help with a full shell swap

[TalinBolen]

Okay so due to title problems with the s13 hatch I bought in going to buy another shell and switch everything over heres some info and my question

My shell is a 1991 s13 hatch 5 speed w/ ABS

The shell im buying is a 1992 s13 hatch 5 speed without ABS

So basically im wondering what problems I may run into, remember my car is a full running car, the shell im buying is only missing a motor and trans, and it doesnt have a drive shaft. the shell used to have a dual cam KA and mine is a dual cam as well. The only thing im really worried about is the abs thing but let me know what you guys think.

And im sorry if this isnt the right place to have posted this just let me know if it isnt
it seems like everybody on nico is way nicer than the people on zilvia lol

[Quantum-Kid]

To make this s@!t simple..... take all vin numbers off the "shell" and i mean ALL OF THEM and put them in/onto your car. BOOM makes several hours of tedious work into about 5-10 minutes. If that seems sketchy to you and you truly want to do the hassle of swapping everything over the only differences im aware of between the two are driveshaft lengths. Soooo swap the driveshaft and differential and you should be good? You may want to wait for someone with more knowledge on such a swap to chime in on this but I'm 99% sure thats the only difference. If i were you I'd rip the ABS system out while doing the swap haha. F@ck ABS.

[TalinBolen]

thanks for the reply man

As to your idea of swapping the vin badges and stuff, haha i would totally be down with that but with my luck some crazy s*** would happen and id get screwed, And i think your right about the driveshafts so im probably just going to swap over my diff and shaft. I also totally agree with you about the ABS f*** it im just gonna stick with no ABS my only question about that though is would i run into any problems with my harness as far as my car had it and this new one never did? but thanks again for the advice man and if anyone else would like to chime in id love to hear more!

[Quantum-Kid]

My Zenki came with ABS and i ripped it out the day i got it. the only issue youll have is your dash light for ABS will be illuminated, i took my cluster out and pulled the bulb. problem solved.

[TalinBolen]

ah thats another thing, the new shell has a broken digital cluster but i read i can just put mine in just need the harness on the back of it is all, i dont care about the abs light though ill prolly just do what you did since ill have the cluster out to swap anyhow

[Quantum-Kid]

Not sure about the cluster swap as I have never done it. But logically that makes sense to get a harness spliced in and it should work fine.

[TalinBolen]

yeah apparently the cluster has its own harness that plugs into the body harness or something as long as i swap the cluster with its harness im good from what ive read

[AZhitman]

Make sure you check out the articles on www.240sxtech.com as well, I think there's one in there covering the cluster swap.

I'd second the "complete shell swap" - it's not worth getting popped for fraud. Plus, you can go through and make sure everything is functional and restored as you do the changeover!

[TalinBolen]

AZhitman thats how i feel, and thats what im hyped about is being able to go through and say okay this is good with everything with the s13 i have now alot of it has still not been looked over due to not having the time but now that i have time to do this swap i think it will be good especially since everything ive uncovered just taking my motor out of my shell, like shotty wiring and half a** installs of things like the bottom of the timing cover being covered in rtv to stop a leak, random loose bolts, and like my coolant temp sensor on the front of the intake mani was just barley on there when i unplugged it the wires broke and now i have to repair that and a few other plugs on the harness (thank god the shell im picking up comes with a spair dual cam harness among other things) but yeah as soon as i pick up the shell im going to start my build thread, hopefully you guys can give me advice if i get stumped

im still a bit iffy though on how to remove the abs pump and what not from my shell since i cant remove my harness completley until i take all that off, and im not sure where to begin seeing as i am afraid to mess anything up

and thanks again for the replys guys, i was so afraid of being yelled at for starting a thread like most other 240 forums do lol

Im hyped though since im getting this nw shell for $700 and it is pretty clean, and comes with basically an entire extra motor just without the block lol apparently the block cracked and so he dismantled the motor and kept everything that was good so that will be nice and i have a full gasket kit on the way so my motor will get a full going over before it goes into the new shell.

[AZhitman]

Right on. We're pretty friendly around here - the "other" site is dwindling away into irrelevance.

I'm not so certain I'd remove the ABS. Personally, I prefer it.

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Since you are swapping to a shell that does not have abs, you should not get an abs light. Swap over the rear diff and driveshaft and everything else should be good. I would not worry about trying to bring the abs stuff over, as the early 90s abs from Nissan is garbage anyways. Since doing a shell swap, it's a good time to check all of the bushings, brake lines, fuel lines, sensors that hard to reach, etc for wear and functionality. If you have the time and funds, it's good to get everything in order so the car is tighter and less "worn-out" feeling they are over 20 years old, ha ha. Good luck!

