New to the forum. I have owned my 2005 G35 rev up sedan for a year now, and it has been a great experience so far. Lots of maintenance done but i have learned to appreciate this car a lot.

I am looking for inspiration from turbo or supercharged built engine sedans. What are the go to brands for forged engine parts that are recommended by the people who have already built their rev-ups specifically. I have seen stock compression, built bottom end engine builds hit 500-600whp with boost on the rev ups. All suggestions welcome for pistons, rods, bearings, block cooling mods/ headgasket, valvetrain, etc.

Also, any LS swapped sedans on here?

Here is a photo of my ride. It is my current winter daily driver in Canada.

 

Rods/pistons is basically the same for EVERY engine, just pick a manufacturer you like that meets the specs and price you're looking for. Eagle rods and Wiseco pistons is almost an industry standard at this point.

Block cooling do the HR head gasket mod, pretty straightforward, don't overthink it it's easy. Google where to dremel the metal off the block for that mod, use the rev-up thermostat it opens at a lower temp. Keep the OEM HR gasket for the power level you're shooting for, no need to get a cometic gasket.

You forgot to add head bolts to your shopping list That's the next most important after rods/pistons.

Cams are EXPENSIVE (like as much as your engine kit will cost) but definitely make big power.

SC or turbo is up to you, hard to go wrong with an SC but you aren't going to make the low end torque like a turbo. However a basic TT setup (heck even a basic single turbo...) is going to cost a pretty significant amount more than a SC. Expect $10k with even the most budget turbo setup (Rev9 with a few mandatory upgrades because some things like the BOV are trash in that kit) and that's getting some of the stuff used or buddy discount. The Vortech SC brand new is like $6k for literally everything. These prices are not including any labor.

There's been quite a few LS swaps but they too are expensive because of all the extra stuff that needs to be purchased, have you looked into an HR swap instead of building the rev-up DE? You keep all your stock instrumentation and everything bolts in and just WORKS (unlike the LS swap which won't talk to your instrument cluster).

If you were looking to make 500whp I'd say stick with the rev-up, if you are actually shooting for 600whp I'd strongly suggest looking at an HR swap, the crank/piston angle is better and the cylinders aren't prone to walking like the DE is above 600whp. If you stop AT 600WHP then the DE will be fine but there have been quite a few examples of the cylinders walking at higher than 600whp and 7500rpm. The HR is all around built better for higher rpm / higher whp applications. However there have been plenty of examples of the DE pushing 1000+whp if built properly.

Go with the biggest intercooler you can fit if you do go SC, replace the stock bash bar with a chrome moly one because the vortech SC depending on trim level is a 1100cfm pump and you need to match it to an 1100 cfm intercooler or you're just leaving power on the table. That's a BIG intercooler though and you will need to remove the stock bash bar.

 

Lots of good info from Cleric here!!

 

Cleric thank you for all this valuable information. I heard L19 head bolts should be used? Do you have a built G of your own? or a daily driver

I have considered the HR swap, but that does not bolt up to my cd009. From what i've read, i would need the JK transmission, and a few other things, which would be difficult unless i have a whole parts car.

 

Yeah the L19 bolts will work great for your power levels.

No I haven't built my G, just some random bolt-ons but it's a DD summer car so I really don't WANT to build it. My plan has always been to purchase a 2006 Skyline coupe as soon as they're 25 years old and can be imported to the USA because I want a right hand drive G35, that one is only getting built to about 350-375whp and I'm going to do a HR sedan AWD swap on it (3.7 gears!). AWD right hand drive coupe is going to be amazing. Need to start shopping for a wrecked 2007-2008 X sedan sometime in the next couple years. I think I've hit the point in my life where I really don't want to own any more high hp cars. I got a clean driving record for the first time in my life about 5 years ago and it's crazy how much lower your insurance is when you don't have a mountain of speeding taxes tickets on it. Plus my kids are almost at the college age and fast cars are very expensive.

I've done a LOT of work on other local G/Z cars though, pretty much everything except for tuning.

As for the tranny, yes you will need the JK4# but it's a very stout transmission so that's not an issue. The reason the CD00# is more popular is because it comes factory with an external slave cylinder. The JK4# has a factory INTERNAL slave cylinder(concentric slave cylinder) that's garbage, there are a few companies that make an external slave kit for it but it just adds more money to the cost, it's like $450 for that external slave kit.

