Tuning Feature: Nissan TD42 Modified

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Nissan TD42 engine!"

We are regularly getting messages asking how to improve the TD42 from people wanting to know what are the best TD42 power upgrades. So let us look into Nissan TD42 upgrades and outline the best mods that work on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

Our aim here is to outline options for your TD42 tuning and summarise the best upgrades. Nissan TD42 are awesome to work on and with carefully chosen performance upgrades like a remap, turbo improvements and camshafts you will dramatically increase the drivers fun of your car.

The greatest TD42 tuning parts on an engine are usually the ones that give the best value for money.

We won't be swayed by popular TD42 tuning parts, they need to be cost effective.

The cam profile plays a big part in the engines power output so cam upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake and exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen cam profile, so large power band gains are on offer for cam upgrades.

NB: Fast road camshafts tend to push up the bhp and torque over the rev range, you could drop a little low end torque but your higher rpm power will be better.

Motorsport and race camshafts, push up the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Motorsport cam will just annoy you whilst driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally match your bhp range to your cars usage so for a typical daily driver stick with a mild fast road TD42 cam

Some TD42 engines respond better to extreme camshaft durations so view each engine as unique.

The map and injectors and fuel pump also will make differences on the torque gains you'll hit.

Altering valve 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.

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TD42 Tuning Stages

Stage 1 TD42 modifications: Sports exhaust manifold, Fast road camshaft, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Intake headers, Panel air filters, Drilled & smoothed airbox.

Stage 2 TD42 modifications: high flow fuel injectors, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit, Ported and polished head, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam.

Stage 3 TD42 modifications: Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Mapping helps unlock the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your TD42.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the outcome usually depend much on the upgrades you've applied and the condition of your engine.

It is the main goal to any engine modification project to feed more air into each cylinder

Intake carry the air from the filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders.

Structure and flow rate of the Air Intake manifolds can make a substantial change to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the TD42.

It's not uncommon that intake are ripe for motorsport parts, although some car makers provide reasonably well designed intake.

Big valve conversions on the TD42, getting port matching and head flowing will also raise power, and more importantly will give you raising the power increase on other tuning parts.

Turbo upgrades for the TD42

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 TD42

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

When a car has a turbocharger mods are relatively easy and turbocharged engines are built using harder and stronger components.

However you'll find engines have weakspots

We recommend you find these limitations and upgrade to better quality components to utilize the power.

There are many guys spending a loads on turbo upgrades on the TD42 only to experience the whole thing catastrophically fail when it's first rolling road session.

Larger capacity turbos commonly suffer a bottom end lag, and low capacity turbos spool up much more quickly but don't have the top end engines power gains.

In recent times the range of turbo units is always increasing and we are seeing variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

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

It is not unusual that there's a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the TD42 when considerably more air is being drawn into the engine.

We see 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped torque at a much lower level.

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

Uprating TD42 fuel injectors

When you boost the performance you will need to increase to the fuel delivery.

More performance needs more fuel. We would recommend you to over specify your flow rate on the injectors.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% when specifying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and affords you some spare capacity should the engine require 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 TD42 performance exhausts

You only need to to uprate your exhaust if your current exhaust is actually causing a restriction.

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

Sports exhausts can help balance the flow of gases through the engine.

But if your exhaust pipe is too large, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a great deal of your flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located in the filters installed, so adding a better flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Problems and issues to look out for on the TD42

The TD42 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 TD42, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

For more information on Tuning your TD42 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our TD42 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 tuning mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our TD42 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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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.

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