I like my cars the same way like I like my guns
Illegal in California.
Been looking into engine, exhaust and intake modifications to the Tactical Car because, well, I like to tinker, go fast, and offset two Priuses (Priusi?). I’d like to drop a Stillen Supercharger in it but those are 1) expensive and 2) void your warranty. But 515hp would be fun.
So far, I’m leaning toward either a popcharger or some other cold air intake. And a catback exhaust. These offer pretty small gains but don’t hose the warranty. Not sure if the MREV and plenum spacer would affect the warranty, so probably not gonna go that route.
Anyone have any experience with this stuff? Or should I go with a z tube?
November 19th, 2010 at 10:45 am
At my previous job (Cobb Tuning), I designed parts for the G37, 350Z, and a several other cars. Stay away from all intakes on these cars. When I first pulled apart the stock intake, I told my boss, “We are not going to improve on this design, the factory did it right for a change”. Well, customers demanded an intake. So I made one. It made about a 1 HP gain is all. So we decided to buy a few of the intakes companies were claiming up to 10 HP gains with. We picked up 4 or 5 of the most popular ones. On the dyno, every single one of them lost power over stock. One even lost more power than it claimed to gain. Not only that, every single one of them altered the signal from the MAF sensor because the housing was a different diameter than stock. My design did not gain much power, but it was the only one to keep MAF sensor signal the same which was out main goal as I knew before I started that we would make no real gains.
Later, we made some silicon hoses to replace the stock accordion tube. Those actually did more for power than the intake. Not much though, still no real gains. But they looked really nice. The intakes sound a bit louder than stock so a lot of people assume their power increased. But the dyno showed they are all a waste of money. BTW, testing was done on a 2008 (IIRC) G37s, a 2006 350Z (single sided intake manifold), and a 2007 350Z (the dual intake manifold like the G37s). All had the applicable air boxes installed, and all had the same results.
November 19th, 2010 at 10:47 am
A cold air intake and catback will give you probably 20-40HP together.
Maybe add in a new throttle body and headers and you’ll be about as far along as you can go without strapping on a blower or something.
November 19th, 2010 at 10:47 am
BTW, if it were me, I would go for an exhaust. Those engines are one of the nicest sounding engines ever made and with the right exhaust are downright orgasmic. However the exhaust will likely not gain you more than 5 HP either, but almost none of them lose power and most sound great.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Thanks, Dave. I guess I’ll just bypass the intake though I did change to K&N filters. I think I will go with the Z-Tube though, if I can find a couple.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Listen to the guy that used to work at Cobb. He knows what he is talking about. Most of the aftermarket intakes on modern cars don’t make any more power. They usually make more noise is all. Also, many of them will, sooner or later, cause check engine lights because of the alterations around the MAF sensor.
Go for the blower! Forced induction is the best thing I ever did for my Mazda. 1:7 horsepower to weight ratios are nice.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Back in the day, when stamped steel headers, awkwardly designed intakes, and cramped exhausts were the rule, yeah, you could get 20-40hp by slapping a cat back, headers, x-pipe, and cold air intake on the old Fox-bodied Mustang.
Those days are gone. If you want more power from that car, forced induction is indeed probably the only way to travel. Dave is right on the money. There’s a lot more engineering that’s gone into making that car more efficient and more powerful. The designers spent a LOT of time figuring out how to make more power with less fuel over the last decade, and if you think something designed by a goon in some wannabe import tuning shop who wears a backwards upside down sideways visor is going to trump the multi million dollar engineering efforts at Nissan…I have a bridge for you too.
November 19th, 2010 at 11:56 am
You might could dig up a few more ponies with just a computer tune but yet again, kiss your warranty goodbye…
November 19th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
“Illegal in California? -? I think that’s a sales gimmick. Saleen is still active and popular here, but they just supercharge Fords. My buddy put a cat-back on his Nissan Titan truck – sounds good.
November 19th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I think that’s a sales gimmick
Not really. They just add a note at the bottom saying not for sale there.
