Alright I went to the track to see what I could do with my newb skills. I swapped in a 3.5 a couple months ago and a 5 speed about a month ago. My 5 speed driving skills are a month old. Launching this car is so hard...I got 2 half decent launches and that resulted in the 14.8 times. My reaction times are horrible .4's and .5's because i am struggling to decide how fast to let out the clutch and how much gas to press in all at once while trying not to roll past the point of the staging lights. I do not want to just dump the clutch because i'm pretty sure thats the wrong way to do this.
Burning out is hard as well because I dont want to dump the clutch but i have limited time and space to get it into gear and then light them up. I pull the ebrake but it only does so much.
Anyway, on my last burn out of the night there was so much wheel hop that my grille popped off and i ran over it. Thats not the worst part though. Next thing I know my car turns into a smoke machine (very cool effect in front of a crowd). There's smoke coming out of my hood like theres a fire under there. I pull off to the side and smell that its coolant. Turns out the cheap *** old brittle piece of **** connector on the fire wall for the coolant line to the heater core snapped off and emptied all my coolant under the car. It took me like 15 minutes of panic to figure out what had happened..i thought i blew a head gasket. Anyway, i was able to by pass the heater core and fill the radiator with water.
Long story short, I dont think i'll be racing my car again until i have new motor mounts and some other things....My dad thinks I cant do much better than 14.8 and i should stop investing in the maxima...which is very discouraging but i've come this far...
what i'm worried about is racing on my old tranny (160k on it) because sometimes, when i get into a situation like what I just explained where i'm beating on the tranny, I will try to put it in gear and the shifter will just feel all mushy and i can't find a gear to get it into..its hard to explain but it makes me feel like i've blown the transmission or something.
any advice is appreciated...I am running a 5th gen clutch set up which i'm also a little worried about burning up. My BFG traction t/a's are the best street tires i've taken to the track yet though, i'm impressed.
ANYWAY, the slips are in my car i'll post them tomorrow if anybody cares.

Yep my traction t/as are good, but definately cant handle vq35 tq though lol.

You should def be able to do better then 14.8, and yeah i understand how hard it is bein a newb, cuz we all were once. The first time i went to the track i watched honda guys dump it at like 8K so i dumped mine at 5K and spun through first with no hop..but 2.6 60ft, 2nd run i got wheel hop so bad my change door opened, my phone came OUT of the cup holder. crazy ****...and its soooooo bad for the tranny.

Just practice launching, you can try it out in an empty parking lot or deserted road, cuz its not like you need to go outta first to launch.

Dont worry about R/T unless your bracket racing, it doesnt matter, just go when your ready.


Good luck, and i hope you enjoyed it. I sure did the first time i went!

it wasnt my first time at the track. this is probably my 6 or 7th time at the track. Its my first time with the 3.5 and 5 speed though. The wheel hop certainly does not feel good for ANYTHING haha...i hate to put the car through that. I feel weird about beating on an old tranny, i put redline mt-90 fluid in there but i'd feel so much better about it if the tranny was meant to take that abuse.
I feel like the clutch pedal is always a differnet stiffness and thats another reason why i'm not getting used to it. i know it'll take time..
My wheel hop was so bad that it f*ckin popped out of gear

haha yeah. I meant first time as 5spd and 3.5. I know what you mean, when i get wheel hop, i can just feel it slowly killing the car. It already took 1 of my trannys lol. And yeah i know what you mean about the clutch. Do you have a s.s clutch line? Once i got mine, and bled the clutch it felt alot better. the engagement point is more "defined" I think my wheel hop topped all. I turned out of a street in the rain...no lie, it broke my muffler, where it connects to the bpipe, clean break too, my freind who was holding change in his hand..it ended up on the floor lol. crazy ****, sooooo bad too. Now that i have some stiffer springs/struts, new LCA bushings, and the ghetto engine tie down, its a lot better now. still get it occasionally though.

list up a full slip. get some poly mount. keep playing around till you get a better feel of the car. tune that pig. run a 13 and laugh in your fathers face.

