Had this car since I was 19.. finally have some $$ and she is garaged as my weekend car.
-looking to go for an R2C cold air intake.
Any suggestions on pulleys and maybe a new gear ratio for the rear end?
Also interested in dyno tuning. Where should I start?
Im from Long Island NY

 

None of these. Intakes offer less power during hot summer weather than stock intakes. Plenum spacer is a goo start.

 

You dont think this would be better then stock?

 

If you like intake noise feel free, but it really doesn't improve much, no offense. Intakes don't do much in terms of performance.

I would recommend a high flow catalytic converter and a nice aftermarket exhaust with a tune. You can read on the super thread about intake "upgrade" myths.

 

Nice car.

I'd stay away from CAI's as the other guys mentioned.

What are your goals for the car? Do you just want to make it a more enjoyable car? Do you intend to race it at a drag strip or possibly autocross? Are you hoping to make it look nicer... sound nicer?

Pick goals and then do the mods that get you there, if you think it's worth it. Without a general plan, you might end up having to redo some of your mods if you come to find out that your initial choice of mod specs doesn't go well with future ones.

 

Clutch, exhaust, suspension.

Or

Exhaust, suspension, clutch.

Or maybe suspension, exhaust, clutch




Agreed not to waste money on intake or headers--I'm not even a fan of the spacer. I assume my JWT intake was the reason my throttlebody was so gunked up recently. Even with very light oiling, I think the oiled filters gunk up throttle bodies over time.

Because the power adders don't make that much power, you're much better off re-doing the suspension to make the car handle and look much better. An exhaust for the sound and a clutch for better engagement are excellent as well.

 

Good point on the suspension. Replace what may be broken before you upgrade other areas!

 

Ide say my goal is torque. I don't want to turn the car into a slammed loud obnoxious ride that doesn't have much function.. I assumed the pulleys, intake and a different gear ratio for the rear end would increase the pick up and power All while keeping the car classy and functional. I'm perfectly fine never going above 70mph as long as I get there damn fast

 

Here's the deal with this car/motor. Unless you're willing to spend over $10K for a supercharger or turbo set up you might as well give up on trying to build any significant gains like 50HP or more with just bolt-ons and a tune. Nissan did a pretty good job tweaking the DE motor from the factory to really maximize the power it can produce. I have/had the following mods and net result was about 45HP (269 vs. 224 stock) over stock which was noticeable but by no means "damn fast".

R2C intake
Motordyne ART pipes
Motordyne resonated XYZ midpipe
Motordyne sedan VQ exhaust
Osiris dyno tune

Those 4 mods at retail price would have cost me over $3000 dollars and without tearing down your motor for a full rebuild with cams, internals, headers and such you're not going to get any more power. By contrast $3K on my GTO would net me over 150 extra HP, now that's money well spent.

 

Understandable, but I don't see anybody that's experimenting with the gear ratio. I don't need more power if I can achieve the same result in terms of quicker 0-60 with a different gear ratio in the rear end. I get the fact my top end will be reduced but in NY I have no need to go over 70mph. I'll never drag race this car either it's purely for messing around in traffic.

 

Mods like an aftermarket gear set make your car a lot less appealing to future buyers. Your car looks really clean.... just something to keep in mind in case you go to sell it in a few years.

 

The most noticeable upgrade for gears would be 4:11 gears, but 80mpg would have you at around 4100rpm. I mean this car already gets horrible MPG; no need to make it worse if it's not purpose built.

Best thing you can do is get an exhaust and then a tune. The tune is what really makes the car much nicer to drive. It feels like a different class of car after a good tune.

 

Then you need to look around the forum and read more. There are tons of threads on swapping out the differentials with different OEM's and aftermarket brands like Quaife and such. I swapped the 3.3 that came with my 5AT for a 3.5 and it made a small difference with off the line grunt, but 1/4 mile times were actually a touch slower due to having the transmission shifting into 4th just before the end of the 1/4. No you can't wring it out because it's right at the rev limiter before the finish line. With the 3.3 it would pass the line still pushing the top end of 3rd. However the 3.5 makes daily driving a lot more fun for sure. You can also swap out to the OEM 3.7 but depending on the transmission it came off the flange might have to be swapped out to fit the first gen cars. Lots of info on this topic over in the Drivetrain sub-forum.

And yes as the gearing gets shorter the RPMs at speed increase. With the 3.5 I'm pushing 3200 RPS at 80 MPH in the G and the gas mileage is terrible. My GTO is a 6MT and at 80 she's purring along at 2000 RPMs and even with the LS2 and spirited driving she gets 4 MPG better gas mileage on the freeway than the G does.

 

Great info thanks! I will look into those other threads. Would it be safe to assume a more aggressive ratio change and the fact my car is 6mt I could expect a more noticeable increase in acceleration and torque?

 

Gas mileage and resale aside. I'm looking to have the most fun with the stock engine I can. I would say a turbo next summer is in the works but for this summer I'm looking for some quick mods and noticeable effects..