is there anyway you can base it off the shift-table in the 1994 FSM? the one that shows the speed-vs-throttleposition graphs and what the upshift and downshift patterns are? granted you can probably set it to upshift a tad bit earlier than the VE since you have all the extra torque of the VQ35

 

Yes you can, an actual easier method is by setting it to auto i think it is, or forgot what its called (did it long ago), and you drive. The SS will save all the values needed to match the shifts and behaviors of the stock TCM. Of course this will only work if you still have the stock TCM connected with the SS. Then after that you turn off that feature, and then modify it how ever you want, and can also get rid of the tcm at that point

 

Yeah. That's what I will have to do to get a decent starting point. I just haven't taken the time yet to do it. Manual mode is a LOT of fun. But I will need my WOT shift points correct before hitting the track.

Yeah. It's a pretty cool feature.

 

I am seeing the transmission temperatures go much higher than I'm use to seeing. Now, I am pushing another 100 hp through it than the VE did. And even with the VE on the 75 shot, I only sprayed it once in a while.

But, whenever I go WOT through the gears a few times, the tranny temps rise quickly. I use to be able to keep them below 130 degrees all the time. Now they quickly rise above 160 degrees. And if I keep ragging on the car, I'm sure they would start getting close to 190.

I'm just curious what other people thinks. What temps do you see? I would really like to hear from those running normal tranny fluid and is pushing more than 240whp through the stock 4th gen tranny on a regular basis. Jime, Streetz, etc.

I don't like my temps getting above 160 if I can help it. I have had GREAT luck in the past with Trans Cool made by ProBlend. When I would race my car in 100+ degrees in Vegas, that stuff made by average tranny temp go from 170 to 130.

Also, I've never run without the TCM before until this swap. My reverse feels very weird. When I engage reverse on a level surface, the car will not roll by itself. I'm sure it's my high stall. But it feels way worse than my old VE. So I have to give it a little gas to get the car to move and it surges several times when I do that until I get the car moving above 8mph. It definitely feels transmission related. A mechanical surge as the car starts to move. What do you think?

Thanks guys!

 

did you double-check that the proper controlled solenoids are active/inactive in reverse, in accordance with the chart in the FSM?

as for the temp thing... how is the shift speed? i have heard that if the shifts are too slow it'll cause more heat. if your shifts are firm and quick, then it would not be that but if your shifts are slower than stock, it's possible that's causing extra heat.

 

Shift speeds are identical to what my NA VE engine did... VERY fast. I am just hoping that it's the fact I'm throwing a crap load more power through it, even under partial throttle.

As for reverse, what solenoids are you referring to?

 

You shouldn't need to do anything special in reverse.

FWIW the RE4F will drive just fine without the trans even plugged in, but you'll only have P/R/N/3rd.

 

i thought some of the solenoids (a, b, overrun, etc) were active during reverse, but i checked the fsm and they aren't. my bad.

 

I did just think of something today. I know my UIM is touching the hood. Cause of a tiny dent in one of my hood's cross braces. And there is some discoloring on the corner of the UIM. I wonder if the engine bumping the hood could cause a weird surging feel as I give it a tiny bit of gas. I do notice way more vibrations when idling in reverse than I do in drive. So I know it's contacting without any throttle pressure at all.

 

Also, I'm thinking about hitting the track tomorrow night for the first time since my 3.5 swap. I won't be prepping my car for the track fully, so I will still have bumper supports, a muffler, alternator, PS, stock tires on rear, passenger seat, tools, etc. And I will be running off the stock ECU as well since I can't get this dang UTEC to work. If anybody has a spare UTEC they can ship me, please let me know cause I would like to try it out on the PNP harness I have to see if it works. The two UTECs I have don't work with the PNP harness. But they work great on the 6th gen and 350z. So if you have one you plan on installing in a 6th gen and would be willing to trade, please let me know. I will not leave you hanging! I offer the best customer service you've ever experienced. So you will not be taking any risks what so ever.

But if I run mid 13s right now, I will be happy. It will be a WHOLE lot hotter than when I ran my 12.8 on the 75 shot. So according to my math, I am .56 slower just due to weather. Plus, I won't be going all out. Just running slicks with cutout open.

