Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi,

I have bought myself a r33 gts-t turbo manual with only 86,000ks. The car is immaculate, its my first turbo car and my first nissan and I must say I have fallen in love with it.

The car is currently stock and has a pod filter (no box), cat back exhaust (appears to be good quality, 3inch stainless with two large mufflers, fairly quiet)

I have done a service on it myself, cleaned the afm, new engine oil, diff oil, gearbox oil and new platinum plugs. it is going in this week for a timing belt and water pump. Oh the other mod is a big alloy radiator...

anyway now that the car is all serviced up I want to start modifying it for a little more power.

My goal here is to make it as responsive as possible while keeping as much power in the usable street range as possible.

This is what I had in mind, was keen to see what people though, what I havnt thought of and what they think the gains will be? not just from a power point of view but an on road feel.

I have got most of these parts, just waiting on the cooler and then a day off to fit it all at once.

- Return flow intercooler (to keep it legal)

- re-fit stock airbox

- fit a BMC panel filter

- make a scoop to direct air up into the snorkle

This will be stage one. what should I get out of this?

stage two will be

- fit a 3inch dump pipe

- replace rear muffler with a cannon or something similar for a little better note as it is too quiet

At this point will I need a full tune or should the computer adjust for it accordingly?

If I am not happy with it still I will have the boost pressure increased to 10ish or more if required but will be mindful of the stock turbo.

Look forward to peoples input

Thanks

Jason

Hi,

I have bought myself a r33 gts-t turbo manual with only 86,000ks. The car is immaculate, its my first turbo car and my first nissan and I must say I have fallen in love with it.

The car is currently stock and has a pod filter (no box), cat back exhaust (appears to be good quality, 3inch stainless with two large mufflers, fairly quiet)

I have done a service on it myself, cleaned the afm, new engine oil, diff oil, gearbox oil and new platinum plugs. it is going in this week for a timing belt and water pump. Oh the other mod is a big alloy radiator...

anyway now that the car is all serviced up I want to start modifying it for a little more power.

My goal here is to make it as responsive as possible while keeping as much power in the usable street range as possible.

This is what I had in mind, was keen to see what people though, what I havnt thought of and what they think the gains will be? not just from a power point of view but an on road feel.

I have got most of these parts, just waiting on the cooler and then a day off to fit it all at once.

- Return flow intercooler (to keep it legal)

- re-fit stock airbox

- fit a BMC panel filter

- make a scoop to direct air up into the snorkle

This will be stage one. what should I get out of this?

stage two will be

- fit a 3inch dump pipe

- replace rear muffler with a cannon or something similar for a little better note as it is too quiet

At this point will I need a full tune or should the computer adjust for it accordingly?

If I am not happy with it still I will have the boost pressure increased to 10ish or more if required but will be mindful of the stock turbo.

Look forward to peoples input

Thanks

Jason

A lot of people will probably bitch and whine and complain that you haven't done a search :P

As a rule of thumb, if you search for something and can't find it, you're not looking hard enough :P haha

You will not NEED to get a tune with the stuff you have listed. a) Unless your ECU is something other than stock, you can not tune it and b) Those mods wont be pushing the boundaries too badly.

However as you increase the boost and therefore increase the airflow you can hit R & R. If you don't know what it is, searchy search :)

Personally, I would not just do a 3" dump pipe and then change the cannon, If you are going to go to the trouble of fitting a 3" dump you may as well fit a full 3" system :)

Other than that I think you are on track for some good starting mods :) better outflow of exhaust gas, better intake of clean air, cooler charged air at TB and a little more boost. In the eyes of response though, the big front mount will increase the lag, but if you are going to up the boost a little more then there should be a fair trade off. If you want a tiny bit more boost without spending big money you can look in the DIY section for "hi boost mode" or something like that using the stock boost solenoid. Or you can get an rb20 actuator.

