SR Powered

When I was installing the top portion of the B14 intake manifold (along with the throttle body) today, I discovered what has been a known issue for a while.

What happens is that the B14 intake manifold puts the throttle body closer to the valve cover. In addition the roller rocker engine valve cover juts out just a bit more than a standard SR20DE valve cover. This causes the rod that the throttle plate connects into to rub against the valve cover. Not only will the scratch up an non coated valve cover, but it would quickly rub the finish on a painted or powder coated valve cover (which I planned to do).

A secondary problem to this is that the roller rocker valve cover has the PCV closer to the distributer side of the valve cover. The standard DE valve cover has the PCV located right next to the oil fill cap. I call this a secondary problem because you can still run the roller rocker valve cover with a custom hose from the PCV to the intake manifold. However, since I want things to look as stock as possible, I want to run a factory PCV hose.

The throttle body rubbing issue can be solved in a few ways:

1. Use Outlaw Engineering thermobloc spacers. These will move the intake manifold further away from the valve cover, providing more clearance.
2. Use a regular DE valve cover. This will allow for better clearance of the throttle body. In addition it will allow you to use the factory PCV hose from a B14, since the PCV is in a different location.

Note: A regular SR20DE valve cover will fit on a roller rocker engine, but a roller rocker engine valve cover will not fit on a regular SR20DE.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

The last few coolant hoses and clamps I was waiting on arrived earlier this week. Today I installed the lower portion of the intake manifold as well as installing the injectors, fuel rail, and the injector wiring harnesses.

The injector harness for injector number four will not seat properly, so I have to check that out tomorrow. I may need to solder on another connector. One thing I did not realize is that the JWT fuel rail requires that the B14 air regulator unit be relocated. Right now this is not a big deal, since it seems like the air regualtor may not be needed (more research will be required).

Other then that, I need to try getting the B14 hoses for the heater core coolant inlet and outlet. The B15 ones could work, but they are a bit stretched out after almost ten years. In addition, I am going to do the same for the main vacuum hose that goes to the brake booster. I’m not sure that I can get the B15 one to work without kinking it.

I will be doing a bit more work tomorrow, so I will try and grab some pictures of the progress.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

Today I installed the B14 water neck, thermostat housing, and a new thermostat. After that I spliced the B14 TPS harness in place of the B15 one.

I also took the time to mock up the lower portion of the B14 intake manifold. This was more or less to see how everything would sit, as well as to attempt to find some smaller parts I may need. This is an important step, as no matter how through you are there will always be small things that you overlook. For example, today I discovered that I had not order hose clamps for the coolant tube that connects the intake manifold to the coolant neck. I also need an EGR block-off plate.

After recreating my ECU conversion spreadsheet today, I think I may have discovered an error in my wiring. It’s not a huge deal, but it is something I have noted in case it causes issues on startup.

Not a whole lot of progress was made, but I’m OK with that, as long as everything is done correctly.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

Good news! The manifold and turbo hot-side ar back from the fabricators, which means I am ready for an external waste gate! The manifold, hot-side, and J-pipe will be shipped out to Swain Technologies in the next few weeks for an application of their White Lightning ceramic coating. This coating is far superior to other ceramic coatings for a few reasons. First, it is applied thicker and in a different manner than other ceramic coatings applied by many powder coaters. I have read many reports of the traditional ceramic coatings flaking off after being exposed to the harsh heating & cooling cycles of a street car. Second, the Swain coating will keep more of the exhaust heat inside the manifold, turbo, and j-pipe, thus reducing under-hood temperatures. They will even apply the White Lightning coating inside a header for an N/A engine (if possible) to increase it’s effectiveness.

The rest of the parts from Nissan have arrived, and  the rest of the parts from the powder coater have been completed.

Today I finished wiring the B14 ECU harness into the B15 harness. It was hard on the back to do this with everything in the car, but I was just too lazy to remove the harness from the car. Right now the wiring is not all cleaned up, but it will remain that way until I get the car running and running to my satisfaction.

Recently my home file server suffered a major failure which ended up taking out my entire RAID array. I lost a total of about 1.5TB of data, but out of all of that only about 50GB was stuff I cared about, and only about 100MB were really important files. Among everything I lost all of the documents for my turbo project, including my parts list and ECU conversion spreadsheet. Unfortunatley, I will not be able to post some of the information that I would have liked to.

Tomorrow I hope to install the B14 cooland neck and begin the final installation of the B14 intake manifold.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

I spent this past Saturday doing a bit more work to the car. I wired in the Cobra MAF harness and maked all of the wires going to the B15 ECU. I was going to start soldering the B14 harness into the B15 one, but my back had had enough about an hour of bending over the car. Hopefully I will get the chance to finish that some time this coming weekend.

After ordering the external waste gate, I dropped the waste gate, manifold, and hot-side of the turbo off at that fabricators. That stuff should be done in a few weeks. I decided to go with a Tial V44 waste gate instead of the Synapse Engineering one. My motivation was getting a good price on the Tial unit over the Synapse. You can find some pictures of the waste gate in my gallery. I’ll have more detailed pictures when the manifold comes back from the fabricators.

After much debate, I have decided to get the manifold, J-Pipe, and hot-side coated with Swain White Lightning. It will add a good bit of money to the total cost of the project, but I think it fits well with my goal of doing things right the first time. Reports say that the Swain coating will help keep under-hood temperatures in check as well as helping spool time.

