autozonemaxima

I want to buy a turbo kit in the next couple of weeks. Which turbo do you recommend? The guy Hal seems like a nice guy and he will do a free install or should I just get a PFI kit?

Craig Mack

Bags and Dixit reccommend Hal's kit. They are extremely happy with the workmanship of the kit, and the customer service they recieved. I am sure one of the two will be thrilled to express their amazing transaction with Hal in this thread.

stephenlc

iTrader: (1)

He is being sarcastic!

Bags

iTrader: (3)

He is joking..

do yourself 2 things.. Try and find a local shop to do the job from scratch or get PFI's kit

Ramius83

That is so funny, it is sickening........

SR20DEN

iTrader: (7)

There is another one in the mix I would not recommend, no names mentioned. Get Nigels kit or custom.

sx7r

iTrader: (15)

yeah, don't get the widely available, highly marketed, but never acclaimed sx7r turbo kit either. last i heard it had overheating problems that were perceptibly inherent in design; however, after materialization of the project, this problem was in actuality, defunct - due to unsubstantial substatiation.

SR20DEN

iTrader: (7)

That's #4 that I wasn't even aware of.

turbomax97

iTrader: (6)

lol.

stephenlc

iTrader: (1)

Is that really true I liked sx7r's setup.

Confused

iTrader: (4)

nice words for the fine print where do i order?

h2kFrosty

iTrader: (3)

I have hal's kit, he is a nice guy or at least has been to me, very helpful. As far as installation goes, I would either find my own shop or have hal give you one that does good installations. He was using a guy named Anthony that had good designs for turbo kits but really really poor installation quality, and Hal doesn't use him anymore. If you have any questions PM me.

Bryan

thebigsadler

iTrader: (4)

evolution-autodesign will be producing a kit for sale in the up-coming months, it is currently in the installation processes on my car as we speak and will have specs and numbers in the up and coming weeks. it will basically be the same as pfi's, with less modification needed; i hope but every car is different i guess.

custommaxima.com has a kit, but one of the kit'd cars blew up, so you can't really go off that one. hal's kit is not the best when installed in ky, pfi's kit looks okay but needs modification and doesn't come with a few things. and last i checked, thomas wasn't selling his kit.

sx7r

iTrader: (15)

lol, nah.. just playin. there's only one way to get one of these babies. buy the whole car.

joaquink

Here's my take. I have PFI's kit, via Nigel (Turbo97SE), and I would STRONGLY recommend doing a custom job locally. Custom seems to infer expensive to many people but that's quite likely not the reality. For people who live in mdedium to large markets or even small markets with a good shop, your benefits are exponential. Problems arising during install don't require a core charge or 5 day wait or e-mails and phone calls and so on.

Take me back to day 1 but give me the knowledge of local resources I now have and I wouldn't have the PFI kit. You'd be surprised by how much the guys at a local machine shop and/or hotrod shop know and can do. Heck, Bill at PFI is sourcing at least 1 part, maybe 2, differently now based on info I gave him from a po-dunk shop here in Tucson. Facts are facts and often times you may have an expert or 10 in given areas that you wouldn't think are around.

Now that I've pushed passed my assumptions about local shops, due to necessity during my install process, I know that nearly everything is available or can be ordered locally. On the bonus side, I could have done it for/with A LOT LESS hassle and cheaper, if not he same, by going local.

Get over the idea that custom or one-off has to be exorbitantly expensive and the world is your oyster.

Shadow

iTrader: (15)

Couldn't agree more. After doing all the research, it's amazing how simple a turbo system really is. And how inexpensively it can be done. Luckily, a few of my friends run shops that do this sort of thing, so they're always handy for advice or work.

If we had all of Jason's parts here on time, his kit probably could have been fabbed up in 3 days flat from the ground up. Nothing prebuilt. And the final cost of his system is way less than what PFI or Hal is asking. And the parts/hardware is of a higher grade for the most part than what the existing kits use.

turbo97SE

iTrader: (3)

Of course, things always seem simple once you know how to do it. It is easy for people to say they could have gotten it done cheaper elsewhere or custom. It may be true, but a lot of thought went into the PFI kit to try to make it as installable as possible (granted, it is not the easiest to install) and also to make sure that you can work on your car (other parts) and that the kit is easily removeable and upgradeable. If someone had put this together by themselves, they probably would have had everything welded together and may have had wires melting. When it is presented before you, everything is obvious but will a local job be necessarily better than a professionally made kit? I have seen a system that was nicely put together, it looked great (not a Maxima). When I asked how they were going to work on the tranny if the clutch was to go, they were kind of embarrassed cos major sections were welded in place not using connectors. Even the oil was hard to change cos one of the exhaust pipes ran by the drain plug. You would say, well that's obvious - well not to everyone apparently. We've had people melt harnesses on Maximas on different setups ... also obvious but not until it happens and someone says something right? I had some issues with power steering at first which had been solved before any of the kits were ever sold.

Even today there are fitment issues with the PFI kit and we have given up on perfect fitment claims, but it is much closer than it used to be. If you've installed Greddy turbo kits on Hondas, there are major fitment issues .. even from a big name like Greddy!

If you are not willing to put up with a few hassles with install, don't get a turbo kit or a supercharger kit or NOS because they will all require maintenance of one form or other even after you put them in.

