Another S13 Build Thread

[SR20DET.240]

I have a couple of new things that I have done so I thought I would post them up. First up is my new piggy lip thanks to one of our fellow Nico members. I had to sand and paint it before I put it on, I used a primer with flex agent and a bumper paint so the paint should hold up pretty good. I didn't think it came out too bad considering it was from a rattle can:



Next I decided to experiment with recovering my door panel inserts because the grey tweed was getting old and kind of nasty. I used a faux black suede because it is pretty easy to work with and I think it looks good. Below are some before and after pictures.

Before After

I still have to do the glove box door and the headliner. I haven't decided if I want to do the glove box door in the suede or not, I might go with a nice black pleather for that so it blends better with the dash.

Thats it for the time being, waiting on some new parts to come in this week so I should have an update by the weekend. Also finally getting around to installing my Fidanza flywheel and Exedy stage 2 clutch. I will post up some more pics when I do that.

[m tr4nch]

great job on the door panels, i love that black suede material. most likely will be doing the same to mine at some point. looks great.

[koukimunster]

i usually dont like big wings, but that spoiler actually looks pretty good

[SR20DET.240]

great job on the door panels, i love that black suede material. most likely will be doing the same to mine at some point. looks great.

Thanks !! I will probably have to redo them, I ran into some issues with the adhesive I was using, need to get more of it because I ran out while doing the drivers side and had to use something else that wasn't nearly as good as the 3m super 77. I might redo them this weekend.

[SR20DET.240]

i usually dont like big wings, but that spoiler actually looks pretty good

I think you are the first person who really likes it, I actually took it off the car the minute I got it home. It was falling apart and I am surprised it didn't end up all over the highway. I am probably going with some version of a wangan wing most likely in carbon fiber just because then I can just fill the holes in the hatch without having to replace it. I have a APR GT200 fully adjustable wing that I had on my Civic but I dont think I really want to put it on my 240 although I have seen some pictures of some sick S13's with them on there. In any case, that will probably be one of the last things I do to the car. Lots of stuff still to do before that. I have a set of coilovers that should be here tomorrow or the day after and my FMIC should be here this week. The coilovers will go on the car this weekend, the FMIC will have to wait until I can get either a battery relocation kit or one of the slim Braile type batteries.

[jdmtyte]

good job on taking those retarded *** badges off

[SR20DET.240]

good job on taking those retarded *** badges off

Yeah, the original owner thought they were cool. I believe that the turbo badge was was from a chrysler labaron turbo model. No idea where the GT badge came from. I don't have any pictures of the stickers that were all over the car, the previous owner belonged to a band and advertised it on the car. Going for that clean look now. Lots more work to do.

[SR20DET.240]

Latest update, I swapped out the clutch and flywheel last weekend, the previous owner had put a "stage two clutch" in it but it would slip constantly so I finally had time to replace it and put an Exedy stage 2 clutch with a Fidanza lightened flywheel in the car. It is a massive improvement. While removing the clutch I found out why it never worked very well. It appears that the previous owner put an Ebay special in there. What a piece of crap. Below are pictures of the clutch and flywheel. Note the wear on the clutch disk, given that this has only been in the car a little over a year, and I have never raced the car, haven't even attempted a burnout due to the slipping problem. Also note the hot spots on the flywheel from the clutch:



The clutch was shot after only being in the car for a year. It now feels like a completely different car with that new clutch and flywheel in it. Still adjusting the clutch pedal to get it where I want it but it is so much better to drive. Also lost a bunch of vibration I was getting through the driveline. Next to replace is the driveshaft ( going with a single piece) and put a set of coilovers on it. I have a new FMIC sitting in the basement but I need to get a battery relocation kit first so I can install the IC piping. Updates to follow.

[Tonster]

Good to hear you've gotten a good clutch in her. Didn't realize what was actually in there. I'm kinda pissed to know it's not what I payed for.

I'm playing in Philly tonight, which is where the guy lives who put that clutch in for me and charged me $600. I'll be getting my money back from him or I'll just take it out of his ***.

If it's not too much trouble for you, maybe you could send me back that plate? The one that matches all the stickers that were on the car?

I love all the insulting comments by the way. Real nice of you.

[SR20DET.240]

Not trying to insult you but there was a lot more problems then anticipated such as fixing the wiring other then just the cluster(which I am still sorting out) , and having to replace the clutch when it was supposed to be brand new and the wing that was on there almost came off on the way home. I am sorry you got ripped off on the clutch install, but all in all it isn't a bad car, in fact I am selling my other track car and am building the 240 as a road course track car.

