Guys and Gals:

Has anyone had any noticeable/significant acceleration gains from their after market mods. Aside from the intake (Stillen) and the exhaust (Stillen), what else has been affective in giving more "gusto" to our rides? The items I have read-over/considered are as follows:

Racingline Y-Pipe - Verdict: Inconclusive is what I gather from searching the forums. In conjunction with the intake and exhaust, I understand the gains are not-so-noticeable (if at all). And for $300ish, probably not worth the money.

Bully-Dog - Verdict: Inconclusive as well. What I continue to read, is no change and/or loss of bottom end acceleration. Unless I am mistaken?

My goal here is to increase off-the-line acceleration without forced induction. Anyone out there find something that they said "Wow, what a boost in acceleration, I sure am glad I bought this ______"

FYI, after I woke up from the coma induced by my fiance's back-hand, at the news of possibly wanting a 6MT G37S, I decided to keep the Max. I guess you could say I am quite impulsive when I get fixated on something, but the max really is a nice car. I just wish it was a little bit faster.

Another FYI, I spent some time (on company time) to look over the track times for other potential trade-in vehicles and I was quite surprised at how fast the max really is considering the size, curb-weight and HP.

Ex. 2008-2010 G37S - 0-60 (5.3-5.5s) 1/4 Mile (13.7-ish)

Ex. 370z - 0-60 (5-5.3s) 1/4 Mile (Low-Mid 13's)

Ex. 335i Coupe 0-60 (5.2-5.3) 1/4 Mile (13.4-ish)

And of Course the 2009+ Max 0-60 (6ish) 1/4 Mile (Low 14's, with the exception of whoever on here got that 13.8 kudos!)

 

Honestly I'm glad you posted this, because I was contemplating doing the same thing! There really doesn't seem to be much out there that really gives the 7th Gen a kick in the pants. I'm not going to waste my time with CAI's that have no effect or hurt performance. Exhaust, you might see a 5hp increase, but won't be able to feel it in the drivers seat.

Until someone develops a SC or TT kit for this car, I think that all the bolt-on mods aren't going to make much of a power increase.

 

Agreed, I guess we can hope someone here has some answers! I would be interested in seeing if someone has had luck with Chipping the cars or etc. Cheers!

 

thanks

 

It's a VQ35...you can do the same stuff that makes power on the 6th/5.5 gen VQ35s also.

If I'm not mistaken, you should be able to put a set of cams in, and if you can run a SAFC you can also run upto an 82mm MAF housing which is proven to make power on VQ35s as well as VQ30/DEK motors. Also, 3" cat-back exhaust. The v2OBX, Cattman, and Hotshot headers will all bolt up but you will need a custom Y-pipe, a custom 3" Y pipe would make good power with headers as well.

 

Or you could have cajones like 1sik4dsc and bolt up a 70 shot of nitrous!

Btw- @1sik4dsc: you been to the 1/4 mile yet to see what your car runs on the spray?

 

Hey, I was close... 13.93 hahahaha

 

13.70 here ... knock off ghustle thread

 

Not to take away from your 1/4 mile ET, but the aftermarket for your generation Max is huge compared to what us 7th gen owners can purchase. My race weight was a little over 3,950 lbs including me (245 lbs) with a slushbox CVT trans. Dipping into the 13's bone stock with this car is huge, considering the quickest test (Car and Driver) did 14.5 @ 98.

Hopefully in a few more years, the aftermarket will open up a bit for the 7th gen (got a meeting with AAM next month) so we can find some more HP out of these VQ35DE motors.

 

Read my post.

It's still a VQ35. And as for 5.5s, the actual off the shelf stuff is still lacking. As far as all FWD VQs are concerned, the fastest ones do not use just stuff that is purpose built for VQ30/35s. Yall are acting like this is an entirely different motor. It's not even 2011 yet, it takes time for off the shelf stuff to come out that is specific to new gens. Regardless, my points still stand as reasonable ways to make a lot of power.

 

your not making any sense... you do come 290hp and u got the best of both wolds with DE-k quality manifolds and 3.5 engine... a auto 5.5 is rated at 15.0.... same performance market

 

I read your post through and through. I have searched all over the place looking for performance mods and only found a few things. Sure, I can have Altered Atmosphere Motorsports build me a custom true CAI, a custom 3" exhaust from the collector back, etc. I bought the extended warranty, so a lot of the mods you mentioned above you nullify the extra cash some of us might have thrown down buying the car new. It also doesn't help that the best tuning shop in my area closed up due to bankruptcy last month.

All that jargon aside, most owners of the 7th gen aren't looking for performance mods. They just want a comfortable sporty sedan with a solid V6. Hence the reason why most tuning shops aren't willing to spend the cash on R&D to develop any decent perf. parts.

