kjpierce

iTrader: (1)

this is my first max ,2k1 gxe. i got rid of my 99 grand am gt1 ram air. can't keep a GM after 3 yrs. but compared to my max the GA had tons more punch off the line and just driving around town. it was a dog at high end. the max is nice at high end. i think the max just hesitates a little more than the GA. with the GA it was like push the pedal half-way and your gone, with the max it has to think about it for a second. don't get me wrong i love my max and i am a proud owner. just want that quickness around town driving(low end)
what mods can i do to best achieve this.
thanks.
KJ

Dario

iTrader: (1)

try the underdrive pulley from unorthodox people say it gives you more power from the takeoff. Im getting mine installed this Friday!

xtantmaxima

GM motors have a lot of low end torque that gives you this feeling.

SteVTEC

Pushrod engines develop low-end torque the easiest.
DOHC engines develop low-end torque with the most difficulty.

The reason?

It has to do in part with rotating mass. A pushrod engine only has a single block-mounted cam so very little energy is used to turn the single cam. The bad thing is that only having 2 valves per cylinder tends to be a bottleneck at high-RPM w/o a lot of tuning. That GA had the 3.4 right? Only 175HP. Good low-end but it tends to crap out up top.

The Maxima uses a DOHC design. 4 cams now instead of only 1. And camshafts aren't exactly lightweight either. You pay for having lots of valves and cams on the low-end, but by the time you get to higher RPM's the freer flowing design pays for all of its losses and begins to make some serious power and will really own a comparable pushrod 2-valve engine.

The compromise seems to be a SOHC engine with either 2-valves (some domestic SUV designs) or 4-valves (everything else). SOHC isn't as good as a pushrod on the low-end, and not as good as a DOHC on the high-end, but a good balance between the two.

The GA also has 0.4L of displacement on a Maxima, and displacement plays a big role in low-end power too. So you're also feeling that, so don't take that for granted

Foglght

Ok......so explain the corvette. 5.7l 345hp@5500rpm. It doesn't crap out at high rpm. Good ole pushrod V8 power.

kjpierce

iTrader: (1)

thanks for the insight

maxgsxr1

ammmm 345 hp!!!! this is a question??torque is 345 also i beleive........

SteVTEC

I was going to mention the Corvette type engines as the exceptions. The Z06 is even better - 400HP @ 6000rpm. If GM put as much time and effort into tuning and optimizing their popular 3800 engine then it would have upwards of 260HP instead of only 200HP

UMD_MaxSE

iTrader: (1)

GM is notorious for making the throttle response on cars very non-linear. I have rented several GM cars like the Malibu and all of them had the same thing. You would press down on the pedal maybe a little more than 1/4 of the way, yet you would get almost complete open throttle. Punch it further, and there is nothing left after that. It is an easy way to make a car feel quicker. In comparison, the maxima throttle seems to be a lot more linear... There is a huge difference between pressing the gas pedal 1/2 way and pushing it in all the way....

SteVTEC

Good point, Nauman

I rented a Grand Am a few times and like you said, "1/4 throttle" would pretty much rip the wheels off of the car from a start but getting on it further wouldn't give you much, if anything, more. Come to think of it, my old 90 Camry was sorta similar. About "50% throttle" was "all she wrote" and no more go beyond that, LOL

The throttle in my AV6 seems very linear in comparison with a very smooth and incremental response as you slowly increase throttle.

MR2177

As far as the "Punch" goes, isn't the lack of low end and plentiful high end an advantage as far as racing goes? Personally I plan on getting a device for my Ponticrap GTP that would retard timing at the launch and bump timing towards the higher RPMs to tame wheel spin. Anything more than 1/2 throttle at launch and I smoke the tires, that's not fun in a stoplight drag as you watch your opponent walk away

MR2177

I did notice that in my cuz's car at idle, I would tap the throttle, and there would be a delay before the car registered the tap. sorta like TAP........vroooooom.... instead of a simultaneous TAPVroooom. What's the deal with that?

SteVTEC

Yep, because in racing you don't spend much time in the lower half of the RPM range, so designers optimize the engine for all top-end power. This is how the tiny 2.0L engine in the S2000 makes 240HP.

But the problem with this design approach is that your "streetability" goes down. At least on crowded US roads you need good low-end power because that's where you spend most of your time driving - at lower RPM's. Both the GTP and the S2000 have 240HP. But if you're stuck in traffic at about 10-20mph and you see a hole that you want to squeeze into quick and you nail it, only one of those cars are going to move. And it's not going to be the S2000

This is what I call "street performance".

But if you're on the highway already and dragging an S2000 in your GTP, I think the S2k will take ya quite easily. The engine is almost half the size and much lighter than the 3800 engine and the whole car weighs about 700lb less I think for a much better power-to-weight ratio.

That's what I call good track/drag performance.

But the number of times I need to pull out in traffic quick and need good low-end is probably about 100 times more often than I need good top-end power.

But I like to have my cake and eat it too, so I compromise and get a car with both good top-end (but not as good as an S2000) and good low-end (but not as good as a GTP) and that keeps me overall happy

sleepermax

iTrader: (5)

Try the VB mod too if you've got an auto, and a lightened flywheel if you've got a five speed. I found an OSCAI helps too on my auto for low end (as well as top end ). Stickier tires always help.

djmaxski

Need more punch???? Get a 2k2