Ideally you would be buying a wrecked chassis HR if you were going to do that swap because for about $1500 for a wrecked car you get a good engine, tranny, wiring harness, ECM. However if you aren't planning on building more than 600whp just stick with the rev-up it's a fine engine but if it kabooms it's a LOT harder to find rev-up parts which were fairly uncommon to begin with, whereas there are TONS of HR parts readily available.

Google search used motor prices, rev-up engines go for like $3k for high mileage ones whereas the HR is like $1500 for low mile ones. I do strongly recommend trying to find a donor rev-up if you do built yours because a lot of the stuff on it like the exhaust magnet retarders are crazy expensive to buy. If you can get a thrashed but still usable rev-up donor for $800 BUY IT!

 

Here in Canada it is very hard to find them and it would cost 3-4x for a wrecked chassis. The used engine alone here would be at least $1500. Prices have gone up a lot lately. I am at 196k km now and I check my oil daily. It does not burn much, really depends on how much rpm's you give it each drive. But I am trying to plan out what direction to take if I were to build it. HR vs LS vs built rev-up for the long term.

Damn that would be a pretty unique build there. Would you try to make it manual/awd?

 

No not really considering manual/awd that would take a lot of weird piecing together of stuff, possible if I went LS swap to T56 with a trailblazer transfer case but I'm not really interested in something like that. Besides those HR awd sedans with a vortech and shift kit are plenty fast for what I'm wanting out of the car.

As for which powertrain is best for you, really just depends on what exactly you have available, how much power you realistically want to make, and how much you want to spend. LS can comfortably and EASILY make 350 with a cam and some minor other stuff but a T56 is expensive, you can use a bellhousing adapter to mate to the CD00#, and the other adaptor stuff you need to make the swap adds up the cost REALLY quickly. Then you run into issues with the dash... if you wanted to go big big power (1000+) then the LS would be the best LONG TERM option.

HR has a much more plentiful used market than the rev-up but you need the tranny, ecu, and harness.

Obviously the rev-up will be the cheapest option because you already have it, but you're already at 120k miles so I would REALLY not recommend throwing a turbo on with that many miles (but a vortech at 400whp would be fine for probably 80k miles depending on current compression) so you're looking at a rebuild which will substantially increase your cost.

I would write up a COMPLETE cost for each option, if you are SURE you'll be happy with 500-600 then I wouldn't really seriously consider the LS option if this was a daily driver type of car, track car then sure because you just stick your Holley EFI dash right over the top of your speedometer/tach and can still see your gas gauge on the side of it

 

Also, just because you're in Canada doesn't mean you can't look in the US for a salvage HR car, it's not like you're going to be registering it in Canada, it would be just for parts. Tow home and chop it to pieces when you're done.

 

That is very valid. Thank you for the wealth of information. Do you know any specific salvage dealers or places in the USA that have lots of Z's and G's for salvage HR's?

For me I do not think I would ever go above 600. 450-500whp is plenty. I don't want to daunt you with all that work. It would be nice to get a complete idea of how much it would be to build the rev up, and all the extra stuff/accessories needed like fuel system etc., best turbo location (mid/top mount), or supercharger set up. Would i have to upgrade the driveshaft?

 

For 500whp just keep the rev-up and all you need is rods, pistons, an upgrade fuel pump (walbro 255 probably) you don't need to convert over to a fuel return system until above 500, and bigger injectors. TECHNICALLY you can even run the stock fuel non-return system to like 800whp but you have to run some extreme pressure at the pump and tune for the pressure drop. Switching to the return-style system (CJM makes a kit) makes it easier to work with in the long run so it is something you should consider.

Turbo location depends on whether you want a single or twins, single mounts in basically the same location as a supercharger would.

Driveshaft is fine unless you're running street slicks, never going to make enough traction to break it however the 1 piece aluminum ones are a performance improvement you will feel even on a stock motor, they're like half the rotating mass of the stock steel one plus they eliminate the carrier bearing which has a lot of play, build a driveshaft hoop that bolts onto the stock carrier bearing location though.

I'm sure there are quite a few Youtube videos of complete vortech SC installs and the Rev9 turbo kit installs so you can get an idea what the project will entail.