yeah i have a straight SS hydrolic line. i'm not sure how to avoid the wheel hop technique wise without sacrificing time.
jsutter- thats what i plan on doing. he has no faith in me...ever. first he had no faith i could even make the swaps work. The best i ran before in my auto was 14.9 but the thing about that was I felt like the auto wouldnt really run any faster...like it was performing to its best ability and there wasnt alot of options as far as launching...I dont think I could have done much better.It sucked because I wasn't as consistent in the bracket racing...not enough to even get past the first round.
do people with LSD's have as much wheel hop? its only coming from the right wheel...

list the full slip what was the trap speed.

my trap speeds were all above 90. my best runs had a 94 and 95 trap speed. here's my 2 best slips
.4169 -- r/t
2.2773 --60 ft
6.3154 --330
9.611 --1/8
75.03 --mph
12.4311 --1000 ft
14.80 --1/4
95 --mph

.4411 --r/t
2.2537 --60ft
6.2843 --330 ft
9/5939 --1/8
75.45 --mph
12.4 --1000ft
14.8283 --1/4
94.30 --mph

i was nervous on the first couple runs and it felt like the needle was creeping too slowly or something in the gears, like the car wasnt pulling hard enough upper end (the track has that effect for some reason) so i was shifting probably 500~ rpm early.

don't worry so much about the reaction time. the time doesn't start counting until your tires cross the line. your 60' times aren't too bad. next time you run the car just leave the line like you normally would at a stop light and gradually depress the throttle until its wide open in first and just go wide open the rest of the way down the track. try that until you get a little more comfortable slipping the clutch when leaving the line. I would try to find a nice empty back road that isn't traveled much and would practice your launching techniques there.

oh and definitely take it all the way to the redline before you shift.

thanks for the advice. that sounds good, starting slow. I get all hyped up at the tree (especially because i usually wait in line for 10 minutes before i get up there).
the track makes my car feel so slow.

That trap seems pretty low but Im sure that early shifting isnt helping at all. Did you air down the tires at all? Its fairly helpfull esp. if your going to burnout before you launch.
Is the car tuned at all?

And as above, I wouldnt listen to your dad on that, there should be much better times to be had.

no, the car isnt tuned...and I think my exhaust is a little restrictive since the headers dont line up with the y pipe exactly (which is slightly crushed). there's still alot more to tweak and stuff i'm not saying this is the best i can do or the best the car can do. I did let the air down to about 20 psi and aired up the rears to 40.

What were the track conditions like? Your traps should be around 100mph or so, even without a tune.

It was night time but the weather was very very humid..I was sweating in my car the whole time. It rained earlieru that day and then the sun came out to make it miserable.
This track is fairly small and they don't have a way to go around the water box. So I was trying to burn off the water on my street tires.. I was doing a lot of spinning off the light. Keep in mind..I'm a noob 5 speed driver all together.

i ran 14.80's @ 93-94 mph with MOMO ARROWS , with my 3.0 with USIM. only mods UDP, stillen intake, and greddy catback.

car weighed 3075lbs and with me 3330lbs .

also that day i remember hot temps mid to high 80's.


ok think from this view what do 2k2,2k3 run stock? a lighter 4th gen with less drivtrain loss should be faster.

the car tilley raced raced NA and the first 3.5 swap was done on was his girlfreinds .trust me this was a heavy car, she thought weight reduction was stupid and he did 13.30 to 13.50's with this car



i think 3.5 swap cars are going for sale after swaps. is because of the poor times . i think swappers are disapointed.

Between improper setups and parts not be installed right and a vast amount of codes. also swappers tend not to spend more to make it right they spend less and suffer later .this is seen with DEK swaps also

i suggest also run 14's with your 3.0 before going 3.5 . the few parts that enable this are not lost on the 3.5 swap. many org members are atrocius drivers. so work on that not adding power

