Race Car Project ~ SE-R

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Well since I discovered a local track that has cheap track day I decided to start looking for a 91-94 Nissan Sentra SE-R. Ive had 7 SE-R's in the past and I thought I was done with them but this will make #8. Anyone who has any knowledge of these cars knows what an excellent chassis this is despite it's FWD layout. Lightweight, good handling from stock, and comes stock with the 2.0 SR20DE motor.

These are getting alot harder to find these days but I got this one for $1,500. Heres the original listing and pictures:

1993 NISSAN SENTRA SER 5 SPEED MANUAL TRANSMISSION
COLOR: BLACK
CONDITION: THE CAR IS IN GOOD CONDITION. THE ENGINE RUNS REALLY WELL. THERE HAVE BEEN ONLY 2 OWNERS OF THIS CAR. IT HAS BREMBO FRONT BRAKE ROTORS, K&N AIR FILTER, NEW ENGINE BELTS, NEW CATALYTIC CONVERTER, NEW CLUTCH CABLE AND NEW A/C COMPRESSOR. THE AIR CONDITIONING UNIT NEEDS TO BE CHARGED.
THERE IS SLIGHT PANEL DAMAGE ON THE PASSENGER SIDE AT THE REAR QUARTER PANEL WHICH WAS DONE BY THE 1ST OWNER. THE REAR DRIVER SIDE TAIL LAMP LENS IS CRACKED. THERE IS SCRATCH MARKS TO THE INSIDE HEAD LINER, OTHERWISE THE INTERIOR IS IN GOOD CONDITION.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Heres some pics at Macs West Coast Auto where she currently sits in waiting.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Now for the mods. Focusing on weight reduction, suspension, and other odds and ends. Power adders will come later.

K-Sport GT Coilovers

GT Pro Damper System
Ksport GT Pro Damper System provides the ultimate in suspension technology featuring its inverted monotube design, 36 levels of adjustable dampening, adjustable spring perch, adjustable body and pillow-ball mounts. With the gas/oil chamber farther away from the knuckle and braking system reducing heat transfer. This design also reduces under-sprung weight, which improves handling and responsiveness.

36 levels of dampening adjustment allow you to fine tune the ride to your handling and comfort needs. The dampening adjusts compression and rebound simultaneously for ease of adjustment. Pillow ball top mounts in the front and rear on some applications allow you to maintain vehicle manufacturer suspension geometry design. The pillow ball top mounts also allow you a more direct feel for solid driver response. Camber adjustability is included on pillow ball top mounts that allow it for the ability to adjust camber from the actual coilover, instead of a separate camber kit.





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[~KnuckleDuster~]

Wheels from 949racing.com 15x8 12.1 Pounds each

The second generation 6UL wheels are low pressure (LP) cast and T6 heat treated. LP casting refers to the aluminum being forced into the wheel mold under pressure. This pressure eliminates the possibility of bubbles and voids in the aluminum casting. It also compacts the aluminum which allows a higher tensile strength to be achieved with the same material. Gravity cast tooling requires larger wall thickness to allow the molten aluminum to flow into all the small features and crevices of the mold during filling. The design benefit of the new LP technique is that the engineers can optimize the thickness of each part of the wheel without really needing to allow for material flow. This optimization reduces weight without any decrease in strength.

With a gravity cast wheel, the center hub area is the last part of the mold to be filled by the molten aluminum so it is more prone to unwanted porosity or voids. To combat this potential weakness, the hub area is overbuilt to ensure failsafe strength. With the new LP casting, the mold filling and density is the same throughout the wheel structure so the hub area can be further optimized and lightened.

While we kept the same unique 6UL look, the engineers needed to create an entirely new engineering drawing and tooling for the LP casting process. We took this opportunity to reevaluate every single area of the wheel, perform further FEA optimization, strengthened and lightened wherever possible. It takes trained eye and both wheels in hand to spot the differences but there were more than a dozen little tweaks to the Gen II compared to the Gen I.

The end result is a wheel that's about 5% lighter with nearly twice the fatigue life and substantial gains in strength. The Gen II also end up being a bit stiffer and that's directly creates more consistent contact patch loading. Few tuners ever think about this but a wheel that's too soft and flexible will actually deflect under hard cornering loads enough to reduce active camber. Stiff wheels are good.


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[~KnuckleDuster~]

Getting ahold of an se-r with no sunroof is somewhat hard. Naturally mine came with a sunroof so I bought a direct fit sunroof filler which will take off the extra 40 pounds up top.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Productive day today. Weight reduction started, sunroof delete installed.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

For reference: New spark plugs BKR6E, dist cap & rotor, valve cover gasket, fuel filter, vac lines, K&N filter cleaned & re-oiled, oil changed with Mobil 1 5w30 Full Synthetic, gas 91 oc

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Motor was somewhat dirty under the valve cover but cam lobes looked good. Air conditioning front condensor was removed and radiator was swapped for one from an NX2000 which is about twice the size as stock. Water wetter was added in w/ 50/50coolant. PCV valve & hose changed. Front Prothane motor mount installed.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Dry ice to remove sound deading material:




Starter clay bar / waxing it. You can see the difference..

[~KnuckleDuster~]

This is what 10 hours of goof off, clay baring, and waxing will do.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Just a couple before and after shots of the hood area. You can see the water spots pretty good here, pita to get off. Rear strut tower is on order. Wheels should be here next week, tires will be ordered monday.



And about 4 coats of wax later.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Picked up some new seats, Corbeau Fixed backs with wedge engenering brackets.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Seats installed. Wheels arrived.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Wheels and tires mounted. Willwood front brakes installed, momo steering wheel installed, light mirrors installed.

[~KnuckleDuster~]

Ebay Header installed along with JWT S3 cams. Removed more sound tar, cleaned & painted. Cleaned the goo off the doors.