HOW TO: Turbo the NA SR20

[nametakennow]

Turbocharging the B13-B15 Sentra (SR20DE+T)

There are a number of ways to go about this, including engine swaps, aftermarket kits, and piece-together rigs.

I went with the last of that set.

Before:

After:

Parts: Below is what I used, a clearer list can be seen here.Nissan Avenir exhaust manifold, ball-bearing T25 turbo, intake pipe, and BOV (or the same stuff from a Bluebird or GTi-R)MSD 34lb/hr (360.4cc/min) fuel injectors top-feed, low impedance (or larger if upping boost past 12 or so PSI or using a bigger turbo)JohnnyRaceCar 2.25in inlet/outlet front-mount intercoolerIntercooler piping (some stainless steel bends from an exhaust shop will do)High temp silicon couplers for ic piping, including transitions up to the TB, BOV, and down to the turbo outpipe, if neededApexi SAFCII or AEM EMS or JWT-tuned B14 Sentra ECU40in oil feed line, -3an with a 90* end on one end7in oil return line (be safe and go with an 8, but don’t go bigger than a 10, I have a small leak because my 7 is not compressing right – now that I think about it, a 6 may do as well, if you’ve got lots of cash, get several size and see what fits you well)tap for oil return on the blockoil sending tee (SPL has lowest price I’ve ever found)new banjos and stuff for the turbo, check ATPturbo.com for all this kind little stuffoil catch can or a breather filter if you’re going to ignore this or buy a can later1in ID hose (get 2ft and cut excess) for BOV recirc1/4in ID hose for line to wastegate actuator (get 3ft, cut excess)1/4in ID hose for line from BOV to TB (2ft or so, cut excess)1/4in ID hose for coolant feed/return (get 6ft, cut excess)1/2in hose cap for un-used BOV opening (more explanation later)turbo tap or quicktap for boost gauge feed1/4in hose for boost gaugeboost gaugeGP Sorensen injector connectors (Autozone part# 800-9213, each store will have one, be prepared to drive around or wait a day or two to have them sent to your local store – supposedly Advance has them too, though mine didn’t)Exhaust piping and a flexpipe for your downpipe, use 2.5in ID pipe at least, 3in ID for high boost appsFlanges for downpipe (JWT has the ones you need, except the 2 bolt cat flange, check an exhaust shop for this)FSM, clamps, plugs, nuts, bolts, sealants, electrical tape, solder, patience

Overall cost? Probably in the $2000-2500 range, plus countless hours soaked in God-knows-what and smelling like some cross between motor oil, rotting fish, and general death. I probably forgot some little stuff, you’d best have another car handy for runs to Autozone.

Think you’re ready?

Sad to say, I bet you’re not, but hopefully this write-up will alleviate the pain a little.

Prep:Install SAFC:Disconnect the battery.

There’s a box in the passenger corner of the engine bay right by the firewall. Remove it. Now, open it to find the ECU. Take the white clip thing off and push the black lever back from where it was to separate the wiring from the ECU.

Now, find the right pins, solder the SAFC wires in. ECU pinout32 is rpm signal, 35 can be used as well, using 32 you won’t be able to correct past 6000rpm - EDIT: Use pin 75, this signal avoids the lack of correction past 6000rpm while avoiding the summer overheating that can be caused by using pin 3548 is ground61 is MAF signal110 is power81 is knock92 for throttle, 71 works too, but 92 gives you the flexibility of modifying this signal if you need to

The wires in the ecu should be uncut if at all possible. you can use the soldering iron tip to melt the isulation off. the only one that is hard to do is the clear one (forgot which one that is), it is heat resistant tubing. For solder, use somthing with silver in it, or a standard 40/60. I would not reccomend the lead free stuff because it is hard to work with at times and can be weaker.

The MAF wire has to be cut because it is routed through the SAFC.

If you have it available, you can use heat shrink tubing. it creates a better insulation, but can be risky because you have to heat it up to make it contract and cover the solder joint, and the wires have VERY little slack to work with so you run the risk of melting adjacent insulation (bad thing). In general, be cautious.

Perform the SAFC setup routine.

Take Stuff Off:Remove the bumper, there’s several bolts, including some stuffed into the corner behind the bumper and between it and the fenderwell lining. It’s a beast, I have no idea how my buddy got to it, consult the FSM.Remove the passenger-side plastic cover that runs around the corner of the bumper support and back towards the wheel. You’ll have to cut it into two pieces and remove the part that covers the coolant reservoir, your IC piping doesn’t want to play nice.Go ahead and remove the foglamps, if you have them. Remove the screw on the top and just push from the back and they’ll pop right out.

Now, if the car isn’t in the air, go ahead and do that, the higher the better, and preferably all of it.

