Once it dried out, I've scratched a corner and it's some how hard to removed, man I wouldn't like to have to remove it all, that would be a PITA. This car will only be driven during the best weather condition so I'm not worried that will be fine for a long time to come.

 

aren't you supposed to shot peen the compnents that were cryoed? Cryoed components are more brittle and ur supposed to shot peen them to finish the process right?

Also about all the chromed stuff. It doesn't look like they plugged any of the holes, whether it be screw holes with threads or just pass through holes, like on the hubs for example where the wheel studs would be pressed into. The chrome is kinda thick so wouldn't pressing the studs in be a bit harder? Wouldn't that affect clearances in some places? The timing cover was chromed on both sides or just outside?

 

I wanted to have the wheel hub chromed on both side and the wheel stud fit no problem they are just a little tighter but that's not a problem.

They can chrome only one side or just a specific area if require, they use a special rubberized paint that they apply on the side or the area you dont want to be chromed, as for the the bolt & stud they only put few layer of electrical tape on the thread so they are not off size once the plating is finished. The timing cover where a little bit distort because of the heat that happend in the plating process, but once everything was torque it all look good.

In the plating process they can control the thickness of the plating, but overall we are taking about by few micron so in most case there is nothing to be worried about. Where tolerance is very tight anyone would have to figure this out before and mention it to the chrome shop technician, so they would adjust the plating time accordingly.

I could have had the wheel hub stud whole plug prior to the plating process, but in that case it would have created a weak spot where chrome would be prone to peal off. I guess it's like painting a cover, what you do is you paint a little bit over the edge and sand it after this way it wont peeled off, if you put the masking tape just on the edge it will eventually peel. Like they say been there done that.

 

I just sent an e-mail to Brian Catts from Cattman, I wanted to check if they can make me a muffler for the left side with the bracket being on the opposite side and foremost without the 2 -3 feet inlet pipe and flange. I hope he can do it so that would save me to possibly damage the muffler while scavenging it, but if I have no choice than I will just buy one from the right side and scavenge it to fit the left side.

 

Got the response from Brian, they are going to fabricate a muffler for the left side of the car, he proposed to make a mirror muffler with the brackets, or supply the 3 brackets and we weld them in place. I'm going to take some measurement and figure out where they can be fixed on the car and report this to Brian, the other thing is they will just make 2.5 inlet pipe but 6" long, so this will leave me plenty of room to fabricate the B pipe that will connect to the central 3" piping.

 

Just got a phone call from the paint shop and everything is ready to pick-up, meaning the transmission casing ( painted sterling mist with 3 coat of clear ), 3 parts rear axle ( painted black with 3 coats of clear ) I'm going to pick-up all this this afternoon. Hopefully all the chrome parts will be ready by tomorrow morning. That is going to give a good kick to the project, therefore the tranny should be fully assembled & ready within a week from now if the shop is not to busy. Pics will be posted later today.

Cheers

AA

 

Pics of the AT housing painted, and rear axle & axle sections. Spoke with the chrome shop manager and all my parts are ready so tomorrow morning I'll go get it and post the pics. The weather is supposed to be crap tomorrow so I'll hopefully advance on the project. Earlier this week I found a small local shop owned by Nick, a very nice guy that left Italia about 20 years ago since there was no futur for him in the small village he lived. He's currently building a fiat 500 with a bike engine ( I think it's a GSRX 1000 ) He has a lot of stuff in his shop, he sold my some square tubing for my bracing and charge me like nothing for it, but formost he's got some nice equipment to bent diamond plate, weld and such. He's leaving for Italia tomorrow but when he will be back he's going to cut me some diamond plate so I can make a nice finish underneath the car, ti will go between the bracing and the floor, that should look way much better than the rubberized stuff that I put earlier. All right, enough talking here is the latest pics.

 

Looking good, cant wait till this beast is done!

 

wow, at this point after everything looks so great painted and cleaned, i dont think i want you to drive it when its finished.

 

At this point I just need to be a little bit patient and thing should come along, now the AT should be fully assembled this coming week or the following one. I'm finishing the rear end assembly during the week-end & next week. I'm shooting for engine & tranny install on the 3rd week of july so it look like I might be on target. Still a lot to do but I have 2 more local guys that work a lot on maxima, that want to help me finish so I'll talk to them tomorrow, if that work out then thing will go much faster.