wow. thank you for taking this thread off topic. thank you for passively categorizing me as the typical orger who wants to be fast and look cool.
First of all, i have no intentions of selling this car. Second of all this is a very raw version of the swap. I did not come on here complaining about my times, I even said, i know the car has more in it; i know that I can do better.
Even if I never ran as good as someone as perfect as yourself did in their 3.0 with USIM that really does not concern me...at least not enough to sell my car. I love the max, i love to drive it everyday...if it was strictly a drag car that i only brought to the track and used at the track it would be a different story.
I am still tweaking, i am still going to tune, i still need to drive it more.
When the car was 3.0 it was auto as well and i had no reason to make it 5 speed. When i swapped the 3.5 it destroyed the auto and i decided to swap the 5 speed in for reliability for the most part. So thats where the part comes in where i have to learn to drive it.
I had an 00vi with my 3.0, but the best time I ran was 14.9...this was with bald tires and the auto transmission. I dont go to the track every weekend. Dont get me wrong, i love the track..but what happens there is not the determining factor of how much i like my car and whether i am going to keep it or not. I'm not so wrapped up in what the next man is doing that the ownership of my car depends on whether I can go run a 12 in my swapped max like "that guy krismax".
I knew there was a reason I never posted personal **** on the org. some pointers would have been cool..ya know?

you want pointers? shoot me an IM and I'll gladly help anytime I can. just keep driving the car and work on your shifting. I would try to get to the track a little more often to work on your skills there and get used to running at the track. it'll help you relax a bit. hell i even get nervous a little when I run. I know I did last weekend when I went. lol

thanks, yeah i got your screen name. i'll hit you up in awhile. i'm gonna go back, i just dont want to beat on it too much with such bad motor mounts.

Alrighty so there's a chance the wheel hop is just your driving style, BUT it's my opinion that a lot of org'ers overlook their suspension, and especially motor mounts (which have been mentioned already) and bushings.

You have a 95 right? So here's a 12 year old car, the rubber bushings up front on your control arms, subframe, end links, sway bar etc are probably misshapen and mushy at best. When you launch the car hard, there's a lot of room to move.

I'd definitely replace the motor mounts with poly, but I'd also consider a full set of ES bushings under there. The set is less than $100 IIRC.

Don't give up though, with the 3.5 (and some more practice) you can do a lot better than 14's.

Trust me, I'm not giving up. But iknow for a fact that my motor mounts are shot because when I was installing it the center portion that the screw went through was completely loose and unattached.
I'm replacing the control arm bushings asap before I get another alignment.

Sounds like a good start.

ya like everyone else said dont really worry about your r/t you dont need to do a burn out with those tires just air them down a little and you'll be fine. also try launching at 2500 rmp dump half of the clutch and feather out the half.

Thanks guys. Ill try that soundlab. At this track there is no way to go around the waterbox, you have to go through it. One time I didn't get the water off good enough and I ended up spinning through first crazily (no wheel hop that time) and missed 2nd because of it.
Eventually they'll make it to where you can drive around the waterbox though.
My buddy in his 02 auto max was there as well and he has stock wheel tire set-up that came on the car and would spin too much. he couldn't get out of the 15's. But his traps were low as well...lower than mine.

sorry but all of that wasnt pointed toward you ,some was. thats the gift of the printed word on the net.

and actually there was advice in those words ,i give advice to many in life who may not want to hear certain things and freinds do the same to me.
my advice to you was to relax and learn to drive better.

other comments i made where concerning many people throwing together a swap or other things then complaining about things .
really wasnt trying to be a turd just was stating what ive been seeing.

I didnt really see that in what you said...but i hear ya I suppose. I think for some reason everyone saw my times weren't up to par and assumed I was disappointed or complaining...I just wanted to share what I did.

I definently see where your coming from when it comes to these people who jump in to this and expect it all to just work out. I'm not one of those people though, I'm very dedicated and determined. I can be impatient but never to the extent (At least with my car) that i make irrational conclusions. I'm open minded about the whole thing...people run better times, I'm sure I can too...it didnt/doesnt happen over night. If all I wanted was a fast car I could have bought one by now, but its not practical and its not my sole purpose for having such an interest in this car. just for example...i've wanted an el camino since the day I started looking for cars...and i finally bought one a couple months ago for my birthday and haven't given it a fraction of the attention I've given the maxima (although i will start to soon).

after the incident with the coolant last night I'm still a little traumatized, I thought I blew a head gasket or destroyed my transmission or something. I'm just glad to drive it at the moment haha.

no hard feelings krismax, you've helped me out alot in the past with other stuff, i havent forgotten.