If memory serves correct I think I hit somewhere in the 4.6x's. But it can go higher; I still have some intake modding to do and some more timing tuning with the EU eventually so I should be able to hit 225-230whp come spring. I never really got finished this season before putting the car in winter storage.

And yeah I don't have a flywheel or cams and probablyy won't get them on this engine even though there would be gains. I just don't feel like spending the money. My next major mod will be a 3.5 swap, so I'm waiting to do tranny/clutch/internal engine type things until then.


Cool present! Feel free to contact me if you wish.

 

If you do the swap get cams at the same time, I wish I had. That's what Jime did. And replace your guide/tensionner while you're at it.

 

Oh I'm gonna take my time and do a lot of things at the same time with a final picture in mind. What I'm still undecided about is whether to stay N/A or go FI with the 3.5.

 

I'm hopping to build a stroked and sleeved 3.0L sometime in spring- provided the funds are there. I need to find a good 3.5L crank 1st and then I will get some Darton sleeves and bore em out to 4" bore According to my calculations it should be a 4.0L engine. But before I do that I wanna try some camshafts from Tomei for a 3.5L to see if I can squeeze out another 20WHP on top end.

For now I am finishing up my VH45DE motor for my 94 Q45

 

That would be awesome BlackBird. IMO NA is the way to go. There is so much power to squeeze out of the 3.5 in NA form. 300whp out of some Z's with Cams and an otherwise internally stock engine and heads. A 4.0L with Tomeis would be

 

So JClaw are you of the opinion that if I put in a 3.5L I should stay N/A?

I think I may also consider some other options such as a boosted VQ32 a la Tilley's example.

But I'd like to get away from the VQ30 heads...

 

300whp in a 4th gen weighting ~2700 lbs = 11's. I know it's possible. It just hasn't been done yet. If you can extract 220+whp out of a stock internal DE-K I'd love to see the results you'd get out of a cammed 3.5.

Boosted cars just have too much power for FWD. Ask Neal, he once said he could spin his streets till 100 mph if he wanted to. You have to draw the line somewhere, and IMO between reliability, control and the potential for 300whp, I mean fawk, that's a shtload of power already. There's just so much more stuff to do to get power N/A before you hit a wall.

This isn't like the days when the only NA hope for these cars was a ypipe, a mevi and a JWT ecu. NA nowadays is a real possibility for serious horsepower. In my humble opinion anyway.

 

Well, it would be very difficult for me to get to 2700 lbs, given I'm a 98 SE with every available option you can imagine. I'd be doing extremely well just to get to 2800 given that I'm about 3000 right now. But I am shooting to be about 2850 this year though. I've got some weight reduction plans for sure.

I agree N/A is less hassle, and I'm leaning that way, but it is tempting to boost! There's also a couple things that I'm a little iffy about living in ON too due to having to pass emissions... agressive cams for example (I'll be curious to see how Jime does with his). But I'd want cams... and also N/A is more of a pain trying to customize an intake configuration that's optimal. N/A is much more subjective to changes in weather/altitude etc, and for the intake there's path length/diameter to consider vs getting cold air, MAF vs MAP etc... I will be doing more playing this coming year, aiming to get some more top end power, including some ideas to reduce significantly the air flow restricitions through my TB.

 

My 95 SE has a sunroof, ABS, power seats and all that crap too. As of now it weights in the mid-high 2800's. My weight reduction is very mild:

VQ35 weights 35-40 lbs less than the VQ30
AC components (35 lbs)
Spare & Jack (40 lbs)
Aftermarket Exhaust system, headers and heatshields (a good 30 pounds)

Coilovers and front racing seats is another 100 lbs (for sure)
Then you have CF & lightweight battery (depends on money)

Not that hard IMO. Reducing weight improves handling and braking significantly, too.

Homemade ITB's.

Hell it'd be worth it just to see six inline air horns in the engine bay.

 

Well if you list it out like that I suppose 2700 is doable... eventually. But not right away with the VQ30 still and no CF etc. 2850 will be doing well I think. I'm trying not to spend much on the car this coming year as I need to buy a house. I want to keep my A/C too. It gets damn hot and muggy here in the summer.

Where are you planning to mount the TB's and TPS? Is this using the stock 02 manifolds or are you going custom?

Oh and do you have aluminum bumper supports?

EDIT: oh air horns huh? I think I have an idea what you're up to now.. lol Just make sure to get good before/after dynos. That would be really interesting to see the difference.

 

True. I don't think I'm getting any CF too. Just the coilovers (my suspension is a real mess) and those front seats (they're real cheap, 125$cnd each and save a whopping 65 pounds. At the maxima's weight that is nearly a tenth). Jime has them, I sat in his car at the CSCS Quebec vs Ontario event. They're nice and comfy with some back-cushion under the leather.

