intake, ecu suggestions

15

Asked by zchryjc Oct 08, 2010 at 12:08 PM about the 2008 Nissan Sentra S

Question type: Car Customization

I am a happy new owner of a 08 sentra base model. I am looking into coldair intakes, do you have suggestions as to what is best? K&N, Injen, AEM? Also, they all say that they are for the ser or specV, does it matter that i have a base model? and any recommendations for ECU brand? thanx

3 Answers

85

I'm no expert on Sentra's of your year model, but I do know that the se-r and specV have a different engine than the base model. A CAI for an se-r will be designed for its own particular dimensions under the hood, which are likely much different from yours. I have to say that an ecu upgrade will probably not be worth the hundreds you pay for it. If you want to modify your car, try to stick with the things that will give you the most improvement. Sports tires like Falken Azenis RT-615's, or even cheap Falken Ziex's will make a world of difference in a car's handling compared to base model all-season tires. Suspension is another good thing to look into. Just don't buy lowering springs on ebay.

4,545

I completely agree with the last comment regarding ECU modification not making much sense in your case. The reasons that one generally needs to upgrade the ECU just aren't there. Even when doing fairly heavy modifications to a car (check out mine for example) pretty much the last thing to go in is the ECU, or in my case, the stand-alone fuel management system that I built by hand. I actually haven't even put mine in yet, because there's no call for it until I drop the MAF sensor in favor of MAP, install the turbo, and rig the fuel rail for direct-port hydrogen injection. CAI should do you well though, and you may only have to make minor modifications to make the SER or SPEC-V intake fit your car. In my case, I reused the stock intake pipe, sans resonator, bought an adapter plate that bolts to the MAF and converts to normal 3" pipe for a cone filter. After that, it's not too hard to build an isolation box out of plexiglass and 2x2, or fiberglass is a good option too. You should already have plastic pipe that goes through the driver side fender (behind the battery) and down to somewhere behind the bumper under the corner light, so just make sure you leave that side open. All you have to close off is the front side between the air filter and the battery, and then from there back to the strut tower. If you do it yourself, you should be able to have a cold-air intake for your car under $100 or so. If you insist on paying for an aftermarket CAI, I wouldn't worry too much about which brand - they're all pretty much the same. There really isn't a whole lot of engineering variables in most CAI systems. Anyhow, I hope this helps. Let me know how everything works out for you!

1 people found this helpful.

My car is nissan 2009 sentra 2.5L and i have a nissan maxima intake, does the maximma intake fit to my nissan sentra? Please answer thanks.

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