Hey everyone, I recently bought a 96 SE 5-spd, and am loving it - so far I got clear corners, tints, altezzas (i know i know, you hate altezzas), 500w-amp/2 12" subs, and later on more stuff to come. I have only one qualm with the car: the fifth gear ratio is not sufficiently tall for my taste. In fifth at 60mph the rpm's are 2500 - I would prefer something like 1,900 rpm at 60mph. Is there any way I can swap out just the fifth gear for a taller one, or maybe add a sixth gear? I know that if a do this I might lose speed going up hills on highways and might have to downshift more, but still, to me that's better than what I consider needless fuel waste and engine wear. I don't want to get a taller final drive because then my acceleration would be hurt in the first four gears also. Any help or feedback would be awesome, thx all.

 

people have swapped in 6spd tranies from the new max's, or at least one person has

 

it doesnt give u poor gas mileage, we can easily still pull off 29+ mpg on the highway, depending on speed and such. u can't "put a sixth gear in" our trans has 5 gears, u'd have to put in a 6 speed transmission, but the max's with 6spds (5th gens) used cables and our's is hydraulic or something like that so its alot of work. i dunno about gear swapping, dont think anyones done it before

 

What the hell....I get the same 100kmph(60mph) at 2500 and I have a 4 speed auto. So basically, a 5 speed is only good for acceleration??

 

There is a final gear replacement that people talked about months ago but I don't think anyone went through with it. It would increase top speed but acceleration would diminish. I'd prefer to have a lower top speed(130ish) and improved acceleration. Adding a MEVI would increase that anyway...

 

In the 4th gen FAQ section, there is a nonfunctional link to nismo regarding deeper final drive ratio gear swaps for better acceleration. Couldn't find anything from nismo's web site though. Do the manual and automatic ring gears interchange? As noted by Who the automatics have a slightly taller final drive, might be a path to run a search on.

 

fun factor, better reliability, alotta things that a 5 speed has advantages over a automagic for, the rpms really dont mean squat, cuz ur still getting 27-30 mpg driving the highway

 

i definately agree, faster acceleration and a slightly slower top speed would be great, who needs to go 140+ anyways??

 

I'm with the frist post, I'd like to see my fifth drop quite a bit. The Auto has worse city mileage and better highway... what's the deal there?? We should have it better both places!! I like the tight ratio for 1st through 4th, but I'd like to let my engine rest on the highway. Look at our torque, it's about 180 at 2000 rpm!!! That more than most have at 1000000000rpm!! We don't need to redline for power, 2k is plenty at 100kph.

Personally, I find it frustrating when I'm doing 224, but my tach is over 5500, so I'm loosing my power band... every 1kph gain I get, I loose like 5 HP!!! At 6k you have no HP anymore... Look at the torque and HP graphs...

Anyhoo, like others have said... it's totaly not necessary, but I (personally) would like to see 5th moved out a bit.

dave h.

 

who's done a 6spd swap in their 4th gen?

 

Same ??? here ...

 

jeff at maximum tuning has done the 6 spd swap altho i have no verifiable proof except word of mouth

 

5th was quite a bit deeper than I was use to compared to my prior car, a 94 Z28 auto. At 70mph, the Z28 loafed along at 1600rpms and was happy to pull it. When I got my Maxima, I was surprised to see how deep the overall gearing was and that 5th was near 3000rpms at 75mph. Personally, I like the deep gearing and prefer to stay at a higher rpm on the highway because I don't have to downshift for hills or to pass. Operating at a constant 3000rpms is nothing to the VQ. I still get 28-30mpg and the motor isn't buzzy or loud at those rpms. Due to the VQ's piston to crank ratio, the VQ pistons have a very low speed even at 3000rpms so wear and tear aren't an issue. People have posted pics of thier torn down high mileage VQs (many of which were boosted) and wear/tear isn't even visible. I'm talking about engines with 150K miles. The VQ is a very stout and well built motor assuming you treat it right.

If you don't like loosing power after 5500rpms, spend $1000 and make power straight to 7000rpms and gain 20-50fwhp/tq from 5500-7000rpms. The MEVI and JWT ECU are an incredible combo and the topend power is pretty amazing for a NA V6.


Dave

 

You obviously seem to be very knowledgeable with the VQ engine, and something you say kinda worries me. You consider 150k high miles and mention torn down engines. I bought my maxima se 5spd a couple months ago with 161k. The car seems to be in excellent mechanical condition. I had the fuel filter, transmission fluid, air filter, and spark plugs replaced as a preventative maintenance gesture. The mechanics told me that none of the parts I'm replacing show 161k worth of wear meaning they were probably replaced sometime in the past meaning that whoever had the car before took care of it well.

So how much life do you think there is left in my car's engine? And if it does "tear down", what would it be exactly that would go wrong?

I really need to keep it for at least 3-4 years!

 

well he said boosted maximas, ur stock engine should last you over 250k miles

 

There is only a 1MPG gain on the EPA rating for the automatic on the highway.

Therefore, with a 20% taller overdrive gear, only 3% is gained in mileage. It isn't worth it to lose that much torque multiplication for such a little efficiency gain.

It is kind of hard for the automatic to pull up highway grades at speeds above 60MPH with such a tall overdrive gear.

A tall gear is good if you have virtually no load on the engine. EPA only tests to maybe 65MPH. In aerodynamics, there is a big difference in drag load between 80MPH and 65MPH. Throw in some performance tires that have higher rolling resistance on the highway as compared to the factory H-rated tires, and there is even a little more load for the engine.

Bottom line: It ain't worth it to change the 5-speed overdrive.