Ok so soon I should be ready to start the build of my na auto z, some of you may have seen my newbie thread that I have started. The plan is to strip her down engine out ect ect and sort the body first, bushes, suspension, under seal, all the usual things. Ok so with the engine out I want to re-build the na engine forging it at the same time, my aim is for 500whp with nice torque.

 

So the questions.

1. Internals, what brand do people tend to use when building up the vg and also is there anywhere in the uk that can supply as when looking a lot of the parts ect I'd like to use are in the u.s.

2. Turbos, what turbo's would people recommend using for the power, I'd rather have a nicely matched set up that just sticking some turbos on. Gt2560r ? Or is that overkill.

3. Management, I have searched but can't really find what I'm looking for. Now I know a lot op people have good power using the o.e.m ect with a chip would that be enough for my power goal or would it be standalone time ?

4. Cams, would I need to use more aggressive cams, not in the z community but I have seen elswere people putting stupidly aggressive cams in when there really is no need for there set up, overkill. So would the standard cams be up to the job, I'm debating weather to have my heads ported but I will be port matching the head/manifold.

 

That's about it any replies are much appreciated. By far the most friendly/helpful forum from what iv seen so far.

 

Cheers,, Sean

DBut is the stock ECU fit for purpose to run AND keep safe a 300 hp performance engine.....

 

No. It's not.

 

Nick there are plenty of people running around with stock/mapped ECU's running 300hp and above without problems or reliability

issues. It all depends on the preparation and setup. For folks like you who are pushing the mechanical, electronics, cooling and fueling

limits then yes it can make sense. How much has your new engine management system cost you to install and setup?

Thank you for the reply lads and for understanding what I meant haha, yes I did notice the way it crosses over. As I'm building up the na I'm guessing I'm going to have to drill and tap the block for the oil feed/return for the turbos. When people talk about what psi they are running ie 14psi is that whole 7psi+7psi or what each turbo is producing ?

Oil galleries for the turbos are already there to use mate. Just take the bolt out.

 

Yes, any reference to boost is the total amount. They are parallel so each turbo produces 7,9,14 whatever the set value is and combined they also produce 7,9,15 etc. Its not a case of one makes 7 and so does the other making 14, they both produce 14psi. However if one failed you would feel lots of lag and struggle to make boost as one turbo would struggle to produce enough air and obviously half the engine would be starved.

Nick there are plenty of people running around with stock/mapped ECU's running 300hp and above without problems or reliability

issues. It all depends on the preparation and setup. For folks like you who are pushing the mechanical, electronics, cooling and fueling

limits then yes it can make sense. How much has your new engine management system cost you to install and setup?

 

While yes it's true there are loads of people running a stock setup with no problems, what I'm trying to get at is how many of those people running a stock setup have an engine failure that could have been prevented if a modern Ecu was installed. My stock engine went pop for due det, I wasn't running any increased boost, just exhaust and intake mods, yet it cracked a ring land on cylinder 6. Would my current Ecu setup have prevented that damage, yes it would because it would have detected either a drop in fuel pressure/high air temps/knock etc etc etc and reacted to it.

 

My Haltech with wideband controller, map sensor, intake air temp sensor, boost solenoid, fuel pressure sensor and oil pressure sensor came in at about £1570 to my door and I fitted it myself, easy job, no harder than installing a boost controller.

 

In hindsight, if I'd spent that money as a first modification, I wouldn't have needed either of my forged builds

I ran 500rwhp for about 8 months on a custom mapped chip, worked fine in terms of being able to be mapped to give that power, but had 25% of the safety features, which is what ultimately caused my engine to go pop.

 

So when did this happen?

Cheers Stephen that's good to know and on the boost side of things it seems the vg makes a lot of power with not a lot of boost, on the ecu side of things I don't think that's to bad a price considering what you get that a standalone has to offer

Was meant to say not a bad price

So when did this happen?

 

October 2013.... Whilst on a chipped Ecu, not the Haltech...

 

 

Yes, it's been off the road THAT long

Depends on what you define as up to the job.

 

Can a stock Ecu have its fuelling and ignition timing adjusted to suit performance modifications: Yes

 

Can a stock Ecu monitor knock throughout the entire rev range: No it can't. It only detects knock up to circa 5200rpm. While a mapper can adjust the map to avoid knock whilst on a dyno using a set of det cans, the instant you take off the det cans, there ends your high rpm knock detection. The theory would be that once it's mapped it's safe, but that's ENTIRELY dependant on your car running in the way it ran on the dyno. Anything outside of those parameters, the Ecu was VERY limited capability to adjust to compensate.

 

Can a stock Ecu monitor fuel pressure/ oil pressure/ oil temp/ wideband O2 sensors/ egt sensors etc etc etc that enable finer tuning AND safety functions: No it cant

 

Can a stock Ecu adjust the map and engage safety measures to potentially save the engine should any of those sensor read outside whatever parameters you/mapper decide: No it cant.

 

Please don't take this as me being padantic, that's not my aim. But is the stock ECU fit for purpose to run AND keep safe a 300 hp performance engine.....

 

No. It's not.

 

i get were you are coming form, but then you have a issue of finding some one to map the stand alone ecu seems there is very few who really really 100% know what there doing. i had a stand alone ecu on my lotus elise few years ago fk me issues i had getting mappers to get it rite in the end went back to the stock ecu. had a porsche 3.2 had after market back box hi flow cats 996 throttle pot had some guy map that was just awful again in the end flashed it with a map from super chips and it ran ok. a bmw 2.8 z3 with manifold swap decats bored throttle pot and full system used a piggy back ecu must have a had some guy tune it like 8 times and still it was never bang on. fire blade 929 after market cans air filter few other bit ran funny used a power commander put on witha base map then tweeked to get it rite that ran good but goes to show there it very few that really know about tuning ecu.s not had much luck with mappers. the 300xzx is now next in line to get mapper but were its going now to be done am just not sure

i get were you are coming form, but then you have a issue of finding some one to map the stand alone ecu seems there is very few who really really 100% know what there doing. i had a stand alone ecu on my lotus elise few years ago fk me issues i had getting mappers to get it rite in the end went back to the stock ecu. had a porsche 3.2 had after market back box hi flow cats 996 throttle pot had some guy map that was just awful again in the end flashed it with a map from super chips and it ran ok. a bmw 2.8 z3 with manifold swap decats bored throttle pot and full system used a piggy back ecu must have a had some guy tune it like 8 times and still it was never bang on. fire blade 929 after market cans air filter few other bit ran funny used a power commander put on witha base map then tweeked to get it rite that ran good but goes to show there it very few that really know about tuning ecu.s not had much luck with mappers. the 300xzx is now next in line to get mapper but were its going now to be done am just not sure

 

Couldn't agree more. I ended up choosing someone who knew the Haltech really well (they're one of the UK distributors) rather than someone who specifically knew Z's.