My S13 SR20DET build

[Jtultra]

Lets try this again...

Check it out! another S13 SR project on the forum! My original plans was to rebuild a good S13 for my new job this spring. I'll be commuting from Marietta to Cartersville everyday. I currently have a carbon blue boosted 2000 Toyota Celica GTS. I know, hate on me, but it was my first car and I worked 4 long years to pay the b**** off. I've put a huge amount of time and money in that car, but mainly it has GT2860RS, 450CC injectors, PowerFC, etc... It puts down 240hp to the ground. I've been driving this car as a daily and even with all the care I put to it, it'd falling to pieces and with the expensive parts, it's just a rediculous money pit. Nevertheless, my first car.

Anyway, I just wanted to build a good reliable daily thats a little fun and just let my Celica sit and out of my hair for a good while. I wanted to strip the car all the way down and rebuild and clean it from the ground up. I was looking at about 4,000. But then I went to thinking....hmmm for about 1,000 more I can get a shell instead and an SR and then it just grew from there.... Now I'm working with 5 grand and I'm order parts out the Ying Yang.

I found a white "shell" on here for 900 bucks. Its a 93 SE with some body damage, missing carpet, Nismo transmission mount, VLSD, some other goodies, and a running KA. I thought it was a pretty good steal so I nabbed it.











I also found a S13 SR motorset for $1600 on craigslist I know, risky. The guy also threw in a brand new intercooler+all the piping and a 255 walbro pump. The only thing it was missing was the clutch, flywheel, transmission bolts, the clutch fork, and Ignitor. Kinda wierd. But I thought it was still a good deal. Oh yeah, it came with the full harness too.



Currently, my plan for the car is:1. The Motor - Clean the SR - replace the water pump - replace most of the gaskets - hoses - possibly a small wire tuck - etc....anything I can think of that could be replaced. i.e. make a good clean working motor

2. the S13 - pull the KA - paint the engine bay - drop all the suspension parts and subframe for clean and repaint (possibly powdercoat) - remove any rust spots - strip down the underbody and recoat with some sort of rhino-liner - do something with the interior, haven't gotten that far yet

I'm currently a student at Georgia Tech so I live on campus in Atlanta. My parents live in Marietta and the stuff has been sitting at their house for a few weeks. I've recently been working on it for the passed 3 weekends, so this is going to be a long post.

The first weekend I came home after a week or order parts and what not and had all this waiting for me. I found a good deal on a Megan Manifold for $80. I also decided to play it safe and bought some Greddy RAS. That flywheel weighs like 13lbs or something? I don't know, bought it off ebay .

The intercooler kit I got from the motorset I bought was kinda cheap, but nothing that can't be fixed.

Started with pulling parts off the motor

Cleaned and re-painted brackets, hightemp gloss black. Like my organization?

I also decided to replace the S13 Oil strainer(Right) with an S14 Strainer (Left).

The inside of the motor is clean!

Baffle plate cleaned and strainer installed

Got a Free stick welder! not sure what Im going to use it for....

I was able to get my hands on some Bride seat fabric and had a little side project on the broken center console lid on the S13. So it went from this.

to this! 3 seconds flat.

Then I did the glove compartment next. Messed up a little bit. Can you tell? I think I'm going to reupholster the whole interior with this stuff, minus the front seats of course.

Took off the turbo and cleaned some of the pipes

Took off the manifold and decided to clean the rusted water lines under it. replaced those hoses too. If anyone needs the parts numbers, I've got them.

Everything off the motor and being cleaned. It took forever, wish I had a sand blaster or something.

Several coats later(1 primer, 2 silver, 2 clear)...

This is where I break car parts. My house is also under renovation because of the flood a few weeks back. Everything is away from the walls so people can work... My parents are the only people with flood insurance, what?

Intake manifold cleaned and reinstalled! replaced the gaskets and got new bolts to add to the bling!

I love black friday deals

parts being reinstalled, I bought a pulley set from ebay...15 bucks. decided to take the risk Tried searching for horror stories but could find any, but a few people have used them with no problems. They seem to be the right size...

CLEAN!

striped, cleaned, and painted the transmission too

Packed some parts to take to Miller Powdercoating

started on the S13 because I'm still waiting for more parts to come in for the motor/or waiting for parts to come back to me.

Then I called it a day... lot of work ahead...

QUESTION:I took apart the alternator because I wanted to clean the housing and I was a little curious on how it worked. I can put the effing thing back together. The brushes(circled in red) are keeping me from sliding the shaft back in, i have no idea how to push them back in. Any help or bashing would be appreciated, I may just take it to an alternator place for them to put back together.

[240DRFTluver]

Dude you've done an incredible job. Until i can afford an sr20 or a rb im gonna clean up my ka just like that. haha. nice work.

[duffman1278]

Don't use the arc welder for your car, especially if you don't know how to weld.

[240sx_nissan]

looks good!

[TroubleBound]

looks good!

+1Keep us posted (lol as in, more than three posts per 2 years of membership)

[zach-Ka]

Did the same thing with the alternator on my friends sti. Just drill a hole in the back so you can stick something in there and depress it as you slide the shaft back in. Then just close it back up with some sonic weld... We did that a year ago and is still working fine.BTW its coming along very well.