November 19th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
If you go forced induction, make sure your setup has some sort of intercooler. You’d be surprised at how much heat a compressor adds. High intake temps with forced induction will lead to detonation and all kinds of nice pretty broken/melted aluminum parts.
November 19th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Drive train, too. Those horses are no good if they cannot be delivered to the wheels. You need to match your engine to your gear and differential ratios.
Why don’t you trade the thing in for a ’69 Barracuda? 😉
November 19th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
My car will smoke a 69 barracuda.
November 19th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
How does a supercharger void your warranty?
Is there something in your warranty that says “if you add a supercharger, warranty is void”?
The Magnuson-Moss act of 1975 is pretty powerful in that regard.
I had a supercharger on my Tacoma and the dealer tried to tell me that I “voided the warranty” and the bad evap canister sand a faulty knock sensor weren’t covered under my “100,000 mile bumper to bumper” warranty. I mentioned the Magnuson-Moss act and it was repaired under warranty.
Unless the modification causes the failure, they are obligated under the terms of the warranty they sold you.
I’ve just ordered a Vortec for my 2011 Sierra Earthfucker (tm – SayUncle).
Supercharger – awesome, but still expen$ive
November 19th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a kit from WOTM. Ryan Woon (The guy who owns the 1K+ horsepower Supra on the main page is a stand up guy)
November 19th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Magnuson-Moss is great, but all the relief in it is civil in nature, ie if you say fix it and they say no the mod caused it, you’ve got to lawyer up and take them to court. Its kind of a catch 22 because if you have the time and $$ to lawyer up and take them to court, you’ve probably got the $$ to just fix whatever is wrong with the car yourself with a lot less hassle.
If you slap a supercharger on an engine and have a powertrain/drivetrain failure of any sort (ie broken crank, fried transmission, shredded differential), they’re going to have a pretty strong case that the supercharger induced power bump is the cause of the failure.
That’s totally different than the evap canister and knock sensor which are not affected by engine power increases.
November 19th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Warranty would be void on any of the drivetrain components, but the rest of the car? No.
Like one other mentioned, a chip, tune or a programmable black box ( such as a UTECH, if they make one for these cars) could help. Fiddling with the timing and so forth can get a little extra out, but usually at the expense of milage. If you don’t already need premium fuel, you can do more radical tuning, and then use premium to reduce detonation.
If you do go for the supercharger, spend a little more and upgrade the brakes. More go means you need more woah to match.
November 19th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Listen to what the ex-Cobb guy above says. It is hard to wring extra power out of a modern and well designed naturally aspirated engine such as yours without using forced induction. A catback will make your car louder (nothing wrong with that if it’s your thing) and that’s about it. An intake will be a drawback unless the car is professionally tuned for it.
Forced induction will make big gains, however, it will be expensive and has the additional drawback of potentially shortening the life span of your motor as it was not designed for the higher pressure and temps that boost produces. I recommend a ton of research on this before making a decision.
Probably the best bang for the buck is a custom dyno tune. They are always better than an off the shelf tune. Just like a gunsmith, some tuners are great and some are hacks. Again, research is key. A hack tune will kill your motor fast.
Good luck!
November 19th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
I’m not going to say an exhaust won’t get you ANYTHING; but without a custom tune to go with your exhaust, it won’t get you much.
If you spend the $1000 or so on the custom tune (most of the boutique i.e. non-hypertech and superchips – vendors will work with you or have a local reseller who will) there’s no sense in NOT doing the exhaust first, and then tuning for IT though; because the better exhaust will allow them to mess with the tune more, without adverse issues cropping up.
Frankly though, I’d be spending my money on tires.
Seriously, they’re the absolute best upgrade you can make.
I used to get a lot of wheelspin with the TC off on the factory tires for my Cadillac STS (300hp, 0-60 in 6.7, 23-28mpg if I keep my foot out of it). I swapped in a set of Michelin Sport Pilot SP1, and not only does she handle better, but she rides better, accelerates better, has much better roadholding overall, and even sounds better in the cabin.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Pretty much sounds like the exhaust stuff will only make it sound better. Z-Tube actually gives a small gain. And since it comes from the same engine on a different car, not catastrophic.
