[AZ 2K SE]

I have some ideas for mods I would like to do on my 2K Sentra SE, but I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile. Any comments or experiences that could be shared would be appreciated. If at all possible, please list any before/after mod. dragstrip times. Thanks.
3 angle valve job
clean up valve bowls
port/polish throttle body
buy a larger throttle body
Cat. back exhaust and what size-I want
to keep the factory muffler also

WISH LIST- If anyone has heard of or knows where to get any of these items for the B15's, I would be very happy if you replied.
Hi Flo catalytic converters
Supercharger
Ram Air intake- This is an intake that allows ONLY cooler outside air to enter the engine. The entrance point is almost always thru the hood of the car. I think a CAI could be similar if not the same, but I don't think so. Anyway, I have an idea for one, but it would require Fiberglass fabrication skills and a lot of research. Before I do this, I was hoping to hear from anyone who had done this.

 

[Zak91SER]

Here's some answers for ya, and some opinions.

About your list of mods: Don't mess with the throttle body. It's huge. You don't need a bigger one, and you don't need to port/polish it. Our factory TB is about the size that Mustang owners *upgrade* to. Leave it alone.

About the valve job... you will see a much larger performance gain with simple bolt-ons like a header and cams. Don't waste your money on a valve job until you've done pretty much anything else, because it won't get you much HP at all, and it will cost you much more to get it.

If you're planning on keeping the factory muffler, don't bother getting an aftermarket cat-back system. The factory cat is pretty good, it's not restricting your system much at all.

As for your wish list, I can't answer where to get any of these items for the B15. It may take a little while to get a decent aftermarket started up for it. But when you do, try Random Tech for a hi-flow cat. They're universal so you should be able to bolt one right on. Don't go bigger than 2.5" diameter because you will lose power if you do. The stock cat is (I think) 2.25", so like I said... not much of an improvement, you might be better off doing other things first.

Supercharger - nope. There are no supercharger kits made for any year of SR20 car, and while you can always try doing one yourself, it will cost you well over $8,000 because you'll have to create it from scratch. Instead, look into turbo kits. There are a good number of turbo kits available for the SE-R, one of those would be much easier to convert to a B15 than trying to do an SC kit from scratch.

There are no Ram Air intake kits, because it requires modification of the hood. However, there are cold air systems than grab air from down by the wheel well, and those have been proven to add 8-10 wheel HP on previous SE-Rs.

If you're not willing to go ahead and do all the research and the custom hood, then just get a CAI.

And finally, go to SE-R.net and read all the stuff about everything. A lot of your questions are answered there, and in the SE-R mailing list archives. Have fun!

 

[Ben]

For B15 stuff try the new and great www.b15sentra.net

And Russ, where's the link to this site on there???

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah, my bad! Sorry man when you got kids in town and doing stuff with them constatly, I got side tracked! I will work on it right now!

Wheres my link!?

[Edited by RussSER (08-23-2000 at 08:52 PM).]

 

[AZ 2K SE]

Thanks for the reply, that gives me all kinds of info I didn't have before. I'm starting to think the reason why it's harder to get larger HP gains from the imports is because they are already at a very high level of performance.

 

[jacen99SE]

I think we have a 3 angle valve job from the factory. At least my FSM has 3 angles specified.

 

[Zak91SER]

I'm starting to think the reason why it's harder to get larger HP gains from the imports is because they are already at a very high level of performance.

That's definitely true to some extent. The SR20DE engine is actually pretty efficient from the factory. Import 4-bangers tend to get more hp per liter out of their engines than, say, domestic V8s, because it's easy to get 300+ HP out of a 300+ cubic inch V8, which makes it pretty fast... it's hard to get a 2 liter 4-banger to that level of speed due to half the displacement and half the cylinders. So they make it more efficient instead, from the factory.

For example, replacing the muffler on an SR20 car won't get you more than 2-3 HP. But if you do Flowmasters on a Mustang GT you get 30 HP.

So it is harder to squeeze power out of an NA 2 liter 4-banger, for one reason because it's already pretty efficient, and for another, simply due to the # of cylinders and displacement.

The cold air intake, the header and the cams are easily the best bang for the buck mods you can do on an SE-R (or a 2000 SE). Nothing else will get you that much HP... individually, that is. When you do a full cat-back exhaust after you've done the header and cold air intake, that does get you over 5 HP, but not more than 10.

The max for bolt-ons, for any year SE-R, seems to be about 30-35 wheel HP over stock. After that, you have to do headwork in order to get more HP. But, on the good side, 30 wheel HP over stock = about 175-180 crank HP, which is good for easy 14s, mid 14s if you're a decent driver, most likely, with 93-94 MPH trap speeds.

if you want a better idea, check out the timeslip tables on SE-R.net, the times are listed along with the mods for easy comparisons.

Just remember YMMV.