Hoffman5982's Super Awesome Driveway Swap- Finally Running

[Hoffman5982]

So today I learned that road side assistance is a great thing to have on your insurance.

Had the car picked up and towed home. After that I got some subway and came back and started on the power steering. I thought it might be fun to drive without it for a little while, but I was wrong. very....very wrong. So I got that all together, nice and neat. Contacted Wiring Specialties, and unfortunately they won't have a harness ready until next week, so looks like I'll be sporting the Tundra again.

I also now have a very nice second degree burn that I acquired when fixing that coolant hose, so that feels nice.

Im not letting this bum me out too much. I wanted/needed the new harness anyways, so while its out again I can start cleaning everything back up.

Pictures tomorrow, I PROMISE

[Hoffman5982]

Ok as promised, here's some pictures. Sorry its late, I went and saw Jackass 3D, which was great in case you were wondering.

Here's where the car is sitting now. I still have to trim more of the bumper where the intercooler pipes are, which is why the sides are just hanging


This is what Im really unhappy about. Apparently Mr Oxidation himself came over and jizzed down my hood


And engine pics






And just for sh**s and gigs- Here is my TEMPORARY gauge holder. I thought Id make my car as luxurious as my moms Lexus so I added some woodgrain



Interior still has a lot of work

[mrgreeneyes]

please fix your BOV routing LOL.

its doing NOTHING. its releasing the coldpipe air to... the coldpipe?!

yeah, needs to go to intake or atmosphere

just letting ya know, broseph

and your passenger side strut tower nut is a TERRIBLE engine ground. please redo that too.

[Hoffman5982]

Lol, it's temporarily ghetto rigged. Im having it welded soon, but it is venting to the atmosphere.

And as for the grounding, I didn't do that, the shop did. I wasn't happy about it since they scratched the paint a good bit, but I have a new ground cable to re-do it, and Ill porbably use the cable to add another ground, just because. Ill probably be doing that tomorrow.

[Hoffman5982]

Did a couple of things today:

Re- ran the engine grounds. I put 2 different grounds to ensure that it's good.

My car was sitting a little cockeyed in the back for some reason, so I raised the drivers side rear coilover about 1/4". Might need to be raised just a tiny bit more.

Put all of the fender lining back on. Whenever I was driving the car without it, rocks and other stuff would bounce up inside it and made my car sound like a tin can driving down the road.

That's about all I can do until I get the harness in. I need to go pick up some more paint to touch up all of the places in the engine bay that are scratched. I also got my Polk audio amp in yesterday. Ill be using it to power the 2 8" Kicker's, and Ill be ordering another Polk amp to replace the Crunch amp that is powering all of the speakers. Ill probably install the amp here shortly since I no longer know what to do with myself if I'm not working on my car. I guess 3 months of working on it will do that to you. Ill take picture of the amp install for you guys

[GrilledCheese33]

Glad to see progress and way to go on buying a wiring specialties harness. I have read all good things about them... I hear ya on not knowing what to do. Once I finished mine up, on my days off from work I couldn't figure out how to occupy my time lol.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

[Hoffman5982]

Well, no go on the Wiring Specialties harness.

After telling me itd be this week, I contacted Yury today and he said it'd be the end of the year. What the f***??
I can understand if they are running a little behind and it wouldnt be ready til next week, but the end of the year???

I'm pretty disappointed now. I guess Ill start trying to find the issue with mine

[Hoffman5982]

Well she's running again!!!

I hooked a 12v wire straight to the eccs relay and the fuel pump instantly primed, but I got no CEL. I turned the knob on the ecu and it gave code 55, so the ecu gets power. I took her around the block, but she runs really rough. I got the car home and let it idle, and I noticed if I gave it just a little gas it would idle like it should, and then drop. Then the CEL came on, and after about 3 seconds it the rpms raised and the CEL went off. I unplugged the MAFS and it raised rpms and idled fine, but of course it wouldnt let me rev past 2500 or whatever it locks at. Then when I plugged it back in it dropped kind of low again, so I unplugged it, it went up, and then died after a few seconds. Really weird stuff.

Whats also weird is that if I turn my headlights or flash my brights it would drop kind of low, like it was running out of power. The battery was lmost dead, so I have it hooked up to a trickle charger now. Im gonna mess with it tomorrow. If anyone knows whats up with it or has a suggestion let me know!