[TalinBolen]

thnks guys im about to go down and start trying to remove my abs pump and all thst stuff so i can get my harness free from my shell, but like i said thanks for all the input guys and if you have any more advice id love to hear it!

[TalinBolen]

I feel like im forgetting something important so please anything you guys can think of that might be an issue let me know. I got my gasket kit though so my motors getting resealed tomorrow and stuff but I was wondering are the torque specs for the head and everything in the FSM? Thanks for all the responses so far and the future ones aswell!

[2_Liter_Turbo]

TQ specs are usually in the exploded views. However, you will find the head bolt specs in the "timing chain removal/installation" section.

[TalinBolen]

Thanks 2liter! Quick question, so I have my new shell now and all and it didnt come with a driveshaft, what I want to know is, is swapping the diffs from shell to shell tough? And does anyone have a link to a diff removal guide? Im running into the diff/driveshaft abs vs non abs issue and am trying to decide wether to find a non abd shaft or switch the diffs

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!

[TalinBolen]

So heres an update,

Ive got 90% of the engine bay wiring done really its just clean up and tucking left at this point

As for interior i have the nice uncracked dash pulled from my old shell and the nasty bad one pulled out of the new shell, before i put my dash/cluster in im going through and making sure all the wiring under the dash is all good iys just kind of hard since all the ac components are gone under there so im not sure what is supposed to be plugged in and whats not, ots alot of running from shell to shell comparing wiring

Engine wise im doing the clutch and every seal/gasket possible while i have the engine out since this is the ideal time to take care of it. I think ive got a lead on a non abs drive shaft as well, its an auto non abs shaft but im gonna take the rear section off it and put it with my abs manual shaft and hopefully that works out.

The new shell came with adjustable tension rods which were brand new never installed so i threw those on, and it has those ebay coil sleeve things that are miserable so im gonna take my struts and lowering springs and swap those one as well,

So that's it for now everyday after work i put in a few hours dping everything j can and on my days off my dad comes and helps all day usually which is nice he has 40+ years working on cars and building track ready 944's so i think he can handle swapping a ka lol but yep any advice/ thoughts are welcomed guys and thanks for all of your input so far i really appreciate it!

My goal is to have it on the road by new years so wish me luck!

[TalinBolen]

So for an update guys the car is done and on the road only issue was a small power steering leak but took care of that then i ran into another issue i beought upon myself

So during the build i decided while i had the engine out why not reseal everything and freshen her up. Previous owner said the KA was rebuilt 15k ago and it looked pretty damn good inside once i opened her up. Only thing was whoever rebuilt this engine wasnt a fan of tourqe specs or double checking stuff to make sure it was good and tight. So long story short i had to helicoil the entire top end basically from over tourqed man handling of the VC and upper timing cover. Also found a ton of loose bolts as well.

So here is where i set myself up for failure. During this engine refresher i decided to replaxe the clutch and pressure plate now this was my first time doinf a clutch which wasnt a big deal since my dad helped me during the build and made sure i was doing everything the right way. Now he wasnt involved with the clutch kit purchase which is where i messed up.

So ya know the old saying ya get what you pay for? Yeah thats one to live by. I decided to take the route of trying to save a few bucks when buying the clutch kit so i bought an Autocom stage 2 6 puck clutch and pressure plate combo from ebay. It was 89 dollars shipped and it looked decent came with a throw out bearing as well.

So i finish my car and start using it as a daily and im loving it 6 months of working every sunday to swap everything and i mean everything from shell to shell. So at around 200 miles the clutch started feeling kinda strange as if it was sticking and sometimes it would slip after i sat in traffic. But once i would park and leave it for a bit it would drive fine. So now im at 400 miles and its only driveable till you sit at a redlight just once. After diagnosis ive come to the conclusion with the help of a few tech friends and general knowledge of how a pressure plate works it seems the s*** untrated metal the pressure plate is made of now is so sift the when the clutch is deoressed it just bends and doesnt kift the clutch from the flywheel and now my car is sitting till i buy an exedy or some worth while not a cheap out clutch kit. Basically i just wanted to let people know my experience with autocom im sure some oeople have had goodluck with them but im never going to buy an autocom clutch again i can tell you that lol. Sorry to ramble on and if i had a place to host shots of the build i would post them but if youd like to see how the car turned out follow me on instagram @talinbolen !