The car on the street does feel faster than my VE with the 75 shot. But I am basing all my calculations assuming the car is the same as the 75 shot VE. I am doing this b/c I probably won't be able to cut a 1.80 60 foot all motor since the nitrous launch and NA launch are always two different things. I am hoping I can squeeze a low 1.9 though tomorrow. We'll see!

 

Aaron, as for the tranny temperature, I always try to keep mine below 180. Once it gets to 180 I stop w/e im doing and start driving normal and let it cool down, if at the track, I just skip a turn to give it time to cool, then go for another run. Yours is built(or have some upgrades) so i dont think u have any worries my friend. The extra torque and load will increase that temp pretty good, But to answer your question, daily driving its around the 160 range, gets down to the 130-140 when on highway cruising, I give it a full WOT run with mid-high 300whp, and temp will go to 180 by the end of the run. Only time my temp jumped real high almost 200's(SCARYYYY for tranny temp), was from loading up the TC for too long at moroso (my car would roll back like an inch and disactivate the staging light so i didnt get a go lol.

 

im new on here and it wont let me post a new thread. u guys sound like you no wat ur doing so i was hoping you could help me with a problem im having. i have a 2002 altima 3.5se. i put a vq35 out of an 03 maxima with the 6speed tranny into my car. same wiring harness same everything. i was able to do the swap no problem. but i can tell my ecu doesnt like the 6 speed (mine was a 5) cruise control doesnt work in 6th, im getting sum wierd lagging, and it just isnt as fast as it should be with all the mods i have, very noticeable after 3rd. i am contemplating putting in a maxima ecm, but sum1 was telling me it wont work because of the "can line" that the altima ecm uses. any help would be useful. i didnt wanna go stand alone until i boosted.

 

Thanks. But I don't have a built transmission. I have always ran the original RE4F04V tranny that came stock in my 92 VE30DE. It now has about 203K miles on it. I've been running a aux trans cooler since I bought the car in 2001 with 98K miles.

But now with all the stop and go street testing I'm doing right now (monitoring throttle position and timing), it makes the tranny temps rise a lot quicker than I'm use to seeing. I'm sure the 100 extra HP has something to do with it. The jump from 170whp to 270whp is a lot.

But I am a firm believer in changing your tranny fluid every 30K miles or less. I always make sure the fluid is in perfect new condition all the time. I've done this since I first bought the car. And I've always made sure the temps never got above 170 degrees, which is starting to get on the hot side of things and allows the fluid to start to break down.

I have done some testing when I lived in Vegas of Pro Blend "Trans Cool". That stuff was amazing! It reduced my temperatures by at least 30 degrees. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I do remember posting the results in a very old thread here on the org. Pro Blend products stopped being sold at Advance Auto Parts. So I will have to order what I need.

I've always like to keep my tranny temps between 120-150 all the time. When it gets above 150, I start to stare at my gauge a bit more making sure it doesn't get much higher.

I'm not sure what's causing your problem exactly. The only thing I know for sure is automatic transmission related. I think eng92 has a 6spd in his 3.5 full ECU swap, so he may know more about it.

But I do know if you change ECMs, then you will need to have it reprogrammed at the dealership to match the NATS (Immobilizer) so your car will start.

 

Aaron I don't have my trans temp hooked up right now but if i remember correctly it ran in the 150-170 range.

You may want to look into a fan for your cooler, I mounted my cooler in the front bumber area angled towards the ground and with the fan connected in series with the rad fans it keeps the temps quite low. With the fan switch mod I run it all the time at the track except when I am making a run, then I turn it on at the end of the 1/4.

 

Thanks. My temps haven't ever gotten above 165 yet. But they are rising much faster. I bet it would get above 170 easily if I kept driving it.

I don't have a small fan on my auxiliary trans cooler. But it's up high on the radiator behind my grill. So it gets airflow only when the car is moving. I have to manually kick my fans on when I see the trans temps getting close to 170. But a small fan will definitely help a lot I'm sure. The Trans Cool product is pretty amazing stuff though.

Thanks.

 

when and where? i might want to come watch. how much is it to spectate?

 

KDS. Just got back. $8 to spectate.