[Hoffman5982]

Today I worked out a few kinks. My main concern was how bad it was shuddering when id give it gas. The shop replaced the cas plug, but used butt connectors. I cut those off and soldered it, and it no longer hesitates when I give it gas unless I quickly put it to the floor. While driving itll hesitate when I enter a gear, but then it seems to catch and starts going. I checked the tps, and somehow what wasn't at the right voltage, so I fixed it. That seemed to fix the dropping idle issue. Im still working on her, just decided to take a break and whip up a steak on the grill

[Hoffman5982]

Ok guys, I know its been a little while since the last update.

The car still shudders as Im accelerating. If I drive like a granny it drives pretty smooth. I don't get full power. I know this because I have gotten full power a few times and it put me back in my seat. Itll still go fairly quick, but its about the same as the ka. Before it broke down it did fine, so Im sure its something with wiring.

I Picked up a new speed sensor for 30 bucks, so I no longer have to use my phone to see how fast Im going. My tach still doesn't work. The signal comes from the CAS right? The shop put a new plug on the CAS so my only guess is they didn't wire it correctly. I had peeled back some of the tape and realized they used butt connector. Well I didn't really approve of that, so I ripped them off and soldered them. After this it accelerated a little bit smoother. I then got a new plug for the MAFS. Didn't really help anything but the old wires were breaking from the plug so it needed to be done.

I've driven the car about 300 miles with no problems. She has just as much oil as she did when I picked her up from the shop. I bled the the cooling system as the car would overheat when left idling for a few minutes. Haven't had that problem since. The little plastic piece on the clutch that presses the button broke off, so I bypassed that. I have a short or loose connection somewhere. every time I hit a bump my stereo will shut off, and since my speakers are powered by an amp, it usually blows the fuse. I've literally gone through 8 fuses since saturday. I bought a new battery terminal distribution block thinking it was my ghetto fabbed connection, but it wasn't that. Again, it needed to be done, and now they are secure. Im going to go out soon and start tracing it back from the battery.

Tonight I decided to install my 1 piece drive shaft from Z1. Very easy install. Took about 45 minutes. Here's a few pics



And here it is installed


On another note, for those of you who just got transferred from Wachovia to Wells Fargo, and you don't like the gay a** new debit card with the horses, There's a solution!

When logged into you account online, go to account services, and on the right side under "Account Services" click Access Card Design Studio. Here you can upload a picture and make your own car...for free.

[Raz007]

Cool card, would probably advise not posting your entire card number online though. No sense testing their fraudulent charges policy.......

[Hoffman5982]

lol thanks...... didnt think about that

[Hoffman5982]

Went to the junkyard today. My friend called me yesterday and said there's a j30 vlsd laying beside one of the j30s, so I went down there today to pick it up. When I got to the car, the whole rear subframe was removed, and the vlsd was fully unbolted, but still in place. So I took it off, and attempted removing the half of the axle that was attached, but ended up breaking a wrench doing so. Does anyone else have trouble unbolting the drive shaft from the dif? Every time Ive tried the bolts just strip. Anyways, haven't cracked it open yet, ill take pics when I do. The best part is its out of a 95 so itll bolt right up without the axles, even though I had them for the last dif

[badbob2121]

sweet, im glad to see more happy progress happening in here hoffman

[Hoffman5982]

^Thanks man, Im glad nothing else major has happened too. Ive enjoyed driving it, even with the hesitation.

Popped open the dif today, and it seems to look good. My camera battery was dead so I had to use the cell


For some reason I was thinking that since it was so easy to get, it would have rust a crud all in it because that's just my luck.

I just ordered a new gasket for it, and Im going to pick up some new gear oil whenever I get the chance.

But one question, where the abs thingy bolted in, mine was removed so it's just open. Is there a block off plate or something for it or do I need to have it welded closed? Ill take pics if you don't know what Im talking about\


Oh I forgot to add, I might be going halves with a friend on a parts s14. He said it runs, just needs a new radiator, radiator support, and basically a new front end. We'd probably part it out, and maybe Id keep the bare shell and completely build it from the ground up throughout college. I figured that's just what a I need, another money pit

[Hoffman5982]

So today was fun. Got off work, got in my car, and started cranking it. It still has the cold start issue so Im used to it taking a few turn overs, then all of a sudden if stopped turning over and the dash lights were low. The nothing came on at all. I ended up jumping it off and driving to autozone. They tested it and the alternator has a bad diode and is only pushing 46 amps, and the battery was also bad. I replaced the battery, and now Im looking into either buying a new alt. or rebuilding it. I read somewhere that I think it was an xterra alternator would fit and pushed more power making it better for amp and stuff. I just can't remember if that was for the ka or the sr.

Ill be posting pics up tomorrow of some of the stuff I've been up to, which isnt much

[Thamm]

You're probably thinking about the Nissan Quest alternator mod. I think it's for the KA.

