what will it take?

[Switchfoot004]

with the mods on my sig what else would i need for 400 hp? and is that a good turbo or should i go with a garrett gt3071r with 84trim and 1.04 a/t

[themadscientist]

You are'nt going to safely set the fuel for an extra 150hp with a little piggyback. If serious power is your goal ensure you hire a supporting cast up to the task.

[Switchfoot004]

can u tell me then i need to know!!

[themadscientist]

There are several seasoned RB tuners here who can give you a good plan of attack. I am shadetree and do wierd stuff to get things done, things I would not recommend to others. You need to be painfully honest with yourself. People fixate on arbitrary HP numbers based solely on emotion and keeping up with the joneses. I would suggest you look at several crucial points.

Budget. We all have million dollar dreams but most of us have hundred dollar clout. Speed is just a question of money, how fast can you go? The harder you push an engine, the stronger it will have to be and it's lifespan and drivability will suffer in direct proportion to how hard you push it. A 2.5 liter engine at 400hp must process roughly the same amount of air and fuel as a 400hp 5.0 liter one. To make up for it's deficit in physical proprtions it must use something like a turbocharger to make it process more air, this imparts more complexity and strain. If you can't afford to properly prepare your engine to support the power you will expect it to produce it behooves you to lower your power goals. I always say things to wide-eyed new guys with the big dreams like;"I would rather have a reliable 400hp than an 800hp garage queen". Yeah, they may beat me but I see them once every two months and I run all day every day. A broken car is no fun and while a lower horsepower number might not make you smile as wide as something more powerful, having that aforementioned monster dead in the garage half the time while you save up for repair parts because you tried to make 1000hp on a shoestring and failed and at those level always catastophically makes you frown consireably more. Be honest with yourself, what can you afford to do properly?

Use.Drag racing? Drift? dedicated trailer car or weekend warrior? Will this car have to get you from one end of the strip to the other on saturday night and then to work monday morning. Real race cars break, it's inevitable. If you are not breaking things you are not pushing the envelope, you are not chasing every last pony and you should quit because 99% don't get you the win so why did you even stage? If your power goals are likely to leave you kicking nikes if something eventually breaks and you need that car to get around I would suggest you lower your goals or re-evaluate your chosen engine. Let's compare the RB25 to my engine the CA18. I am giving up .7 liters and 75hp right off the bat. You can easily squeeze out 300hp with just basic bolt-ons and without changing any major components. Your turbo and fuel system will just reach there. Mine will require at minimum a bigger turbo, new injectors and fuel pump, bigger AFM and accompanying resetting of the computer for the extensive changes. I can beat your bigger motor but I have spent a lot more than you and my motor is working a lot harder than yours to make the same power. I am closer to that dead car in the garage than you and more likely to need a bus pass on monday. You get what I am saying. Be honest. If you want a monster but you need wheels too you should figure a second reliable car into the final equasion so you don't have to worry if something breaks.

Ability.How savy are you with a wrench? Can you do anything and everything with the swap, the build, the tuning etc or do you think a butterknife makes a nifty screwdriver? There is no shame in being the latter but don't lie to yourself. If you can't do something to meet your goal somebody will have to. First you have to find someone you trust and determine if you can afford their time and skills (see item #1). be honest with yourself. If you really want to do as much as possible yourself and your goals eclipse your current abilities you should reevaluate your goals and decide what is more important pride in doing it yourself or pride in more power that may have been facilitated by others.

Sooner or later you will confront these issues. they correlate directly too each other and not establishing a balance between all three will equal FAIL and a sad thread here. If you have lots of cash but need a reliable car and you overextend yourself trying to do it yourself, FAIL.If you have a little bit of cash and don't care about reliablity but the supertuner you have working on the car has stopped work because you can't pay, FAIL.

It's the big three just like the engine, fuel, air, spark. Any weakness in one of the three and the whole thing is ****. Just kick back and think long and hard about what you want and how much resource you have to meet that. Once you have a solid, fully baked idea of what you want and what you can bring to the table there are bunches of knowledgable people here who can help you get there. They will be happy to steer you away from the mistakes they may have made in the past often with very bad results. I would hope when you have some experiences you will be as quick to volunteer them to a new guy who is in the same place you are now. Good luck with whatever you wind up doing.

[Switchfoot004]

wow that was good and i have thoufht hard about this and i want to do it. i already have almost half the parts and most of the work is being done by professnals like install ,fmic,bov,that kind of stuff. i also know some people that have a nissan shop called niztech. i just really need to know what i need for 400 hp

[uber95]

Ask those same professionals what they suggest.

[l0nestar]

Wow! Very nicely stated TMS!

You rock a CA18? Cool!

[Bwana]

Dang Mike, you musta had a lot of time on your hands! lol

Well written sir.

[themadscientist]

I was at work. p0rn is blocked, what else was I supposed to do?

I parked the RB and turned my attention to the CA I have been neglecting. It is getting faster every day.zerothread/262142The goal is 300 horsepower on the stock longblock and my assdyno says I have about 80 more ponies to round up.The RB20 is getting yanked as soon as the CA is done and then project RS-T begins, FJ20 in an R32. Here are some of the players in that project. zerothread/157520