Upon viewing the photo posted here of the 2002 3.5 motor, my question is why the intake looks so cheesy? I remember that when I first saw the 2000 intake, it was made of a composite which allowed air to flow more smoothly than the 1995-1999, and costlier. Did Nissan pull another one of those save money deals on the 2002? If they had used a more costly intake could they have gotten more than 255 hp? I had seen something similar on the 2002 Altima and assumed they wouldn't do that to the Maxima.

 

Do you mean the intake manifold or the intake airbox where the filter is?

 

the manifold...

 

The intake manifold for the 2002 3.5L is a variable volume manifold just like the 2000/2001. The function is basically the same (long runners/small plenum volume for low rpms, switching to short runners/larger plenum volume for high rpms). You are correct in that the 2002 intake manifold appears to be a cast aluminum alloy like the earlier Maximas (99-down) instead of composite like 2000/2001's, but there's really very little performance difference between cast Al and composite. Composites will run a little cooler and be a little smoother, but it's not significant. The main power adder is the variable volume, which the 2002's have. I don't know why Nissan went back to Al, though...maybe they had some manufacturing or lifetime issues with composite, maybe it was just to save some $$, but the bottom line is it really makes little difference.