The 68 Chevelle is pretty much built as a clone to a buddies former NHRA national record holder G/SA only it has a stroker 14:1 cr SB 383 c.i. motor, stock type rear suspension with airbags for track adjustability. Rear gears range from 4.56 (1/4 mile) to 5.57's (1/8th mile). Powerglide w/1.82 first gear, 4500 stall and Hoosier radial slicks @ 30x9" wide.

I like stroker small blocks over big blocks. Just a little bit more expensive. "Race motor"??... Lol. PM me if your Interested in hearing about my ongoing work with the VQ motor. I would prefer not to let the cat out of the bag on the forum until its running.

 

See - I knew you were a V8 racer. 14:1, eh? You're a candidate for E85, then. That's a digger 1st gear in the 'glide, I see. I kinda watch the YellowBullet forums for good stuff, like spark plugs and nitrous and such. Those guys are all nuts - love it. Yes, I'll PM you...

 

Last night I put the Alty ring gear back on the welded diffy (oiled the bearings) and put it back in the housing, then put the Maxima bell housing on the Altima transmission body. I still need to remove the dipstick housing and seal up all the openings so no drips. Shipping companies hate oil drips or puddles. This is real close to going on a pallet.

I'm still concerned about how the '99 maxima axles will fit in the Altima transmission, even with a new '99 non-LSD driver's axle. I know it should work, but still, if it doesn't, then what? I'm tempted to weld up the pinion cross on the 2001 VLSD diff, put that one back together with the Altima bellhousing to hold everything inside, and put that one on the same pallet and send both back to IPT for builds. Maybe I can get a group discount for myself? At least I would be covered if the Altima tranny has a problem.... The Altima tranny has a couple of connectors I don't recognize, so I need to check then out as well.

 

btw I'm planning to switch from jwt to nistune over the winter also

 

Actually, I just found out that SurraTT can make ECU adapters for a '99 and the nistune ECU ( 95-96?) which puts that project back near the top of my bucket list. Close to the one where I do something about my cams and cam timing. If that Altima transmission project works out OK...

"it's always something"

 

I'll just leave this here:

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...p-success.html

 

Yup, I have that link bookmarked - but I like the idea of having an adapter made for this ECU swap by someone who has done it before, because I change my mind or try something else pretty often. You never know. This way I can go back and forth with ECUs if necessary - like if the nistune dies....

And - I can get rid of my new never-opened Greddy EU at last !!


Also, I just ordered a new '99 Maxima NAPA front left non-LSD axle for the Altima tranny project. Ships to the local store for pickup. One more thing done. EDIT: I can pick this up on Saturday, they say. Has to ship from a warehouse in Des Moines, they say. Progress... also picked up some small nylon straps with hooks and ratchets to hold the Altima tranny on the pallet. More progress...

 

Even more progress today - I picked up the new NAPA left non-LSD axle, which appears to be a nice piece of work.. At least the axle does fit into the Altima. Yea! Then I bolted down the Maxima bellhousing to the Altima transmission - with the welded 4.4:1 final drive installed - then placed it on a shipping pallet wrapped in heavy plastic bags, and used 1" ratchet straps to secure it to the pallet. I sealed up all the openings before I bagged the tranny.

I think I'm ready to ship this experiment to IPT for a build and shipping back to my local racer's auto shop for installation. I'll send the busted one back to IPT for repairs and stash it here when it comes back. It's getting a welded pinion cross for a real locker spool.

 

I took the dipstick tube (and dipsdtick) off the Altima transmission, tightened all the bolts on the Maxima bellhousing, blocked all the external tubes/holes on the transmission with Gorilla Tape, left it with no torque converter (don't need a stock one) wrapped it with two 1.5mm trash bags (the strong ones) hoisted it up on a pallet that was sitting on two HF furniture dollies, left the hoist straps attached, then strapped everything down with four 500 lb ratchet straps. Pallet is reinforced with many deck screws in addition to the original nails. Whew.

Funny thing - the normal speed sensor is missing on this transmission - there is a factory blocking plate where the sensor usually goes, and the differential has the gear for it, so I'm guessing that the 2006 Altima 2.5L computer doesn't need tis sensor to calculate vehicle speed. When it's installed in my car, the old sensor will go in the hole.

