Hey all,

I am new to this board, but I am having issues with my 2002 Maxima SE 6spd. I was forced to rebuild my motor at 213k after the bank 2 catalyst fell apart and sent particles back into the cylinders. I had a local machine shop bore out the block and balance the internals as I went with a lightened flywheel. I have Wiseco 11.1 96 mm pistons installed, and I used 350Z rev up head and rod bolts, and oil pump. Only other mods are a K&N and a Megan Racing exhaust. It currently has 241k on it, but I have been having issues with the tune on it.

I work for a Nissan dealer so I did the rebuild myself, and have access to our Consult tools. The car runs best with the 17 degree timing setting, but also pings between the usual 18 - 2200 rpm level. I have retarded the timing to the 16 degree and now the 15 degree setting to try to alleviate the ping, but to no avail. That is with using 93 premium and an octane booster each fill.

More than anything though I am most bothered by a loss of power after I have been driving the vehicle awhile. At first warm up and a bit after the car really takes off well as compared with stock, but after driving around town for maybe 30 minutes, medium to full throttle inputs do not produce anything close to what it does when cold, and it will hesitate. If I stop at a light and shut off the car, once I restart it, good power is restored. Do I have a fuel issue, or is the stock ECM retarding the timing to protect itself from the preignition? I was thinking of changing to a colder spark plug, or installing the phenolic spacers to cool the intake.

Any ideas guys? I am really at a loss here.

Thanks in advance,

Rich

 

That initially sounded like a junk knock sensor, but restarting shouldn't fix that.

Colder plugs should alleviate the pinging.

Can you check the ignition timing while driving and see if it's being heavily retarded?

 

Is there a way to advance the timing on these cars manually or does it have to be done on a computer?