Hi all, Even though I have been a member for a number of years, a series of unfortunate events has kept my zed off the road for a lot of those years. Seeing as now have the time (and money) to give her the attention she deserves, I thought I better re introduce myself to the world. I have met some of the older members during my stint in our nations capital and hope to take a more active role now I'm north of the border. The car: 1990 N/A Manual 2 seater. Black, leather and manual. Around 150 000km. Slotted brakes, HP Envy 18" rims are the only things I have changed so far. The plan: Full re-spray (staying black or going white) New wheels Re-trim in new leather Suspension (maybe coilovers) Brakes (big brake kit) Replace all connectors, seals, weather strips etc Loving the TwinZ products at the moment, skirts, spoiler, diffuser, 2k front bar And the kicker.... Built N/A motor aiming at 160-180kW atw. Though i am concerned more for torque and throttle response. With my limited experience and knowledge, i'm thinking: Heads Extractors Cams Exhaust Intake Higher compression Stroked to 3.2l (does this bastardise the zed?) ITB's are on the wish list. Lightened pulleys One piece tailshaft Lightened flywheel and clutch. This is a car that I won't be getting rid of and wont be my daily so I have a bit of flexibility in the timeframe and cost department. And I know you will anyway, but I'm NOT going forced induction. I know its cheaper, easier and more effective, but its my money to piss up the wall haha. Hope to meet more of you soon.:zlove:
In that case. Welcome back. Need pics please, and good luck with the work. Looking forward to meeting you in the future.
DONT STROKER IT!!! or cams Thats for the Holden and Ford Bogans! Sorry Welcome back I dont think you can go higher comp aswell as the heads already are high comp... but def get the ITB's if you can afford it and somehow make it legal
It would indeed be a pretty cool thing to do. Going to standard TT injectors might be a cheap way of going to E85 fuel too.
Thanks guys A build thread will be started once it is back in MY garage. I am torn about stroking it :W: but the VG30DE is pretty darn good as Nissan built it so I think its limitations might be reached pretty quickly. Cams I thought were pretty much a necessity? E85 sounds good but Im yet to regularly drive past a servo which stocks it. In the end I am looking for a seat of the pants feel more than numbers so I'll just keep going til i get what I'm after. edit: And i figure ITB's have a very high performance/cool ratio
someone told me its $100 per 1hp to mod an NA or there abouts my memory may be lying lol.....Yes indeed the VG30DE is a well crafted engine, thats why im not one for internal mods, like stoking, cams ect ect. Of coarse it depends on what you want out of it, which you said edge of ya seat thrills. Because if its a track car/drag then for sure you will need to upgrade internals like pistons and such. With mine im aiming for stock performance, how she was out of the factory. Im more of a purist for keeping the Zed Stock! I think of it more of a classic sports car. ITB's are illegal tho yeah?
If you want the NA to be fairly quick you don't need half of whats on that list, i'm fairly sure i can turn an NA into a low 14 second car for not much money. Don't get hung up on power figures mate, i know a fair few zeds pushing a lot of power that couldn't back it up with a trap speed to match Dyno's lie, the blacktop doesn't.
Too right brother! As i said im more for doing the small things like porting and polishing...very low cost job and do it yourself, just takes some time. Even with mine just recently i did a plenum pull to replace some hoses, gaskets and to mainly clean my injectors. Holy heck has that made a difference!!!! massive performance gain, very noticeable. So now im going to buy all new spark plugs, coil packs, PTU ect ect.
