Hello,
My name is Tom. I own LudeSPEED Performance. I fabricate turbokits. I also make jigs for all the piping when I make the kits so they are reproducible for future, shippable sales for non-local customers. I recently did a custom kit for the Ford Probe GT and I will be selling kits for that as soon as some details are finalized.
Anyway, a member from the Probetalk.com board is also a member here (MilleniumMax) and he asked me to come here and post what I have to offer. He asked specifically about the 3rd gen Maximas, but I would like to be able to offer a kit for the 3rd,4th,5th gen Maximas. This may sounds shallow, but the newer car owners usually have more $$ to spend. But If there are 3rd gen owners that are serious about having a turbokit and are serious about spending $3000-$3500 on said bolt on kit, then a kit will be available.
I am just trying to get a feel for what the Maxima community's interestes are. At the VERY EARLIEST, I would be able to begin on the prototype kit in January.
What would be involved in getting a kit developed is an owner of whichever generation would have to be ready to buy a kit and be willing to drop the car off for a length of 1-2 weeks. I was able to get the Probe back to the owner in 1 week, with the kit fabricated, duplicated and installed. I would need one R&D car for each generation that wants a kit available.
Please email me with comments, concerns and ideas about a Maxima turbokit. I will store all the emails and return to the forum when I am ready to take on a new project. I will try and visit now an then, but I am up to my ears in the Prelude, Impreza RS and Probe GT kits right now.
You can see some of my work at the following sites. Yes, I do need one complete site, but that is in the works. For right now, this is all I have:
http://www.ludespeed.com
http://turbo_25rs.tripod.com
http://ludicrous2_0.tripod.com/pgt


Thanks for your time,
Tom

 

I would definatly be interested in a turbo but I would have to wait till spring when I get my income tax check .

 

What will this kit include?

Piping? Turbo? Intercooler? BOV? Boost Controller?

what PSI do you expect the basic kit to put out?
what type of Turbo will you be using?
Where is your operation located?

 

If you make a good/reliable product, I will be interested.

 

He's from Florida

 

For 3K - 3.5K we'll be looking for this turbo kit to be better than the Stillen SC (85hp gain) because it costs about the same.

A turbo would be great! I would be interested if it was a complete kit.

 

Turbo - hummmm tempting, VERY tempting...

 

Oh hell yea!, what part?

 

I would be more than interested. Make this kit for my 4th gen and I will buy it in a split of a second. Turbo is better than s/c because it works of the exhaust. More efficient is probably better said. If you lived in my area I would let you use my car for a week or two, but Florida is about 1300 miles from my house. Spring time would be the best time for this b/c uncle sam send his yearly gift than. I am deffinetly willing to buy this kit. What will the kit include?

 

The kit would be a COMPLETE bolt on kit. That means that all you would need to make it run really good is a 3" exhaust. A 2.5" exhaust will do, but the 3" would be better.
It would come with:

Garrett T3/T4 watercooled turbo
Deltagate wastegate (5-7psi spring or 7-9psi spring, customer choice)
mandrel bent up pipes and 2.5" downpipe
All oil lines/fittings
All water lines/fittings
BOV, Blitz, Greddy type-S or HKS SSQ
Autometer Phantom boost gauge
K&N Air filter
Spearco intercooler
All mandrel bent 2.25" intercooler piping
All silicone hoses/clamps for the intercooler piping

This kit will bolt onto the factory exhaust manifolds. A kit that will bolt to Stillen headers is possible.

I have not decided what the fuel system components are going to be yet. I will have to do some homework on what works well with the Nissan ECU. Jim Wolf ECU would be good, but that is gonna cost too much and I have heard some scetchy things about his ECUs recently. So I will most likely go with something else, like a Cartech FMU and Walbro fuel pump.


I do not think that there should be any concerns about running 8psi on a stock motor. I was reading in the 3rd gen thread and the general opinion seems to be that 10:1 is too high for turbo over 6psi. I do not believe that is true. Especially since there are MANY GS-R and Type-R's running 9psi out there on stock motors. I really don't see a 100+HP gain at 8psi being a problem. The MAX motor is pretty bad-*** and responds well to mods.

I am located in Deltona, Fl which is 30 minutes north of Orlando.

Tom

 

You're going to have fun trying to get the front bank's exhaust to flow to the turbo (that's if you're going to have both front and rear banks go to the turbo).

Not to sound like a pessimist, but it's not going to be a bolt-on kit if you're doing both banks. I wish you luck, this would be great for our community if you do produce a bolt-on kit.

 

Well Turbo95 did. From this gentleman's pics of the probe turbo setup, it looks like he ran pipes up from the outlets of both exhaust manifolds into the turbo. But the way he placed it, I don't know if there's enough space there w/o relocating the battery first. I do know that Turbo95 and CZAR placed their turbos in differet locations than the probe install. In fact CZAR's setup is even slightly diff than Turbo95's original design.

 

I'd be interested in a 4th gen kit. Do your homework Tom, and learn the Maxi, and you'll have a very good market, at leat here at the org..........I'd buy a turbo better than an sc anyday. Make it happen and you wont be dissapointed.