As far as the plate, I had sent it back but it got returned to me and I lost your number in my phone. I still have the plate, I can ship it back but I need you to send me your address again cause whatever I have is wrong. Send me an email at [email protected] with your address and phone number and I will get it out to you.
Modified by SR20DET.240 at 4:50 PM 12/7/2008

[SR20DET.240]

I haven't updated my build post in a while and I have few new additions to the car, first up is my Momo steering wheel and Circuit Sports hub and quick disconnect. I was originally trying to sell the wheel but there was little interest so I decided to keep it. The only problem I ran into was that the instructions for the quick disconnect are all in Japanese but with a little work I was able to get it installed, I am pretty sure I have bad ground as the horn is not working right this minute, I will address that problem next weekend when I have more time



Next I decided to replace the hot pipe and the Blitz BOV with the new HKS BOV and a single piece hot pipe. I have to say that I am not really happy with the new HKS BOV since you cant adjust it and the sound is not what I expected. I have a first generation HKS SSQV and am going to swap it onto the car next week, after install I found I had a problem, apparently common to atmospheric BOV's on the SR20DET. When I rev the motor while in neutral the RPM's drop down to about 100-200 and occasionally stalls. After some research I found this is due to metered air being released by the BOV. I talked to Jeff at 240sxmotoring suggested getting the adapter to recirculate the BOV. I will be ordering one of those next week. Here is a picture of the current setup:



I also found that when I replaced the clutch and flywheel that my carrier bearing on the driveshaft was going bad so I decided instead of replacing it to get a new single piece aluminum driveshaft. It only weighs about half as much as the original and is very beefy:



The best improvement so far is my new suspension. I decided to go with the Stance GR+ Pro set up. I have heard a lot of good things about it and some bad but overall I think it is a really good set up for the price. Keep in mind I have used the JIC Magic FLT-A2 set up on my other track car, I am very impressed with the adjust ability of this set up, including camber plates which the JIC's did not come with and they are about half the price. Here are some pictures of the install



I found something kind of scary while removing the old suspension. One of the rear suspension hats had a broken stud which means it was only attached by one stud. I have no idea when this happened as I still have the stock rear carpet covers in the back so you cant see the studs very well. In any case it is now resolved. Just glad I didn't take the car to the track with the other suspension.

Here is the only shot I have of the car after installing the suspension. I still need to fine tune the settings which I will be doing tomorrow as well as rolling and pulling the fenders, after that I will shoot some more pictures.



Last picture is the pile of stuff I removed. I will probably sell the Megan Racing springs and the Tokico shocks as they are in really good condiotion:



I should have some more pictures up tomorrow after adjusting the suspension.

[nevertheless]

Nice upgrades.looking forward to seeing it lowered.Is that purple tint on the back window?

[24j0hn]

lookin good... how much have you put into it? can u tell me some of the sites that you bought your supplies, cuz i love the progress that you have made!

[SR20DET.240]

I will have some pictures of it lowered up in a few minutes, the tint on the back window is dark, it does kind of have a purple tint to it, I have a new hatch I will be putting on the car when I put it in the shop to fix some rust and some of the larger dents. One of my neighbors has his own shop and he gave me a good estimate.

[SR20DET.240]

lookin good... how much have you put into it? can u tell me some of the sites that you bought your supplies, cuz i love the progress that you have made!

I probably have about 9K total with purchasing the car and all of the aftermarket add ons I currently have. I bought the car with the swap already in it so that saved me some money, plus I do all my own work so that saves on labor. I buy most of my parts from 240sxmotoring.com. The guys over there are very knowledgeable and they are on the East coast so I can usually get parts the next day. I have also used Enjuku Racing for some stuff. I have also bought parts from some of the Nicoclub sponsors to help support the Nico community. Other then that I try to get stuff that other Nico members are selling like my front lip.

[SR20DET.240]

Here are some pictures of the car now lowered and the rear fenders have a roll and slight pull, I will probably have to replace the rear quarters due to rust and I also have a set of overfenders for the front so I will probably go more aggressive in my stance in the spring when I have time to do the rest of the work. Next on the list is to start replacing other worn out suspension components. I will post up some pictures when I start replacing those as well.I didn't have time to get her washed today, so she is a little dirty but I appreciate your comments, let me know what you think.

