Heavy tuning of Legnum VR4

[WireD]

Hi all!

As you might have notised, im in the final stages of buying a 2002 Legnum VR4, and i thought i might as well have it tuned for me in japan as the car is being bought there.


What i wonder about is, how much can the different parts handle of power, before it breaks down?

for ex, i drive a 323 Astina with a GT-R engine.

On the GT-R,
the fuel pump stops at around 300bhp.
the rods start to crack on 320bhp.
the pistons start to go at 340-350bhp.
the turbo is good for over 400bhp.

The gearbox, when maintained, and driven with a bit of sence, can easily handle 1,6 bar(24 psi)

What is the situation on the legum vr4?

what about the tiptronic gearbox? What can be done to it? Change the gears? What about the transferbox? and the driveshafts? how much power can they handle?


thnx in advance.

Øyvind

[bradc]

The stock fuel pump starts to run out at 190-195kw at the wheels, the stock injectors can't really go much beyond that, maybe 205-210kw at max.

None of us really know about the rods and pistons because we haven't taken them that far.

The turbos are tiny and are really pushed well out of their range at 205kw atw.

The tiptronic gearbox is weak at all times. If you get a big transmission cooler and treat it nicely it should be able to hold up.

[WireD]

ye, thats what i thought..!

so, bigger nozzles on the fuelrail, a 255L/H pump, bigger turboes, bigger cooler, Blitz boostcontroller, and a few small tids and tads, to pass the 400bhp mark...! cool!

about pistons/rods... i see ppl run almost 380bhp here, and what is it? a 75 shot? 100 shot? they can take that... so they should cope with 400+ then, dont u recon?



About the gearbox...ye, its experiencing the same problems as all other transversally mounted gearboxes...! so, same as for the 323GT-R box then..? drive with sence, change oil regularly, use oil-cooler? had it in mind, but i wanted to see if any of you have tested it allready :)

hmmm.....

[william]

I used my previous VR4 with Tiptronic box to tow a 6.2m Rayglass boat (1500kg unladen) for 3 years. On the first long trip to the far north it overheated 3 times on mountain passes(stopped shifting, the little green gear position indicator started to flash). I waited for it to cool down and it was fine again!. I then fitted a large gearbox cooler and the gearbox was fine, the car did tend to get a bit hot on long hills because of the restricted airflow through the radiator. I recently traded it in on a manual VR4 with the box still working like a dream! So some of them seem to be OK!!

[Nick Mann]

With a 255 pump and a good regulator, the fuel system should just get you to 400 bhp, injectors should cope, although they will be working at near max duty.

The turbos will let you down at 340-350 bhp.

There are a couple of owners I know of that are running a good 330 plus who have added 100 of nos on top. The gearbox and the internals can cope at that for short periods. Anything more and you are into unchartered waters.

[WireD]

hmmmm..... *scratching my beard* :thinking:

any more experiences, ideas, advices, info etc. you have, please come with em!

ps. i love unchartered territories....! :evilgrin:

[valmes]

Rods don't just start "cracking"... as "pistons don't go" for no reason...
Our engine is closely related to the 6G72TT DOHC V6 found on 3000GT/GTO/Stealth... so read on and make your own judgments:
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread.php?t=315169&highlight=pistons

[bradc]

Valmes is right, if you have your tuning done correctly with a capable computer then you shouldn't have much of a problem. The big thing that will get you above ~360hp and release a heap of power is upgrading the turbos, and that is the one thing you really must do.

[WireD]

thnx alot, bud! :D

nice link! :)

[WireD]

hmmm......

VERY nice link indeed!
So, we practically share the same engine with those 3000/stealths?
well, exept legnum has a 2,5L, the 3000 has a 3l

[Nick Mann]

Different bore and stroke, different cc, different turbos, engine/gearbox rotated 180 degrees. But the design is fundamentally the same.