That should keep you happy for a while.........until your new found addiction strikes again

straight through exhaust FTW :P

pretty sure changing to a cannon wont do much other than empty your wallet. put it somewhere more worthwhile like a piggyback ecu at the least if you're not going to get a full standalone.

i reckon around 10 extra rwkw, if you do as blood suggests and get an ecu then 20 or so. I personally wouldn't waste my $$$ on a safc2 or anything if you intend modding because you will quickly reach its limits. Bite the bullet and go a complete ecu right from the start, you will never look back. And forget the zorst for now, what you have sounds more than up to the task, put your $$$ where you will get the best bang for bucks.

you sound pretty on track with where your headed imo , when you get the dump/front pipe , get a high flow cat converter , is your exh a 3in? . The bigger intercooler won't cause any noticable lag (if any , the dump/front pipe will bring boost on earlier which will bring it back to stock or better responce anyway) . Make sure your fuel pump is healthy (or just buy a new one if it hasn't been replaced , prefferably bosh 040/044) , block the stock boost controller off and get one of the cheap t piece ones that are all over this site , set it to 8psi for now , buy yourself a power fc if you can afford it or an safc will do for now and GET IT TUNED , imo best bang for buck mod is a decent tuner @ $500~

p.s another thing that may help is replacing the oxy sensor and water temp sensor , both are servicable items but i never hear of people replacing them! (and fuel filter when you do the fuel pump)

Edited by toffy

good info. yeah it is a 3inch system and i think it has a high flow cat but i will check it when i put the dump pipe in.

Will I cause any harm if i run the car with the cooler, full exhaust and stock boost? will it cause problematic AFRs?

I will get it tuned but I just want to make sure I get all the mods I want done first.

Definately will change those sensors too. thanks for the tip!

You won't cause any harm as the stock ECU with those mods will run rich not lean.

Unsure why everyone is suggestinng SAFC. For a tiny bit extra I would go a Nistune. Full retunable ECU so will get you more gain now & you won't have to upgrade again l.aterif you add more mods...

so if i put these mods on it will run ricjer not leaner? i know they run rich from the factory so i thought with the extra cooling ability and therefore denser intake charge it would balance the AFRs out a bit more.

picking up the cooler tonight. very large return flow cooler. I got myself a stock airbox with snorkle which I will put back in at the same time. hoping for good results!

next will be the dump pipe to match the rest of the exhaust.

I had the timing belt done yesterday and asked the guys to check out my exhaust. they said the cat is xforce (any good?) and that the exhaust is a 3inch mandral stainless but has twin pipes inside the mufflers which can be a bit of a restriction. probably not enough to worry about with what I am chasing (approx 200rwkw with the stock turbo)

The mods you plan are fine but note

1. You won't need a "full tune" which is just as well because there is no way of tuning your motor.

2. It won't go much faster until you up the boost to 10 -12 psi (cheap T as suggested - bypass the solenoid altogether don't stuff around with earthing it).

3. When you want to tune it a Nistune chip in a Z32 ecu or whatever it takes to retain your vct is the best and most cost efective way to go.

4. Spend some time reading on this website - there is a ton of information on how to make your car go and stop and handle better.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Bummer...yeah i "need" something to "ease" up the work and for my driving it would be enough.    Iam counting the tune "without" turbo. I do not mean "cheap" like something from Temu around 200 USD, "Cheap" is something around 1000 USD? 
    • Starter motors used to use the weight of metal (magnets) to provide torque. Now they use (more) current instead. This. It's completely normal.
    • So thing that had me stumped, but I think is OK....is that when it was up in the air, in neutral I had it running to bleed to coolant while I put the wheels back on. I noticed the rears were turning (slowly) which I'd never seen before 20250928_163512.mp4     Because there had been an issue with clutch slip due to pedal adjustment on the dyno, I assumed there was still and issue so spent some quality time upside down under the dash adjusting the pedal....but no matter what I did the wheels still turned in neutral. Even disconnected the master cylinder to pedal rod and same. In despair, I even removed the clutch slave so there was no chance of any preload causing it.....still happened. So either: 1. Something is not right in the bellhousing, or 2. Its a thing sometimes with cold, thick gearbox oil Internet says it might be 2, I hope so!
    • OK, few more things sorted and it is ready for a shakedown on 10-Oct, with one weird thing. Changed the run in oil and filter for the good stuff. 8l came out, about 8.5 went in with filter so that looks all good. Changed the starter (again), this time for a brand new one, works good. Interesting that the Taaaarks one is shorter than factory but spins harder, I guess electronics have moved on a little in the last 30 years. Will be nice to have a bit of extra space under there. Put the timing cover back on, and noted where the cam gears were set as a record.  Will need to double check the timing but it is pretty close. Also put the coil pack cover and intake snorkel back on. Exhaust Inlet Changed the water out for coolant, bled up nicely. Removed the rear brake pads (well worn factory sumitomo ones!), gave the hardware a good clean and reassembled. I've put bendix XP on the back again because the price is excellent at $150 a set and they worked well on the V37. Front pads have plenty so no issue there
×
×
  • Create New...