Hello all, this is my first post and so wanted to say hi and let you all know what I hve going on. First off some of my background I am a long time 30+ years car fanatic ive been a jet mechanic, diesel mech, been a tech at many deaerships, and just a horsepower junky in general. I was in the process of building my old daily driver .... 70 chevy impala i had built a 434 sbc stroker made 680 at the crank and had a 250 2 stage of n20 on top of it. To say the least its fast. But it was really not comfy,not good for long trips, and needed alot of body work not my field. Anyway one of my buddies wanted the drivetrain very bad and made me an offer tht made sense an another friend wants the chassis as it is all new under the skin. Just needs the rear quarter welded on and few lil rust spots taken care of and painted. So wanting something new and differen, I use to own an 04 Audi S4 V8 6 speed and loved it until it got totaled by a DUI jerk with no insurance, from there I went to an 96 jag straight 6 supercharged fun but not my fav sold it and bought an 03 jag with the V8 supercharged not that was a fun car too but tranny went out and used wasnt avaliable, used was 3 grand, and new was even worse. So sold it to another guy tht just loved those jags and happened to have a trans so win win. Brings me to my current car I came across this 02 Q45 and here the things I got nervous about

220,000 miles yikes ...... But owner was a crazy cool guy and the 2nd owner and all miles were literally highway he used it for work which required tons of travel it had 110k on it 4years ago and had put on 110 on it in that time. He had all service records, had the carfax zero accidents, he let me do a compression check and all cylinders were 180-185 varied very lil between any of them. I even added oil to 6 of them and didnt change the readings at all. Plugs were in bad shape and needing to be changed, I wouldnt doubt if they were factory original, spark plug seals were leaking on 3 of the 4 on drivers side. He did show me that on the passanger side there was a dent where he hit a curb and damaged the lower conrtrol arm, the strut, and the rim was cracked. All were replaced with factory parts which he had reciepts for as well. The valve cover gaskets have nvr been changed so oil was all over the engine but all and all looked good. Lil clear coat coming off on the top of the car by the doors but other than that paint is good and body is perfect other than the fender which he had the replacement fender already painted just needed to be installed


Here are the pros ..... Its the sport package so has the 18 inch rims, sport suspension, backup camera, etc etc interior is flawless all leather was taken care of no rips or tears, has reclining rear seats, has every feature tht was available looks like, and all work great windows and all.

So he was asking 3k for it and for the condition not to bad, it started right up no rattles, no weird noises, no hesitation, zero smoke, took it for a ride ran flawless i was very impressed with its acceleration for such a big car. Shifted good and only bad thing is I could tell it needed brakes to which he had told me beforehand, tires, tuneup, and an oil change. So we haggled for a bit he was staying firm at 2300 so i thanked him and left telling him if he could go a bit lower id take it. Bout 4 days later he called saying if i came up there (hr from my house) with 1800 cash he would do it tht day, I told him on my way. Bought it , also he had to pay off a title loan place to get the title so i figure he was about to lose the car lol, and drove it home.

So next day I installed new rotors all 4 and new ceramic brake pads huge difference, replaced both frt wheel bearings, Got most new OEM parts online just had to scour for best deals and only paid 25 ea frt rotor and 22 ea rear rotor, put on new 245/45/18 continental tires which I found on KSL classifieds for 300 never used, changed the diff fluid used nissan diff fluid, did an engine flush as well as a sea foam treatment and filled with mobil 1 syn 5w30, new air filter, new valve cover gaskets, replaced drivers side cover to seal the tubes (found a new one on ebay for 55 (genuine infiniti part), new NGK laser platinum plugs, changed all the old brittle hoses under hood, gunna have the dealer do the trans flush but dont know if theres a cheaper way to do it they want 350. Steam cleaned the engine top and bottom looks brand new after a few hours of cleaning it sparkles top and bottom no leaks that I can find.

Well few days after I bought it the guy called me back to tell me he remembered that he had bought a new motor and trans tht only had 88k on both and put in storage and if i wanted them he would sell me both for 200. To me this was a no brainer I now have both in my storage unit cus its a great deal. I did check them out and they are both in great condition and if I need either I have em.

Now onto what I am up too

I have already installed a custom exhaust system, my buddy owns a exhaust shop and when we were looking at it we noticed the rear set of cats are not monitored so we decided to cut them out upon lowering them we noticed that the passanger side was almost completely clogged. We removed the center resonator and rear mufflers and left the big rear muffler. Then we constructed a mandrel bent dual pipes off the front cats (only 2 cats now instead of 4) and it goes into a dr gas xpipe and out dual to connect to the factory pipes tht connect to the rear muffler since its a straight through design. Flows GREAT now and has a nice pleasent idle tone and a slightly aggressive tone WOT and sounds like a sport model now as it should have.

