Member Credit: Matt York

I just had the y-pipe installed today (5/2/98), so I have not been able to completely test it out, but my overall impression is very positive.

The installation took 2.5 hours (cusom design/install) and involved the cutting and re-welding of several components of the exhaust system. The O2 sensor was moved, and some new piping was added.

My first impression has been that the engine reves MUCH more smoothly and quickly. It also seems to run smoother at higher RPMs. Noise has not increased very much, but I did notice a difference.

Pictures:

Stock Y-pipe:

You can see that the stock y-pipe has two main sources of restriction. First, the runner from the rear exaust manifold heads towards the FRONT of the car before it enters the y-pipe at a 90 degree angle. Second, the stock y-pipe is made of two halves that are welded together, this does not allow a smooth coupling of the pipes.

Stock Y-pipe Removal:

A Sawzall and a cutting torch were used to remove the heat shields from the stock y-pipe. Then the stock y-pipe, the flex tube, the O2 sensor, and the mounting flange to the rear exhaust manifold were removed.

New Y-pipe Installation:

The rear exhaust manifold mounting flange was saved and welded onto the new y-pipe.

The O2 sensor was re-attached between the flex pipe and the catalytic converter. The O2 sensor was relocated because the flex pipe had to be moved 3″ towards the rear of the car to make room for the y-pipe.

In this picture you can see the new Y-pipe. It is made out of mandrel bent stainless steel.

Finished Installation:

Here you can see the entire system. It is made of larger diameter tubing than the stock system, and the front and rear pipes come together in a less restrictive coupling.

All of the weld joints were painted to prevent rust.

Member Credit: Bryan Tisch

Below are the procedures that I used in performing the replacement of six of my fuel injectors. I put them on this web page to serve as guidance for you, but do not guaranty the results nor do I proclaim this is the correct procedure, though I reference the Nissan Factory Service Manual, hereinafter (“FSM”), throughout. If you have any doubt on your capability in performing this replacement, take your car to a certified mechanic.

What you need :
1. Upper intake manifold gasket; part number 14033-89E00
2. Lower intake manifold gasket; part number 14032-89E01
3. Throttle body gasket; part number 16175-89E10
4. A.A.C valve gasket
5. New / remanufactured fuel injectors 

a. see the picture below, which depicts the two injectors with different connectors.
b. The 90 -91 injectors have the metal clip (smaller) harness connector and the 92-94’s have clip-type (bigger) harness connector.
c. Also, Nissan made both blue and black dot injectors for our cars. I have been told you can use either one, but can’t mix and match. I doubt it would hurt mixing and matching though, just so long as you get the right one for your car. The dot is on the harness connector.
d. I picked up my remanufactured units for $37.95/ injector after the core deposit refund from Direct Automotive Product.

The injector on the left is a 92-94 injector, and the right is a 90-91, and probably an 89 too.

The steps I performed :
1. Release fuel pressure to zero 
a. I did this by unhooking the upper hose from the fuel filter after pulling the fuel pump fuse

2. Separate the accelerator cables from the throttle body. 
a. they easily just slide off. Tilt the butterfly valves back to get them.
b. Remove the cabling and routing from the intake plenum.

3. Remove spark plug wires from spark plugs.

4. Remove the intake elbow leading to the throttle body. 
a. there are three bolts, the middle one is the longer one and routes the spark plug wires.
b. These bolts are torqued at 13 – 16 ft lbs.

For steps 6 – 9, basically remove necessary hoses and vacuum lines so you can free the plenum for removal. I took notes on a few of the items I might have forgotten when putting things back together.

5. Remove the A.A.C. valve 
a. there are four 5 mm hex bolts holding this in. remove the harness connector also.
b. There is an “S” shaped hose connecting the AAC valve to the plenum, remove this also.

6. Disconnect throttle sensor

7. Disconnect the P.C.V. hoses behind the intake plenum

8. Disconnect vacuum hoses under the throttle body, from the E.G.R. control valve, master brake cylinder ,etc.

9. Remove the E.G.R. flare tube 
a. this is held on by two nuts. I think they are 10mm in size.

10. Remove the upper intake plenum 
a. there are eleven six millimeter hex bolts that hold down the plenum at 13 – 16 ft lbs.
b. There is a special torque sequence that I observed in both loosening them and tightening them down. Please refer to the picture at the bottom of the screen for that sequence.

   

Less the spark plug wires and the throttle body (my procedure keeps it attached to the plenum), your engine should look something like the above before taking the lower intake manifold off. Pictures are courtesy of Matt Blehm.

