ahhh touché

 

I will definitely look into this, however. Especially if I can get paddles I had tons of fun with my rigged-up push-button shift_fast unit, I can only imagine what a non-ghetto setup that's fully customizable and easier to use would be like. To think, a month ago I was going to demod my car and buy a project car this summer. All it took was an accident (to result in it coming out of the body shop looking better than it has in all the 3 years I've owned it) and me getting lucky with some things to probably make it faster and better to want to keep the darn thing

 

What is the exact method of controlling your shifts with this? Do you have to rig up a... button box somewhere or can you bang shift it with the gear selector?
Also the 5spd auto already has a manumatic mode right? Is it just not possible to reasonably swap one into an older car or is there just no way to make the 5spd not overly slushy?

 

read the first couple posts or even the suprastick website.

and no, our 4rth gen 5spd does not have the manumatic mode . if we did, why would this be brought up?

 

4th gens don't have a 5-speed, we have a 4-speed. He's referring to the 5-speed auto in the 6th gen Max, and he's correct in thinking it has a manumatic. As does the CVT, sort of. Swapping in the 5-speed would require a full rewiring of the car to 6th gen stuff, which would be a bit of a hassle, especially if you kept the VQ30.

 

The product description says you can paddle shift with the SupraStick, but it only provides the TCM override and is controlled through the cruise control stalk. So that would mean you would have to adapt something like this: http://www.retrotekspeed.com/product...es-9-bolt.html
if you want the paddle shift feel right?

Also this is the cockpit of an '05:

The thing I crudely pointed to is the gear selector position for manumatic right?

 

Correct, indeed.

 

Would the 5-speed even fit? Is the bell housing prohibitively big? If not couldn't you just swap in the entire power train from a late model Altima or Maxima? It would give you a bigger more potent engine, and a manumatic transmission. However if it was easily done I would figure we would see more of them.

 

The cruise control stalk is only used for the Supra trans. You can use the switch of your choice for manual shifting or manumatic mode. However the main purpose of this unit is automatic control over the shift points for precise shifting at any RPM and TC lockup and is especially great for raised RPM, ie I have my car automatically shift at 7000 RPM. The paddle shifting if you want to use it is just a nice by-product.

The 5 speed will fit but as stated earlier would require the A33B ECU and TCU. Also my experience with the 5 spd has been less than stellar and will not work with the Suprastick. The 5 spd manumatic is fun to play with but doesn't give you the control necessary to have consistent passes at the track.

 

IIRC, the A33B retained the RE4F04? of the A32/A33, and the A34's (barring some early '04 SLs) were the start of the 5AT.

 

You are correct. The A34 changed to the 5spd part way through the year. I was looking at one to buy but passed partly because of the 4spd and got the G35.

 

Wait, wait, wait. You two lost me. If I'm reading one of Jime's posts correctly then to get the transmission from an A34 into my A32 chassis, I need the brain boxes out of an A33? That doesn't seem right. Also the A34 5spd is still a standard hydraulic auto right, not a twin clutch set up like Volkswagon/Audi DSG? While it's not well suited for serious drag racers (which I am not) how does it perform for just a slightly sporty road car?

And no one is building a programmable TCM override for modern Nissan autos? Not even for 350zs or G35s?

 

Jime made a typo, basically. He meant A34 but accidentally put A33B. The A33B never had a 5-speed. We apologize for the confusion It is also still a standard auto, no dual-clutch magic.

 

Thank you. At my age and condition I appreciate those that can understand and interpret what I think I mean.

 

No problem, Jim. We forgive you It's the least we can do

 

Must not be enough demand.

TransGo does make a shift improver kit for our cars and a couple places rework the valvebody (pretty much the same thing the shift kit does) for firmer, faster shifts.

 

I saw a 5AT/VQ35DE assembly sitting on a pallet at a local junkyard. No sir, no I don't think the 5AT will fit in our A32/33's. The trans case is taller and wider, and the mount is completely different.

Has someone bolted a 5AT into a A32/33 chassis yet?

 

Here is another controller for the 4spd. http://www.powertraincontrolsolution...content-4.html

$700 and $150 for wiring harness. (anyone willing to try it?)

They also discuss the 5spd but according to them the only 5spd with an external TCM is the 1st year G35, the Z and later models have an internal TCM and cannot be controlled.

