after looking through some of the performance posts I noticed a distinct lack of posts concerning certain modifications that I think would be quite straight foreward. Just wondering if anyone has attempted them.

First off, has anyone attempted to port and polish the stock throttle body? I know in a lot of applications opening up the TB by a few mm helps to greatly increase performance, especially coupled with a performance intake and headers. Along the same lines, what about porting the MAS? I know it's a tad risky, but can be done. I have yet to really study the intake manifold, but is it capable of being ported or at least gasket matched?

Then what about actual valve train modifications? Someone has to make a cam. What about getting cam blanks? I know crower will grind grind just about any pattern into a blank.

I'm also sure someone has had their heads ported and shaved. That has to be good for some power. Kind of like running the non SC heads on a SC engine. Also what about scavenging parts from other engines? Is the 3.3L block used in any other configuration that may have a better head or cam set up? Even have the potential for a stroker crank or a bore job?

it just seems the bulk of the performance here is CAI, ASP pullys, cat back exhaust and a mention of headers and computer flash

:edit: Found that Nissian Performance makes an "off road" cam for the VG33E engine

"The cams have 264 degrees of duration and .430” lift with a 106 degree intake and 116 lobe center"

They claim up to 40 HP gain over stock and a lopey idle. Don't know if I believe that, but they would be good for at least 20. Would be nice with a set of headers. They just have problems passing emmissions.

You have some excellent points, accompanied by the ideas and want to get some performance from the V6. But the problem isn't just that some of the parts aren't made (no one offers a bigger t-body for the X, but a 3.5 might be larger, don't know for sure), it's that 99% of the X's on here are the daily drivers.

They have to maintane the driveability, reliability and retain the emissions of normal vehicles. Lopey idles with the kids in the back seat isn't usually what one likes to have.

No aftermarket intake is available. Unless someone gets theirs extrude honed (hard to get done right, and without other upgrades, can be a dangerous mod) and then dyno tuned with the full aray of tools and equipment then they won't really see the benny of expense.

The MAS (we call 'em MAF{Mass Air Flow}) is actually plastic, not encased in metal. So getting another unit in there could be tricky with the computer having to be recalibrated.

All in all though, good ideas. But the daily driven aspect of the majority makes it less feasable at the moment. When these trucks get older, and they're the 2nd vehicle that's just for fun (that's what mine is for, the Frontier is the Daily Driver), then you'll start seeing the mods take shape.

When I blow my first motor, then I'll take the extreme in account. Take the psi of the pump up a couple of notches, flow the heads, dump the cats for some normal units (to facilitate the headers) and so on. But thats a ways down the road.

I know this sounds crazy, but has anybody ever considered swapping the engine in the Xterra for the 300zx engine? From what I understand their both VG, so is their a possibility that the engine's will mount the same? If anybody knows what would be holding me back from pursuing this project then please list. I'm not actually considering, but in the future it might be a fune little tune up.

if the 300ZX engine is a VG then i'm betting it would swap in fine. I'm also wondering if you couldn't just steal the heads or pistons from it to transplant into the X's motor

I know from experience (not on this particular motor) that simple things like boring the throttle body and even modifying the intake manifold don't ruin streetability. With my truck I lost more bottom end with the headers then I did when I overbored the TB by 2mm and cut the intake runners down by an inch. I'm sure you could do both on the VE with minimal low end loss, but fairly descent high end gain. Couple that with a higher set of gears and the little you lose wouldn't be noticed. I have yet to really look at the throttle body in depth, but I'm willing to bet it has a so called "torque step" in it. Basicly it's narrower in the middle then flares out towards the throttle plate. Simply grinding that hump out would open it up a mm or 2 and allow for better airflow. If you were really ambitious i'm sure a machine shop would do it for $20 or so. All of that also worked fine on the stock computer and passed emmissions. Since then I have reflashed for 93 octane (and gained another 10 to 15 hp), but have no loss in the driveablility or emmissions department.

as for the cams...yea that might ruin streetability, maybe not. It is an "off road' cam, so i'm sure it has to retain a good amount of low end to it. I'm sure NISMO didn't go designing strip cams for the x-terra and frontier. The article I found reviewing the cams also claimed a few MPG gain.

I'm really interested in the cams, specifically the MPG gains part.

Ya, my friends and I talked about swapping heads from the 300zx engine, but I don't know that much about mechanics, so I don't know if it would work.

