Ghozt

nah im more interested in looking into how to build the CVT or increase its ability to deal with this stress. already working on collecting different CVT synthetic fluids and going to send to an oil analysis company along with the OEM NS-2 fluid and see what chemically is a match to the OEM fluid so we can experiment with synth CVT fluid that has higher heat tolerances. also considering running dual trans coolers

MaximaDrvr

iTrader: (1)

We already know a factory max can go into trans limp under spirited driving.
I know you said you have one cooler already, but I don't see how a second could hurt.

Ross2893

Could hurt by running the fluid too cool. That's never a good thing

Ghozt

I'll be running it in line with the OEM cooler thats built into the radiator, which has a slight warming element to it. Just found out the Maxima's in the UAE come with this baby stock. This makes my aftermarket Mishimoto one look like a baby, maybe I'll run this guy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221304113108&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

Ross2893

Hey Ghozt, what do you think about this cooler because this is what I'm considering installing this summer for the tranny.



Btw. What is the -AN size of the tubing used for the transmission cooler lines??

nissan lover

Congrats keep us updated

GNCMaxima

This site has just been inviting negatively to the maxima culture. You make coming here much more pleasurable. Goodjob on this setup. Perfect person for this imo

trailer54

x2!

xBoostx

Awesome!
You are now a pioneer for 7th gen performance.

95VQ30

Love the car, I think the 7th gen is easily the best looking Max- especially when tastefully modded.

When can we see vids with some spirited driving?

Racerbox77

Ghozt, turbo update bud

Red4drSE

wow this is awesome..hopefully the trans holds up. Guy over on the Altima forums turboed his cvt Altima and went through a lot of transmissions and had a big trans cooler installed. Hopefully that don't happen to you..if so..go big and go for the 6 speed swap =) But even then people with normal autos end up having to build them to handle the extra power of the turbo. Is there anyone out there that does builds for the cvt with stronger parts?

VIP_MAXIMA

Yeah man, way over due for an update. Anything.

Ghozt

things are coming along, sorry I forgot not everyone is in the FB groups. its got a partial street tune now, i was driving it around all weekend boosted and its hella fun to drive now. this is sort of hard to hear but i took a quick vid of a 3300 rpm pull to spool the turbo and you can hear the BOV a little. gonna do another one soon with my gopro in the engine bay for better sound.

as we finalize the street tune we're going to keep testing it and monitoring temps. I don't want to blow things up and find the limits that way like Blake (with the Altima CVT) did, we got the OEM UAE Maxima trans cooler installed and Amsoil synth CVT fluid. easing into this slowly, then we'll do a final dyno tune and see what this **** can do.

justmaxxin

that thing sounds scary in a good way!

Ghozt

updated original post with new video

justmaxxin

Pure horror. =)

BIGIRISHSTL

Pretty cool stuff :-)

VVhite-0ut

Pardon my ignorance here. But if Uprev can map points for our computers to shift, could you not map it to perform higher on acceleration and lower on top end speed?

Ghozt

if Uprev is capable of tuning the CVT, messing with the transmissions programming is sort of the last thing I want to do right now. thats just throwing wrenches into the gears of this project. ha. gears..

VVhite-0ut

Ahh absolutely Ghost. Sorry for thread jacking with that question. I didn't mean for it to be directed towards your project, but more of a question towards your experience with it. Perhaps I can carry this conversation elsewhere? Unless the answer is just "no".

Ghozt

nah its cool man; it's also entirely possible Uprev's software is compatible now with our CVT and I just have no idea. I know it wasn't over a year ago. I'll ask my boy to check the software when he plugs in to see exactly what he has access to and let you know.

if trans tuning is possible, i kinda wish I had another N/A Max to play with to see how it works. this would also potentially open up a way to dyno the car as we could temporarily reprogram the trans to hold a 1:1 ratio; sort of like an electronic lock that would be reprogrammed once the dyno was done to go back to driving mode.

Ghozt

showing some Nissan love at a recent show

dr_2010SV

Nice pic and awesome company Dan!...Interesting the GTR has the only under-hood insulation?

IFuXwiTuZ

question:
1.What turbo are you using and is it JB or BB
2.what are your air fuels (since your stating) you hit full boost at 2000rpms it should taper down in the high rpms because of how restrictive that turbo is on a v6
3. has timing been adjusted if so what timing are you running at peak boost up to redline
4. CVT cooler will reduce pressure that the CVT CM communicates with. is the CVT CM throwing a code?
5. has engine oil pressure / temp been effected if so what are temps?
6. Did you change the VVT advance that the VQ has?

I would like to see a map of the Uprev scaling

im just curious because my friend is thinking about boosting his altima which is very similar to max, trying to figure out base map and whats needed. Good job man you def have big ballz

Racerbox77

^^^ great questions. Hopefully Ghozt answers

1swtmax

Nice set up. Really nice. Not sure about the trans. hope everything holds up. One nice thing though about the CVT and the track, theres no shifting. Should be some good numbers. Good luck and nice build.

