Finally, Allen's car

[allenms240]

So, I've been on here for a bit but never got a chance to introduce myself. I'm Allen, I'm from tucson, AZ. I go to college at the UofA and live away from home. When I got my first s13, I was still living at home, and went to get it over summer. Me, my dad, and my buddy drove to San Diego to pick it up.Even before I got the car, I had wanted to do the z32 brakes. So eventually I bought them and installed, I loved them. Too bad they didn't stop me from hitting the Mt. (more about that later).I also wanted to buy some exhaust, but my friend reccomended some coilovers, so I went that route. Got them on using my excess financial aid money. Unfortunatly, I hit the mountain one night. I'm not quite sure what had happened, but I hit it hard, I wanna say understeer, but I just honestly don't know what happened. I wasn't even gunning it. Anywayz, this was the result Luckily i wasn't injured. Just my chest hurt a bit from the seatbelts. When i first got out of the car, I was devastated, and never wanted another 240 again. My friends rolled up behind me and helped out, called help and whatnot. While waiting, i looked under the hood and say that the motor was still fine, a few bent pieces here and there. So I got a little happy, and the build began.That night, we took the car to my friend backyard and immediately started pulling out the motor and what was salavagable. Luckily the coils were fine too, stll using them now. and the brakes also. I just owed my buddy a g20 rim. So I picked up this shell for 650. Said to be blown motor. alot of problems with it.

Started cleaning it up right away. New wheels. pulled out the WHOLE Interior including the dash and swapped it with the stuff i had from my other s13. (uncracked dash ) Then the gas tank, pump, all that good stuff. I also repaired my motor with some parts front he blown one that came with the shell. Parts like bent throttle body, vacuum lines, oil pan, intake. All this, while going to school full time and between work. I was up till 4 working on the car, ready to wake at 9 the next day for work or school, sometimes both. Luckily i was able to borrow my friend's parents mazda 626 to get me places.

Then threw the motor and transmission in after replacing the bad coil and leaking brake cylinder. Fired up first try WAs so excited to drive it home that night. Got my SE wheels bck from my buddy. and that was that.

Since then, I've gotten my brakes back on, coils back on, picked up an HKS exhaust, and a cold air intake, welded diff. Awesome stuff. I love this car now. And the motor runs better in this shell that it did in the other one.

My car right now.

Overall, I don't regret anything that happened when I crashed it. I learned so much about my car, and had a fun time swapping everything, mostly on my own. It was a good time. I've learned alot and while i miss the body of my other one, this one is better I think. I drift the car with my buds every now and then when i get spare tires. But as of right now, I'm broke as hell. We'll see what;s next. Thanks for reading nicos:)I know it's not the best, but its what i;ve been dealt with. And, I'm bored....

[NiceLyphe]

Nice progress there. That damage was def terrible looking..

[Alyx]

Sorry to hear about your wreck, but it's nice to see you made something of it and came out satisfied.

Also good to see another Tucsonian on here.

[str33tprintz]

Jeez that looked crazy... Glad your okay. And even happier you stayed with it. The same happened with my first accident I said that I had given up on modifying altogether. But here I am lol. GL man keep building what are the plans and goals?

[allenms240]

Hmmm, well staying KA for now due to lack of funds. SR is probably the highest I'll go but I'm not ready for turbo yet. Just for now I want to get wheels w/ good offset, and a paintjob.Of course I want stuff like an intake manifold and throttle body, but then I'd have to find someone to tune my ECU..lol.We'll see when I get the money. Damn broke college kid status

[ILoveMyRHS13]

So wait, were you drifting or "spirited driving" when you hit the mountain?

Welcome, pretty clean car.

[Seanzyyy]

Arren-san.good job with everything maang.the mountain incident sucked big time,but you walked away ok.cars can always be rebuilt or replaced.

but anyways,what wheels are you thinking about bro?

[adrianfromthecastle]

welcome! nice ride... sorry about the accident

[EnjoiNismo]

Welcome Allen

[mudvayne9790]

great storywelcome

[zach-Ka]

Nice to see that it all worked out. The red coupe looks better anyways....

[allenms240]

Hmm. It's a hatch zach lol. o.O they both are. Well I was following enjoi down the mountain. But then he lost me so I toned it down to a moderate cruise. I wasn't drifting or anything down the mountain. I just don't think I anticipated the approaching curve. Lol Sean, probably enjoi's handy down rims from Bob. I've liked those since I first saw em.

[allenms240]

8 Months later.
Rims, Lip, more suspension pieces, Energy bushings installed, exhaust, CAI, probably more can't list em all.
new tail lights to come in soon so no rear shots...yet

Tell me whatchu think.

[Seanzyyy]

looks good Arren-san!
but please,
tell me where you got your bumper lights :o
i have been wanting those for quite some time!

[allenms240]

Enjoi.

[badbob2121]

looks good!

