to turbo or not to turbo.. that is the question?

[nyvenom30]

i have a 98 maxima se automatic... with 126000 miles... i want to put a turbo on it... ive been doing a lot of rescreach and still have way more to learn.. but i was wondering if i can being that it has so many miles.... im thinking that a gotta rebuild a motor form the same year and build it up for turbo.. but im starting wonder if its worth it... does anyone have any ideas or comments about this? it would help me out and id really appericiate it. thank you

[allensteiner]

turbo!!! i want to turbo mine in the future. a guy here kzoosho has his turbo'd so he might be able to answer your Q's.

[DatNissan]

I been wanting to go FI also but since they discontinued the charger for our Maximas i was looking into turbo as well. I would love to find a charger someone has parted with one day

[kzoosho]

i have a 98 maxima se automatic... with 126000 miles... i want to put a turbo on it... ive been doing a lot of rescreach and still have way more to learn.. but i was wondering if i can being that it has so many miles.... im thinking that a gotta rebuild a motor form the same year and build it up for turbo.. but im starting wonder if its worth it... does anyone have any ideas or comments about this? it would help me out and id really appericiate it. thank you

Turbo it man. If you need help or have questions let me know.As far as a rebuild i didnt and im sitting at 230k. Its alot of fun. One ting you would want to look into is getting a valvebody mod or a shift kit for your auto that will be your weakest link. O and be ready for this

[nyvenom30]

well ive been doing alot of research and im having a company named Level 10 doing my valve body mod. they are also doing the transmission and torque converter. i was also going to do an injector kit but i wasnt sure of which one to buy. ive seen ones that come with turbo kits but i wasnt sure it was the right size. as far as suspension go i heard that coilovers are the best but i cant find them. i wasa going to get the exaust system from cattman. i was going to go with the wasp performance sub frame connectors Stages 1 and 2. im looking for a sway bar for the rear and ive seen a few of them but im not sure of which one to get. and as far as an ignetion kit, how should i go about that. i was looking on this website http://www.geocities.com/jgadlage/mods.html?200826 check it out and tell me what you think. i hear that your man with this **** so your help would be most appreciated... and another thing do you know if anyone makes a mod for our intake manifold.....

[jltibbs]

Turbo it man. If you need help or have questions let me know.As far as a rebuild i didnt and im sitting at 230k. Its alot of fun. One ting you would want to look into is getting a valvebody mod or a shift kit for your auto that will be your weakest link. O and be ready for this

Ready for what, bad video? JK. You got a better video???

[kzoosho]

there are 2 options for intakes, MEVI and 2000vi. the MEVI is a straight up install as far as the manifold u swap old for new . Then you have the 2000VI, thos it flows better than the MEVI the install is not a straight swap. If you go to http://www.maxima.org and search there for 00VI install you will see whats involved. I personally have a MEVI and couldnt be happier.



That one better?

[jltibbs]

Yeah. Have you had a dyno/tune?

[kzoosho]

I havent dynoed the new setup but it made 336whp/322wtq @15psi with my old 50 trim t3/t4. I have since installed a turbonetics 60-1 running 5psi and its loads faster. I tune myself via wideband and safcII till i install my emanage. I ran a 13.2@119 with my new setup v.s a 14.1 @110 with the old.

[nyvenom30]

can you write a list of things to get the car turbo read...

[kzoosho]

I sure can but have one question for ya. What are you plans or goals for this car? Will it be a dyno queen, track car, or a quarter car. This will affect your turbo selection and your fueling selection also. Post back and i got ya man.

[nyvenom30]

well i want a everyday car but if a doush in an evo or sti or mustang,etc... wants to go i wanna .. i think i gonna get another motor build it up for turbo pushing 20psi.. not that i plan on going to the track.... lol... i want the car to handle and stop... so im looking for a pre built struts, subframe connectors (stages1, and 2), rear sway bar, i have the strut bar.. what maf sensor should i get...

[kzoosho]

Just to let you know psi means nothing. What you need to firgure out is do you wnat a car that pulls hard on the dyno and highway, one that pulls hard in the quarter or one thats doesnt really pull hard anywhere but still has balls. Thatll determain your turbo size there. A stock vq30 can handle 500whp been done on a couple cars but then the transmission would be the weakest link there.

