Datniqqamycole wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 3:03 am
EniGmA1987 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 12:36 pm
How much money do you have for it?
I have unlimited brotha! As long as I go to work lol but yeah I've dumped almost 5K into this car. Bought it for 2.4K.. This car is freaking quick though! High key want to make it a sleeper. Keep it looking stock but once running it everyone eating dust
There are not too many engine mods you can do outside of the intake and exhaust. Most bolt on things like manifolds and such are for the 35DE since that was the car in the G35 and 350Z. Your best bet for big power gains would be to replace the connecting rods and get some low compression pistons from CP and then install a turbo charger onto the engine.
Eagle H-Beam Rode are around $900-1000 and will be both lighter and support 600 whp
CP pistons (or Wiseco) will probably be about $1200-1500 these days. You custom order them with a .5mm over bore size and ask for a 9:1 ratio instead of the stock 10.5:1
While getting those installed, have the cylinder honed out the .5mm you need for the pistons. This will 1) let you use the OS pistons and 2) give you a nice and fresh, smooth cylinder wall again like a new engine.
Of course you will get all new bearings for the rods when you install them so those will be new too.
Inspect the valves and the seating area on the cylinder heads when doing this, and if necessary re-grind them just a tad and polish them up so the valves seat like new again.
Oh and I almost forgot, have some larger fuel injectors installed. Depending on your horsepower target you would want to get different injectors. 400whp, Id do 500cc injectors. 600whp Id go with 750cc injectors.
Parts and labor so far, you'd be looking at $4500-5000~
Then while the engine is out of the car, modify one (or both) of the exhaust headers so you can redirect the flow to a turbo. Get everything installed back and have some custom exhaust piping done up to get the exhaust going to where the turbo will mount in the engine bay. No room to mount it directly to the manifold, it will need to be mounted closer to the front. Once the exhaust piping is done and turbo mounted, install and intercooler and have some custom intake piping go from the turbo to the intercooler, then back up to the throttlebody and into the engine.
I would personally do a small turbo (somewhere 7~ psi), intercooler, and all the custom piping you'd probably be looking at around another $4000-5000. Without rebuilding the transmission for extra power you wont really want to go above 400-425, so a small turbo will get you there nicely and you will be able to use it without any turbo lag. If you really want extra HP when doing all this, and want to target about 600 at the wheels then you would have to spend ANOTHER $5000~ on rebuilding the transmission for it.
So all in, about $10k for 400 hp at the wheels (you have 325bhp stock which is closer to 275 at the wheels), $15k for 600 whp.
Your other option for more power would be to stay naturally aspirated. You wont need new connecting rods for this, thought it would help you rev faster. You would again want custom pistons, and this time ask for 11.5:1 compression instead. Do the same .5mm overbore and cylinder work for that size. At over 300k miles your cylinders will be scratched to hell by now so it will be good to have those back as smooth as new. You could look into aftermarket camshafts, but I dont personally know of any for the VK45DE. You will be street driving this, so you only want a very mild increase in intake duration. No increase in lift, as that will loose you low end torque. And I dont think you need any real increase in exhaust duration either but if all they have is a small duration increase there as well then thats fine. I would also replace the rod bearings while doing this since you will already have them out to put the pistons in anyway.
A dyno tune after the new pistons will probably get you an extra 30-40 horsepower or so, probably brining you to 300 at the wheels or a little more. With cams as well you might get an extra 15-25hp.
You could choose to go E85 fuel if you have easy access to it. Do a search of gas pumps near you with the fuel. For that you would need to increase the injectors to 500cc again, and replace your fuel pump to support the fuel. A tune with the new pistons and E85 you would probably be closer to 325 wheel horsepower.
All in for pistons, cams, injectors, and fuel pump, plus tune youd probably be looking at around $5500~ which
could have you as much as 350 wheel horsepower. A better deal than a 400hp turbo setup for sure.