2 question/ how long have you had it and is it worth it?

also any tranny problems yet?

 

http://forums.maxima.org/search.php?...der=descending

Summation:

VB mod works great for those who have it

It has no known failures

The easiest, painfree, and quickest way to get service performed is to disassemble the valvebody yourself (or mechanic,etc.). Then you send it in to Don for the upgrade and he will send it back to you. Your car will be down for a week.

The most time consuming and aggravating way to get the service performed is to order the VB, wait months until he gets another "core" from another customer who had a modified VB from Don to perform the upgrade, and then have it sent to you. Then, if/when you return your VB "core", Don will be able to fulfill the order of another guy who wants the to order and upgraded VB. My point? Don doesn't have "cores" in stock to perform the upgrades. He depends on members here to supply him with their cores when they receive an ugraded valvebody.

My recommendation: Take your car down for a week and have Don upgrade your own valvebody.

The Dealership/Shop Experiences forum can allude to what could happen if you follow the "time consuming and aggravating" route.

 

I drove a car with the VB mod in ... I'd buy one.

 

I've had mine for a few months now. I love it. Unfortunately, I never ran my car at the track before installing it, so I have no idea if it improved the time. As for bang for the buck, I feel good about spending the money. I personally got it not only for possible performance gains, but mainly for strengthening a brand new tranny since I am running N2O. I wanted to prolong my tranny life. My .02.

 

I've had it for 6 months now. And I'd say it's worth it. I got it after betting my SC, and it made things much better. Before, on the 1-2 shift, I'd have to back off the throttle because it kept slipping and bouncing off the rev limiter. The VB mod fixed that up totally.

But Bill is right, pull yours and send it to him. It's a great mod, but it's not worth a 6 month wait.

 

[arrogance]

That's all anyone needs to know

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[arrogance]

That's all anyone needs to know

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I have had mine for over a year now, and it hasn't skipped a beat yet. People will tell you that its not worth it, but I couldn't drive an auto maxima without one now.

 

96sleeper,

Did you send yours in or did Don go ahead and send you a re-built valvebody first?

 

I waited bout 10 months after the group deal for mine .. Was it worth it? I'd say yeah. You'd be better off spending the money on a five speed conversion, buuuuuuuuut. The resale value is nearly as good as what you pay for it, so buying one and doing a swap later (if you plan to do one) is just as good. Had it for about 6 months now. No problems.

cliff notes: Buy a spare off a junkyard, send it to don, and put it in a week later. It's worth it.

 

Don sent me a valvebody first. I didn't have to wait too long last summer when he did the group deal, because I was number 3 on the list. I think it was less than a month for me from when I paid. He kept me informed via email and it came the day he said it would, so I can't really complain.

 

You planning on doing the Maximum Tunning VB Mod? I was there yesterday getting a UDP installed and he mentioned you went in to your you 30K maintenance..

 

Don must be having a really bad year this year. I remember that last year, everything was great and there were tons of people getting VB's, and now everybody wants to kill him. Wasn't he kind of against the idea of the groupbuy because of this whole core issue?

 

If he is, then all the responses in this thread so far is moot because no one has the Maximum Tuning VB mod yet.

 

Yeah, something like that.

It's easier to get them out when several are sending theirs in at once rather than receiving an order every once in a while. Not having cores in stock is the main issue.

 

Raft2K just got his done like a week ago... So there is 1 5thgen with Jeff's mod so far..

 

I stand corrected then.

But the responses are still moot. He should just go ask Raf if he's planning on getting their VB mod.

 

I'm thinking about doing it too.. I think it was like $370 or so. I guess I'll wait till a few more 5thgen's do it before I take the plung. It's a really quick turnaround too, bring the car in the morning and pick it up the next day..

 

it's only 375 and i was waiting for someone to do it first

 

you're welcome

 

The most aggravating thing is sending emails trying to book a date and/or finding out that "one day" is actually a week, and you will be down for maybe 2-3 months instead of 2-4 weeks.

 

I want to buy one secondhand or get a local tranny shop to do the same work.. I will be talking to a few people about it soon.

Don't reliabilty is moot.

 

 

I agree totally with Maxgurl. The local guys are going to be hard pressed to KNOW how to do it on an import car. They are well versed with domestics because it's been done for many moons now. Our cars are different and so is the VB itself. It is not a simple drill a hole here or put a different gasket there. In order to work correctly, there are several things that the guys that know how have to do.

I personally would not pay for someone to "guess" at making a shift kit or VB mod. As I have posted before, I personally have tried both and would not go back to off the shelf shift kits or let someone just try to figure it out. Mine came from Mobiltek and it works reliably because it was done correctly in the first place. The tolerances in our trannys are so tight that it leaves very little room for error.

To those that are on the fence about this mod, Do this: Ride in a car with one in and make your decision then. It's simple and there's enough of us out there with them. If you ride in someone's car and don't think it's the mod for you, don't buy. Simple.

 

how much for the 96,is there a group deal in this?

 

Got mine 2nd hand from ant95se in March, still in love with it.

 

Ive been thinking about getting it for my 2nd gen. max. I have an extra vb sitting here, but havent gotthe money to say hey lets do this. Ive riden in a car with an sc and the vb mod. Great combo. You hear the shifts kinda hard but it helps your tranny last a heck of alot longer than the way it shifts w/o the mod. I rode in Jgadlages scd 96 max. It was off the chain. Shifts were on point. I know that mzmtg figured something out with a solenoid that you could disengage in the Engine compartment to make the car shift harder. I dont know if it was bad or not. It shifted the gears harder and sounded and felt great. I dont know if he still has the mod on his car but I remember when I lived in Atlanta, bags533 did it and went crazy over it. I remember also that mzmtg was trying to get a dial to control how hard it shifted, but the dial couldnt take the current. Where ya At bags533 and mzmtg? Did this method continue to work?? It got my approval

 

Jime has that mod. I has to do something with a resistor and full line pressure. I personally don't know enough to explain it, but he uses it religiously and swears by it. You can probably ask him to chime in and give his .02.

 

Yeah.. I found some guys who might be able to do a good job at mine; apparently the 5th gen tranny is shared with the 3.3L quest tranny? Anyways, I'm having them look for a core right now.. we'll see how that turns out - I'm sorta ****ed because the only "reliable" option is Don and he's just a pile of crock : I'm not sure when he'll reply to my emails, even after I had paid him; and I can't ask my friend to keep my car in his shop for 2 months; much less can I last that long without a car!
Someone else here had one done on theirs and it took about 90 days

If I had proper experiences dealing with Don and knowing I wouldn't get f'd over for being his customer, I'd have my VB by now

Level 10 does an iffy job apparently; one member who got his VB pooched his tranny; the other is still ok last I heard.