Just for comparison here is what it looked like before I put the coilovers on it:



And after:

Modified by SR20DET.240 at 7:52 PM 2/1/2009
Modified by SR20DET.240 at 12:48 PM 2/2/2009

[SR20DET.240]

Ok, very small update, the only thing I have done since installing the suspension is to finally clean the car since we had some high 60's here in northern VA. I will have some pics up of it cleaned up a little tomorrow. I got an interesting gift from the wife this year from Christmas, she got me the 180SX stickers for my windows since she know I can't afford to spend the money on factory 180sx side windows right now. Since the weather was nice I decided to put them on, here are the pics



I also got my HKS recirculating part for the BOV, I hope to get that installed tomorrow to solve my stalling problem. More updates to come.

[maj Andres]

How did you know your driveshaft was going out? Rattling sound everytime you accelerate?

[SR20DET.240]

How did you know your driveshaft was going out? Rattling sound everytime you accelerate?

When I did the clutch and flywheel I had to pull the driveshaft out. When I spun the carrier bearing you could tell that it was out of round and had a lot of play in it. My buddy that helped me noticed it first, he is a master mechanic so I trust his judgement. I couldnt really hear anything from it, but I did notice a reduction in vibration.

[SR20DET.240]

Well, I installed the recirculating part for my HKS BOV in hopes that it would solve the stalling problem....it didn't. So after spending two hours searching through other peoples threads and talking to Jeff at 240sxmotoring I am pretty sure there are two things going on.

1. I have installed a Fidanza lightened flywheel, which reduced the amount of rotating mass so when I depress the clutch pedal the RPM's are dropping too fast for the motor to catch to correct the idle. This seems to be the general consensus from the ten or so threads I read through and appears to be pretty common with the flywheel swap.

2. I believe that I may have a dirty/broken IACV. While Jeff was on the phone he had me check the IACV by pinching off the air line running from the intake to the IACV. I did this and the idle drops some but not quickly and it doesn't stall. I may try cleaning it out tomorrow after I replace the alt. and ps belts.

So now I am still working on getting the motor running correctly. I have considered getting an SAFC but I have been told that would only mask the problem, so aside from going back to a stock flywheel I am looking at seeing if there is anything in the way of tuning that may help. Unfortunately I am not aware of any local shops in NOVA that are good with the SR20DET motor. If anyone knows of one they have used in the area I would appreciate it.

After I get this issue resolved I will be moving on to getting the FMIC installed and start swapping out the rest of the suspension components. I haven't decided on exactly what I am going with yet but as soon as I do I will post it up.

[BMAR240SX]

Is it possible for you to post a video of your exhaust the ones on youtube suck ***

[SR20DET.240]

Is it possible for you to post a video of your exhaust the ones on youtube suck ***

Hehe, you are the second person this week to ask me to do that. I checked my digital camera and I think it records sound, I am going to try tomorrow, if it works I will post it up on here cause Ghast wants to hear it as well.

[Tonster]

Hey Max, I had the SAFC on the 240 before and it didn't really do anything. Matt from import intelligence, who got the SR running for me, stated I was better off without one.

He's worth contacting with questions, he's very good.

I had a similar problem with it stalling in the early swap stages and it turned out to be my MAF which was replaced and that corrected the problem. Also, the alternator and PS belts were rather new as well, are they starting to go???

Matt also suggested a different ECU to me... but I don't recall the number. 62 or 63. Which ever one isn't already in there.

Good luck.

[SR20DET.240]

Thanks for the info, I will try cleaning the MAF and see if that helps at all. I didn't notice it had a problem until the new flywheel and clutch were replaced and other threads I have read stated that people had problems after switching to a lightened flywheel. I have been considering trying a new ECU, perhaps one that is pre-tuned with specific requirements but most likely I am going to try and take the car to a local shop and have them reflash the existing ECU. I will give Import Intelligence a call though and see what they say.

The power steering belt seems to be going bad right now, and the alternator belt is the wrong rib count so I figured I would swap them out, not a big deal, just trying to get the car ready for the track this spring.

[SR20DET.240]

At the request of a couple of people, I recorded my exhaust. Hope this works ok.

http://s487.photobucket.com/al...0.flv

[SR20DET.240]

I also shot some better pictures of the car since I put the suspension on it and cleaned it up a little. Still a work in progress but slowly getting it to where I want.

[positron1]

Clean car!!!

[Ghast]

MMMmmmmMMMMmmmMMMmmmm

One Love,

Ghasty

[hotrodjoseph]

very nice car, has come along nice!

[Mangid]

I can't believe the complete 180 this car took from being a ricermobile to an awesome car