Modifications
This is a will explain the numerous modifications that can be made to enhance the handling, appearance, and horsepower you can expect from your Maxima. This page is not meant to promote one company or product over another, rather it will inform all viewers of the products applicable to the Maxima. After looking through the various modifications you can find out which ones are applicable for your year Maxima on my applications page. You can also look at my page of Frequently Asked Questions to give you a more in depth understanding of what some of these modifications are and how they work.
Some of the things that you can do to the exterior are putting on a aftermarket body kit, or by even retrofitting your current body style with newer pieces (Swapping the 97 headlights for the 96). Things like front and rear spoilers, side skirts, rear wings, clear cornering lights, and grille inserts are available for installation on many year Maximas. There are body kits offered by Stillen, Kaminari, and Erebuni Corp will fit most 3rd and 4th Gen Maximas. Modifications that are subtle like driving lights or changing out bulbs in your headlights and foglights, can improve your night time visibiltiy and give your Maxima a distinct appearance. Look at some of the exterior improvements available for the Maxima.
The Maxima comes stock with 15 inch wheels. These wheels get great mileage out of the tires that are outfitted on them, but leaves something to be desired when called upon for performance handling. When you install gradually bigger wheels (16, 17, 18...), you have to be careful of what tire size you select because of factors such as fender well rubbing or wheel damage may occur if you are not careful in your selection. How do you know what size tire to put on your aftermarket wheels so that the speedometer and odometer aren't off? I have done some calculations to see what type of wheel/tire combination you will need to keep them running as close to factory specs as possible.
Lowering springs can lower your car anywhere from 1 inch to 1 3/4 inches and get rid of some of the fender gap left from the factory while also giving you better cornering capabilities. The companies that make lowering springs for the Maxima are Eibach (1 inch drop), H&R (1 1/2 inch drop), and Intrax (1 3/4 inch drop). Some people may not want to lower their Maxima due to a fear that they might lose their correct alignment and comfortable ride characteristics. The rubbing that some people experience during hard cornering or when entering/exiting driveways is more than likely due to the offset of the wheels. Likewise the poor tire wear characteristics can also result from a improper wheel offset that causes the tires to wear at a quicker rate. Generally you want to have your offset anywhere between 35-40mm for best results.
Shocks and struts are suspension components that offer that "Cadillac soft", or "Slot car" feel when going over bumps and through corners. Shocks and struts help dampen and/or magnify the bumps in the road, depending on the type of shock and/or struts you have installed. Non-adjustable shocks and struts help compliment other suspension upgrades like lowering springs. Adjustable shocks let you determine how you want your car to handle no matter what the driving condition. Ranging from drag racing to autocrossing conditions, adjustable shocks and struts allow you to tune your suspension to your driving needs. If you are looking to do your suspension right and are not afraid to spend a little more then try the Cattman Performance coilover suspension kit. A new addition to the suspension upgrade lineup is the Cattman Performance coilover suspension. You have better cornering capabilities by choosing among different spring rates while also having the ability to choose your ride height without having to take the whole setup off. All this and you keep your alignment within stock specs by the supplied caster/camber plates.
The front and rear strut tower braces make the Maxima handle better by tightening up either the front or rear suspension. This is accomplished by connecting the pair of front or rear struts with a single brace that makes the suspension act like a single unit instead of two separate suspension components.
What are sway bars and what do they do for my Maxima? Lets use an example to help illustrate: Suppose you are going in a straight line and all of the sudden you need to switch lanes for an emergency purpose. When you turn the wheel to move into the next lane quickly and continue on your straight line path, you have experienced your Maxima using its sway bars. Sway bars are not just for emergency lane changes, but they drastically help out when you want to really dig into a corner and or get through corners faster (S-turns in a slalom course).
Do you ever notice that your front wheel drive car sometimes tends to make the front wheels hop under hard acceleration? Now there is a product that helps reduce that problem for our beloved Maxima's. Warpspeed Performance has come through again and been the first company to pioneered such a product for our cars. These arms have a reputation of significantly reducing wheel hop which also aid in quicker acceleration by increasing traction. With these improved you should see decreased 1/4 mile times by decreasing wheel spin.
Subframe connectors are probably one of the most helpful components in stiffening up the chassis of your Maxima (save for a complete 4 or 6 point roll cage). Subframe connectors work by connecting the front and rear frame rails and making them act as a single unit just as the front and rear strut tower braces help connect the front or rear struts. This helps stiffen up the chassis and makes the car have less flex under acceleration and deceleration. The end result is that your chassis is more responsive to the drivers input thus making your Maxima handle better. Warpspeed Performance is the only producer of these subframe connectors and there are two different stages that you can buy. Stage 1 gives you just the subframe connectors that can be welded in. Stage 2 adds X-bracing that can be bolted onto the Stage 1 subframe connectors to allow you access to your exhaust system when you need.
