Nissan 350z Tuning Tips

"The "Z" is presumably for Zoom."

A stunning piece of machinery from the Nissan Stable the 350z represents the cutting edge of the everyday sports coupe.

The 350z is certainly well endowed from the factory with power and excellent handling characteristics.

We review 350Z tuning and report on the premier mods that work. Nissan 350Zs have loads of potential and with carefully chosen uprated enhancements you can dramatically maximise your driving experience.

The 350Z is a good car tuning project to try. Take your time and research 350Z tuning to save yourself making the usual disastrous errors we get told about.

The facelift model left much untouched but tweaks were made to the engine giving a much wider power band.

This answered a criticism of the original. True to the Z heritage the 350z has become a cult car in it's own time.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Looking at what NISMO have done to their 350z you can see the awesome tuning potential of these cars. Popular with drifters, track day enthusiasts alike the car has much to offer the enthusiastic tuner. Our members will certainly not shy away from perfecting this awesome car so lets have a peek at some of the 350z tuning options out there.

Practically a classic cult car in its own time, the 350z provides rewarding power gains yet remains a practical everyday car. No wonder then that the 350z gets used by drifters and track day enthusiasts alike.

Compare the 350Z with it's newer brother the 370Z in our 370Z vs 350Z article.

Nissan 350z Tuning modifications.

Typically these modified upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get going.

Getting the right motorsport upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road and will make the car undrivable.

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Guide to the Best Tuning Mods & Upgrades

  1. Mods that Remove a Restriction

    If the intake or exhaust are restricted in any way this will have an impact on your cars performance, so use an induction kit/filter upgrade and better flowing exhaust whenever your tuning creates a flow restriction.

  2. Mods that Improve Handling

    Braking, Suspension and general alignment of the suspension components is vital for any tuning project even before you start increasing power.

  3. Fit Stronger Parts

    Tuned cars will show up weaknesses, typically in the turbochargers, clutch and internal engine components. Whilst most engines can cope with mild tuning mods, TorqueCars recommend that you upgrade the internal components before these weak spots manifest themselves.

  4. ECU Tunes & Remapping

    While some cars can be easily remapped, others may require piggyback ECU's or aftermarket ECU's but this is the most vital step of your tuning project as it fully releases the power from all of your mods and upgrades. Expect 10-20% on NASP engines and 30-40% on turbocharged units.

  5. More Power Needs More Fuel & Air

    Every tuning project will aim to increase the air supply, but fuel supply is just as vital and will need to match the air the engine can utilise. Fuel to Air ratio is vital so upgrade the fuel pump & injectors. Also you can look to perform head mods (flowing and porting), bigger valves, fast road cams and forced induction upgrades to improve fuel.

Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Panel air filter, Remap.

Stage 2 mods: fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

You really need to keep as much low end power as possible and aim to achieve a long power band rather than a narrow top end power spike.

The whole point of our pointers is to give a brief overview of customising performance parts and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your tuning project, the best sport parts and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam is widely accepted as one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust durations and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a performance chip. We'd also caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

Don't forget to increase the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Using high octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your Nissan project after fitting other parts. Uprating the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Nissan 350z Intake and Exhaust.

he next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is generally very little power gain got by fitting an induction kit, they only work well and are recommended after you raise the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope!

Derestricting the flow of air into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound sporty but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not add noticeable power and usually rob you of power on most cars.

Sports exhausts generally help improve air flow out of the engine but do not go too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

Getting the head flowed (ported and polished) will assist in flowing more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a pro with a flow bench. A good fast road power clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never skimp or think that a standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods that we recommend for your 350Z are fast road camshaft, remap, induction and exhaust, suspension.

Turbo engines are just crying out to be flashed. You will see big power gains on most modern turbocharged cars including diesels making a remap one of the most cost effective and big modifications for your money.

We've also seen some tuners toying with twin charging applications and making some seriously high power gains.

Adding forced induction will see phenomenal power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. Superchargers are generally easier to add than a turbo. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with rpm.

The nice proportional boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for loads of people first priority in your 350Z tuning project.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you 350Z usually improving your drive.

Drop the car by as much as 25mm - 37 mm and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Nissan 350z Wheel modifications.

The benefits of alloy wheels include a lower unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. Large 350z alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio. Although some people have gone larger we would stick to a 17 or 18 inch rim size as the maximum on the 350's. Try to keep the overall rotational diameter the same as the standard wheels.

Please join us in our forum to discuss the 350z options in more detail with our 350z owners. It would also be worth reading our 350z tuning articles to get a full grasp of the pros and cons of each type of modification.

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