Explore BR06DE Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Nissan BR06DE

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Nissan BR06DE engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars often are getting messages requesting information on how to improve the BR06DE from people wanting to know what are the optimum BR06DE mods that work. So let us look into Nissan BR06DE tuning mods and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

Let us review BR06DE tuning and highlight the ultimate upgrades. Nissan BR06DE are good project engines and with the best sports enhancements like remaps, turbo kits and camshafts you will greatly improve your driving fun.

Just because particular upgrades are appear in lots of BR06DE projects it doesn't mean it is good, we will concentrate on the greatest upgrades that will give your BR06DE the best power gain for you money.

Without us subscribing to the misaprehension of 'if it's shiny and makes more noise it must be good' you seem to get in many tuning magazines and on car forums'.

Improving air intake on the BR06DE

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is a lack of fuel then it will run lean, if there is not enough air it runs rich sapping power and potentially damaging the engine. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So the primary aim to any engine modification job to feed air and fuel into your BR06DE but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

It is not unusual that there is a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the BR06DE when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

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

Engines intake headers take the on the suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders.

Shape and flow rate of the Intake headers can make a large difference to to fuel mixing and power on the BR06DE.

Most intake are in dire need of aftermarket tuning parts, although a few car makers provide reasonably good intake.

Increasing the BR06DE valve size, carrying out port work and head flowing will also raise power, and as an added benefit will allow you to get an improved power increase on other parts.

BR06DE performance cam tips.

Different BR06DE engines respond better to different camshaft durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The engine timing and injectors and fuel pump also will say much on the torque gains you'll make.

A longer valve duration 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.

Altering your BR06DE cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine bhp. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the bhp accordingly.

NB: Fast road cams normally raise the bhp and torque across the rev band, you could sacrifice a little low down torque but the high end rpm power will improve.

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

A Competition cam makes it harder when on the daily commute.

You should ideally match your torque band to your usage of the car so for a daily driver stick with a shorter duration BR06DE cam

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the BR06DE

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 BR06DE parts:

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

Stage 2 BR06DE parts:

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

Stage 3 BR06DE parts:

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

Mapping will help fully realize the full potential of all the parts you've done to your BR06DE.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but your results usually rely on the parts you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the BR06DE

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the BR06DE.

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.

If a car has a turbo already fitted parts are simpler to install and you'll see that turbo charged engines are built using harder and stronger components.

There are weak spots for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only able to handle stock power

We recommend you find these limits and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to handle the power.

We've seen drivers spending a lot of money on turbo upgrades on the BR06DE only to have the car catastrophically fail on it's first outing after it's been enthusiastically driven.

Big upgraded turbos tend to experience low end lag, and smaller turbos spool up much more quickly but don't have the peak rpm power band gains.

We are pleased that the choice of turbos is always evolving and we now see variable vane turbos, allowing the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbos divert the exhaust gases into two channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbo charger. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large torque gains, although more challenging to setup. We have this guide to twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the BR06DE

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so need to increase the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a bhp hike. At this point we flag up the need to be generous with your flow rate on the injectors.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% to the flow rate when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and gives a bit of spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended BR06DE performance exhaust upgrades

You only need to to upgrade your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the current exhaust is creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is ok even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too big or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches for best results.

Usual exhaust restrictions are in the emissions filters installed, so adding a better flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Catalyst removal (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the BR06DE

Like most engines an BR06DE, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the BR06DE, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned BR06DE this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your BR06DE why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about BR06DE tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their BR06DE.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: engine, nissan
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