ya i hope this summer turns out nice for me in the cash flow, then im going to do 5sp conversion with an ecu and a drop.

 

Honestly, I highly doubt that an intake did that much for you. I'm not calling you a liar or doubting whether or not you ran a 15 flat after installing an intake, but I'd sooner say that you had a better reaction time, 60' time, and cooler temps. Temperature will also make a difference on how you engine will run when you have an intake, and that will depend on what kind of intake. Pretty much all intakes except for true CAIs suck up underhood heat, which is much hotter than ambient temp, sometimes twice as hot. In that case, on a hot day, your engine might bog down. But when you have a CAI that brings in cool, ambient air, your engine is more likely going to give consistent performance year round. Now that I'm pretty much completely OT, I guess I'll digress...

 

Hey...numbers Dont Lie. It Is A Cai And I Thought That For A Stock Maxima A 15.4 Is Pretty Good. I Know You Probaly Dont Believe Me But Gods Honest Truth Is I Ran A 15 Flat W/ Just That Mod. I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday Because I Put The Mod On (it Was The Frst One I Did To The Car) And I Remember Loving The Way It Sounds But I Didnt Really Notice Any Gains. I Mean The Car Really Didnt Feel Faster. Then A Few Weeks Later I Went To The Track And Ran A 15.0...there Was A Kid There W/ A 2001 Maxima Who Just Had An Intake And Was Running A 15.4 And He Kept Asking Me 'are You Sure You Just Have An Intake?'

 

its up to him what he wants eventually, but i know i have fun driving my auto. and who said the auto is crappy its one of the smoothest ones i driven just not as fast as a stick stock.

 

Numbers do lie when you don't post your entire timeslip. I absolutely 100% unequivocally guarantee your intake did NOT produce enough power to improve your 1/4 mile time by .4 seconds on its own. It's called learning how to drive, and apparently you did it somewhat between the time you ran stock (15.4 is a bad time for stock, whereas 15.0 is not too bad for just an intake, hence you are a better driver and had a better run on the 15.0 run than you did when you ran 15.4, it's not the intake). If you really believe an intake increased your hp by 20 (which is about what it would take to go from15.4 to 15.0 with just power alone, no driving improvement) you are on crack. I gained 2hp and 3tq when I added an intake, which is about normal.

 

-Stillen intake
-Cattman performance cat
-Stillen y-pipe
-Gready SP Catback exhaust
-Unorthdox UDP
-ECU/MEVI
-Suspension to keep more power to the ground
-Dr's and your set.

Persoanlly If I had to do it all over again I wouldnt bother even looking into the maxima. I would have gotten a 98 SS camaro or 98-99 Trans am. Its all about v8 rear wheel drive

 

What is your guys opinion on the 5sp auto in the 6th gen SE vs. the 6sp manual? I saw ppl having problems with the 6sp (unhealthy shifting sounds) and read in a few mags that the 5sp is the way to go and performance differences are negligable, less so than in prior years. P.S. The car downshifts at the right times, and seems to have plenty of pull whenever I need it at any speed.

 

do you live in the city or in the suburbs? i live in the suburbs but am in chicago 2-3x a week. yea, the 5sp gets somewhat annoying in rush hour traffic, but what doesnt get annoying in rush hour traffic?

if u just want to drive a maxima, get the auto. if u want to drive a maxima and feel the power it has to offer, get a 5sp.

P.S. larryseibel-- turn off the caps!

 

True Dual is the way to go seen a max on a hydraulic lift 98 i believe with true dual i loved it no splitter banged up wheel well and all custom mandrel bent with greddy evo2 muffler tips SICK

 

Randomly chipping in with the 5spd guys... there's nothing wrong with the auto, per se. If you've driven an auto and then try a manual afterwards, it will probably be a whole new world of fun if you enjoy driving itself.

My best friend has been driving a '95 auto SE for awhile, and eventually decided that if he was going to continue doing power/handling mods, it might as well be to a 5spd car. The shifting 'lag' wasn't fun when punching it from a roll, and sometimes the car would arbitrarily decide to downshift/upshift, like around 50-60mph on an uphill... tons of tiny things like that, besides the larger differences between the two.

As your only car and first car in an area with tons of traffic, I don't really see anything wrong with an auto either. You can be as fast as you want without too much work, and it's fine for most driving - less annoying in traffic, and zero learning curve. I promise that you will wish you had a stick all along whenever you get to drive one a few years down the line, though.

