Overdrive should I Or should I not?

[groundzero]

I have a 1989 240sx automatic. I got it used, and I needed some answers on how to improve my car and it's driving techniques. I always keep my overdrive on especially on the freeway, just to keep me from wasting gas, and letting the rpm gauge go out of control. When I start going about 85mph on the freeway my car feels like its slow but really I know my car can do better than that... I raced a couple of people on the freeway, and everytime I do it feels like 85mph is the top speed. Is it because I have my overdrive on? What can I do to make my car a little faster? or a little stronger? Do I need an intake or something useful under my hood? Thanks.

(Edited by groundzero at 12:23 pm on Sep. 20, 2001)

[MingMing]

hhhmm i don't know much about 240's, and i'm new to the nissan scene thing hah, seeing as how i don't own one, but od uses a different set of gears than ur normal gears 1-4, which is why it saves so much gas, although by the time ur going 85, and u downshifted, it would probably redline ur car no? unless u mean ur overdrive is like a button.. cuz ur car's automatic, so i don't see how u can select which gear to put ur car in, but yea, if u feel like wasting gas, u can always just find an empty stretch of road, hit 85, and then turn off od and see what happens

[misnomer]

Is the car downshifting to fourth when you try to accellerate from 85? It should cruise there in OD, but downshift if you push fairly hard on the accelerator. I hit ~130 on my old '89 s13 automatic, and that was with OD on. You really only ought to turn of OD when driving up or down a hill, so your car isn't constantly shifting in and out. New air intake would give you a decent boost in power, but the most useful thing to stick under yer hood would be a turbo system <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':p'>

[groundzero]

Thanks!

[groundzero]

misnomer, what turbo system would you recommend, and same goes for the intake? should I also get headers? or is that a waste of money?