[New Member] '89 240sx Hatch Restoration & RB20DET Rebuild

General discussion forum about the 240sx, and a great place to introduce yourself to the board!
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float_6969
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Something is not right. Cams shouldn't be easy to turn by hand (I assume you're holding onto the gear?), but should be doable. Be very careful here, this is how you end up with a broken cam. Carefully loosen all of the cam caps IN THE CORRECT ORDER AS PER THE FSM!!!!! Remove the cams. Make sure all of the lifters slide up and down the bores. Make sure all of the valves will open. It may be hard to do by hand, but you should be able to get them to move a little. Reassemble. MAKE SURE THE ALL OF THE CAM CAP ARE IN THE CORRECT LOCATION AND FACING THE CORRECT DIRECTION!!!! This is REALLY important. Every cam cap HAS to go back in the same spot it was located when the head was originally machined when it was new. You can't change cam caps from another engine and you can't move cam caps into different locations on the same engine. Every cam cap has a location on it (ie; I1, I2, I3, or E1, E2, E3, etc.) They are also directional, meaning they all have to face the same direction. IIRC on the RB, there's an arrow on the cam caps that should face the front of the engine.


Dev894
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:44 pm
Car: 1989 Nissan 240SX

1990 Nissan 240SX RB20

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Wish i had an fsm and running short on funds so cant buy one :( i dont see an arrow they do have brail marks on them, they are marked so i know they are in the right areas

MikeRL411
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The 240SX field service manuals are located a few entries below your request on this very site !

Dev894
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:44 pm
Car: 1989 Nissan 240SX

1990 Nissan 240SX RB20

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Rb20 wasnt in the 240 so dont know if that will help

Mitec
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:25 pm
Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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The R32 engine manual has the RB20 in it, I forget what website I downloaded it from but it's out there for free in PDF formI . My machinist said he put the cam caps on backwards at first and the cams bound, so he flipped them around and everything was good. It's possible one could be in there backwards, or something else could be wrong. I would start by doing what float said, narrow it down to make sure its the cam itself.

Dev894
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:44 pm
Car: 1989 Nissan 240SX

1990 Nissan 240SX RB20

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I did put someoil on the caps and reinstall them with the brail part facing up and both sides seem to move the same now but i will do that thank you guys dont want to screw up my fresh engine

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float_6969
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TreyE
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Car: 1995 Nissan 240SX - 2011 Honda Accord Coupe

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Yo! Let's get an update on this, I'm curious :) have an RB in my S14 too. Looking great so far. Good luck!

Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
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TreyE wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:48 pm
Yo! Let's get an update on this, I'm curious :) have an RB in my S14 too. Looking great so far. Good luck!
Thanks man!

Not much progress right now as the end of the semester has been killing me. Engine bay should be ready for paint soon, and then the engine will go together (fingers crossed) once the crank collar is installed. My machine shop is having to pull some strings to get the local crank guy to work on it due to concerns of not being able to locate another one if he were to mess up. I gave them the old crankshaft and said here, practice on this :biggrin:

Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
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Actually made some progress on the body. PO had spilled brake fluid and/or gasoline all over the old paint, so I had the pleasure of removing lots of bubbled and flaking paint. I think it came out decent for my first time painting something this large & complex.

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float_6969
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Looks good!

Miss'nMyS13
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Good luck with the build, looks good. Looking forward to the updates, thanks for sharing.

Mitec
Posts: 55
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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Finally back from the dead - after one hell of a stressful and travel-filled final year of undergrad, during which I worked on the car for a total of maybe 15-20 hours. Threw it on a trailer and dragged it back to my summer home, where my very skilled friend will be helping with the project. I now have access to a welder, two presses, and just about every mechanic's tool you can dream of :woot:

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First up was dropping the subframe. Got to test out my new bash bar as a jack(stand) point, as the car tips backwards if you place stands in front of the rear axle. Might have something to do with the engine being out :chuckle: With the suspension out of the way, I got to slap on some truck bed liner to clean up the inner wheel wells.

