Ever since Fast and the Furious came out many years ago, Import cars have finally been getting the recognition that they deserve.
Tuning these vehicles is simple, and your money goes further with them as well. The cars are easy to work on, so upgrading the car is not difficult at all. Just like any vehicle though you need to decide what you want to do with it.
Because that will decide how extreme you can take the upgrades. Are you building it for the track, car shows, or do you want to drive this vehicle daily? Well enough talk, let’s get into these mods for our Nissan Sentra!
Tires and Rims
Isn’t it a rule that you have to start with tires and rims in any car build? If it isn’t, it definitely should be a rule; here is proof.
Have you ever seen a car drive by with a full body kit, engine mods, and
interior all done up, but the rims are the stock hubcaps?
It looks terrible and counterproductive to the result we are creating here. So start with your rims and tires, I’m a low profile tire kind of guy.
So I will go with 17″ black rims with a chrome lip with some awesome Hankook all season low profile tires wrapping those rims.
Suspension
A great thing about upgrading the suspension, especially with this year of the vehicle. Is that the suspension should already be needing to get rebuilt.
Time has worn hard on those rubber bushings and ball joints on the vehicle now, so replacing them will make your car a lot better in cornering and responding to rough roads.
I will be going with the racing Coilover set by Godspeed the MonoSS model. These coil overs are meant for the track but will easily be able to handle everyday driving.
Prevent yourself from being stranded on the highway with an overheated vehicle. Here’s my article on How often should I replace my car’s thermostat?
Cold Air Intake
Since the Sentra only has 145 horsepower from the 2.0-liter engine, we are going to need every bit of power we can squeeze out of this engine.
We will be staying with a naturally aspirated engine at first, and then we will have to see about later.
But that is in the future for the present we have a cold air intake. This mod is going to supply our engine with some delicious cold air that will boost up our horsepower by a small amount usually around 5-7 horsepower.
The colder the air is the more power we will get from it. This is due to colder air being denser and has more oxygen molecules in it to be burned by the combustion process.
We want to get the outside air instead of the engine bay air due to that air being colder than the warm engine bay air.
Headers and Full Exhaust
As I said, we have no time to play around, and we need every bit of power, we can get from this engine. So if we have increased the air going into our engine now, we need to increase the amount of exhaust that leaves the engine as well.
With this exhaust modification, you need to make sure you have a high flow catalytic converter or this mod will be counterproductive.
We need a smooth exit for our exhaust; by doing this, we should see around a 15-20 horsepower increase and at least 10-13 foot-pounds of torque.
Hood and Body Kit
Now that we have a couple of engine and suspension mods done, we can make our vehicle look better.
I did not add paint as a mod because it’s common sense if you are putting a body kit on, you need to paint it too. So we will be painting the entire vehicle at the same time.
I am a fan of Ford’s tuxedo black with metallic flake, so that is what I will be using on this vehicle as well.
With a beautiful looking body kit from Duraflex, we need to pick if we want to go with a fiberglass kit or a polyurethane kit.
The most significant difference between the two is fiberglass is more fragile than it’s a competitor. With polyurethane, you can bend it, and it will turn right back into position. A polyurethane body kit helps if you ever accidentally hit anything like a curb.
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Tint
Tint can set a vehicle off if used correctly. There are multiple options in choosing what tint and darkness you want to go within your car.
But remember to look at your state laws on tint rules and regulations. This will save you the headache of taking the tint off if your tint is too dark for the state you live.
Tint laws are in effect because police officers have to see into the vehicle if they can’t, then they get anxious and start writing tickets.
Spark
Okay, our exterior is looking sharp! Now we can get back to this engine and not feel like we are ignoring the exterior. We need to increase our spark, not the quantity of it but the quality of it.
It is time to will change your spark plugs to the platinum and above model, change spark plug wires, and the distributor cap. By doing this, you will not only update an old system but give your vehicle better fuel efficiency.
Fuel
With you increasing the air going into our engine, the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor has increased the fuel that is being put into your engine. So you will be increasing the fuel going into the engine as well.
To be able to do this, you need to upgrade a couple of parts; those parts will be your fuel filter and injectors. With the fuel filter, you will be using the K and N high flow fuel filter and a beautiful set of high-performance fuel injectors.
Chip
Even though you increased the air, fuel, and exhaust and have seen a small increase in your power from doing so, you can still get more.
You are going to be able to do this by changing your mapping with your ECU. A performance chip and programmer will be able to do this.
Remapping the ECU will change your fuel to air ratio, so the engine is dialed-in perfectly for the new adjustment of air and fuel.
By doing this, you will squeeze all the power you can out of this engine, without needing to take it to a machine shop for a port and polish modification.
It is always vital to keep your vehicle running strong for you for years to come. Check out my article highlighting the 12 Crucial Maintenance Things to Check on your vehicle to keep your vehicle running strong for you!
Dress up engine
Lastly, I always love having a great-looking vehicle, so it is time to glam up the engine bay. Time to get a pack of universal silicone hose and wire loom with whatever color scheme you choose.
With this vehicle being a 2001 the hoses and other rubber material on the car have taken it’s toll against time and is cracking and dry-rotted, so it is time to change it out. The wire loom we will be covering all the wire loom that is presently in the engine.
You can also always take out the old wire loom to replace it with the new wire loom; it is up to you. I will be taking my old stuff out to increase the look of the engine bay itself.
Next, we will be replacing all the rubber vacuum hoses that are on the engine with the new silicone hose kit. This will not only get rid of any vacuum leak you could have had from the old cracking rubber lines, but it sets the engine off as well.
Then if you want to take it up one more notch, take your valve cover off and any other engine part you want to be changed, and we are going to paint these items a new color.
If you want them just touched up but the same color you will need to do the same thing. So make sure you keep an eye out for that article in case you are not sure how to paint your engine pieces.
In conclusion
Overall the vehicle is on track to turn out good! Also, the Sentra will run better as well with the new parts installed.
Your Sentra is an extension of yourself and a real sign of your ingenuity and creativeness, so do not be afraid to show others what you have completed.
Now it’s time for you to get that sweet ride of yours on the road, so stay safe and keep on rolling!
Thank you for checking out my article! I hope you found it beneficial and enjoyable! Check out my Youtube channel and subscribe for more DIY Auto repair and flipping cars for profit videos! Thank you again!
