alright, you guys on this forum are pretty much THE real fx enthusiasts, & are always exploring the possibilities of modding the fx's that we all know & love so much, many here are looking for ways to improve what is already an awesome car, some of you have even went to the extent of turbocharging or supercharging, & most have done at least some performance enhancements by way of CAI, exhaust, tuning & the like, so you guys are probably the best guys for me to discuss what it is that I have in mind for my fx.
I'm a bit of a funny kind of guy, when I think of modding I automatically like to think of, OK, I could do this, but what's better than this, what's the next level, & then, OK, well that's great, but what's past that. I'm not the kind of guy that gets off on small enhancements, because with every small enhancement there is usually a larger enhancement that could have been done that would have been even more improvement. for example, I'm the kind of guy that would never be happy with a simple speaker upgrade, if I decide to build my system, I will automatically look for the best that I could do, not what's a bit better than what I have. for me to do an audio upgrade, I'm automatically going to build a kick ass competition system, anything less Will feel like a failure to me & a waste of time... funny I know, but that's just me.
I'm absolutely NOT knocking the guys who are just going to do a speaker upgrade though, honestly I say more power to you, I sometimes wish I could be satisfied with more normal stuff, but like I said, I'm kind of funny that way. I'm an all or nothing kind of guy... there are SO many things I have thought of doing at various points in my life, but then decided not to because I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it to the level I really wanted, I'm a big believer in do it right(right for me) or don't do it at all.
when the time came to put a PC in my car, I could have gone the easy route, but I would never be satisfied with that. I just figured out what I thought would be the ultimate, & then decided either I think I can pull it off or I can't. once I decide I can do something & I want to do something, I do it. if I think I'm going to have to make too many compromises or not get the results I'm after, then I'd rather decide to not do it at all than to do a half effort.
I honestly say none of this to impress anyone or to show off, I really only enjoy impressing one person & that's me. sure I do get a nice ego boost by having others impressed by my work, I mean who wouldn't, but in the end I really say none of this for those reasons at all. basically I'm just saying this so you can understand my way of thinking & where I'm coming from. I do hope I don't come off as a show off or anything like that, I do enjoy sharing my projects with others & for the most part all I get are warm praise & some are very impressed, that feels good believe me, but that's not my main reason for any of it really.
so now I'm loving my fx so much that I really feel the need for adding some power to it. some guys say the fx is powerful as-is, but it just doesn't do anything for me there. sure it's not a slug & it has enough power to pass & to merge without being anemic or anything, but it is in now way a real powerful vehicle to me. from my above explanation maybe you can see why I never even bothered to do all of the normal mods, sure a CAI & an exhaust would help a bit, but small gains like that aren't even going to turn me on personally, I want more. I was never the kind of guy to do a chip intake & exhaust, just not enough to be worth the effort to me personally, I was more the type to rip the motor out & through a beastly little thing in there & really make a significant difference, all or nothing, that's just me.
in considering all my options for the fx, I of course considered automatically forced induction, a supercharger, a turbo, two turbo's... again, I look at what's good, & then what's better than that, & then again OK, well what's better than that. I seriously considered going the tt route, I mean yeah, that does sound damn impressive, twin turbo, COOL, but then I also realize that once I did that, it wouldn't be long until I wanted even more. the next step past that would be to build the motor so it could really handle & really take advantage of the twin turbo setup. I do honestly think that I could be happy with a built tt setup, that's not a question to me. that would be enough for me to say to myself yeah, I did it right & I'm happy with it, but, then reality sets in. I mean I could easily go up wards of 20 grand & better going this route, & I'm not exactly in a position to consider this as a realistic goal for me, anything less will go against what I know I really need to feel that it's done & really done.