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Next up was removing the OEM bushings. Holy hell, was this a TASK. Press? No, that'll damage the subframe. Air hammer? Nope, not that either. Finally got them out with a sawzall, chisel, and the help of my buddy's dad. These damn things were so stuck that just making one cut and collapsing the bushing did nothing to move them out, so we made multiple cuts around the bushing and pounded them out after collapsing in multiple sides. First one took over an hour, fourth about 15 minutes, so we got the technique down in the end.

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For anyone wanting to know how to remove bushings WITHOUT burning the rubber (and where you want to remove the metal sleeve, so probably not for Energy poly bushings) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5hLYut2nMM

Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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With the subframe out and the GKTech reinforcement kit in hand, I decided that my subframe was the perfect place to learn how to weld! :naughty: This was the first piece I've ever welded by myself (after using some scrap metal for practice), and the improvement from one side to the other is pretty decent imo. Also took the opportunity to fix a very fubared LCA mount, where the top part was completely smashed in (forgot to take a pic). Thankfully the sides & actual mounting holes weren't damaged, so we cut out the top and welded in a plate.

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Slapped some paint on after all pieces were welded in:

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Then I got to put my fancy new aluminum bushings in. I bought the older version that raises your subframe to correct for suspension geometry, since a) I never plan on drifting, so who cares about FD legality, b) my car is already slated for a scca/nasa "everything goes" class with the engine swap and solid steering rack bushing ( :tisk: ), and c) engineering optimization makes me happy inside.

For anyone putting these or similar solid bushings in, chamfer the everloving s*** out of your subframe to get them started. Even after being in the freezer for a week (sorry Shannon), they wouldn't come close to fitting until we ground in the chamfer, at which point they went in with about three solid whacks.

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Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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While I didn't originally plan on upgrading my suspension, I couldn't resist FRSport's moving sale and "accidentally" bought the entire Diftech rear suspension line. Naturally I decided to match that with some upgraded coilovers, and finally settled on ISC Suspension's N1 coils. Honestly, I couldn't really resist with both a lifetime warranty and standard pillowball top mounts. :crazy:
Put everything together with new wheel bearings and swapped to M12x1.50 studs so I can finally run my Muteki SR48's I've had lying around for, well, since my last car.

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We did hit one huccup, though, with the traction rod rubbing on the subframe. Nothing a good ol' carbide bit couldn't take care of, though.

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Popped the entire assy back into the car using two jacks to keep it level. Unfortunately the threads on the studs coming out of the body were pretty gross where the nut needed to thread on (remember that these bushings sit a lot higher), so we threw in some spacers to keep the nut on the good threads.

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For anyone wondering about replacing any of the suspension arm bolts/nuts and doesn't want to buy them from Nissan - they're a M12-1.5 x 60 mm. I just replaced them with grade 10.9 hardware store bolts for the ones that weren't in the best shape.

Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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Now that the back is done, we're moving on to the front. I repainted the engine bay metallic grey a few months back after I decided I didn't really like the matte black (and I wonder why all of my projects take forever :rolleyes:).

The steering rack is being depowered, and I'm putting on new suspension bits to match the rear and doing a 5-lug swap to accommodate some 4-pot Brembos. I just need to settle on some new front wheels, first. I've always had great luck finding quality used wheels in the exact specs I want for like $50/ea, but it seems like my luck has run out. Going to bite the bullet and buy some new new wheels soon .. don't have much of a choice :frown:

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float_6969
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Looks awesome!

Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
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float_6969 wrote:
Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:07 am
Looks awesome!
Thanks, man! I'm happy that she's coming along :)


As for some new updates:
Front suspension is just about finished up.

GKTech swap hubs with some extended ARP studs and SKF bearings. Unfortunately couldn't find Timken fronts available anywhere. :frown:
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Cleaned up the knuckles when they were out - they were in excellent shape. Removed the dust shields to fit my big boy rotors :naughty:
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Plopped the new suspension arms on. Again all Diftech fully adjustable / spherical rod ends / etc etc. The fronts of the ISC coils also have pillowball top plates :dblthumb:
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And dem big brakes ...
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^^ You can also see the refreshed inner wheel wells pretty well here. Spent a couple of hours wire wheeling off the old flaking material and the rust underneath. Fortunately it was all surface rust and there were no deep pits.


