ok so im doing a tune up and such, and i call my local tuner instead of traveling 250+ miles to a tuner in another town with another elevation. anyways, the guy admits that he HAS NEVER tune a 350z before so he recommend me to to another certified tuner. anyways, while all that he was telling me that i need a water/meth set up, and recommended "snow performance" kit.

i try telling him that im running an intercooler and that im only looking for arounf 400whp. he tells me that i NEED the kit to safely make that kind of power.

now i understand where im at it does get a little hot at time. around 110 in the summer on the hottest day. elevation is around 4,6XX (vs 1,5XX in a different town at a different tuner) my confusion is that i dont understand how at 6-8psi would i need a meth injection kit on a stock block. i can imagine i would be running THAT hot to need it.

what are your guys' opinions? should i get a kit or wait for the other tuner's input? im running the powerlab turbo kit if that matters.

 

wait for the other tuners input. should not be needed for those kind of numbers.

 

You dont 'need' it and seeing that your power goals are within the ballpark of your turbo and the engine, youre not going to be pushing the limits of the engine where detonation could be a problem.

as far as your intake temps reaching 110* it's not a huge thing - vehicles run in temperatures much hotter.

What are you tuning with? You should have a fuel compensation tables based off intake air temp where slightly more (or less) fuel is added based on intake air temps...at higher temps a good tuner will add a little fuel to facilitate additional heat transfer and (furthermore) prevent/reduce the chance of detonation.

 

Not needed but in AZ I could see it being helpful. Methanol will drop air intake temps to 10 degrees below ambient

 

I'm a newb to tuning, if I knew a little more I'd be a newb, but I thought the benefit of the methanol was to stabilize/bring down your AFR while the water aspect was to lower your temps? Would (honestly / humbly) like to know where you picked that tid-bit of info up?

 

Even in AZ you shouldn't need meth for 400 whp... what shop's doing your tuning?

 

Its a local shop to me. I live in a small town so hes the only dyno in town but we have a few tuners

 

Im right around 400hp/450tq, and my tuner actually talked me out of installing my meth kit. It doesnt get as hot where Im at, but he basically said I dont need it.

I want to install it anyway since it is just sitting in a box in the basement now, but it would need to be tuned again and that gets expensive. Especially if im not going to gain any power.

 

What octane are you going to be using? If its a low octane you may need that with the heat your car will see. If its 91 or 93 you should have no issues with detonation on low boost.

 

Im using 91 octane.

 

So i spoke with like 3 tuners after the initial guy, all 3 told me, i DONT need the meth at that power level unless i plan to add more boost, which i dont.

 

I picked up that info by trying all sorts of W/M set ups including pre-turbo and post-MAF injection and doing a lot of data logging.

I honestly never found the injection to be anything other than a great way to bring down air intake temps (water or meth). Boost juice will drop your AFRs if you spray enough. Either water or meth will reduce the chance of knocking. I never have had issues with knocking though (as any properly tuned car should not have). So I guess I realized it was a lot of complexity, one more thing to fail, for a superfluous function.

I got rid of my aquamist HFS-6 set up when I went to E85.

 

6 to 8 psi will not get you to 400whp. if you stress the motor with much timing to get there so its will blow for any fail like fuel or weather etc...
go higher boost and use lower timing in tuning.
he asked for meth kit to push more timing to get you to 400whp. what if meth fail!? its gonna be kaboom.
again, go higher boost and lower timing and switch to e85 if you can or use quality meth kit with failsafe system.

find my thread for my car and read if you wanna make big power.

 

^^^ not true. Some of that depends on the turbo kit used, but that boost on a decent kit will net ~400whp.

You mention if fuel failed youll blow the motor, but then recommend running e85 with higher boost? Please explain.

If you have looked into meth kits you would have found that most have controllers and failsafes.

 

So youre telling me that 6-8 psi wont net me 400whp even though, my car is running 6 psi and is at 397 whp? And my buddy's 370 is running 8 psi and is at 425? Please explain your logic as to how 6-8 psi wont net me 400whp when me and my buddy and tons of others are clearly doing it.

I understand you tune your own car and all, but to bluntly state 6-8 psi will not net me 400whp when you dont know my turbo size or set up at all, then proceed to say i will blow my turbo without such and such is kind of a noob thing to say.

 

6-8psi on a turbo will net 400 but on a supercharger will not net that kind of power.

 

+1 I think he is saying that in regards to superchargers only. Many people have proven you can make that kind of power on a turbo setup, me included. 420 hp @ 8psi.

 

+1 to 400whp on 8psi ... I fully believe you can make 400whp with (under 10psi) with a supercharger...when I re-geared mine, in colorado, I did 455whp on 13psi ... when the rubber meets the road it's all about air flow - how much air can you put in and how much air can you get out...

 

on turbo yes you can make 400whp and more, if it 370z its will be more easy.. its all depend on the size of turbo and CFM.
just dont go crazy with timing.