I have a 92 gxe and im getting my liscense in about 2 months, im looking for some affordable projects to improve performance and looks. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

your performance will improve greatly by adding a 3rd pedal

 

lol, c'mon man, go easy on the guy will you?

Performance wise:

Good and complete tuneup
Cleaning intake
Cleaning out the engine
FSTB
CAI
HAI
Blehmco stuff
Unorthodox lightened UDP
Warpspeed Y pipe
Port and polished throttle
Custom turbo set up

Looks:

Clear corners
Led conversion
Custom grills
Stillen lips and sideskirts
Custom WRX tails

Looks & Performance:

E36 conversion
Suspension drop (springs and struts)
RIMS
Audio equipment
Custom Leather seats

and on and on and on...

These cars are a blank canvas, and are a gem to the true modders.

edit: re-ordered list, most crucial/cheapest/easiest goes first

 

Im still a n00b here i dont know what FSTB, CAI, HAI means

 

sorry,

FSTB = Front Strut Tower Bar, improves handling during corners

CAI = Cold Air Intake

HAI = Hot Air Intake a.k.a a cone filter and a MAF (Mass Air Flow sensor) adapter.

 

First, make sure to keep the car maintained. Change the timing belt, fluids, etc.

After that, just buy some rims and put in a nice stereo.

If you come up with a little extra money, buy new springs and struts to lower the stance.

I wouldn't mess with the performance stuff for a while.

 

I think the Maxima, stock, has plenty of power for a new driver. I think our young friend should learn how to handle 160 HP before he pushes it up over 200. To that end, he should be looking at suspension upgrades, bushings, etc. which will make the car handle better before any performance upgrades.
My son is going to inherit my 90 SE in a few months when he gets his license, and I'm trying to find ways to DETUNE it!!!

 

Put a honda motor in it....

 

welcome to the forums. like others here have mentioned, i'd have the car tuned up and other necessary maintenance stuff taken care of first before modding.

 

nah man, he needs one of the erebuni body kits, some powered by nissan stickers, an A/F gauge and one of those big **** wings on the back.
That'd be dope!

 

Whenever your are ready son.

 

hey man, i am driving in like 5 days, you definately got a good car on your hands, maximas can take quite a beating.when was the timing belt changed???? and how many miles are on the car. if oyu get a warpspeed y-pipe, it will give you more horsepower, is your car loud, what i mean by this is that it your exhaust loud??? you might have a seperated y-pipe (happens alot on old cars) that is one of the best performance upgrades, a CAI or cold air intake will do good too, but as people before me said, change oil, oil filter, air filter maybe??? maybe fuel filter. all of this you should be able to do, and if oyu are doing lots of things yo your car, get a FSM (factory service manual) it will tell you EVERYTHING do not get haynes or chiltons. that FSM wil help oyu out a ton if you are new to cars and expecially the maxima, good luck with oyur car man, watch out she has lots of power, dont get in too much trouble.

 

I need monies...

 

subtle and classic. would love to read again A++++++ 10/10

The 'son' has me on the floor 10/10

 

you sure the kid can handle all those extra hp from those mods??

 

Im not sure when the timign belt was changed id have to look around to find out, but the car has about 126k on it and most of that for the past couple years has been highway miles. The exhaust is in pretty good shape, its not loud but my dad told me im gonan have to get a new muffler soon i was thinking about a stillen muffler but i dont know any model numbers or anything. i was thinkign about the warpspeed y pipe, but we'll see if i have the cash or not.

 

Like everybody else has been saying, get the maintenance stuff taken care of first. Some things you want to upgrade first.

1) Headlights - stock headlights are terrible. Get Sylvania Xtravisions or Silverstars as a minimum. You can do a 9007 conversion for just a little more money. Or add some foglights.
2) Stereo - If you still have the stock cassette deck, toss it out. Install a CD-player and some decent speakers. I recommend adding tweeters on the front top part of the door. It makes a world of difference.
3) Window tinting - I've tinted every car I've owned. It's nice, especially on hot sunny days. It also cuts headlight glare at night, which is a plus.

Performancewise, there's the y-pipe, intake, and a whole lot more, but don't worry too much about this deparment first.

 

Yeah i already threw in a whole new alpine system the other day. And im gonna get some quotes for the tint.

 

nice calipers

 

I say worry about insurance first because it's gonna be a killer in Jersey. You get you license and all but what fun is a license if you can't drive the car. Don't worry about performance as you are an inexperienced driver. After some experience then you can learn to go fast.

 

If the previous owner cared about the car, pop the hood and look for a silver foil sticker on the underside, mine had the date and mileage of the last timing belt change.

 

slam it first thing, i'm new too. I just came from a vw and that was everyone's response on vortex. I'm buying a maxima here in the next few days and suspension is gonna be something that needs to be done. I have no clue what kind gives you the best drop so if anyone wants to point me in the right direction, go right ahead

 

no point on 'slamming it' if the car won't run properly. tune up before mods.

 

Yeah i do remember seeing that sticker int here ill have to check it out tomorrow.

 

Whoa... wait just a minute... which calipers are those? Those the 300z upgrades or what?

Because I want them and the Steel braided brake lines too. (don't need the rotors though)

 

If youre going to slam it it will be undriveable. My advice id Tokico Springs and Intrax Springs. Very low, but it dosn't look like a huge guy sat on your car.

 

where is the best place to get the tokico shocks and intrax springs?

And of course you make your car run the way it needs to before you modify it in any way, that's just common sense. But in my opinion suspension should be the first thing after you make it run well.

 

To be quite honest... I'd up save up the money and go with Koni and Intrax if you want to go that low. The Konis will just last a lot longer than Tokico will.

You can get the struts from one of these places.

www.shox.com
www.internetautomart.com
www.nopionline.com

internetautomart and Nopi carry the intrax. And they're cheaper with internetautomart.

Konis are a different story. Still waiting to hear wether or not internetautomar can beat shox.com prices for them.

 

My timing belt was changed about 5k miles ago.

 

just make it look good then when you are ready to go fast get a VE, or preforably a TT Z. (No offense to SOHC owners.)

 

300z TT calipers. Polished by me. If you want to feel some great braking, you will want the 13" rotors, my brackets and hub rings.

 

Hmmm... that will be added somewhere after the hoodscoop then. I'm not in that big of a hurry for them. I have more urgent / required maintaining concerns at the moment