From everything I've read it would appear that the 0.75amp tender would be just fine. I would likely lean toward the 1.25amp version only because I just do not drive much now (1-2x/mo.) and thus my battery(ies) are prone to long term drain.

 

Costco's have had some good deals on these.

https://www.costco.com/battery-tende...100679769.html

 

This is the sixth winter for my cheapo harbor freight float charger. Have had zero problems using it. Rated at .4 amps.

 

Ordinarily I'd say pull the battery and have it in the garage/heated space on a float charger (but don't sit them on bare concrete) but as difficult as it is to get the G's battery out...

Of course, if you've a normal garage, you can just put the whole car in it. Folks down here use their garages for storage/bonus rooms and their driveways for the cars.

 

I still drive the G in the winter with snow tires and duckfeet. However, it can sit undriven sometimes for 2 to 3 weeks in a row... hence the trickle charger.

When I started driving the car rarely a few years back, my 5 year old original battery bit the dust. I replaced it with an OEM Interstate battery, and that too died about a year or two. So I'm on my third Interstate now.

Similarly, we have a Sentra that barely gets driven, and we're on our 4th battery with that car. I blame the parasitic drag with the remote starter in that car, so now we're remotely starting it every morning, regardless of use.

Based on these two cars and the experiences with the batteries, I decided a $30 trickle charger might be a good idea for the G.

 

Step 1: Buy an EcuTek ProECU kit, which is their cable and USB key. That's $300 to $350 brand new, somewhat less used.

Step 2: Use the kit to purchase a license for the car. That's another $300 give or take.

Step 3: Engage a tuner for a remote tune, emails and data logs, etc. That's another $300 give or take.

When you look at it like this, you can break up the project into separate purchases, and schedule out a budget.

 

Sounds exactly like my plan when it comes to tuning

I’ll be following you on this.

 

When you're looking at $900 for an email tune, why not take it to an actual physical tuner? From my experience tuning on a steady-state dyno (mustang or the ilk) gives better driveability than a datalogged tune.

Maybe I'm just a Luddite. But I'm still taking my car to Z1 when it is time - for one thing, I'm changing the MAF diameters.

 

Newer battery cases are made of plastic which eliminate case discharge. Older cases were made of mixes of plastic/fiber/carbon which would conduct minimally and discharge overtime. You certainly showed your age on this one Mike.

 

For years, that was the plan. There was a racing team here that had a guy who did dyno tunes for the G/Z, but they discontinued that service, and my only other option would be a 6 hour road trip. So I missed the opportunity there and have come to peace with the remote tune model. After all this time, I've decided to go with EcuTek and Admin Tuning.

That said, still working on Step One. I've got a birthday coming up.

 

I have a feeling that time wont help with this option either, as these cars become more and more affordable many folks will be tuning, meaning top tuner price might start going up even more.

 

Maybe just shows the ages of the people that taught me car stuff... ? I always assumed it was capacitance between the (grounded) concrete and the battery innards, which wouldn't have a problem with a plastic case (It would act like the dielectric). But I've also had several Optima-type batteries sit on the ground for a while with no negative effects.

Rochester - ECUTek is my leaning as well. Atlanta is about 4 hours and Z1 about an hour further, so not much difference in time, but I have friends to stay with in town so it isn't a very, very long day.

 

It would be at least six for me, just for example... Visconti Tuning in Conn. I'd have to overnight it... meals, gas, tolls, and all the time involved, it adds up. Nah, if I can't get it dyno tuned locally anymore, then I'm just fine with the street tune. I've got an old Windows laptop available (Vista, LOL), and a budget figured out. And I'm not interested in HP/Torque numbers before & after, just the drive-ability and butt-dyno. Plus it's not all that complicated... for all my mods, the only real engine considerations are the intake, cats and catback. Really basic stuff. I bet you the off-the-shelf tune gets me 90% of the way there.

Back around 2009 through 2011, I was pretty active on the Maxima forum. There was a young man there with a nicely modified 2001 Anniversary Edition Maxima SE 5MT. He was a wise-azz engineering student, if I recall correctly. Very smart, and very skilled. I really liked the kid, and always thought he'd do well at whatever he took on.

Anyway, that was Moncef Faik, who's made a business for himself with Admin Tuning. And I think I'd like to have him do the remote tune.

 

Moncef's online rep sure seems to indicate that he knows his stuff.

I street-tuned my RX8 using a Cobb Accessport and Racetuner software to change the maps... it is time consuming, but you can get good results. For me it wasn't so much originally about playing with fuel and timing as it was about the oil metering pump and water temp vs. fuel and vs. fans tuning for longevity.

Then later it became about performance LOL - dwell on beefier coils, without a cat I could run 15.6 AFR up to a certain load cell, etc.

 

I think so, too. I reached out to him a few years back, but wasn't ready at the time to get tuned, and was prioritizing other mods. But 2021 is the year this is happening.

Just remembered he has an account here... @AdminTuning