[Lonismos14]

Hey i stay in albany, is that transmission a 5 speed, if yes how much you want ill come get it. And possibly the motor too.

Nice build. though

[lino]

Super nice .

[240DRFTluver]

where did you get the fabric?

[northjerseys13]

Awesome prep work!!!

[Jtultra]

Thanks guys for the compliments.

Did the same thing with the alternator on my friends sti. Just drill a hole in the back so you can stick something in there and depress it as you slide the shaft back in. Then just close it back up with some sonic weld... We did that a year ago and is still working fine.BTW its coming along very well.

I think I may try that when I go home this weekend

where did you get the fabric?

I got the fabric off of ebay, just search "bride fabric". Once in a while you'll find a good deal on them, but its typically pretty pricey.

[240sxJoe91]

Nice its coming along and looks great......P.s. KEEP YOUR MUD FLAPS lol

[Lonismos14]

So whats up with the ka 5 speed. Want to make some money.

[Jtultra]

So whats up with the ka 5 speed. Want to make some money.

Oh yeah, sorry I forgot to respond. Yeah, its a 5 speed. Not really sure how much to let it go yet since the transmission and motor are still sitting in the car. I would rather sell them as a set. Throw me an offer and we'll talk.

[Lonismos14]

Eh hows 150 sound and i will pick it up. How close are you to stone mountain cause my friend lives there and he come to albany every week i can have him bring it here for me. Just let me know.

No rush whenever u get ready to pull the motor and transmission..

[Jtultra]

Eh hows 150 sound and i will pick it up. How close are you to stone mountain cause my friend lives there and he come to albany every week i can have him bring it here for me. Just let me know.

No rush whenever u get ready to pull the motor and transmission..

Sure, I'll let the transmission go for 150. I'll probably pull it all by next weekend.

[iRides13]

Dude you've done an incredible job. Until i can afford an sr20 or a rb im gonna clean up my ka just like that. haha. nice work.

damn right. thats what im in the process of doin right now. asa i get home ima post some pics. need a lil help.

and yea man your doin an awsome job. always nice to see someone just take something appart just to see how it works lol. i do it all the time.

[Jtultra]

Alright, here we go for an update. I've been hammered with school and finals the passed 2 weeks, so I haven't been able to really touch the car.

First off, got my parts back from Miller's Powdercoating. I decided not to coat the T25 since I'm switching to a GT2860RS from my celica.

Gaskets installed!

Valve cover mocked-up, I'm waiting for come cam cap bolts to install, some looked a little iffy.

Got more parts in!--a bunch of small stuff

Installed injectors into the fuel rail to finish up the intake side

All the turbo parts waiting to get put together!

So, I decided to make a heatshield out of one of my mom's old cooking pots, I was almost done cutting the piece out and then my last cutting disk broke...

Polished and Done!

Tha'ts all for the motor for now

I started working on the car today and pulled the motor. I spent the rest of the day pulling s*** out of the engine bay and getting ready for a good sand blasting and paint job in the next few days. I'll post pics tomorrow.

P.S. Motor and transmission for sale! AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER s***!

QUESTION:While pulling out the motor and what not, I missed a plug to label and I'm trying to figure out what it's for. Anyone know?

Also, what the heck is this thing? I'm thinking cruise control?

[s13_chris]

How much for sr20det coilpack cover. shipped 95521

[locoluna825]

Your first pick. I believe is the plug for the oil pressure switch or the plug that goes into the sensor on the power steering line, judging by the grease

Second pic. Yea, that's your cruise control unit.

[zach-Ka]

Awesome heat shield!!!

[Shift_Kouki]

Looking good man.

[s13_chris]

PLEASE fix the QP. And the rubber fender outline thing? Is this thing super super 4x4?

[Flicktitty]

engine looks great, i hope you take that kind of time and focus on the rest of the car. thank you for doing it the right way.

[Jtultra]

How much for sr20det coilpack cover. shipped 95521

PLEASE fix the QP. And the rubber fender outline thing? Is this thing super super 4x4?

Yeah, all that stuff happened when I bought the car. The body is going to be the last thing I'm going to focus on. Right now it's, Motor--Engine bay--underbody--swap--then body.

How much for sr20det coilpack cover. shipped 95521

$40 shipped? open to offers

[mrgreeneyes]

looking fresh dude.

keep at it.... im about to rebuild my sr and im glad to see other people cleaning stuff up and making it look presentable

[Caveit77777]

I'm just confused on how everybody on this site seems to know how to pull and rebuild an engine. Where did you guys even start to learn this?

[boostdd]

haha thats funny i was thinking the samething

like dam so many build threads, everybody is a dam mechanic

[Jtultra]

Time for more updates. Thanks for the support guys, its a good motivation! I pretty much spent the past 2-3 days cleaning the s*** out of the engine bay and cut some brackets I'm not going to use anymore. It is definitely something I don't ever want to do again.



I painted it the bay with a "snow white pearl" from House of Kolor. The pictures don't do the paint any justice. I can't wait to drop the engine in.







And some suspension I've cleaned and re-painted

haha thats funny i was thinking the samething

like dam so many build threads, everybody is a dam mechanic

lol, just taking it slow and staying organized. Learning as I go... I figure it couldn't be any harder than finals week during the semester?

[safin]

haha thats funny i was thinking the samething

like dam so many build threads, everybody is a dam mechanic