Refreshing an appliance. B15 Sentra 1.8s commutacar/possible gastropod entry

A few years ago we picked this 06 Sentra 1.8s up from SWMBO mom for $500. (That was what they offered her for a trade in, and in a lapse of judgement moment, I spouted off "heck mom, I'll give you $500 for it right now".) SWMBO drove it for two years till last Feb. Last Feb. This thing's headgasket let go for no apparent reason and was parked due to the abysmal trade in offers we got on it when we purchased a 2018 IM.  November I gave it the blue devil treatment and now it seems to be running right. After a month of around town and semi local road trips (sub 2 hours each way) I've given it the green light to be reintroduced to commuter duty to help keep the miles off the new car. This will be a log of my attempts to make it halfway amusing, and refreshing a 16 year old appliance that's been in the family since new. 

 

Edit : I just noticed the background of the first picture, I'm going to leave it because that's how I feel about the autotragic in this car.  

As I've stated, it's an auto car, and a QG18. Soooo if it's going to the challenge, it needs to handle better and look better than the rest. It sure isn't going to outrun them. Auto makes it better for commuting or something. Dunno. SWMBO likes it, and she brings home 5x what I do. She wins.  

First things first. Plan is to refresh the suspension and brakes. I used to think the brakes were pretty good in this thing, till I got used to driving the IM. Night and day difference. So I'm going to take a "Cousin Eddie" approach to detailing this thing and refreshing it to see how I like it. 

First stop, Rock auto. Gee look, no-name Spec-V struts are on closeout.... What else do they have. $180 later I'm waiting for brake parts and suspension parts to arrive. BUT before I do that, let's look around. BINGO! CL FTW 20k mile OEM replacement Spec V struts with Tien S-Tech springs installed for $100. The stock Spec-V stuff is valved differently than the SER/S/SE to deal with higher spring rates. The Tien S-techs are about a 50lb/in increase over the stock Spec-V springs.  Rockauto wants $50 for just the no name struts. hmmm no spring compressors for me. (no air tools at my current location) Let me talk to this guy.  Come to find out he parted out a rust belt spec V, so I score the struts, springs, stock front strut bar from his daily driver Spec V as he installed the coil-overs and aftermarket stuff onto his car.  So the Rock Auto order is on hold for now. Which means I'm still waiting to install the struts. (maybe) I'm researching what it will take to install the spec-V brakes onto the 1.8s now as he's got the rear calipers/rotors and front knuckles as well.  I'm waiting for funds right now, just because we had to pay in again this year on our taxes.  I'll drop a pic of the springs/struts tomorrow. Strut bar is already installed.

I love these threads on humble cars. Exotics have their place, but commuter appliances are more interesting to me.

That's a decent score. Wish I could find a clean shell for $500!

Interesting colour too. I don' t think you could get a bright yellow Civic or Corolla in 2006.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

Yeah, I wanted to try my hand at a decent build thread, but couldn't find anything I thought would be "interesting" enough, so I went with what I had. These humble cars are what we live with day to day so we can save the fun stuff for the weekend if we're lucky. Sometimes it's both. 

In reply to Run_Away :

Pretty sure Nissan had the market on this color for these years. Silver/white/red seems to be the norm. I know when my MIL was in a slight fender bender with this car years ago the body shop played hell matching the paint. It's noticeable if you're looking for it on the drivers side fender/door transition.

2 out of 3 isn't bad right?

The non Spec V struts do not have the longer bolt needed for the strut bar. So I'll be installing those later this evening barring any more rain.

I'm composing a mental list of supplies

• Simple Green
• 303 rubber dressing
• VHT engine paint
• Miscellaneous rags and scrub brushes
• Shop Vac (for leaves in cowl)

Been thinking about painting the valve cover and intake, just not sure what colors to go with. Heck I haven't even googled VHT engine paint to see what's available yet. Back to strut install in the dark. 