 

What time are you heading over? I usually get off at noon but tomorrow i will be staying slightly later... plus it's a 2hr ride there. We'll see. I won't see your response till i get home.

 

No, look at when I posted that message you quoted earlier. When I said I was going to the track "tomorrow", I said that yesterday. So now you understand what I meant by "Just got back"... that is, I just got back from the track.

Sorry you missed it. Fun night.

 

Did you run it at all?

 

Yeah. I made several 1/4 mile passes tonight.

 

I hope you're writing up a nice little post about it

But really.

 

ooohhhh. dang. reading>me

soooooooooo....



how'd you do?

 

mid 13's hnoes:

 

Haha! I'm just making you guys sweat a little.

But, tonight gave me some very nice numbers to base all my future calculations off of. The car ran exactly what I expected considering I was just comparing it to how the car felt on the street to my 75 shot VE engine. So I based all my previous calculations off my 12.89 1/4 mile run with the VE 75 shot.

My best time tonight was 13.59 @ 103.9 mph with a horrible 60 foot of 2.05. It was my best 60' of the night too. Track prep was the worst I've ever seen it and I just spun on every single launch I did. But, my slicks should have hooked a lot better and I was hoping for 1.95s tonight, which I know are possible with this engine. My VE was able to do 2.00 flat NA without a single chirp of the slicks. I know this VQ35 is putting down a WHOLE lot more power on the launch than my VE. So, 1.9s should be easy to come by NA.

It was 80 degrees, humid, and the baro was very low tonight due to Tstorms rolling in on the horizon. But all in all, I ran what I should be running right now. Once I increase timing, extend the rev limiter to suit my cams and headwork, get 1.95 60' foots, reduce the curb weight like I do when I go all out on race day, and get the density altitude numbers I know I will get this Fall or Winter, then this car should be low 12s NA.

I did beat a Mustang Cobra that purged on me at the line. I don't know why he only ran 14 flat, but it was a fun race when I got him by a couple car lengths at the end. If he was spraying, I don't understand why he was running so slow though. But I still attracted a small crowd like I usually do. And they don't believe me when I say there isn't a nitrous bottle in the car. Plus, a few guys stared a LONG time at my engine bay. After several minutes, they would ask, "did you swap intake manifold?" Or, "what engine is this?" Then I had to tell them that is an engine from a 2002 Maxima. Most of the people at this track know what engine should be in a 3rd gen since it seems to be a popular enthusiast car around here.

It was a fun day. I ran a couple 13.59s and several 13.6s all with 60 foots in the 2.0s or 2.1s. I even spun a lot going into 2nd gear one time! My car just jumped a foot over to the right during the 1-2 shift. Track prep was very bad. Plus, I had issues with my burnout. My local track has burnout boxes that are on a side slope. So, my front left tire will not spin during the burnout. If it was on level ground, I could get both tires to spin. On the street, I lay down two dark patches of rubber when I stomp on it.

But overall, I'm happy with tonight. The times I got tonight ensures me that I'm on schedule to see some low/mid 12s later this year.

 

Haha! I talked to you on the phone earlier tonight and told you.

 

Here's a video of my best pass of the evening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERlulxE_x_U

 

Dam that thing sounds beastly! Nice run man!!

 

That's what everyone kept telling me. All my friends and all the people that walked up to my car. They all said it sounds REALLY good. I asked my friend how it sounded compared to my open cutout VE30DE engine. He said WAYYYY meaner!

I like how that 5.0 Stang sounds during his burnout. Then I light up my tires right after that. lol

 

awesome.

 

Wow - you have done an amazing job of getting all those different systems to work together! The important thing now is that you made a strong run down the strip and survived it. Everything else is detail work. I'm sure that you have more work ahead, but your new car shows signs of lots of power right now.

Fantastic job, Aaron. And remember, Mustangs are snack food at the track - except for a street Cobra with a Procharger, I've had 'em all - and his turn is coming soon...


.

 

sweet, so your vq35 in street-ish trim beat your VE in full race trim. can't wait to see it when you go *****-to-the-wall (gimme some heads up next time haha. i wanna be there when you break 12's!!!!!)

