Hoffman5982's Super Awesome Driveway Swap- Finally Running

[Hoffman5982]

Can you guys believe that last monday was a year since I put the new motor in? Time has zoomed by me.

My SPL RUCA's should be coming in tomorrow. I'm really considering selling my Stance's. At full stiff I rub the frame above the front wheels on any significant cornering. I'm looking at the PBM Pro's which are 10k/8k versus my 7k/5k. Just some ideas that have been running through my head.

[Hoffman5982]

A whole lot of nothing is going on right now. Arms came in. They look fantastic as expected. I was going to try to get the installed today buy I had absolutely no energy to do so. I'm shooting for my next day off, monday. I'm going to try and track down the right sized washers to make eccentric lockouts. I can't really justify paying SPL $70 for what I'm cost them no more than $10. I understand quality and markup, but give me a break. Cell phone pic to hold ya'll over:


In other news, I went to go to work this morning and when I started my car it ran horribly. Like it was only firing on 2 cylinders. I cut it off and started it again with no change. So I popped my hood and made sure I had completely tightened the turbo inlet and everything else back after reinstalling a stock wastegate actuator and I had. So I tried it again and it was fine and stayed fine all day. Weird. Only thing I can figure is the MAF maybe wasn't making a complete connection. Regardless, the inlet gasket was my first suspicion and I've kinda felt like the turbo seals could be refreshed so I have a full turbo side gasket set coming, including a metal manifold to head gasket. So, more to come soon..

[killer2001]

Ah ha! So this is where your build thread is.

[Hoffman5982]

I see you're visiting Nico while Zilvia is down lol

I've been wanting to create a build thread on Zilvia but that's a lot of typing..

[danshaz82]

why not get swift springs instead of new coils? dont get me wrong, i love my PBM pros. im just curious

[killer2001]

I see you're visiting Nico while Zilvia is down lol

I've been wanting to create a build thread on Zilvia but that's a lot of typing..

Good thing they invented copy/paste.

why not get swift springs instead of new coils? dont get me wrong, i love my PBM pros. im just curious

I have Swift springs on my HKS coilovers. s*** is boss.

[Hoffman5982]

Even if I copy/paste, a lot of editing is needed to shorten the story with the first motor.

Didn't think about swift springs. Would you it be that simple? The valving wouldn't be an issue?

[Razi]

It'll probably be bad for the coils.
I heard going up or down 1kg is okay, but anything over that won't work.

[Hoffman5982]

That's what I was worried about. I'm kinda psyched about getting new coilovers anyways. The plan is to save and buy them, then sell my Stance's and maybe buy some for the s13. If I decide to leave the s13 stock then I can invest in Nistune and some cams or something to chase 300whp. Ideas. I have a lot of them, just need to make some of them reality.

[SX APPEAL]

I'd sell you my zero miles Fortune Auto's. (only installed and rolled around a bit) 9K/7K swift springs. Paid $1400 for them, I'll let them go for $1200 shipped. They go stupid low, too low for me. Interested?

[xrproto07]

This thread is the only reason I check nico anymore keep the updates coming hoffman!

[Hoffman5982]

This thread is the only reason I check nico anymore keep the updates coming hoffman!

Admittedly, I only get on for this thread as well

The weather here in the sunshine state has been lame. Haven't been able to get out and shoot pictures or anything. Tonight I decided to get my SPL arms installed.



I started by taking the old ones off, obviously. Right off the bat I noticed how much beefier these things were to the Godspeeds, yet they a decent bit lighter(thanks Ti)


Here's some closeups. Pay attention to the welds on the Godspeeds. Garbage. With that said, there were no visible cracks


Now we move down(up?) to the rod end. Also garbage. Side to side movement of the bushing is very loose while up and down is tighter but not smooth. It kinda pops around, for lack of a better word. On top of that, the middle collar assembly is completely siezed.


Moving on: To hold me over til I get an alignment, I needed to get the arms to the same length as the old ones. Here is how I achieved this:


With that out of the way I got them installed. This was super easy.



And put her back on the ground


While I was at it I lowered the car right under a 1/4" more in the rear. I think I may need to go a tiny bit lower to achieve an even rake.

I gotta say, I'm really happy with these. I took the car down the road and it feels a lot more solid now. The rear feels super planted. If everything goes according to plan I'll be getting an alignment Thursday, following up with a trip to an exhaust shop and a thorough cleaning. If this da** weather would clear up for a few days I've arranged pics with 2 different people. We'll see how this week pans out though..

Also, spoiler-less. Thoughts?

[Hoffman5982]

An update is coming

[Razi]

Nice.
Love the adjusters on the SPL stuff.
The one on my ghetto ones are so badly designed.