well, in weighing my options, the thought of an engine swap came to mind. this is not something that I haven't done before, as a matter of fact, when I was younger, I was always swapping motors & stuff, I've shoved grand national engines & lt1's & big blocks & others in too many things to list here, but the thought entered my mind, & the more I think about it, the more I think this is a realistic way for me to achieve what it is that I would need to achieve to be really satisfied. also, this may be the only way I can really get the balls out animal that I really want to build & within a realistic budget for me. once I have a ls2 or another variant of the late model Chevy ls series of engines running in my fx, everything past that becomes easy... making big power with one of those is trivial compared to trying to do the same with the original vq, I could realistically make over 700 hp for way less money than it would take to make 500 with the vq... not to say that I will go to 700hp & better, but the real possibility of that is there & even then some really. 500hp would be my intial goal at drop in & that could be easily acheived with an ls series engine without doing much at all. the more I think about this swap the more I'm seriously considering it.
with the research I've done so far, I've already convinced myself that I can pull off a swap like this, I do realize that I will have to make some compromises to achieve this though. stuff like tach, speedo, cruse control, abs & integrating the Chevy with the Nissan will be a challenge, but I think I can meet those challenges. some things will be not practical to retain too, like an est miles to empty, or est mpg... those things are something that I could give up easily enough without any real sense of loss.
the one thing that I would wind up giving up that is the one thing that has me second guessing this plan is I would also wind up sacrificing the awd. had my fx been rwd then I'd probably be showing pictures of everything & announcing my plans for this to happen, but loosing the 4wd is a relatively big compromise to me, I hate sacrificing something for something else, & I know that the awd in our fx is a really great system. I've never been a fan of 4wd trucks, if I was building an escalade or something I would most certainly NOT want a 4wd, in NYC I don't really ever feel the NEED for 4wd, but this fx is a bit different, it's more like an Audi quattro in that respect than like an escalade or something, so I really feel like this is a pretty big sacrifice. I think I'm wiling to make this sacrifice, the trade off is just to much of a win situation really that I think I wouldn't miss the awd near as much as I would love the power I would gain... in the end the awd is the one real main sacrifice that would have to happen for me to really be able to pull this off well
so, the purpose of this thread is really to get your guys opinions & input on this swap. any thoughts or concerns expressed would be appreciated, at this point I'm not going to say I'm 100% doing this, but I am seriously considering this enough to start this thread. I'll say that I'm 100% doing this when I have the new drive train in transit to me, until that point this is of course just speculation, but I don't see any other way I can really satisfy myself with real performance...
soo, thoughts? input? whadayathink?
I'm a bit of a funny kind of guy, when I think of modding I automatically like to think of, OK, I could do this, but what's better than this, what's the next level, & then, OK, well that's great, but what's past that. I'm not the kind of guy that gets off on small enhancements, because with every small enhancement there is usually a larger enhancement that could have been done that would have been even more improvement. for example, I'm the kind of guy that would never be happy with a simple speaker upgrade, if I decide to build my system, I will automatically look for the best that I could do, not what's a bit better than what I have. for me to do an audio upgrade, I'm automatically going to build a kick ass competition system, anything less Will feel like a failure to me & a waste of time... funny I know, but that's just me.
I'm absolutely NOT knocking the guys who are just going to do a speaker upgrade though, honestly I say more power to you, I sometimes wish I could be satisfied with more normal stuff, but like I said, I'm kind of funny that way. I'm an all or nothing kind of guy... there are SO many things I have thought of doing at various points in my life, but then decided not to because I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it to the level I really wanted, I'm a big believer in do it right(right for me) or don't do it at all.
when the time came to put a PC in my car, I could have gone the easy route, but I would never be satisfied with that. I just figured out what I thought would be the ultimate, & then decided either I think I can pull it off or I can't. once I decide I can do something & I want to do something, I do it. if I think I'm going to have to make too many compromises or not get the results I'm after, then I'd rather decide to not do it at all than to do a half effort.