I also aquired a core 4.5 motor from my local junkyard, it was just smoking so they sold it to me for scrap cost 50.00 i have torn it down already. I am going to reuse the crank and rods as they are forged and nice lightweight pieces. Gunna have cp make a set of custom pistons, gunna hve to clean up the cylinders so once we get everything finished we will order the pistons, a set of low friction piston rings will be used with it. I will hve the entire rotating assemby balanced and install new bearings. Will be upping the compression to 11.00 to 1 not much but will give a lil bit more. I gave my buddy the heads to see what he can do with them to make em flow their best will be reusing the cams, valves ( being they are titanium) and hes also going to work on the intake as well to match it, we may extrode hone it for fun. Now will this do anything ...... maybe, cant say it wont help a lil.

But now for the fun fun part I sent off the spare ecu and tcu to my buddy that works for Ford on their SVT team hes one of their programmers and hes already cracked audis code and makes amazing chips for audi. Hes the one that did the chip in my S4 V8 na and most chips only give u 10-15 crank hp more, my buddies chip made 28 more all wheel hp. He said he will see what he can do but no promises would love if he could make this thing come more alive 1000-3000 rpms cus its pretty flat until then ..... seems like the computer lets it off the leash at 3k and it pulls HARD to redline. But would love to see what someone could do with this engine cus I know its being held back pretty hard

nice

to NICO! This looks like it's going to be fun! We've seen very few modifications or enhancements to your version of the Q45, so I'm looking forward to seeing all of this for sure. If you haven't already found it, your car's factory service manual is available at www.infinitiservicemanual.com

Thank for the info on the shop manual i now have it so appreciate that. An for me this is such an amazing motor an the car was waaaay ahead of its time so i want to make more out of it an show what its capable of.

One thing I love bout this motor is its nearly identical to the one used in their indy cars with only some different tuning, methanol, and less stroke 4.5 to 3.5 due to the rules saying 3.5 limit. Check out this articlehttp://www.autonews.com/article/20020408/REG/2 ... ine-can-do

Welcome aboard Q45-02!

Apart from 2 supercharged Q45s, I haven't really heard of us doing much with the VK45DEs on passenger vehicles
2002-2003-q45-supercharger-pictures-t12199.html

I have a few drivetrain components from a 2003 and 2006 M45. I wanted to see what I could do with this setup, including bolting up a supercharger maybe (I like the whine)
If your guy does find a way to crack the Nissan computer, then I'll be waiting in line behind you with a handful of greasy bills. You're right, these cars were way ahead of their time. Not many automakers could offer the performance that Nissan did at the price point.

Looking forward to your progress and here to offer support where I can.

while superchargers are fun and can do much I am a BIG NA guy like to see what an engine can do by itself and later if i need more then i may go too turbo, super, or N20.

Not a bad way to go I suppose. I don't have much/if any experience modifying engines so this is new territory. However, I once bought a qx4 with a vq35 engine that had been bored. Sounded really good and chirped tires more easily... but that was shortlived as some quack had jacked up the heads and it overheated often (seller had disclosed this though).
So, I'm open to NA modification as well. It's just that not too much has been attempted... and announced.

I know an fx45 owner had made a few attempts at using Jim Wolfe cams. I can't recall the outcome. I could try to find the link later. IIRC, there was mention of the vk45 heads being already optimized for airflow when they checked, and they didn't think they could improve it much.

well i dropped the heads off to hev them flowed and checked to see how much if any improvement could be made. An it will be bored and the intake will be optimized im looking at improving the valve covers and seeing if I can make the pcv system less likely to pull oil up. I have a lot of ideas just which ones will wk out is the question lol

Heads are being worked on as we speak he says they flow amazing for a stock head, the titanium valves will be reused he said they are a very premium piece. He is upgrading the springs to a newer style that will be control the valve train better, take more rpm if I can get a tuner to crack the code to let her rev higher, is lighter, will last longer, and going with a titanium retainer as well. He said he may do a light porting here and there just to improve low lift flow but that they flow great stock. The intake he hasnt looked at too much yet so will wait for him to get to that but he said it definitely needs to be matched to the heads.

As for the block its in amazing shape all it needs is light clean up and the stock rods and crank are super high quality and forged. We are gunna go with a custom set of lightweight forged pistons and will use a better ring set for better oil control and going to up the compression slightly for a lil bit more power. Nothing too amazing going on in the lower block besides the better pistons, better rings, and higher CR its a pretty sweet short block from the factory.

I sent off the stock cams to have my buddy at Jones cams take a look at them and see where and if theres anything we can do to them to improve em while not messing up the computer lol.

