We took this 2011 Nismo for some testing on ECUTek’s tuning suite and also some comparisons on the stock Nismo tune, ECUTek tuning, and adding the Stillen Gen 3 Intake. The Nismo came to us with only K&N drop-ins in the factory air boxes. We were curious to see how much more could be extracted from the Nismo since they come with more aggressive tunes from the factory which includes leaner AFRs and higher ignition timing.
ECUTek is a new comer to the tuning world for the 370Z & G37s. Since its had a fresh start it currently only offers one RaceRom option of simplified ignition timing. This nice feature overwrites Nissan’s complicated ignition timing strategy for a more simplified version that uses “normal” (BTDC values) values in its map. There currently is no setting changes for fan control, fuel cranking enrichment, and the ability to have multiple maps. ECUTek plans to release more RaceRom features soon like launch control, flat foot shifting, and map switching.
The graph above shows our baseline (blue) against our SZ ECUTek tuning (Red). Performed in 4th gear, our final pull was performed in 5th gear coming up later. Only mods are the K&N drop-ins in factory air boxes for both runs. 298 whp and 242 torque for peak numbers from our baseline. Tuned peak numbers were 310 whp and 258 torque. Peak numbers increased 12 whp and 16 torque. However the peak numbers don’t tell the only story. Our entire powerband had even better gains. On the cursor of the above graph, 5500 RPMs we gained 20 whp and 19 torque.
After our initial pulls performed, we began to take the Nismo apart to install the Stillen Gen 3 Intake and GTM 34 Row Oil Cooler. We wanted to see how the Nismo would perform when adding the intake after its been tuned. Would it make more power?
Ready to go back together. The placement of the air filter’s in Stillen’s kit is one of the best out in the market. It keeps the open air element filters away from the engine bay heat and high up away from water.
It is hard to distinguish the two runs above, but red was our tuned run with stock air boxes and K&N drop ins. Blue was after we installed the Stillen Gen 3 Intake AND tuning. Throwing the intake kit on the car without tuning we lost power. It leaned out the tune enough that we had a drop in power all over the power band. This is why on a stock Z, you can add the intake kit and it will make power, it leans out the rich factory tune on the non-Nismo cars to make power. However on a tuned car, you will most likely have the results we experienced. This isn’t the first time we’ve performed this test and we get the same results each time. So on the blue intake tuned run we gained 4 whp and 3 torque at 7000 RPMs. We lost some from 5200 to 6000 and then again from 6100 to 6600. Again, the above runs were performed in 4th gear.
Our final pass in 5th gear 1:1, with SZ ECUTek tuning and Stillen Gen 3 Intake. Almost 323 whp and 268 torque.
