- A portion of today's video is sponsored by CarGurus.
Hey you, yeah, you.
Do you want a cheap, powerful and reliable engine
that can pretty much do it all.
One that rips,
but doesn't rip into your pocket book.
No, I'm not talking about GM's LS1,
I'm talking about Nissan's LS1.
a B6 with an iconic grout,
the VQ engine.
Today, we're gonna talk about what makes
this engine so balanced,
so smooth, so q-biquitous.
And we're gonna do that,
by focusing on how the engineers cut vibration,
bolstered rigidity and send all that smooth power
into a smooth close-ratio transmission.
We bout to get fricking smooth in here.
(upbeat music)
Thanks to CarGurus
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just like the Chevy LS1,
the Nissan VQ is the cheap, reliable way
to make a bunch of power.
This engine is also extremely versatile,
which is why it's found,
in a bunch of different Nissan models.
It's one of the reasons,
we bought two identical 350Zs awhile ago,
and you know what you guys should do,
hit that bell and notification
because we got HiLow season two coming out this week.
So you wanna know when that drops,
hit the little bell
hit the subscribe that helps us out.
You can tune them,
you can hone them
and you can boon them, boy.
Now there are various VQ models,
but we're gonna focus on one in particular,
the VQ35HR or High Rev,
'cause it's the crème de la crème of VQ.
Now this updated version of the VQ35DE,
is almost completely redesigned
with 80% of the internals being strengthened
and reconfigured to handle a higher rev range.
Now, other iconic engines like
the 2JZ or the RB26,
might be able to handle more power and more compression,
but the VQ35HR, it holds a little baby secret.
Come here, it's lighter than all of them.
Now all that is thanks
to an aluminum block in head,
now compared to its inline iron block cousins
the RB and the 2J,
the 60-Degree V6 saves weight and space
because it's shorter than an inline stick
because it has a smaller geometry,
it can be squeezed into a smaller engine bay saving space,
which then saves weight.
That's good,
but it's not just weight
or lack of weight I should say
that makes this engine great.
It's the versatility as well.
The VQ is able to make a bunch of torque
around 260 pound feet of it,
which is why they put this engine in SUVs as well.
The VQ35HR can be found in the Infiniti FX35,
in the EX35
and stock versions can be anywhere
from 297 to 360 horsepower,
when it's paired with an electric motor,
like in the Hybrid Infinity M35h,
the h means horse hybrid.
You didn't know that.
And if you didn't put it together from the engine code,
this thing revs high,
all the way up to 7,600 RPM,
but you might be saying,
"Okay, revs are high,
but Jer, you can get much more powerful with 2J.
You can get much more torque from an LS.
You can get much more attention from an RV."
And all that is true,
but that's not what makes the VQ an all time great engine.
Okay sure, the ability
to tune this engine is a great feature,
but it's something else that makes the VQ35HR, truly great.
(upbeat music)
So to understand why this engine is so good,
we have to look at all the forces it's able to handle
and how the engineer's balance those forces.
Now, V12, inline-six's, V6, inline-four's,
they all have different forces acting
during their combustion cycle,
which creates some engines
being inherently more balanced than others.
But what does that even mean?
What does having a balanced engine mean?
Well, there's two types of balance.
There's primary and there's secondary
and primary engine balance has to do
with the force exerted
from the pistons going up and down in the cylinder
and perfect primary balance is the end goal
for any engine manufacturer.
That's what you want,
its Holy Grail.
And an engine is balanced in different ways.
One of them being with reciprocating mass,
if all the pistons went up and down together,
that engine wouldn't be balanced at all
and there would be a ton of vibration.
The engine would probably shake itself apart,
(babbling) you know, like that.
So those forces need to be balanced
in order to cut down on vibration
and make power delivery more uniform.
And when the piston is going up,
another piston is going down
and one piston is at top dead center.
And the reciprocating piston is at bottom dead center.
That's the top of the cylinder.
That's at the bottom of the cylinder.
Now, if you look at it on the graph,
with the Y axis being piston position,
and the X axis being time,
the movement of the piston makes a sinusoidal curve.
And that's just a fancy word that I can barely say
that describes the way a shape makes.
It's like this.
It's like a snake, just think of a snake.
So you see how that second piston is opposite
of that first piston,
this counterbalance is crucial,
but it's also not the only thing,
keeping these forces in line.
Now another way to fight these forces is with counterweights
and counterweights are weighted pieces
that sit at the base of the piston at the connecting rod,
and they counteract the force of the piston,
going up and down in the cylinder,
in the same reciprocating way
that the pistons do.
And by adding these weights,
they can help further alleviate engine vibration,
but they also introduced a bit of lateral force
to the engine,
which can be detrimental.
Any energy that's not going directly into the crank,
is lost energy.
