Stagea Axis Nm35

[iamhe77]

Should have some Dyno results soon.

Has anyone done any turbo upgrades on an nm35??

Yep. Mine failed due to an overly restrictive exhaust.

I had it high flowed using T3 internals.

While I have not had it on a dyno as yet (soon!), I can tell you that it is much stronger throughout the rev range with hardly any lag over the stock unit (maybe a couple hundred rpm).

I have been told that Hanson at Xspeed (HKS Pro Dealer) in WA installed a VQ25DET with a T04Z in an S15, I have yet to ask how it went.

Apparently they were struggling to find many performance parts from HKS for it.... (tell me something I don't already know!!)

[NRVOUS]

Yep. Mine failed due to an overly restrictive exhaust.

I had it high flowed using T3 internals.

While I have not had it on a dyno as yet (soon!), I can tell you that it is much stronger throughout the rev range with hardly any lag over the stock unit (maybe a couple hundred rpm).

I have been told that Hanson at Xspeed (HKS Pro Dealer) in WA installed a VQ25DET with a T04Z in an S15, I have yet to ask how it went.

Apparently they were struggling to find many performance parts from HKS for it.... (tell me something I don't already know!!)

When you say overly restrictive exhaust...did you have the turbo boosted as well? Who flowed the turbo for you and what sort of dollars.

I think the stock turbo is a little laggy and could do with a smaller exhaust housing & up the compressor side, all in all the car is a pleasure to drive and a few modes here & there should really liven it up.

WOW a VQ25DET in a S15 now that would be something special, Jamhe77 considering the Stagea is a luxury wagon I can see how there would be limited peformance uprgrades...406nm of torque out of a standard 2.5L is still quite impressive in anyones language especially when your carting nearly 2T

Maybe we should consider a Stagea Dyno Day in the future & compare some notes amongst fellow enthusiasts, right now i can confirm the tuner has the ability to tap into the standard ECU to fine tune & calibrate parameteres without having to consider any piggy back or aftermarket ECU's.

Guys one thing I have noticed is that I have never topped up the tank close to 80L even with it dry as a bone, can anyone comment on this; the most I've filled is 68L of fuel.

Cheers

TT

[andy65b]

When you say overly restrictive exhaust...did you have the turbo boosted as well? Who flowed the turbo for you and what sort of dollars.

I think the stock turbo is a little laggy and could do with a smaller exhaust housing & up the compressor side, all in all the car is a pleasure to drive and a few modes here & there should really liven it up.

WOW a VQ25DET in a S15 now that would be something special, Jamhe77 considering the Stagea is a luxury wagon I can see how there would be limited peformance uprgrades...406nm of torque out of a standard 2.5L is still quite impressive in anyones language especially when your carting nearly 2T

Maybe we should consider a Stagea Dyno Day in the future & compare some notes amongst fellow enthusiasts, right now i can confirm the tuner has the ability to tap into the standard ECU to fine tune & calibrate parameteres without having to consider any piggy back or aftermarket ECU's.

Guys one thing I have noticed is that I have never topped up the tank close to 80L even with it dry as a bone, can anyone comment on this; the most I've filled is 68L of fuel.

Cheers

TT

Who is doing your tuning?

I like the sound of being able to adjust the tune without a piggy back. I am happy with the boost level, I would just like tune it a bit on the fuel side as that would give a bit more power (not so rich) and bring the fuel cost down a bit.

I would agree that I mostly only ever fill to about 68-70 liters. I have on one occasion put in 75 liters but I find the orange light comes on with a good 10 liters of fuel left.

Cheers

Andy

[Paramour]

Guys one thing I have noticed is that I have never topped up the tank close to 80L even with it dry as a bone, can anyone comment on this; the most I've filled is 68L of fuel.

Cheers

TT

I did 550k's yesterday and went to fill up the tank when it was close to E and it only took 61 litres....so there is clearly heaps left when the light comes on....

[zei20l]

damn, im lucky to get 450-500 from a tank on city driving. thats till the light comes on and filling it with around 65-70L

might depend on milage as O2 sensors only have a life of around 80,000k. my M35 is over this.

i should also mention that i get much better milage (and power) with BP 98 than i did with shell or caltex 98 fuels.

Edited November 12, 2008 by zei20l

[Angus Smart]

So what do you guys get out of a stagea from full to empty? and its 80L tank??

i'm currently driving a hilux slurrrpppppppp and i get 400-450 max on a 65L turbo diesel tank @ 1.35-1.50c per L

Edited November 12, 2008 by Angus Smart

[iamhe77]

When you say overly restrictive exhaust...did you have the turbo boosted as well? Who flowed the turbo for you and what sort of dollars.