11. Remove the lower intake manifold collector from the engine. 
a. Use the loosening sequence below for taking the manifold off and putting it back on. Again, reference the picture at the bottom of the screen.

12. Remove the engine earth harness from behind the plenum.

13. Remove the fuel injector harness wires 
a. For the 92,93,94’s this is easy, as you just apply pressure on the harness and pull
b. For the 90 and 91’s (and presumably 89’s) there is a metal wire clip that you must pull out or partially out to remove the connector.

14. Remove fuel injector(s) 
a. I used a pair of pliers and gripped them tightly, turning the injectors back and forth before pulling upward. All came out somewhat easily, except my last one.
b. There should be two O rings per injector for the 90 -91 injectors. I am not sure the 92,93,94 injectors have two. The lower O ring will likely stay in the fuel rail hole upon removal of the injector. Just stick your finger in and retrieve it. Be sure to replace with new “O” rings, per the FSM.

15. Replace injector(s) 
a. I applied motor oil to the O rings and carefully inserted the new fuel injector. Instead of just pushing downward immediately, you should turn it back and forth, while applying downward pressure. You will see and feel the injector seat in how it should be. Before replacing, assure that the new ones spec out correctly with regard to resistance. The range of resistance allowed by Nissan is  10 –14 ohms .

16. Clean intake plenum, lower intake manifold, and intake runners. 
a. I used Carb clean and a Valvoline product. I sprayed a good amount of Carb clean down the intake runners and used a cloth to wipe the dirt out. You may want to try a toothbrush.
b. Be sure to completely scrape away all remaining gasket material on both surfaces so as not to allow an intake leak after assembly.

17. Reinstall all parts in reverse order, keeping in mind the torque sequence and use the torque wrench so as to tighten the following to these torque specifications, per the FSM: 
a. plenum hex bolts  13 – 16 ft. lbs .
b. lower intake manifold hex bolts,  13 – 16 ft. lbs .
c. A.A.C valve bolts –  4.6 – 6.1 ft lbs .
d. intake elbow bolts  13 – 16 ft. lbs .

 

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Member Credit: Craig Brace

This procedure is for the installation of an underdrive pulley. This requires removal of all 3 drive belts and possibly the starter. Nissan recommends changing drive belts every 30,000 miles. They should be checked periodically too. This procedure applies to the VE30DE engine, but is very similar for the VG30E.

My car was leaking oil out of the front main seal (behind the crankshaft pulley) so I figured if I was going to have to take off that pulley, I should go ahead and put a better one back on. For the VE engine (1992-1994 SE only), ASP Racing sells a lightened, smaller crankshaft pulley:

Auto Specialties underdrive pulley systems increase engine horsepower by reducing the amount of power required to drive external accessories. For example, the alternator, power steering, water pump and air conditioner all rob horsepower from the engine. By replacing factory-sized crank and accessory drive pulleys with a resized pulley, the accessories are slowed, resulting in more horsepower available to drive the rear wheels. Typically, a set of Auto Specialties street pulleys will increase output by 12 to 15 horsepower, resulting in quarter mile time improvements of .2 to .25 seconds.

I got mine at RPMoutlet.com. For the VG engine (89-91 SE and 89-94 GXE), Unorthodox Racing sells a lightened, smaller pulley. You can get this from Courtesy Nissan.  Because the new pulley is smaller, you will need smaller sized drive belts which run about $10 each from most parts stores. Here are the Gates parts numbers for the belts you need (note: ASP gives a different part number for the power steering belt, but this is the correct one). I got mine at PepBoys and they are Dayco brand; the numbers are easily converted to Dayco numbers – 325K5, 378K4, 460K4. The number next to K means the number of grooves in the belt and the other number has something to do with the length (probably the circumference).

	VE30DE	VG30E
Alternator	K050323	K040292
Air Conditioning	K040460	K040460
Power Steering (also drives water pump)	K040378	K040395

 

As you can see, the new belts fit just inside the old belts:

Tools you will need: 

• Various sockets: 10,12,14 and 27mm (for the crankshaft pulley bolt); you may need one or two other sizes, but nothing special besides the 27
• 12mm open end wrench
• Socket extension
• Torque wrench
• Breaker bar
• Flat head screwdriver
• Impact wrench would be very helpful, but not necessary
• Maybe: pulley remover

This procedure isn’t that complicated, but if you haven’t ever changed drive belts, it may be a good idea to have someone else check over your work before you put everything back together (especially important for power steering and alternator belts). Read through the instructions first before beginning any work. Also, you should buy a new front oil seal for your car. It’s about $3 from Courtesy Nissan and maybe $5 or 6 from a local dealer; you’ll have everything off to change it and you wouldn’t want to have to do this again if it starts leaking in a few weeks from now. The part for the VE engine is 13510-97E10; I’m not sure of the part number for the VG.