November 19th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
my tires do not spin unless i’m going up hill and it’s raining and i punch it at a dead stop.
November 19th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I finally got the tires to squeak on the 10 GT Mustang shifting into 2nd at about 45. Considering forced intake if the budget suddenly opens up; I can get to 700hp with the super. Might do some chip stuff to play around.
November 19th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Modding your car is really fun. I spent staggering sums modding my 98 M3 and had a lot of fun doing it, became really good friends with a great mechanic, and learned a lot. In the end, I had a unique car that attracted lots of attention, went really fast, had no AC, and constantly threw check engine lights.
The biggest lesson that I learned is the best way to mod your car is to buy a better car. Now I drive a bone stock 911. Top speed 170+, 0-60 in 4 and change, and has not seen a mechanic in almost a year, since the last (very expensive) oil change.
November 19th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I can’t believe people still think under-hood induction is a good idea; hot rod guys knew better 40 years ago.
November 19th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Aeronathan: Hauling some dealer into small claims court costs nearly nothing. There is $3k worth of relief right there.
If he ignores the summons ( a common tactic ), get a default judgment and then buy a Writ of Garnishment for Information boilerplate page from a legal stationary store for a few bucks. If he ignores that, the judge will have his ass hauled before him in irons.
He’ll either pay … or the judge will slap him around, and give you permission to tow off all his stock for auction.
November 20th, 2010 at 12:02 am
Take it to Greg Dupree @ SpecailtyZ.com they are one of the best custom tuners in Cali, and well respected. check out http://specialtyz.com/blog/ Sebastian just did a write up on a 40th anniversary 370z he tuned. The thing about the 370 is that they close to lean from the factory, so adding an intake and exhaust will lose you power and risk detonation, but after a custom tune you’ll be good to go.
November 20th, 2010 at 2:01 am
Blowers are hard on the bottom end.
November 20th, 2010 at 4:01 am
I owned two 350Zs and spent a lot of time and money adding crap to the engine. CAIs are about worthless and aftermarket plenums have a tendency to crack unless they’re manufactured out of something solid… like metal (I could see my composite plenum depress itself when the throttle was applied; naturally it cracked). Grounding kits have little redeeming value except that they’re cheap and fun to install.
You’ll probably find some joy with a true-dual exhaust. Beyond that FI is the way to go. Fortunately, the VQ35 is a rock solid platform and you could safely, albeit expensively, tune that sucker to 500+BHP.
Frankly, if you’re going to drop dough and effort on the car I’d suggest playing with the sound system. I’m the least audiophilic person in the world but the Infiniti/Nissan uses a bunch of crap even in their premium stock systems. Turns out a few hundred bucks on aftermarket components goes a long way with those cars. And you’ll get to see just how challenging it is to run decent wires from your amp to the door speakers which should be more than enough to stoke the tinkerer in you.
November 20th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Evilwrench is onto something…performance shop around here is getting 700hp to the rear wheels with a blower, intercooler, and exhaust on the new Mustangs.
Back in my Mustang days you needed a blue printed and balanced 4 bolt block, $3500 in head work, and forced induction on a stroker to get that kind power.
They can do that work in a day now…crazy.
November 21st, 2010 at 2:31 pm
StB, you can do that on an older car too; Take a stout small block mill and throw a blow-through turbo setup on it and the least power you can hope to make is 700HP. It’s not difficult to make 1200HP+ on older V8s with turbos, it’s just a waste of time and money unless you’ve got a chassis that can handle it.
That brings me to another point: why give a car that is already traction-limited more power? It’s just going to make things worse. If my 1.59 second 60′ car (figure around 3.3 seconds 0-60 based on 1/8 mile times/mph) can’t make 500HP stick on the street, then a stock chassis Nissan at the same power level is going to be terrible to drive IMHO. Fun sometimes, but it can get tiresome with a daily driver.
November 22nd, 2010 at 9:24 am
IMO, this is the best use of your money to get more speed out of your car:
http://www.skipbarber.com/driving_school/hp/default.aspx
Fix the nut behind the wheel first 😉