Project: SuperHatch's Drag VH powered S14

[SuperHatch]

Figured everyone else has their own project thread, so here's mine... I'll just update this every time I make progress.

Am I weird or what? I got a couple motors before I got the car to put one in! This was over a year ago... hopefully these photobucket links still work else I'll rehost them on my site.

















Then I got a car a few months later. 95 Base Model S14 auto...





















Then a whole lot of nothing happened for a while, then I got back into my project...

I fabricated my engine and transmission mounts...

Engine/trans combo (this is a bare, bad, block that I am using just for fabrication purposes:



This is the transmission mount I made:



This is the transmission mount installed:









These are the motor mounts I made:











This is the RH mount installed:





I can still remove the starter with the mount installed. We'll see if I can say the same thing after I've made the headers.







This is the LH mount installed:









Then I made a shifter plate for the ProMatic shifter I'll be using...











Then I dressed a good motor to go into the car...









And now the motor is finally in...







Yeah so that's it for now... There are a lot of other things I've done to the car that I don't have pictures of or that I havn't mentioned. I replaced every bushing in the rear end, control arms, subframe, diff, etc. I installed a R32 GTR rear, 4.08:1 ratio, large TT-Z style axles, 5-lug hubs. Converted the car to 5-lug, redrilled the stock rotors to work with the 5-lug hubs, obviously gutted the interior, removed all sound deadening, removed bumper supports and fabbed bracket to hold bumpers... yadda yadda. Just not VH related so I never really mentioned any of it.

[craigztoyz]

Nice to see all your pics together. I have watched yours for a while.

I had my engine for over 3 years, wondering what to do with it, 81 510, or fc. Having extra parts as you have found, is a blessing. a PITA too.

I like the look of those s14's, and they seem to be a monster with the VH

[tmorgan4]

You've got a nice project as well! I like the idea of having a spare block and car to test fit. Beats screwing up the pretty motor and car taking it in and out.

[npez]

Dig it

Looks nice - and I'm with tmorgan, nice to have a spare motor around

Top notch workmanship as well I wish I could fab things like that

Keep us updated on any upgrades you decide to do to it....

Thanks,Nick.

[SuperHatch]

Dig it

Looks nice - and I'm with tmorgan, nice to have a spare motor around

Top notch workmanship as well I wish I could fab things like that

Keep us updated on any upgrades you decide to do to it....

Thanks,Nick.

Thanks for the compliments, that goes for everyone.

The plan right now is to get it running and driving by mid summer. I'm getting married in October and we're doing an Atco track rental for my bachelor party. I'd really love to have this car there.

I'm planning a NA head/cam upgrade for this coming winter, and I've been working with M2 Race Systems in developing it. I havn't said much about it because, well, I don't like getting other people's hopes up.

[elwesso]

Very nice sir!!! Are you going to run it on the stock ECU before you start getting nuts, or are you going to cut right ot the chase?

[T45]

I'm getting married in October and we're doing an Atco track rental for my bachelor party.

Hello new friend!

[craigztoyz]

How far is Indiana? Ha Ha

Man If I ever meet a woman worth marring, I want a bachelor party at a track, WOW, that is just a awsome way to spend your last free day.

[SuperHatch]

Hello new friend!

Man If I ever meet a woman worth marring, I want a bachelor party at a track, WOW, that is just a awsome way to spend your last free day.

You guys would be surprised... it's not all that expensive. We've done track rentals before, they're usually in the ballpark of $1500. But if 15 guys do the "typical" bachelor party thing, women and booze, they'd easily spend $100 a piece. This way we get to spend a day racing our cars instead. The women and booze thing doesn't appeal to me at all, so this is the bachelor party of choice for me.

[SuperHatch]

Very nice sir!!! Are you going to run it on the stock ECU before you start getting nuts, or are you going to cut right ot the chase?

Stock ECU for now... Nistune later.

[SuperHatch]

Just an update. Spent a lot of time this weekend on wiring. I basically pulled every harness from the car, then de-loomed them one at a time. I started with the body harness. I used the FSM and traced every wire from the SMJ to their locations at the rear of the car. On an S14 the body harness has the wires for the seatbelt warnings, factory amplifier, rear speakers, and it hast two joint connectors that connect to the trunk harness. The trunk harness has all of the controls for the fuel pump, gauges, lights, etc. as well as the taillights. I essentially removed all the wires from the body harness with the exception of the wires that connect to the trunk harness since I want to retain tail lights and the fuel pump. Once I had all of those wires removed I re-loomed the harness and reinstalled it.