First, remove the right front wheel and remove the splash shields that cover the side and below the drive belts. There are a couple 10mm bolts holding these on. You should now be able to see the crankshaft pulley and drive belts

Start by loosening the 12mm bolt on the air conditioner’s idler pulley – this is the small pulley just in front of the A/C compressor. This will be more of a pain if you have ABS, but it’s still not that bad. I used the flat open end of a 12mm wrench to get the bolt and then loosed it that way. Dont remove this bolt, just loosen it a few turns. Now there is a bolt pointing straight up just behind that pulley that you need to adjust to move the pulley down (see picture below). If this bolt is hard to turn, make sure the bolt through the middle of the idler pulley is loose enough; dont force it or you could damage the idler pulley tracks. You need to lower it enough so the belt has enough slack to pull off of the A/C compressor. The pictures below are with the large radiator hose removed so you can see where the bolt is.

Now you need to remove the alternator belt. Loosen (do not remove) the bolt at the bottom of the alternator that goes into the alternator adjustment bolt (first picture). Also, loosen the alternator pivot bolt near the top of the alternator (second pic). Now you can loosen the alternator adjusting bolt (third pic). In my case, the bolt loosened but alternator did not move, just move the alternator with your hand to the point where the bolt is tight again. Loosen this until you can pull this belt off.

Now you need to remove the power steering belt (which also runs the water pump). There is another idler pulley for this system. Just loosen the center nut for that and lower the idler pulley until you have enough slack to remove the belt.

If you are not putting on an underdrive pulley and just want to change drive belts, skip the next couple steps:

• Remove bolt in the center of the crankshaft pulley. This is where you need the 27mm socket. This bolt is on very tight; if you have an impact wrench, this is a great time to use it. Otherwise, you’ll probably need a long breaker bar. Chiltons recommends removing the starter and placing a flat blade (your hubcap removal tool in your Nissan jack set in the trunk should work fine) in the teeth of the flywheel/driveplate.
• If you have a manual transmission, put the car in 5th gear. The starter is easily removed; if you are going to remove it, you should unplug the negative terminal of the battery first so you dont short anything while removing the starter’s power wire. The starter is only held on by a large wire, one 14mm nut and one 14mm bolt.
• If you remove the rubber protective covering over the large wire, you will find a nut under there; just remove that and the large wire will come off. You will also need to unclip a smaller ground wire from it’s harness. Then you can remove the 14mm nut and bolt that hold the starter onto the transmission. After these are loose, the starter will just pull off and you should be able to see the flywheel.

  
If you have an automatic, there should be a small cover over the lower part of the transmission that you can remove to see the driveplate.

Then wedge something in between the teeth and prop it against something solid. You should now be able to break loose the crankshaft pulley bolt.

Now you can remove the crankshaft pulley. Mine could be pulled off by hand; if not, a 2 or 3 jaw puller can be used to pull it off. You will notice how much larger and heavier the stock pulley is compared to the new pulley.

 The old oil seal needs to be removed now. It is just around the inner edge of where the pulley was. Use a flat head screwdriver to gently pry this out. Be very careful not to scratch or damage anything other than the seal. Now the new seal just needs to be pushed in place (you should lube the outer edge with some engine oil, the inner edge is already lubed). Put it in place and gently push the edges in; I used a rubber mallet to help push it in. The first picture shows the seal still on and the second shows the seal removed.

 The new pulley will be very tight to get on. Some have hammered it on, but I would NOT recommend this. I used my dremel to shave off some material from the inside diameter until it fit better. On mine, I could feel a small difference in diameter between the inside edge of the new pulley and the rest of the inside diameter; I ended up dremeling the inside until it was all the same diameter as the end portion. Just use sandpaper, a dremel or whatever to remove a small amount of metal in there, but try to do it in a circular way so it’s even throughout. When I was done with this, the new pulley fit on better. I got it on part way and then put the large bolt in the middle and tightened it to help push the pulley on. Now you need to torque the pulley bolt to 123-130 ftlbs for the VE or 90-98 ftlbs for the VG. You can now put the starter back on (or cover plate for the automatic tranny). Also, you can now reconnect the battery if you unplugged it.

