Has anyone had performance headwork done on their Q's?
I am trying to get mine running. A bad radiator either blew a gasket or warped a head. I am used to having head work done on other cars I have owned for performance reasons. Is there an advantage to doing this on the Q. If my heads are warped I figure, if it's feasable, that milling the head down wuld be cheaper, and give me a little more compression.
Has anybody had their camshafts ground?
Also does anybody offer headers, exhaust, and other performance products for the Q?
TIA,
Chris
92 Q45 Head/Cam/Valve Work
Chris:Welcome to our club!
The stock parts are already performance optimized.It will be hard to squeeze any extra out that way.You would have more success with a JWT ECU.Same w/ exhaust and headrs both are already optimized way better than the average aftermarket firm put out.
The main performance upgardes for the Q that are out there and are known to work are:4.11 rear endJWT ECUJWT TCU
Some have nitrous and/or SC but is rare + spendy.
Fred...
The stock parts are already performance optimized.It will be hard to squeeze any extra out that way.You would have more success with a JWT ECU.Same w/ exhaust and headrs both are already optimized way better than the average aftermarket firm put out.
The main performance upgardes for the Q that are out there and are known to work are:4.11 rear endJWT ECUJWT TCU
Some have nitrous and/or SC but is rare + spendy.
Fred...
Thanks
Thanks palmerwmd, I am glad I found this forum, I am sure I will be asking plenty of questions in the future. My shop is building a show car out of this 92 Q45, I will post pictures of its progress...
Disregard the email I sent you, I saw that it's sold already
Disregard the email I sent you, I saw that it's sold already
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AZhitman
- Administrator
- Posts: 54538
- Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:04 am
- Car: 58 L210, 63 Bluebird RHD, 64 NL320, 65 SPL310, 66 411 RHD, 67 WRL411, 68 510 SR20, 75 280Z RB25, 77 620 SR20, 79 B310, 90 Z32, 91 GTi-R, 92 Silvia Qs, 98 S14, 23 Z.
- Location: Surprise, Arizona
- Contact:
Chris - Great questions.
First of all, allow me to welcome you to NICO. Hopefully you'll find everything you need here. Spend a little time searching the old posts and you'll find a wealth of information.
Second, it'd help to know more about the status of your Q. Overheating can be a terminal case for the Q with an aluminum engine. Beyond that, if you haven't replaced the chain guides yet, there's no need to do anything else until that's done. You may be looking at more work than the ngine is worth, most simply replace with a take-out motor. I don't think headwork is an option, and the cams are optimized for performance to my knowledge, but Q45tech will chime in here soon with the straight scoop.
Third, to address your performance questions: The Q already has headers (believe it or not), and the intake and exhaust has been found to be damn near as good as it can get. There was a member here who spent over $1500 developing a tuned exhaust system, which netted him less than 20 hp at the rear wheels. Even open pipes net minimal improvement.
Very little you can do to the Q to improve upon the factory. Some have had good results with rear gearing changes ($600 or so), JWT ECU ($500), 1st gear start TCU (junkyard), NOS (depends), etc.
Beyond that, new plugs/O2 sensors/fluids and a good intake/TB/plenum cleaning will net you more performance for the dollar than anything else.
First of all, allow me to welcome you to NICO. Hopefully you'll find everything you need here. Spend a little time searching the old posts and you'll find a wealth of information.
Second, it'd help to know more about the status of your Q. Overheating can be a terminal case for the Q with an aluminum engine. Beyond that, if you haven't replaced the chain guides yet, there's no need to do anything else until that's done. You may be looking at more work than the ngine is worth, most simply replace with a take-out motor. I don't think headwork is an option, and the cams are optimized for performance to my knowledge, but Q45tech will chime in here soon with the straight scoop.
Third, to address your performance questions: The Q already has headers (believe it or not), and the intake and exhaust has been found to be damn near as good as it can get. There was a member here who spent over $1500 developing a tuned exhaust system, which netted him less than 20 hp at the rear wheels. Even open pipes net minimal improvement.
Very little you can do to the Q to improve upon the factory. Some have had good results with rear gearing changes ($600 or so), JWT ECU ($500), 1st gear start TCU (junkyard), NOS (depends), etc.
Beyond that, new plugs/O2 sensors/fluids and a good intake/TB/plenum cleaning will net you more performance for the dollar than anything else.
Q's problems
From what I know the car was suffering from a bad radiator. The transmission had problems. (Shifter would not drop into the lower gears). The car overheated, stalled, then never started again. Upon initial inspection of the passenger side plugs coolant was found suggesting a warped head or blown gasket, there was no compression either. I havent removed the heads yet, but so far I am very impressed with the wear of this engine, at 160k the cams look awesome. I have to admit I am not a mechanic by trade, and I do not have any expirence working on Nissan/Infiniti engines, but from what I am seeing I am impressed. I have been reading the posts on the chain guides. Luckily they have been replaced.
Welcome to NICO! If you want to stay within factory spec, you don't have a lot to work with. I think the heads allow .008" max machining. Not a lot of aftermarket performance parts for the Q's unfortunately, aside from the ECU and possibly an off-the-shelf NOS install. Level10 makes trannys if you can afford it. I just measured some cams on an engine with 122k, and all lobes were within .0015" of factory max height, with maybe .005" of wear left.
There is one thing about this car I should emphasize, this is to be a show car, meaning that it will probably never see 70 mph again. What I am looking for is an engine that sounds like a well tuned american V8. I guess I could lop of the muffler and go with that but, that would be ghetto if you will.
The plans for this car are to lower it a few inches, add 20" wheels, a complete custom interior, and a monster audio system.
Chris
The plans for this car are to lower it a few inches, add 20" wheels, a complete custom interior, and a monster audio system.
Chris
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AZhitman
- Administrator
- Posts: 54538
- Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:04 am
- Car: 58 L210, 63 Bluebird RHD, 64 NL320, 65 SPL310, 66 411 RHD, 67 WRL411, 68 510 SR20, 75 280Z RB25, 77 620 SR20, 79 B310, 90 Z32, 91 GTi-R, 92 Silvia Qs, 98 S14, 23 Z.
- Location: Surprise, Arizona
- Contact:
To change the exhaust without worrying about performance, I'd go with removing the stock mufflers and resonator and replace with SuperTrapps (for sound tunability).
OR, if budget is a concern, remove the rear resonator entirely, and replace the 2 undercar mufflers with the biggest Flowmasters you can fit, then run the pipes out the back.
Neither will give any performance gains, but like you said, it's for show. Either one should sound awesome.
OR, if budget is a concern, remove the rear resonator entirely, and replace the 2 undercar mufflers with the biggest Flowmasters you can fit, then run the pipes out the back.
Neither will give any performance gains, but like you said, it's for show. Either one should sound awesome.
The car was purchaced for a few thousand. My business partner picked it up off of e-bay of all places. The car seemed well maintained. Obviously the radiator was bad when he bought it, he just let it go, and caused the damage that we are trying to fix. He said the shifter never did drop down into 2nd, this makes appearant that the owner that sold it on e-bay did not take car of it. I assume we are the 4th or 5th owners.
We decided instead of junking such a nice car we'd make a demo vehicle out of it. We own a auto customizing shop.
Sure makes for a fun project:D
We decided instead of junking such a nice car we'd make a demo vehicle out of it. We own a auto customizing shop.
Sure makes for a fun project:D