So even if the pistons are exerting equal forces
against each other,
there still might be unbalanced forces of foot.
And that's where secondary engine balance comes into play.
Now, secondary engine balance is a little more complicated.
And in basic terms,
it's caused by the piston traveling faster
towards the top of the cylinder
than it does towards the bottom of the cylinder.
Now that might be a little confusing,
but we're gonna figure it out, watch.
So to understand this,
we're gonna have a look at
the different phases of one rotation
of the crank shaft.
Now let's assume bottom dead center is at zero degrees.
And top dead center is at 180 degrees.
So you have 90 degrees
and 270 degrees in between them.
Now when the piston is traveling,
between the 90 degree position
and the 270 degree position,
the distance it has to travel is further
than the distance it travels,
when the piston is moving from 270 degrees to zero,
and then back to 90 degrees again
Now, because this distance is further,
the piston has to move faster in the same amount of time.
And that's because
the shape of the crank isn't perfectly symmetrical.
Does that make sense?
Great, if it does, you're now a certified B2b Engineer.
We should actually have a school.
We should have the Donut Institution.
B2b can be like your engineering course,
Money Pit that's like shop class.
Up to speed, that's history.
Yeah, wheelhouse is like biology.
You're always learning stuff.
It's right there in front of your face,
but you never really knew about it.
And that's what Nolan does with cars.
He has the ability to tell you all this stuff,
that's right there in your face
that you didn't know.
And then when you do know,
you're like, cool.
I love my biology teachers.
Now this slight difference in distance,
results in a slight arrhythmia,
which causes more vibration.
Now, since it's happening twice per rotation of the crank,
it's double the frequency
of the fundamental frequency of the engine.
Now, the more harmonious the engine is
the smoother it will run
and vibrations will be minimized.
Now, inline-six's are some of
the most inherently balanced engines.
It's V6, bro bro
They need a little bit of help.
It's kinda like Tony Stark and his Iron Man suit, okay.
He needs a little bit of engineering help
to be the master that he is.
So what little bits of engineering help do V6's need?
Well, stay with me.
We're gonna talk about it.
(upbeat music)
When I say inherently balanced, what does that mean?
Well, it means that it almost has perfect primary
and secondary balances.
It doesn't need some of that Tony Stark engineering,
to help with its balance.
And that's because there are three sets
of reciprocating masses.
That's the pistons, there's three sets of two.
And if you look at the firing order of an inline-six,
the pistons are exactly mirrored.
The pistons on the end,
pitsons one and six they fire at the same time,
same with pistons two and five.
And same with pistons three and four.
Well that's great for inline engines, Jerry Berry,
but we're talking about V-shaped engines here,
so what's the deal?
Why are they slightly less balanced?
Well, in a firing order,
the pistons have of a V6 are,
one, two, three, four, five, six,
pretty simple to remember.
Additionally, the cylinder banks are at a different angle
than an inline.
So the pistons shoot in different directions,
instead of just up and down.
So the HR needs some additional components.
It needs some Tony Stark engineering
to counteract those unbalanced forces.
Now a lot of that is taken care of
with a harmonic balancer
or damper as some people call it.
Now the power that is sent to the crank shaft
from the pistons,
can cause something called torsional vibration,
which is when the crank shaft shifts around in its housing.
So the harmonic balancer is connected to
the free end of the crank
and it absorbs some of those torsional vibrations
since the crank shaft and inline engines are longer
than their V-shaped counterparts,
torsional vibration is a bigger concern
with those engines
because they have much more of an opportunity
to flex and contort.
think about it, you got longer bars,
you can twist a little bit easier when it's short,
it's really hard to do that.
Now, in order to make the new VQ more rigid
and less prone to vibration,
Nissan engineers devised a ladder frame,
called a main cap girdle
to the bottom of their engine, it's girdle.
It's just like how grandmas wear a girdle,
so they remain rigid when they're standing up,
you know what a girdle is,
go into your mom's closet.
She's gonna be like,
"What are you doing here?"
and be like, I'm learning science mom.
If that grandma line doesn't work for you,
just go ask your mom what a girdle is
and she's gonna say, "Zip it Chad,
just eat your corn pops okay."
Best case scenario,
your mom whips out a girdle.
(laughs)
Now either way, this new girdle helped
to stiffen up the engine quite a bit.
And not only that,
it prevents crank walk
and crank walk is when
the crankshaft ships too much in the crankcase.
Now this girdle also prevents other parts of the engine
from twisting and moving into forming,
which is pretty typical in a high power high torque engine.
But the block isn't the only thing
that needed to be beefed up.
Now with high powered engine,
all those little bits and bops and bups
and stuff are under a lot of stress
and the internal components in the VQDE,
wouldn't have been able to handle that stress
without being bolstered.