An since I have a spare TCM and ECU I sent both off to my buddy at SVT to see what he can do with em if anything. I also have contacted Jim wolf, Mike Lynch at UPREV, Cobb, and a few others to see what they can do if we want someone to get off their a** we all need to keep contacting these people and seeing what they can do for us. If they feel their is no demand why bother. But Im sure there are many of us out here that would love a new tune to optimize the 4.5 VQ engine. I mean id love to get rid of that low rpm crap that holds us back its not coincidence that the car feels like a turbo kicks in round 3k its cus the computer lets the engine off the leash and even then not by much lol

Also have contacted R2C ( the best air filters on the market ) too see if they would be willing to make a drop in replacement or a new cold air system. They said they would just need a donor car to mock up and do testing and see if a cold air would do anything, I think the stock setup is pretty darn good I think just one of their filters would make a nice addition.

An last thing I have going is I bought a set of the titan headers like one of the former member and have my guy that will make me a custom set for my car using high flow cats.

Anyway just an update as to where I am so far with this project

OK slight update the manifold is being extrode honed and Im having the injectors cleaned and equalized so their all good, installing a better fuel pump in the stock location.

Also looks like my cam guy was the original cam grinder for the infiniti Indy team when they used this exact motor in their indy cars only difference was it was 8000 rpm, 3.5 stroke, cams, engine management, and headers. But regardless he said that he can do a set of cams for me tht would help hp and torque from 2800 on up and will make round 25-30 more than stock at peak . All this without impeding computer operation, emission, reliability, and will idle and run like stock down low. So between all these little tweeks and headers as well as the lil porting and such I think this will make round 380 to 400 hp when done. Not bad for a 271 cubic in V8

Q45-02 wrote:... All this without impeding computer operation, emission, reliability, and will idle and run like stock down low. So between all these little tweeks and headers as well as the lil porting and such I think this will make round 380 to 400 hp when done. Not bad for a 271 cubic in V8

Q45, we're listening. Seems like you have the right connections to make things happen. If you don't mind sharing, how much $ would you say this 40-60 hp bump would cost?

Well some of my connections are my uncle has a machine shop so for me the engine wk is not much at all, but to replicate it id say the engine wk would be about 1500 or so. But custom pistons ran me 880.00 which I probably coulda gotten a lil cheaper but i didnt wanna wait so went with whoever would do em quick. As for cams I havent gotten a price yet but im sure it wont be super cheap being its 4 cams being done haha. Im sure ill have about 3500 into this whole thing when Im done but not bad for a new motor. I dont think the engine rebuild is super needed i think most the power is gunna come from the cams heads and intake. But I want to see if the tighter ring pack will help with the oil burning as well.

Nice! Thanks for sharing. If it all works out, we could be upgrading to close to M56 power, for under $4k.

If I may ask, where are you located?

im in Utah

Well ladies and gents the motor long block is all together and now just have to install the cams, timing components and do dads this week and will be installing the new motor into the car next weds, so figuring with the new cams, light porting on the heads and slightly higher cr should be a nice running motor. Also found an ecu from a middle east spec Q45 and their rated at 365hp over there I got it yesterday and will hve it coded to my car and together with all i have done and such I would dare guess this motor will make round 380 to 400 crank hp with exact same amazing driveability as the stocker. Will update as soon as its in and running

Good progress going on here. Do you have any pictures of your craft pieces?

I have taken a few pics sadly they look pretty much like stockers the cams were reground and i just had to do the lash caps to get the proper lash, but the posting work and pistons are slightly different I will post everything up when Im done.

Well that was sure a long and fun ... not ... removal and install. You know sometimes u get into doing something like this and have to wonder what the heck the engineers were thinking when they developed things the way they did. I mean there are a lot of things that coulda been better engineered to make things such as removal and install easier. I mean its no wonder the dealership wants like 2000+ just to do a removal and install but if u know what to do it took us bout 4 hours to remove the engine and then i took the next few days to get things switched over and ready to go back in. Took us 5 hours to get the trans switched over and back in the car running.

We tried to use the titan shorty headers that I got but just wasnt in the cards. So we ended up taking both manifolds and doing some extra strengthening welds on them both and then we also hogged out the exhaust openings and the after cat being careful to not get anything in the cat. So didnt get to have my headers but im not gunna give up on that just yet but needed my car running.

First impressions are it has A LOT more pick up after 3k but down low dont feel any differently than it did with the old motor so no loss and no gain so id say that is a good thing .The top end feels sooooo much better i mean it just pulls and pulls all the way til redline which is 6800 rpms. I think its still relearning everything as it seems off and then on and its slowly getting better and better.

Only thing that has reared its head so far is that i am getting a knock sensor code for bad sensor but its here and there. I dont know if its gunna come back but at least I have a spare harness and knock sensors on the old motor and if I have to take the manny off to change them then I will but hoping it doesnt come to that. But all and all as the motor breaks in Im sure it will only get stronger. I did do a hard break in I dont believe in the slow break in style always had better luck with the quick break in but i am using brad penn break in oil. Will switch to full syn in a few thousand miles.