Ghozt

updated the original post with more recent pics and the Youtube link.

its a turbonetics journal bearing turbo. oh nah i dont hit full boost at 2000 rpms, you just hear it start to spool the turbo at 2000. we haven't gotten it up to full boost yet we're still playing around with it. lots of heat to deal with in the engine bay now so car is apart at the moment getting the turbo manifold cerikoted and a couple other cooling upgrades to help the bay temps.

timing is definitely adjusted, my boy is the one doing the build/tune so id have to ask him if he wants to share that information. no problems with CVT pressure, no codes. temps in general are hot right now so until all the cooling upgrades are in place and the tune is finalized we wont be pushing it at full boost. things are going back together at the end of this week so hopefully will have more info/a better video soon.

*edited - was wrong its a JB turbo*

Tommy6905

Too bad nissan doesn't take instruction from ghozt

GNCMaxima

Any update? I'm tired of seeing negative/problems on this forum lol

saltohio

Outstanding, must take major restraint to drive.

Ghozt

Hey guys, okay so here is an update on the situation.

We pulled all the turbo piping off and had it thermal coated (cerikote black velvet) to help retain the heat. We also did a few other small changes to increase air flow and added GTR hood vents to increase cold air coming into the engine bay since my oil cooler/trans cooler in the upper grill opening wasn't allowing much cold air in.

With everything back on, we re-tuned it and started driving around. This thing pulls like a BEAST. Torque steer like CRAZY. Ha, I love it. Monitoring CVT temps, it stayed between 120-150 - this OEM cooler is working GREAT!

After boosting it around a bit though we started seeing that the car was hesitating a bit off the line, then ultimately just went into a limp mode and threw a CEL. Pulled codes; it was a drivetrain code and my heart sunk. God must be on my side, because we cleared the code reset the TCM and car went back to normal and drives great again, until you start boosting and then it starts going back into limp.

So apparently the conditions that boost introduces into the CVT, makes the CVT throw a code and go into limp mode because it thinks something is wrong. The only thing "wrong" is we are boosting now and acceleration has greatly increased which the CVT wasn't programmed to understand or expect, so it thinks a seal is broken or a solenoid is freaking out.

There are ways to control the electronic signals being sent, I know old school ways 300ZX guys used were diodes, to prevent the trans from ever receiving the signal to go into limp mode for an erroneous problem. As soon as we figure out how to control this signal going to the trans and intercept it, I think we're golden. Car drove like a bat out of hell- two handed steering for sure.

Can't wait to get behind the wheel again.

VVhite-0ut

Oooo I'm getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside

BIGIRISHSTL

I love the fact that plate says, "CVTBOOM". Am I reading that right? Hilarious if so. I am now the proud owner of 2 Maximas as of today. Bought a brand new one loaded with 6 miles and a build code made this month. Anyway, think I will mod one and keep the other stock. So I will be following these serious mods closely.

1996blackmax

iTrader: (2)

Nicely done bro! Hopefully you guys can trace down the signal soon so you can fully enjoy the ride.

jr schultz

I really hope you are able to figure out the issue with the CVT. I like what you have done to your car. It's a very high quality build. If you prove that the CVT is in fact reliable for your set up, then that will help others with less extreme builds have confidence in it's ability to sustain higher power levels. I'm one who is a big fan of the CVT's smoothness. I wish you success.

jr schultz

Any update to the CVT situation?

Ghozt

Yeah, spoke with Uprev. The issue we were running into was related to the estimated torque tables in the tune. Since the car is overboosting at the moment (wastegate spring is being unpredictable, getting a new one) everytime it overboosted it confused the CVT and limped it. The estimated torque tables in the tune tell it what kind of power to expect so when it had an unexpected surge of power it wasn't tuned for it didn't like it.

Flashed back to stock tune for a bit just to see how the car is doing cause I feel like it hasn't been the same since I drove it over the summer before everything was thermal coated and the vents were installed. Throttle is being weird, we thought it was related to the tune but it's separate. OBD shows the computer is showing a very delayed and/or limited throttle signal despite how far the pedal is pushed. Wouldn't be surprised if this was maybe related to the limping that was happening.

Gonna troubleshoot the throttle position sensor and pedal sensor this weekend and see what's up. Possible a sensor is faulty or a wire melted/shorted from the heat. Even with the improved temps in the bay now I still want to wrap everything visible in the bay in heat wrap and look into where I can fit a small pusher fan near all this **** to keep air moving. We'll figure this out and get the wastegate spring replaced and flash the tune again soon enough.

Progress...at least it's not problems with the CVT.

jr schultz

I'm glad you are figuring things out. Thank you for keeping us updated. I'm sure you can appreciate how monumental this car of yours is. If the 7th gen had numerous boosted examples it would be a different story. You are kind of pioneering new territory here.

Ghozt

Swapped on a different throttle body with attached sensor and different MAF, throttle is responsive again as we were hoping. Looks like maybe heat messed some things up at some point, more cooling upgrades here we come.