I'm looking for some advice being a newbie to the world of 300zx's. I want to get a bit more power from my car so am looking at raising the boost, fitting a decent exhaust and decat, and some decent airfilters. My question is, is it worth going for a whole new ECU from the likes of MINES?

 

I've been offered the choice of a few different ECUs, a MINES VX ROM, Tomei, Jun and Racing Garage. Apparently they are all design to be run with stock injectors and intercoolers, uprated exhausts and air filters. Has anyone had any experience with any of these?

 

With the ECU, exhaust and air filters, would that be all I need to get it to a "stage 1", if there is such a thing?

Aftermarket ECU/Remapped ECU's are designed to provide the correct fueling and timing parameters to allow you to increase the Turbo boost pressure. They dont provide a significant power increase themselves and they dont increase the boost pressure.

 

To increase boost pressure you need either an Electronic Boost controller (EBC), or "boost jets". An EBC is the most efficient and safest way to increase boost and gives you the flexibility to adjust how much boost you want to run, but are relativelty expensive (150-350 pounds).

 

Boost jets are very cheap, they are basically mig welding tips, used as restrictors in the wastegate feeds. If you go down this route then 1.2mm will typically give you 10-12psi, 1.0mm will typically give you 13-14psi.

 

14psi is a recommended safe boost limit for stock Injectors. Stock boost is 9.5psi.

 

As for Mines, tomei, Jun...etc - These are all ECU's mapped in Japan and come in different versions (if buying 2nd hand you may not know how mild or aggressive its settings are, and if buying new they are very expensive) and they do tend to run higher octane fuel than we do in the UK making them at increased risk of detonation on our UK fuels.

 

I would reccomend getting your ECU remapped by a UK Specialists ( John Dixon, AndyP, DTA, Zedworld ....etc )in the UK. Mapped for UK fuel and your cars spec. Your looking at between 75-150 pounds depending on who you use.

 

ECU, exhaust, filters, 14psi boost increase is a very effictive power upgrade without great expense.

Thanks for the advice, exactly what I was looking for :thumbup1:

 

I'll give the ECU a miss then I think.

 

Will the auto box be able to handle 14psi? It had a full rebuild a few years ago and since then has it's oil check and replaced regulary.