m tr4nch's restoration/build thread !! (56k = death)

General discussion forum about the 240sx, and a great place to introduce yourself to the board!
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AzzyKeralis
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:15 pm
Car: 1991 240sx SE
Location: North Texas, USA

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I realize that this is REALLLLLLY old, But what was the ballpark for getting those dents removed? I have probably the same amount and I want them gone. How much am I looking to spend?


ViorelP
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:16 am
Car: Nissan 200sx S13

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Please, can you give me access for your photo album from photobucket to download the pics. It says it is a private album.
Soon, i will start my s13 restoration and you did a great job and i would like to enspire from your work to finish my car.
Thank you.
With my best regards.
Great car, btw.

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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been busy lately but i'll have some more updates soon.
AzzyKeralis wrote:I realize that this is REALLLLLLY old, But what was the ballpark for getting those dents removed? I have probably the same amount and I want them gone. How much am I looking to spend?
i want to say it was around 450 for the whole car? definitely worth it imo.
ViorelP wrote:Please, can you give me access for your photo album from photobucket to download the pics. It says it is a private album.
Soon, i will start my s13 restoration and you did a great job and i would like to enspire from your work to finish my car.
Thank you.
With my best regards.
Great car, btw.
yeah no problem man, thanks! i made a guest password- 240rust

jusjofok
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:23 pm
Car: 1993 240SX SE Coupe

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Hey man, came across you thread randomly and I have to commend you on your efforts! Great job on the resto-mod!

I do have a question for you though, how did you pull off getting new seat belts without taking it to the dealer and letting them diagnose it? I have one retractor actuator that works 95% of the time and one belt retractor that sometimes locks up and stalls the actuator. I am willing to bet it wouldn't malfunction for the dealer if I took it to them. What are your thoughts?

Again, great job!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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jusjofok wrote:Hey man, came across you thread randomly and I have to commend you on your efforts! Great job on the resto-mod!

I do have a question for you though, how did you pull off getting new seat belts without taking it to the dealer and letting them diagnose it? I have one retractor actuator that works 95% of the time and one belt retractor that sometimes locks up and stalls the actuator. I am willing to bet it wouldn't malfunction for the dealer if I took it to them. What are your thoughts?

Again, great job!
thanks man!
as far as the seatbelts go, i know someone at a dealership in the parts dept so there wasn't really any trouble getting them under the lifetime warranty. i've read some dealerships give people a hard time about fixing them for free, but in the end it does say it in plain black and white in the warranty booklet. there wasn't any diagnosing or anything for me. i'm not sure in your case though, i would give it a shot and just show them the page from the warranty booklet.
check this page/guide: http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/are-yo ... -free.html

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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gotta post updates!

so i moved again, and now have a 2-car garage to myself.
got the 240 moved safely and threw it back on jack stands.


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the stable!

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i pulled the coilovers off to throw some anti-seize on the threads and figured i would make some coilover covers for them while they were off the car. i forget where i first saw these, but i came across this diy thread as a guide of sorts on how to go about making them. i must say i am impressed with my sewing capability. :chuckle:

basic ingredients. thread, black 200 denier nylon fabric, velcro strips, shock cord. i later ditched the shock cord and used paracord instead. i used gold stitching to match the coilovers :bigthumb:

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did the rears first, they were tricky up top to figure out, since the spring rests right on the top plate, there wasn't really any groove or anything for the cord to hold on to. so i put some velcro along the outer edge of the top mount and along the top of the covers. problem solved!

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in the middle of making the fronts-

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done

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back on the car

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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also started putting stuff back in the engine bay.
got the hardlines on, brake booster and master cylinder, clutch master cylinder, and both pedals.


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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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ran into a little problem with the j30 vlsd and axles. i'm not sure why, but i could not find for the life of me any info on this problem whatsoever. in a nutshell, when swapping a 5-bolt j30 vlsd into an s13 subframe, the RIGHT side j30 axle will not fit, it is too long. the LEFT side j30 axle fits with room to spare, with no binding during the suspension's full range of motion.

when i went to put the right side in, it fit, but i had about 2mm of room between the output shaft flange on the diff and the axle flange (with the axle being fully compressed). so i did the suspension travel test and of course it was binding. super confused i consult the internet with no luck, however i read that z32 n/a axles are a little longer due to wider track width. so, i bought a LEFT side z32 n/a axle to use on the RIGHT side, and it works! fits right in, has about an inch of compression room between the flanges, and full range of motion on the suspension travel with no binding. awesome! so if anyone else out there is looking for this info, here it is.

pic for length comparison. j30 LEFT side on top, z32 n/a LEFT side in middle, j30 RIGHT side on bottom.