So the connecting rods on the piston
and the DE are eight millimeters thick
and nine millimeters thick in the HR.
Now, one millimeter might not be that much.
That's 12 and a half percent thicker.
Think about if you were 12 and a half percent thicker.
And although it's only one millimeter difference,
the connecting rods in the HR are 25% stronger
in the main cap.
So the pieces that hold the crank shaft in place,
now they have four bolts instead of the normal two,
which provides a sturdier structure
in which the crank shaft sits
and adds to the overall rigidity of the engine.
You're just having more and more ways
to make this engine more rigid
and prevent a bunch of vibrations.
Now, the reduce vibrations
and the increased rigidity in the VQ,
allow for a smooth power delivery.
That's only part of the equation.
And this is where we're gonna talk about the transmission.
(upbeat music)
And yeah, I know, okay.
Its technically not a VQ engine,
the transmission is different than the engine,
but the right transmission,
can dictate how your car performs.
And it's a great transmission
and we want to talk about it,
So we're gonna do it.
So in this section,
we're gonna focus one of the transmissions
from the 350Zs,
specifically the JK41B, 6 speed manual transmission
Now this gearbox is smooth for a number of reasons.
One of them being that it utilizes close-ratio gears.
Now somehow we've never explained,
close-ratio gears here on B2b.
So this is gonna be fun.
We're all gonna learn, it's great.
Now the most basic terms,
a close-ratio transmission has gears
that are close in ratios.
It's the same thing as having a 10-speed bike
and a 20-speed bike,
say you're riding a 10-speed bike and you pedal.
The workload puts on your legs becomes less and less, right?
And when it comes time to shift to a higher gear,
there's a bit of a jolt,
when your legs get used to having to do the extra work
of this new gear,
legs are like, "Hey, what the heck?
Why you shifted gears on me?"
And you're like, "Shut up legs.
I'm trying to go faster."
They were just moving so fast
and now they have to adjust.
They're like, "Oh, this is harder to do.
I can't go as fast."
But in a 20-speed bike,
likes say Flippa, Flippa is got 20-speed bike.
You're shifting twice as much.
And that makes the ride a lot smoother.
It's not such a jolt to your legs
as with a 10-speed bike
because there gears that are closer together in ratio.
And the same principle can be applied to the transmission,
found in the Z,
now close-ratio gearing wouldn't be smooth
without the unique synchronizer
that Nissan employees in their 6 speed transmission.
You don't know what a synchro is?
Don't worry, you're in good hands.
You're in my hand.
Now the synchronizer synchronizes
the speed of the input and the output shafts
and the transmission.
In this case, the crank shaft
and the drive shaft,
and it aligns the gears while you're shifting.
It makes the whole process of shifting
and engaging gears a lot smoother and quicker.
And if you didn't have a synchro,
the gears would grind against each other.
Fun little fact,
we did an episode on Peterbilt a couple of weeks back,
and they use transmissions
that don't have synchronizers.
So if you ever wondered like,
"Hey, why is that big rig sound like it's grinding gears?"
Well, it's because
the drivers have to manually synchronize
the engine RPM so they can shift from one gear to the next.
Now synchros are shared by adjacent gears,
for instance, first gear and second gear,
they share synchro
and the same with gears three, four, five and six.
And that's because they live between those gears.
Now reverse gear doesn't need a synchro
because the car needs to be at a dead stop,
for it to engage.
And that's because the input shaft
and the output shaft already synchronized,
'cause they're not moving,
but what sets smooth transmissions apart
from really smooth transmission,
is the amount of friction rings per synchro.
Now, in the case of the JK41B transmission,
the first, second and third gears,
all have triple-cone syncros
and fourth gear has a double cone.
And I know that's a lot,
but stick with me.
Now, if you have one friction ring,
taking on all that friction
and slowing down the shafts,
it's going to be rougher
and slower than having multiple rings doing the same job,
but with multiple rings during the same job,
they're working together to handle that acceleration
much quicker and smoother,
which makes it easier on the driver
and all that helps to make the driving experience
that much better when you're in one of these cars,
the engineers of this engine on this transmission,
when they put it in 350Z,
they did a great job.
And you know what we did,
we bought two, 350Zs
and we try to engineer them better.
We recorded the whole series,
it's called HiLow,
and actually season two is dropping this week.
So go back, watch season one,
if you didn't,
we took two cars that were the same,
we put expensive parts one,
we put cheaper parts on the other.
We pitted them against themselves
That fireworks still going off.
I don't know if you can hear it,
but it's fireworks season in LA.
Okay now,
thanks so much guys for watching.
Follow me on Instagram @JeremiahBurton.
Got a cool car you wanna see on the show
or cool bit of engineering hit me up.
Let me know what you wanna see.
Follow us on donut @donutmedia.
Bye for now.