NO!!! you can't use my idea.... Its all mine.. Muuu- muu -aahh ahhh ahhh...

its actually not expensive at all i picked it up at some junkyard.. prolly under 10$ if remember correct..

the car sounds happy.. it runs great... i feel a little more pep in its step... and I just thought about it an i can put the Intake temp sensor in the second opening that i closed off.. and remove it from the snorkle ... YAY!...

 

go to the junkyard and look at all the cars tehre.. they have to have ONE with the correct lengt for your application. looks for the bigger cars with v8s cause they have the bigger pipes often or preformance cars

 

Unfortunately none of the local yards have anything late-model, so they're probably not worth looking at. I'll get on Google Images and start looking up pictures of engine bays, though, and we'll see what I can find

Question, though: if the Q you got it from has a bigger throttlebody, what did you do to make a good seal on the Maxima's throttlebody? Wouldn't the end of the pipe be WAY too big?

 

well the plan was for a Pathfinder TB but no one is selling an adapter right now... SO what I did was.. you know those rubber couplers.. I had one from my "ram air attempt" and i cut that in half. half meaning to preserve the circle just not the length of the coupler. 1 piece went on the TB and 1 piece went on the MAF.. on the tb side i shot the heatgun on it for a minute to sorta shirnk it to fit the TB tightly.. then well the tube fit nice and tight.. it was a bit of a hassle before.. but now its easy to put in and take out since the rubber is stretched out... its air tight.. i sprayed water etc. near the opening to see if there is anythign happening in terms of vaccume moving the water and it seems to be fine.. i dont know of any other way to test if its leaking.. there is no hissing...
i actually found the tube when i went to J-yard to pick up a IAT sensor.. and well there was a Q with the hood gone and there it was.. i thought.. "hmm" what are the chances.. so i asked the guy if i can take it and see if it looks like it will fit.. placed it in my eng. bay and it looked right.. but the bend in teh accordian was going down so i had to counter that (which was a bit annoying) BUT once that bend was fixed (automatically, cause it bends.. and holds the shape) now its one of the best things i did for the car.. and it makes the bay look better.. and also i got rid of that stupid metal pipe some douche bag charged me 15$ to bend..

 

Just did my half-and-half setup. Here's how I did it:

TB > Stock accordion piece > custom 3" midpipe > MAF > stock airbox.

Impressions:

1. Fits absolutely PERFECTLY. No need to even bolt the box down, it doesn't move one bit.

2. The sound is just...wow. I didn't know a VQ30 could sound like this. That stock resonator REALLY quiets the stock intake down. Plus, there's no "angry swarm of locusts" cone filter sound anymore.

3. Acceleration is much smoother than a shortram. No noticeable performance gains or losses from initial butt dyno testing.

4. The custom midpipe cost like $5 to make...much cheaper than anything else.

Overall, this is easily my favorite intake setup I've ever tested, and I've tried almost all of them (stock everything, stock res shortram, stock res CAI, midpiped shortram, midpiped CAI). Nmexmax wasn't kidding, the sound alone is DEFINITELY worth it.

I made the custom midpipe out of a 3 inch section of 3" exhaust pipe. $3 at autozone. Drilled a hole in the middle and JB welded a piece of 3/4" pipe on it for the IACV. (I'm just using a breather filter for the front VC breather.)

Crappy cell phone pic (no breather filter installed in this pic):

 

Short ram minus filter? The box not moving at all is a bit funny.

 

lmao. i like ure bottom sig =]

 

Thanks for posting, EnervinE. That looks like just what I need. I may hack up one of my short ram pipes to make the same thing as the custom one you made. This is great, painted black it even looks like it could be factory. Good job!

 

Nice engine bay but. . . . . .The rad hold downs are upside down =]


This is pretty much the same deal i did with mine except that i used a pipe from a ebay auction, I'll post some pics tomorrow.

 

I don't think they are. That's how both my Maximas were when I bought them.

 

I support this message.

 

Your post says "Last edited by FallenOne; Tomorrow at 11:38 AM". How can something be edited tomorrow?

 

 

It's in his sig, not his post.

