Car tuning tips:BR10D Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Nissan BR10D

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Nissan BR10D engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars are always seeing threads asking about how to improve the BR10D from people inquiring about getting more power from the BR10D and wanting to know what are the greatest BR10D mods that work. So let us look into Nissan BR10D upgrades and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some frequent tuning mistakes along the way.

Now we shall review BR10D tuning and summarise the optimum upgrades. Nissan BR10D have loads of potential and with carefully chosen performance mods like remapping, turbo improvements and camshafts you will positively increase your driving opportunities.

When talking about the greatest parts for your BR10D engine, we are going to concentrate on the modifications that give the best power gain for you money.

Improving air intake on the BR10D

You need air matched to fuel for an engine to work. If there is too little fuel then it will run lean, if there is insufficient air it runs rich sapping power which risks damage to the BR10D. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So Pulling more air into each cylinder is the primary aim to any engine modification task.

It is not unusual that there is a limit in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on the BR10D when considerably 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 sapped bhp at a much lower level.

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

The shape and flow characteristics of the Headers can make a substantial effect on to fuel engine efficiency on the BR10D.

Most headers are in desperate need of performance upgrades, although a few manufacturers provide well optimised headers.

Increasing the BR10D valve size, doing some BR10D port enlargement and head flowing will also increase power, and importantly will afford you raising the power increase on other modifications.

BR10D performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to more or less aggressive cam durations so view each engine as unique.

The engine timing and injectors and fuel pump also have an effect on the torque gains you'll make.

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.

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

NB: Fast road camshafts commonly bump the power over the rpm band, you could sacrifice a little low down torque but your top end will be higher.

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

On a car used daily you must carefully try to optimize your power band to your usage of the car.

I'd be surprised if you have ever thought a BR10D Motorsport cam is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the BR10D

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 BR10D parts:

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

Stage 2 BR10D parts:

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

Stage 3 BR10D parts:

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

ECU flashing allows a tuner to to establish the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your BR10D.

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 may rely on the tuning mods you've applied and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the BR10D

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 BR10D.

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 the engine is turbocharged, modifications are simpler to install and turbo engines are built using better components.

However every engines have limits

Discover these restrictions and upgrade to higher quality components to survive the power.

We see many car owners spending a fortune on turbocharger upgrades on the BR10D only to see the BR10D go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's finished.

Bigger upgraded turbo chargers will usually suffer a bottom end lag, and smaller turbo chargers spool up more quickly but don't have the high rpm torque gains.

In recent times the choice of turbo units is always evolving and we now see variable vane turbo units, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust gases into a couple of channels and push these at differently profiled 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 performance gains, although more difficult to get working. We have this guide to twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the BR10D

Don't omit to look at the fuel delivery when you are increasing the torque - it makes the car more thirsty. It makes sense to over specify your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% when specifying an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and gives you some spare capacity should the engine require 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 BR10D performance exhaust upgrades

You may need to uprate your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the current exhaust is actually creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you should find that your 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 generally help improve air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large 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 catalysts installed, so adding a faster flowing sports 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 BR10D

Like most engines an BR10D, 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 BR10D, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned BR10D 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 BR10D why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about BR10D tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their BR10D.

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