Looking for grill block suggestions for a 2002 Nissan Sentra

[Gasoline Fumes]

I might be trying a few simple aeromods on my neighbor's 2002 Sentra. This car has a large lower grill and a smaller upper grill. Totally blocking the upper grill is a no-brainer, but I'm not sure what the best approach for the lower grill is. This car has a large gap between the grill and radiator. And the gap is open on the bottom. So I'm sure a lot of air going through the grills just ends up under the car. It's like Nissan wasn't even trying. So should I close off the area with a short belly pan and block part of the lower grill? Or block all of the lower grill and use an air dam to get airflow into the radiator from under the bumper?

[Daox]

For simple mods I'd probably just do the top and call it a day.

As with most cars, it looks like the lower grill is below the stagnation point. Therefore, even if you block a good portion of it and put the bumper cover to radiator support chin piece in you're still getting all that newly blocked airflow under the car where its aerodynamically dirty. Yeah, you probably gain a bit by saving it from going through the engine bay, but my guess is it probably won't be a huge gain.

If you want to take it to the next step I'd add the chin piece and air dam, and also block off a good 1/3rd to 1/2 the lower grill.

[Sven7]

Yep, you'll want some sort of lower ground effects to push the air around the car instead of under it. It looks like SE-R bumpers have a similar stagnation point so perhaps look at "tuner" (aka rice) bumpers or other front splitters on Ebay. This one looks terrible but at least has that lip that will keep air from underneath the car.



Color match it and no one will know.


You could easily block off those useless grille openings on the sides and it will look nearly stock. When blocking the bottom grille start from the outside and move inward; this will encourage clean flow to stay clean as it goes around the car.

[Gasoline Fumes]

I don't think he'll go for an aftermarket front bumper unless it was free.

I'll start with the upper block.