How could a bushing make any difference in the way a car handles? Thing about this, you are cornering and your suspension components are compressing on a rubber bushing. That would make the ride kind of soft and squishy right? That's good coming from the factory, but what if you want to get that extra tweek out of your suspension? You can replace those stock rubber bushings at both ends of your front sway bar with polyurethane bushings. Polyurethane is a hard plastic like substance that will not crack and is much harder than rubber. Although this substance is hard, it will not give you a harder ride. It makes your car more nimble when you steer because your suspension doesn't compress on the stock rubber bushings.
How many of you have seen a car that is lowered further than you would expect a car's alignment to be able to handle? For some reason when people lower their cars over 1 3/4" they start having alignment problems, but you can correct your alignment by caster/camber plates. These plates allow you adjust how much caster and camber your suspension will have, thus regaining your proper alignment. This is not an advisory to go and lower your car beyond 1 3/4", but simply saying that you can correct alignment problems with this kit.
This will allow you to shift your gears quicker without that long throw between gears. The shifter is designed to reduce shifter movement by 30% and allows for smoother more accurate performance when shifting. They are available from Stillen in a non-adjustable form or through PaceSetter which comes as an adjustable model.
AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
After many miles on your automatic it will become more and more noticeable that your auto does not have the snappy shifting that it had when it was brand new. A way to restore your automatic transmissions quick and snappy shifting is by getting your valve body modified by either Mobiletek Racing or Level 10 transmissions. What this modification does is significantly reducing the time in between shifts but it will raise the transmission oil temperature. This is why if you do decide to do the upgraded valve body, it is highly recommended that you also get a transmission oil cooler (probably about $50-100) to help keep transmission oil temperatures low.
Since the car is so much more responsive to your throttle input, you will have to relearn at what throttle position you can make your car shift seem feather soft like stock or when you can nail it for all out performance shifting. Again, not a bad thing, but you won't be used to the way it will shift with the way your transmission is right now. The results of doing this modification are that you will notice that the 1-2 shift is quicker and harder than I have ever felt it and the 2-3 shift is noticeably quicker than before. This modification will require that you have 3 days worth of downtime:
1st day- You need to uninstall just the valve body and ship it Overnight A.M. to Mobiletek.
2nd day- Mobiletek receives your VB the next morning, modifies it, and ships it back to you
Overnight A.M.
3rd day- You get your VB back on the morning so that you can reinstall it.
You will also need to get a new Automatic transmission valve body gasket so you can reinstall it (costs around $14 from your local Nissan dealership) and 4-5 quarts of transmission fluid (recommend Redline Oils).
Also available from Level10 is a upgraded internals of your automatic transmission and a high stall torque converter to compliment the upgraded valve body. (Information courtesy of Level10)
Of course there is also an option of doing an Automatic to Manual transmission conversion. This of course means that you will have to find a 5-speed transmission (either new from a dealership or used from a junkyard) that you can install into your Maxima. This may be a bit costly, but you will be able to regain the extra power consumed by the AT while also shifting your own gears. If converting over from an Automatic to a Manual transmission alone is not enough for you, you could implant a Canadian spec Maxima (a.k.a. U.S.A. Infiniti I-30) Manual transmission with a Limited Slip Differential (L.S.D.) to handle more power. If you don't feel like doing a full blown Automatic to Manual transmission conversion there are still other options left open to you. A Maxima owner/enthusiasts by the handle "Shadow" on the Maxima.org BBS is working on a Limited Slip Differential (LSD) made specially for Automatic transmission owners of 4th Gen Maxima's (1995-1999). It has been said that this unit will work much like the A.T.B.D. for a 5-speed as described below. Pricing and further details will be posted as they become available.