Now you are ready to put the belts back on. This is just the opposite of how you removed them – put new belt over the pulleys and tighten the adjustment bolt and then tighten a bolt to lock the adjustment (and for alternator, tighten pivot bolt). If your belts are too loose, they may make a squeling sound when you start the car and may slip a little. If they are too tight, they could cause lots of other problems so it’s important to get the tension right. The picture below shows the test point for each bolt as indicated by the arrow. If you push or pull down on this point it should move a certain distance for each new belt. Alternator: 6.5-7.5mm, A/C: 5-6mm, power steering: 6.5-7.5mm. This is where it would be helpful to have someone who has done drive belts before to check the tension for you to be sure.

Once the belts are on and tighten, check the 2 idler pulleys and the alternator adjustment bolts to make sure they are all tight. Start up the car and take a look at the belts and pulley. My pulley looked like it was a little off center, but I realized it was just the washer in the middle of the pulley was tricking me because of the silver color of the pulley and the black of the washer. Look at the edges to be sure. Check that all the belts are turning smoothly and are not at all crooked or not in their grooves. Now just replace the splash shields and that should be it. Check the pulley and belts again in a couple days just to make sure everything is still in place.

    

Member Credit: Bryan Tisch

I had a custom “y pipe” for my older white Maxima. In actuality, it is an “f” pipe that aids in the exiting of exhaust. Unlike a true Y pipe, the rear manifold exit drops down straight into the pipe from the front manifold. The exhaust gas is freer flowing and it certainly made a difference, but not as much as the true Y pipe.

I did things differently with my black car. I wanted it to be faster and more responsive than the white Maxima and I have accomplished that. I installed the Cattman Y pipe. It is a completely bolt-on piece that was not terribly difficult to install. I recommend taking the time and soaking all the bolts/nuts prior to taking them off. You will also need to purchase exhaust gaskets, which are also shown in my installation pictures below.

In comparing the pipes, you can see how the flow is impeded in the stock pipe. Also note that the Cattman pipe has a longer drop from the front manifold. I believe this causes a problem with the pipe hitting the sway bar. Also note how the stock pipe drops a bit in order to get to the Catalytic converter, this just goes to show you that the stock pipe sits higher. If the Cattman pipe would have incorporated these two things I mentioned, it would have plenty of clearance from the sway bar. I believe Warpspeed performance solved this aggravating problem.

Tools you will need:

1. Metric Socket set (some SAE may actually work though, as I found out for my front catalytic converter bolts)

2. Metric wrenches (to reach up in some of the more difficult bolts

3. Breaker bar (at least an 18 inch socket wrench as these bolts are tough to take off)

4. Liquid Wrench spray (or a similar product- I used a synthetic Valvoline product)

5. 3 gaskets (two for the manifold connections, and the other for the catalytic converter.

5. Goggles! (else you’ll get all kinds of crap in your eye)

6. A light for under the car

7. Duct tape and aluminum foil if it hits your sway bar after your done (because of a soft rear motor mount)

8. A jack and jack stands

Here’s the pipe and the gaskets I used.

Step1 : Patrick using the lubrication. Valvoline synthetic lubricant was used to loosen all bolts. My advice is to let them soak on the bolts for a few hours prior to trying to remove them. This will make your job much easier.

Step 2:  Yours truly, taking off the shields and brackets. At this point, the jack in the picture is a backup in case my jack stands fail, don’t worry, no upward weight on the transmission there.

Step 3 : Using the breaker bar to take off the Catalytic converter bolts.

Step 4:  Loosened those nuts on front manifold.

Step 5: Instead of taking this bracket off like the most of you probably did, I took my electric hacksaw and sawed off the end of it, giving the Y pipe just enough room. Note how the bracket will work with the crossmember and help absorb an impact if I hit something low. Pictured is me holding the piece that I cut off.

Step 6 : Note that the Y pipe is protected both by the bracket and the cross member. I was lucky to get one that did not hang lower than the cross member. However, the sway bar problem that I have and that I mentioned in my FAQ’s could have been avoided if this drop wasn’t so severe. It looks like there is plenty of clearance now, but the car/engine is jacked up somewhat. This is how it should have been!

Step 7 : The finished product, before hooking up the catalytic converter hangers.

The result? A lot more power between 3000 and 4500 rpm, however, the pipe hangs too low and vibrates on the sway bar during moderate to heavy acceleration. I ended up passively fixing the problem by padding the sway bar. In addition to my padding of the sway bar, I had to dent the pipe a little bit.

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