1. Ive heard/felt that the INJEN CAI does not really give us 5.5 gen guys the hp which they say it dyno proven... if anything i think it takes away power.. am i the only one who feels this way ..or am i wrong ? If im right which intake would be BEST for us 5.5 gen owner which would give us maximum hp ?

2. Im auto and there is a UDP pully out for us right ? if there is where can i buy it and how much does it go for ? what does it do and does it really make a diffrece.. will i feel the diffrence? how much would it cost to install it roughly?

3. i wanted to get my ecu reprogrammed i heard jet perfomace does it adding 15 plus hp is this true ? does anyone on here have it ?

Sorry for it being so long jsut wanted to get as much info as possible, im going to save up all winter and buy everything i think is worth it in the summer so i wanted to make sure what i buy is worth it, im getting headers and catback just unsure about those 3 things.

 

1. The K&N coathangar GAB gave me 9whp/3wtq (moved peak tq from 3400 to 4300 while increasing the tq at 3400), but I had teh TS ECU and an OBX catback which should amplify the gains.

2. Yes. Many places have them. UR and motostorm to name two. They range from $80-200some. You will be lucky if you see 5whp from the pulley which will not be noticeable. Install is fairly easy if you have the right tools but I am guessing an install would be between $40-80. I intend to get my motostorm pulley dynoed soon. There is some controversy as to whether the UDPs, which I dont think any have any type of vibration dampener, cause reduced engine life. Just something to think about.

3. AI would recommend the L-spec TS ECU ($350) coupled with either SMT-6 or SAFCII. The gains you see from this will depend upon the mods you have. Probably around 6whp stock and possibly up to 15whp with I/E/H.

 

I don't know if the INJEN CAI works or not, but as far as the UDP goes there are several manufacturers you can go through that should have them for your Max; among them SWA, SRD, and UR. Just do a search for 2002 Maxima Pulley's or something. Easy to find. Just a pain to sift through and find the good places to buy from...

 

You won't get Jack Sh*t out of an aftermarket ECU -- it'll only raise your rev limiter. ECUs are worthless on Maximas.

 

Did you dyno the car and get 9whp with the intake ?

 

do you have 1 ? and if not did you read it somewhere, can you send link or somehting, b/c i think jet is promishing 15 hp , ill do some more research thanks

 

Pardon?
TS ECU Dyno and K&N GAB Dyno

Also here is a compilation of my dynos (all 3rd dynos).
Dynos

You will find in general what the manufacturers claim the gains will be aer higher than what gains most people will get. Generally when manufacturers have dyno comparisons done they take the lowest of the baseline dynos and the highest of the modded dynos and thus get elevated numbers. Its all part of marketing. If you call them on it all they will say is every car is different. However I have heard that the JWT ECU doesnt do anything for our cars much like the stillen headers.

 

TS ecu is tempting, but without having them local to tune the car, and the in mail tuning can get pricey and take too long. the rev limiter and governer removel for 300 is sweet, but for people with alot of mods, its too much of a hastle i feel (the header program etc).

Your paying a whole lot for that, but i will eventually get the 300 dollar TS ecu upgrade, cuz the rev limiter gone is worth it for that to me.

 

Agreed. If you are gonna stick with low end bolt ons like intake & catback TS's full spec is fine. If you are going headers or more you definitely only want to go with the L-spec and get some fuel/ignition editting piggyback along with it. Also the L-spec TS ECU remaps the drive by wire.

 

whats this L-Spec and full spec ? whats the diffrence ? im getting injen cai,cattman headers, franckencar catback, udp, Vb mod, so which one should i go for and why ?

Sorry for all the questions jsut really confused... (love the org you guys are really helpful) thankyou.

 

For an item that costs $300 all you got was 3HP and 7TQ. Compare that to what an ECU chip does for a turbo car and to our Max, and my comment stands. It's a worthless mod.

 

If you want instant gains, don't waste your money buying little sh*t like ECUs and intakes. Spend your money on a set of headers and you'll feel the increase of 20HP at the wheels. If you want to go smart about it, buy lightweight 17" rims too and that'll free up a lot of driveterrain loss providing even more results. And for $100 a pulley is actually a pretty decent mod, because it's technically a weight reduction mod and also frees up a bit of HP.

Then if you have the money to blow buy the TS Ecu, buy a new exhaust and etc. But if you want noticeable gains right away (without FI or chargers) go for headers. Don't spend $300 on the TS, add an additional $300 and get the cattman headers.

 

i think the cattman headers are more like $825

 

I thought I remembered them coming close to $600 when a GD was going on. Either way, go for headers.

 

The GD was an "intro offer" for $700 shipped I believe... now its back to $800+... and yeah... headers would be a great mod, as many can attest to (but not me, yet... ).

 

Ahh, you're right. Still, the gains are beyond worth it.

 

Damn right they are.... now if only I had $825 lying around under a mattress or something....

 

Ahhhh...if only Santa would bring me headers.....

