Tuners tips on "VR30DDTT Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Nissan VR30DDTT

"Comprehensive guide to performance parts and tuning the Nissan VR30DDTT engine!"

Our friends at TorqueCars are frequently getting messages requesting info on how to improve the VR30DDTT from people wanting to know what are the best tips on VR30DDTT upgrades. So let us look into Nissan VR30DDTT upgrades and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

The Nissan VR30DDTT great bases for a tuning project and with carefully picked enhancements like a remap, turbo improvements and camshafts you will positively enhance your driving fun.

We shall review VR30DDTT tuning and provide tips on the premier mods that work.

The optimum VR30DDTT parts on an engine are usually the ones that give the biggest return for your money.

We won't be swayed by popular VR30DDTT parts, they need to be cost effective.

Improving air intake on the VR30DDTT

You need fuel and air for an engine to work. If there is a lack of fuel then it will run lean, if there is little flow of air it runs rich resulting in lost 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 whole point to any tuning project to pull more air into the VR30DDTT engine but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the VR30DDTT 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 power at a much lower level.

Headers transmit the on the suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Structure and rate of flow of the air Intake manifold can make a substantial effect on to fuel atomisation and engine efficiency on the VR30DDTT.

I usually find intake are in dire need of motorsport parts, although some car makers provide decently flowing intake.

Larger VR30DDTT valves, doing a bit of 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also increase performance, this will give you raising the performance increase on other upgrades.

VR30DDTT performance cam tips.

Different VR30DDTT engines respond better to different camshaft durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The engine timing and fuelling also will make differences on the bhp gains you'll get.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the bhp 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 & exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen camshaft profile, so large bhp gains are on offer for camshaft upgrades.

NB: Fast road cams tend to bump the bhp over the rev range, you may sacrifice a little low down bhp but your top end will be better.

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

A Motorsport and race camshaft is not great driving around busy urban areas.

You should ideally optimize your bhp range to your usage of the car so for a daily driver stick with a mild fast road VR30DDTT camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the VR30DDTT

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 VR30DDTT parts:

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

Stage 2 VR30DDTT parts:

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

Stage 3 VR30DDTT parts:

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

Remapping helps unlock the full potential of all the tuning mods you've done to your VR30DDTT.

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 the end result often vary depending on the tuning mods you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the VR30DDTT

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 VR30DDTT.

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

When an engine is fitted with a turbo parts are going to net you a larger power gain and you will discover turbocharged engines are made with strengthened components.

There are practical limits for every engine, with some being very over engineered and some only able to handle stock power

See where you'll find these restrictions and upgrade to more solid crank and pistons to utilize the power.

It's not unheard of people spending a fortune on turbocharger upgrades on the VR30DDTT only to have the engine block go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's been enthusiastically driven.

Large turbo units will usually suffer low end lag, and little turbo units spool up really quickly but don't have the top end torque gains.

Thanks to progress the world of turbochargers is always increasing and we now see variable vane turbochargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbo. They also improve 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 feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the VR30DDTT

Don't miss you'll need to improve the fuel system when you are increasing the bhp and torque - it makes the car more thirsty. It makes sense to over specify your injectors flow rate.

As a rule of thumb add 15% capacity when fitting an injector, helps cope with injector deterioration and gives a bit of 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 VR30DDTT performance exhaust upgrades

We'd only recommend you look to increase your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if your current exhaust is actually causing a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you'll see the 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.

Sports exhausts will certainly help air flow through the engine but do not go too wide or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to one and a half to two and half inches for best results.

The usual suspects causing problems in your exhaust flow rate are traced to the emissions filters installed, so adding a higher flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

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

Faults issues and things to look out for on the VR30DDTT

Like most engines an VR30DDTT, 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 VR30DDTT, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned VR30DDTT 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 VR30DDTT why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about VR30DDTT tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their VR30DDTT.

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