Kinda makes sense about what Cyclemut says, that mostly everyone on this forum is a father, and pumping up an SUV isn't necessary within a family. Explains why alot of people on this forum are so hectic about performance mods...

i've been looking and can't seem to find a retailer for them. Since they are NISMO I'm sure you could get them through a dealer ($$$$) Since it's an OHC engine, installing the cams would be a breeze, but you would want to have at least some sort of open exhaust and intake. YOu get power by increasing flow through the engine, so you need to be able to flow more air.

As for the driveablilty aspect, I'd be more concerned with suspension and tire mods effecting that then engine mods. The only concern is emmissions (if your state tests) and gas mileage. I know a few people running engines in their daily drivers that I probably would consider strip only. One of them is a blown 408 stroker in a 98 dodge dakota. Runs 12's in the quarter but is still quite a good street car. Even gets 18/14 mpg (if he can keep his foot out of it.)

I am not sure why people are saying no intakes, cams or tb avaiable???
www.spencerlowracing.com
www.tonemonday.com
www.xtremeflow.com
-rob

yea! That's what I was looking for. Those dyno numbers look pretty nice. Looks like you can get SC performance from the NA motor. Only raises the power band up by 500 or so RPM, so it's definatly useable. Especially since it looks like the torque holds strong from about 3200 all the way up to 5000.

That's all on the stock tune. I bet if you dyno tuned it or even just stepped up to a pre-fab flash based on the stock tune, you'd get more then the 220 hp and 237 ft-lbs they showed.

Prices aren't that bad either. Hmmm so who want's to try it first?

they should test the cam's on the S/C Xterra. Actually they should test all of it on a S/C Xterra. I sure all those upgrades with a smaller pulley would give a S/C Xterra 300 hp, dontcha think? And why don't they make headers that are street legal?

And whats a lifter? On the camshaft section, it says new lifters will be needed.

This is why I wish I knew about mechanical things in cars... Frustratin cause I want to mess around with the Xterra (cause it's the best way to learn) but it seems that barely anything is out.

well a cam for a blower is generally different then a cam for an NA application. Generally you spread the lobe centers apart a little more for the blower cam. You probably would get good gains with that cam and blower, but with a different grind could get better. I don't know about any 300 hp. Since it's stock at 210 SC, and I'm not sure what they dyno at with the smaller pulley, I'd still say you're going to top out around 250 or 260. A lot of it will be top end too, as that's where the blower makes most of it's boost and where the cams will make a HUGE difference.

If you are familiar with a pushrod engine, the lifter is equivelant to a rocker arm. Basicly you have the lobes on the cam which as the cam rotates pushes the valve open and then allows it to close. A lifter is a pivot arm that the lobe of the cam pushes against. As it pushes one end of the lifter up, the other end goes down and forces the valve open. There is friction involved here and the lifters and cam tend to wear together to the point where a lifter is matched to a lobe. Putting a new cam in would be putting fresh lobes up against a unique wear pattern on the lifter and usually causes excess slop in the vlave train. So when changing a cam that has had a chance to wear, you usually want new lifters.

There are two reasons headers won't be street legal. The first one is that a lot won't weld in O2 sensor bungs, so on engines running a pair of O2's per bank, on the stock exhaust system, the stock emmissions wouldn't work. You can have the bungs welded in and run everything fine, but since that's not part of the part....it's not "street legal" You can still pass inspection and emmissions tho. The other reason is that they don't go through the expense and trouble of getting the headers CARB certified. CARB certification is a royal pain and an even larger expense to the manufacturer, so it's often times easier to just say it's for "off road use only" and bypass the whole matter.

If you want to learn more about automotive stuff, the best place you can start is www.howstuffworks.com

They have great articles with animated illiustrations and do a great job of describing how stuff works. For more technical stuff just google around. Look up things like "cam tuning" or "exhaust scavenging". There is a lot of information if you just look for it.

I still don't understand why the X's red line so low. For an OHC engine it should be up near 7000 or above. Heck, my pushrod motor red lines at 5700, can survive up to 6200 and with some upgraded parts will hit 6800 to 7000 without breaking a sweat.

It's the rotating mass that Nissan doesn't want going sideways. The mass and inertia of the 3.3 is great for the low end stuff. Tough as nails too.

The 4.0 in my '05 Fronty has an even lower red line, because it's a stroked 3.5. Just a matter of longevity. Nissan's not in the habit of making full race motors to put in the small SUV's.

Heck, if it's all that simple, then sounds like you should be the first candidate.

