Hi. Thought i would drop you all a line. Im from Brisbane Australia and purchased a 1986 Nissan Maxima about 4 months ago. Ive done a lot of searching for info about this car. Basically its a vg20det motor (2L non intercooled V6 turbo). I was wondering if there is anything else i should know about this car. It has electric adjustable suspension ( soft, medium, and hard settings ). I stumbled across this site by accident and i have noticed when you all speak of the 2nd gen maxima you all say its a vg30e motor. I was wondering is the us spec cars the same as the jap spec cars except the obvious motor differences? or did us spec cars come with turbo motors? any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. If there is any sites on performance upgrades for my car it would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Matt

 

I do believe that all US spec Maxima's were VG30E engines, and I have never heard of a factory turbo'd VG30 in a Max. However, I have seen some second gen max's running around that are turbo'd...just not sure if they were imported, but most likely they are the 2.0 V6. I've seen two in the town I live in now, but only once...they seem to be few and far between. Both cars had out of state tags on them.

 

Ahh the 2.0l. I thought it was a turbod 4 cyl engine. That car that you are referring to is known as the maxima bluebird. It was made from 86-87 only from what Ive read it had a turbo 4 cyl engine. Ive seen pics of the engine but only in 510s. But yes we only have the vg30e engine. Nice buy!

 

Other than the engine, I think there are some minor cosmetic differences. I believe the Bluebird Maximas have slightly different rear windows and C-pillars. Also there may be some minor differences in the tailights.

The 2nd gen US Maximas only came with the 3.0L V6 known as the VG30E. It's almost identical to the engine used in the '84-'88 300ZX (aka Fairlady Z). The Z came with either the naturally aspirated VG30E or the turbo VG30ET. Some people have bolted that turbo onto their 2nd gen Maximas or transplanted the whole engine. I'm guessing some people also have imported that 2.0L engine that you have, but I haven't seen one personally, and I'm not sure the pics that I've seen on the net were completely legit.

If you want more info about your car, join the 2nd Generation Nissan Maxima Club listed in my sig.

-C-

 

hey thanks all for the reply. It looks pretty similar to pics ive seen of your spec cars. Its definately a V6 and is definately 2litre. It had a slight accident a couple months ago and because it is a jap car. And pretty rare and old at that i have been waiting 2 months for parts to arrive for it. All that happened was a cracked fuel line which (luckily) errupted into flames after i switched the car off. But anyways thanks again for the replies.
Matt
ps. ive joined that 2nd gen maxima group but because of the time differences i doubt ill be able to chat with many of you.

 

Did you have to do any modifications to the car to get it registered there? I have read about people bringing MG RV8s from Japan to Australia and having to add side impact bars in the doors and some other silly things to get them street legal. Just wondering. John

 

Hey, i didnt import the car personally. The import laws are really strict now in australia but these are the current laws. My car was imported in 1992 so the EPA, ADR (australian design regulations) laws were either non existent or the car had no problems passing them. One difference i have noticed with my car and the one pictured in Charles sig is ur car seems to have b pillars (between back and front door). When all my windows are down there is no pillars whatso ever between the two windows. I guess slowly ill learn more differences. I also have a 180km/h speed cut which is a bit of a *****.
cheers
Matt

 

Sounds like a speed governor. Try to find the wire on the ECU and clip the damned thing. I don't think you have a CEL (Check Engine LIght) like we do over here.

-A

 

Only Cali spec maximas have the CEL/ I dont have a CEL either.

 

Yeah, only the CA models had the check engine light, I believe all the 3rd gens and up have it though.

I wish I had that check engine light. All it does it light up when the ECU detects an error condition, but it would certainly be a lot easier than ripping out the ECU every time something goes wrong with the car (which is very rare by the way).

-C-

 

Word I totally agree with you about the CEL thing. I wish I had that getting out the ecu is too much hassle. I wonder what is need to be done to have the light.

 

It's not all its cracked up to be. You still need to rip out the ECU to find out WHY the CEL went on, otherwise, you're shooting for a needle in a haystack.

You think our ECUs are too hard to get to? You should see the be-atch stock ECUs from the 4th gens. That was a major PITA to remove, thank G-d its out for good.

-A

 

http://www.carfolio.com/search/results/?terms=maxima

Search results:
[+] 1 Nissan Bluebird Maxima V6
[+] 2 Nissan Bluebird Maxima V6 Turbo XV

 

What years were these? Were they sold in the united states?

 

They werent made or sold in the U.S. From what I know they were only made in 1985-86. I wonder if canada may have gotten them. I know Australia usually gets whatever Japan has.