 

I guess I dont need to say anything.

AT oil pan:


RSB bracket:


Cattman headers:

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0935.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0936.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0937.jpg
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http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0940.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0941.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0942.jpg
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http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0944.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89...a/IMG_0946.jpg

 

sooo clean.
keep up the good work.

 

We will talk & meet soon my friend. I will drop the AT housing tomorrow morning, I hope that the AT get back here within a week or two, then that will be fun time...

Have a good one.à

AA

 

have any more pics of where you connected it up to??

 

what did you use to paint the tranny? Want my vale covers to look like that.

 

I haven't connected the amp yet, but I will in the next few weeks. Once done I will definitely post some pics.

 

PPG product, all engine parts can be painted beside the headers because of the extreme temps. The tranny was painted with PPG base coat, I used the Sterling mist see the link for the PPG products:

https://corporateportal.ppg.com/NA/R...mSelection.htm

If you want the finish to be durable, this is the kind of products to use. Remember the key is preparation, you need to clean the valve cover and wash it with one of the product mentioned here:

https://buyat.ppg.com/refinishProduc...&Keyword=DX579

Once done you will need to apply a primer/surfacant, then a base coat and a clear coat to finish. If you dont have a compressor and a garage you can have it done in a paint shop, in average they will charge you 50$ per hour. I hade the rear axle and the tranny housing painted in a shop and it cost me 500$ to have both done and 100$ to have both sandblasted.

 

GOOD NEWS doublea! I'm getting my life back together now that I'm in NY and I bought a new car (Dad's help) and I got my Enhanced Driver's License and it allows me to cross the border without the Passport. So I maybe able to come up and help you with final details if need be

 

That's why we didn't heard much from you lately. I hope the moving was not too painfull ? Florida to NY is not a piece of cake ! Let me guess you did it in 23 - 25 hrs. Now your only 3 hours from my home.

I'm trying to align thing se we can do some sort of long week-end of work ( 3 days ) and maybe have 3 or 4 guys working all together, if that work out then we will achieve a lots. I'll keep you posted by pm.

I will drop the AT housing for the final assembly tomorrow morning, I was supposed to did this monday, but my business keep me very busy so I had no time to go at the shop. The shop technician said that he will try to get it done by next week, but I give him a one week buffer so let say the following week. This week-end we are going to try to finish the rear end, meaning installing the 3 parts rear axle, the gas tank, the brakes and maybe get the car back on the rear wheel. I'm still missing 1 front brake line, and the 2 lines that goes between the brake booster and the ABS actuator and at last the 4 ABS wheel sensor. I also need to get the rear wheel ABS hub ring out of the old wheel hub so I can put it on the new wheel hub, I'm not to sure how I'm going to do this since I tried with a puller and broke it. I honestly dont think I will be driving the car this summer, but maybe in september who know.

 

hey AA I just wanna wish you the best of luck on your (well funded) journey create'n your beast. Im working on a NA 3.0 project myself but with a much smaller budget(unless my lotto #'s pop up 2nite lol).I just want to muscle-up the engine and the tranny a lil(but still be able to save a lil on gas) in order to pull bigger rims with ease (21's, mabey22's).I believe I speak for us all when I say your journey(and all others) has been very helpful and educational, cant wait to see the finish product and see the dyno results ! P.S. sorry to here about the passing of your father,god bless

 

Thanks man. The reasons why I can accomplish such a project today, is because the hard work I have done for the last 25 years, I have always tough that there will be a tomorrow, so I manage to save some money instead of spending it. Having the money alone is not enough, it require a lot of dedication and countless hours of work.

For the older one that remember I have started to modified the max back in 2001, at that time the fund were limited but also the knowledge and the space. I builded my own garage 3 years ago, again it required a lot of work since I did pretty much 80% of the construction by myself. This build is some sort of legacy to my kids but also to all the people who have a dream and need a kick start. Remember we only have one life to live in that body, and once it's gone it's gone forever. I encourage every one to work & dedicate them selve not only to project like this but also to the family, people & other that surround us. Everything is possible if we put our souls & mind into what we believe. It has been a fantastic journey because of the community here, I mean without the people on this forum and my family, I would have probably never done this build, but reading and looking at others achievement convinced me to do it. My wife has been very supportive, I mean when I work in the garage I cant take care of the little one ( my son Yoan 5 years old ) my wife has dedicated herself to the family, so without her I would be half the person I am now. Whatever your project is, just start where you can, deal with what you have and you will see that things happend in a way we could not always predict, at last we all need to persevere in what we do and what we believe.

