B14 Sentra SER.. Continued

I got a good push in tonight. I still have a long way to go though.

Put the radiator and axles in.


Made a little wire to jump from the alt to the starter, then used the factory starter wire to go into the car to a circuit breaker and distribution block.


And i put the front end together to see how it would line up and look.
The fenders and bumper support bolt together.


The bumper on.

Grill, headlights, corners, and hood on.

A few other shots.



Not sure if i am going to keep this on or put the OEM one on. I want to get it running first, then mess around with this.

Looks sick!

Damn I forgot you got all of the JDM madness stuff. Looks good man!

LOOKS REAL GOOD

Well, by looking at the time you know how late it is. I am still hoping i can get it running/driving tomorrow. I got quite a bit done in the last 2 days but there is a little left.

Finalized all of the wiring, this is where some of it now comes in from the bay. The power wire to starter / alternator, sensor harness, alternator control wire, and starter signal wire.

I had to modify the AC box to allow the cables come in.


Mounted all of the front end components after getting all the wires loomed and ran.
This is the factory tow hook that came with the N15 front end.



Tonight i was able to bleed the brakes, finish some wiring on the inside, and finish what items needed to be installed in the engine bay.


Wiring that was moved behind the dash.


What needs to be done in the morning?
Put wheels back on, connect the primary header to the secondary (i need new hardware for this), fill trans fluid, oil, and coolant, install dash, put the cowl and wipers on, and give it a quick bath. Not sure i will be able to get it done but i will try.

Nick, you're a beast!

Hell yea man, this should be ready soon!

Well, as you may know i was not able to get the car done in time for the meet, i was really looking forward to but stuff happens. I wanted to meet a lot of you that i have met yet and get out and see all the other cars as well. Lets not wait too long to do another, i wont miss the next one.

Today was pretty good, i tried to get started early and went to the store to get new bolts and the gasket maker i needed.

I made the gasket for the header.

Got the exhaust bolted together and finished up.

Then i filled the fluids and went to start the car. It was cranking just fine but would not fire. I could hear that something was not right, like it was missing fuel or spark. So i pulled a plug and found that it was dry, so no fuel. I checked the lines and i thought i had them backwards. So i tried to switch them and found that one of the lines would not reach the return, so i thought they were right even though my gut said otherwise.

So i put them back and checked to make sure the injectors were getting power and signal, everything checked out fine. I tried starting it a few more times with no luck. Then i decided to look at an older pic of the lines and sure enough, they were backwards. How the line shrunk i have no idea but it did. So i went and got some new line and after a quick prime, she fired right up.

Then it started to idle funny, i was jumping form 1k to 2.5k and would not steady but it would rev fine. Well stupid me, seems to be a common thing, i forgot to hook up some vacuum lines from when i removed the charcoal canister. So after getting those connected she was running great.

So i let it warm up so the coolant would bleed itself out and the header wrap started smoking like crazy. I figured it just had a little moisture in it from sitting so i let it go. After 10 or so minutes it stopped and everything was fine. I was relieved and excited that i could take it for a drive tomorrow.

At this point i decided to tidy up the dash wiring and get the dash in. I just placed the dash in and did not put any screws in yet.



Then i felt i had one more thing to do before i called it a day. I wanted to put the newly painted valve cover on.


This really finished things off, i was really happy how it turned out even though the color is slightly different then what i thought it was.

Now my garage, it is a complete mess. For the last week i have not been cleaning up and just throwing things around trying to get this done.


I want to spend a few hours tomorrow and clean it up before i go any further. Then just bolt a few more things together and i can take it for a little drive. There is quite a bit of stuff i want to do before i drive it but at least i can see if there is anything wrong first.

I have to paint and install the cowl and wiper arms, install the inner wheel well liners, and get the dash bolted in and install the cluster. Feels good to be where its at though.

Glad to hear it is running again!

dood!! nice progress! that front end looks great on there. I can't wait to roll with ya.

Over the past couple days i have been working on the little things. I want to drive it on Wed to work and then start driving it regularly if everything is ok.
Painted the cowl and wiper arms then installed them.




Put a few more things together in the interior but nothing major. I found a different bulb to replace the ones in the HVAC control too. The small bulbs in the back of the cluster fit in the sockets, i painted them a blue pearl to match the cluster.

Coming along nicely. It's the little details that make a project great!

My car hates me. So i let the pan dry until today and filled it up when i got home from work. I started it and checked the level and everything was good. Then i start to notice a small drip, at this point i am pissed and trying to figure out where it was coming from. There must be a small pin hole in the rust on the pan where it is leaking through. I can whip it with a rag and then immediately it starts to drip. I have another pan from the spare motor so i will paint that one and throw it on. It is a little dented but not too bad.

