Credit: Alex Williamson
Finally got a new exhaust made! 3” Single exit with a vibrant resonator and muffler. Going to pick her up tomorrow and I’ll post some sound clips!
Community Member Credit: Eddy
Just a lil knowledge share on VQ engine Info for Nissan Maxima’s. I know many probably never new what the “K” stands for. VQ30DE, VQ30DE-K, VQ30DE-T, VQ35DE.
VQ –– Engine Family
3.0/3.5 –– Liter Displacement
D –– DOHC (Dual Overhead Camshafts)
E –– Multi Point Fuel Injection
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K –– Kaizen (Japanese word which translates to “improvement”. It was only applicable to 00/01 5thgens. Basically an improvement over the 1995-1998 VQ30DE. The firewall plates did not specify the “K” in the name plate. So you will still see VQ30DE.)
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T –– Turbo Version of Engine. Mostly JDM vehicles.
Credit: Eddy
There has been a lot of discussion in the Nissan Maxima community around the crankshaft pulley and whether it’s a dampener or balancer. Despite how often people get them confused, a crank pulley, a vibration damper, and a harmonic balancer are three different things. Kind of like they’re, their, and there. The crank pulley on a VQ acts as a vibration damper, but it is not a harmonic balancer. The VQ is internally balanced.
What is often called Harmonic Balancer is really a Harmonic Damper. Nissan doesn’t use either term. The factory service manual identifies the part as Crankshaft Pulley. The main purpose of a harmonic damper is to control harmonic vibration, not to balance the engine’s rotating assembly. It has nothing to do with engine balance. That’s the elastomer ring that binds the outer pulley to the inner pulley. Just about every car manufacturer uses a thin rubber ring between two concentric pieces of a crankshaft pulley. The amount of damping can be varied by how thick the ring is.
Additional Info:
As for the underdrive pulley vs. light-weight stock pulley… the light-weight stock size pulley will help you rev faster and may free up some horsepower because it is lighter than the stock pulley. An underdrive pulley (UDP) will do the same things, but it will do them a little better because it is smaller and even lighter, and, due to its smaller size, also takes less power away from your engine to drive your alternator and air conditioning compressor. Most people don’t really notice the loss in electrical power or AC efficiency unless they have big audio systems.
It’s important to note that both pulleys are solid and do not have vibration dampers. Also, the UDP will require you to use a smaller accessory belt. Take those as you will.
Most UDP failures have been the pulley itself due to cheap quality. The majority of VQ owners have never had an issue with “upgraded” pulleys.
Community Member Credit: DennisMik
I was cleaning out my garage and I came across an old radiator cooling fan motor that I had replaced on my neighbor’s 2000 Maxima. Since I had nothing better to do (which is why I was cleaning the garage), I decided to take the motor apart and document it with photos.
The motor was replaced because it was very noisy. If you grabbed the fan blade, there was lots of wobble, meaning the bearing was gone.
Photo # 1 – Front view (fan blade side).
Photo # 2 – Rear view
Photo # 3 – Motor split open.
Photo # 4 – Rear cover showing brush holders. Note that there are 4 brushes. That’s because this is a 2 speed motor that uses a dual wound armature to create 2 motors in one.
Photo # 5 – 2 of the 4 brushes. Note that the one on the left is only half the length of the other. I don’t know how long a new brush is, but I bet it would be at least 3 times the length of the brush on the right.
Photo # 6 – Front half of motor with armature in the case.
Photo # 7 – Front motor case with armature removed. There are 4 permanent magnets around the inside of the housing. It was actually fairly hard to pull the armature out of the housing. When I split the motor apart, it was full of a fine soot-like powder that was very similar to the powder you encounter when you work on brakes. Interesting difference with this power is that it was attracted to the magnets. I regret not taking a picture of the powder clinging to the magnets.
Photo # 8 – The commutator of the armature. The severe wear that the brushes caused is probably due to the fact that the rear bearing went bad and allowed the armature to wobble. You can’t tell from this picture, but the armature shaft is also worn to a smaller diameter.
This motor is not constructed to allow repairs. The case pieces are crimped together and when I did split the case open, I ripped 3 of the brushes off of their wires. There doesn’t seem to be any provision to hold the brushes retracted and fit the end plate onto the armature.
Owner: Andre Nicholson
Year: 2005
Model: Altima
Color: Black
Engine: Gen2 VQ35DE
Transmission: 6-Speed Manual
Trim: SE-R
Credit: Finkle
I noticed the 5th gen injectors are 4 hole, and the 5.5 gen are 18 hole. The flow rates are slightly different 306cm/min – 5th gen 294cm/min – 5.5 gen. Besides that, they looked identical.
The article talks about how more holes help atomization. So my thought was, why not try some 18 hole injectors in my 5th gen LIM and see if it helps.
Here is a pic of the 5.5 gen injectors (missing the pintle cap. Many of the caps were stuck in the LIM. I had to pry them out and pop them back on.
First a little back story on my 00VI swap:
August of last year I completed the 00VI swap with the 4th gen LIM and IACV. 5th gen TB, UIM (obviously), and EGR delete.
June of this year I swapped the the 4th gen LIM with the 5th gen LIM. (I had no way to tune at the time of my initial 00VI. I added a Emanage Blue in the spring) I felt a little bit of improvement over the 4th gen LIM. Not a big boost, but every little bit helps. Tuning is not my strong spot, so I’m running on a basic street tune. I’ll work on getting the map fine tuned when I get around to it. WOT runs 10-12 AFR.
I took a quick trip to the junkyard and picked up 6 5.5 gen injectors. They fit right in, no issues at all with the install, even the plugs are the same. It was more of a pain to take the UIM off for the third time in a year. I cleaned them first, just as I did with the 5th gen 4 hole injectors.
I didn’t touch the tune, I figured the difference was small enough I could take on the task of tuning later.
My first impression is WOW. These new injectors are great!!! I can’t believe I haven’t heard about this on the .org
Mid throttle low RPM made the most improvement. Not a lot of gain at high RPM, but no losses. The best gains are below 3500 rpm at mid throttle. Idle seems a little smoother to boot. This is a great mod, especially if you are doing an 00VI with the 5th gen LIM. I can’t get over how much more power I have below 3000rpms. Without touching the tune from the 5th gen injectors, I’m running 12-12.7 at WOT. SO that problem seemed to take care of itself.
It’s too early to tell, but I’m hoping my gas mileage might go up slightly also. You know the spot your used to resting your foot to keep a certain speed (25mph, 55mph, etc.) I had to re-learn my position, I found myself slowly accelerating with my current foot position.