 

Thanks man. Most of the Stang guys around here will not line up next to me. But there was one really cool guy at my drag strip that actually waited for me and waived me on to get next to him. I saw him running high 13s all day long. So I knew I was going to beat him. But it was a fun race. That run was my PB in the video I linked above.

I still don't understand how I whooped that Cobra Mustang spraying nitrous. He must have just had a fake Cobra bag on it and a nitrous system not up to par. Cause I know he wasn't spinning in the top of 1st gear or 2nd gear. I was right next to him looking over my should to see if he'd pull on me in 2nd gear. But he didn't, I pulled on him in 2nd and 3rd gear no problem and had a slightly higher trap speed.

Oh YEAH! WAY faster! And this insanely hot weather handicaps me by 5 tenths! If the weather and my track mode prep (rear skinnies, removed seats, bumper supports, etc) was the same between my NA VE PB of 13.79 and the way my car was prepped last night with the VQ35, I would have 12.9-13.0. And I am running stock timing. I hope to shave another 3 tenths just by timing advance alone with the UTEC. So if I'm able to hook up at Maryland International Raceway at MAXUS 09, which the consensus says that it's a sticky track, then I should be in the 12s.

I even made a street tire run at the end of the night just for fun. I had a 50 lb jack, a 30 lb jack, my slicks, all my tools and spare parts loaded in the trunk. I think I ran a 14.4 with a 2.28 60 foot. I spun bad off the line, let off, then got back into it. I know my car would do low 2.2s easily on street tires if I would have tried again, but what's the fun in running street tires at the track? They are called 'street' tires for a reason. Keep in mind, that with good weather, this car would have run high 13s on street tires. Wait until I get it tuned and prepped for the track.

Also, even in the 80-90 degree weather, I hope to make some 12 second passes at the MAXUS 09 Drag Showdown. It won't be all that my car is capable of just b/c of the hot weather, but all that matters is that I beat the car next to me each round!

 

great job, you work fast

how much do you think the car weights are now

 

Thanks. The only reason this project progressed so quickly is because I had to have the car up and running in time for the MAXUS 09 Drag Showdown. NWP Engineering has to represent consider we are presenting this year's MAXUS.

My estimated curb weight before the swap was 2750lbs. That was in full track mode though and does not include driver. After the swap, I am guessing the curb weight will be somewhere around 2675lbs. I am guessing my weight on Thursday night was around 3000lbs even with driver included.

I will get the car on a scale at MAXUS 09 though for the first time in years. I've been estimating my curb weight based off the last time I weighed the car and then weighing or estimating the weight on everything that I removed from the car over the years.

 

Did you fix the hood problem? If not do it soon so the paint doesn't discolor

I would just cut out that bracing where the hood hits and paint it so it doesn't rust.

 

No I haven't fixed the hood yet. But, that is what I was going to do, was cut a small section of the bracing out right where it touches. There is a 1/2" diameter dent in the crossbrace right where the highest part of the UIM hits while in reverse. And if I touch the gas a little bit too much in reverse, it will bang. The throttle response of this engine is insane though. If I hit a TINY little bump on the road, it causes me to blip the throttle. So people think that I'm carelessly just blipping my throttle and revving my engine while cruising up to the staging lanes when I'm trying my best to maintain smooth throttle. lol

What paint are you talking about discoloring? You me the spot underneath the hood where it touches? That is painted white from the factory and is nice and shiny bare metal now. I'll probably just use my touch up paint once I cut a 3" section of the brace out.

 

I figured if the hood gets too hot, the paint on the hood will start to discolor

 

Mine has been touching for 2 years now, an area of about 2 or 3 sq in. I even ground the intake down and it still touches even when the engine is stopped. Not much I can do but lower the engine. The bracing has long since been removed. Its only a toss away car now so nothing to worry about. Paint is still ok though, well ok for a 15 yr old car.

You get my email Aaron?

 

hey Aaron, whats up man!!! haven't talked to you in a long long time! last time we talked you were living in florida after moving from Las vegas. now you're doing a VQ swap in your old 3rd gen. congrats man. i crashed my old VE but someday, i may get another one.
i have an M now so i'm back in the Nissan family again.