For some of us, we don't rock crawl at high rpm's. It's the low end we want, need and have to keep.

If you want to race it, then by all means, have a swap fest and dyno the hell out of it. I'd personally be interested in what you find. I think the 3.3 has a ton of potential, but just don't need it for my activities.

haha simple? Nothing is ever simple as it sounds.

I just don't envision the 3.3 as being a lot of rotating mass. I can see a stroker motor with a 3.5 to 4" crank being limited to the really low rpms. Also I wasn't saying that the engine should be tuned for the high end, just that I can't imagine why it couldn't take the stress. I certainly appreciate the use of low end grunt for off roading, altho some of that can be offset with gearing.

I would start to build up mine....but I don't have it yet

soon as I get all my audio done, and save myself up some money I'll consider the engine upgrades. I'd be doing most of them specifically for the MPG increase. Powers great, but I really would like to see better mileage.

I really think that with the correct parts, the VG33ER could see 300 horsepower. They raised they're Xterra by 50 horsepower, and with a smaller pulley (roughly 40 i think), that'll round too 290. But considering that it's supercharged, from what I understand the whole system will benefit off of itself, hopefully pumping 10 hp more. I really like the low-end power, but I rarely use it, and I would appreciate high power alot more.

Also, it'd be fun to surprise people around here. Some 300 horses and (guessing) 350 torque would sure be a fun thing to play around with.

i didn't know the engine would push 290 with the blower. If that's the case you could see 300 easy. You could probably even see that with just a computer flash and a good port job on the intake and heads (plus headers and such). That would make for a real potent engine, especially in a X-terra. bet you could really surprise a few people with it.

hmmmm....maybe I will try taking the motor out of my Titan and putting in the X

Heck, why not a VG30DETT? With mods, ya got almost 400 HP...

But... Your torque curve doesn't really start until 3000 RPM. Is that what you want in a 4WD SUV?

funny that you suggested that option, because I plan on doing just that. Take me a couple of years, but I know it can be done, and I will get it done.

Anyway, on reaching the 300 hp with intake, exhaust, and pulley. I came to the conclusion that it is completly possible. I plan on going all out with this one, but I plain on buying some headers, and going dual 2.5" all the way back. Then getting some intake, and getting a custom extended cold air intake. Add on the pulley, and you easily got yourself 300 hp. I'm just hoping that the O2 sensor won't set off the check engine light.

All of this adds up to approximately 1500 bucks in total. I added it up in my head several times, and have come out with this number. The funny part is that I'm reaching power gains of 50% without even messing with the engine internals yet.

For the future? Ya, I plan of upping the boost. I especially plan on buying somed forged piston and rods, fuel pump, wideband O2 sensor, and a bunch of other things that I have yet to think off, because these plans aren't for months.

I always wonder if anybody else has thoughts of doing these extensive of upgrades on an Xterra. I'll guess I'll be the only fast one then...

i'm gonna take the engine out of my rocket ship and install that

just kiddin, i dont have a rocket ship. whats the stipulation of installing the s/c on the non s/c x?

lots of money.

you'd have to change so many parts and upgrade so much you might as well just sell you x and get one with the sc.

i hear there are companies working on kits that should be out soon though.

well, for anybody that is interested in my comment about turning my Xterra into a street monster, the lights are still green.

My friend found some good 96 300zx heads for 100 bucks, and with a set of those, I could just swap them for mine. I'd lose the S/C, but I plan on saving up money for one big turbo at the same time. So far I'm debating between simply saving up money for the internals, heads, turbo, and many other parts. Or spending my money on this supercharger that I got here stock. I know that with the supercharger I could get it up to 400 crank hp pretty easy. Dunno if the internals could take it though... I'll just figure that out later... But before I even get myself into swapping heads and buying turbo's, I'm going to change some body parts, and especially take out the plastic pieces. SLR sells some body pieces that look pretty good, and once I make the whole car look nice and blue. I go straight for all those little things I want my Xterra to have (ex. 130W HID Slim-lites behind the grill and relayed to my brights... HID headlight conversion... I got a list in my car, but can't seem to remember much now)

Anyway, I write this post to reassure everybody that somebody is taking an Xterra, and making it fast. Funny thing is that I'm sure everybody on this site could agree that having a 400 hp Xterra would sure as hell surprise alot of people, and the only thing they'll see is the "Supercharged" sticker in the back

Hopefully I'll make people fear Xterra's....