Both with or without a spoiler look fine I think.

[Hoffman5982]

Nice.
Love the adjusters on the SPL stuff.
The one on my ghetto ones are so badly designed.

Both with or without a spoiler look fine I think.

Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure the alignment shop used the factory adjusters. My camber is way off in the back(from side to side), so I'm taking it saturday and telling them to fix it.

So...some stuff has happened..

[mechanicalmoron]

Nice.
Love the adjusters on the SPL stuff.
The one on my ghetto ones are so badly designed.

Both with or without a spoiler look fine I think.

Oddly enough, I'm pretty sure the alignment shop used the factory adjusters. My camber is way off in the back(from side to side), so I'm taking it saturday and telling them to fix it.

So...some stuff has happened..

Engines just hate you?

[Hoffman5982]

This thing is kicking my a**.

What's surprising is that it was making 10lbs with no issues with that corner blown out.

[krash]

Look at it this way, you're an SR master at this point.

[Hoffman5982]

Well I kinda forgot to actually come back with that update. Oops.

I always had a suspicion that I had a small exhaust leak around the manifold but I was never sure. The, about 2 weeks ago, my car started sounding worse and worse. I had just put my boost back up to 10psi, and it had no issue getting there or holding it(looking back it was actually pretty laggy). It got to the point where it sounded like an older Ford Ranger put-putting around town. I had already ordered the gasket kit, although at the time I ordered it, it was a "just because" purchase. Unfortunately for you guys I didn't take any pictures, and I have no idea why. But you aren't missing much. I expected it to be the manifold to head gasket, but as you can see it turned out to be the turbo to manifold gasket. When I pulled the manifold out I could actually wiggle the turbo, and after undoing the locks I could loosen the turbo studs by hand. Scary.

What I ordered was the full genuine Nissan gasket set for the turbo, an FRSport wastegate actuator retaining clip, and a 7-layer Nismo exhaust mani gasket. Got it all installed with no issues, and I'm amazed by the difference in the low end after doing this. Also, my turbo used to make a pulsing sound, which I feared to be excessive shaft play, but once the turbo was out I found that it had zero play. This turbo is much healthier than my old t28 for sure. Enjoy this single boring picture of a box.


In other S14 news, I did get my alignment done a little while back. The verdict: -4.5* in the front and -4* in the rear. The manager had a pretty condescending attitude the whole time I was there, which let me know just how stupid he thinks being low is. Oh well, can't win them all. I did manage to pull a little more than 1* back out today when I put my 3mm hub centric spacers in, and I also gained most of my turning radius back.

Shortly after the alignment I had a buddy of mine shoot some really nice pics. Enjoy






Now the negative updates for the s14:
In the last week my car has started breaking up when cruising. It's usually around 2k, and if I blip the throttle it goes away until I cruise at a steady speed again. Until today, it only did it at random times. Today it did it the entire 40 mile commute home. I put fresh plugs in as the old ones were slightly fouled, I'll see tomorrow if that fixes the issue. On top of that, I was driving home a few days ago and had the pleasure of watching this happen in front of my eyes:


I really need to finish that dash harness and put the new dash in. A sun shade will be purchased as well.




Now we move on to the good stuff. Even though I've been working nonstop, I've made some good progress on the coupe. The last time we saw the motor, it looked like this:


As of tonight, it looks like this:


And this is the clutch/flywheel setup I ended up going with:


Before anyone says it, yes I do know about the quality of XTD clutches. I read up on anything and everything I purchase. There are very mixed reviews on the company, some even saying they use Exedy parts. What it boiled down to was I was on the verge of buying a Sachs OE replacement clutch & flywheel from work. I question their quality as much as I question XTD. For ~$75 more I got an 11lb flywheel and a clutch that it made to be kicked if I so choose. If this purchase bites me in the a**, I have another vehicle to drive while I'm fixing it.

I've also managed to pick up quite a few important pieces including manual brake and clutch pedals, ka bellhousing, sr transmission, oil pan that's already tapped for a turbo return, almost a complete kit of ES bushing for the s13, DOHC throttle cable, Greddy Intercooler core for the s14, and a lot of other odds and ends.


Well that's all I have for now. I apologize for the lengthy read and lack of pictures.

[Hoffman5982]

Hey guys, it has been a while. A lot has happened with the s13 these last couple of months, all leading up to this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bf5LWUxNGE[/youtube]

So yeah, it's pretty exciting to see this thing finally run. I've started a build thread on Zilvia so if any of you would like to catch up and follow the progress on my cars you can see it here:
http://zilvia.net/f/builds-builds-only/ ... build.html

[Thamm]

Looks great! And happy to see the s13 startup.