I'm going to Email my guy at IPT (with pix URLs) and check on the next step on shipping. I'm ready to do this thing.











I hope this is enough strapping for a transmission on a pallet.

 

Looks good to me!
My engine that I just put in my car was shipped to me on a pallet secured with old seat belts tied together for straps haha. So you should definitely be fine!

 

That's kinda unusual, but I was really thinking about using a couple rolls of Gorilla Tape to hold the tranny on the pallet. That would have been even weirder. I didn't want to give the trucking company any excuse to refuse the shipment, so I used the ratchet straps instead.

Your sig picture is a nice tribute to the KCIR drag strip - I miss that track. At least I was there for your appearance at KCIR... good times.

 

Yeah it was definitely unusual! I guess the junkyard found a use for the seatbelts they can probably never sell haha

I miss KCIR too! That was an awesome day with the maxima that's for sure! Glad you were there to witness it too! That was fun!

 

The transmission and pallet are in my pickup and will be delivered to my guy tomorrow afternoon, where IPT will arrange pickup. I'm getting excited now.

 

Transmission + pallet was delivered to my guy's shop yesterday. IPT is scheduling pickup.

 

What is the expected turnaround time for the rebuild? Pm me some details about what's being beefed up and the e pected costs involved. If I grab a tranny or two from the yard I may send my VLSD 99 for a build over the winter. I wonder how nicely the traction control system plays with an open dif tranny from the junkyard?

 

Ain't cheap. Better that you call IPT directly for those answers. Talk with John - Here's a link to their site.

http://www.importperformancetrans.co...rts.-54-1.html

EDIT: Friday - The Altima tranny is now headed to New Jersey. We played who's-got-the-Bill_Of_Lading for an extra day, so John and I double-teamed my guy's shop - he sent another fax of the BOL, and emailed me a copy, and I made two copies and hand-delivered the BOLs to the "guy", who had another copy on his fax. Sometimes you gottta get real involved to get stuff done. Here's hoping this plan of yours works !!

 

Me2

 

It turned out that the trucking company did not get its act together until Friday, then picked up the transmission. It's now on the way to the Promised Land - er, IPT - for a total build.

I've already purchased a case of Amsoil racing ATF. Those transmissions take about 10 qts for a complete fill, and I have a few extra at home, so that's covered. I have the new NAPA non-LSD left front axle, so I think I'm as ready as I can get.

"Success is in the details"

 

While I'm waiting for a transmission, I'm going to look at the Haltech ECU again - specifically the 350Z plug-and-play model with maps for the VQ35DE. Since I have my 3.5 set up with stock 3.0 timing, I plan on keeping the existing ECU in play and hopefully piggyback the Haltech onto the engine to control only the ignition and injectors. In earlier conversations with Haltech, I think that if I use the existing 3.5 cam sensors and a trigger wheel and sensor mounted on the front pulley (somehow) then with Haltech sensors for engine water temp and incoming air temp I might be able to do this.

I'll need to read the Haltech correspondence again, but can it be that simple? Again, I'm not changing the existing 3.0 setup, but want to piggyback the 350Z Haltech.

EDIT: Or maybe the Nistune ECU makes more sense.... I'll contact them and see what's required to ship them a '96 AT ECU, have them install the board, and ship back to me.

I'm also looking at swapping up on cams this winter - like the JWT C9 cams for additional lift. Probably will change the intake cam timing from 0* to 4* advance - dunno yet.

I'm also looking at the existing MAF and replacing it with a larger model - everything else in the air intake path is sized for 75mm, but the OEM MAF has a smaller cross-section area. This must be a major restriction for air flow. Maybe two MAFs for the 2010 Maxima UIM - one on each end? But then how to tell the injectors to spray more fuel ?? Can't bump the fuel pressure cause the nitrous spray would be too rich - unless I install a different regulator for the nitrous. ??

 

After thinking over the MAF issue, and realizing that I do NOT want to advance the ignition at all, I had a thought. If I made another 3" ID (or larger) MAF housing using an OEM sensor top and stalk, coupled it to the front of my OEM MAF with a tube, powered it up, then measured/logged the voltages of both MAFs while running the engine and pulling the same amount of air through both MAFs, this would give me data for a graph for both MAFs showing the output voltages for both at different air flows.

