Hi all:
whew~ I havent visited this forum for a while.....how's everybody? Jer/pcguru2k - got a new tranny? Tanman - cold in Wyoming?

anyways...back to the main topic. Before I went to Hong Kong, I asked my mom to warm up my car every other day. When I came back, she told me the last time she warmed it up...she heard a tapping noise and then it disappeared in few seconds. My first thought : the belt again.

well, I was right and when I open up the hood and I saw the Gatorback is shredded to 5 ribs from 6. Pieces of them are all over the place. It got knocked off a rib on the alternator again. I had to loose the belt and aligned it. When I was underneath the car....I saw something that makes me understand how it went down to 5 ribs:

It jumped and contacted the power steering pump belt! Now I dont only get a 5-rib drive belt but also a 2-rib power-steering pump belt!


Solution : I will clean up all the pieces of the belts this weekend and drive around with two partially shredded belts.

In 2 weeks, Kevin and I will put in his 2.87, which have a better thickness than my 3.33. So I dont have to worry about the belt alignment. Will I want to get 11+ psi? nope....we will loose the BOV and have the peak boost set to 8 - 9psi. Meanwhile, I will find a machine shop to file down the 3.33 while I am running on the 2.87.

Will I put the 3.33 back in?? hmmmmmmm.....

for more info on my belt alignment with my screwed -up 3.33...visit here:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?threadid=181075

 

Glad to see your back from your trip.. Now you can enjoy the nice weather were having here Well yeah.. I got my 5spd swap done so everything is cool now with the tranny. Just gotta get used to driving stick now.. But I think you should just keep the 2.87". More boost = more fun!! Unless you like removing your blower on and off a lot

 

congrats! you have the first 5th gen 5spd GLE...heheheh.

I dont like to uninstall/isntall the blower. But keeping the 2.87 is a big decision too. It requires more monitoring on the engine and it might reduces blower's life because you are now spinning it faster.

how much did it cost you for a 5spd swap?

 

The 5spd ended up costing me about $2200.. Everything went fine. The only thing that I didnt swap out was the ecu. It's too much of a ***** to do. Y2Kevse has his auto ECU in there too. It just throws off a cel with the auto tranny codes. I'm just gonna yank the bulbs Yeah I wanna do the a smaller pulley too. But maybe like a 3.25 if anything or 3.125.. That should be too bad.. How much does it decrease the blowers like by. Blower usally last what? 60K?

 

Holy crap man This really shouldn't be costing you this much time - I would pursue it with vortech and ask them what they have to say about it - correction, make them do something about it! Be a jerk if you have to be... they deserve it.

My tranny slips like a **** but it drives : I'm waiting for the weather to get better so I can do all my final touches on the car! Also I'm hoping on a big contract to come through in the coming weeks, which would mean way more funds and maybe another car (but I'll keep the max going strong!). I've got an AE bodykit coming to me later on, and I plan on doing the 2.87" pulley when I have the tranny out. I'm going to have to look into the IC and J&S.. I sometimes wish I was south of the border with you guys so I could have a helping hand and a look under your hoods lol...

I'm not sure whether I will take the simpler route of using the L10 rebuild parts or not : if I mix and match my own and miss something, I may end up breaking something all over again..

Good luck with the swap though : if I were doing mine right now I'd send you the 3.33 but no can do in time. If you want, I can send you my 3.6" stock pulley? Don't worry about the cost... I just gotta find it first... I'm starting to think I left it in my friend's shop somewhere

 

You need to find out and see why are your belts shredding. all the pullies should align, if your dropping belt away from the car then the plate is giving from the top of the plate solution secure it from the top. If your belt is going in towards the motor then you need to shim it using washers between the plate and the blower.

 

Hey maxi, sorry to hear about your belt problems. If everything else is lined up correctly and the 2.87 pulley solves your belt shredding problem, I'd keep the 2.87" pulley in. Like you said, you can loosen the BOV to release air at a preset pressure, so you can use that to play it safe. If the SC fails, send it to Vortech. Most guys paid under $500 to get it repaired.

Wyoming is cold, but no humidity so you can't feel it as bad as places like Houston. But it's cold enough that I want heated seats . So, I'm deciding whether to remove all the mods from the Maxima and trade it in for a 2K3 Chevy Trailblazer or Toyota 4Runner, or I might keep it and get the SUV, then trade in the Maxima this summer for a WRX STi. Not sure if I need two vehicles, but maybe.

 

Hey Jer : thx for the offer! I really appreciate your help. I think I will just go with the 2.87 pulley and carefully monitor my boost and EGT. I plan to stick with it for a month or two and then after I machined down the 3.33. I really have to get my current oil sample to blackstone to see if 3.33 is hurting my engine. I wish I can get the result before I drop in the 2.87. If it does damage my engine, I wll probably go with 10w30 oil. Good to hear that your tranny is going to get replaced! So level10 upgrade for sure?? If that's for sure....I would get all Level10 parts just in case if warranty issues come up, they can deny it by saying it that certain non-level10 parts are at fault. But if I were you.....I would get the conversion. It might be cheaper and manual will be more fun with the blower.

and yes....I will let vortech know about their quality after I take out the 3.33 and take a picture with the 2.87.


PCguru2k: so it gives your a reverse light when u put ur gear in R, like Kevin's? or you are getting the blinking O/D light when the car cannot find the TCM. Vortech claimed that "some" of their blowers last over 100k miles.....but seeing people here sending in their unit after 40k miles....I doubt if it will last that long. I am not sure how much it will decrease the life of the blower by putting in a smaller tranny. But it also depends if you take it to the red line a lot....at higher the rpm, blower will spin faster.


Jaime: The cause maybe my 3.33 pulley is thicker than Kevin's 2.87, about 3mm thicker on one of the shaft. He told me that all the pulleys that he bought, he never received anything that looks like mine. I think that's the cause and I dont think I can correct it with placing washers on the plate. The belt is running in the center on the tensioner pulley but once it pass thru the vortech pulley, it runs on the edge of the idler puelly. I hope this will fix the problem.


Tan: Definitly AWD is needed for your environment.....I would trade in the Max for the sti. Guess now the butt-warmer really helps. Anyways, one thing that I am worried about the 2.87 is when the boost kicked in. With the 3.33, it kicks in around 2500 - 2700 rpm. But with the 2.87, I might see 1psi at 1800 - 1900 rpm. This will add a lot of work to my tranny if I let her shift at 3000 - 3500 rpm. We will see.....and wish you luck in Wyoming.

 

Yeah. The "R" lights up when I put it in reverse.. Looks cool Nah I don't get the blinking OD light. Just the SES. But I pulled the bulb out for that so problem fixed The only thing I notice after the swap is that I'm running even more rich then I was before. I seem to backfire almost every shift when doing it slow and low rpms Any ideas on how to fix this? I already have the afc tuned. But that only helps high end.

 

you took out ur SES light??? what if it does throw a code? or you are going to scan it every week?

about the backfire....have you tried to disconnect the S-AFC and see if it is better? or set your setting to factory defaul and see if the problem is corrected.

 

Well the SES lights statys on all the time because I still have the stock ecu.. 5thgens have the immobolizer and shiet so it not just a simple ecu swap. You can't pull out the afc cuz thn your car will get a cel light. But hey mines is already on. But the afc doesn't take effect till 39% throttle anyways so I doubt that is it?