If you don't want to deal with any hassles, find a professional place to design and build a custom kit for you and tune it etc. If you can find it cheap, go for it, but be prepared for the consequences.

Biased? Well of course I am, but I want you to understand that this is not just slapped together without some decent thought. Thanks to people like Kev, Sprint, joaquin, Deac, Erik and so many others, we have good feedback and try to make things better.

joaquink

Errr...ummm...ins't PFI a "local" shop - just local to you?

Had PFI previously turbo charged a 4th gen Nissan Maxima? If not, now could they be considered professionals at doing so? They turbo charged other makes/models? Well, most people can find the same resources locally and have an easier/quicker time working with them directly if they're just down the road. In this case, knowledge isn't proprietary and the barriers to entry are actually fairly low for turbo-experienced mechanics.

This ins't a ****ing contest. You know my issues, aggravations, complaints and so does Bill. Without a hint of being vindictive, as noted previously, I think people are better off if they go local and I'll leave it at that. Ask Bill about BSP vs. NPT fittings and the fit I had over providing various incorrect parts. How did I find out? A local shop. The charge pipe that wouldn't fit because it wasn't welded/cut correctly; where did it get fixed - a local shop. Tapping the valve cover; With less than 1/8" of room for error and no template provided, I went to a ... yep... you guessed it - a local shop.

My point is that PFI was a "local" shop for you when you started. You're happy with your results and I think a lot of semi-experienced to experienced mechanics and tinkerers (not a word I know) will benefit in the same way. When problems arise they'll be just down the road instead of 5 to 10 inches away on a map. I'd probably be just as happy with the PFI kit as you are if I lived within a reasonable distance of the shop, but I don't. As a result, I recommend people find a shop that is within a reasonable distance of their residence, just as you did when you started out.

turbo97SE

iTrader: (3)

No ****ing going on here .... you're entitled to your opinion, I am entitled to mine ... no?

...and if you take note I did say

"If you don't want to deal with any hassles, find a professional place to design and build a custom kit for you and tune it etc. ..."

so I did say if you don't want to deal with any hassles you can find someone. It is not likely to be cheap unless you know the shop pretty well.

Let's see 4th gen Maximas have been around since 1994 1/2?, why was it that people had to wait until 2002 before a turbo kit was available? Only turbo95max had a completed one by that time.

thebigsadler

iTrader: (4)

After seeing the pfi kit first hand, I can see how it would be a decent kit, but would have it's issues. I think it's all well and good that there is a decent kit out there, that seems to be putting out good numbers but i think a lot of things get overlooked here and there.

I don't want to brag or say that my kit will be better, but I can attest to the fact that in talking with hal and his customers over time and even the owners of the pfi kit's i have learned a lot and tried to avoid most of the common issues at hand. I think that in buying a kit you benefit from not having to wait from parts coming from everywhere, which is truly a hassle, but you also have to deal with a company making money in a kit and paying extra for that. Be it only a couple hundred dollars or a thousand dollars, there is still a margin of money in question. On the other hand, if you don't have the skill or the help to get the kit put together yourself, then buying it pre-fabbed is the way to go.

I think it's hard to harp on people who make these kits when things go wrong in installation because every car is different, but if it is a BUNCH of things going wrong, there has to be a line drawn somewhere. Especially if some corners are cut in parts and you have to source things out yourself. Not naming names, just giving an example.

Jason

Ramius83

The only thing I have to say is that you pay the most up front for a "full kit" than you will for a custom kit. But, you are mainly paying for the R&R work that YOU don't want to have to deal with. Would I have done a custom kit if I hadn't seen a kit in person, HELL NO. You have angles, lengths, turns, etc to worry about with the piping. You have to worry about many other things as well, many that I do not want to have to deal with when installing/fabbing a kit.

I bought my kit from PFI, knowing that most things will be easy and straight forward. Yes, my intercooler was about 1.5 inches longer on both sides and PFI didn't compensate for that with the piping, but that is why I cut the piping down in order to save my foglights. That was the only fabbing I had to do. When buying anything big for the car, never expect it to be a 100% free-hassle install. I mean h3ll, even with helping Jason/Jeff with Jason's car, I wouldn't want to tackle that install with a custom kit.

All in all, you pay for what you want and for what you get (in most cases). I paid for an almost hassle free install kit, and that is what I got. I would not have done it any other way. And just for all the parts alone and piping and the turbo, I only paid about an additional 500-1000 dollars for a kit that I personally would not have had to fab up.

JAY25

iTrader: (38)

Glad your done so give us a ride in that beast, you have reached Karma like the Supra guys, I bet your BOV whistles. If thats all the fabricating you did then this kit is bolt on in my opinion. How easy can it get. I want to see this kit I may get one in the future.

Nigel I can careless what others have to say I may want one after I see this one so dont be surprised you get a PM from me.

Ramius83

The only thing wrong on the turbo kit install was the improper installation of my REAR MAIN SEAL........Now almost the whole kit has to come off to get to it lol. Oh well, turning up the boost tomorrow afternoon/evening with the B.C.

Bags

iTrader: (3)

Eirk... I will be calling you soon.. I wana hook up saturday with jason


and fix yo ****, and go to the track with us

joaquink

Kudos to you - now thank the rest of us who helped get the kit to that point while quite likely paying more than you did.

Bags

iTrader: (3)

we ALL paid some sort of price.


Let's keep info coming so we can ALL continue to improve

Ramius83