Honestly, if I had that kinda cash right now...cattman headers would be on order.

 

Place Racing CAI makes power, I have a 3.0L and I've conducted a study- JWT POP charger- light to moderate traffic, I read intake air temps of 100-120F with a JWT POP charger intake- mind you this is on a 80 deg day with stop n go traffic- city driving. Same weather, same area, pretty much same conditions I saw intake temps SAME as ambient temp meaning 80s ! Why ? cause Place Racing CAI sucks in air from OUTSIDE the engine compartment- its filter is located behind the drivers FOG light inside that little area- between the wheel well liner and bumper cover basically.
UPD does gain WHP- 6 to be exac, and it does NOT harm anything inside the engine. Our engines are INTERNALLY balanced unlike POS domestic cars which need vibration dampeners and balanced flywheels to keep the engine from flying apart at speed. Internally balanced means- the crank and all of its rotating assemblies are BALANCED, and the engine does NOT rely on anything outside the engine to keep it balanced.
If you had a manual tranny car I would tell ya to slap on a flywheel, cause you will see gains of around 11-16WHP - biggest gain around 4500RPM where it could hit 16WHP. Yes there is some low end TORQUE loss (only on take off, engine needs more RPMs to take off without stalling) but you get used to it after a while, and once you get into someones car that has no flywheel you will be like- WTF their **** is slow. I used to drive all kinds of Maximas when I did used car work at my old dealership, and I would get into a 99 SE 5spd Max and it felt like my car accelerated faster in 3rd gear with its mods than the 99 did in 2nd gear ! Even 3.5s felt slow to me compared to my rev happy nature of my 3.slow. JET ECUs don't do ANYTHING, completly ZERO performance gains on any Nissan. JET should be owned by Stillen, seems like they both do their R&D the same way- stickers add HP !.

 

Informative post as always.

 

eh ?? I shouldn't post no more ?

 

The balancing of the rotating parts of an engine has nothing to do with the vibration (harmonic) damper that is integral with the front drive pulley on the VQ30/35s. The Maxi engine like all engines produces torsional harmonic vibrations (created by the firing impulses) and the harmonic damper is there to help control these vibrations to a level that prevents wear of bearings and even crankshaft breakage. Some engines do use the harmonic damper and/or flywheel as a way of correcting rotating imbalance as well. For the daily driver DO NOT replace the factory front drive pulley with any aftermarket unit.

 

I was serious, dude.

 

BS, should I get an article that was written in sport compact car by a NISSAN ENGINEER who will tell ya the same thing I just told ya ? Internally balanced means- no harmonic dampener is needed, and there are no known engine failures on internally balanced engines from installing pulleys on these cars. If you had a Ford 302 V8 and put a pulley on it, then yeah I could see the crank blowing the engine apart under all the stress. Eighter way I'ma find this article in a few min and post it.

 

Underdrive pullies are VERY common in almost all new cars. The only real problem is that they will provide less power to your alternator which may have a slightly negative effect. Oh ya, in the new 5.0 liter Fords, pullies are a common mod. I'm originally from Indiana where we have nothing better to do than beef up our pick-up trucks, drink beer and fight, usually in that order. Trust me, I know how to work on a ford or chevy small block. The pully couldn't possibly have a harmonic dampener on it: not enough mass to make a difference. The only rotating part that I'd have reservations on reducing in weight/size would be the flywheel. The reason cars don't run as smooth with a lightweight flywheel is because the engines need the rotating mass to keep the internal momentum up in the engine. Other than that, mod away! (the only time you should decrease the size of the flywheel is if you're racing and only need the engine for a short while at high RPM's, or if you've replaced the lifters, cams, drive shaft, pullies, ect, ect to lighten the rest of the engine components. In that case, the lower mass on the flywheel can keep the lower mass of the entire engine running smooth. Otherwise, there would be no point to adding the weight of the flywheel to the engine at the factory in the first place. Flywheels cost money. Steel costs money. Don't you think that if they could save money here, the factories would be doing it!)

 

An UDP will only have negative results if you have a hard hitting system in the car. Otherwise, if you're stock in that department, then you won't notice a difference.

 

GBAUER- I've seen a few 5.0 Stang engines torn apart from having a light weight flywheel and pulleys installed on them, Ford didn't design that engine all that great- but then again its based on a 289 which was 50-60s design. You might notice A/C performance is little diminished at idle cause the compressor is now underdriven too. I have a pretty big system in my car and I have no problems with lights dimming- get a capacitor and you won't see any lights dimming.

 

The problem was the light flywheel, not the UDP. read the post closely. I wouldn't install a flywheel on my 3.5 even though it is better balanced. BTW: I hate Fords anyway. if you're going american, go Chevy. The engines are more stout from what I've seen.