[ag240]

Quest Alternator Fits On The KA Wit Some Trimming. 70 Amps [KA] Vs 110 Amps [Quest]. Idk Of Any SR Mods Tho.

[Hoffman5982]

ahh thanks for clearing that up for me. From what I have read the ka alt will fit the sr if you drill out one of the threaded holes, so Ill be attempting that tomorrow.

As I was driving tonight I came to a stop and then took off on it. It pulls pretty hard(5lbs boost), and would accelerate great if it didnt stumble as I changed gears and floored it. Anyways, I noticed that every time I would take off my temp sensor would from about 1/3 to 1/8. I guess its better to drop than raise

[lucky03602]

im soo jealous of you!! just the other week i picked up a 96 with an s14 sr already installed and i got to replace the head, which is another post but..

when they put the engine in the car apparently they didnt replace crap. so im jealous because you replaced all the basic stuff you should and painted it before putting it in. ill have to take mine out of my car to do so!!

very very clean car though, aside from the kinks your running into trying to keep it running.
if you wanted you can take a look at my car, my-new-96-with-notch-top-sr20-t513434.html

im currently gathering all the goodies before i swap on a new head!!

[Hoffman5982]

im soo jealous of you!! just the other week i picked up a 96 with an s14 sr already installed and i got to replace the head, which is another post but..

when they put the engine in the car apparently they didnt replace crap. so im jealous because you replaced all the basic stuff you should and painted it before putting it in. ill have to take mine out of my car to do so!!

very very clean car though, aside from the kinks your running into trying to keep it running.
if you wanted you can take a look at my car, my-new-96-with-notch-top-sr20-t513434.html

im currently gathering all the goodies before i swap on a new head!!

Thanks man! Honestly, the only gaskets that looked like they required replacing was the exhaust manifold gasket. Every other gasket looked fine. Your car is clean too, just need to tidy up a few things. But for 2k, that's a steal, even on an s14 with a stock ka. The biggest thing I recommend is to get a new exhaust with 3" piping. Hopefully when you pull your head off you won't find anything bad, but Im sure it will be fine

[lucky03602]

yeah i gotta buy a down pipe, cat or test pipe, and a cat back. they have a straight pipe coming off the turbo straight to a tip, nothing in between.

[Hoffman5982]

Ok so I took a trip to Pensacola to our new house. It's about 150 miles each way. I was a little reluctant to take my car, but I decided to chance it. I packed up the tools I would need in the case that something went wrong, and also grabbed our small car jack.

I had absolutely no problems. Temps never rose, car never tried to die, she did great! I got about 320 miles out of the tank, with 140 of them being interstate miles, so not too bad.

The great thing about the new house is that it has a garage. The bad thing is that since I usually park in grass or dirt, I don't anything that is spilling out of my car. I left my car parked in the garage for 2 hours, and there was a small puddle of oil under it. I didn't think it leaked any because I haven't added any oil in the 1500 miles Ive driven it now and it is still full. So even though it is leaking oil, its not a lot. I can see that its coming from around the right side of the head, so I'm just going to spend a day removing the head and replacing the head gasket. I'm also going to go ahead and remove the front cover, replace the timing chain sprocket and timing chain, and make 100% sure that it is perfectly timed. Again. I'm also going to buy ARP head studs since I should have done that in the beginning. Even though it isn't leaking much, I'd rather it not leak at all. Anyways, I snapped a few pics for you guys in the new garage.

Here is the puddle of oil that was under it this morning. Like I said, it isn't much.




Interior shot. The day before I left, I decided to clean the wheels because they were covered in brake dust, and I ended up cleaning and detailing the whole car, and cleaning the inside out. Obsession. It'll make you do the darndest things


And some engine bay shots. I know I know, fix the BOV. Im working on it. Just need to get a hold of my friend this week



And this is a small spot on the front where you can see a small bit of oil leaking



I have found the timing sprocket, but does anyone know where I can find the timing chain alone? I don't need a full timing kit. I found the chain at rhdjapan.com for $103. Is that around the normal price?

[lucky03602]

240sxmotoring.com has just the oem timing chain for 90.00

http://www.240sxmotoring.com/tioemsrpa.html

also phase2motorsports has it for 90

http://www.phase2motortrend.com/cyhepa1.html

[Hoffman5982]

lol shoulda done a more thorough search. Thanks!

[Hoffman5982]

Wowsers

[badbob2121]

we cant see you pics if were not you friend jake...lol

[Hoffman5982]

yea

[lucky03602]

yeah cant see pic bud

[GrilledCheese33]

Welcome to the great state of FL mang