Infiniti M30 Tuning

"Thanks for reading my Infiniti M30 tuning guide."

One engine that keeps cropping up in emails and questions we get sent, is the M30, and what upgrades work best on it. so we've created an article to cover the primary areas you should tune and outline which modifications we feel are the best.

This 2 door coupe, looks great and production ran from 1989 to 2019 over 4 generations, each one improving over the previous model.

Looks are understated but performance is where it counts and they had some great engine options making them a perfect base for your tuning project.

Think carefully and research M30 tuning to save yourself making the usual disastrous errors we frequently .

 

 

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Improving the handling for many people first priority in your M30 tuning project.

Good suspension tweaks that greatly enhance handling for the M30 include a couple of degrees negative camber and 1-1.5 degrees of toe (set out to improve cornering or in for better stability) on the front wheels.

We suggest that you fit sports suspension and lower the car by 26mm - 41 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with motorsport suspension.

For sharper improved stopping add better performance pads and combine this with better brake discs.

We should point out that race friction pads can grind and will have to be hot before they bit.

In every day driving the brakes are occasionally used and won't stop you as well so specify brake pads which work well in daily use.

A nice wide torque band and sweet spot of peak power at one third of your RPM range is optimum.

Spending a little bit of money on the right engine and handling upgrades should transform your car into a high performance car.

To be completely frank and honest, on the more modest engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Power mods.

Typically these tuning kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the correct grade of motorsport upgrade kits for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Suspension upgrade (drop 26mm - 41 mm.), Panel air filter, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch, Ported and polished head.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Sports gearbox, Competition cam, Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a long power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

 

In this article we shall give a brief overview to the best upgrades for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance modification.A fast road camshaft will be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do from a single upgrade to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to increase to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Using higher octane fuel is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Infiniti project after fitting other uprated upgrades. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up.  Air induction kits only help to increase power if the air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most low power engines will see ZERO LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Derestricting the air flow into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound fun but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not do much to increase power and more often than not rob you of power.

Do not go with the largest exhaust you can buy this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Polishing and porting the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools In nearly all cases of M30 tuning your clutch will start to suffer and this needs an upgrade - read our overview on clutches for more information. The best mods in our opinion for your M30 are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story. A tuned/remapped turbo will give massive power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block.

We've also come across some owners playing with twincharged applications and making some impressively high power figures.

Adding forced induction will see large power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is generally simpler to add a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost builds exponentially with revs.

The nice correlating boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them easier to map. Alternatively you could perhaps install water injection to control knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Because alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they will help to cool the brake disks. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a track legal slick tire. The downside to large alloy wheels on your M30 is that you're changing your final drive ratio and this will have a negative effect on acceleration.

For this reason we would advise sticking to a maximum wheel size of 18 inches, although we know some of our members have gone larger than this with no problems.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss M30 options in more detail with our M30 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Infiniti tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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