New to the Forum and in need of advice

[AMidd5028]

Hey everyone,

I happen to be new to the Forum and have only recently become the owner of a Black 1997 Maxima SE, 5spd. Needless to say, I love the car already. My prevous car was a civic, so the Maxima is a quantum leap in both performance and exterior body styling. I got the car for a great price and although it has a little over 151,000 miles on it, I have heard that a well kept Nissan will last for well over 200,000.

The Maxima needs a bit of body work, a new hood, grille, front bumper and rear bumper and a fresh coat of paint. I also need to replace the exhaust from the headers back.

I happen to know a few things about Nissans and I realized that the 5th gen Maxima uses the VQ30DE-K which is an evolution of the VQ30de in the '95-'99 maxima. So I was wondering if anyone has heard of using the exhaust from the 5th gen on the 4th gen Maxima.

Also, if anyone knows where I could get some of the parts I need used or cheap, that would be great.

[brianw]

You need to use a 4th gen exhaust (catalytic convertor and back) on a 4th gen, the 5th gen is not compatible-- slightly different tubing lengths and bends...

The headers are compatible between the 4th gen and 5th/5.5th gen, but on the VQ30DE (all 4th gens) headers are only a minimal additional benefit over just the secondary pipe (aka "y-pipe"...) Cattman, Budget, Warpspeed, etc. all make y-pipes only, performance is about the same between all of them. Cattman makes a full header system but I wouldn't bother on a VQ30 unless you really want to spend the extra money.

If you want the extra high-end power of the 5th gen 00-01 VQ30DE-K, the main change is the intake manifold, it is possible to swap that over, although it's not exactly the most cost-effective modification, especially since you'll need a remapped ECU with a raised rev limit to take proper advantage of it.

I would run a compression check and leakdown check before you start modifying a 150k engine, just to be safe.

[AMidd5028]

Hey,

Thanks for the quick answer. Unfortunately for me the stock exhaust has a hole in it right before the cat. so I have to replace it, or at least from after the headers to the cat. My service engine light keeps turning on and I think its due to this hole considering there is an O2 sensor in the down pipe, so I'm going to fix it as soon as I get the chance. Thanks again though and by the way, what are you driving?

[jltibbs]

ebay headers are a great replacement for the cost. here's an idea:

vibrant performance makes a sweet bolt-on exhaust. here's a pic of the exhaust installed

[brianw]

Then replace the exhaust. I would keep the stock manifolds and just replace the y-pipe (secondary pipe with precats) and the other downstream exhaust components, unless you are seriously interested in squeezing every last drop of power from your VQ30DE. (given that a y-pipe is less than half the cost of headers, and makes 85% as much power...)