Anyone know how the Maxima has 15hp up on its little brother? Maybe if we can answer this we can find out how they got 25 extra hp out of the 350Z!

Jesse

When I bought mine the salesman told me they had different cams. If you can believe that.

They both seem to perform about the same from what I have read in posts. I tend to believe there is no difference in these engines.

I thought it was ported heads.

I think the Maxima has a bigger Flux capacitor, and titanium muffler bearings

It could be the way the drive train is set up and parasitical losses. And doesn't the maxima have a different air intake system?

they better make the maxima faster, lighter and not a boat

1) They replace the cheap interior with a better looking one.
2) They changed the taillights on the exterior of the Max to have a charcoal gray trim.
3) They then dropped out the good BOSE amp for a cheaper BOSE amp that sucks (saved a few lbs).
4) They made the opening in the front of the engine about 1" taller and 1-1.5" wider so the street scenes grille wouldn't fit... but this allowed for more air to reach the factory-restricted airbox that eventually feeds around to the BACK-side of the engine before actual induction.

All of these things combined gave the Max 15 additional HP.

Maybe if we upgrade our brakes to match those on the Z, then we'd gain 20-25 HP.

I believe the difference is the dual-stage intake system and the dual-stage muffler on the Max.

It's all marketing. Can't have a $24k altima w/ same hp as a $28k max. Can't have the new Z making only what the "old" maxima makes.

I read the g35 coupe gets its extra hp over the g35 sedan by freeing up some exhaust.

Ball bearings....it's all ball bearings these days.

Some guy posted on here a while back, and he said that Nissan crimped the exhaust on the Altima. He was having the fuel tank removed for some reason, and the exposed exhaust revealed a crimped section. He said that he replaced the piping and it dyno'd with about 15 more horsepower.

Easy money for nissan. They make the same VQ motor for all there v6 cars and tune each one by its price tag.

yea but the max has a pretty bad crimp as well, besides the zltima has a dual exhaust, the max has got a single. the thing i really dont get is the max weights slightly less then the altima, has 15 more hp but the altima still slightly outperforms the max?????? go figure what thats all about

See, I don't know about that. When I first ran my auto 2K2 (with only 800miles on the odo) some other guy was there with a 3.5SE V6 Auto. I ran a 15.033sec vs his 15.99X. Now it's easy to say it was his driving but, all he had to do was floor it. (That's all I did--no brake torquing or manual shifting--and got a 15.033!)

I don't know. Maybe he hit the brakes in the middle of his run! But my 15HP advatage shouldn't result in that big of a margin.

Also, with the Maxima's Variable Intake Manifold and Variable capacity exhaust system, I would think this should give the Maxima a decided advantage in midrange acceleration and topend (exc. for speed governor)

OK Fletch

So your saying the Altima has no VIAS on it? I thought they were identical motors. Sure do look alike.

The motors ARE identical. But technically, the exhaust and intake systems aren't part of the motor but, do affect overall engine output.

I'm not sure where the extra power comes from, or even if it's there. If I'm not mistaken, don't the two cars dyno at about the same power levels? There may be small differences, but nothing to write home about, IIRC. That would leave one to believe that the Altima's power has been "under-rated" by Nissan and even though it's only "rated" for 240HP it might actually be making something closer to 255 HP like the Maxima.

One reason why the Altima 3.5 5spd might be faster than the Maxima 6spd (if that's true) is that 5spd tranny's seem to have lower parasitics than 6spd ones. It's been said that the Sentra SE-R Spec-V's with the 6spd tranny aren't any faster than the regular SE-R with 10 HP less and only a 5spd.

We need some stock dyno numbers for the 2K2 Max and Alt 3.5SE V6. This would tell the REAL story.

the altima V6 only has one of the variable things, and the L4 has both of em....that may be the reason why.....it kinda sucs *** if nissan purposely made the altima's power lower by doin sumthin stupid like crimpling the exauhst or sumthin

Motor Trend ran a 14.6 in a 5spd Altima, and the best time for a stock Maxima I have seen is 14.2XX. So I think its safe to say the Maxima does have 15 extra hp, and the 6spd helps too.

Jesse