GTR Tuning

"Thanks for reading my Nissan GTR tuning tips."

The GTR is s built by craftsmen, very well designed and seems to defy the laws of cornering physics.

a great car tuning project to carry out. Sit down first and research GTR tuning to spare yourself making the usual disastrous slip ups we frequently hear people complain about.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

 

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the GTR.

We found that most GTR factory suspension setups need tweaking, especially on older cars.

Usually we find just a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, 0.2 to 1.1, and a small amount of negative camber will dramatically improve your cornering and handling but we strongly recommend you consult a suspension specialist to get the GTR suspension geometry perfectly setup to suit your driving style and preferences.

We would go to a maximum drop of 21mm - 37 mm on most years and don't go with hard racing springs.

Don't just look at the peak power figures, you need to see the whole torque curve when determining if a mod is right for you GTR.

The GTR was an instant legend in the world of performance cars and tuning. Although well designed and setup it's quite possible to double the power output and improve cornering further.

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.

Common GTR Questions

What engine does the Nissan GTR have?

Is the GTR a Twin Turbo? Is the Nissan GTR a v6 or v8?

  • The GTR does have a twin turbo setup and the engine is a  DOHC 24-valve 3.8 liter V6. The confusion comes from it's super GT class which is a NASP V8.

How much horsepower does a Nissan GTR have?

  • The original version made 485hp
  • In 2010 the power was hiked to 530bhp
  • Then from 2016, we see power figures of 565hp and it provides 470lbft of Torque.  We have seen some Nissan GTR engines tuned to well in excess of 1500bhp.
  • The NISMO version offers 600hp and raises Torque to 481lbft using a few choice upgrades including revised turbos, fuel pump and ignition system changes

Nissan GTR Engine tuning mods.

These are the sports kits are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you begin.

Getting the right sports upgrades for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport parts just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start 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: Lighter flywheel, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Alloy wheels, Suspension upgrade (drop 21mm - 37 mm.), Sports exhaust, Panel air filter.

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

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

The GTR clutch does take a real beating, and we note the gearboxes can suffer when the car is regularly driven hard, so look to get a 16 plate racing clutch, and research your clutch compounds carefully as quality varies enormously.

Your aims when modding your car should be a wide torque output. You don't want all the torque to be at the top end of the rev range unless you are creating a motor sport car.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best mods 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.

Camshafts make quite a difference to the character and power curve of the GTR engine. This improves the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right.

Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

Don't forget to increase the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

Beyond 600bhp The airflow metering system will also need to be upgraded, now there is more air running through.

A tune/remap (via a replacement ECU) is a great easy starter mod for tuning if you are looking for a cost effective power upgrade. Remaps will release around 490 to 540 bhp  (at the wheels) with the earlier models benefiting from higher power gains than more recent versions thanks to their better factory setup.

Nissan GTR Remapping

A remap should help to establish the full potential of all the mods you've fitted to your RB25.

(In some cases, as we find here, the factory ECU is locked flashing is not an option, so an aftermarket ECU is the route to take, and many of these will outperform factory ECU's but make sure it has knock protection and that you get it set up properly.)

Some of our members recommended the following aftermarket ECU's from their projects. You'll generally find harnesses available now for most of the aftermarket ECU options for these engines.

  • Apexi
  • Syvecs
  • Haltech Elite 1000/1500
  • Megasquirt
  • LINK G4X
  • IMPUL Hi Power

An aftermarket ECU is harder to setup and requires some specialist knowledge of your engine and parts you've fitted, but gives better performance and helps you optimize the timing and fuelling to a fine degree of accuracy - we suggest you go for the Link G4+ (or a G4 with an external knock control unit) or the better but more expensive Syvecs ECU (the upgraded data logging feature is extremely useful)

It will usually give you around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and 15% on NA (naturally aspirated) engines, but your mileage will vary depending on the mods you've done and the condition of your engine.

If you find you get flat spots and surges after your parts you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Larger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned GTR's uprated injectors.

Increasing the engine size helps increase the power of all the mods you've added. GTR owners will typically use a stroker kit to raise the capacity of the engine, but as with all mods you have to combine it with other mods.

A well designed kit will help the engine stay cool and allow you to run higher boost levels safely. We've seen 4.0 stroker kits from JUN that seem to be a solid upgrade.

GTR Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up.

The stock turbo and manifolds cause too much heat build up so they go for a complete upgrade kit from a performance part producer. The TD06-20G from Greddy and Garrett GT30R ticks all the boxes for a serious power gain but there are many options out there.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Getting a professionally gas flowed head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. When you start tuning your GTR you will find that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods in our opinion for your GTR are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

Garrett CHRA (2nd Gen) are popular with the following power figures on offer GTX 2860 900bhp, GTX 2867 1000bhp and the GTX 3071 1200bhp.

The Borg Warner EFR's are great turbo upgrades, the 7163 EFR in a twin setup will allow you to reach 1000bhp+ and we see quite a few tuners opting for the twin scroll EFR 7670 thanks to the early spool up and compact size.

Superchargers will give a boost which is directly proportional to engine speed so is simpler. Adding forced induction will often require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

GTR Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brake cooling and are usually lighter than steel ones. Get a good track legal slick tire to improve your handling and help improve traction on your GTR. The drawback to large rims on your GTR is that you alter your final drive ratio so this will have a detrimental effect on performance.

Due to this try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases not going over 20 inches.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss GTR options in more detail with our GTR owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Nissan tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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