Remove the exhaust midpipe, start at one end and work to the other. There are several heatshields, but the bolts are easy to find.

Remove the stock intake system. It has a few brackets. If you had a CAI before, remove it and clean the filter if you plan on reusing that.

Remove the exhaust manifold. There are 4 each nuts on top and bottom, you’ll have to get some creative sockets set up, a rotating/bending socket attachment will be helpful here and later on.

Remove the passenger front wheel. You have to, don’t gripe.

Drill and tap for oil return:This has been done a lot. It’s the exact same as on any other Sentra. I’m not going to get all crazy about it, Google it or email me for more specific questions. Get a friend or two to help you if you haven’t already. – pretty good article here -> http://htttp://www.brazosport.....htmlNow, support the engine by placing a transmission jack (or use a normal jack with a block of wood on it) underneath it, there’s a rectangular area that does the trick.Now, jack that jack once or twice so that it’s holding the weight.

Remove the front-rear engine mount beam (or at least one side of it). There are 4 monster bolts (17mm, if I remember correctly) that hold that thing on, they all have rubber washers. A big socket wrench, maybe a torque wrench, would be nice. Pop these off.Now, there are some bolts that come to a point at one end that run through the mount and bracket. Remove these.

Voila, the beam will come right down. Then engine will stay up on the two lateral mounts, but the jack is a good safety measure.

Now, remove the lower (steel, black) oil pan. I hope you drained the oil first.

Remove the oil pickup.Remove the upper (silver) oil pan. Watch out for these bolts, they’re hard to get to, a small socket did the trick for us…

Now, drill and tap. Check the link earlier for specifics on this one. You pretty much just have to go for it.

Get a friend to help you and you can drill from the back (right under your crank with oil dripping on you, yay!) I drilled from the back, my hole ended up a little to the right/bottom, but it works.

Clean off the old RTV from the pans, put some new stuff on, and put it all back together, make sure not to overtighten the oil pan bolts, you’ll crack it, don’t ask me how I know.

Install banjos and stuff:Oil return/oil feedCoolant return/coolant feedPretty straightforward, it’s tricky to get in the hole for oil feed, make sure to have gaskets/copper washers, they should come with the kit (assuming you get the ATP turbo setup)… make sure your outlets match what you’re using for lines. Specifically get barbed coolant banjos.

Install coolant feed/return lines:The throttle body has some coolant lines for warming it in extreme cold. I don’t plan on living anywhere cold, I hate cold weather unless I’m skiing. That said, I just removed these lines and ran some hose to the turbo from here.

Remove the throttle body (4 simple bolts), clean it with carb cleaner while it’s out.Find the lines, disconnect the old hoses, put the new hoses where the feed/return was. Don’t worry which is which, coolant can flow either way in Garrett turbos.Plug the barbs you just removed the lines from on the intake manifold, anything will work, there’s no pressure.

Reinstall the TB, the gasket should still be good.

Trim the tube thing - Note, you may be much better at lining things up than I was, so this step isn't absolutely necessary.

There’s a tube that will try to prevent you from dropping in the mani in the next step. There’s a rubber hose that runs from near the mani area to the valve cover. The lower hard pipe is what we’re talking about. Trim it back to where before it bends, reflare it if you feel such an urge. Mr. Dremel is your friend.

Install exhaust manifold/turbo/turbo turndown:Make sure the turbo heatshield is on, you can’t get it on later. You may want to go ahead and extend the O2 sensor wires 3-4 inches now to save you the trouble later, as the Avenir O2 sensor plug doesn’t reach the wiring harness plug.

Remove the EGR tube that screwed into the old manifold, the new one doesn’t have it. You’ll have to re-route this later to pass emissions.

By the way, I’m assuming you’re keeping your AC. I’d have removed mine except the ladies would complain, and we all know an unhappy lady makes car rides not fun no matter what you’ve got under the hood. So much innuendo…

Work it down in there. There’s a rogue AC line that will try to stop you, show it who’s boss. You’ll probably beat the stew out of your radiator fan shrouds, sorry. It’s a tight fit. Trim the wastegate actuator bracket as necessary.

Connect oil/coolant lines to turbo. Also, connect the oil feed line to the oil sending unit, which is right near the oil filter. It’s pretty easy to spot. Screw your sending T into it and connect the stock line and the turbo line.Bolt it in as per the FSM. Need an FSM? – FSM for practically any Nissan You didn’t get that from me.

Hard part’s over, right? Ha. You’re not done, but at least you don’t have to cut stuff… or do you?

Intercooler piping:You’ll need several cuts and connectors for this. I’d suggest you run it out toward the passenger side from the turbo, around the bumper support jackstand point, around the front to the intercooler (comes with instructions on mounting), around the other bumper jackstand point up through the hole where your stock intake resonator was, then up right by the strut tower and over to the TB. Make sure to run the BOV the right way, fat side away from the intake mani.