MANUAL TRANSMISSION
For those of you who feel like your manual transmission is starting to lose some of its pep, there are ways to revitalize it. You can upgrade your clutch to a stronger unit that will handle more power and abuse as well as a lightened pressure plate that will allow your engine to rev faster due to its lighted rotational mass. If you find that you often have excessive wheelspin with your 5-speed, you can utilize an Active Torque Biasing Differential (A.T.B.D.) made by a company called Quaife and offered through Cattman Performance. The Quaife Differential powers both drive wheels under nearly all conditions, instead of just one. With the Maxima's open differential, a lot of precious power is wasted during wheelspin (of one wheel) under acceleration. This happens because the open differential shifts power to the wheel with less grip. The Quaife does the opposite by sensing which wheel has the better grip, and biasing power to that wheel. This happens smoothly and constantly, without ever completely removing power from the other wheel. (Information courtesy of Cattman Performance)
Whether or not you have a manual transmission or an automatic transmission you will benefit from using Redline transmission fluid for manual (MTF) or automatic (ATF) transmissions. What makes this transmission fluid better is that it's designed to provide excellent low-temperature shiftability and improved gear protection at higher temperatures. The synthetic base stocks used have tremendous thermal stability and provide the best film strength available. The unique combination of base stocks and additives allow Red Line transmission oils to carry higher loads compared to petroleum lubricants. The stability of these products allow them to be used for extended periods. (Courtesy of Redline Oils and Lubricants)
You can either get a panel type replacement that goes where your stock panel filter went or you can get a conical (velocity stack) type filter that replaces the stock airbox. The replacement aftermarket panel filter resembles your stock airfilter but is much more durable and also allows better airflow than your stock airfilter. The conical airfilter (resembles a velocity stack) allows a bigger quantity of air to be ingested by the engine for combustion while giving it a more aggressive note as RPM's increase. Cleaning your aftermarket airfilter every 20,000-30,000 mile will allow your engine to make more power and save on costs of replacing your paper airfilter for the lifetime of your car.
Available through Place Racing or Cattman Performance, this device will use cooler air from your fenderwell instead of the hot engine air in your engine compartment. This kit relocates your conical type airfilter (JWT Popcharger, K&N, or TPR airfilter) to the inside of your drivers side fenderwell where your engine can get a fresh supply of colder more densely packed air. Keep in mind that you will have to cut out a 3" hole to route the tubing into your drivers side fenderwell. This will in no way effect the structural integrity of your Maxima, it is only sheetmetal that you are cutting not the frame. I personally have never experienced water being sucked up by my CAI because the fenderlining in the fenderwell stops water from getting near my CAI. The CAI has been designed to locate the airfilter fairly high up in the fenderwell so water would have to get pretty high in order to reach it. Bottom line is that there is a slim to none chance that you will damage your engine by your CAI sucking up water. Each Pop kit comes with mounting brackets, tubing, a conical airfilter, instructions, while each Non-pop kit comes with mounting brackets, tubing, and instructions for those who already have an aftermarket K&N or JWT Popcharger airfilter.
For those of us with 4th Gen Maxima’s, we do have a problem when it comes to our intake manifold. The 4th Gen intake manifold is set in its ways since its intake runners are tuned for one operation position and lacks the ability to tune itself. These intake manifolds were good for overall performance, but it lacks the ability to adjust itself to suit the driving conditions that it is put under (all be it for better performance or fuel economy). These problems were pretty much corrected by Nissan when they designed a Variable Intake Manifold for the 5th Gen Maxima. The 5th Gen intake manifold corrected this problem by making their manifold able to adjust itself to suit the driving conditions at any time. This is possible by use of electronics in the central computer of the car which allows it to control how the intake manifold is operating by the electrical readings it gets from the engine.
Before the Variable Intake Manifold, 4th Gen owners only had the prospects of being able to Extrude Hone or port and polish their Intake Manifold to get more airflow through their Intake Manifolds. These were great alternatives, but they might have left something to be desired in everyday driving conditions (lessened gas mileage). This is why so many 4th Gen Maxima owners want to get their hands on the 5th Gen Variable Intake Manifold. They would be able to improve the performance capability and better airflow of their Intake Manifold while not sacrificing everyday driveability. However, the 4th Gen owners were unable to use the 5th Gen Variable Intake Manifold for one reason: The 4th Gen Maxima ECU does not have the parameters to recognize the need to open up a Variable Intake Manifold since that year Maxima was not equipped with that type of Intake Manifold. 4th Gen owners would be left up to their own ingenuity to create a switch that would reliably open and close the Variable Intakes in the manifold. The solution: Get a source of Middle East Variable Intake Manifolds that work off of engine generated vacuum pressure instead of ECU controlled electronics.
For more information about ordering these Intake Manifolds contact either of these users (Iansw or Finality) on the Maxima.org Forums. Pricing for these Intake Manifolds cost in the $600 range and can be installed in about 6-8 hours.
Some of you may know them as exhaust manifolds, others know them as headers. Both are the same and both will give you more power due to a better flowpath right out of the engine. The quicker you can get exhaust out of the engine and with the least amount of turbulence, the better the exhaust system can make horsepower. One Maxima enthusiast has made a set of custom headers that were ported to increase airflow, but the gains were small to none. For all of the time that it would take to do this modification, it is not a cost effective one to do. .
