Well haven't really felt the gains because it's not "done"

But yeah. It's disappointing

 

Well he put in at least 7hrs of work.

 

HEYYY...

More than 7 I'd say

 

smart move

oh ****..fight

 

Damn how long is your mod list? I think your mechanical skill level is hendering you and leaving a bad taste in your mouth.....with your car cause you're not surrounded by friends that know too much more tne yourself.... and anyone that has worked on a Maxima should know how to drop a Xmember for more access to your work! I wish I were there to help cause that's what I do.....but I would say it's easier too say you could have owned a Miata by now....You need more knowledge and skill and if you keep at it, your skill level will grow, knowledge will increase and your wallet thickness will triple.....

If you're speaking headers ther's someone in the 4th Gen Classifieds with Cattman Headers for sale!

 

A REAL sports car huh? Going with a miata you will miss torque thats for sure. Ill always choose a fast 4 door over a fast 2 door. It makes life better with room for 3 women instead of just 1....

 

knowledge and skill are all brought on by mainly experience. i'm going to bet that this was his first time attempting to remove headers...if thats the case, they yea, he's a newb in how-to on this matter. true if he had other maxima enthusiasst around him, it would have been easier..but a majority of the org are pretty scattered and dont have anyone within a 2-3hr radius that have the same 'enthusiasm' about it, and if they do share the enthusiasm, they lack the experience. MD is one of the few places i can think of that has the maxima enthusiast and experience. you can't knock the man for making the deicison to leave the mods alone. i understand his frustration. i mean working on my car to put it back stock taught me alot about my car and i know alot more about it then i did before.

end of the day...experience.....sall i'm sayin

 

You all are completely right, this was the first big job I have tackled besides petty maintenance and by not going through with it all the way I knew I'd get flamed. There are enthusiasts around here and it was my laziness not to contact them and just trust my friends but I'll tell you they did know what they were doing. But yes I'm a newb and need more experience

Some people see the maxima with great potential and some don't. Personally, I think I'm grateful to have it as a first car but through this job I finally believe my efforts would be more rewarding on a different car. My mechanic (family friend) and other close friends have said the same, there are better cars out there. That's why I'm done MODDING it, too much money for maintenance alone and modding it won't make it too much better

I like the car, I just don't love it

I sense this might lead to a tense argument...

Lol oh come on, in terms of sportiness you can admit that the miata is more sports car oriented. And people have different opinions, I respect everyone's though

 

oh damn didnt pay attention to you are in the MD area....you should be banned


if i was in MD, i woulda had headers on my 5th gen, no question.

 

If you were in MD I woulda jacked those purple rims off your car

 

lol he can have the purple rims. they look awesome.... Look up something called the banchee project. Monster Miata makes a kit modeled after the 427 shelby cobra, IE a huge engine in a small car. Stacey David did put one together on his show. Crazy fast, itll smoke almost everything you pass on the road, its got a mustang small block engine in it. That power:weight ratio? Nuts. A lot of haters would just say its lame as soon as they hear "miata", I on the other hand can appreciate the idea behind it. a $20,000 project/kit car thats basically a modern day Cobra except with A/C and power everything

 

Sorry you cou;ldnt complete the job, that sucks...GL next time around....

 

Indeed it does blow... ha yeah maybe if there is a next time

 

 

So...talked to my mechanic today. He said that they pulled the old exhaust manifold off but not without breaking one or two bolts. In addition, they will have to re-thread where the bolts go in the head. Lots of work to be done

Sounds like $$$ :'( at least I know I wouldn't have been able to do THAT work anyway.

 

0_0

 

Same reaction

 

lol i feel for your pockets...we'll hold a memorial for your wallet

 

Sorry for you first experience to be so bad but, I think we've all had Our A$$es handed too us B4 and that's life.....The Maxima being a Mod hating car I wouldn't agree with you there and If this was a Miata yuou still would be a newbie struggling with that one as well! So do what you like, it's your choice....I just love spanking ppl a$$ that think Maximas are simply just some lame grocerie getters! To have 4 doors a decent trunk, plenty enough power too get in trouble with...It's suprising to other gearheads that see our Maxima perform the way the do for a inexpensive 4 door sports sedan...No it's not a Ferrari, or S2000, but it can be made to handle pretty good and accelerate really well......I hope you car's gonna be good enough once back to give you the bug to hang on to it and do more.....I'm not bashing you just trying to let you know what you oughta do when you choose to perform maintenance or Mod your car.....You'll see some difference in the low and mid range I'm sure with those headers....GL

 

^ Share the same sentiments about our cars. Many a mechanic I have talked to have said for all the typical quirks, over all the VQ30de dek and vq35 have been some of the most solid v6 power plants ever made. And don't think you are alone. Since paying off my car originally I got it back in 2000 (as a '96 mind you) I've dropped easily another 5-6k in maintenance and repairs just to keep her running. And thats probably a very low estimate. 800 dollars just last year alone.