That's all well and good but this guy is not chasing a minor power increase, he's after 160-180kw which is a hell of a lot for and NA zed. You're not going to get that with little tweaks here and there, you'll need to do some serious work to it. Find a good engine builder and come up with a plan before you start doing anything at all to it, you've got a lot of work to do so might as well do it as efficiently as possible. Basic stuff to start with is reducing any losses in the system you can, light weight flywheel, clutch, driveshaft, UD pulley if you are in to them (bugger getting into that debate here but read up on it and make up your own mind), get rid of air con if you can live with out it etc etc etc. Weight reduction is worth doing too, how far you go depends on how comfortable you want the car to be mostly but if you are getting new wheels anyway investing in some nice light ones will be worth it. As far as the engine work goes I'd say cams and headwork are a given, then look at extra compression, light weight pistons and rods, knife edged crank, all sorts of wierd and wonderful treatments you can give your metal parts to make them stronger/better/sexier that your engine builder should know far more about than me. You could look at either stroking it or getting it to rev higher, maybe both but you may find that gives you some crazy piston speeds, again your engine builder would want to know more about this than me. ITB system would be cool if you could get a good one working, possibly slightly on the expensive side for fabrication but has undeniable cool factor if nothing else. dry sump might be worth looking into as well. Again there will be some fabrication costs but you can usually pick up pumps cheap-ish from US race teams running out of money selling off spares on ebay. Your engine builder/mechanic/fabricator will know more about this than me so talk to them about it. Getting a bit repetitive on that line. Obviously you'll need some sort of after market engine management, Nistune seems to work well for most people but in the end what your chosen tuner is most comfortable with might be the way to go, or choose a good tuner who is comfortable withe the system you want if you have specific needs. As mentioned before, fancy fuel like E85 will give you a bit of leeway with detonation too. There are other little tricks to look into like running the engine cooler than you usually would and such too but again your engine builder would be the one to talk to about those kind of things. Basically plan everything first so you are not doing anything twice and all your mods work with each other as efficiently as possible. Have fun.
I havent looked into the legality of ITB's yet but a number of cars come with them standard so it should be ok. Famous last words when it comes to modifying and the law though. Any parts that I replace will be weighed and only installed if they are lighter. Especially where i'm playing around with unsprung mass. AC is staying for me, unless I can source an aftermarket unit that does the job. Currently I'm on the prowl for some seats that maintain comfort but weigh less than the factory ones. I don't mind losing the electronic adjustment.
Isnt the NA 166kw stock and the TT 224 kw stock rolled of the floor room?? with the NA giving 222hp w/268 N.m and the TT giving us 300hp w/384 N.m. That being said the wont be doing those figures after years of running, so my view is why cant i get back my 222hp and 166Kw with buying new standard parts?
160 rear wheel kw and 160 flywheel kw are two very different things, all manufacturers will quote flywheel hp. As for the cars being less powerful now than when they were made, thats due to many factors, slight compression loss, difference between jap and aus fuel....hell even altitude(height above sea level) will affect power output. Also as per OP's original question, i'd rather a quick and responsive NA with useable power than a 180kw dog that drives around town like rubbish and has no useable power below 6000rpm.
If you want to get high HP out of an NA you kind of have to treat it like a Holden/Ford 6 when it comes to your modding approach.
Welcome back Out of curiousity, is turbo lag is your main concern ? Just thinking out loud here, auto turbos and exhaust cams might give you a surprisingly responsive engine. Not great for top end power but quite useable on the street, plenny torque at lower revs. Honest I've always wondered how this would go with a manual gearbox rather than the power-sapping Jatco auto, anyone ever tried this?
Erik's my Name Pleased to meet you. I figure I just need to treat it like any other motor really. I know its basic but all engines are just pumps really. More air and fuel in = more power out. The VG30DE is an efficient engine but no less capable engine of putting out decent figures. I know it can be done and I'd love to be an example for the rest of the N/A crowd. Its a fantastic motor, so tourquey and that sound.....no nasty turbos to muffle it.
Well M8. Its reasonably easy but its going to cost. 300Hp+ is gotten readily and remarkably reliably out of 2 litre 4 cylinder engines approaching 9000 rpm so no reason you cant aim for that. My M8 down here dynos 620Hp + out of a 2 valve 289 cube Ford V8 @ 8400rpm. Going to be a fairly gnarly engine to drive around on the road tho M8. Revs = horsepower. So, how hard do you want to rev your engine? Once you have a figure there you can begin choosing your goodies and planning your attack! Based on that, and the level of headwork, intake and Cams combo, you carry out, you can reasonably predict how much power your combo will make. All the lightweight tricks, speccie unobtanium components and so-on will more or less help hold the bottom of engine to gether long enough to have some decent fun are easily sourced and nothing is particularly special there. Its relatively straightforward to build a reliable 9000rpm bottom end, BUT, its going to cost. The real limit to how hard you rev it is mostly in the heads/intake and THERE is where you going to unload a lot of coin. Choose your revs, and truck along to a really high end engine builder/tuner/headporter with a pair of heads, have them flowed and then get your builder to choose the work/cams/valves/springs needed to achieve your rpm and ultimately, horsepower goals. Have fun M8 and simply put a "1" on the cheque and let the builder/tuner add the noughts! E
