Hi, I have a 95 Maxima SE that I did a little work on, I added a cold air intake and a y-pipe to it (it runs and sounds great). I was under the impression that these particular upgrades don't have their full effect unless the ECU is programmed (via performance chips) to handle all the increased air to and from the engine. 1.) Do I need a chip for the engine to make my existing upgrades worth their money? 2.) Would a performance chip be worth the time and money?
I only know basics about performance chips, I don't know if they're all they're cracked up to be.

 

No such thing as a performance chip for the Maxima (and most cars...the products out there are snake oil)

What you need is either JWT to tune your ECU, Nistune to tune it (and give you the ability to tune it yourself), or a Greddy Emanage Ultimate so you may do all the tuning yourself. Items 2 and 3 will also require a wideband gauge, and knowledge of tuning.

Personally, I'd go for option 2 or 3.

 

I see, I'll check into those options. In terms of performance, would one of those options give any real performance/efficiency changes? Or is it an upgrade that costs big money for small changes?

 

IMO, the cost of the parts and/or tuning far exceeds the power gains. With proper tuning, I imagine you could pick up another 20hp. Only you can answer if it's worth it to you. But, if you continue to modify and climb the horsepower ladder, you can keep on tuning and keep on extracting just a little bit more power with each mod.

 

Small changes. To really make horsepower you will need to swap cams, bump compression, or go forced induction. Simply supplying more air won't do much unless the engine can actually use it.