 

How am I not making any sense? By "you do come 290hp", I assume you mean, "your car comes with 290hp". For some, including myself, 290hp isn't enough. I guess I bought the wrong car, since I've owned nothing but pushrod V6's and V8's prior to this DOHC motor where bolting on extra hp was easy.

 

just because u bought extended warranty doesnt make the performance market smaller, u just cant get ish yet... CAI's dont even really work for 5.5's i did 13.7 with a SRI (a 4th gen one at that) im untuned, i have 4th gen headers (unequal length)... the market is there ur just not looking, maybe the cosmetic market is smaller but not the performance one... isnt utec plug and play for you guys also, and isnt all 7th gens HR vq's???

 

A true CAI will fall short of your expectations unless the piping & MAF housing diameter are increased. There are a couple threads on this, going from a stock sized MAF housing to a 76mm+ makes a lot of peak whp gains as well as midrange.

If you've got warranty concerns well, I'm not sure what to tell you mainly because anything you do can void a warranty claim.

You can tune a SAFC yourself, and to get the bigger MAF housing working properly you shouldn't even have to do much actual tuning, it's just a matter of changing sensor outputs to rescale the MAF values.

That's the story with all Maximas. It doesn't stop people from making 12.x passes with N/A 3.0L and N/A 3.5s. The only out of the box power adders for a previous generation VQ35 are intakes, intake spacers, VIAS blockoff plates, headers, test pipes, and cat-back exhausts. You guys don't need spacers or blockoff plates since your intake manifolds are plastic which limits heatsoak.

All the other stuff has been developed, researched, and made-to-work for these cars. Cams are mostly 350Z applications, big MAF housings come off Land Rovers, all the tuning software has been made to work by members on this board, you won't see "Maxima" in an application list for barely any actual products.

You guys have 60% of the availability of parts, the other 40% is fabrication in order to make it work. And the potential you guys have for N/A power is a lot better than any 5.5/6th gen, because of the better heads and intake manifold.

 

i dont mean 290whp... lets no get technical and start acting like a smartarse cause im sure u knew what im talking about... ur ride is rated at 290 mines at 255... who do u think dyno more whp stock???

 

I think this gen max is not a good example for making power gains with the current bolt-on mods offered at this time.I knew this when I bought the car as I was gonna buy a new TT AWD Lincoln and have power and class.No good deal on those so the max was a great deal and I got a good car for the coin I dropped on it.I do regret it a tad only cause its my fault that I like to tinker with things.I still plan to tinker/mod the ecu and cvt to see what I can find on that plate when I find the time as these bolt-ons are just doing minor improvements if any til that is done.This is just my 2 cents only.

 

MONCEF and Grand Hustle know these VQ and DE engines pretty well, I used to read alot of their stuff when I was heavily into my 5.5 gen back in 03, I'd heed their advice well.

Thanks guys for coming over and offering your experience and expertise, many people here are new to modding this car/engine and do not have your long history with them.

 

7th gens are great cars... they seem to respond more up top with mods than they do low end... the plastic IM is a plus

 

o.m.g .......lol

its already been shown how to get power out of the FWD vq35......... intake,headers and exhaust. it's a very simple formul.

 

i just dont get how he thought my times wasnt valid though... i could see if i was a 6spd... next time you post track times while talkin smack then you might wanna do some research ... lower times to come... was the white maxima a 13.8 with N2o??? cause my 13.7 was N/A

 

most likely ................. :metalmax: j/k

 

oh damn...

 

A 13.x run at that weight in a FWD car is an incredible feat. These motors do remain to be a bit of a mystery-box, I'd be curious to know the inputs that determine the VIAS activation and the pros/cons of running different points and combination's (sans upper or lower powervale, neither, ported etc). I don't believe aftermarket headers would show as great of gains as on other VQ35's due to the lack of valve overlap (scavenging is virtually useless byway of the continual high velocity provided by the dual VIAS) and retarded IVC/EVO events. I think the extreme smoothness of the dyno curves out there and 1/4 times show that this engine is far more sophisticated than previous gen DE's and the same simple 'open up the intake and exhaust' rules do not necessarily apply.

 

Until someone cracks the ECU/TCU, performance gains by bolt-ons seem to be limited. Other Nissan and Infiniti forums have info that the factory computers limit any gains to maybe 10hp total before the ECU limits the effect of the changes.

Is this true? I would tend to think so since some of the fastest 1/4 mile times and highest speeds have been by stock or near stock vehicles. Those with intake, y-pipe, and catbacks do not seem to be much faster than stock. One thread was about having either an cold air intake or catback since either would get about the same result as both. Granted, these were not Maximas but were Nissan and were later models.

Anyone have any support or dissent for these positions? Does the y-pipe make any noticeable difference?