Thanks again for your good words.

AA

 

The AT housing is now at the transmission shop, the shop owner told me it shoud be ready thursday or friday next week. The torque converter is getting beefed up, apparently the TC used in the maxima are pretty solid, the technician explained that they will weld whatever part in the TC and do some kind of work in there, sorry but I know close to nothing in TC's. Today we are starting a batch of black chrome for the first time, we are finishing the initial set-up on the kit, we are eager to see how well we can do, the kit was purchased from Caswell plating some time ago. With this kit we can basically plate up to 25 square inche at a time, wich is good for small bracket, bolt & nuts. While this will process during the day we will try to finish the install of the rear axle beam and the gas tank.

 

ahh, i thought it was some spray can stuff. I gotta find me a cheaper substitute for my valve cover.

nice work.

 

You can buy some hight temp engine paint & primer, clean the valve cover thoroughly & make sure there is no grease/oil residu, you can remove it with thinner but the best stuff it the DX579, this way you ensure that the primer/paint/clear will stick. Good luck.

 

Yesterday my friend and I have installed the gas tank, but prior to that we have cleaned the underneath and put some black coating. We also figured out how we will be routing the hoses to connect the evap box to the gas tank / filler. On the gas tank filler the medium hose had to be cut off but the rest is pretty much plug & play. I need to buy the right sized hose to finish the connection, that will be done during this week evening. We also figured out the dual exhaust set-up. I also have decided to have some Diamond plate underneath the trunk, we also tough of making a DP square box to cover the evap box. The diamond plate will also act as a heat barrier for both muffler, we will bolt it to the frame and the square boxed tubong we did last week, that will make the rear end very tight but also good looking. I will be on vacation for 3 weeks starting next friday, my goals is to finish the rear end completely beside the muffler since I wont have it before another 3-4 weeks. I also need to install the Taylor battery relocation kit that I got from Summit Racing, I paid the extra 10$ to get the welding cable, and trust me it is really worth the extra few $$$. The box will be bolted true the trunk floor and the diamond plate but I might possibly weld some square tubing to ensure that battery box will not move if I get rear ended by a car. Hopefully the engine & tranny should be install next week, that is if the torque converter is done as well. The day that I have been patiently waiting for is finally approaching.

Keep you posted.

Cheers

AA

 

..well spoken AA, i wasnt hate'n on your bank account in any way man, keep that monster max comming- right ON

 

Most definitely in for Dyno-running video. If you run this engine upto 10,500 you may have me running up to Canada then selling my I30 and rims to buy Cosworth Cylinder Heads + Cams.

I saw a ways back that you were planning on using the stock ECU, with all the effort in this engine, any chance of changing your mine for an Emanage Ultimate and a more accurate tune? I'd also consider running a tune for E85 and race fuel, you may be surprised that the E85'll put out more power (A significantly larger number in most cases)

If you ever come down into the states be sure to let everyone know, I'm sure we'd flock in droves to see this Max - Heck I wish this engine was going into my mothers RWD G35s (More Chance of Getting the power to the floor and not to the smoke machine)

 

I wont run that engine beyond 7500 rpm, I'm afraid that over 7500 rpm the rod bolts are likely to snap, so I wont rev pass 7500. I'm running brand new rods & nuts, since my goals was to get a solid 400HP, the stocker where good to go. In any eventuality that the engine will break, I would order custom rods & bolts and re-open the engine during winter but let's hope I dont need to go that route already.

I have chosen to use Emanage Ultimate, I already got the LC1 wide band, so we should start the wiring soon.

E85 euhm ! I didn't know that, I need to do some reading since I dont know a clue about this. Interesting....

I'd definitely like to drive the car down in AZ to see family & friends. My sister live in Tucson and that would be a nice journey across the USA ( more like 3-4 days of driving ). I'll let every one know when that happen.

