Engine:
VQ35DE
( baseline information from Nissan)
| Engine Type |
 |
3.5L DOHC 24-valve V6 w/ variable valve timing, 215
cubic inches |
| Horsepower |
|
245 hp @ 5,800 rpm |
| Torque |
|
246 lb-ft @ 4,400 |
| Transmission |
|
4-speed electronically controlled automatic with gate-style
shifter |
| Curb Weight |
|
3,225 lbs |
| MPG |
|
EPA city 21, highway 26
we are now getting average of 29.4 mpg city/highway
combined! |
| Acceleration |
|
0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds |
| Chassis |
|
L31 |
| our base whp |
|
193 (horsepower at the wheels) |
|
Weighing in stock at just 37 pounds
heavier than
Nissan 350Z the Nissan Altima packs serious horsepower potential.
Both the Nissan Altima and the 350Z share the Nissan VQ35DE
V6 engine. But only the Nissan Altima give you the room to
bring home the groceries.
Currently Installed:
Injen cold air intake
Greddy dual exhaust
Exhaust headers
Carbon Fiber dash kit
Unorthodox Racing crank pulley
Custom front bumper
Side Skirts
Headlight eyelids
Custom Grille
Tail light covers
and a few other surprises are on the way ... |
Nissan
Altima Base Dyno Test Results: [view
chart]
All broken in and ready to go, it's off to the dyno for a
base line to see exactly what horsepower gains we achieve
with our performance enhancements.
We'll have to admit we were a little disappointed with our
baseline dyno, but in it's defense the car had been driven
over an hour just 30 minutes before the test was run. It's
best to do a run on a colder engine for higher results but
we were testing it at driving temperature and it was a cool
day of about 72° .
The highest horsepower we achieved was 193.3 and the torque
was 205.4 with the car completely stock. Please note that
there is always of loss of power past the transmission. Manufacturer
baseline dynos are based on horsepower and torque at the flywheel.
We are running our dynos at the wheel. The average loss of
horsepower for front wheel drives is in the neighborhood of
10-15%.
|
Nissan Altima
Performance Enhancements:
Cold
Air Intake
We began our engine performance modifications with the addition
of an Injen cold air intake. More air means more horsepower.
We were really surprised with the immediate difference in
accelerator responsiveness and general "get-up-and-gone"
factor! Let's just say the grin on our face said it all. The
car which had a lot of get-up-and-go to begin with was now
get-up-and-gone! All hesitations were eliminated.
We achieved an extraordinary gain with this impressive 3"
Injen Cold Air Intake for the 3.5L Nissan Altima in mirror
polished aluminum. Injen intakes feature mandrel bent piping
and quality silicone hoses taking on both great form and function.
Horsepower gains with a cold air intake
[view
results dyno chart].
The intake took us about 45 minutes to install going step
by step with the instructions. If you go with the cold air
intake you'll probably have to remove your drivers side inner
fender well to get the filter in place although the instructions
stated removal of front bumper would be needed. The ram air
intakes wont be quite as involved to install. Injen intake
for the Nissan Altima cold air intake comes with 3"
aluminum tubing which is larger than the competition and our
dyno produced a couple more horsepower as well.
|
We did have a mpg gain with the installation of the Injen
cold air intake of approximately 4.6 mpg highway at 65 mph
and 32 miles per gallon city. Of course we were having to
keep our foot off of it, but it is a significant gain over
the base gasoline consumption provided by Nissan. All hesitation
to the throttle has been completely eliminated which makes
this already competitive street machine really get up and
go.
Fujita
also has a cold air intake for the Nissan Altima
Supercharger? Maybe. There's
already one available for the 350Z and we just installed a
VF Engineering supercharger on our Volkswagen Golf GTI. Creating
a supercharger for the Altima will require the use of an extended
supercharger drive shaft and quite a bit of relocating of
overflow tanks and hoses, but is not impossible. |
 |
Underdrive
Pulley
We have installed a light weight crank pulley by Unorthodox
Racing of course and we'll be running a dyno for our results
soon. Nissan Altima pulleys.
There have been some articles stating increased engine vibration
with the pulleys for the Nissan Altima, but we have not experienced
this with the use of an Unorthodox Racing crank pulley. Nor
have we experienced less powerful air conditioning and we
are here in Texas. |
Nissan Altima Exhaust:
We've chosen the Greddy cat-back Evolution exhaust system
for our Nissan Altima. Our altima is now sporting the Greddy
dual exhaust Large 155mm tips and stainless steel mufflers.