Stock lower. The 02 has round, almost inline ports. So I'm machining a flange, getting 6 pre-bent 45 degree 2" tubes, buying 6 used TB's, air horns, and getting the whole thing Tig-welded.

Had a little accident so my front one was ruined. I simply removed it. Damn thing is SUPER lightweight for its size. Only 95s had it. My front bumper (1997) is empty, and I kept the 95 grill. I still have the rear one though. Both aluminum. Reason 96+ are heavier are the heavy @ss steel bumpers + more emissions crap I think.

Length of the air horns has a fairly big influence on power yeah. Read a few articles about it. The sound on a V6 is supposed to be too.

 

Forgot to mention. Some M3's (forgot year) have 6 inline TB's that look like they'd love to match our inline lower.

And TPS is no problem. You wouldn't believe how getho my TPS bracket is on my current 02 Altima TB. It looks like crap, was made real cheap, and it works.

 

That's the RCI seats right? Do you know what they weigh? How do they look/how's the quality? Are they sliding or fixed? The other one I'm considering is Corbeau Clubman at only 12 lbs, but a bit more money and quite basic.


Yeah that sounds about like what I was imagining. Keep me informed when you get dyno results for it please.. I won't be bothering to do that for the VQ30 but once I have a VQ35 I'll consider all kinds of intake manifold configurations, even if a custom hood comes into play..


Yeah our bumpers are heavy. I'd like to just remove both of mine but I'm a little bit scared to have nothing there. Any low speed collision will cause a lot more damage then I'd think, and there's so many idiots out there... if it were only my driving to worry about I'd do it in a hearbeat. Any way you could source me a set of aluminums out there in Quebec if I can't find them here? I'd come pick them up if necessary.

How long are you planning to go? I'd really like to see how your power curve gets shifted before/after doing this.

Man it's late I really gotta get to bed! Gotta work tomorrow.

 

They don't weight more than 12 pounds that's for sure. Cheaper than Corbeau's. Leather looks fine. It ain't an Audi interior but it doesn't really look cheap.

Dunno the brand but they are the seats that everyone and their grandmother use in their drag cars and my dad had them in all 4 of his Firebirds.

I think they'd be easier to find in Ontario. Quebec has so many backwoods, redneck, no-name junkyards that most of the good stuff is impossible to find. All the stuff I bought off car-part came from Ontario or US. I'm definately keeping my rear bumper but the front one isn't that big a deal IMO. I'd rather have on for my rear end then front. If anything hits hard enough in front, it's my fault and I doubt anybody's going to back into my front bumper at 60 miles an hour.

Short. The VQ can handle it. But I'll try different sizes.



All this bench racing is making me tired. Winter is getting very long already. I'm already sick of the hypothetical stuff and I wish I could just shut the *** up and get to the track but I can't.

 

I'll talk to Jim about this, see what he tells me.


Yeah that's kind of what I was thinking. Either swap both or remove the front and just swap the rear. I'll look around here first, but hope I don't have to go to the States. Shipping costs wouldn't be nice on a big item like that.


I'd expect your power curve to get a bit peakier and shift to the right, but you may get some useful gains where you need it for racing, plus the low-mid TQ of the VQ35 isn't too bad to start.


We've had snow for 4 weeks already... it came earlier this year. So winter's definitely feeling long already. I've got a list a mile long of things to get done on my car still and sitting here just thinking about without being able to do it gets me impatient. hah.

 

Interesting thread

 

Danny- awsome project! Im very interested in your progress. Now that spring is around the corner Ive started getting parts for my VQ30 S13 project.

I was wondering how much HP loss do you think you have through your 5 speed tranny? I was trying to get some BHP numbers so I could then run that through the typical losses of the z33 tranny I need to use. And see the potential of the VQ30 as well. Also with a modified VI do you think I could still make power in the 7500+rpm?

~Alex

 

Sorry Alex I know it's a couple months later! lol. Didn't mean to not reply, your post just escaped my attention somehow.

I'd guesstimate my loss through the 5-spd as about 15% or so, based on stock dynos. But keep in mind that on a dynojet other losses such as wheel weights and bearings etc can affect things a bit. The real number is probably more in the range of 11 or 12% - 15%.

Based on some recent runs with my car and the EU, plus a mod or two I'll be doing to the 00VI I think that power can easily be made up to 7500 rpms. It might peak before that, but it should make enough power to negate any need to short shift. I expect to have another dyno before too long (couple weeks?).

 

lol its alright. Much hasnt happened on the S13 just waiting for school to end.

I was playing around with the numbers, and I wont be too far behind on whp, but with my ~4:1 rear end it will have plenty of gear reduction.

Cant wait to see how the power band is with 7500rpm to work with!

~Alex

 

I read a little about this mod and I think I will do it in due time. Nice numbers by the way.