Turbonetics Low vs High Boost
Vince’s car made for an interesting case study on the effects of higher boost on some twin turbo kits for the VQ35. This customer had decided to upgrade his injectors to the Deatschwerks drop-in 600cc’s before his tuning session. As a stocking dealer for Deatschwerks, and other injectors, this was not a problem to complete the install and immediately begin the tuning.
After reaching sufficient gains at his current 8 psi, he requested us to turn up the boost to see if more power could be made. While a bit more torque was made throughout the powerband, this dyno shows that a 3 psi gain in boost resulted in more power earlier, but a significant drop off in top-end power. The Turbonetics kit has been known for providing a nice power curve in its’ off the shelf configuration, but it begins to choke the power at higher boost. Both maps were included for the customer to decide which he preferred better.
Self-Installed Vortech Tuning
Nick brought us his very clean looking 2003 350Z on 18″ RPF1’s with a Vortech supercharger kit that he had installed himself. After having us install some new injectors, he wanted to be re-tuned using his Split Second piggy back. The limitations of this were quickly found, and he plans to upgrade to a UTEC or better in the near future.
Despite fighting through some issues with the piggy back system, Hal was able to produce a nearly perfectly linear power curve with strong torque numbers throughout the powerband. Although our heartbreaker dyno struck again with final numbers, I’m sure this powerband makes for a very fun car around town.
Hal’s Personal 350Z Testing
Our in house tuner, Hal, has a 350Z of his own that he enjoys playing with after hours. Much of what we sell is tested on our own cars first, so we’re sure that it works for our customers. Our drag car has always been one of the “test mules,” but Hal’s car receives credit as well for pushing the limits of his VQ35 so you don’t have to. This particular 350Z is a daily driver for the most part, capable of making big power while reliably running on regular pump gas.
Hal’s 350Z features an Injected Performance Stage 1 shortblock, our most popular 3.5L build, with Eagle rods and CP pistons. No head work has been done except for Brian Crower Stage 3 cams, matching springs and retainers, and the Cosworth intake manifold. This dyno run of 613 whp shows the typical power it makes on 93 octane pump gas and no type of meth injection or similar.
These results show the benefits of a properly sized turbo and piping setup. In this case, it is a GT4202R. Power is made even at the 8,000rpm mark, well above a stock VQ35.
After adding a bit of Q16 and turning the boost up to 28psi, Hal continued to tune with the Haltech to reach a final level of 772 whp. Stay tuned as Hal prepares to get ready for the track to make a few shakedown passes.
An Unexpected Power Enterprise Build
Several months ago, one of our customers had a recently purchased 350Z with the Power Enterprise TT kit that unexpectedly decided to let go on him soon after purchasing. Rather than giving up on it, he decided to let us work through the issues and make him some more power in the meantime.
Upon picking the car up, we soon noticed that the Power Enterprise manifolds and turbos would need to be replaced at the very least. In addition, several years of rust from the salt and snow along the coast had taken a toll on his engine bay and engine itself.
We decided to go with brand new Power enterprise manifolds and turbos, an Injected Performance Stage 1 short block, and fresh heads with upgraded valvetrain. Many other items were replaced with brand new components as well, including a powdercoated front engine cover and Power Enterprise air filters.
Our customer wanted to continue using his UTEC for engine management, and several maps were created for different power levels and exhaust setups. At the time, a stock-like exhaust was still installed on the car. This severely limited the amount of power to be made. Disconnecting the exhaust yielded major gains, and showed more than enough evidence for our customer to decide on a larger and more free-flowing exhaust. The dyno chart below shows a before and after with his original exhaust and then removing the restrictive piping.
After a thorough re-build, our customer was happy to receive his refreshed 350Z. He is now enjoying a very responsive and reliable Power Enterprise kit that is surely lots of fun on the street. We used our motorhome and fully enclosed trailer to deliver the car back on a beautiful Monday morning.
