wow good to see, i too was a 95 maxima guy from the org, redmax95, i definitely remember your car shadow!

 

What a great post!

It seems that the Maxima guys are more into actual drag racing then most of the G & Z guys.

Any examples you'd care to share?

 

Thanks for posting this Dave, I was going to post it a month ago and forgot.

Jime has been running his Max for years. His name is Jim Andrews and he is from Barrie , Ontario, Canada. His son is also into racing.

His personal bests are actually :

Quickest ET: 10.85
Fastest MPH: 125.55
Best 60ft Time: 1.58

Here is a link to his own site: http://jime.f-sw.com/ It explains his steps, has videos and pics.

 

that is IMPRESSIVE!!!

 

Some things they discovered about 4-7 years ago.

1) The first to turbo VQs (VQ30s that is). Obviously that was an easy since VQs were first introduced to the US market in 1995 with the Maxima. They proved early on that the VQ30DE is FAR more robust than the VQ35. A VQ30DE with absolutely no work to the motor, can easily handle 400whp/400wtq on the stock injectors no less.

2) Discovered that the RevUp rod bolts were stronger as well as the RevUp oil pump. Both are mods are needed to rev a VQ30/35DE to over 7200rpms.

3) First to swap VQ30 heads on the VQ35 block therefore allowing the VQ35 swap into the 95-01 Maximas.

4) First to install cams into VQs.

5) Discovered that you can swap VQ35 cams into VQ30 heads.

6) First to use AFCs on VQ30/VQ35s and with success.

7) Proved that all it takes to get a FWD Maxima to pull 1.7 60 foots is a set of 24" to 26" slicks. No other suspension work needed.

8) Discovered and fabbed all sorts of Nissan OEM intake manifolds to work on VQ30/VQ35 motors. There are people running G/Z intake manifolds on Maxima VQ35s, the Australian/Middle Eastern-specific variable intake manifold on US-spec 95-99 VQ30s, 00-01 VQ30DEK variable intake manifolds on 95-99 VQ30DEs, and 02-03 VQ35DE intake manifolds on VQ35DE swaps with VQ30DE heads.

9) First to discover that you can run 300ZXTT MAFs or Mustang 5.0 MAFs with these cars (with some tuning).


As for drag racing, yeah, they tend to race quite a bit more than the G crowd and maybe even more than the Z crowd. There are numerous NA Maximas in the low low 13s and mid 12s@106mph+ with bolt-ons, slicks, and some with VQ35 swaps. The advantage of these cars is their relatively light weight (2850lbs to 3180lbs).

 

I think the reason for all of that is that the aftermarket never really took the Maxima market very seriously. So everything we did was because no one made a bolt on. I remember putting 300ZX TT brakes on my car in '99 because there weren't too many BBK's available. Then later on I swapped to Cobra rotors with adapters. The G/Z guys don't have to build a BBK from 2 separate cars as they can simply buy any one they want. We never had that luxury.

Same with the motors. We never had aftermarket internal parts, so I remember people swapping VQ30DET pistons in. With the VQ30, we never had aftermarket injectors available so someone figured out that he could just modify stock injectors. A lot of people didn't believe me when I told them that the 670cc injectors in my car were just modified stock injectors. Then we all figured out that with injectors that large, we had to get push button ignitions since there were no standalone's that could control them at start up. All we had to work with was a piggyback emanage.

And I had to build my own turbo setup because at the time there was only one setup on the market and I didn't like the way they set it up. Then there were no LSD's available for the auto so I had to get a company to prototype one on mine.

So much backyard engineering those days. It was a lot of fun seeing all the creative solutions everyone came up with. It seemed that most of the mainstream parts available for the car were subpar. ie; the Stillen Supercharger which I had and regretted greatly.

 

Thanks for the informational post!

I've heard of putting VQ30 heads on a VQ35 to increase the compression ratio. I didn't realize the Maxima guys needed to do it to get VQ35's to run in their FWD cars.

I'm also very interested in the larger MAF housings. I've been thinking about a larger MAF housing, too. Do they bore out their throttle bodies to match and run a larger diameter intake tube?

Is maxima.org the best place to find out more info on this stuff?

 

The reason that people had to use the Z MAF or Mustang one is that the stock one couldn't handle the flow generated by boost. Mine was maxing out at 4000 rpm's. It would peg 5volts and we couldn't tune at that point. The Z MAF would solve that. It wasn't really for larger piping.

I don't think there were any gains from larger TB's. Stock on the VQ30 was 63mm or so. I know some guys ran modified Pathfinder TB's which were 70mm. But I don't know if there were any gains to be had. A few guys bored out their TB's and it resulted in nothing as well.

 

Try the All Motor forum. That's where all the gurus are.

http://forums.maxima.org/all-motor-61/

 

im also a .org member, all the good ole days. I was sponsored by paradox-systems.com. my white I30 is still on their website, only cefiro kit in the US

 

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that was in reference to boosted cars. FWIW, UpRev now makes a modified MAF to solve this problem for boosted cars, too. Not saying it's any better than you guys solution, but you could then use Osiris Tuner Pro to tune it.

What do you guys use for an EMS solution?

I have an unusual situation in my car that indicates that a larger intake system would/might help. That's why I'm looking into it with an NA car.

 

Thanks, Dave.

I read a bit over there last night... Lots of interesting information... I didn't realize the block was different between a FWD and RWD VQ. You'd have thought Nissan would make them the same to save $$$. I guess they couldn't.

 

Yep, I am an old maxima.org member. It doesn't surprise me, I had a 97 SE 5MT w/cloth which seemed to be a much better performance target than the '00 se leather I replaced it with. I bought them both new and was imediately dissappointed with the '00 after the '97. Too big, too slow.

I could definately see a stripped 95 w/ some boost and tires running some great times in a straight line. We always talked about doing that but all our maximas were daily drivers and usually towing sportbike trailers thousands of miles on weekends.

A buddy of mine had a 95 SE Auto with very mild work and good suspension that ran amazingly well, he recently sold it and bought an IS350 and wishes he had the maxima back (mostly due to size constraints). But the maxima was worn out, leaking oil and P/S fluid and needing some love.

We did a canonball run style drive from south florida to savannah (roebling road) one time with our trailers. His '95 would out accelerate me up to around 100mph, but with his gearing and a trailer he topped out at around 125. With my 5 speed my 5th gear was lower than his 4th and taller than his 3rd and I could cruise by. After the first trailer tire blowout at over 120 we chilled. Strangely enough that trip cost me my first set of oxygen sensors?

The G35 I have now handles better and is rear wheel drive, but doesn't feel that much stronger than my '97 SE (not 100hp faster). Slower in some normal driving situations, and doesn't seem to pull the trailer as well, although I had a real truck with a V8 between the last Max and the first G.
To me, the G35 is what the 95-99 maxima should have evolved to.

We used to spend a lot of time out at Moroso in the late '90s. Mostly we were using our maxima's to tow our bikes out there. We all did some decent passes in the maximas though.

 

That's amazing that an old maxima runs a faster time and almost the same trap as my car!

 

Current org member here too!! I still own both of my max's. Times are in my sig!