Another this is i see little drips right where the oil filter attaches, not sure where it is coming from. I will clean it and check when i get the new pan on.

I am worried about leaks on mine as well.

Finished installing the lights.


Camera was dieing so it took a crapy pic.

I painted the spare oil pan.


I wanted to drive the car tonight and take it to work tomorrow but that wont happen. So hopefully Friday will work out now.

Got the new pan on and letting it dry until Saturday just to be sure.

Put the inner fender wells in.



Also installed the Whiteline control arm brace.



I did notice the the cat is not sealing to the secondary. so i am trying to find another one to replace it.

Are you using an OEM gasket at that joint? They are nice MLS gaskets and I find they seal better than most anything else. ALso is the secondary flange perfectly flat?

The cat wont even sit flush with it. I can crank down the bolts but it still has a 1/8" gap in it on the bottom but the top is sealed.

HMM that's strange... The cats are cast IIRC, that would make me suspect the secondary flange was warped.....

You can always pick up a thicker gasket and use the copper exhaust spray to help insure there won't be any leaks.

The flanges are good, but the exhaust system is tweeking how things line up. I think a new cat with new flanges will help solve the issue. I had to drill out the studs on the cat and they may not be exactly center either. I might try and bore those out this weekend and see what i can do. I also have to lift the flex pipe off of the Whiteline brace.

I've used aftermarket thick gaskets, and sometimes doubled them up to get a good seal.

Is your exhaust from the cat back bolted down firmly? If so I would loosen everything and work from the secondary back.... Percy's akes some really nice thick aluminum gaskets too...

I was able to get things lined up better and there is only a slight leak now. I think i am still going to replace the cat.

I started it up on Sat night and not one drip sunday morning. I had some air in the front right line still but after that was out i took it for a drive. It went pretty good, got on it a few times and i started to relax. All of a sudden i hear a clunk, clink clink, cluck, light a bolt fell out. I slowed down a little and was like o-shit here it go. Well nothing changed, no noises nothing felt weird so i just took it slow. After i got home i checked some things and just one of the pirmary to secondary bolts fell out. Not sure how but nothing major.

It feels good now, nice brake pedal feel, no more mushiness. The header wrap still smells pretty bad but other than that i can not complain.

Well i have been doing some things here and there, mainly finishing up loose ends and any little issues i have. But i started to put the radio back in, rewired the front speakers and put in a new amp rack.

I mounted the cross overs on the other side to hide some wires.


This got me thinking of a sub. So thinking of what i have and what i want to put in the car, i came to a conclusion. I didnt want to take up much space, and didnt want to add a whole lot of weight but i wanted it to keep up with the mids and highs.

This is the box i came up with.
Using the OZ 180 woofers was my best option, same mids i have in the front doors. I have been playing around with these mids used as a sub for a little while now. I built a sealed and ported enclosure with intensions on building a bandpass as well but never got around to it. Oz has specs for this woofer for each enclosure and i ran the data through Subwoofer Design Studio to also look at other options.

I really wanted to do a bandpass enclosure but it was going to be too big for what i wanted. It wants .4 cubic ft for the ported side and .3 cubic ft for sealed side. So with the two woofers and all other calculations the box had to be almost 1.5 cubic ft.

So ported it was. They also spec .75 cubic ft for ported and tuned to 38hz but that was also not going to happen. So using Subwoofer design Studio i came up with an enclosure that was .55 cubic ft per woofer tuned to 50hz. The low end dropped off pretty quick but i dont expect too many deep tones to come from a 6" woofer anyway. I was going to use a 1.5" port but it ended up being 2.5" long which i thought was a little short for my tast. So i stepped up to a 2" which made the length 5" long.

The rough box



Added the woofers and ports. I had to mount the speakers from the inside so i had no interference with the rear deck.



Mounted in the car



The speaker sits where the factory spot is and i drilled holes for the ports.


I plan on putting plexi on the front of the box so you can see the woofers at some point and wrapping the outside in fabric. I have to pull the box back up and seal the wholes where the speaker wires are coming out and attach the ports some how. I have to have the ports sit flush to slide it in but then pull them up to sit just under the rear deck. I might cut the whole a little bigger in the rear deck and just slide them in from the top and use a stopper ring around the port and silicone it in place.

I wired them individually for now, keeping the stereo effect. I might try the bridged but i really dont need the power and i might pick up some distortion. But they sound great and i am actually very impressed on how loud they are. They keep up with the mids an then some. I have the sub volume control on the Orion 300 PSW that helps me keep them in tune with the music and adjust for how much bass i want. Overall i am very happy with the results, it takes up a little space in the trunk but it sounds great.

I worked on the kicks a little bit too. Put a couple coats of mud on them and they may need a third, then they should be done. I want to finish these up and move on to the doors, which i still am not sure as to how i am going to finish them.