I think the stock turbo is a little laggy and could do with a smaller exhaust housing & up the compressor side, all in all the car is a pleasure to drive and a few modes here & there should really liven it up.

WOW a VQ25DET in a S15 now that would be something special, Jamhe77 considering the Stagea is a luxury wagon I can see how there would be limited peformance uprgrades...406nm of torque out of a standard 2.5L is still quite impressive in anyones language especially when your carting nearly 2T

Maybe we should consider a Stagea Dyno Day in the future & compare some notes amongst fellow enthusiasts, right now i can confirm the tuner has the ability to tap into the standard ECU to fine tune & calibrate parameteres without having to consider any piggy back or aftermarket ECU's.

Guys one thing I have noticed is that I have never topped up the tank close to 80L even with it dry as a bone, can anyone comment on this; the most I've filled is 68L of fuel.

Cheers

TT

When I say overly restrictive exhaust, I mean that it was the compliance exhaust and including the pre-cat on the dump, contained 6 cats. That is damn restrictive.

Boost was stock (max boost 0.8bar @ 3200rpm).

RE Customs down here had it flowed. I have yet to ask them which company they took it to, but the turbo itself set me back just over $1k.... Unfortunately, since a do not have the means to do it myself, labour was on top.

The unit I have in now has the exact same characteristics as the stock turbo, except that max boost is at least 1bar (that is as high as my gauge goes) at 3800rpm.

There are two serious surges now - 2500->3200rpm (like stock) and a second stronger urge which starts from 3800 and does not ease up until redline

Who is the tuner? Sounds interesting... may have to sell the emanage Ultimate...

The most I have filled my tank is just over 76L. I DO NOT want to run it dry.

damn, im lucky to get 450-500 from a tank on city driving. thats till the light comes on and filling it with around 65-70L

might depend on milage as O2 sensors only have a life of around 80,000k. my M35 is over this.

i should also mention that i get much better milage (and power) with BP 98 than i did with shell or caltex 98 fuels.

Doubt it. I bought mine at 82,000k in April 2007 and am just about to clear 135,000k.

I think I get pretty bloody good economy for the size and speed of the car.

So what do you guys get out of a stagea from full to empty? and its 80L tank??

i'm currently driving a hilux slurrrpppppppp and i get 400-450 max on a 65L turbo diesel tank @ 1.35-1.50c per L

On average, 630-640kms for around 65-68L of BP Ultimate or Shell Vpower, although Ultimate does seem to go a little further than Vpower.

As an aside, last week I filled up on Vpower and only got 480km's before the light came on... Not happy with cheatin' bloody servo...

Edited November 12, 2008 by iamhe77

[zei20l]

i think 80,000km is an estimated life only. cars are only designed to last 100,000km so it kinds stands to reason.

anyway, youre getting pretty awesome economy! is that city driving??

[GoldZilla]

Maybe we should consider a Stagea Dyno Day in the future & compare some notes amongst fellow enthusiasts, right now i can confirm the tuner has the ability to tap into the standard ECU to fine tune & calibrate parameteres without having to consider any piggy back or aftermarket ECU's.

Cheers

TT

We do actually have a dyno day this weekend (Saturday the 15th of November) at Unique Autosports in Seven Hills, and I'll be there helping run the day.

Everyone is welcome, of course, whether it be to run your car (good to get a baseline figure if you're considering mods) or just to spectate. The details are here.

[iamhe77]

i think 80,000km is an estimated life only. cars are only designed to last 100,000km so it kinds stands to reason.

anyway, youre getting pretty awesome economy! is that city driving??

Bit of everything really.

I live on the S.E. border of Melbourne Metro, so that means a fair bit of 80 & 100km zones, but it also means lots & lots of estates off main roads which = tons of traffic lights.

General drive to work is ~60km and includes 100, 80, 70, 60 & 40kph zones, some pretty damn steep winding hills & 5 school zones.

Unfortunately it also means that sometimes I am stuck behind trucks.... which means stone chips

I presume that you guys are driving purely in the city to be getting numbers like that?

[zei20l]

60km to work!!! holy crap!!

yeah i do around 25km each way to work from home. mostly stuck in traffic, but on the way home its almost always moving.

so fair enough you get decent milage.

i drove to coffs harbour on my very first tank in this car (the dealer said he put in E10 95RON) and i got just over 600km from the tank. last tank on BP 98, i got 530km but that was city driving and to the south coast and back also. so mixed.

i guess its heavy on the fuel, but its a shit load more comfortable than 11/9kg springs in the S15.

[danwatt]

Yep. Mine failed due to an overly restrictive exhaust.

I had it high flowed using T3 internals.