[allenms240]

Well here I am, 7-8 months later. Finally bought an SR20 set last night with some goodies.
Before.


After.





So yeah, got the motor home last night at about 9 ish and got it on the stand using raw manpower with some help. This is my first time tearing a motor apart, finished at about 4am. The cylinder walls look pretty clean; there is a pattern in the walls that my friend believes to be from being honed.

The guy I bought it from said there was a spun bearing so I got it for cheap. I tore it apart and checked it out. As I was taking the oil pan off, I found these:

There are little copper looking pieces of metal, but I didn’t find anything that was broken, any ideas?
I also noted that the rod bearings were kinda dry, is that normal? The motor sat for a month or two befire I got a hold of it, but I’m not sure if the bearings would be dry, they were a little worn and off center in the block, but that’s about it.
Cylinder 1 had oil in the chamber, while the others were dry (as expected). I’m not sure why there would be oil in the chamber, the motor compression tested out good. Any Ideas?

The rings, ring lands, and pistons look pretty clean so I am pretty excited about this motor. I noted that the fuel injectors that came looked like this:

I was under the assumption that all SR20 injectors were purple, I’m hoping they are good injectors and put out the correct fuel volume. The only markings I saw on it were “Made in Japan”, “a46-f62”,” 0c09209”. I’m not sure what kind they are. Any ideas? If they aren’t what I need, I think I’m just going to buy some bigger ones and a turbo. The turbo it came with looks new, but it also looks cheap and from ebay. It has a crappy, cheap looking silver finish on it and no brand name so I’m kind of weary.
Another bad is the damn ECU and harness. It has a ROM tune so the ecu has a different plug now, and the harness is haggard as hell. My buddy is going to hook me up with a harness repair, but should I get a new ecu and just get it professionally tuned for the upgrades? Can I send in THIS ecu (ROM tuned one) for a real tune? That way I can use the same clips?


Any comments/ideas to my questions?

Thanks for looking

[allenms240]

Welp, few days have gone by. The motor is in the shop, getting bored, head decked, and crank polished. I didn't see ANY evidence of a spun bearing (neither did the shop owner) so that's a relief. I found out that the little copper pieces were chips off of cylinder 4's main cap, just a small nick by the bearing.

So, "Plans" for the motor are as follows:

Isis intake manifold

S15 Spec R turbo


Some 550cc injectors


And a Greddy oil pan


These are the power upgrades I'm planning on.

Of course, the motor will receive a new oil pump, rocker arm stoppers, new gaskets everywhere, water pump, nismo thermostat, coolant sensors, etc. etc.

There will also be a tune for all this, I'm still not sure what route I'm going to go for that, any ideas?

[badbob2121]

Jim Wolf Technology ROM tune..

Im currently using a Nistune board, its good software, but im even thinking about going with a JWT tune. Ive seen them in person make great healthy numbers and theres really no need for a stand alone for a sub 400hp build

looks good so far, that s15 turbo is soo responsive

[allenms240]

Badbob, thanks for the reply. It currently has a ROM tune from Heavy Throttle I believe. The harness is haggard, as you can see here:


There is even a part where all the wires were just cut off.


I'm not sure what to do. I'm pretty sure I can take on the rats nest and clean it up, that's not the issue. I don't know what I should do with the ECU. Is it possible to get a new tune using this ECU and harness clip, even though it will be from a different company/person? For JWT ROM tune, I just send in my ECU and tell them my mods? How does ROM tuning work exactly? Kinda a newbie about that.


Anyways,
I got the motor back last week on Friday. And was I amazed at how clean it was. This is my first motor so I was shocked at how clean the head and block got. I got the blocked honed and cleaned, crank polished, clean and inspect pistons and rods, and the head resurfaced, cleaned, and inspected for roughly $200.00. Good deal for me, and I got the motor back three days from bringing it in. The guy was really helpful and offered some rebuilding advice when it comes to startup, even gave me some rod bolt jackets so I don't mess up my crank journals upon installation. Anyways, here it is.








A question about one of the connecting rods. Rod #1 and cap for the rod has a scratch in it. I'm not sure where it came from, as I didn't bull off the bearing myself (the shop did). It's hard to see, but here are a few pictures.
This is the rod under the bearing: You can see a scratch running down the middle if you squint.

And the cap for that rod: Again, it's there, runs across the bearing surface.


Would it be okay to keep this rod, or should I source a new one. If the scratch were to be machined, I think it would take off way more than I want because it's pretty deep, I can easily feel it with a fingernail. What do you guys think I should do. I realized that the bearing goes over this surface, I just want to see what you guys think.

And..Time to go order song OEM rings and some OEM bearings and ARP head studs

Good night from Otis.

[Mercury_Hg]

Inspiration.

What're you going to school for? Assuming you're still in school, that is.

[Chris28]

When you get a ROM tune a daughterboard is installed in the ecu that eprom chips are put into. The chips have new fuel and timing maps on them and the injector value is scaled down for whatever size injector your running.

