I finally finished doing all my regular maintanence to my max since I bought it, so its mod time! I just ordered the nwp im spacers, and bop, i also put my order in for the cattman y-pipe, and am working on the jwt pop charger. My goal for this summer is to keep it fairly under the radar. Hopefully i will have everything but the y pipe in about two weeks. Im pretty pumped to mod but I am somewhat new to this, but am so motivated so I just have a few questions. Should i wait until i have the y pipe, and do it all at once or can I do it in stages? I ask this because I assume it will need a tune once they are all installed? That is something else Im completly new to. Im also looking to get the stillen front and back lips, and stb's, is it best to just order straight from stillen or is there somewhere else, and what should I be looking to pay? Thanks for your input

 

You have an '02. Why oh why would you order a y-pipe with no headers??!! You're KILLING me Smalls!

 

I did the same thing

 

x2...order teh headers and install/get them installed!

 

I'm probly goin with a turbo set up next summer, so headers would be a major waste. I'm stayin fairly simple for this year, any advice for that route?

 

i think Rood bought shorty headers for his turbo setup..ask him about it..

 

Unless there are other considerations (garage, tools, mechanic, etc.), mods are best installed one at a time. In that way, you can fully shake out installation issues before moving on to something else. But more importantly, spacing them out allows you to assess what you've accomplished with more focus and appreciation.

You'll be happier in the long run if you pace yourself with mods over the next few months. And if nothing else, that advice certainly holds true when budgeting your finances for the car.

As to "needing a tune"... sorry, what? You're installing spacers, SRI and exhaust parts. There's no tune needed; your ECU will adjust. Exactly how did you think you were going to "tune" your engine anyway?

 

I wasn't planning on doing the "tune" myself haha, I know it was a pretty vague term, as is my knowledge on the subject. I meant a Dyno tune or something along those lines. Can we chip these cars?

 

The premier company (TechnoSquare) that used to download a custom program to your ECU, no longer offers that service.

 

I could be wrong, but I would think that if he were to get something like greddy emanage ultimate and got his car tuned on a dyno after he installed the mods that he could indeed make a decent amount of hp from it.

I don't know much about this topic but I've read many times that tuning the ignition timing and a/f ratio to work with the mods one has frees up power.

 

Are you planning to do any suspension work on the car? Like subframe collars, bushings, etc? It will make the ride even more fun after your engine mods. How many miles are on your Max?

 

The OP needs to do some research on this topic.

A wide-band sensor and a piggyback controller will certainly allow him to tweak his ECM on a real-time basis, and optimize his engine performance to his modifications... but he's asking about a "chip", which implies he wants to drop-in a pre-configured tune. That approach (i.e., re-flashing the ECU programming) is no longer available now that TechnoSquare has discontinued that service.

All this is on the periphery of my understanding as well. Personally, I'm not interested in getting down into those technical weeds. But lots and lots of people are, and there's tons of information to be found here on the Org and elsewhere.

OP, start here: http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...ng-thread.html

 

OP, I'm selling my VAFC 2 and Wideband sensor if you want to go that route for air/fuel tuning.