 

Gee it's good to be on vacation for 3 weeks... Yesterday I finished the painting of the rubberized undercoating, for this I used a DupliColor Metallic Black paint, it look very nice.

I have almost finish with the relocation of the Evap box, but I'm a little confuse on the final installation. I took some pics before removing the evap box, but I have lost trace of those so now I'm stuck with 2 switch not knowing exactly where they go on the system. Does anyone has a clear pic of the Evap box system ? I just need to see how the switch where hooked up originally, then it will be a piece of cake to cut the hose and hook them back.

I also removed all the bolts & nuts on the engine bay as well as the engine and brought those to the chrome shop, I took the second headers along with the P/S pulley and tensioner cover as well. Once this is done I should be all set with the chrome stuff. Today I'd like to finish the evap box installation but also take all the measurement for the diamond plate that I want to install underneath the rear of the car. The transmission shop is closed for a week vacation, so I wont get my tranny this week, I'll try to go get it monday if they are done with it. I'm leaving next tuesday for a 4 days get away with the family, once back we will pack it up again & leave for a full week with family & friends. Once the vacation is over it's going to be the final rush to finish the car assembly and hopefully crank the starter sometimes in august.

 

I need a vacation...badly...

sounds good so far doublea.

Maybe I could make it up to do the crankovers with you and/or final wiring

 

Hey Dave, every body need vacation once in a while...BTW do you have any pics of the 5th gen evap system ? I need to plug the last 2 valves and I want to make sure I hooked them up properly. I'm almost done with the rear end, hopefully if I can get the damn pics of the evap system I'll be good to go.

 

The rear axle is back on the car and the rear end look very good so far, I just need to have the diamond plate cut but that will have to wait after the vacation. I'm going to finish the evap box today or tomorrow. The rear brake are ready to install, I'm just waiting for the bolts to be chromed and I will finish the installation. Today I'm going to order the brake line, the ABS sensor and 2 the brake line that goes in the engine bay.

I'll post some more pics later today.

Cheers

AA

 

I'm wondering what you guys use to mount the rear wheel hub ? Do I need some sort of puller ? I tried to hammer it using a 2 x 4 to protect the wheel hub but it doesn't want to go in !!! so I'm not to sure what to do... On another note, the ABS ring spin freely on the brand new wheel hub, does it have to be welded or do I simply need to replace the ABS ring ?

Thanks.

AA

 

Just got back from a week vacation with the family, ( what a great time we had, I'll post some nice pics later this week...)

While I was away the tranny shop foreman called to say that my AT is ready to pick-up but I wont have time to pick it up this week, since I'm having a heck of a week at work in front of me. Hopefully I'll be able to get it for august 24th, also if the rest of the parts at the chrome shop are ready that will mean AT/engine installation for the labor day week-end ( finally after almost 3 years of a$$ breaking work ) lol.

 

yeah... but d**n itll be worth it.. and man it will be clean! def one of kind

 

It's probably going to take another year to complete the car, > body work, custom paint job. All the underneath of the car is being cleaned and re-coated. I need to finish the black box hose routing, that's a pita but i'll get thru it. I took all the measurement for the diamond plate piece that I want to install underneath the rear of the car, I'll have the plate cut in the next few days, that should look pretty nice. I recently bought 2 new rear wheel hub, but I think I may have the wrong one, I tried to put them on but it's too tight, hammered them lightly using a 2 x 4 but dont seem to want to go there, not to sure if I should hit them hard.

 

I'm ordering the E-manage ultimate from Import Car Part GD today, do I need the Greddy uLTIMATE COMPLETE HARNESS KIT - 1.2m Cable, w/ 12, 18 & 14 pin connectors #15901500 ?

Sorry for the newbie question but this stuff is new to me. I want to make sure I'm not duplicating stuff here. I was told that in order to remove the E-manage from the glove box for any eventuality ( ie: EU main unit failure ) I have to fabricate a custom cable from the EU to the ECU, now does the Greddy uLTIMATE complete harness kit is pretty much that ? Can anyone give my explanation asap so I can proceed with the purchase.

Thanks a bunch guys.

AA

 

You will need the harness.. The custom cable will be something you make using the harness and another piece of OEM harness that you can get from a junkyard. One of the emanage threads on here talks about how to do this.

 

Ok thanks, I'll just get it.