I’m still waiting on a lot of parts from Nissan. The dealer said the coolant neck came in, which is good since that was the last piece I was waiting for before I dropped off another order at the powder coaters. Hopefully the B14 IACV equipment will not be far behind.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

The intake manifold has been powder coated along with the turbo compressor housing, so I decided to kick off the installation!

Yesterday was spent removing the factory B15 intake manifold and EGR components from the car. I labeled everything the best I could just to make it easier to identify any parts. There are a few minor issues that I need to address.

The biggest issue is how to get the B14 intake manifold to mount to the B15 coolant neck. Apparently rigging the B15 neck is possible, but using the B14 coolant neck is preferred. If you have never looked at the coolant line routing on the back of a B15 SE, it is a maze of lines that seem to have little to no function!

Once I get the coolant neck, I will mount the bottom part of the B14 intake manifold, as well as the injectors and fuel rail. That should keep my occupied while I wait for the new IACV parts to ship.

More pictures can be found here.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

I had some concerns about differing part numbers for the 1993 Mustang SVT Cobra MAF that could be used with a JWT programmed ECU. Because of the age of the car, it was becoming difficult to find a new MAF. In addition, I found differing part numbers from what JWT listed.

Below is an e-mail from JWT stating what is needed:

The OEM stock 1993 Ford Cobra MAF sensor is the only MAF that we
program for and not any aftermarket MAF sensors that exist (ie:
Granatelli, etc.). There are two different part numbers associated
with this MAF sensor and the part numbers must be an exact match for
the MAF to be the correct one. Here are the part numbers for your
reference.

Ford Dealer parts number = F1SZ-12B579-A

Ford Engineering number on side of MAF itself = F1SF-12B579-AA and
also on MAF = AFH70-02

That cleared up the confusion I had, since many of the remanufactured MAFs had the F1SF-12B579-AA part number listed. Hopefully this will do the same for anyone who has similar concerns.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Parts & Vendors, Turbo Project

The replacement top for the fuel pump canister came in today, so I finished up the Walbro fuel pump install. If I didn’t already know the Walbro pumps were so loud, I would have thought the pump was bad!

After getting a tip that the Custom Steel fuel rail did not have he proper seats for the MSD injectors I would be running, I decided to order a JWT Fuel rail. The CS fuel rail is a nice piece, and I know of a few people that are running them with MSD injectors, but this was just a personal call on my part. I also ordered an Aeromotive Fuel pressure regulator and the proper fittings to hook it up to the JWT fuel rail. The rail and FPR should be in some time next week.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

After a while of not posting any sort of update, I figured it was time.

The end of June was spent getting my ducks in a row to make sure I was all set for emissions and inspection.I only put about 1,800 miles on the car since last June, so I was exempt from emissions.

In the mean time, I have been accumulating some more parts. I bought and installed the parts for the in-line fuel pressure gauge. B&B performance was the only company that I found that made a one-piece (this is key) adapter with 5/16″ barbs on the ends. The B&B adapter has a 1/8″ NPT port in the center that allows you to screw in a fuel pressure gauge (I ended up using a summit liquid filled gauge).

To get the B&B adapter, I went to our local speed shop (K&G). I often overlook local speed shops, since the local import shop has left a bad taste in my mouth. K&G mostly services muscle car guys, but there are a few local import guys around this area that go to them as well. Lynn is very helpful, and always willing to go that extra mile.

I was going to order the MSD 50# injectors from Summit, but Summit could not get them until August! I went to Lynn and he said he could have them within a week! Unfortunately, the guy at MSD shipped the 72# injectors (despite the fact that Lynn told him what I wanted and gave him the right number). It’s no big deal though, and Lynn got right on the phone to straighten it all out.

I’m working on getting the Walbro fuel pump installed. Since I broke one of the plastic nipples on the canister, I need to wait for a replacement from Nissan. Other miscellaneous parts I have include: all turbo fittings (water and oil), Cobra MAF, turbo manifold studs, and injector clips and o-rings.

Right now, I’m trying to source another stock B15 SE fuel rail. Once I get that, I am going to take the intake manifold, throttle body, and fuel rail in to get powder coated in crinkle flat black. My hope is to get the intercooler piping and valve cover coated in the same finish to tie the whole engine bay together. This is not a show car my any means, I but I want it to have a clean look.

Next up on my parts list will probably be the purchase of the Synapse engineering blowoff valve and wastegate. I’m more concerned about the wastegate, since I want to drop off the manifold to have it modified for the external gate.

I really need to get some pictures up! Maybe next time.

Parts Suppliers:

B&B Performance

K&G Speed Associates

Broomall, PA

610-359-1616

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Turbo Project

I’m making steady progress, or at least I feel like I am. Unfortunately the progress is not very interesting.

The Moog ball joints are installed. I tried using the Harbor Freight ball joint press, but that was a complete failure. So I decided to take the control arms to a local machine shop to have the old joints pressed out and the new ones pressed in. At the end, the total cost was $60 ($40 for the ball joints, and $20 for the labor). This is still half the price of buying new control arms with the ball joints already in them.

While I have the bumper cover off, I decided to tackle some rust on the upper and lower bumper supports. Right now, they are in my backyard waiting to dry. As with everything, I found some more rust behind the supports and below the radiator support. Luckily, it’s only surface rust, so I’m going to take a wire brush and sandpaper to it then shoot it with some primer and paint.

My horn is now finally fixed as well! It ended up just being the horn itself, so it was a easy fix.

After I get the new sway bar end links (I snapped one when doing the ball joints), an alignment and emissions and inspections testing are next on my list.

Chris' 2000 Sentra SE, Restoration Project