In 2005 I was always down at my friends garage here in Philadelphia. My friend Andrew is an GM loving fool with a 9000ft2 garage. In his garage there were tons of old goodies about 50 motors, pallets of parts, and cars out the a**. From a 56 Belair, 65 442, 84 Vette, 68 Nova, 70 GrandAm, 70 Malibu, and about 10 other gm cars from the 70s and 80s I cant think of. Well anyhow my friend picked up a 1984 Chevy S10 project that someone never really started. Andrew ending up putting a rebuilt 327/TH350 in her. And then I got involved. Unfortunately he had a number of projects going on and couldn't hold interest in one car for that long.
One day they told me that if I wanted to get a car I could keep it and work on it there. So I took them up on their offer. I ended up looking at a number of cars. Regals, trucks, C4's, then I thought back to the days I had a ghetto boosted 91 Civic hatch. I realized how fun the small car was to drive and I started thinking imports again. The one evening I thought hmm, I want to put a V8 into a Japanese car. So my venture started.
I worked with a drag racer named Bob Sanders. Bob was a generator guy where I worked, but had been building cars his whole life. Bob took a year off from bracket racing and offered to build me an engine. So it started.... Bob built a small block 400 motor for me that was capable of making 600hp. In the meantime I was looking at cars. My focus's were on FC RX7s, and S13's. After looking for weeks online I found a 1990 Nissan 240sx coupe on eBay with a blown engine. It had a nice dent on the quarter panel, but other then that she looked mint. Paint was shining except for the quarter panel, the interior was mint, and it was a SE model with power everything, sunroof, HUD, leather. I ended up winning the car on eBay for $550 bucks.
I picked the car up in Harrisburg PA and towed her home to Philadelphia. This is where the KA24E and manual trans were removed. And pulled the front end off. Got a bare small block from the shop and started measuring her up. I ended up making motor mounts, had the trans tunnel ready. Purchased a ton of stuff. All the gauges, a built TH350, Drive shaft, headers, pulleys and accessories, carburetor, MSD, had power steering lines made. While in the process my body guy looked at her and asked me to get a new quarter panel for it. I ended up selling the parted that weren't needed on eBay A local guy bought most of them and came and picked them up.
I began my search, new cost way too much, junkyards were a miss, and eBay was no good. So one day I am working in Langhorne and I am driving past an Auto Donation lot. In the back of the lot I spot s13 vert. I go and look at it and its destroyed. Front bumper is falling off, the top is torn up, the floor is rotted out, interior has about six inches of water in it. I ask the guy if its for sale and he said yes but its no good and the engine was bad. So I make an offer of 200 bucks, and he accepts.
So I rent a u-haul dolly and go to pick it up. As I am back up the dolly it shift and ends up smashing into my bedside and ripping a hole into my tire. (company truck 2001 Ford F250 crew cab). Fix the flat, load the car and take it home. I ended up spending 3 days cutting and drilling the quarter panel off.. I strip the car for any good parts and part her out. Ended up selling the quarter glass for more then I paid for the car, then One day I charged the battery and tried to start it. So much for the bad motor, the KA24DE started right up. So I put the car on eBay as a parts car and sold it for 300 stripped with a good motor.
So now I have my quarter panel, that will fit my coupe. I jack the car up about 2 feet and decide to work under it. So I unbolt the subframe and it doesn't drop. I ended up beating it from the mounts and she drops off....... bad news its smashed in and twisted. Measured it and it was really crooked. So I tow the car home and leave it.
So now its time to find another shell. So I try Craigslist. This is about sept 2006 when I started looking. So I find a 1991 hatch for 1300 with a bad engine. I email the guy and offer 800 and he declines. About 2 weeks go by and he calls me. He asked if I still wanted it and I said yes. So I rent trailer and go pick it up. To my surprise its the guy who bought all my parts a few months prior. I load the car up and take it home. And junk the coupe after stripping it.