While I have not had it on a dyno as yet (soon!), I can tell you that it is much stronger throughout the rev range with hardly any lag over the stock unit (maybe a couple hundred rpm).

I have been told that Hanson at Xspeed (HKS Pro Dealer) in WA installed a VQ25DET with a T04Z in an S15, I have yet to ask how it went.

Apparently they were struggling to find many performance parts from HKS for it.... (tell me something I don't already know!!)

Yea I got my turbo rebuit with GT3071R internals (ball bearing) using the standard housings. The turbo is heaps better. A little more lag about 300 rpm but heaps more mid range and top end power, pulles hard all the way to red line. The turbo is still setup as stock with a 2.5 in system and is running 14 psi with no boost controller or anything. The problem with this setup is that the turbo is actually 20mm shorter and I had to modify the factory cast pipes to fit (worth it though). Got pics if anyone is interested

[NRVOUS]

Yea I got my turbo rebuit with GT3071R internals (ball bearing) using the standard housings. The turbo is heaps better. A little more lag about 300 rpm but heaps more mid range and top end power, pulles hard all the way to red line. The turbo is still setup as stock with a 2.5 in system and is running 14 psi with no boost controller or anything. The problem with this setup is that the turbo is actually 20mm shorter and I had to modify the factory cast pipes to fit (worth it though). Got pics if anyone is interested

Danwatt the more pics you have to share the better for all interested!!

spoke to the tuner tonight and he's confident we can extract good HP, the programming is quite complex and he needs time to go through all the standard parameteres before he starts to play....not as easy as tuning a GTR, but there is definitely potential guys.

Once we have definitive figures more than happy to put everyone in touch with the source....no secrets here, the guy just needs his space to do his work before he gets bombarded with enquiries.

If anyone outthere has a spare ECU off a VQ25DET they would like to donate in the name of research please PM me.

Cheers

TT

[danwatt]

Danwatt the more pics you have to share the better for all interested!!

spoke to the tuner tonight and he's confident we can extract good HP, the programming is quite complex and he needs time to go through all the standard parameteres before he starts to play....not as easy as tuning a GTR, but there is definitely potential guys.

Once we have definitive figures more than happy to put everyone in touch with the source....no secrets here, the guy just needs his space to do his work before he gets bombarded with enquiries.

If anyone outthere has a spare ECU off a VQ25DET they would like to donate in the name of research please PM me.

Cheers

TT

Here are some photos of the Turbo and also the modification needed to fit the thing. Because the turbo ended up 20mm shorter than the standard one.

On the compressor side the pressure pipe needed to be cut and extended to clear the front drive shaft there is only about 5mm clearance around this pipe from the block, engine mount, drive shaft, A/C compressor and oil galleries. A spacer needed to be made to move the air inlet pipe back to its original position with longer bolts and studs.

The oil line needed to be replaced and the oil flow rates were measured to get the correct oil volume for the turbo. This took a little while as even with no restriction in the oil line I could only just get the minimum volume (eg. restrictor in the oil galleries). The original water banjo fitting were used with step washers to take the smaller bolts.

Overall not the most straight forward operation but worth it in the end as there wasnt all that many mods to get it to fit.

[zei20l]

so the only original parts of the factory turbo are what? the exhaust housing and wastegate actuator?

and yup its in a bitch of a position!!

[iamhe77]

If anyone outthere has a spare ECU off a VQ25DET they would like to donate in the name of research please PM me.

Cheers

TT

I believe that there 2 or 3 on http://www.importmonster.com.au at the moment. Both from dismantled NM35's if someone wants to throw away some cash and take the plunge.

Edited November 12, 2008 by iamhe77

[iamhe77]

60km to work!!! holy crap!!

yeah i do around 25km each way to work from home. mostly stuck in traffic, but on the way home its almost always moving.

so fair enough you get decent milage.

True, however I used to work closer to the City & still got around 620kms before the light came on.

That was crawling/stop start for a good hour on the Monash Freeway every morning.

[zei20l]

geez thats fantastic!! must be that famous melbourne climate that does it for you

[andy65b]

there is no doubt that once the temperature gets above 26 that performance is not as good and fuel usage is higher.

I manage to get around 520-560 per tank for around 65 - 70 liters.

Cheers

Andy

[NRVOUS]

there is no doubt that once the temperature gets above 26 that performance is not as good and fuel usage is higher.

I manage to get around 520-560 per tank for around 65 - 70 liters.

Cheers

Andy

Yep with the hot summer months ahead, performance will definitely be sacrificed through heat sink when pushing hard......hence why I have plan B (Intercooler upgrade!!!), will be testing how the Greddy Intercooler kit performs over standard.

TT