Could this data be the basis for creating a simple analog voltage multiplier that could boost the voltage output of a larger MAF to match the output of the OEM MAF at every possible CFM of the original? If so, then there would be no changes in ignition timing with a larger MAF, but there would be less air restriction with the larger MAF installed in place of the OEM MAF. The graph would need to be extended to compensate for the higher airflow possible with a larger MAF, I think.

If I wanted timing advance from the MAF, I could always put some tape on the MAF sensor tunnel.

 

I talked to John at IPT this morning. The Altima transmission is there, ready for a build. He said it goes on the bench today, partly because I paid him this morning. "First paid, first built" or something like that.

 

The first to pay is the first to play. I'm always amazed when I visit different shops and see projects that are in the same state of build as the last time I saw them. Some people think projects can be paid in the same manner as a "K-mart" layaway.
Here's hoping the tranny build goes smoothly and as planned.

 

That's what I'm hoping, too. If you want good results, you gotta respect the guy doing the work. Chances are they know 100 times more than you do, whatever the project. I really like dealing with racers, regardless of what the project is. Example: I was having a new pair of slicks mounted in a neighborhood quickie tire shop and I asked if they would not use soap on the tire and rim because I was seeing some tire rotation - slippage - at the strip. The guy comes back and says "oh, sure, we use a special glue for race tires that prevents that. Want to try it?" Duh. Those slicks never budged on the rims - so I had my other pair re-mounted that way, and later I had my new M/T ET Street Radials mounted the same way, using the sticky stuff. No movement there, and the fronts have been seriously beat on, both on and off the track.

Yeah, fingers crossed on the tranny build, but John knows his stuff, so if it can be done, it will be done.

 

I prefer the "glue" as well. Never been a fan of rim screws, even though the Chevelle has had them for the last 17 years. When I see pics and video of the car launching, I understand why I NEED them, just not a fan of removing and screwing them back in every time a new set of slicks go on.

 

I've never used rim screws on a car - but I did put them on a drag bike I built back in the day. (and my day was way back when) It was a much-modded 68 Truimph Bonneville with custom headers, ported heads, cams, 850cc cylinders with Offenhauser pistons, custom fuel injection, and running on 50% methanol - 50% nitromethane. Hella street bike...

I liked that combination so much that I started building a dual-engine version that I hoped to take to Bonneville Salt Flats because, well, I thought it would be fun. In the middle of that project, I got married and sold my bikes to pay for a new baby and stuff like food and shelter. As it turned out, I should have stayed single and kept the bikes. This was when I got screwed...

 

I have been trolling to find out about Haltech ECUs and installation. This might be possible. That particular Haltech is quite advanced, and is capable of operating independently of the factory ECU. It has sequential fuel injection and sequential ignition, especially coil-over-plug triggering. To set it up to control ignition and fuel, it needs crank and cam triggers to establish timing. My 3.5 has the 2003-2006 cam sensors reading the Cosworth cams. These sensors only need 12 volts in to give a 5 volt pulse out. The crank sensor can be a 36-1 trigger wheel. (36 teeth, one missing) The Maxima crank pulley is 6 1/2" diameter, and I have located and purchased a 7 1/4" 36-1 trigger wheel for experimenting. Something clever will be required to adapt the timing wheel to the factory pulley, but parts-in-hand are required to do that.

In addition, the 2000 ECU will require Haltech water and air sensors, their trigger wheel sensor, an O2 sensor input (from my PLX wideband), and connections to the OEM coils and my fuel injectors. Won't be cheap, but if I can come up with a way to mount the trigger wheel, it will be possible.

Extra bonus - it will be possible to switch back to the stock ECU if needed, since everything else remains connected. I don't know how unhappy the OEM ECU will be if it's not wired to fuel and ignition, but that's for the future. I REALLY would like to push this 8,000 RPM engine with 10,000 RPM valve train up to 8K - wonder how the IPT transmission will like that?

 

The Haltech sounds nice, but that is beyend what i am willing to spend on a computer setup. BTW, what oil pump are you running now? I don't recall if you have revup or not.