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sooo i must clean that z32 axle up now and paint it, and i'm debating whether or not to replace the boots on them while i'm at it (which i already have sitting here).


that's all for now, more later!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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a couple of cool gopro shots-


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lately i've been working on the heater core and associated ducting. i completely disassembled the heater box and blower motor units and scrubbed them out with a brush and dish soap. they were filthy with almost 20 years of dirt and crap sitting in them. i also replaced a lot of the foam sealing strips where needed, as a lot of them were dry rotted. all of these will be going back on the car next along with the wiring harnesses.

heater core box before and after-

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heater core cleaned up and new seals applied-

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blower motor unit, this is the only pic i have of it before, but you can see the filth in the lower left of pic-

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after-

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part of the windshield defroster ducting before and after-

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more ducting before and after-

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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RB stuff!

bought a fidanza lightweight aluminum flywheel

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i figured out that a neo turbo came with my motorset, so it has a bigger turbine housing than the other rb25 turbos. :biggrin: i picked up another turbo for cheap to swap out the compressor housing since whoever the previous owner was had the letters shaved off (yes that matters to me). it will be cleaned up.

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i also managed to extract the one broken exhaust stud. i welded a washer to the stud, welded a nut to the washer and used an impact gun to get it out. took a few tries but it finally came out.

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more to come! :bigthumb:

keironlunn
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:43 am

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This is absolutely insane. Just found this for the first time and I am amazed. The amount of dedication and patience that you have is crazy! I'm 17 and about to start this type of build and this thread both scares me and motivates me! Keep it up and I can't wait to see the finished car!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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keironlunn wrote:This is absolutely insane. Just found this for the first time and I am amazed. The amount of dedication and patience that you have is crazy! I'm 17 and about to start this type of build and this thread both scares me and motivates me! Keep it up and I can't wait to see the finished car!
thanks! this will be 10 years in the making as of next month :tisk:
the only advice i can give is know what you're getting yourself into first, it is a monumental task to do all of this. and be realistic with your expectations. i'm still learning that lol. otherwise have fun with it!

redc
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 9:53 pm
Car: 1990 240sx hatch, sr20 swap

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Needs more update! :) very nice thread You've rekindled my interest in my project, made me take it out for a drive and remind myself why I' love my 240 so much. Thank you

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Hijacker
Posts: 15759
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2003 4:57 am
Car: '92 240sx Convertible
'94 F-150
Location: Fredericksburg, VA

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Dammit. I have drool on my desk now.

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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haven't updated in a while, here's what i've been up to:

got the chassis wiring harness and engine bay harness cleaned up and laid back in.

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a bunch of the harness zip ties with the push clips on them were damaged so i scoured the internetz for some replacements and found 3 suitable sizes for what i needed that could generally be used throughout the whole car.
the biggest size has an 8mm push clip diameter, bought from here
the middle size has a 5mm push clip diameter, oem nissan #24222-89903
the small size has a 4mm push clip diameter, bought from here


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replaced all of these that secure the engine bay harness under the radiator support.

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decided to do the left side wire "tuck" while i was at it.

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a few of the connectors still had 20 year old grease all over them/in them so i decided to take the plastic connectors apart, de-pin them, clean them all out and put a proper amount of dielectric grease. what a pain in the a** this was and very time consuming. some examples:

fuel pump/sending unit connector

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wiper motor

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these two by the relay box

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some randoms..

new hood latch with new pull cable installed

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old and new oem coolant reservoir tanks

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cleaned up exhaust heat shield

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i also picked up this beauty...

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made in china? really nismo??

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but yeah, it's a rear view mirror cover. still available from nismo but a rare part because i don't think i've ever seen one on an s13 before. they are listed to fit r32/r33 skylines only, no mention of the s-chassis. however, the r32 mirror is the exact same as the usdm s13 mirror which i confirmed in person on an r32. so, it fits perfectly no problem! :laugh:

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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moar RB stuffs!


scrubbed the trans down with a scuff pad to clean it/paint prep, wiped it down and painted it.