 

Oh yeah its definitely worthless... you know... cause there are a bunch of intake/catback/UDP equipped 5.5gens dipping into the 13s (corr.) with a 2.19 60' and trapping over 100mph.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=352176

First hp/tq gains are not where the ECU truely shines. The raised rev limiter is the biggest deal becuase the intake, headers, cams, the IM (whenever it comes out), catback etc. the major gains are all in the upper rpms. The gains in hp/tq for the ECU are different depending on how many mods you have. The more/more radical mods you have the better hp/tq gains you will get from the ECU and even more at the track. As you can see the effect of the ECU on I/E is small but still effective. Having headers will probably double the gain I got and make the ECU worth it (provided its properly tuned). Second my ECU is a full spec ($500 wish I would have got L-spec, but they didnt have it out yet) and was tuned for intake/catback. I took the intake off to try to get the gains of the ECU but ended up getting reduced gains becuase the A/F was out of tune and leaning out. Do you really think just a K&N GAB really gives 9whp on its own? Also a notable point about the gains is that it pushed the torque peak from 3400 to 4300 (again while increasing torque at 3400rpm) a point at which I see that power when I shift out of first.

NYPD Arnold, you missed the part where he said he already decided on getting headers and a catback. In his case the intake will make significant gains becuase he has already opened up the exhaust end of his car. The L-spec TS ECU w a piggy back tuner will probably give him atleast another 12whp avg becuase at that point he will be way out of A/F tune. Also a side note, with the UDP the faster your engine can accelerate the more power gains it gets out of a lightened rotating assembly (UDP/lightened flywheel). I wouldnt recommend a lightened flywheel for drag racing though.
Qmax, if you dont have your heart set on cattman headers and you dont mind fitment issues you can get the HS headers at www.ptuning.com for $469 free shipping. It would give you more money for other mods or let you keep some cash in your pocket. The L-spec ECU provides a raised rev limiter, tweaked VIAS switchover, tweaked VTC, air intake correction factor tweaking, drive by wire remapping, and governor removal. The full spec provides a tweaked A/F map and ignition map... however these will need tweaked every time you get a new mod that changes the amount of air that can flow in the engine. Also TS never figured out the A/F map for the headers either. Thats the reason TS got a bad rep at first here becuase the ECU was out of tune and didnt do crap for people with headers. Thats 2 good reasons not to get the full spec for $200 more.

 

I know, dude. But the ECU on its own is worthless. It sounds to me like QMax is thinking that just the ECU would knab him 15hp and I'm telling him it won't. I know that the ECU is a coupled mod that increases performance only when other bolt-ons are present. I was saying that on its own, it is worthless. I said it's best to buy headers first, then spend the money on an ECU and various other bolt ons.

 

Ah I misunderstood you then. Yes I agree... an ECU alone is worthless and no way in hell would it get you 15hp. Anytime they make those claims is on a car that is already well modded. You are right the best NA kick in the pants is headers modded or not and is teh best place to start if you have the money for it.

 

i see, so im going to get my Intake/exhasut/headers/vb mod/upd/ then after all is done get Ts ecu right? when i call up i haveto to tell them what the cars has so they can program the ecu properly correct? with all this what can the car hit in 1/4 mile, remeber my car is auto.

 

What I have been trying to say is with all that other stuff get the TS L-spec ECU and a piggyback that allows you to adjust A/F and ignition like SMT-6 or SAFCII (A/F only). With the amount of power you are going to be putting out I would definitely look into some stiffer engine mounts. With all that done 13s (corr.) should become a regular occurance with a good launch (<2.20 60') with trap speeds over 100mph (corr.). Are you doing all these mods all at once or one at a time? If so just toss it all on at once. If you are doing them one at a time then I would go 1. headers 2. vb mod 3. engine mounts 4. intake 5. catback 6. TS L-spec ECU 7. piggyback tuning 8. UDP. Well really you could stick the UDP anywhere since its relatively minor, easy, and inexpensive... same with the intake.
If you get the full spec ECU and have them tune it they will be doing it blind and more likely than not get it wrong (as is the case with the headers and autos in general). You will then have to get it dynoed with an A/F reading jsut to see if they got it right. If it is not right you will have to send them the ECU again and the dyno sheets for them to retune it. This will probably have to be done 2 or 3 times which can get really expensive and your car will have a lot of down time (unless you have a backup ECU).

 

i was actually going to buy EVERYTHING over the winter then install everything all at once,when april comes around, maybe take me about 1 week to do entire install, so yea everything at once, i dunno about the ecu anymone since it looks like alot of work plsu i dont know where to get my car dynoed in nyc, maybe after everything is done i MIGHT look into the ecu, thanks alot though

 

I would get your A/F ratio (generally done on a dyno) checked out after you do all those mods just to make sure you are not running dangerously lean or too rich. L-spec TS ECU will not be a hassle since there is no A/F and ignition tuning involved. Tuning would come from SAFCII or some other piggyback that you would tune on a dyno yourself or have someone do it for you. So my advice is to go ahead and get the L-spec TS ECU with the other stuff and then worry about tuning later. Oh yeah the ES engine mount bushings are at an introductory price. If you are gonna get engine mounts (I would highly recommend it) then its $80 well spent.