 

So what is it about the front manifold that is going to make it so hard. It is all one piece from the head down past the oil pan?
unless there is like NO ROOM, then it should be pretty straightforward.

The battery will most likely need to be relocated. The main reason is that room is needed to mount the turbo high enough that the oil drain is gauranteed to work correctcly. But I won't know anything until I actually get to take a look at a Maxima in person. I am going to a car show tomorrow so hopefully there will be some there.

Tom

 

oh my gosh!!! like the magzine said about the Evo VII haha...if you make them they'll come!!! I am in for sure!

 

I am 7 minutes away from Deltona !

 

well, it looks like you're the one then

 

Well.. I would be interested, though I would have to see how it performed before I ran out an bought it.. I am on the prowl for boost after winter...grrrrrrr watch out kev you punk ars!!

 

I am interested... As I am sure alot of us are... Problem is we have a few on the board that have tried and it was not easy...


But all that said I hope you do get it done... And KUDOS for attempting to help the maxima community get another option.

 

I will definatally be his B!tch for this project if needed!

 

Man I'm going on 2 months!!!! But that's OK I know it will be worth it. Yea dude, good luck on the piping its tight in there. I think piping shouldn't be hard to reproduce. I wanna see what gets used for tuning

Phhhsssst (coming soon)

 

Very interested. Please post dyno results before and after.

 

I'm interested provding the kit is at least reliable.

P.S. for $4k you can at least provide aftmkt rods and pistons to reduce conpression letting us use more boost.

 

$4000 for a complete turbo kit + upgraded rods and pistons at least?

I think that is very unrealistic.

 

I agree, especially if an intercooler is coming with the kit.

 

Mabye he was assuming that the kit would not be marked up since everyone expects everything for free anyway.

 

So your saying aftmkt pistons from JE and rods from crower will cost more than 1k?
(I don't know I just sent emails to both)

 

All I'm thinking is that since this guy is going to put some R&D into this project, and the turbo kit will be better than the SC kit, the turbo kit should command a higher price. Especially when it first comes out.

 

How may people you think know enough to tear down their whole engine and know enough to properly install rods and pistons(let alone aftermarket units) Let's say these parts cost $1000(The last time I bought 4 forged pistons used they were $400 + quality rods will cost probably at least that much if not maybe 2x more), it will cost another $1000-$2000 to have someone properly install these items(plus the other machine work and regular maintance items associated w/ a total engine rebuild ie.. valve job, etc...) What you are proposing is very far beyond a bolt on turbo kit. Even the turbo kit is going to be beyond most here. The engine work is going to be 10x as difficult.

But for the most part $4000 for a turbo kit + the pieces you mention is pretty unrealistic. Stillen's SC kit is $3500+.

 

Of course it will be higher at first. That is pretty much a given.
We don't know if the turbo will be better though.

 

Me too I want one but gotta wait

 

I should have clarified by what I meant. What I should have said there can be an upgrade to that $3000 turbo kit(HE himself said 3k-3.5k). Sort of a stage 2 with rods and pistons for an extra $1000. What does installation costs have to do with the inital price? What are you talking about .

 

Nothing directly but just letting you know that for $4000(more like $4500), you would have to add installation(rebuild actually)costs to the upgrade for it to do any good.
Usually any upgrades to a turbo kit first include an intercooler. Then maybe a Stage III would be performance (thicker and/or stronger) headgaskets. Then Stage IV would be internals.

 

I agree, but the reason I didn't mention the headgasket is because I think nobody makes them for the VE.

 

Yeah not yet anyway. Who ever the first person to get them done would have to shell out some more cash I guess. Even those would be a pretty big pain to install(damn V6! lol) For the 4-ganger and inline 6 guys, it's easier to do.

Do you do your own engine work BTW?

 

Hmm which engine(s)
I currently work on Pratt&Whitney 4000's,PW 306's,JT-8d's, GE CF6's .
But yes whatever engine work is needed I do it. I'm an aircraft mechanic and the only time my car will see a shop is for an alignment.

 

Yes he did, but he had to modify "some stuff" to have the left bank route to the front. Of course it can be done, but I was stressing the fact that this makes the kit not a complete "bolt-on".

C'mon Jeffy... read my post.

 

Wow. Have you done the VTC assemblies on your 93? Geez, you could probably just build your own turbo kit. You must have some pretty good contacts as far as tools, tubing and parts etc...

 

Well I am a very interested 3rd gen maxima owner I was going to have my car in the machine shop for a little power work anyways this spring You 4th gens already have a S/C kit so give us 3rd gens a chance for some real power

 

but how much would a turbo kit for a 1988 nissan maxima be?? IM kinda interested my car has 155k miles on it and still in great condition/ I know in japan they had 4 cylinder turbo engines in the 88 maximas. So would this be possible? Plua the 1988 nissan 300zx turbos had the same engine as the 1988 maxima with a turbo on it. So how much would it cost and is it possible???