I have some pics but their in my email and dont know how to post them

Well took off the connector to the knock sensors and it had alot of crap inside it so I cleaned it out and reconnected it we will see if this takes care of the code. If not then I bite the bullet and take the manny off and replace both of the knock sensors and harness from my old motor which i know is good. But it hasnt come back on yet so fingers crossed thats all it was and it feels amazing pulls so hard lovin it so far.

everything is amazing so far, no codes and it runs so very good things I am still working on getting the headers to work and I have a few people still working on cracking the ecu so that it can be tuned for optimum performance I know this thing is being choked. Even raising the rev limiter too 7200 would be a nice adjustment and taking out some of the torque limiting factors below 3k.

what kind of fuel do you need to run with the raised compression?

so far doesnt seem to have any problems with 91 octane which is all i use but i do use a quality fuel not a crapstation version. I try and run chevron tesaro or shell stations.

Shell and BP 93 Octane is better around here, its kinda hit and miss with Chevron 93 Octane here in Atlanta.

Well been a lil bit since I updated this page but heres whats going on

The headers are almost ready to go back in so that will be happening soon

I took the rear muffler off and found out that it is in fact EXTREMELY restrictive so off it came and on went a new dual 2 1/4 inlet with a 3 inch outlet straight through magnagflow. Not only does it sound AMAZING but pulls much better need to figure out to get pics on here.

I have started reporting the old manifold cus i think it can be improved even more than I did the first time. So gunna see what I can do with it. Should have it ready by the end of the week

I am working with a few guys and trying to have one of them to help tune the cars ECU to get them to raise rpm to 7500, and optimize the air fuel and the spark

I sent off my spare trans valve body too IPT transmissions and their going to upgrade it and I also sent off the torque converter to have done as well. That should be back next week as well.

I have also started the car on a light diet to see what I can get it down too without comprimising looks or comfort

Also im not fond of the idea to just replace with the factory struts and pay upwards of 1300 for the parts i was thinking of going with BC Racing BR type coil overs that come with the spindle already on it their fully adjustable and great for street and track. I found a place i can get a new full set for 1000 even

I'm glad to see wat u doin our car lol.. nah really it all sounds good love that car. I have 02 Q45 black on black will post pics soon I'm new to this My 1st post I actually came across the site looking for parts for my car, the manual actually. But Iuv it here it's refreshing I thought it was jus me. I got my Q in 2010 did a Lotta work on it good n bad.. starting wit the exhsat I like wat u doin. I scrap jus about everything under there no cats jus larger pipes 3" pipes custom bent goin into x pipe resonators gone, 2 3" pipes straight back to the yea I keep the stock muffler grawls a lil bit when u really step on.. sounds n pulls amazing low end still quiet . Intake custom, I built it myself larger 4" intake pipe n bolx racing filter wit stack rack. I put a chip in it, on the airflow sensor.. it's supposed to tell the engine all the air coming in is cold. Idk if it works I did alot of the moods at the same time so yea ova all it feels great.. stock the car comes wit 340 I haven't tested but it sure feels like alot more to me.. I would like to think I'm pushing 400.. I feel it.. n drove n m5 b4 so I kno the feelin I thinK i'ma good judge lol but idk u tell me

Oh yea I still hav the cats connected to headers thinkin about removing those as well unleashing some more power. Wat u think? N u said u changed the muffler did u change all the piping as well? Because there is a dual cut off acuator, seems like one of the pipes towards the rear close to the muffler, I thought I was a sensor all these years but in lookin thru the manual I found out wat it does it open n closes 1 of the pipes based on driving I guess idk but I'm about to cut it out this week n replace wit 3" pipe.. let u know how it went pics coming soon. As soon as I figure this out lol.. n also would like to see pics of ur work

You may want to consider the diff out of a 03+ model. I believe '02s are 2.76 and '03+ are 3.13.

I'm very interested in your exhaust and suspension work. I've got a small exhaust leak and occasionally get a code thrown for a bad cat. Also, my suspension is "worn out" according to the dealer (loose feeling driving over bumps).

Put my name in the hat for ECU programming after I get new exhaust.

And thanks for all the updates!

Probably to late to thread but, I am very interested in these cars. I have one myself. An 04 Infiniti Q45 Premium package. Took it to the track the other day and ran a 15.2. Not bad. But I want to get a bit more out of it.

I was wondering what I would have to do to ramp it up? I've heard a diff change up would help off the launch but havent heard if it increases times... Apart from that my goal with it is to reach low 14 EVENTUALLY. Whatever that will take, I'm not sure. If anyone has ideas please let me know because I dont know where to start.

Currently no mods on the car yet. I know forsure I'd like to do an exhaust setup but again, not sure where to start with that.