You’ll need a hole somewhere after the intercooler for the intake temp sensor. Make sure to have a grommet to get a good seal.

Run the 1/4in line back to the TB area from the top of the BOV. Run the same-size line from the small side outlet down to the wastegate actuator.Cap the one labled “WTF?” B15/P11 SRs don’t have a line running to the bottom of the intake mani just after the TB for idling purposes. Yay.

Install pre-turbo intake tubeThe Avenir intake tube goes up toward your battery, turns back then again towards the driver’s side. Trim it before it turns to the right the last time somewhere to put the filter near the brake fluid reservoir. Make sure to plug the MAF back in. Refer to the general engine bay pic. To see this and the BOV routing, as well as where I put my intake temp sensor –

Install Fuel Injectors:Follow the FSM procedures for the most part.Pop off the accelerator cablesPop off the brackets.Undo your fuel fill cap, otherwise you’re going to leak a lot of fuel. You’ll still leak a little bit, oh well.

Now you can get to the fuel rail. Remove the bolts. Raise the whole assembly out of the block, undo the injector clips to the rail and electrical pigtails and pull them out of the rail.



The MSDs are bigger and their electrical connectors are differently shaped. Splice the GP Sorensen connectors into your wiring harness. Get some longer bolts to attach the rail to the original points. Get spacers (can get them at Nissan) to cover the gap, 3-4 spacers per bolt will do.

There’s a hose that runs from the valve cover to a hardline behind the fuel rail. Remove it. Now, you may need to trim the nipple on the fuel rail about half its length. Don’t worry about any adverse effects or reflaring, the vacuum pulls the hose on harder in this spot.

You’ll need some new injector clips to clip them onto the fuel rail. Autozone sells some, GP Sorensen to the rescue again.

Put some oil on the o-rings of the injectors, slide them into the rail, then slide this assembly into the block.

Bolt it in. You may have to unbolt and move that rear bracket out of the way to get to the bolts. It’s a pain, a huge one.

Plug in your new injectors electrically. EDIT: If you use low impedance (2 ohm) injectors as in this example you'll need a 10 ohm resistor in the wire going into each injector. It turns out that B15/P11 injectors (not sure about B13 and 14 and P10s) are high impedance (12 ohms). Going without the resistor the car will run incurably rich because the injectors will essentially be stuck open every time they fire.RE-EDIT, FINAL SOLUTION: I got some bunko info on the injectors needing to be high imp., they should be low, so the MSD bolt right in and don't need resistors, just different clips. Trust me, my car ran like crap with the resistors in. So, to be clear NO RESISTORS!

Refill with oil and coolant, replace the bumper and such (you may want to wait til you’ve checked for leaks), reconnect the battery and check the fuel system for pressurization by turning the key to the on position. Take this chance to program a good 12-15% low throttle fuel curve all around so that you can get it to a shop for dyno tuning. Drive VERY wimpishly til you get it tuned or you will blow your motor, do not use any more throttle than you have to. Absolutely do not go into high rpm or high throttle, keep it at 2000rpm or less as much as possible, to be safe. If you don’t have any leaks, you’re ready to start it up.

http://q45.spilky.com/gallery/...I.AVIThat’s before I had the downpipe made. Purs like an angry kitten/lawnmower and kills small woodland creatures with unclean exhaust fumes. My basement smells like spent fuel still… I probably do too.

Fix any leaks you might have, change the oil and filter again after having run it that first time for 5 minutes or so, just to make sure any metal shavings from the drilling got trapped and can’t come loose later.

Get it tuned, get a downpipe made, have fun.

I'll add more if I happen to think of it, but I'm pretty sure that's it. It's really a matter of diving in and going at it, but I think this will serve as a good reference. An FSM is pretty much a necessity, use the link provided. I'd be happy to answer any questions- [email protected]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This thread is not the place to post general performance questions. Search the Sentra section, post a new thread, or email me at the address above with questions not directly related to turbocharging the SR20DE.

Thanks,NTN---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: New FSM location - Use the link in my signature.

Modified by nametakennow at 12:34 AM 12/4/2005

Modified by nametakennow at 6:00 PM 1/4/2006

Modified by nametakennow at 10:12 AM 3/12/2006

Modified by nametakennow at 5:13 PM 7/30/2006

[AZhitman]

Nice - This goes in as an article!

[nametakennow]

Please make note of the edits (in bold) in the original post... they deal with two key issues of getting the car to run correctly.

[RED_DET]

If anyone has questions about the swap, please contact nametakennow by email or start a new thread with the inquiries.