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the dust shield on the rear was bent up from shipping so i bought a new one for 8 bucks.

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had to get one of the turbo studs out of the exhaust manifold and replace it. pulled the same technique as the exhaust stud in the head- welded a nut on and used an impact gun.

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also along these lines i gave in and figured it would be a good time to just replace all the exhaust manifold studs with the arp kit. i still need to install them.

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compared to the oem stud

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goody time... i had my turbo cleaned up and rebuilt, etc. powdercoated the compressor housing and ceramic coated the turbine housing. super happy with how it turned out!

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also, i bought a legit greddy intake manifold!

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got it new from rhdjapan for around $860 shipped. that's their price all day. blows my mind why other places online want $1,200 for one. :rolleyes: and it only took about a week and a half to get it from japan from the time i ordered.

anyways, for anyone looking into these for the rb25, i will put this info here. i've read about these style manifolds having leak issues with the coolant pipe at the front not being sealed, etc. the cheap china ones have this issue, but apparently the greddy ones had them too. if you look at pics of the greddy manifolds with the red emblem, the coolant pipe appears to be slightly different from this one i bought with the black emblem. this new one looks to be an updated "version 2" of sorts, as this pipe now has a hex at the base and if you look reaaaally closely it looks to have some sort of sealant behind it, thus solving that problem. i won't know for sure until i install it and drive the car for a while but it looks like they fixed that issue.

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with that being said, i got the stock intake manifold off, the fuel rail off and injectors out. i ordered an injector service kit to replace the o-rings, filters, and pintle caps.

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i figured it would be a good idea to try and flush out any rust particles from the water channels just in case. so i hooked up a garden hose to the water inlet and let it flow for a few minutes.

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i then stripped the block of the oil filter and cooler with all the coolant lines. i plan on re-routing everything and using a remote oil filter relocation with a thermostat and oil cooler to make everything a bit cleaner and easier to work on.

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still a little crusty...

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exhaust side of block stripped

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off the stand and on the ground to get the flywheel off.

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the next step is going to be test fitting the engine into the bay. the reason i want to do this is because i need to see where i'm going to mount everything in the engine bay and how much room i have to work with. i need to figure out catch can size/placement, where i'm going to put the oil filter relocation, intercooler piping, radiator fan clearance, etc. then i'll yank it back out, clean it up a bit and do gaskets/parts replacements/etc.

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mcheddadi
Posts: 6666
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 2:24 pm
Car: R8

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I CANNOT BELIEVE this thread is still going! LOVE YOUR WORK. started reading in 2008 and still reading now! awesome!

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darylzero
Posts: 1245
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:28 am
Car: Nissan Rogue 2009 SL AWD Premium Pkg.

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I just found this thread as well and read though the entire thing! Awesome work!!

When I started i noticed the first post was 2008 and was like sweet this thing must be done by now, yet it's not :cry:

Your work and attention to detail is amazing! I can't believe you worked on this in that public storage space. Now that you have a garage again (with great lighting) it must be nice to work on it whenever you get a chance.

After reading through this I kept wondering, how much your life must have changed from the beginning of this project.

subscribed!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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mcheddadi wrote:I CANNOT BELIEVE this thread is still going! LOVE YOUR WORK. started reading in 2008 and still reading now! awesome!
thanks! still going strong :mike
darylzero wrote:I just found this thread as well and read though the entire thing! Awesome work!!

When I started i noticed the first post was 2008 and was like sweet this thing must be done by now, yet it's not :cry:

Your work and attention to detail is amazing! I can't believe you worked on this in that public storage space. Now that you have a garage again (with great lighting) it must be nice to work on it whenever you get a chance.

After reading through this I kept wondering, how much your life must have changed from the beginning of this project.

subscribed!
thank you sir! yes it is much better having my own garage again with everything in one place rather than 3 different locations before. and no doubt my life has changed quite a bit since i started this project. i'm now 10 years older and wiser (at least i hope lol).

i'll have some more updates later some time, i'm trying to get this thing done soon, soo close to getting the engine in and fired up!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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got the engine test fitted.