One night I'm checking out pictures and find some s15 conversion on hatches. I thought it was bad a** looking at the time and end up buying OEM lights, OEM rad support, and a raceonUSA conversion (bad decision). I start doing the front end conversion and give up on it. I then get a call from a company in Florida who offered me a job making a lot more money. Almost double my salery at the time. So I start my search online looking for a place to live, I had 3 months to get to Florida. I also ponder how I am going to spend my new salary. My fabrication skills weren't so great, and start looking for Nissan shops in Florida.
I ended up finding Ellis Autoworkz in Tampa Florida. The build a VH45DE S13 and it was awesome looking. So I call them up and see if they would be interested in doing my fab work for me. The agree, but suggest that maybe I use a EFI motor. So I start looking at LS motors (at the time no LS swap kits existed). I fell in love right away. I find a local guy in PA parting his car out. A tree fell on it and crushed the rear, low miles, it was the perfect donor car. I end up picking the engine for 2600 bucks. I created it up and send the engine to Florida. A month later I send the car to them with trans and other part needed for the swap. I sell the small block 400 and broke even.
So I move to Fort Lauderdale and start my new job, 4 months later my swap is done. I paid a ton of cash, but it was custom work, and it was done right. I end up getting the car back and fell in love with her.
The car site for about 3 months. In the meantime I hate my job, and end up quitting and moving back to Philly. I had no where to stay so I put the car in storage and lived with my parents. My house my being rented out and I was waiting for the lease to end to move back. From time to time I would work on the car at the storage place, but it was too small.. A few months later I get an awesome Christmas bonus and buy a lot of goodies and get my front end put on by 5 stars auto in Philly. The other items were a touch screen, 350 track rotors, z32 brakes, 5 lug swap, and here and there parts.
The time comes and I move back home. It took a while to get back on my feet. I ended up getting a roommate who happens to be a UTI grad who works at tires plus. My roommate, Ryan< was a life saver on this. Helped do the brake swap, and took many of my parts to work to have stuff done for nothing. Such as press in ball joints, and get me parts at super low prices. While doing this work I drop the entire suspension. All the mismatched and multicolored suspension parts were all sanded, and painted black. The subframe was dropped and under the car was stripped, painted, and reassembled. Ryan and I got her all back together and back on all fours.
One day I start her up and the smell is sweet. I pull her out and the coolant is low hmmmm. I change the oil and its greeenish.. Oh no is the engine shot. I rip apart the top of the engine and find no cracks. Just a bad head gasket. The block decking was fine. At this point I started ordering a lot of parts. I end up getting a ported set of 243 heads and patriot racing valve springs, a Texas Speed MS3 cam, racetronix injectors, LS7 lifters, LS6 lifter trays, hardened pushrods, BBK throttlebody. I had the work done and tuned by Race Proven Motorsports in Claymont DE.
So I post an ad on Craigslist to trade my services for autobody work. And it actually worked........ A shop owner in Boyertown had me do a 200Amp service on his house plus material money for paint and body work. The paint looks awesome. It has a couple of blemish spots that need wet sanding, but I am happy.
I end up getting carpet, Bride seats, and doing the interior. And thats how she sits today.
Future plans are Orgin stream S15/S13 aero, coilovers, S&W race cars 10 point cage.
The swap pics were deleted by photobucket, it really sucks this is all I have from then.
The VH Swap Ellis Autoworks did.