I then moved onto the engine room harness and used the same technique. When I was done the engine bay fuse box only has two headlight fuses, one EGI fuel, one ALT S fuse, and ign fuse, the main fusible link, and no relays. In other words, the box is bare. I began relooming the harness and decided that I wanted to relocate what was left of the engine room fuse box into the passenger side of the cabin and relocate the battery to the trunk. I will be running an electric fan with an aftermarket controller, so I will be running some fan wires through theis loom that I can use later to hook up the fan. I don't want to need to reloom this harness again, lol. It will really clean up the engine bay, and I'm a big fan of clean installs. Now I'm in the process of re-routing those wires and relooming that harness. I should have it mostly finished tonight and I'll post pics.

Once that's done I'm tackling the main harness that goes inside the dashboard. I've removed all HVAC, the air bags, and the audio system. I still need my power windows to work, since there are no manual windows available for the S14. I can also remove all of the wires that went to the AT control unit since my TH400 is a fully mechanical unit. I've saved the worst for last of course...

Just as a reference, I've save 14lbs of wire weight so far, and the main harness has the most weight to remove. This may be time and labor intensive, but it's free...

Of course when all of this is done, I'll be doing the same with the VH engine harness, since I do not have an EGR, Evap, etc anymore. That and the fact that the harnesses are so heat soaked and the looming is extremely brittle. It will be nice to get some flexible sleeving back on it, and I can tuck all of the wires nicely to keep the engine bay looking clean.

[T45]

Don't worry about the booze and strippers... Daddy got that covered! Just give me open blacktop mmmmkay?!?!

[SuperHatch]

Don't worry about the booze and strippers... Daddy got that covered! Just give me open blacktop mmmmkay?!?!

Exactly!

Anyway, here are some pictures to go along with my long boring update above...

What you see in these two pictures is all of the wiring that is left from the engine room harness. This is pretty much the wires to all of the lights, headlights, marker lights, etc. This will get tucked inside the bumper so nothing is visible in the engine bay. I'm leaving it up and unloomed right now ebcause I will need to add in the wires for my electric fans before I can tidy it up. With the exception of the actual engine harness, you won't see any more wires inside the engine bay.









This is the now small cluster of wires that passes through the drivers side fenter well and sonnects to the SMJ in the drivers kick panel area.





This is the shrunken and reloomed rear harness and where it connects to the tail harness.





This is the mess around the SMJ. The cluster of wires you see going over the steering column is all of the wires that used to go around the front of the engine bay to the engine bay fuse box on the PS of the car. It is now inside the vehicle and goes over to the battery sitting where the passenger seat used to be.









The engine bay fuse box, or whats left of it, will be shrink down and mounted to the floor on the passenger side. I'll then run the wires that go to the starter and alternator out through a rubber grommet on the passenger side of the firewall where the AC lines used to go through. I'll also move the battery to the trunk and extend the lines to there.

Before all of that happens I need to strip down the main harness that used to go through the dashboard and remove all the un-necessary wires from that and then relomm it and mount it back under the dash.

This is a lot of work, but with how much it is simplifying the install, dropping weight, and making the entire car cleaner is making the project well worth it.

[npez]

Steve,

Great work! This looks fantastic. I know it's a heck of a lot of work (I had to do something like this with a previous project) but in the end it is very rewarding.

Keep up the good work keeping us updated on how everything progresses! I really am enjoying watching your project bloom.

Thanks,Nick.

[tmorgan4]

Your wiring is much cleaner than mine. Looks great and will be well worth it!

[SuperHatch]

Thanks for the kind words guys... still a lot of work left but it's getting there. For the first time I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Wiring left to do in the Fuse Box/Engine Bay harness:

- Add electric fan wiring- Add Linelock Wiring (wires will come through drivers fenderwell right near the master cylinder, tucked away and clean)

Wiring left to do in the Engine/ECU harness:

- Remove all unnecessary wires (EGR, Canister Solenoid)- Add Aftermarket Oil Pressure Gauge wires- Add Aftermarket Water Temp Gauge wires- Add 2-Step Wiring

Wiring left to do in Main Dash harness:

- Remove lots of wires (AT Ecu, Audio, HVAC, Cluster)- Add Aftermarket Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Tach Wires (Plan is to integrate them into the connection between the Engine harness and the Main harness so everything is removeable without cutting like and OEM install)- Add line lock, transbrake, and 2-step controls. The idea is to add two buttons to the stock steering wheel, then use the 4 airbag wires as the leads for the two buttons. This way I can turn the steering wheel fully without and coiled wire mess. One button will simultaneously trigger the transbrake and 2-step through relays. The second button will trigger the linelock. The reason for triggering through relays is so that I can also add test buttons to independantly control all of them in the center stack on the dash. If they were wired direct the triggering of one would trigger all of them. I want to integrate the relays and fuses into the stock engine fusebox that is now in the car. Should work well and look clean.