I did run into a few hiccups that I might as well share with the world:
1. GKTech claims their hubs use 12.8 mm wheel studs. Not sure if mine were old stock or what, but they actually used 14.3 mm knurl studs, AKA S14 fronts. I used the ARP kit (originally for Evo III) that changes to M12x1.50 and extends the studs to 3" total length. If you get these, definitely measure before you buy studs.
2. The ISC N1 coils WILL NOT FIT HIGH OFFSET WHEELS. I will be running an effective 17x8 et15 after spacers and that should *just* clear. I may contact them about putting a disclaimer on their page, since I'm not too happy about chunking on spacers and can't return my wheels. At least I won't have to worry about brakes clearing lol. (For reference, the old crappy coils fit a 17x9et15 with PLENTY of room left, which should be equivalent to a 17x8 et28 I think? That would rub like hell on the N1s)

Mitec
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:25 pm
Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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I also depowered the steering rack with my friend's help (OK, he did most of the work, but yanno). We followed the tutorial posted on here, except he decided to add grease fittings instead of welding the old holes shut. Should be serviceable on-car in the future with how the fittings are installed ;)

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We ran into another issue (seems to be a common theme, eh?) when putting the steering shaft back in. Not sure which part is screwed up, but the steering shaft is too short to connect at both ends using the ISR steering rack bushing. Like, WAY too short. :confused: So we stacked two metal bushings on top of each other and fitted the shaft with new 40 mm grade 10.9 hardware and got it to fit with just enough thread left for the nut.

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I replaced all of the hardware on the u-joint end thingey as well (someone educate me on what it's called). They are M8x1.25 20mm UHL. The firewall end is M8x1.25 40mm UHL (could go +5mm and it will fit fine). And for the PS pump plugs, one is M14x1.5 and the other is M16x1.5. My friend had the M14 lying around and I purchased the M16 from Vibrant performance. Looks very high quality, like everything of theirs I've gotten thus far :)

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MeanGreenS13
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Looking outstanding man! Glad to see this resurrected! I was beginning to wonder where it went.

Mitec
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Car: RB20 S13 hatch
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MeanGreenS13 wrote:
Thu Jul 11, 2019 2:47 pm
Looking outstanding man! Glad to see this resurrected! I was beginning to wonder where it went.
Thanks! :biggrin:

Unfortunately I'll be disappearing off the face of the earth again when I start grad school across the country :frown: I will be leaving the car with the friend who is currently helping me build it for the first year or two, so hopefully he'll be sharing updates with me that I can post!

Mitec
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:25 pm
Car: RB20 S13 hatch
Location: Upstate SC

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The car is now a roller now, which is pretty exciting after it sat on jackstands for eh about two years.

I got 25mm hubcentric spacers and we knocked the pressed in studs out so they are now slip on. Pushing the limits on thickness perhaps, but I still have PLENTY of turns left on my outrageously long wheel studs to feel safe :yesnod. And the best part is that my wheels clear both the coilovers and brakes now!
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The spacers also gave me lots of poke, so I'm debating if I'll need to order overfenders. Somewhat at a loss as I don't have oem fenders to compare to, but these wheels stick out a good 1.5-2 inches from the door.
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Ignoring the mess, here she is sitting on all four wheels.
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And a close-up of my Mutekis on the Motegis (lol), I think they look great. The only brand of thin-walled socket that would fit in there was Snap-on, so I now own a single unassuming socket that I can't misplace if I ever want to take the wheels off. :ohno:
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Oh, and fitting up the CTS-V calipers somehow required way more grinding than we were expecting. Not really sure where we went wrong ... but they finally sit flush now.
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float_6969
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LOL! Custom stuff never goes smoothly!

Mitec
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:25 pm
Car: RB20 S13 hatch
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float_6969 wrote:
Tue Jul 16, 2019 8:46 am
LOL! Custom stuff never goes smoothly!
I underestimated how many things wouldn't work the first time haha, but oh well!

I'm even cursed with parts - Hastings somehow sent me the incorrect piston rings when I ordered using the RB20 STD part #. Of course the gap is too large, so I can't even file them to fit :frown: That and I'm still waiting on a new oil pan I ordered half a month ago ... but my VLSD (which looks brand new?!) took less than a week to show up from Malaysia. :gotme

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float_6969
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Maybe they're still mining the ore to make the aluminum for the pan, LOL!!


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