 

D'oh...he got me

 

So earlier I was able to finally get one of these setups done. I hacked some length off an ebay pipe and was able to make it fit WITHOUT the accordion section (just a coupler to the throttlebody and a coupler to the MAF). It seems to seal just fine, but it's a little ugly and probably not 100% optimal. With a little tweaking, paint, and some black couplers (light blue FTL), I think I could be happy with it.

Because I'm at work, I was only able to take it for a really short drive up the street. So far, I haven't noticed any difference (positive or negative) in performance, but I also drive a 5-speed so tiny differences aren't as noticeable. One thing I can say for sure, though, is that I didn't honestly notice a ton of difference in sound Maybe I didn't give it enough throttle or rev it high enough (like I said, short drive down the street and not very fast), we'll see when I get off work and drive on it some more.


EDIT: EnervinE, slow_yota, etc. anyone else with one of these setups: none of you have your factory scoops on, do you? I still have my factory scoop on right now and I think that's what is keeping my intake quieter I believe. I really don't want to take it off because I know for a fact it helps (tons of hours of racing and hard street driving have more or less proven this to me). Maybe I'll have to make my own scoop

 

I am not using a scoop, for the simple fact that it's too hard to work in the engine bay with the scoop in there.

 

that's my reasoning for getting rid of the stock airbox.

 

Thats true, the stock airbox is a PITA. so much unclipping and unbolting and unscrewing. all for some dumb box.

Also, Pat you mentioned making a custom scoop, where do you want this scoop to reside? The stock location or another? Also you mentioned some time ago there was a member who made a intake that was specifically for racing and that he removed the Headlight as the air inlet? has anyone else got any other ideas? Minus stupid popchargers, and Hot Air Intakes.

all i know is that we have spent so much time playing with intakes over the years that maximas have existed that alot of things have been tried.. but i have noticed that 90% of these are all the same thing repeated! we need new ideas!

 

I honestly couldn't tell you who it was that had that headlight intake. I just remember there being a picture in their signature of the engine bay of that car with the headlight intake. It was his signature for a long time and probably still is, but I don't remember him posting much. There was also a forum member I exchanged PMs with about custom scoops a couple years back. He had modified the begeezus out of a stock intake to make it more useful, efficient, and heat-resistant...even going so far as to try a new kind of paint that created a thermal barrier. He even tested it using several temperature sensors and it worked surprisingly well.

The problem with the factory scoop is that it is slightly restrictive, and has several unnecessary extras that hurt performance. If you measure the surface area of the scoop inlet where it sits over the radiator, you'd probably be surprised to find that it's actually quite sufficient to feed the engine, but making it a wee bit bigger can't hurt, either. The other problem is that extra little section at the top that divides the scoop into 2 and then back into 1 again farther down. That tube can't help, it only cuts down inner volume. Then there's the extra tube going the silencer box. That can get cut off and smoothed over for proper, unwasted flow.

So essentially the perfect scoop to feed the factory air box would be flat at the top like the factory one in order to fit, but with a bigger surface area. Then it would simply narrow down into a tube, and then get squared off at the end to fit into the stock opening on the air box. This exact scoop was pretty much what this forum member came up with which he tested the heat resistant paint on. I think it's time for me to recreate that scoop and see what it can do!

 

and then post pictures for me to recreate it. as well as keep me posted so i can mabey give ya some helpful suggestions (like you need them ).

 

Drove around without the scoop for the day today. Didn't care for it. The only sound difference it made with the factory air box and that straight pipe was like 2800+ and only at 50% throttle or more, so not really worth it either. I put 60 miles of highway on it and it didn't seem to affect gas mileage, but seeing as today was a VERY hot day here it did affect performance a little going up hills and what not. Not huge, just noticeable.

I think I'm going back to a completely stock intake. Doesn't seem worth fooling around with for no gains (losses, actually) and practically no change in sound vs. stock. Oh well.

 

hey Pat, kinda OT but, have you also thought about adding a velocity stack to the 4rth gen airbox or use an airbox that already have one?

 

It's a thought. You could probably buy a generic 3" ID one and find a way to rig it to the inside of the air box. Don't know if it's worth the effort/money, though (I have no idea what it would cost). The stock 4th gen. air box is kind of mediocre for performance use anyway, so switching it out for something else altogether wouldn't be a terrible idea. It would just have to fit considering the fender well bulge there that the factory box is molded around.