 

very well put for your first post

 

SORRY I DONT HAVE A TIMESLIP FROM 2YRS AGO. I STILL DONT THINK A 15.4 IS THAT BAD FOR A STOCK MAXIMA W/ 110,000 MILES ON IT.

www.boostaholic.com/maxima/maxfaqs/perform.html

IN JUNE 97 ROAD AND TRACK RAN A BRAND NEW MAXIMA AT 15.5 AND THE BEST TIME THAT YEAR WAS CAR AND DRIVER RUNNING A 15.1...W/ A BRAND NEW CAR. I HAVE OWNED A 5SPD SINCE I WAS 16 SO I DONT THINK THAT IT WAS DRIVER ERROR. AND I AM NOT SAYING THAT IT GAVE ME 20HP...BUT YOU HAVE TO ADMIT THAT A 15.0 IS A GOOD TIME CONSIDERING THE MILES ON THE CAR. ALLS I AM SAYING IS THAT THE INTAKE ON A MAXIMA IS ALWAYS DOWNPLAYED LIKE IT DOESNT DO ANYTHING BUT IT IS A RALATIVELY LARGE V6 ENGINE AND AT WOT USES ALOT OF AIR. I THINK THAT IT DOES MORE FOR PERFORMANCE THAN PEOPLE THINK.

ALSO...I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS W/ THE NAME CALLING AND INSULTS LATELY ON THE ORG. BUT CAN WE TALK RATIONALLY W/ EACHOTHER INSTEAD OF CALLING EACHOTHER 'CRACK SMOKERS'.

 

maybe larry's car has a dirty filter and leaves in the box like my car had in it when i added my cai, so its possible his car ran faster due to being able to get a flow of constant air. but im not look to argue that cause i dont care.

but as for the thread stared many people hear are blowing smoke up ur butt. once u begin to mod ur car its not going to be as reliable as people say it is. i've spent more then what my car cost on upkeep so far and its annoying. i thought after having to replace my tranny things would be alright but imnow having that fun knock sensor (130 bucks) issue for the second time. lots of fun and great on the wallet.

me i hate my max but for some reason i cant stop modding it.

 

i live in the burbs of chicago, and there are a few other guys from chicago on this board too, go check out the regional forums!

back on topic, i drive a 5spd maxima, its my first car, i used to drive my sisters accord auto, and my moms MPV minivan, and man, i will NEVER go back to auto, my mom just got a I30t 2k1 auto, and when i drive it, i cant stand the damn lag it has, bleh, driving manual in traffic is nothing, because after you get the hang of driving a 5spd, it becomes kind of like a 6th sense, you shift without even thinking, i catch myself doing it sometimes, haha, during traffic, it just becomes 2nd nature. I highly recommend that you get a 5spd maxima > auto maxima because you will just enjoy the maxima so much more

P.S. Somone PLEASE ban Larry for constantly talking in caps and just being annoying. thank you

 

You really can't base your gains by that because track times depend on many different factors and it won't be the same for everyone who lives in different areas (sea level factor). The only true way to see gains is thru dynos.

 

point well taken...though it is cheaper to run at a dragstrip than to get a dyno... just not as accurate.

 

DUDE I DONT EVEN KNOW YOU. WHY WOULD YOU SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ME? SOMEONE SHOULD BAN YOU FOR TRYING TO START FIGHTS...THERE ISNT ANYTHING MORE ANNOYING THAN THAT.

 

I have a 95SE 5-speed and don't know how to drive an automatic and am not remotely interested in learning how to, lol! All I have is a K&N panel air filter and a Budget y-pipe as I'm not in to noise. I quite like the difference in performance it makes. I think one of the problem's larryseibel has (1 of many I'm sure) is he doesn't know how to drive. Perhaps the caps are to compensate for SMD (small man's disease)!

 

he didnt say your car was slow, 15.0- 15.4 for a auto is pretty decent and accurate for a stock max. he said a intake wont take .4 of your 1/4 mile time cause your talking about at least a 20 hp gain if thats the case.

 

Exactly, its not accurate at all because your times in Florida will be better than your times in Nevada, same car, same mods. Also, don't get offended, but typing in caps means your shouting. It's an online etiquette thing.

 

a 15.0-15.4 is good for a stock 5spd...i dont think anyone w/ a stock auto is running that good. if you would look at the website i provided in my last post you will see the 1/4 mile facts for stock autos and 5spd in all diffrent kinds of magazines like car and driver, road and track and motortrend.

 

Time for me to toss in my opinion.

If you enjoy driving and want to improve your car's performance, I would say go for the manual. I am one of these people who loves to drive and work on my car. I also drive an automatic and it drives me nuts. I miss working the clutch pedal. I miss being able to downshift whenever I want and get an immediate response from my car. And this is with a pretty well modified car, mind you.

If your car is just a way for you to get from point A to point B and you could care less about the drive, your transmission shouldn't matter. Maybe you care about 0-60 because you do a lot of highway driving which involves merging and whatnot. If that's the case, buy the automatic and do some quick, cheap mods such as downpipe and ECU. For less than a grand, you'll have your 7s 0-60.

As for larryseibel, you can't take those mag times as gospel. They run those cars many many times and take the lowest time and publish that. That's not real world because it isn't reliably repeatable. What everyone is saying is that the addition of just an intake could not be the sole reason why your car ran the quarter four tenths of a second faster. Yes, you gained some power. Enough to knock .4 off your ET? No.