You want to look at tune which is the single most important part of your car. It can make or break you. You can have 10k in your build but if your tune isnt up to par then you car could run worse than stock. Theres alot to it when it comes to boosting a car turbo super or n2o. I need to know what you want to do and your goals. A mustang can be handle with a 75 shot of n2o since they werent fast till now. An sti,evo from a roll are dogs unless modded so they dont take much to kill either man.

Really think on this and post hp numbers than i can direct you the way you will need to go.

[nyvenom30]

ok want the car around 500hp to the wheels if possible.. i would like the car to have a power low and high end... so if you need to know more... just let me know i have a blackbarry now... so get all my emails on time now...

[allensteiner]

got beef with someone? i thought if i run a 50-75 wet i'll be damn fast. with 500 the only time you'll get some competition will be drag.

[DevonD]

Thats pretty ambitious of you... Im no expert but im thinking if your going to try and run 500+ HP you might want to do a rebuild..Just so you dont end up leaving parts of your engine all over the road at some point in the future... haha. and just to make sure everything on your engines internals is in tip-top shape for when your flying past that GTR....

[McSteve]

I think kzoosho's 340 is more the common thing than a 500HP beast. I mean all that power on the front wheels, all you will get is a lot spinning wheels, and not neccesarily incredible fast quarter mile times. and you said you want it to be a DD on top of that. Is that even feasible?

[Mike G]

....You want to look at tune which is the single most important part of your car. It can make or break you. You can have 10k in your build but if your tune isnt up to par then you car could run worse than stock. ....

We have a winner...

I have seen a very pretty big block chev loaded with a blower and 2 4's get embarrased by a well tuned mild small block at the track once or twice.

Needless to say, I sort of chuckle and grin when boasting dyno numbers. If you cannot put the power to the ground or get the car moving forward correctly, it's just a number.

My opinions...--Mike

[kzoosho]

ok want the car around 500hp to the wheels if possible.. i would like the car to have a power low and high end... so if you need to know more... just let me know i have a blackbarry now... so get all my emails on time now...

Wow 500hp Um you are going to need a 3.5 to start and build it. Then you are going to need a GT35r at smallest. you may want to throw in a 75 shot to hlep ya out. 500 is not a small task. Then comes the next issue, how are you going to get it to the ground? U see i am having problems with 200 less hp so what do you plan to use to address that?

[allensteiner]

stock and spinning tires when i punch it from a stop or when punched driving on wet surface.

[kzoosho]

stock and spinning tires when i punch it from a stop or when punched driving on wet surface.

Im running 19x8.5's

[nyvenom30]

well putting a 3.5 means putting in a new computer and lots of other things... i think it would be easier to get another 98 maxima take a few select things.. part some of it and than take it to the scrap yard... take the engine out have it magna fluxed along with the heads.. get the custom piston from ross and a master rebuild kit from rpm... vb mod and tanny rebuild from level 10 transmissions, and torgue converter, and super pump... as far as whose putting the block togather well i need to find someone with a machine shop that knows what there doing.. im not sure what turbo kit, injection kit, iginition kit, multi-spark unit, as far as i understand i need low compression spark plugs, new radiator, transmission cooler, and seperate turbo cooler, not sure about the mevi, i might go for the 00v1 even oth it not direct fit.. as far as tuning the car i need you to be suspecific.. cause im not understanding.. oh and another thing where can i get radial arms...

[allensteiner]

i got 17" by...whatever 245's are mounted on i think it's 8 or 8.5

[KineKilla]

If you want to hit the 500 mark you had better have quite the stack of cash available. I don't know a whole lot about these cars yet, but I was driving a '04 STi a couple weeks ago before I sold it.

That being said, I know it would have cost me a fortune to get that one up to 500, and I figure it would be even more on a car that wasn't meant to be a 500hp car.

I really miss my turbo as well and hope to run a small one on my I30 eventually, but I wouldn't break the bank to hit a Dyno number because after all that's just a number.