The exhaust has a deep mellow tone and impressive tips. Besides
just looking good there was a definate improvement in performance.
The stock exhaust on the V6 has a large crimp just behind
the resonator which to our disbelief was smashed in half for
about a foot of pipe and a very large resonator. You can definitely
hear the car, but it's more like a camaro. Very deep tone
to this system. Import muscle car? We think so! Sounds Great.
The exhaust was a complete direct replacement the only extra
step that we took was to ground the exhaust to the chassis.
One of the easiest systems I've seen. The car sounds angry.
It is a bit louder that stock and very deep sounding and no
harsh resonance. If it's bothersome you can always put sound
dampening under your carpet and there's also a spray application
you can use under the car. But it's nice being able to set
off Mercedes car alarms in parking garages at will. We know
with the addition of headers the sound will change slightly,
but we're going with stainless steel for the low tones the
exhaust makes. |
Greddy Evo exhaust system for our Nissan Altima Seriously
deep sounding exhaust and extreme 118mm tips for the Nissan
Altima.
The difference in horsepower was very noticeable! The estimated
gains from the headers are 21 horsepower. But we have also
installed the Greddy EVO exhaust and cold air intake by Injen
as well so it's time to hit the dyno for a few runs. Dyno's
to be posted soon.
Not only do the headers perform but they are beautiful as
well. Super clean welds and highly polished mandrel bent piping
stand heads above other brands including Nismo!
|
18" chrome
Zenetti Mystiks and Kumho ecsta Supra 712.
These are our dress wheels when the car is not at the track.
We have that deep dish wheel look in a front wheel drive offset
and Kumho Tires supplies the sticking power. We have installed
Nissan logo center caps on our chrome wheels for a finished
look.
The Nissan Altima can go up to a 19x8 inch wheel without any
rubbing in the rear but for this urban car we're going to
stick with the 18's and 8 inch width. We haven't lowered our
car just yet but lowering springs are available and coil-overs
for the Nissan Altima and front / rear anti sway bars are
available now.
|
Nissan
Altima Wheels:
18" chrome Zenetti Mystiks and Kumho ecsta Supra 712
Tires.
The original wheels were a 17 inch with 215/55VR17 with a
diameter of 26.3 inches. We want to use a maximum footprint
without the higher cost.
A 245/45/18
Tire has a diameter of 26.7 in (T1-S $227.44) 7.5-(8.0)-9.0
Wheel Width Range
A 225/40/18
Tire has a diameter of 25.1 in (T1-S $180.09) 7.5-(8.0)-9.0
Wheel Width Range
A 245/40/18
Tire has a diameter of 25.7 in (T1-S $205.99) 8.0-(8.5)-9.5
Wheel Width Range
Nissan Altima lowering springs:
sport
springs or lowering suspension items.
|
|
Nissan Altima Drilled and Slotted Brake Rotors and Performance
Brake Pads
SPP32306F, SPP32312F,
SPPMD905, SPPMD815
|
  |
|
If you are considering up or down sizing
your wheels and do not stay with the stock diameter your
speedometer will not read true. For more information on
custom programming and performance modules for your Nissan.
[Click
here]
Nissan Altima Tires:
Kumho tires get a great rating from us as well. Although
not as sticky as the parada's the Kumho gives great gripping
power with the ability to do a burn out on the drag strip.
Originally we went with the Yokohama Tires Parada Spec-2
215/40/18 which are a lower profile tire for better cornering
and responsiveness. The Yokohama's are a silica compound
which provides higher tread-wear, acceleration and dry/wet
grip braking ability. And stick your car to the pavement
like glue.
|
Tread Wear
|
Traction
|
Temperature
|
wt |
diameter
|
tread |
max load |
|
300
|
AA
|
A
|
24 lbs
|
24 "
|
7.6
|
1102@50
|
We were very impressed with the loss of "squibbing"
(squibbing is what we call the squishy and jerky feeling
while accelerating in a turn). Both of these factors greatly
help the maneuverability and control especially in turns
or changing lanes quickly. The tires get an awesome rating
from us for absolute stickiness! All grip with no slip!
Altima Suspension:
Nissan was so kind as to install a sport tuned suspension
package with our stock vehicle taking attributes from their
motorsports line. We haven't lowered our car just yet but
lowering springs are available and coil-overs are on the
way! [Nissan Altima sport springs or lowering suspension
items].
Intrax Suspension Nissan Altima lowering springs
are also avalable.
The Nissan Altima already has road noise maybe that's something
they've fixed with the 05 model we haven't had the chance
to test drive one. We are looking into a complete suspension
urethane bushing replacement kit which should help with
the road noise and improve performance. There is a tech
note out about the alignment of the front end suspension.