 

That's what I was thinking, I knew the bell housing got redesigned at some point but I've heard people saying you can shoe horn in a 6spd into a an A32, of course the manual would be significantly smaller then the auto.

Jime and Tatanko: Sorry about not understanding what was being said. This is the first car I've decided to work on that didn't roll of an assembly line in Detroit some 20 years before I was born. So I'm going to get confused easily when we start talking about ECUs and TCMs, please bear with me.

Since it's just a standard hydraulic tranny reworking the throttle body and installing a higher speed TC should give the nice, hard, tire chirping shifts people are looking for right? Or do the electronics shift it too early regardless of what mechanical changes you make?

 

I'm assuming you mean "valvebody" and not "throttlebody" since we're talking about the tranny A different valvebody will give permanently increased harder, faster shifts. That's fine for some people. A higher stall torque converter will not likely make shifts any firmer or quicker, but that's not what it's designed to do either. Jime already figured out a year or two ago (not counting the drop resistor, and then we're talking like 5+ years ago) that the electronics are the major link to hard, fast shifts. The drop resistor will make them harder and faster to an extent by increasing line pressure, but more importantly things like our so-called "shift_fast" units (do a search) are even better. I made a push-button version of what Jime came up with originally that gave me near-instantaneous, jaw-shattering shifts on demand (again, Jime gets credit for figuring it out, I just made a push-button version). I have a completely stock tranny, including valvebody and torque converter, and I was able to do that. No need to unplug the drop resistor either. All I have is a tranny cooler.

 

Tatanko is right, a higher stall converter won't make shifts harder but it will multiply torque even more off the line than the stock converter. Honestly though, I can't see the advantage of a higher stall speed in my 5.5 gen unless I do enough mods to move the powerband up high enough that the current 2500 rpm stall can't cover (like if power doesn't come on until 3000-3500 rpm) OR I find a way to get the power to the ground.

Right now, the best solutions are modified valve bodies or a way to override the TCM's shift parameters.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you running the 3.5? Because I thought that the VQ30 in my fourth gen didn't really hit its stride until the low 3k range?

Yes I meant valve body (shhh! I'm dumb! ) And the torque converter giving a higher launch speed doesn't promote a faster 1-2 shift? I read the thread that came up on shift_fast via the search function and it's really impressive what you guys came up with. Are you still running the multiple push buttons? My only concern with that is the few occasions I would have the desire to manually shift, if I was using that I'd either wind up pulling cones out of my wheel wells for an hour or drive off a cliff.

 

Yes, he has the 3.5, he has a 5.5 gen.

The higher stall does not change shift behavior at all, no, as it isn't really related to shifting. I am no longer running my shift_fast unit, no. Not because I didn't like it, but because at one point I thought my transmission was failing or that I had screwed something up in the wiring when I wired it in, but turns out it was a loose wire in the engine bay from where I had originally hooked it up Needless to say it was a pain in the butt to put it all back in so I just never put it back. I may one day, but right now there's not enough benefit to justify it. I did make a SWEET switch panel that took up a DIN slot that had the buttons, on/off, radiator fan controls, etc. though.

Also, with the sheer violence and quickness of the shifts with the unit, downshifting is a HUGE no-no. Upshifts are fine, and if you only do them for a couple passes at the track once and a while it's fine. But downshifts are too hard on the transmission at full pressure like that and it shifts so fast that the engine has to very quickly play catch up and that's hard on it as well. I was able to do rev-matched downshifts by blipping the throttle, but the downshifts are still too harsh even when the engine is properly matched speed-wise.

 

I am not a big fan of how my car shifts at WOT. It feels like a "slip", but I know it is the ECU and TCM teaming up to reduce between shift power. My wife's new car with DBW also does this (mine is a 3.5 with DBW).

My old 3.0 drivetrain had MUCH snappier shifts at WOT, I am sure my car would be quite quicker if the WOT shifts were not so sloppy. That'd be nice to modify this parameter in the TCM and ECU. (maybe just disconnecting the CAN lines between the TCM and ECU would help??)

 

I agree wtih you my WOT shifts are terriable the only gear the shifts fast and hard is rd all the others are a sloppy mess..

 

FTR: DBW isn't the cause of this. Seems more likely it is line pressure.

