I'm new to Nissans, and this is the first forum I visited. Just wondering what people are doing to mod their VQ's. I have an 06 Xterra, so I have the VQ40de? What is the limiting factor in the engine itself? The block? Pistons? Rods? Crank? What is the limiting factor in the drivetrain? I have the 6 speed manual.

Also, what kind of fly wheel hp are people pushing through their stock VQs with boost or nitrous.

Thanks all.

I appreciate any info.

NISMO has headers and CAI for the VQ40. Stillen has CAI and exhaust parts for the Xterra. SLR offers headers as well and there are cat-back systems that can help out. Nitrous is an easy way to add "on the fly" hp, but of course you have to deal with filling the bottle and keeping it heated. From what I have seen, there are no cam or internal mods at this point, but I will defer that to someone who has worked with a VQ40 and/or Xterra. For the most part, Xterra owners seem to do exterior and suspension mods than engine mods...

There's always the superchared Xterra...

Sorry we missed your thread for two days!

Are you looking for more torque for towing or what?What kind of power are you looking to make?What are you going to be using the truck for?

You should call Performance Motorsports.They work with mainly 350z's but they do all Nissans

carpediem50 wrote:I'm new to Nissans, and this is the first forum I visited. Just wondering what people are doing to mod their VQ's. I have an 06 Xterra, so I have the VQ40de? What is the limiting factor in the engine itself? The block? Pistons? Rods? Crank? What is the limiting factor in the drivetrain? I have the 6 speed manual.

Also, what kind of fly wheel hp are people pushing through their stock VQs with boost or nitrous.

Thanks all.

I appreciate any info.

People have put upwards for 500 to the wheels through stock VQs (VQ30s and 35s), so 600ish at the crank. Quite a few are doing this through engines that have been beat on for thousands of miles. One of my best friends has been putting 470 whp through his 350Z for over 10,000 miles now and the dude races the car all the time, track, street, just flooring it on the highway, etc. I'm most likely putting right around 400 to the ground through my VQ30, and it's seen about 5000 miles so far of alot of tuning at WOT and about 8 trips to the drag strip. Mine is a junkyard VQ30 that I picked up for $300 (reason explained in next paragraph, all the other ones I mention are the original untouched engines)... both cars are only running 93 octane pump gas 100% of the time. My buddy's tuner put down 512 and he is running that every day, another friend and tuner put down 502 and that engine was still working great when he pulled it out to put in his built motor... I believe the record for a stock VQ, at least that I know of, is 550whp on 93 and meth by a guy on my350z.com.

For the VQ30 the fuse is the head gasket and ring lands, I cracked two ring lands and popped a head gasket because the wire that controls my timing and additional fuel under boost came loose - oops. For transmissions - some guys with the Z33 6 speeds are breaking the engagement teeth off of 3rd gear supposedly, though the posts on this are rather vague and rare... these are guys putting upwards of 600, 700, 800HP through the transmissions.

Nice to see you Neal. Your knowledge is always appreciated.