Modding uprating the Nissan TB48DE engine!

Discover "TB48DE Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Nissan TB48DE

"Comprehensive guide to tuning and performance parts on the Nissan TB48DE engine!"

Sites like TorqueCars are always seeing threads about how to improve the TB48DE from people inquiring about getting more power from the TB48DE and wanting to know what are the greatest TB48DE mods that work. So let us look into Nissan TB48DE parts and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some problems along the way.

The Nissan TB48DE are awesome to work on and with the best sports tuning mods like remapping, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will noticeably maximise your driving fun.

In this article we review and look at TB48DE tuning and show the ultimate modifications for your car.

When talking about the top parts for your TB48DE engine, we are going to focus on the mods that give the best value for money.

TB48DE induction kits

Improving air intake on the TB48DE

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

So it's important to any engine modification task to pull more air and fuel into each cylinder but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

You'll commonly see there's a limitation in the air flow sensor AFM/MAP on the TB48DE when loads more air is being drawn into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited torque at a much lower level.

Headers transmit the during the engines suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders.

The bore size, shape and flow rate of the Air Intake manifolds can make a big change to fuel delivery on the TB48DE.

Many mass produced engine intake headers are begging for performance upgrades, although some manufacturers provide reasonably good intake headers.

Big valve conversions on the TB48DE, carrying out 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also increase power, and more importantly will afford you an improved power increase on other parts.

TB48DE performance cam tips.

Some TB48DE engines respond better to more aggressive cam durations so view each engine as unique.

The map and injectors and fuel pump also have a large bearing on the power gains you'll achieve.

Longer valve durations can alter the power 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 TB48DE camshaft will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance camshaft profile raises the torque accordingly.

NB: Fast road camshafts usually bump the bhp through the rev band, you may sacrifice a little bottom end bhp but the high end rpm power will be lifted.

Motorsport camshafts, bump 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 camshaft won't do well if on the daily commute.

You should ideally match your engines power to your usage of the car so for a typical daily driver stick with a mild fast road TB48DE camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the TB48DE

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 TB48DE parts:

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

Stage 2 TB48DE parts:

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

Tuning tips and articles Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

Stage 3 TB48DE parts:

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

Carefully think through your options and then source your tuning mods and set yourself a power target to avoid wasting your time and money.

Remapping allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your TB48DE.

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 figures achieved usually rely on the upgrades you've applied and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the TB48DE

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 TB48DE.

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 has a turbo already fitted parts are going to net you a larger power gain and we find turbo engines will have many forged and stronger components.

However every engines will have power limits

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

There are many people spending a lots of money on turbo charger upgrades on the TB48DE only to see the TB48DE throw a rod on it's first outing after it's completed.

Large turbo chargers will usually experience low end lag, and low capacity turbo chargers spool up quickly but don't have the peak end engines power gains.

Thanks to progress the selection of turbo units is always increasing and we are seeing variable vane turbo units, where 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 flow these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also help 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 complex to install. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the TB48DE

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so need to ramp up the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a power hike. It is important to over specify your injector capacity.

The rule of thumb is to add 20% to the flow rate when specifying an injector, this accounts for 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 TB48DE performance exhaust upgrades

The only time you should look to boost your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your exhaust is creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is still good 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.

Don't go with the biggest exhaust you can get you'll slow the exhaust rate - the best for power gains are usually between one and a half to two and half inches. Your exhaust design, the bend angles and construction are what have more effect on flow rates than your pipe width to a certain extent. So the exhaust design is a big factor.

The usual suspects causing problems in your exhaust flow rate are in the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a better flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

Faults issues and things to look out for on the TB48DE

Like most engines an TB48DE, 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 TB48DE, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned TB48DE 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 TB48DE why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about TB48DE tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their TB48DE.

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