 

Disagree! Even though line pressure may be a factor, I think the implementation of the DBW system is mostly the culprit. Every DBW car I have driven has had shifts that seem as though the engineers have messed with the ECU and TCM parameters to reduce engine power between shifts. I have also read that when DBW was being phased in on many cars, DBW was being touted as a great way to improve "driveability". For me, my AT cars have just ended up with less power around shift points. As far as I am concerned, it is not the fault of DBW hardware, it's the fault of how engineers utilize DBW systems.

To reinforce this, all of the cars I have rented (which is ALOT) that were DBW acted the same as my car. The worst one was a 2007 Mazda6 V6 with the 6AT. Because that car shifts a lot (6 speed AT) it seemed to be constantly crippled by this.

My car seems to "dial back" alot of power right before and right after a upshift at WOT. You probably know what a slip feels like, but what I am describing is more like the ECU cutting out power before and after upshifts. It is very pronounced in both my car and my wife's new Subaru. In my car, the power dies off a little bit near WOT upshift, then the trans upshifts and for a very brief moment there is a dead spot in the power (but the revs are fine, the trans has not slipped) then suddenly the power comes on hard.

I would not mind having a bit more line pressure and reducing effect of the ECU on engine power between shifts. That would improve my car a lot.

 

I have quantitative data that shows no affect/change of throttle angle opening during any type of shift , WOT or otherwise.

BTW, this is a Maxima forum.

 

But you know as well as I, just because the throttle stays open does not mean it's making the same power. Any recordings of ign timing, and inj DC/PW?

Devil's advocate here, of course.

 

I've stated this before, and no, no difference in timing/IPW.

A little history:
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...1&postcount=23

 

Come on now, you know I never search!

 

Apparently

<-- Is still ing @ blown away cat.

 

Heh, that was awesome. Love that scene.

BTW, KRRZ350 may be on to something, this was easier













Anyway, back on topic...

 

How do you get the time to obtain "quantitative" data whilst racking up over 24,000 posts? You must be a genius. Not being sarcastic, I wish I could pay you to "fix" my car.

BTW, I know this is a Maxima forum. WTH is that supposed to mean?

And just where do you think the dip in power comes from? You say throttle angle is not affected, ign timing is not affected, is fuel not affected also? Maybe free air lightning causes it?

If line pressure was so low, it would be exhibited as a nasty slip on these relatively powerful engines. Are you taking line pressure measurements while you are at it? You can't just slip (low line pressure as you presume) from one gear to another with a VQ35 at WOT without burning the clutches up real quick.

 

Nice cheap shot. Dully noted.
You went off on a tangent speaking of other DBW vehicles.
Could be that.
I would imagine it is a combination of say average (normal) line pressure coupled w/ a more powerful engine/different TCM parameters etc.

Honestly though, I believe whatever the 'problem' is, lies with the TCM, which controls line pressure. I have no way of measuring it, but having both an A32 and an A33B, I can say that shifts certainly feel quite a bit slower (A33B vs A32). Also, there has been a known TCM issue w/ A33's that have shown to exhibit this behavior (slipping 'feeling'). When, after replaceing said TCM, the problem went away. My car started to slip horribly from 1 -2. I have since replaced the VB, and it has been fine so far.

Also, I performed the DR mod when I first purchased it, and it was fine when activated, but when inactive (DR mod), it would give me the same slooow shift, even before it began actually slipping.

 

Last part, good info.

But don't discount the free air lightning.

 

Any updates on the Suprastick use on a Maxima?

 

Ok, I have made it home safely from Fl and starting to install a few new goodies. The local track opens this saturday for test @ tune so I may try and make it. The Suprastick may get installed this week but depends on how the tune goes. If I get the a/f and timing done to perfection then I will hookup the Suprastick before the weekend if not then next week for sure.

I will keep you guys posted just as soon as I have something to report.

We still have 2 ft of snow on the ground but I went to the driver's meeting for our local track on Sunday and they will definnately open this weekend.

 

Hey Jime glad to hear you made it back from FL okay. It was great meeting you. I should be moving North in 2 years maybe we can get together again and work on that other project we talked about.

 

I saw that, I was considering coming out too, except now I'm off to Alberta for a week (for work). With all the rain now the snow just might be gone by then.