Tuning Feature: Nissan MRA8DE Modified

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Nissan MRA8DE engine!"

We are always getting posts inquiring about getting more power from the MRA8DE and wanting to know what are the best MRA8DE power upgrades. So let us look into Nissan MRA8DE parts and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

In this article we examine MRA8DE tuning and highlight the ultimate modifications for your car. Nissan MRA8DE make awesome project engines and with a few sensible upgrades like remapping, turbo kits and camshafts you will certainly improve the drivers fun of your car.

When talking about the best parts for your MRA8DE engine, we are going to concentrate on the modifications that give the biggest return for your cash.

Significant power increases can be made on engines, and the MRA8DE is no exception, with cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road cams tend to raise the torque over the rev band, you may sacrifice a little bottom end bhp but the top end will be lifted.

Race cams, raise the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Race camshaft won't do well if in heavy traffic.

You should ideally match your power band to your typical driving style so for a typical daily driver stick with a shorter duration MRA8DE camshaft

Some MRA8DE engines respond better to more or less aggressive camshaft durations than others.

The engine timing and fuel pump and injectors also have a large bearing on the torque gains you'll get.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

MRA8DE Tuning Stages

Stage 1 MRA8DE modifications: Panel air filters, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust manifold, Fast road camshaft, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox.

Stage 2 MRA8DE modifications: fuel pump upgrades, high flow fuel injectors, induction kit, Ported and polished head, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam.

Stage 3 MRA8DE modifications: Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Twin charging conversions, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves).

ECU mapping allows a tuner to to establish the full potential of all the mods you've done to your MRA8DE.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the end result usually rely on the mods you've done and the condition of your engine.

Pulling more fuel and air into the MRA8DE engine is the main goal to any engine modification job.

Intake manifold flow the air during the suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Design and rate of flow of the Intake can make a noticeable change to fuel mixing and power on the MRA8DE.

I usually find intake are begging for motorsport parts, although a few car makers provide reasonably good intake.

Adding a MRA8DE larger valve kit, carrying out MRA8DE port enlargement and head flowing will also increase torque, and as an added benefit will afford you raising the torque increase on other parts.

Turbo upgrades for the MRA8DE

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your MRA8DE

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes superb power gains.

When the engine is turbo charged tuning mods are relatively easy and we find turbocharged engines are made with harder and stronger components.

However engines will need better parts at higher power limits

It is important to find these limits and fit better quality components to cope with the power.

We've seen people spending a loads on turbo upgrades on the MRA8DE only to experience the MRA8DE literally blow up just after it's completed.

Bigger capacity turbochargers often suffer a bottom end lag, and smaller turbochargers spool up more quickly but do not have the high rpm power band gains.

Thanks to new tech the choice of turbo units is always improving and we now see variable vane turbo units, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and flow these at differently angled vanes in the turbo charger. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there is a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the MRA8DE when a lot more air is being fed into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp gains, although more difficult to configure. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Uprating MRA8DE fuel injectors

Don't overlook the need to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the performance - it makes the car more thirsty. It makes sense to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% when buying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and affords a little spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Best MRA8DE performance exhausts

Only look to boost your exhaust if your exhaust is actually creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the flow rate is ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Do not go with the largest exhaust you can source this will slow the exhaust rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Common exhaust restrictions can be located in the filters installed, so adding a higher flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the MRA8DE

The MRA8DE engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues. {But if neglected they can cost a small fortune|When neglected they get very expensive to run|They can however be quite expensive if neglected| }

Regular oil changes are vital on the MRA8DE, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your MRA8DE engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our MRA8DE owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help to complete and improve this page, so do give us your feedback in the comments box below.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which parts were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our MRA8DE guides and tips are kept up to date.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Nissan. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.