[WireD]

i just sendt a request to japan for the following to be modified if i buy the car:

2 GT28RS turboes, new clutch, FMIC=600x300x76mm , Blitz SBC i-Color boostcontroller, Blitz Turbotimer, Piggyback system, E-manage, forged rods/pistons, ARP studs, performance exhaust, walboro 255 pump and bigger fuelrails some meeters here and there(A/F, boost, oiltemp, pressure) two oilcooler,s one for gearbox, one for transfer, and to see if they had any experience with theese cars over in japan, any advice on gearbox internals, what to strengthen and so on, and if they can do it.... lets see what we get in reply :D

[valmes]

i just sendt a request to japan for the following to be modified if i buy the car:

2 GT28RS turboes, new clutch, FMIC=600x300x76mm , Blitz SBC i-Color boostcontroller, Blitz Turbotimer, Piggyback system, E-manage, forged rods/pistons, ARP studs, performance exhaust, walboro 255 pump and bigger fuelrails some meeters here and there(A/F, boost, oiltemp, pressure) two oilcooler,s one for gearbox, one for transfer, and to see if they had any experience with theese cars over in japan, any advice on gearbox internals, what to strengthen and so on, and if they can do it.... lets see what we get in reply :D


hehe... :5shots:

[Louis]

Interested, please let us know what you find re rods and pistons, cheers Louis

[bradc]

I'm particularly interested in the pistons and conrods, you should ask them for 2 or 3 sets and to throw those in the back :)

[WireD]

I'm particularly interested in the pistons and conrods, you should ask them for 2 or 3 sets and to throw those in the back :)


Oh, are you coming to norway there, m8?:inquisiti :D:D:D if, so, let me know, and ill arrange for a party! :D

Japan-->norway-->new zealand? :D quite a long travelroute there now, aint it? :)

New zealand and norway is almost exactly on the other side of the planet :)

[bradc]

You could always send them straight across to NZ then :) I think there might be another member in NZ that will be interested in them, and of course there should be a few guys in the UK too. If you can let us know, that would be great.

[WireD]

ill keep you updated :)

[WireD]

while im waiting for the answer from japan, ive explored another possibility, customizing the existing td03 turboes.

Improving flow, more agressive internals.... lets see where this is going..

very few, if any bolt on turboes around for this engine... :speechles

[Nick Mann]

There are no bolt on upgrades that this club knows of.

Upgrading the turbo internals is expensive and largely pointless as the housing is not big enough to accommodate big increases of airflow.

[bradc]

Nick is right, there is just no point in modifying the TD03's, just go and get some TD04's or GT25R/28R/28RS

[valmes]

Pros Engineering and Bozzspeed did something to stock TD03s and they produced (along with other mods...) good numbers on our cars. I've seen cars (links actually to internet pages) from Pros Eng. that could go 300 kph on upgraded stockers... but price was kinda high and there were reports that even those options are no longer available to us...


... and just to give you an idea of how small our stockers are compared to TD04, look at the picture bellow, how much more can you squeeze out of them?

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a82/valmes/2pt.jpg

[WireD]

that small sucker is the td03 and the big one is td04?

hmm.... ill find a way through this..!

the request i sendt to japan included two GT28RS turboes, lets see what they say.

[WireD]

ill check up with the td04 turboes tomorrow.

[WireD]

Has anyone here tried the TD04 conversion and got it to work?

[valmes]

Well, if you think taking pictures of turbos is my only hobby... guess again ;)

[WireD]

hehehe... so you are running td04s? lotsa work to get em to fit?

[WireD]

god dammit... i send a request for prices regarding td04s, boostcontroller, piping, cooler etc(mentioned above), and they manage to answer me with "the bang for the bucks aint worth it"....wellllllll, thats from a japanese point of view, japanese curerncy vs. norwegian currency seen, its very cheap for me as a norwegian to get the car tuned in japan.
So, in stead of answering me with prices etc. they say "little bang for the bucks-ratio"


ARG!!!

new mail, more waiting...!

[Kalle]

Any news here?

[WireD]

not yet, mate... waiting for the car to get appoved here in norway, getting the answer tomorrow, hopefully

[WireD]

god dammit!

bad news: i need more papers to get the car appoved here in norway....

god news: we have a contact in u.k who can supply us with those papers, hopefully the last obstacle we encounter...!
papers arrive on monday! *crossing fingers*

[WireD]

ah, got the papers today, went out there to get the car approved.......


buuuut no...!

the computer system had broken down.... new trip on monday.....!

why does this ALWAYS happen to me...?

[WireD]

ok, one step closer today...
only need a paper from mitsu that says standard galant headlights can be used(we drive on the right hand side in norway, so theese have to be changed), and a paper from TUV that states the legnums exhaust measurements are within limits....

almost there..!

[Kalle]

It is ok to use the standard headlights in Sweden atleast...