Yo
I'm looking for some good ideas on this setup.

I have an 88 max auto.
The plan is to swap out the internals, add turbo.

If you've ever seen this engines layout you'd say "how the h3ll can you put a turbo on that"?

The problem: The exhaust manifold is very restrictive. I can put one(turbo) on the crossover from the front side to the back.
I don't think I'd get enough exhaust to spool the turbine to meet it's potential. Or to propel the car as fast as I want it to go.

Will companies like turbonetics build custom headers for my car to get the turbine to work. Anyone here work on old VG engines?

Does anyone know where I can get some custom headers in california?

 

look in the 2nd gen section there is a whole thread and writeup from a guy that has ALREADY done this...in your case use the turbo manifold and x-over pipe from the Z31 and go from there...please do more research, in general turboing the VG is far from difficult and also well documented on this site.

 

No offense but I've been looking into this for quite awhile now.
The guy on the 2nd gen forum did a swap. He put a VG30ET into a 85 max.
It's not as easy as you make it seem.
The whole x-over pipe won't fit the max. The turbo and the Exh. manifold are in different positions.
So the stock location won't work on the max. I was planning to take out the AIV and EGR sys and mount the turbo on the back of the engine. But the huge prob is the Exhaust manifold.
Thanx for answering but I have done more than enough research. Now I'm looking for ideas.
If you have any I would love to hear them.

 

thats fine...I've only helped on two VGT swaps...but hell what do i know



not to be blunt, but if you can't figure out simple **** like how to fit the Z31 manifolds...than good luck.

 

Thats cool
Im not trying to Pi$$ you off man.
But I'm going to use the max engine. And add a turbo. I'm not doing the swap. I want to keep the engine.
Now if I was going to convert it to Z31 you'd be right and I'd be a douche bag!
But I think that turboing the max engine would work pretty good.
But you're right about the manifold(intake & exhaust), the max's doesn't supply enough flow.
I will probably have to get the Z31 intake man. onto my engine but I wanted figure out the placement of the turbo first.

 

i haven't seen the engine bay of a 2nd gen before but this is what i did to my maxima: http://members.cardomain.com/mtcookson

 

mtcookson
Your car is dope!!!
I love what you did.
Thanx for the write up too.
I've been trying to find out for sure, the injectors on the max are 180cc right.
And the injectors on the Z31 are 330cc.
Please correct me if im wrong.

Also on the 88 the injectors are low impedence. Was that the case for the Z31's in those years?

Your car looks sweet!

 

thanks for the compliments!

yeah, i believe the maxima's injectors are 180 cc however the Z's injectors are 259 cc. i found out recently that the 84-86 Z injectors are top feed, low impedence and the 87-89 Z injectors are side feed, high impedence which would work on the 3rd gen maximas. i'm not sure what the 2nd gen max has but since there are two types to choose from you will most likely be able to use one or the other.

also, you might try finding out if you can use the Z ecu. since they were made in the same year they might have used the same style of ecu. if so, you'd have a nice setup since you'd have a good fuel and ignition map to start with compared to using the maxima ecu like i had to.

 

Thanx

Im not sure that the high impedence will work on this engine without using a newer ECU. The ECU from the Z31 will work on the max you just have to wire in a spot for the Knock sensor.