I should be in a decent financial situation this summer, and I'll finally be able to give the Maxi some love. I'm looking down the road and trying to plan out a handful of minor things. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear em.

We're dealing with a '97 SE 5-speed, under 95k on it and no big maintenance issues (bad O2 sensor and possibly a failing CV axle; I'll take care of those). I'm not really interested in appearance items like body kits or rims... might get a moderate tint, but that's all.

I'm looking at a Y-pipe and full cat-back, not sure which ones yet - whichever setup will flow the best, really, although it can't sound like crap. I'd also like new springs and struts; a drop of a couple inches at most would be ideal.

I plan to replace the speakers, but I need either a better alternator or possibly just improved electrical grounding; the headlights already dim when my sub hits.

Other thoughts? Stuff to look at, opinions?

 

if you want the best sounding exhaust note, i suggest you invest in a Cattman full Exhaust system. IMO, the best sounding exhaust for our vq30de. It will cost you a pretty penny however.

For suspension wise, Illuminas and Stechs, as it seems you are looking for a low drop. Otherwise, go with coilovers.

Also, if you plan on further modifying your car, look into the 00VI swap and tuning via Emanage Ultimate.

 

I'm not so much after a drop as I am better cornering. I just figured I could probably drop it an inch or two while I'm shopping for springs

What's the Emanage do? I'm not familiar with that.

 

Emanage is a piggy pack fuel management system. Basically, it allows you to do a lot fuel wise and still retain such things as cruise control. The reason you would get this would be for the 00vi swap so that you can raise the rev limit and fine tune other things to have an even better running engine. If you're looking at y-pipe's www.lssexhaust.com is very good for the money. I have a custom catback and really don't have any problems with crappy sounding exhaust. Try a performance shop, should run you about 400 for the catback. All mandrel bent and then basically you choose the muffler. I have KSport springs 2.2 front 1.8 rear. If you want that much of a drop, it's pretty cheap as well. I paid 137 something shipped off of eBay.

 

if you havent already check out this site, its like the modding bible for maximas.

http://maxmods.dyndns.org

 

Well the maxmods link is the best info in here really. It will give you info on all the mods you can do and where you can buy. It does not give any other info tho so many newbs come back and start posting questions about them without researching. I beg of you to not do that haha.

Anyways, drop the car, it will look so much better. I should have done that first and I regret holding off on it. Coilovers are the best. Give you as much drop as you want and can be damper set so the car will not bottom and you still have good feel and handling.

Engine mods, you should do a y-pipe first. Best mod for the money. Close to 20hp off the bat. If you're engine is in good shape you can hold it or part it out and swap a de-k or 3.5. 3.5 is a lot of work and you need to know what you're doing. De-k is not as much work but doesn require some modification. Both de-k and 3.5 will give you a better hp platform to mod from. Obviously 3.5 would be the best power. Emang should be used for the 3.5 swap but I think it's a waste of money with the de-k swap because you can get perfectly fine tuning for the de-k with a v-afcII. If you want to keep your de than do an 00vi swap and v-afcII.

You need better grounds for audio. You don't need an alternator. In fact I don't think they have upgraded alternators. Get an optima and redo your grounds with 0 gauge wire.

what else are you thinking? There is much more that can be added for power but now you're talking a lot more money. UDP's, SC's, all that good stuff. You can upgrade your clutch, theres so much stuff. You need to know what direction you want to go, we can't really tell you where to go.