As far as that rod, I'd bring it to the machine shop and have them look at it. Like you said the bearing will be over it, but get a professional's opinion on it. As far as ordering bearings goes, make sure you measure everything then plasti-gauge it during assembly to make sure your clearances are within spec.

[allenms240]

Thanks Mercury, there is hope, haha.
I'm in school at the UA for Biochemistry. I want to work in a hospital clinical lab and run tests. There is a great program through UND that's pretty pricey, student loads ftw though. Between work and school, I rarely get enough time to work on this project, but it's a coming. Some parts should be coming in tomorrow so the bottom end will be done by tomorrow night.

Chris,
This daughterboard, does it require a different wire harness clip. For example, the ECU above has a different plug (as far as I can tell) and the wire harness has been fubared for the new clip. Is it possible to get another ROM tune on top of that, but still keep the clip after I clean it up, if that makes sense? Also, I've heard people run SAFC with ROM tunes, how effective are ROM tunes on their own from a reputable shop, such as JWT or Enthalpy. Thanks for the input Chris.
Yeah I asked the shop who cleaned and honed my block, and he said that as long as nothing is protruding (no burs) then I should be fine, so we'll see!. Bearings have been ordered. I went with OEM ones, and got the correct grades for each journal as well as the rod bearings. I will buy some plastigauge tomorrow so I can measure clearances.


Anyways,
Today, I came out to my car from school, which was parked in a campus lot, and found this,


I felt so violated. I mean it happens and stuff, but still. What the hell?
They only stole a pair of mechanic gloves, just went through glovebox and console, and smashed my window.

[240sxAli4Life]

Those f*** idiots... who the hell would do such a thing to a 240! Anyway good luck with your build... your 240 looks great... You can get great deals on viper alarm systems on ebay... get a 2 way one so the remote beeps if glass has been broken... etc. You just need it professionslly installed... Ima get one soon... Anyway keep the udates rolling in!

[ChiNegroNate]

good luck with the build

[allenms240]

Ali,
I definately plan on getting one after the build since the car will be worth more and I will have more to lose. Thanks for the comments. Should have an update tonight, but it's nothing too special.

Thanks Nate.

[allenms240]

Finally got some time to post some shtuff before work.

Thursday night I had a free night since there was no class Friday, so I put most of the bottom end together. I placed all oem bearings with the correct grades in the correct journals and torqued down the main caps with the girdle. Been using me some Lucas assembly lube which is pretty messy.


Then I had some trouble with the pistons. The shop had cleaned them, so they advised me to lube the wrist pins really well. So I decided I would try to do that myself. I took out the C-clip, and used a socket/hammer combo to get it out (Don't do this, please), lubed it up and put it all back together. Then I started on the second one, and when I pulled out one of the clips, it flew off the plies and lost itself in the garage, so I need to order a new one . Then I put it all together, and the rod wouldn't freely move, there was a lot of tension on it. So I set it aside and finished the others.
The oil rings were a PITA until I got the hang of it. The ring expander MUST go in first or they won't fit, it took me a while to figure that out. Anyways, I got all three pistons in the block. Me in all my infinite wisdom tapped on the cylinder with a hammer, and left some dings as you can see from here.

rubber mallets were used after that mistake. Felt so dumb.

The messed up piston is at the machine shop and he's going to see what he can do and look for a new c-clip for it, pretty nice guy. That is all for now.

On another note, car had to be raised for emissions because it was too low and was resting on they roller plate. And then the stupid car failed emissions with horrible numbers. Swapped O2 sensors with the GF and checked for leaks, took it back and it passed with flying colors today. Cool story, huh?

[1KleenS13]

Oh boy, you just opened yourself up to a bunch of "hot Spots" on that piston. On a NA motor I would say phuck it, but on a boosted car it can be trouble.

[allenms240]

Time for a new piston you think? I mean, they're cheap enough for oem. I can see some detonation happening because of it now that you brought that up. Thanks for the info 1Kleen, saved my motor haha.

[allenms240]

And here I am, A man of my word.
Just about to drop $1500 on car parts for the build.
Parts ordered:
OEM gasket kit
OEM piston Rings
OEM piston (1)
Cold t-stat
ISIS intake
ISIS oil pan
ISIS turbo outlet
ISIS SS bottom mount turbo lines
OEM fan shroud
Megan racing downpipe (with flex)
Turbo locking tabs
oil filters
various nuts and studs
nismo FPR (type a) w/ adapter
Cosworth 1.1mm thick 87mm head gasket
DIF reclocking plates (for t28 turbo)
Megan racing motor and trans mounts
Walboro 255lph fuel pump
Stance water neck adapter (for water temp)

Things to order still:
550cc injectors
t28 s15 spec r turbo (where do you think is the cheapest to get a new one?)
Clutch kit (what would you recommend?

I think I will be tuning it with an apexi power FC


Open for comments!