Nissan Maxima Tuning

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The Maxima is a good car modification project to carry out. Take your time and research Maxima tuning to avoid making the usual tuning errors we frequently .

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more torque out of the top end.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

Tuning modifications.

These are the modified parts are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

Getting the best tuning mods for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Remap, Panel air filter, Sports exhaust, Alloy wheels.

Stage 2 mods: Power/Sport clutch, high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head, Fast road cam.

Stage 3 mods: Engine balancing, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Sports gearbox, Competition cam.

You really need to keep as much low end torque as you can and aim to achieve a long power band rather than a narrow top end power hike.

In this article we shall give a little insight into the world to the best mods for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance mod.A fast road camshaft often proves to be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do with a single part fitted to your engine.

The exhaust and intake durations play a large part in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

When pushing up the power you will need to ramp up to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Using high octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from detonation or premature ignition on your Nissan project after fitting other modified modifications. Bigger injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine.

A fuel pump will only deliver a finite amount of fuel, so you may need to uprate this if your injectors are demanding more fuel.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Air induction kits are only beneficial to boost power if the cars air intake is restricted! Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NO LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

Derestricting the air feed into the engine is the primary part of tuning so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean only if you find the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound great but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not really increase power and usually rob you of power on most cars.

Do not go with the largest exhaust you can buy this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Getting a professionally ported and polished head with larger valves can fully maximise your power gains. A good multi plate fast road upgraded clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never cut corners or ask the standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods we recommend for your Maxima are Remapping or piggy back ecu, fast road cam and air intake and exhaust.

Remaps offer massive power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NASP engines the benefits are doubtful. However a remap on a NASP engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods.

We've also seen some tuners toying with twincharging applications and making some seriously high power hikes.

Adding forced induction will see big power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is generally cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to fit a working turbo. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost builds exponentially with engine speed.

It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is correlating to engine speed on a linear curve. Adding forced induction will usually require a lower compression ratio or water injection.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are usually your first port of call for the Maxima.

We found that most Maxima factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -0.9 to 1.5, and some negative camber will greatly improve your cornering and handling.

We would go to a maximum drop of 29mm - 36 mm on most models. You risk grounding out if you go lower than this.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Due to the fact that alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tyres) for your car, a good directional tread pattern tyre can really enhance your cars handling. The drawback to large alloy wheels on your Maxima is that you're altering your final drive ratio and this will have a negative effect on acceleration and performance.

With this in mind try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel your OEM settings. In all cases avoid going larger than 18 inches.

There is a more updated version of this Nissan Maxima Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

For more information on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Maxima options in more detail with our Maxima owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Nissan tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Nissan. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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