tuning and other assorted Forged daily activities, I had a chance to look around at the other cars on the lifts and also snoop around the staging area for built motors. I was actually trying to appear busy while secretly searching for the keys to Sharif's GTR, but I was not successful in this endeavor despite several attempts to search through various desk drawers. No worries though, I did not come away empty handed. You will see in the attached pictures where I have uncovered the latest in what appears to be a technique Forged has pioneered to help XKR meet his +1000whp buildup.

At first glance (see pic of engine block), I thought it was just a used block that had seen better days awaiting a machine shop,... BUT when I casually asked a Forged Technician I was quickly corrected and sworn to secrecy. Evidently the new coating technology (looks like rust and scale to me ) is based on a slight twist of a recently discovered competitive shops' method of building +800hp engines in wooden sheds with dirt floors and tin roofs. This shed based engine building process is evidently the first of many engineering hurdles a shop must traverse if one plans to insert a significant amount of what has been called "VooDoo whp" into a new FI build.

My new intel suggest that the new "forged" piston and cylinder wall coating will be marketed under the name "VooDoo XKR" in support of Mike's +1000hp build who will be the FIRST customer car to receive the new engine treatment. Congrats Mike! I tried to bribe Sharif and get my car treated while I was there, but Sharif said the weather wasn't cooperating (it was sunny and 70 deg) and to come back after they perfect the process on Mike's car

Mike, I am also happy to report the Forged Crew over in Atlanta is hard at work installing a new "outside" car lift right next to the top secret engine building shed (i.e. the POD) for use when your car arrives later this year. As you can see from the pic of your engine block, significant amounts of "VooDoo XKR" have already been applied to the engine block tagged special for your build so as not to mix it up with the other VooDoo XKR engine blocks now in the curing process "in the Shed". Forged evidently wants to make sure they get your build right the first time.

 

^ ^

Congrats on the upgrade and tune refresh. Car looks great and so does that power curve. Will you be out at ZdayZ with that beast of yours?

 

Nice write up, and lulz on the recon work, good job

 

lmao at the shortblock . is it rusted coated for extra heat protection ?

 

Thanks. Yep, I am trying very hard to clear my schedule and go. Sandy just reserved me a room so I now have a place to stay

 

I have to go pick my car up also, I hate making that trip from NC!

 

+1 on all of the people working at forged. Sharif has managed to surround himself with a great staff. Ryan and Sandy run a pretty tight ship up front, While the guys in the back all seem to be very meticulous on what they are doing. One thing.....all of the Evos make me nervous.

One thing I really like about Sharif and Forged is you always get a same day call back from who you wanted to talk to.

 

Yea, but calling asking for Sharif is like calling the WH asking for Pres. Obama. I forget that I call and when I do see that 770 area code, I'm like oh shiet what happened to my car.

 

LOL yeah..but he ALWAYS calls back. Can't say that for a lot of shops. I also can't tell you how much of Ryan's time i have burnt.

 

Nice write up. I thought about the 3.3 to help with my traction. My car is kind of slammed and have weird camber, which makes my traction worse. I may look into it more now after reading your writeup.

 

@ the recon post about Mike's motor. LMAO!

 

Great Write up bro, Interesting stuff you hurd about XKR and his VOODOO . Im excited to see the results. I swaped from a 3.5 Open Diff. to a 3.3 VLSD like what your running. IM putting 453 down on sharifs dyno and i got the same results. first and second are great for the road. I dont drag race much, But i hurd it was a better ratio for the 1/4 mile also. But i get much better traction in 1'st and 2nd ( the new Toyo R888's help also ). and i dont feel like i sacrificed much pull in 3rd or 4th. Im droping the car off soon at Sharifs right befor open house. Finally saved up for that BBK thats way over due for sure. Hope to see you guys at Openhouse

 

Thats funny......But remember...VooDoo is (TM) by scott...

Glad you like your new setup...

 

Nice writeup and congrats on the new power. The gearing will definately make a difference when doing roll-ons and the other car has to shift and you can just keep winding it up.

Good recon on XKR as well, I need to look into the shed build method. I'm off to scour the classifieds for a SS box and see if I can trade my FRS for some 550cc injectors as well .

 

Ive been saying it for years, glad you like it! I find second gear is MUCH more maneagle when warm out, 605whp hooks like a ****.

 

LOL at the SS box and 550's. You can probably find both of those in that shed pictured above, that thing is packed from floor to ceiling with old stuff.

Cass, You any closer to being able to make some decisions to get back on the road ? Hang in there and let us know what's going on with your car. You deserve a break more than anyone.

 

Thanks Alberto. You have said it for years. I think you and Zivman were the first to do the pumpkin swap and then provide feedback years ago. I searched for that original post of yours but could not find it.

For street cars with over 500whp or more, this mod should be mandatory IMHO. The car is just simply more enjoyable and easier to drive with the 3.3. I'm sold on it.

 

Nice write up!

 

Toast, that's a great writeup...but I am dissapointed that you revealed our secret Voodoo(TM). Now someone is going to be asking for a royalty check.

With XKR's new block, we bring new meaning to the word rust bucket.