I honestly say none of this to impress anyone or to show off, I really only enjoy impressing one person & that's me. sure I do get a nice ego boost by having others impressed by my work, I mean who wouldn't, but in the end I really say none of this for those reasons at all. basically I'm just saying this so you can understand my way of thinking & where I'm coming from. I do hope I don't come off as a show off or anything like that, I do enjoy sharing my projects with others & for the most part all I get are warm praise & some are very impressed, that feels good believe me, but that's not my main reason for any of it really.
so now I'm loving my fx so much that I really feel the need for adding some power to it. some guys say the fx is powerful as-is, but it just doesn't do anything for me there. sure it's not a slug & it has enough power to pass & to merge without being anemic or anything, but it is in now way a real powerful vehicle to me. from my above explanation maybe you can see why I never even bothered to do all of the normal mods, sure a CAI & an exhaust would help a bit, but small gains like that aren't even going to turn me on personally, I want more. I was never the kind of guy to do a chip intake & exhaust, just not enough to be worth the effort to me personally, I was more the type to rip the motor out & through a beastly little thing in there & really make a significant difference, all or nothing, that's just me.
in considering all my options for the fx, I of course considered automatically forced induction, a supercharger, a turbo, two turbo's... again, I look at what's good, & then what's better than that, & then again OK, well what's better than that. I seriously considered going the tt route, I mean yeah, that does sound damn impressive, twin turbo, COOL, but then I also realize that once I did that, it wouldn't be long until I wanted even more. the next step past that would be to build the motor so it could really handle & really take advantage of the twin turbo setup. I do honestly think that I could be happy with a built tt setup, that's not a question to me. that would be enough for me to say to myself yeah, I did it right & I'm happy with it, but, then reality sets in. I mean I could easily go up wards of 20 grand & better going this route, & I'm not exactly in a position to consider this as a realistic goal for me, anything less will go against what I know I really need to feel that it's done & really done.
well, in weighing my options, the thought of an engine swap came to mind. this is not something that I haven't done before, as a matter of fact, when I was younger, I was always swapping motors & stuff, I've shoved grand national engines & lt1's & big blocks & others in too many things to list here, but the thought entered my mind, & the more I think about it, the more I think this is a realistic way for me to achieve what it is that I would need to achieve to be really satisfied. also, this may be the only way I can really get the balls out animal that I really want to build & within a realistic budget for me. once I have a ls2 or another variant of the late model Chevy ls series of engines running in my fx, everything past that becomes easy... making big power with one of those is trivial compared to trying to do the same with the original vq, I could realistically make over 700 hp for way less money than it would take to make 500 with the vq... not to say that I will go to 700hp & better, but the real possibility of that is there & even then some really. 500hp would be my intial goal at drop in & that could be easily acheived with an ls series engine without doing much at all. the more I think about this swap the more I'm seriously considering it.
with the research I've done so far, I've already convinced myself that I can pull off a swap like this, I do realize that I will have to make some compromises to achieve this though. stuff like tach, speedo, cruse control, abs & integrating the Chevy with the Nissan will be a challenge, but I think I can meet those challenges. some things will be not practical to retain too, like an est miles to empty, or est mpg... those things are something that I could give up easily enough without any real sense of loss.
the one thing that I would wind up giving up that is the one thing that has me second guessing this plan is I would also wind up sacrificing the awd. had my fx been rwd then I'd probably be showing pictures of everything & announcing my plans for this to happen, but loosing the 4wd is a relatively big compromise to me, I hate sacrificing something for something else, & I know that the awd in our fx is a really great system. I've never been a fan of 4wd trucks, if I was building an escalade or something I would most certainly NOT want a 4wd, in NYC I don't really ever feel the NEED for 4wd, but this fx is a bit different, it's more like an Audi quattro in that respect than like an escalade or something, so I really feel like this is a pretty big sacrifice. I think I'm wiling to make this sacrifice, the trade off is just to much of a win situation really that I think I wouldn't miss the awd near as much as I would love the power I would gain... in the end the awd is the one real main sacrifice that would have to happen for me to really be able to pull this off well
so, the purpose of this thread is really to get your guys opinions & input on this swap. any thoughts or concerns expressed would be appreciated, at this point I'm not going to say I'm 100% doing this, but I am seriously considering this enough to start this thread. I'll say that I'm 100% doing this when I have the new drive train in transit to me, until that point this is of course just speculation, but I don't see any other way I can really satisfy myself with real performance...
soo, thoughts? input? whadayathink?
I could make it quiet enough that it will not be obnoxious at all, I'm not big on loud cars really, my turbo caddy has 4 mufflers on it for this very reason... I would have it quiet, it won't sound like a Nissan, but it will sound good