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Posted by Jeff92se (92se) on August 23, 2002 at 14:05:50:
In Reply to: Taking Maxima tuning to the next step. posted by Matt on August 23, 2002 at 14:00:00:
: : We all know the Maxima community is relatively small and therefore doesn’t garner much aftermarket attention. You can purchase all of the “basic” bolt-ons, intake, exhaust components, clutches, and ecu chips, but the more serious upgrades like forced induction, headers, cams, and real engine management are commercially non-existent. : So, I got to thinking about what has the potential to be the best “bang for the buck” upgrade that can act as a stepping stone to the more serious modifications. It seems to be that real engine management has the potential to make the most out of our current mods, and paves the way for future “big power” modifications such as forced induction. : The benefits are pretty obvious, in the current issue of SCC they gain ~9hp and a smoother torque curve on their mildly modded project Civic by engine tuning through a HondaData ecu upgrade. : The “big 3” WRX aftermarket tuners base their staged upgrades around the Unichip piggy-back ECU. This device is inserted inline between the engine sensors and the factory ECU and modifies the sensor readings in order to fool the factory ECU into changing the timing or fuel settings. In the Vishnu Stage 0 kit (http://www.vishnuperformance.com) the Unichip is responsible for roughly half of the 40 whp gains while retaining all factory emissions control, cold start operation, and knock prevention ability. : Now we enter theoretical land, and I’m not saying I’m going to do this, I’m just spitting out some ideas. : Most of us have Maximas with mild modifications, but we are not using them to their full potential. I’d be really interested to see the gains a properly dyno-tuned Unichip system would give on a 3rd Generation Maxima, I’m guessing it would be pretty significant. Based on SCC’s improvement of +9hp for a ~150 whp car, we could reasonably expect similar or greater gains on our more powerful engines. : What gets really interesting is the turning potential of the VE engine. With the VTC system (when it decides to work) and the dual-length intake manifold (5spd only) the VE30DE has two other parameters that can be optimized for power. It would be a matter of simply wiring the Unichip to control the VTC and manifold vacuum line and then doing dyno pulls to get readings with and without the VTC and with the short and long intake runners. Using the resulting 4 curves you could determine the optimal switch over points and program them into the Unichip. : For those who are going to install forced induction (cause the VG30DETT is a direct transplant right?) they are going to require some kind of engine management, and this might be a good choice. I know several of you are working on turbo projects, and must be looking at engine management solutions. : So, there’s my 2 cents for this morning, I’d be interested in hearing other people’s opinions on the subject. Who knows, perhaps somebody has the time and money to look into this. The y-pipe was an enthusiast created upgrade that was eventually picked up by the big tuners, perhaps this could be one too (if this happens, you can send to royalties to me). : - Matt
possible for the na 3-gen engines. Maybe 1-5 more hp if you are willing to push it. The nice thing is, jwt can also programe your ecu for boost/nos etc.. The bad thing is the JWT is not user programable.
: This morning I got to thinking about the state of the aftemarket for 3rd gens and felt like doing a brain dump here to get your opinions.