~THT

 

So what you're saying larry is that since you don't have your timeslip from over 2 years ago, you really have no basis for your claim that the intake is what enabled you to go from 15.4 to 15.0, just a gut feeling. Gut feelings are nice, but they aren't proof. I on the other hand, have proof that they don't make that much of a difference. Proof in the form of a before and after dyno, and proof in the form of a few hundred timeslips (about 75 of which are from the time directly before and directly after I had an intake). My best time before I had an intake was 14.46 @ 96.47 and my best time after I had the intake 14.45 @ 96.62.

Also you will learn quickly that magazine times are horribly unreliable and don't show the true potential of a car. I ran 14.8 with a bone stock 5speed with 111,000 miles on it. Others have run 14.7s stock. The fastest magazine time ever run for the 4th gen was 15.2. Perhaps I was a little harsh on you but you are giving out unreliable information and I don't like seeing people disseminating blatantly bad information with no basis for their claims other than a gut feeling, when others have hard proof on paper to the contrary. 15.4 isn't horrible for a stock 4th gen 5spd but its not good either. It's a little on the slow side of average. Sorry for calling you a crack smoker. Also, do something about the caps lock. It drives people crazy, including me. Which might be part of why I came down hard on you.

 

i did not realize that 1/4 mile timeslips in motortrend or roadandtrack where so unreliable. i am sure that it depends on what the temp. and altitude of a racetrack is also. if i had kept the timeslips from 2yrs ago then i assume these would be viewed as 'hard proof'. but since i am just talking from experience then we can assume that i am a liar. but i agree w/ the point that you made and especially w/ the point drmax made that the only real proof of any performance gain is on a dyno. its nice to actually discuss these things w/ out calling names or arguing. thanks for the info...i am sure that it is beneficial to all who read it and apology accepted!

 

Hey, I'm right here in Chicago with you! I have the 5-speed, and I have been in traffic, but automatics are more annoying to me. At every stop light in an auto, I have to have my foot on the brake. In traffic with an auto, you are riding the brake versus using the clutch so same difference. Go with the 5-speed! The manual is not garbage. The gearbox is gummy, but it's geared nicely with great power across the band. It also revs up very quickly, and the car pulls even in 5th gear...it's a much more fun car. This car pulls awesome when you run 2nd and hit 3rd gear...it just keeps flying. The reliability of a manual is also better, and I upgraded to a Stage 1 clutch. I also have a Fidanza light weight flywheel with a y-pipe. Revs up 1st and 2nd pretty quick. In the next month I will add a Greddy SP2 catback and hope to supercharge one day(manual trans is ideal for boost).

As for the engine, it has been regarded as the best V6 ever built. Look at all the Maximas with over 150,000 miles still running strong. We even have several members who supercharged their engine with 120,000 miles and no problems, while others are boosting 12-14 psi with NOX and the engine is still running strong. It's a phenomenal engine.

 

It's not that I think you are lying, but there are other forces at work that contributed to the difference in times, moreso than an intake can. Heck I've had fluctuations of .3 and .4 seconds in a single day, based purely on which lane I chose or how well I launched. Take times from different days with different mods and different weather conditions, perhaps an entirely different track, and you can't really compare them unless you know the data and can exclude factors such as weather conditions, how well you launched, etc.

 

stay away from dual outlet series, this is not TRUE dual exaughst so what is the point? As for reliability on the vq30, my 96' has 136K & it is still running strong. The 4th gen max is around 7 seconds 0-60 stock so save your money if that is all you want! & a fake dual exaughst would be more ricey than an intake!

 

it would be interesting to look at your timeslips regarding the intake. do you have both and do they have the dates on them, i could have a look. 60 foots and weather such as temp/humidity may be at work. if not what intake do you have, lol ?? drop me a pm if you have the info

 

He doesn't have the timeslips from the old runs that's why I'm saying it's not a valid comparison.

 

even if i did have the timeslips it wouldnt be a valid point because as we already established 1/4 times are innacurate. when i read the stats from the 6/97 article in roadandtrack about the 5spd maxima running a 15.5 stock...i assumed that a 15.4 was pretty good. maybe it was capable of running a 15.1 or 15.0 the whole time but the day i put my intake on perhaps the weather was better or something. i dont know. i gave credit to the cai because that was the only mod i did inbetween those 2 time periods but really the only way to determine what any mod does is through a dyno...plain and simple. it was my fault for thinking that the times in the writeup magazines where accurate and if i mislead anyone i apologize. i just want you to understand why i made those claims. i didnt mean to ' dissemenate blatenly bad information'

 

regardless of what maxima u get u'll have an awesome time, but i would prefer a 5spd, seeing that the 5spd. maximas are pretty easy to deal with in city driving. A 5pd. would only make ur experience more worth while, but any maxima would be a kick *** car

 

i have the 5speed obviously.....and sometimes i love it and sometimes i hate it. Atlanta traffic really sucks soemtimes.....but all in all i will say i am glad i got a 5-speed. As said above go for what you want.....it sounds like any car you are getting ti will nto be a 5-speed so why not get a max?

 

If you plan on getting a Maxima, you should check this one out http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...=y&cardist=186 189K miles isn't much if the car was treated right. Plus Chicago is about a 5 hour drive if you like driving