Wiring left to do in the lower engine harness:

- Remove AT wiring- Add transbrake wiring (then add junction to main harness inside car with plug, once again, removeable like OEM)- Extend Alternator charge wire to trunk at killswitch

Other wiring...

- Relocate battery and add killswitch- Add relay at fuel pump with direct connect to batter in trunk. Use OEM Fuel Pump power to trigger relay. That way pump gets true 14.4V through heavy gauge wire. Old trick from my DSM experience.

[SuperHatch]

Well guys, another update... spent the day yesterday doing clearancing and cleanup on the engine bay. I had to clearance the framerails on both sides, one small spot for the oil filter housing, the other spot for the alternator. I also patched some rust, removed brakets for stuff that isn't there anymore, primed, and then painted. Came out ok, not my best work, but it certainly does the job.

On to the pics...

[SuperHatch]

Got the motor back in, plenty of clearance for the filter and alternator now...

[T45]

That looks friggin sweet!!!

[Carl H]

pics arnt working...do you have any pics of how low the oil pan sits?i know on gs14racer's car he had his hanging down below the crossmember not too keen on that.

[SuperHatch]

That looks friggin sweet!!!

Thanks man!!! I'm doing my best to keep this install as clean as possible...

[SuperHatch]

pics arnt working...do you have any pics of how low the oil pan sits?i know on gs14racer's car he had his hanging down below the crossmember not too keen on that.

I'll get a pic of the pan for you this week. I know for a fact it sits lower than the crossmember, how much I can't say for sure. I'm not worried about it at all, this car will never see the street... I do have big concerns about this for my Z though. We can leave the Z discussions for another thread though.

[Jeff Taylor]

Lookin nice!

[SuperHatch]

Lookin nice!

Thanks!

So does anyone here have experience or opinions about Aluminum versus Steel driveshafts? It's the last component I need to order to finish the drivetrain off and I want to make the best choice I can. A Steel shaft will cost me 350 and an aluminum one will be 450, so cost isn't so much an issue.

Thoughts?

[mtcookson]

Depends on the power you're looking for... I would think if you're planning on going all out with the VH you would probably want steel. The auto transmission will probably help a bit as far as greatly reducing the shock to it but with enough torque it probably wouldn't matter what transmission you were using. Personally, I would stick with the steel. The weight difference is pretty minimal for the strength difference you get.

If you want to go all out though... you could get a carbon fiber driveshaft. As light or lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel and if it did just so happen to break they pretty much just disintegrate making them quite safe. I know PST does a lot of carbon fiber shafts (www.pstds.com). You're probably looking at a price range in the $700's though.

[SuperHatch]

Depends on the power you're looking for... I would think if you're planning on going all out with the VH you would probably want steel. The auto transmission will probably help a bit as far as greatly reducing the shock to it but with enough torque it probably wouldn't matter what transmission you were using. Personally, I would stick with the steel. The weight difference is pretty minimal for the strength difference you get.

If you want to go all out though... you could get a carbon fiber driveshaft. As light or lighter than aluminum and stronger than steel and if it did just so happen to break they pretty much just disintegrate making them quite safe. I know PST does a lot of carbon fiber shafts (www.pstds.com). You're probably looking at a price range in the $700's though.

Great advice. The price difference between steel an AL doesn't bother me that much, but I'm not going to drop 700 on carbon fiber... I don't see the car making more than 500WHP in the next year or two, so I'm leaning towards aluminum. Every ounce helps, and the lighter I make the car, the quicker it will be with the limited horsepower the VH makes stock.

[mtcookson]

500 should be ok with aluminum, especially with the auto trans.

[SuperHatch]

Just another update...

I've been working pretty dilligently on the car, just havn't posted much about it.

I fabbed up a lot of my headers this weekend...





















I also got in my new radiator...



Did some custom gauge mounting...









Also go in my custom flexplate... cro-mo. Much stronger than stock...



That's about it for now... once the torque conveter and driveshaft get delivered I'll pull the motor, finish the headers, install the TC, flexplate, etc... then hopefully give her the first test start!!! Getting very exciting over here...

[Mettler]

Fabricating headers is a pain in the arse. Are you going for exact equal length, or 'close enough' ? How are you getting the lengths even?

[SuperHatch]

Fabricating headers is a pain in the arse. Are you going for exact equal length, or 'close enough' ? How are you getting the lengths even?

Going for "Close Enough" since...

A) I don't have the talent to get them exact equal length, and

B) I really don't think there's enough room in an S14 to get true equal length.

This is my first set of headers, we'll see how well it comes out.