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had the exhaust manifold ceramic coated, came out really nice.

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got all the hvac stuff reassembled and back in the car with new foam seals.

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made another big purchase, full titanium exhaust by tomei! :fap:

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progress has been slow lately due to new job taking up all my time. i'm still working on a bunch of things that i don't want to post yet until they are complete. will have more updates when i get things done!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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what's that??

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yeah i bought a new engine ;) . i was convinced to ditch my S1 rb25 and buy a NEO instead for all the updates to the S1 and S2's shortcomings. i got an amazing deal on an automatic motorset so i went and did a leakdown test on it, came out good, so i picked it up and immediately started disassembling it.

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decided to pull the head off to do the gasket, clean out the cylinders (some crap fell in when i took the plugs out to do the leakdown test), and make it easier to clean/paint the block.

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so with that said, i picked up a new wiring specialties harness for the neo.

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scored front and rear nismo strut bars. will have them powdercoated with some other things. also found someone making/selling replacement nismo stickers for the bars.

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got a good deal on an oem set of 180sx rear valances in excellent condition. will be repainted black to match.

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bought an isis downpipe during all the black friday deals. got probably one of the last ones with the isis logo since they changed their name to isr. :chuckle:

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got a mishimoto 3-port oil catch can and plan on running a crankcase evac kit, so i got one of those too.

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bought the seats out of my buddy's r32 gtr so i will be running those for the mean time.

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that's all for now. i'm in the process of getting some more things cleaned up so i can paint them. will have more later!

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darylzero
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:28 am
Car: Nissan Rogue 2009 SL AWD Premium Pkg.

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Awesome! Please post lots of pics of the engine process, cleaning disassembly, assembly, etc.

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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darylzero wrote:Awesome! Please post lots of pics of the engine process, cleaning disassembly, assembly, etc.
i will try and get as many pics as i can!

CarAudioChris
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:52 am
Car: 1996 Nissan 240sx w/ RB25DET

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WOW... I remember reading this thread a couple months after you started it and saying.. man I wish I had a RB25 and could do this... I have the RB now but I don't know if I could ever build a car to this level... Keep up the good work brother and I will keep following along.

Also are you going to do anything about the head/oil issue on your RB before install? I am curious to see what you will do.

essfourteen
Posts: 45
Joined: Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:33 pm
Car: 1995 240sx
Location: Canton, MS

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super impressed by how well you've restored everything. keep fighting the good fight man!

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m tr4nch
Posts: 1308
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:57 pm
Car: RS13, Z31, P11
Location: Eatontown, NJ

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CarAudioChris wrote:WOW... I remember reading this thread a couple months after you started it and saying.. man I wish I had a RB25 and could do this... I have the RB now but I don't know if I could ever build a car to this level... Keep up the good work brother and I will keep following along.

Also are you going to do anything about the head/oil issue on your RB before install? I am curious to see what you will do.
thanks man. the only thing i really have planned for the rb oil issue is installing an oil restrictor in the block. i'm not going to go crazy and drill/tap the head for a drain. if the restrictor isn't enough and that's necessary later on, then i will do it.
essfourteen wrote:super impressed by how well you've restored everything. keep fighting the good fight man!
thank you sir! i take pride in my work and abilities.

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Topless_S13
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:19 pm
Car: 1994 Nissan 240SX Convertible
Location: Indiana

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This build is absolutely awesome! Keep up the good work!

Fastazz240
Posts: 189
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 10:40 am
Car: 1995 240 SX, 93 Vert, 95 Hardbody 4X4

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Any updates? following the build so curious

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GoodzKouki
Posts: 78
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2014 3:02 pm
Car: 1993 240sx SE KA-T T3T4: RIP
1996 240sx SE KA-T T3T4: SOLD
1990 240sx SE RB25 GT30: SOLD
1998 240sx SE LS1
Location: South Jersey

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Hey m tr4nch, as always your work is amazing. I was wondering if you were planing on running differant seats at some point, and if so would you be willing to sell the GTR seats to a fellow New Jerseyan :biggrin: ?

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Toyojay
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:53 pm
Car: 2001 Nissan Pathfinder SE 3.5L 4X4

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A spectacular car! Have enjoyed reading through your years of work! Post updates! :bigthumb:


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