I've been seeing alot of VQ's take the boost road to engine failure latley, so I was a little curious as to a few things.

First off, for you FI guys:
What parts are the weak ones?
What parts do you recommend building?

Second, to anyone who just has a built VQ (n/a)
What parts have your replaced?
Whats the power difference?

I was looking into grabbing a cam set, nismo heads, nismo pistons and rods, higher lift springs, and a few other goodies around Christmas time (Me and my G will be very close to Intense Motorsports shop so it might take a little trip there)

Thanks all.

2003.5 G35 Coupe Black on black 6MT
JWT pop charger, Z intake tube, UR pulley set, Crawford v5 plenum, Crawford Headers, Crawford cats, Injen SES, Technosquare ECU Crawford Tuning Package.

 

I would say the rods and the pistons are the two weakest links in the VQ. Go with forged rods, forged pistons, forged crank, and lower the compression ratio a bit, and that's a good setup for forced induction with 'reasonable' boost and power levels. If you want to go crazy with boost, you'll need to have the block sleeved and decked too, because the stock block is the next weakest link after the rods and pistons.

Bottom line is, the stock VQ is not a good platform to run anything more than small amounts of boost on. Push more than 375 rwhp through it, and you're really asking for trouble, IMO. Have the engine built right with forged internals, sleeving, and decking, and then you've got a great forced induction motor. The problem is you're talking a lot of money for all that, plus the turbo/supercharger kit, and at some point you have to start asking yourself why do I want to spend $10k+ for a boosted VQ?

2003 G35C, 6MT, DG/G, Aero/Nav/Premium
2002 Corvette Z06, Electron Blue/Black, headers, intake, exhaust, 380 rwhp

 

there are cheaper but just as good or better pistons , rods , heads , and cams out there than Nismo .Im going with Pauter rod ,Arias piston , JWT cams and springs with retainers .Use the extra cash for the labor....Nismo is lots of cash

Couldnt afford it when young...gonna play when Im old

 

Well, I dont know if I want to bulid a boosted VQ... I might just want to build the VQ. Thats my main interest in knowing its "weak links" so to speak. I know the open deck design becomes a problem after roughly 500 hp in stock form, but the internals are obviously not strong enough for that anyway. I've been looking into the AEBS stroker kit, but I think for daily driving, it would be too pro-torque at 262 CID. I remember my old chevy 4.3 was a tq machine down low (250 ft/lbs delivery by ~800 rpms over idle) but sucked with only 180 hp up top. Boosted, however, those motors are a force to be reckoned with (gran nationals, syclones, typhons all ran boosted 4.3's). So I wanted to see how far building the internals of the VQ could be taken without forced induction.

2003.5 G35 Coupe Black on black 6MT
JWT pop charger, Z intake tube, UR pulley set, Crawford v5 plenum, Crawford Headers, Crawford cats, Injen SES, Technosquare ECU Crawford Tuning Package.

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

(gran nationals, syclones, typhons all ran boosted 4.3's)

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The Syclone & Typhoon had boosted 4.3's. The Grand National ran a 3.8L Turbo Buick motor. The 3.8L is a completely different motor than the 4.3L. The 3.8 is an old Buick motor, while the 4.3L is derived from the Chevy 350 (5.7L) small block V-8. Its simply a Chevy 350 with 2 of its cylinders chopped off to make it a 4.3L V-6.

2003 G35C, 6MT, DG/G, Aero/Nav/Premium
2002 Corvette Z06, Electron Blue/Black, headers, intake, exhaust, 380 rwhp