Engine.... 2002 Chevrolet LS6 5.7 Liter V8, F-Body accessory drive, LS2 front sump conversion, Port and Polished throttle body, ported and descreened MAF, Custom headers, Hypertech T stat, Racetroix 37# EV1 injectors, LS7 lifters, Hardened pushrods, ported and polished 243 heads with patriot racing dual gold valve springs, Texas Speed MS3 Cam, Tuned by race proven motorsports, Mishimoto aluminum radiator, Mishimoto Fan shround, Perma-cool 3300CFM pusher , AC delete, Emissions deleted... No cats or emissions controls enabled, Dual stainless steel exhaust, dual 3.5 in/out Borla XR series mufflers, 8 Gallon fuel cell, Hypertech Hyperpak monitor
TransmissionTH350 3 Speed Automatic Transmission, B&M Shift kit, B&M 2800 stall converter, working LS kick down. Nissan Q45 rear, 6 bolt axles, welded R200, 3.689 ratio, Custom drive shaft and transmission cross member, Hurst ProMatic 2 shifter
SuspensionKYB AGX shocks, TEIN S Tech springs, Peak sub frame collars, RUCAS, Adjustable traction rods, adjustable toe rods, Custom made S13 to S15 radiator core tension rod brackets, Godspeed front and rear sway bars, Ichiba 5 Lug Conversion. ***She sits to high so I am going to be investing in coilovers, one day
BrakesBrembo Z32 slotted and drilled rotros, Nissan Z32 4 pot front calipers, Brembo drilled and slotted rear Z32 rotors, Nissan Z32 2 pot rear caliper, Nissan Z32 master cylinder, Bonehead lines, Z32 brake cable (not 2+2)
ExteriorSilvia S15 front end conversion (RaceOnUSA Fiberglass) conversion fenders, hood, bumper, OEM black housing S15 headlamps, OEM S15 radiator core, hood is custom but needs venting improvement, fenders suck and I will be switching to Orgin, and unknown skirts from Elite JDM
Interior Autometer Ultralite 2 gauges, Speedo, Tach, Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, Water Temp, Voltage, Fuel... Bride Vios Seats, Dyed carpet, 6 point cage.
AudioNone yet
4/9/09So the other day I was backing down the driveway and there was a pfffttt and cloud a burnt gas came out. Scared I shut it off and checked things out, no problems. Started it right back up and she was good. So today I was driving to the exhaust shop and it did it again as I pulled in. This time I just kept it running and the smoke cleared.
Later on it did it while I was driving. So I took her home and start poking around. I read codes on the fly and I wasn't throwing any. So I pull the strut bar and pull the corvette engine covers. Took about 3 seconds and I ended up finding a problem. The #8 spark plug wire came loose from the coil pack. So she was running on 7 cylinders the last few 2 days. It wasn't throwing codes because the pack was still working, just not going anywhere. With no codes and the huge cam its hard to hear a single miss. Anyhow my powerband is better, idle is better and not more fuel traveling down the header creating a PFFt sound on my intake stroke. AKA my fake BOV.
I have new 02 sensors I just gotta get off of my a** and replace them. I am also going to be replacing that spark plug. The plugs are new, so I am only doing the one.
Newer engine shots
6/28/09My have has been running hot. In the Yellow, still safe but not safe enough. Anyhow tonight on the way home I crank the heat and never broke 200 when it had been running 225. I ordered a 3300 cfm Perma-Cool fan to replace one of my mishimoto fans. The total CFM is going from 2300 to 4600 cfm. I also ordered a ARC cooling panel.
But back to the heater being on. I came up with an idea to help with cooling. I ordered a Chevy Suburban heatercore and motorcycle radiator fan. I am going to mount them under the bumper as a second radiator in the spring/summer months.
I am also getting a oil cooler with a 185 tstat. Hoping to keep her under 200 for good now.
I also ordered and installed a set of these here.
Fan
7/23/09Radiator plumbing and cleaning up all done. Just gotta tighten the lower shroud bolts (forgot about them). I still need to run the car and bleed the cooling system.
I will be starting the oil cooler soon. estimate is $300.00 bucks
I am using the Lingenfelter oil filter adapter with 10AN fittings. Then I will be going to Bonehead for AN Lines and fittings, and I am using the 25 row cooler. It will be mounted similar to the second radiator,
Pics with the second mini rad installed, painted, and all cleaned up.Permacool 3300 cfm PusherHeater core mini RadTight fit
And some shots of me 4x4ing last month.