Edit, looks like gloss yellow is available. Now do I want a white engine block or a black one? 

In my opinion, VHT paint is the good stuff. I think I've used about all engine paint out there (including POR15 engine paint). For ease of use, availability, and end results, I am now a VHT convert.

My truck engine is all VHT paint other than the valve cover which is powder. The silver is "aluminum" color.

While my Miata is all powdercoat.

To my eyes, the difference between the powder and VHT is close enough that it's not worth the effort to powder (and I do my own powder in house).

VHT Roll Bar and Chassis paint

So is your intake painted "aluminum"? I thought you just cleaned it to that point!

So I got the front struts/springs installed this evening. Got to be 9pm and I'm out working in the yard under the streetlight so I called it quits. Took it for a spin with the just the fronts and the strut bar installed. The difference in the front end is night and day. Firmer ride, but not harsh. No more tramp over rail road crossings.  Can't wait to get the rears done in the AM. Then off to the alignment shop on Friday. 

Know what's more fun than dressing up an economy car engine with a tendency to eat headgaskets?

Substituting the little iron block with aluminum cubic inches.

In reply to Run_Away :

That's my plan for it eventually. We're trying to get into a position to build a house/garage/shop on the property we're on. So major swaps like that are on the back burner till that happens. But I have seen it, and drooled mightily. 

Edit: That really looks like it belongs there. Well done on that one. 

Late update, but as of 2 weeks ago we have more low.

A week ago I ghetto rigged a cone filter to the MAF with a ebay BMW e28 adapter.  Basically the cone takes the place of just the stock air box. I was worried about the noise level, and to be honest it gives it a nice growl on acceleration but otherwise it's un-noticeable. I'm going to look into a proper intake for it. 

Tonight I dug into the rear brakes and adjusted them some. This things brakes were sorry to say the least, and the pedal went most of the way to the floor before you got any bite out of them. I adjusted the drums out some, (it took more time to get it in the air with the wheels off than it did to adjust) and while I was doing that SWMBO actually came out and cleaned the interior of her car. (yes hers, since I started this thread she's reclaimed this car as hers. I get to drive the new Corolla IM 99% of the time now. I think in celebration of the event, I'll steal her car from work tomorrow and give it a good wash.). Anyway, after adjusting the drums, we now have a pedal, and the brakes work much better thankfully. I'm still going to tear down the fronts and give them a proper going through since they still sound like they're rusty from sitting (I think the passenger side front is dragging)

Total budget to date. 500.00 + 37.99 blue devil + 100.00 CL suspension goodies + 8.80 ebay maf adapter. JY cone filter, was a freebie.

So what did we learn today kids? Chinese tires may be a good buy at the time but they're junk. The tires on the car were bought ~Sept 2016 from wally world, and installed by them. They always had a wobble to them, ALWAYS. well after ~20k and 3 attempts by WM to try and balance the tires I took it to a local tire shop that's been around for 20+ years. (they were there when I was in high school, and they're still doing a booming business). Yeah, one of the tires was delaminating. You can see where it's separating on the inside sidewall. Sadly WM had the car less than 2 weeks ago and told me everything was fine... Needless to say they're getting a nasty email to the store manager and corporate.  3 of the 4 were good, but that 4th... Don't get me started on the absurd amount of wheel weights that were on there. That was silly. 6oz on one wheel. After we pulled all the weights it needed 2.25 to balance out. I've got to say it was nice to drive it without a violent shimmy at 60mph. 

Previous budget 646.79 + 86.60 for the new tire. New budget 733.39

Nice!

somebody is gonna have to explain “gastropod” to me, irt challenge cars...

Recon1342 said:

somebody is gonna have to explain “gastropod” to me, irt challenge cars...

Low-prep, 250+ TW, limited recoup challenge subclass initiated by mazdeuce:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/2019-gastropods-come-join-us/143978/page1/

This, the Saturn SL builds, these are why I came here years ago and it’s why I keep coming back.