 

Definitely the Revup pump.... hope it can "Rev Up" with a Haltech, if I actually get it to work.

Got EU ??

 

Got stock 4th gen. lol
Going with Nistune over the winter. I'm gonna "learn the ropes" of using it with my 95 GLE auto ECU in the 99 I30 auto. I've got some time to kill before the street/strip engine build is completed and running.
The bigger question is: Will I be needing a QR25 tranny soon? lol

 

OK - and good luck with rewiring your 99 auto TCU to work with the 95 ECU. That looks like another PITA to me.

Everyone will need a QR25 tranny eventually - at least if they want to go faster...

 

It shouldn't be a problem being that I have all of my old engine and tranny wiring from the 95' I grabbed EVERYTHING I could remove from it before the car went to the JY. This includes 95' TCU/wiring, ABS module, airbag module... even the aluminum bumpers. I got full price for basically a shell, engine block/tranny and 4 donut spares.

 

OK - that answers that question. You sure can pick the meat off the bones.

 

Harold if you don't need emission in your area just go full standalone and be done with it

 

No emissions checks required in Kansas... I think the Haltech ECU I'm looking at ( PS 2000) will let me go full stand-alone. Once the basic requirements are in place ( trigger wheel, cam sensor, water and air temp sensors, internal MAP connection to IM) then I can leave the original ECU in place and tune and race the car with the Haltech. The Haltech has a bazillion other functions that I can learn to use as I need them. ( OK, as I figure them out ).

I can continue to use my laptop with ECUTalk and the factory ECU to log things like injector timing and ignition advance under different loads so I know what initial settings to use with the Haltech. If I can run and tune off the Haltech MAP sensor, then I can really open up the air intake path to the 2010 Maxima intake manifold, which should add a little NA power.

Right now, I just want to get the Altima transmission installed, once it shows up at my shop.

 

I have two different 36-1 trigger wheels on order now - one's 7 1/4" in diameter and the other is 8 1/4". I'll need to come up with some way to mount one of them once I have parts-in-hand. I think the 8 1/4" wheel may hit the oil filter, but that's what parts are for. I'm tempted to mount a 7" 1/4" steel round plate on the pulley with a MIG weld then drill holes to mount one of the trigger wheels on it.

I also still need to find a 2002-2008 Maxima engine harness section that has the two cam sensor plugs attached. It's a small piece of cable but I haven't found one for sale anywhere - yet.

 

Your car is going to transform once you get the haltech! It's going to be awesome!
The altima transmission should be a nice upgrade too!

Making some damn good progress

 

Got the 8 1/4" 36-1 trigger wheel. This one is balanced and has plenty of adjustment slots. The second wheel is still on the boat from England. The big question is still how to fasten one wheel to the pulley.

 

The 7 1/4" trigger wheel was delivered today. It's another 36-1 wheel, thick and heavy - 1/8" thick steel...


Now if there's some way to mount one of the two wheels on the crank pulley...

 

This is a more costly option, but it looks like this is what your looking for.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Z-Car-Single-Groove-Aluminum-Crank-Pulley-36-less-1-tooth-Trigger-wheel-/310674615243?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item4855a66bcb
This one as well.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Z-Car-Single-Groove-Aluminum-Crank-Pulley-Trigger-wheel-/310246633999?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item483c23f20f

 

Thanks for the links - my search of eBay didn't show these, for some reason. Wrong key words... Problem is that I need to maintain the four original 3.0 timing tabs on the front pulley, as well. The second link has one hella sensor mount, doesn't it?

Somebody used to make an aluminum pulley for the FWD 95-2001 Maxima that had a ring with the four timing tabs for the 3.0. There were both an undersize and regular size pulley available. Seems like this pulley had a nice smooth front area where a timing wheel could be attached, but I need to search for it.

EDIT: Unorthodoxperformance is the maker - it's on ebay, but the front of the pulley appears to be too lightweight to attach a steel trigger wheel. They only list the underdrive version, which also means two different belts for accessories. OBX makes one, but 2J Racing says they've broken two of them on a racing Sentra. They gave up on OBX.

Anyone know if the stock damper has a rubber ring inside? I think it does, but... ?