Hey all I have a 99 Maxima that had a bad engine so I got one from the salvage yard and put a new water pump and tensioner in while the motor was out. In this whole process I got the itch to 5 speed swap the car. Anyways my 99 Maxima is a Cali spec car and I’m running a fed spec motor. Everything else was kept the same. The car seems to take forever to start but eventually does. However on the first drive it acts like it has no power in first gear. I got my code reader out to check the codes and it was showing no misfire just map sensor and o2 sensors. The o2 sensors are currently not connected and I’m running open headers right now until my fed spec y-pipe comes in. I have also added additional grounds and made sure the tranny and engine mating surfaces were clean before installing. If I did in fact jump time wouldn’t I get a misfire code? Would the map sensor code cause a lack of power or the open headers? Any ideas would greatly help. Thanks in advance

 

The car won't run properly without those sensors.
The ecu is not getting enough information to make the right decisions. The engineers put them there for a reason. Don't try to out think the engineers.

I assume that the car made horrible noises for a while before the tensioner got enough oil pressure.
The engine should be as quiet as usual.
I think that your timing is just fine.