Only mod I have really is a strut bar. But it still gives me hope and encouragement when I see posts like this, mostly the Org itself grouping to help one person fix their machine. We trully are a rare group of owners.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate your reassurance and faith in my situation. My friends do indeed recognize the work I've put into it and the unexpected results in handling and power, from a family sedan, but as time goes by I think about the relationship I have with the car and if I want to go "all out" with it as other orgers have had or just switch to a different car and possibly experience something better. Due to what has happend now, I have decided I want to go with the latter (if funds allow it).

If the mechanic can seal those leaks with the gasket and re-threading the heads, then of course the car will be saved and hopefully live to see 200K (195K right now). Otherwise i will obviously have to part ways with it because you can imagine the work needed to fix it after all this work.

It's funny, I've wanted it to make it to 200K, then I've wanted to get rid of it LOL

Word man. There is no doubt the maxima is a solid car, and that maintenance is never going to be cheap.

The org is friendly, and so are maxima enthusiasts, that I've met, that aren't part of the org



Ha that thing is SICK.

Miata is a real sports car, you need to drive one if you haven't! My friend's second gen is a blast to be behind the wheel of. It's so fun to drive if you are into handling

Yes, they are underpowered, but I have researched mods and there are Complete BEGI Turbo Kits at ~$1400 I kid you not. They usually up the HP on the First gens up to 170/180 but this is in a miata so it would be like a go-kart

She's fixed, there was no way we could have done the rear header. When I asked the mechanic how he installed it and he rolled his head back; he had to torch the EGR tube where it went into the header and the solenoid and that it was a royal PITA. Other than that, we were on the right track undoing the cross member and the front and rear motor mounts.

Car is quicker I can tell but I haven't been able to tell the full results since I haven't driven it yet; I have only rode in it with my bro driving (UGH). Anyways, the downside is there is a very small exhaust leak at the gasket where the B-pipe and mid pipe flanges meet. You can hear it, but it's not as bad as when the car was running with an Open Y-pipe lol

All in all, my mechanic installed the rear header and rethreaded where all the bolts broke for 450. He had the car for 3/4 days too. Meh, I think that's okay

 

I remember hearing Aackshun's car in person when he had a exhaust leak with the headers (not sure at what point the leak was). It sounded like a small turbo spooling up.

 

Ha no, this leak just sounds like it has an exhaust then the sound diminishes as you go the engine revs higher.

 

congrats on the install BTW just get a muffler shop to shape the flange for you? shouldnt be too much flow

 

Yes sir that is the plan, I hope that there are no more hidden troubles when I go to a shop though

Oh yeah listen to my bro freak out haha. He doesn't know anything about cars and is always scared when things aren't normal. I was letting the tranny warm up otherwise it stalls when I put it in gear. Sorry about the last 1minute being a close up of my crotch, but listen to my bro. For complex reasons, I wasn't allowed to drive:



Here's a quick vid of me revving it. Slight exhaust leak at flange where muffler and B-pipe meet

 

The only thing that matters is are you happy with it?

 

Yeah I'm happy having more power, would have been more so if we could have done rear headers too lol but it's all good

 

I still havent got a definitive answer on how much power you would gain with headers and a y compared to just the y. The stock headers aren't THAT restrictive its just straight down into the y

 

True, but equal length (long pipe) headers will give you gains. Those + Y-pipe> Y-pipe alone

 

this is true but long pipe headers for our engine is kind of non existent unless you luck out and find it used

 

When I mean long pipe I mean Cattman or OBX - Equal Length. They are better then the ones have on now

 

OBX is garbage. my friend ordered them and we opened it and then called them back about the return policy. Cattman doesnt make them anymore either. 4th gen stuff is just not around anymore

 

You for real? They provide the same gains as Cattmans. What was so bad about them

 

There's one for sale in the 4th Gen Classifieds.....

 

So you just opened the box, looked at them and said nope?

 

well not literally how I said it. We looked at the quality of the welds and the bung seemed to be in the wrong place. The OBX weren't equal length either so my friend decided it wasnt worth the xtra flow and pain of installing headers and just went the y-pipe only route. Thats what I did too and im more than satisfied with the gains(only butt dyno as of yet lol) and sound from the Y only set-up. Im going to take my car to get it tuned here in a few days and ill be able to say exactly how much I gained with the NWP spacers and the Cattman Y.

 

Why knock OBX? Anyone buying them should understand what you're getting yourself into and if you can handle it first. If you can't, pay the premium for cattman headers and a shop to install them and live happily ever after.

 

I haven't heard many good things about those unequal length VQ30 OBX headers from people that have installed them, since they had fitment problems that required welding to connect the front header to the y pipe.

 

That's rough, I'd

 

So is this Vehicle up and running properly since your mechanic installed the rear header manifold? You posted a video with your car running running pretty badly and I'm curious if the Max/I30 is humming along now?