Just my $.02

* but if you want to......I'd do it!*

[flyboy367]

500hp is very easy to get to and not that expensive. its to keep it running at that rate without shooting your pistons thru the hood that costs big $$. i have a friend with about $3000 in his mazda 626 that can run 9's for about 3 passes then blows up. first thing i would do is realize how much work you can do your self. this will not only save you money but keep you intimite with your build so you know first hand whats going on. then for the work you cant do source out real shops not bobs discount machine shop. good work is going to cost you money.now here is where you need to focus.you need more fuel so a fuel pump, and fuel management system.you will need exhaustworkoil line reloactiongauges to moniter the systems not just blig stuff to look cool. mostly an oil pressure gauge, water temp gauge (with numbers) wideband o2, boost pressure, etcnow lets talk trans. id throw out the auto and go stick. not only more fun but less stuff to blow apart and leak all over. if you stay auto look for a computer for it, torque converter, valve body and trans cooler. also a gauge for the trans fluid temp.your going to need bigger brakes and tighter suspention to handle stopping and cornering with the more power.just some stuff to think about. ive built quite a few racecars so i have been there.

[flyboy367]

im also researching a new upper intake style. mainly from my experence with chevy's tpi and its aftermarket counterparts. unfortunitly im not getting much help from my normal sources since they arent really import friendly. but i will press on. just need to find a spare lower intake manifold to work from.

[sixteenXnine]

Does 500hp in a front-wheel drive sedan with a solid rear axle even make proper sense? (not that any of us ever HAVE to make sense, we are men!) But I mean hell, GM's 5.3 equipped w-bodies (4-wheel independent) are reportedly unbalanced as hell with only 300 some hp, and those responsible for refining the platform have had plenty of years to alleviate torque/understeer... and then we have the '09 max which itself has not mastered the art of a high-powered engine mounted in a front-drive sedan.

Given the "4dsc" nature of our cars, it seems that our vehicles are more meant for striking the proper balance between handling and power...

But hey, by all means, if you want your Max to be a straight-line embarasser, then do it up! I guess I'm just the type of guy that'd rather be on the twisty-turnies than the straightaway.... NOT that the Max is perfectly built for that either, lol.

[AcMav]

Well you obviously have money if you're looking at building a 500hp Max engine. One thing nobody has mentioned is the fact you could run a Boost controller and drop the boost down, then just switch to a higher boost race setting for your "Drag Race". Thus running numbers more like kzoosho's and running more reliably, with better gas mileage. This is what my cousin runs with his daily driver / track Evo (has a tune setting for race fuel/street fuel).

Flyboy a Manual transmission for straight line speed is not a good idea. I know it looks cool but I've always seen the faster drag cars with a well built auto, it just makes life easier. An automatic transmission makes a perfectly timed shift every time. However doing this competitively might require you to mill out the fluid pathways to make the shift harder and faster. A tune to the TCM might also help decrease shift times.

I could see some hardcore suspension mods and a very stiff suspension helping with the front end grip but only to a point. How about tuning it so the power comes on soft, long enough to stick the wheels and then you can incrementally increase the boost after that, just like hitting the 100 shot of nitrous further down the track.

Just my 3 cents. I'd also like to go Turbo, but I want to do it right, and as I leave for college today I definitely don't have the money to rebuild/00vi/Emanage.

[allensteiner]

a bit off topic. the setup with wideband, emanage etc is a bit expensive but i've seen fmu units that keep a steady 12:1 afr. is this the way to go to avod tuning? 12:1 seems very rich if it's gonna be in a daily driver going around town under small boost. still is it a better/cheaper alternative to hours on the dyno trying to get it right

[flyboy367]

well the gm cars have a lot of potential if set properly. my 1998 gtp 3.8 supercharged ran a solid 12.1 every time and got great milage. i know autos are consistant but he didnt say if it was a track car or a once in a while track car. the gtp was great but even with upgraded pcm, trans cooler, gears, torque converter, valvebody makeing it a little much to drive on the street the trans was always the weak link. my car is a drag in a while and mainly a street car so im stick. less to worry about. remeber the great cars all were auto the hemi cars, the grand nationa, turbo trans am all auto. just having the auto keep up to the engine was the problem.

as far as suspention you want soft up front and very stiff in the rear. you want the front to come down with all the wieght on the drive tires and the back to spin freely not transfer. just like my race camaro i have super hard shocks up front so the weight planted to the rear drive tires.