A fellow Maxima enthusiast named Brian Catts is making mandel bent y-pipes that will greatly increase airflow out of the exhaust system over stock. To date this part is for cars that run mainly OFF-ROAD or in other words this isn't for street use because the pre-cats have been eliminated. However, an emission test of a car in CA revealed that this part will pass emissions tests with a little bit of warm-up time for the main catalytic converter. The pipes are made up with mandrel bends, and the Y junction provides a very smooth transition, minimizing the angle joining the downpipes. A stainless steel flex pipe (similar to the original) is incorporated in the design. The Y-Pipe is a bolt-up replacement for the stock part, requiring no cutting, welding or alterations of any kind. Installation instructions and the two crushable O-gaskets that bolt to the manifolds, are included. It has been observed that anyone who is reasonably competent with a wrench can swap the pipes in 30-90 minutes.
A company called Random Technology makes high flow catalytic converters for Maxima's. I did a dyno test to see how much improvement could be gained with a 3" catalytic converter and the results where 6hp and 17 ft-lb's of torque gained at the wheels! I also did a test to see if it would pass emissions and it did with flying colors. You can see the results of the testing here. Although I tested a 3" catalytic converter it still made quite a difference in the amount of power that my Maxima had. I thought that "bigger was better" for testing but I would suggest using a 2.5 catalytic converter for street purposes and a 3" catalytic converter for supercharged or turbocharged applications.
How do underdrive pulley's work? The pulley is smaller in diameter than the pulley it replaces while also weighing a good bit less than the stock pulley. Any of the accessory pulleys (alternator, air pump, power steering, and water pump) including the crank/eccentric shaft pulleys can function as an underdrive pulley. Underdrive pulleys underdrive the accessories by changing the diameter of the crank/eccentric (main) pulley. This allows us to reduce the drain of each of the accessories off the crankshaft but also, more importantly this significantly reduces the weight of the crank pulley. This has been done while maintaining all accessory minimums, air conditioning efficiency, power steering feel, and voltage (minimum allowable voltage 12v) even at idle with everything electrical on in the car. Keep in mind that if you are going to install a supercharger you will not want to have an underdrive pulley on you car. The pulley would spin the blower slower than it would with a stock pulley thus creating lower hp. It is still a good modification for Maximas without superchargers. (Courtesy of Unorthodox Racing)
So you have done everything else to your Maxima possible and feel like stepping up a notch. Nitrous Oxide is a fairly cheap and safe modification but it tends to get a bad reputation. This is because some people have not install the system correctly or they got greedy with how much extra horsepower they are going to add with their Nitrous Oxide system. Nitrous oxide is made up of 2 parts nitrogen and 1 part oxygen (36% oxygen by weight). During the combustion process in an engine, at about 572 degrees F, nitrous breaks down and releases oxygen. This extra oxygen creates additional power by allowing more fuel to be burned. Nitrogen act to buffer or dampen the increased cylinder pressure helping to control the combustion process. Nitrous also has a tremendous "intercooling" effect by reducing the intake charge temperatures by 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Just as adding any extra horsepower, you can damage parts if you go for too much. A safe and reliable jetting size would be around 50hp. For automatic transmissions it is highly recommended that you install an upgraded valve body and a transmission cooler before undertaking Nitrous Oxide jetting sizes higher than 75hp. You can go higher but I don't know how much the motor can take so do this at your own risk. (Information courtesy of Nitrous Oxide Systems)
This is by far the most extreme modification that you could do to your Maxima. With the supercharger installed you will always have more power on demand but the price you pay for it is also higher. Stillen has estimated that power output raised the 190hp engine to 280hp and increased ft-lbs of torque from 205 to 265. The kit will run at a boost level of 6lbs of non-intercooled boost. Whether you have a 5-speed or an automatic transmission, it is a good idea to get a transmission cooler installed to keep its oil temperature lower. I would recommend that if install the supercharger kit on your automatic Maxima that you should also get your valve body modified so that it will be more capable of handling the increased power output. This is not a mandatory, but I would highly recommend it to prolong the life of you transmission.
A turbocharger kit is becoming an increasing viable alternative to supercharging your 4th Generation Maxima. A Maxima owner/enthusiast that goes by the handle "Turbo95Max" on Maxima.org has created a turbo kit that can bolted onto your car. This kit will allow for future upgrades like a bigger and more efficient turbo or an intercooler if you decide to do so in the future. It will produce horsepower numbers at 4lbs of boost close to what the Stillen supercharger kit produces running at 6lbs of boost. Currently the only application is for 4th Generation Maxima's with 5-speeds, but there is being some modification being done to accommodate automatic Maximas. An adjustment in the manufacturing process will allow all pipes to clear the automatic transmission (not a problem with the 5-speed version of the turbo kit). Prices are in the $3600 range and can be significantly lessened by going in as part of group deal of 5 or more. More information will be displayed as it is uncovered.
