I think Nissan put out a bunch of motors with bad rings .Alot of N/A cars are burning oil . Some have added a SC . I had about 5,000 miles with no oil usage . I broke a ringland boosting at 9.5lb's . It was of my own making , not enough timing being pulled . I would never think of adding rods with out the pistons . The cast pistons went first on mine...not the rods

 

Adam-- Thank you for your excellent posts. I'll be having a Vortech SC installed in my G35 coupe next Spring with a conservative boost and tuning. I'm more interested in overall performance than ripping hunks of pavement out with the rear wheels.
I've yet to be able to answer this question: are the stock rods/pistons forged, cast or something else?
Thanks!

 

SO...since the Pauters seem to be a bit heavier than the stock rods..how does the Corrillo compare to the stocks...arent they suppose to be lighter and more reliable?

thanks in advance.

Moose

 

Maybe it would be better to just buy 2005 300hp edition with stronger rods stock. Yes you spend more for car but it is newer and worth more later? The comparison I am makeing is doing that compared to blowing the motor and rebuilding with stronger internals as many FI guys are having to do.

 

That is something to consider of course for someone that is about to buy a Z but then, how much stronger are the rods in the 300hp edition?

Is it confirmed that the special edition will have these stronger rods? I thought it was just ecu tuning and slightly different cams.

 

I believe Nissan said they "strengthened the internals". Up to you to determine what this actually means. Or we can wait til someone who gets a 2005 decides to check out their internals. I wonder if the 05 G35c has the same internals (I would think so).

 

The only ring damage I have ever seen on an FI motor was caused by failure of the upper ring land (Rings just don't blow) and the only piston damage I have ever seen on an FI motor was caused by detonation. While after market forged pistons will not make the engine detonation proof it may buy you a nano second or two which is very worth while if you are doing a total engine teardown.

 

Very timely resurrection. You could very well stick to stock compression and 400whp or whatever. But your margin for error (detonation) increases dramatically as the CR rises.

You have a good point here. Several prominent engine builders are fond of adding F/I to higher compression built motors, but usually it is for race applications, or if higher octane fuel will be used.

Regardless of CR, you will need to machine the block for an optimum fit. Most aftermarket pistons will come in a .020 overbore size, so allow for machining the cylinders. If you have a brand new block...ie...never run...then you could use stock sized pistons.

 

The Carilllo rods are lighter than stock, and the Pauter rods are heavier than stock.

With F/I applications strength is of the uptmost importance..not lightness. Pauter rods will be stronger than Carillo A Beam rods...not sure about the H-Beam rods. Some will say that the Pauter rods are overkill...I tend to disagree with that. It is also nearly impossible to see or feel the difference in rod weight during the everyday driving of your car. You wont see anything on the dyno either. We are talking minute differences in the rotating assembly. Swapping out a pulley and throwing on a lightened flywheel will REALLy have an effect....but i doubt you will feel the lighter rods.

 

Not to be picky but the margin of error actually decreases

 

understood.. i guess i'm coming at this from a different angle than most.. instead of thinkering with a setup.. i tend to want to pick the best setup, install it, tune it and then forget about it.. hence my willines to consider this, but fully hear you on the lower margin of error.. having high octane readily available in Japan does help in considering a high CR


thinking along the lines of a brand new block, assuming that machining costs to install overbore pistons is close to the cost of the new block and with the added benefit of having a backup block if things go wrong..

any chance you know the cost of machining a used block for overbore pistons?

reading about rods and pistons taking a dive, made me wonder if just upgrading those two items to forged sets would provide a solid solution with some of the FI kits on the market. while this type of setup may still get the same HP levels as those on purely stock internals, i hoping that pistons and rods meant for FI could provide a more solid proposition..

 

LOL..yeah...what he said! I mixed up my words...

 

There is alot of mention of ringlands, rings, etc. Are there any aftermarket replacments for these, sorry for my ignorance but I cant really think of what the heck a ringland is :P Is that where the piston reaches TDC? -_-

 

The ringlands are the grooves machined into the sides of the pistons that the piston rings sit in. If you break a ring land then the piston is toast. Usually if a ringland goes there is damage to the bore and this requires machining out the block to an overbore piston size....so you have to replace em all.

 

The aftermarket replacement for a ring land is a new forged piston. The ring land is not detachable from the piston, rather, it is a part of the piston.

 

Say, how about a compromise on the compression ratio. Instead of the stock 10.3 to 1 and the mentioned 8.5 to 1, how about a nice midline 9.5 to 1 CR. Wouldn't that give you a safety margin for FI compared to the stock CR and at the same time give better off boost/throttle response than 8.5 to 1? Just a thought. Can we get 9.5 to 1 CR in the Arias pistons?

 

Good point. At lot of us went with CR's between 9.5:1 and 8.5:1. Arias can make them in any CR you design..and other other feature designs you would like. PM me if you want more details.

I went with 9.0:1, Gurgen went 9.3:1 and other were everything in between 8.5:1 to 9.5:1