Well after a long and hard weekend, the turbo install, along with the rear
main seal retainer and seal, new throwout bearing, JWT pressure plate and
clutch disc, upper and lower oil pans resealed, and plugs, fuel filter, oil
filter, oil, tranny fluid, and brake fluid changed, it is done and running.
Not driving it yet because somehow the Battery 75A fusible link blew and the
only things on the car that operate are the engine, headlights, and dash
lights. Got no dash gauges, accessories, tailights, nuthin. Can't turn the
AC on to test the cooling fans and have no temp gauge so not going to wait
and see if the fans ever come on. No one in town sells the style of fusible
link that's open on Sunday (Pep Boys, Autozone, Advanced Auto) so will have
to go Nissan tomorrow and get one. I did take a 2 minute stroll around my
neighborhood with it though. Runs/drives perfect. Boosts to 7psi like it
should (boost gauge is mechanical so as least that works). Just did it for a
split second to test, don't anyone think I was winding out 4th with no
gauges
Here are the pictures of the install-
http://laf.cioe.com/~benbobbo/turbo/111100
Eric Waterman and Kevin Hart got to my place in Lafayette, IN at about
1:15AM Saturday morning. (they came all the way from Tennessee just to help
me out with the install!) Brought their stuff in, then we started work on
the car. The rear main seal and retainer were already back on the engine, so
we put on the flywheel and JWT clutch set. Also got a new throwout bearing
in there with some Mobil 1 synth pink grease. Started putting the tranny
back on and Kevin realized we forgot to put the metal tranny to engine
gasket thing in there, so we pulled the tranny back off, tried it make it
fit over the clutch and flywheel. No way. Pull the clutch and flywheel back
off, fit the piece, put them back on, then started working on the tranny. 2
hours later we figured out the best way to get the bolts and dowels lined up
was to get 3 bolts around it just started and carefully tighten them with a
socket wrench. Went on fine after that. Pretty neat with Kevin bench
pressing the tranny and all.
Oh, we did the fuel filter before the tranny
was reinstalled also since there was mucho space.
Went to work on the oil pans then. Mike Jez gave me his old DET's oil pans
for free (another quality SE-R citizen) cuz I thought my oil pan was bent.
Well it was really that my rear main seal retainer was cracked. So since my
stock lower oil pan is MUCH bigger than the stock DET one, and that the
lower DET pan Mike gave me was not in great shape, I opted to use my stocker
again. Got her all done up with red Permatex RTV as suggested by Jay Stewart
(also since they didn't have tubes for guns with gray, just red, and wanted
a BIG RTV tube for a gun so as not to kill our hands again with the hand
squeeze stuff) and as of now the leak I've had for 2 months since drilling
and tapping the block is GONE. =) Also put the crossmember back on. We went
to bed after the oil pans were done at about 8:30AM.
Got up at 1PM and started again. Got the axles back in and the brakes back
on. Got the strut bolts back on. Finished assembling and attaching the oil
pressure sending unit T fitting (thanks McMaster-Carr!) and ran the oil feed
line with gas line hose next to the crossmember. Then we made a parts run
for T's and hose for the BOV/recirc valve solenoid. Got that T'ed on, also
connected the BOV/recirc hose back to the intake tube as well as the
wastegate hose to the nipple near the BOV/recirc valve (gotta be politically
correct/accurate
).
Then to the IC piping. We didn't think the 4" inner bend diameter mandrel
pipe I had was gonna work so we went to Lowe's and auto parts stores to try
to find something with a tighter bend, to no avail. We worked with that
smaller bend that I had and got it to work. For the record I got one 4"
inner bend diameter 1 3/4" inner pipe diameter mandrel bend and four 6"
inner bend diameter 2" inner pipe diameter pipes from Hooker Headers through
Summit racing for $11.95 and $14.95 respectively for each. The reason for
the 1 3/4" one is that the smaller inner pipe diameter they sold with 2" was
6" and that was too wide, so I had to do slightly smaller for the first one.
After a few hours of cutting and hacking, I had some pretty good IC pipes. I
did the same thing as Mike Gosselin did with his IC pipes as you can see
with the pictures. For the IC mounted in the bumper, you can see how little
we had to cut of the bumper. I was VERY suprised that that's all it took. I
was expecting to have to cut MANY more times the area that we did. Yes, the
IC is small, but better than no IC. And since Mike threw it in for free, I
say don't complain!
During this time Eric gapped my PFR6B-11s or whatever the 6 range plugs are
to 0.030 and put them in. Finished filling up the tranny with Redline MT90,
poured in a full 4 quarts of Mobil 1 5W30 since the car had been without the
oil pan for over a week, plus the added pressure of a turbo yadda yadda.
According to Eric the oil level was on the border of being low after the
addition of that oil. I will check it after I get to drive it again.
Removed the plug wires and plugs, removed the distributor connectors,
removed the fuel pump fuse, cranked her over for about 30 seconds (stopping
every 10 to save my starter at the pleas of Stroker). The starter sounded
really nasty. According to Eric this is just starter squeal. Never heard
anything like it before now. The two times I've done this before for oil
precirculation it was just smooth spinning for 60 seconds straight. He said
the Hitachi starters all do it at some point. Yuck. Anyways, put the plugs
and wires back in, distributor connectors, and fuel pump fuse, and right at
midnight last night (very cool) started her up. With some nasty ass startup
clatter for being without oil for 10 days, it started up. Sounded strange
cuz I couldn't tell if it was on yet or not over the starter "squeal"
(sounds like nasty grinding to me), so I let off the starter and the car was
on. Aight. The smoking from the header area started from all the oil still
on it from cleaning the passages out, from the grease from our hands, etc
etc like it should. Idled fine. We were waiting for it to get up to temp so
we could set the timing to 15 since I forgot to set it down from 19 before I
parked the car 2 weeks ago, and was checking the tach and temp gauge and
they were at zero with the car running. Not good. Found the 75A Battery
fusible link blown. Hmmm, maybe running the starter all to hell did that? I
looked in the archives and it's normally blown when you short the--- AHA! I
got it! Normally it happens when you are installing a header and are working
near the alternator and then accidentally short the power connector and get
a spark. I just remember my dad and I did that on accident sometime last
week when installing the turbo onto the car. So a trip to Nissan tomorrow
should fix it. I just figured that out
Just came to me at the "---" point
there. Well, back to last night, we stopped the car and let it sit until the
auto parts stores opened tomorrow and I could get a new one. They didn't
have any of that style. So, just to make sure the car worked mechanically,
Kevin and I took a 2 minute trip around my neighborhood. The short rest is
at the end of the 1st paragraph.
I am VERY satisfied with this install. It's all very clean and everything is
tight, the piping is sweet, as you can see in the pictures it all looks
good. Stroker keeps making fun of my small IC, but hey, I'll upgrade it
sometime next year. For now I just want to drive it!
I can sleep another
night. Must resist shorting the fusible link connection just to drive the
car! Must resist!!!
Questions? Comments?
Ben Davis
98 Sentra SE TURBO