 

If you have precats in your exhaust manifolds, headers will make power, because they remove them. Longer runners also help for more efficient breathing at high RPMs.

As far as VIAS goes. You can speculate on what will happen when changing activation points but it's been proven on DEK & previous generation VQ35s that removing it all together helps high RPM power. Unless you have exploded pictures of the manifold or pages from the FSM, the "what ifs..." are unnecessary.

Dyno curves of 7th gens? Where?

Comparing ETs between different cars with different mods under different conditions is useless. Also, 3" cat-backs make power, and nobody has tried those on 7th gens yet. Krazy6's 6th gen ran 13.1@100mph with just intake and 3" cat-back, on slicks, no "cracked" ECU or even headers. Nobody here has even tried a simple piggyback yet (ie; SAFC).

I'm waiting for someone to actually try putting some headers on this car with a custom 3" Y pipe, and 3" cat-back. A day or two at an exhaust shop should do the trick, and if you guys are talking about turbo/SC kits then bolting up H/E should be cake, right?

 

Bet if you did I/H/3"E, tune on a damn Murano it would run 13.5s all day long.

 

no i wasnt on spray at the time, just had a couple of bolt ons plus the bullydog tune with the timing advance

I havent yet been to the track with the nitrous due to my busy shcedule and the track being 50 miles away,

but i am hoping for mid to low 13s full interior and street tires.

 

1Sik4DSC, props on doing what you're doing.

 

Understood and good ish too you and the ride mang... who was the guys saying 7th gens don't do well at the track again???? or responds to mods. what were ur MPH with this 13.8 run? Thread can be locked 13.7 here, which N/A auto wants to go faster (granted AJcool 4th gen auto 3.5 went 13.5 but that's a swap, props none the less)

 

Again this makes no sense.. why are you dragging v8's of all sorts in the equation, if u didn't realised that when they made the nissan maxima it wasnt to compete with big block old schools then yes maybe you did buy the wrong car..... our compparison was a 7th gen vs 5.5 as far as aftermarket parts goes so whichever door pushrod, pullrod, sideways rod came through can leave back through it as that was never the comparison.... stay reasonable and act sensible bro man and I can say ur "pushrod" isn't enough as a bugatti and blah blah blah so let's not gget into that sutupid convo... its a ******* family sedan which is sport inspired did u really expect more than 290hp?

 

The guy was me and I said nothing definitive but shared what I had read and asked if anyone could support whether mods have made any big difference or not. This from Technosquare:

"Current Nissan ECUs come with VERY sophisticated engine control functions, such as a constant O2 sensor feed back system and torque management by an electronic throttle control system. In another words, the ECU has complete control of the engine, not you. When it comes to performance modification and driving, these systems will get in your way, as the factory ECU is set to work best with the stock configuration of the vehicle and ordinary drivers.

When you start modifying your Nissan, you will find it very difficult to gain output by just adding performance parts. In some cases, you even lose some power and torque. Since the ECU is unable to automatically detect the modifications you made to your engine, it will still try to work within the parameters set for stock condition.
The Technosquare ECU flash changes these parameters to the specification of the performance parts installed, so the ECU knows how to behave under modified configuration and fully utilize the intended capability of those new parts."

http://technosquareinc.com/nissanintro.htm

I do not know from personal experience but thought the information might be relevant to any discussion about gaining power on a 7th gen. They definitely have more controls on the engine and transmission than did previous generations.

 

Isn't also true that after a certain time of adding mods or an ecu flash that the eng mngmnt system/ecu will reset itself back to factory settings?? I think i can recall reading something like this or words to that effect.

 

That is what I have read somewhere also. I am no expert on anything technical so what I read is all I know. Other forums say the stock ecu will override a piggyback in a short time. I do not know if that is true or not.

 

Wow...

Depending on the piggyback. But the piggybacks used in Maxima applications don't have those conflicts with the ECU.

 

I have been back and forth with UPREV to crack the 7th Gen ECM. They said they can do it, you just have to go to one of their protuners the get the ECM ROM copied and they can take it from there.

I have used it before on my titan and worked real well!

 

Come on then, make it happen Cap'n!! Send em yours and let's see what's what.

 

LOL, Im waiting for saving up for some mods, then im gonna get tuned!

 

Who makes anything that has worked on a 7th gen? Are there any in use?

 

Nobody. But nobody is willing to even try the simplest devices that have worked on every preceding Maxima. (Apexi SAFC/VAFC/Neo, e-Manage Blue.)

Nobody is really willing to try anything, from what I can see, 7th gens have one of the best iterations of the VQ35 and it could still be opened up a lot with bolt-on (+ a little bit of fabrication) work. (headers, 3" exhaust mainly.)