Hey guys, I'm new to forums but love working on cars. Just bought 2 sweet maximas off of craigslist about a month and a half ago and finally started working on them a couple weeks ago. Here's what I got.

1992 gxe auto with ve5 swap (sort of) for $400
This is going to be the one I build.


Here is the donor car/daily driver build. It's a 93se auto with a bad trans and fuel pump. I got it from a guy in St. Augustine who kept it nice and did some mods to it. This car included a bunch of 5 speed swap parts including a fidanza flywheel and some other goodies. I ended up trading the 5 speed for a good jdm auto trans, and a set of oz wheels with tires, which are now on the other maxima. I fixed the fuel pump with a hammer and threw the good trans in there. Now this thing is a nice driver, aside from the blown struts.


I was able to get everything working right on the swap car thanks to a 94 factory service manual included with the other car. Ended up bypassing the auto interlock thingy and re-pinning a couple plugs and this thing runs pretty good and everything works.
I have also:
-Changed out the knock sensor, front main, oil pressure switch, front main seal and some of the coils.
-z32 fuel filter
-Took out the ve injectors and stuck 240sx injectors in there.
-Deleted all the egr/valve cover vent stuff. Swapped intakes with the other car and added nwp spacers(from other car).

Ran the car at the track and it went 15.5@91 with a 2.5 60'. I'm pretty happy with it (besides the horrible 60', due to broken suspension and bad driving).

 

future plans include custom headers, y-pipe and exhaust, better clutch/flywheel, lowering and suspension repair, general fixing up, and lots of drag racing. I will keep you guys posted!

 

Very cool. Did you buy that VE swapped one from a .org member? I can't imagine some random "civilian" (so to speak) doing a VG auto to VE 5 swap.

And the pearl one, looks like you bought Pearly's old ride. He was a longtime member here, hated to see him go:

http://forums.maxima.org/maximas-sal...al-pearly.html

Very glad to have some fresh blood around here, especially some VE 5 speed fresh blood. I have two myself

 

I bought the swap car from some guy in Orlando who said he had his buddy's shop put the motor in. They didn't wire it though, just jumpered the starter relay basically. it wouldn't run for 5 minutes without blowing fuses and the fans were always on. they left the vg chassis harness in there which was surprisingly easy to convert. I was happy to get a good deal and don't mind figuring out some wiring. That is the Ve car I bought. It had lots of good parts and I was fortunate enough to know someone with a good auto, so I was able to fix that car up without spending any money! I'm looking foward to modding/fixing up this car and getting input from you guys.

 

Did you get the cruise control and all that hooked up properly too?

Several of us here have done 5 speed swaps (myself included) and can help you out if you need with the little finishing touches.

 

I'm pretty sure my car still has the vg cruise/throttle cables. I was planning on making a custom mount so I can use the existing cables, unless I can find some ve ones in the junkyard or something.

Made some more progress on the car tonight. Deleted the clutch pedal damper because I could not speed shift 3rd at the track the other day. Tested out the new set up and now I'm able to hit third!


new braided line and modified stock line.

 

St. Augustine? Where bouts do you live?

 

Braided clutch line. i need to get one of those.

 

I was in St Augustine not too long ago, but Pearl wasn't on the board/didn't answer my PMs at the time (back in May).

If you put in the Fidanza, a decent clutch and a Y-pipe, you should be able to run in the mid to upper 14s with a VE 5-speed. I ran those times during the day with 80+ degree weather and crappy stock tires. In cooler weather and with better tires, I know I could have been down into the low 14s.

Looks like you are on your way to having everything under control -- nice work.

 

You picked the wrong one. Use the SE as your project.

 

This is Pearl93VE's car. Just withought the BBS wheels. Who ever you bought it off of must have changed them and a few other lil things.

 

That's definitely Taylor's old Pearl93! I'll go ahead and send him a message on Facebook or AIM to check this thread out.

Good job on those Maximas! I want that white maxima!

 

Yeah that's ol' pearly alright!

Glad to see she's living on to die another day!

I forgot to mention... though you probably already noticed that it has a Warpspeed Y-pipe on it- might be worth swapping over.

Trading the BBS for those OZ rims though... that's on you man

I'm glad I was working the day you came to pick it up- I don't think I could have handled seeing it being towed away.

Yeah, sorry man- by the time I got them it was a day late and a dollar short. Hope you had a good time visiting and found some cool things to do. Not much to dislike about Florida in May.

I'm still around here and there- a sort of frequent recent lurking after the purchase of the latest...

 

Yea, both this guy and I joined the 6spd bandwagon this Summer

 

whoops sorry about the retardedly oversized pic

 

Don't worry, I still have the BBS wheels. I live in Merritt Island (Near Cocoa Beach), so I will have to drive up and check out these North Florida Maximas. The reason I am using the GXE chassis is because its rust free, otherwise I would use the SE for my build. I'm going to keep both of them around and use the SE as a daily driver.
-Last night one of the rear wheel cylinders went bad on the gxe, so today I called up the junkyard and had them pull me some rear disk complete assemblies for $100 so I can convert the gxe to disks. Hopefully that goes smooth and I don't spend too much money. I'll post some pics when I get that underway.

 

Also, I forgot to mention that I'm having a really hard time finding decent springs/struts for this car. I tried to find someone that still has eibachs or B&Gs in stock but had no luck. As far as struts go, looks like its either kybs or monroes unfortunately.

 

Florida, overall was great. My trip to St. Augustine was pretty below average, as I got there at the same time as Tropical Storm Beryl. Essentially, I drove from Orlando to Daytona and enjoyed the drive up. When I got there it was really windy and really crowded (holiday weekend). A few hours later, it was raining cats and dogs and I drove to the hotel, dodging falling palm trees. I canceled the second day in our very crappy hotel and boogied back to Tampa.

quick vid I shot with my cell phone at a Winn Dixie somewhere in or around St Augustine. The little gray Versa on the right was my rental car.

 

I remember when my 5.5grn was this clean. Man after I rebuild the top end shes going back to her old self.

 

That sucks about the weather when you were here. This area of Florida is actually pretty nice when the weather cooperates.

 

"Very glad to have some fresh blood around here, especially some VE 5 speed fresh blood. I have two myself [/QUOTE]

You stole the words right from me! Lol I was under the impression nobody even knows about our cars any more or just nobody has the interest in them.

Sweet rides btw houdini, James is right def motivating to have more Ve guys around here. How many miles you have on those cars? Motor/body

 

The SE has 160000 on the motor and body, and the GXE has 240000 on the body and 160000 on the motor.

Cant wait to get this project underway. I'm hoping to have some time In the beginning of August to pull the motor on the GXE and fix the exhaust studs/build some sort of a header/y-pipe deal.

I bought some ching chong china chrome VG headers to modify and managed to scrounge a few other exhaust parts from my garage for this exhaust project.

 

Ah you got the OBX setup. Other wise known as the Pacesetter headers. Hey at the joint where the 2 pipes converge into one on the y-pipe make sure there isn't a gap there. (manufacturing flaw) Just have a muffler shop weld that lil gap shut & then install. Otherwise you will be searching for an exhaust leak.