What is the cheapiest way to increase power ~25% for my car without forced induction?

Top Geek

Top Geek

Forum Addict
Joined
Jun 23, 2006
Messages
10,837
Location
Canadaland :)
Car(s)
1995 Nissan 240SX
I'm not asking for a "cheap way to get lots of power", because I know there is no such thing. What I'm asking is: what is the cheapest way to get, say, 20 - 25% more power out of an engine? Yes, I'm asking about my car you see on the left, there.

Basically, I don't want to spend the money, time or effort turbocharging my engine (and having it checked and brought up-to-par before-hand so that it doesn't blow up after a few thousand KMs).

Perhaps, I'm not looking to immediately get a 25% power-increase (perhaps that's not even possible without forced induction), but maybe I could add parts gradually.

Suggestions? Ideas?
 
Nitrous :p.

I think that on such a small engine a turbocharger would be your best bet. You could easily increase power 25% over stock while retaining excellent driveability. If you want to go NA, then you'll need cams, a header and exhaust, better intake, better ignition, etc etc. You will probably get much more power for not much more cash using a turbocharger.
 
epp_b said:
Perhaps, I'm not looking to immediately get a 25% power-increase (perhaps that's not even possible without forced induction), but maybe I could add parts gradually.

Suggestions? Ideas?
Click to expand...

large05168NOS.jpg.JPG


Failing that, VG30 swap. Else - forced induction.
 
NOS is the way to go. 50 or 100bhp shots should do the job

FI is still the cheapest way of getting power for your 240SX, but thats up to you. Trying to squeeze power from an N/A engine requires more money than a FI setup. Why dont you start with small mods like intake, cone filter, exhaust system, chips etc. play around for a bit and then make up your mind as you go along. btw, all the above mentioned mods wont give you a significant performance boost, to be totally honest, apart from the mid range toqrue and the bark of the exhaust, you shouldnt feel any difference in performance wise.
 
Last edited:
North American 240SX's have truck motors. They can take the spray.
 
Well if NOS doesn't count then what really concerns the power would be the cams. You say cheap, but does that concern time spent working on the car? If not then run megasquirt (ECU) get new valve springs, and find some cams that will raise the peak hp RPM to about 1000 higher then it is now. Usually the best idea is to ask around and see what the most agressive "streetable" cam is, i actually enjoy large cams and i am huge on comfort and usability. You'll probably want more torque after you do this, so to balance out the power curve try to find some headers with long primary pipes and make sure that if you do a cold air intake that the intake plumbing itself is ATLEAST as long as it already was, shortening either of those will kill torque. Also avoid big exhaust pipes, you really should never need anything more then a 1/4 inch increase in size (note that 2.0 to 2.25 is actually a 26% increase in size, usually more then enough)

Finally one thing everybody can do is run premium and advance the ignition timing, if you have a knock sensor then this is very easy and pretty risk free, and i can guarantee that this is by far the easiest but still one of the most noticable ways to adjust the attributes of the torque curve. Keep in mind that premium alone will usually hurt power, it needs to be coupled with advanced ignition timing to do anything.
 
Install larger wheels in the rear and smaller ones in the front...that way you'll always be traveling downhill :D
 
OK, I should specify that I want consistent and reliable power ("reliable", as in, I want my engine to remain reliable ;)), no that's a NO to NOS.

stickers, yo
Click to expand...
Woo-hoo! :lol:

GT-R-badge-OER11.jpg
 
Horsepower is never cheap. So, unless you have madd 1337 skillZ with a welder and fabrication to make your own turbo setup, nitrous is the way to go, bud.
 
I'm not Takumi said:
Engine Swap. Find a wrecked Infiniti and go from there.
Click to expand...

yeah i wonder how much a full SR swap is going for these days? i realize that this would be a pretty expensive solution (and FI) but i imagine in the long run it would be cheaper because of parts availability and tuneability of the SR

hmm 157 + 25% is only 196. thats a 39hp increase i suppose you could get that from intake exhaust cams and the like. The real issue will come if you want to make more power beyond this first 25% increase. As i understand it NA tuning is a real deminishing returns situation in the beginning you can make reasonable gains without too huge a cost but as you move beyond those first modifications power will come in smaller and smaller ammounts at higher and higher cost
 
Last edited:
Ugh...I should say that I am NOT a mechanic. I would have to pay someone to do most of the things mentioned.
 
skip0110 said:
1 x Tornado Air = 20 hp
7 x Tornado air = 140 hp :)
Click to expand...

I love how they claim to speed up the air without actually adding any energy to it...


One or two people already said it, but I guess I'll reiterate. Intake, exhaust, electric fan; small stuff that might add like 5 hp altogether at best. You're pretty much going to rebuild the engine to get NA to work. But here are some other tricks:

Longer piston rods--> make sure to reinforce the crankshaft if you do. Plenty of bootleggers blew plent of engines to find that one out. It's a bit of a cheap way to increase compression, but make sure your engine can handle it.

Get an adjustable cam gear. Won't add power, but will let you sort of "adjust" the power curve.

Last but not least --> do you really need air conditioning? if no, get rid of it. Also, high flow cat-back systems.

epp_b said:
Ugh...I should say that I am NOT a mechanic. I would have to pay someone to do most of the things mentioned.
Click to expand...

Then that's going to get expensive. NA tuning is tricky and somewhat limited, but with the right engines the parts are out there. With Forced Induction, you can always get a bigger turbo...
 
I'm not Takumi said:
Fuck the SR. Get a LS1. :lol:
Click to expand...

HAHA you know that would be just about the perfect answer. Way more than 25% increase in power and torque plus you save some weight with stock drivability. I just wonder how much the cost of the swap would be.

It would appear that THESE guys are the people you want to talk to about an LSx swap
 
Last edited:
SR swap is one of the easiest out there and complete motors are cheap. I wish my car was half as easy to swap. You 240 guys barely have to touch the wiring, I need to merge two different harnesses together or change out all the wiring in the car.

Seriously, you'll blow way more then the $2-3K for a swap doing N/A stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top