If your Altima feels at all lose or odd I would have the
dealership do a complete inspection. The car felt like it
was tugging back at the wheel originally although a complete
alignment had been recently done. Our car had to have the
suspension inspected for wear and wheel alignment adjusted,
a bushing replaced and the bolts which attach the suspension
to the frame were reset and tightened. One side effect of
the suspension adjustment was that the torque steer felt
diminished considerably. If you need to adjust your alignment
or camber check out the Eibach Camber/Alignment kit for
the Nissan Altima.
Nissan Altima Brake
Rotors and Pads:
With all of the performance enhancements we are installing
on this vehicle we'reneeded some serious stopping power.
We chose to go with the SP Performance Brakes. Altima
rear brake rotors / Altima
front brake rotors. We did notice when changing
out the wheels that there was a lot of brake ware for 3
months driving. So be sure and check your brake pads often
if you do any hard urban driving. Brake Pads available.
|
Nissan
Altima Interior:
On our 2003 Altima we have installed a gunmetal
/ gray armor dash kit to match the titanium interior .
We've already chosen ochre/orange as an interior highlight
color for that clean tech look and have installed Ichibahn
pedals the gas pedal brackets did have to be slightly modified.
One of the nice things about the automatic equipped Altima's
is that it can use a manual shift knob since there is no overdrive
button necessary on the shift knob.
|
 |
Silver/Titanium/Gunmetal all have a great contrast with the
mystic emerald paint and will definitely come in to play as
we progress with this project. We do have one of the gunmetal
carbon fiber kits left in stock. Call for information.
There are several Nissan Altima dash kits available
for the new Nissan altima. Don't be fooled by the cheap dash
kits on the market. These are from Superior Dash and are the
highest quality kits made today. Choices range from OEM matches
to carbon fiber and patterns for a truly custom interior.
 |
Nissan Altima
Billet Grille:
We have chosen the twelve bar billet aluminum by Trenz that
allows us to reattach the front badge to show our Nissan
pride. Installation took about 10-15 minutes. The stock
Nissan badge attaches on with two screws in the back so
installation and removal were a snap as a one person job.[Check
it out].
Many other grilles are also available!
2005-06 Nissan Altima billet grille now available
Nissan Wiper Blades:
The 2003-2005 Nissan Altima uses two different sized wipers.
Passenger side 17" and massive driver's side 26".
Replacements available by PIAA
93043 and PIAA
PIA93165 as well as OEM wipers by Denso 1117 and 1126.
|
| Nissan Altima (w/o hid) light bulb guide: |
Nissan Altima (with hid) light bulb guide: |
Low beam headlamp H1-55W
High beam headlamp 9005
Parking light 1157
Front turn signal 1157
Rear turn signal 3156
Tail light 3157
Stop light 3157
High mount stop light 921
Fog/Driving light 9006
License plate 168
Back up light 921
Rear side marker 168
Glove box 658
Step/Courtesy light 158
Trunk/Cargo area 158 |
Low beam headlamp HID-D2R
High beam headlamp 9005
Parking light 1157
Front turn signal 1157
Rear turn signal 3156
Tail light 3157
Stop light 3157
High mount stop light 921
Fog/Driving light 9006
License plate 168
Back up light 921
Rear side-marker 168
Glove box 658
Step/Courtesy light 158
Trunk/Cargo area 158 |
Replacement
Bulbs
LED
Replacement Bulbs |
|
Here's the first version of our car... this was a completely
custom fiberglass front end.
Unfortunately 3 months after this picture we were on our way
to a car show in south Texas
and a wild pig called a javalina ran out on the freeway right
in our path and was struck.
Needless to say the front end was toast and from the reaction
at the local truck stop ..
I'm sure he was turned into a really good ham. See new pictures
below.
The car at this point was also not lowered. |
Here's a rear picture of our 2003 Nissan Alitma. This photo was
taken at the Mean Streets
Drift Battles in Austin Texas. Fun Show and alot of great drifting
and you can see more photos from the show in our photo gallery.
Sure made us wish we had our Z race ready.
This car has been passed around the family over the last several
years. At one time our 74 year mother was driving it. She got
pulled over a couple of times but startled the officer so much
that he let her go.
Now it's back in our household and it's still an awesome care
to drive. Quick and fuel efficient. I think eventually our daughter
might end up driving it.
If you liked this article
you should also see our Supercharged Volkswagen Golf GTI VR6.
or our Custom Chevy S10
pickup
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