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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Hijacker
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I was looking into Google Photos as a replacement. I have a lot of photos I'll have to migrate, and lots of threads to update.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Photos


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m tr4nch
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Hijacker wrote: I was looking into Google Photos as a replacement. I have a lot of photos I'll have to migrate, and lots of threads to update.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Photos

yep this is going to be a pain in the a** going back and editing every post. :rolleyes:

i'm going to give imgbb a shot from here forward. not sure if they have a bandwidth usage limit, there's nothing about it in their terms of service soo :gotme

anyways, here's what i've been up to:


got all timing stuff on, nismo belt on, timed and ready to go!

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got the fluidampr crank pulley on, which was an uncomfortably tight fit on the crank snout. then i realized i forgot to put the lower timing cover on first. doh! :facepalm: so i needed to pull it back off.
my regular 3-jaw puller wouldn't budge the thing whatsoever and actually started to deform from the force needed, so i ended up getting a hydraulic puller from harbor freight to do the job. after taking a few minutes to set up properly, it came off no problem. thing is a beast.


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while i was at it i rented a pilot bearing puller from advance auto to get the automatic pilot bearing/bushing out of the back of the crank. what a pain this was. there's barely an edge to grab on to, so i had to cut 2 grooves inside the bearing with a small cut off wheel to make a lip for the fingers to grab onto and it finally came out.

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so after all this i decided to throw the engine in the bay to do some test fitting of a few things, mostly to see where i can relocate the passenger side relay box, and to try different fan/radiator setups since it's a pretty tight fit in there.

i made this little bracket at work out of 3/16" alum angle and some flat bar.

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the oem bracket bolts to the frame rail and the relay box interferes with the throttle body when running the greddy manifold, so i'll be moving the box over here out of the way of everything.

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for radiator and fans, instead of going the electric fan route i want to run a fan with clutch as they are more efficient at cooling apparently. so i've been trying to figure out a combination of fan/clutch/radiator that will fit decently. going to run a gktech fan with an aftermarket KA fan clutch as it gives more clearance in the front. the back of the fan blades hit the crank pulley though, so i will need to run some 1/4" spacers between the fan and clutch to clear it, rather than trimming the fan blades.

as far as radiator and shroud go, i'm still trying to figure that one out. the koyo that i had bought (in one of the previous posts) will not fit with any fan/clutch setup without cutting the rad support or modifying the chassis, which i am NOT going to do after having to replace all that. the oem s13 manual trans radiator is 5/8" thick which is a little too skinny for my liking. i've seen people run an r32 radiator and shroud which has the same width and upper and lower mounting points as s13, but is 1" thick and 3/4" taller. going to try and get my hands on one to test fit. another option is to get an oem automatic s13 radiator as it would be same width/height (obviously) but they are 1 1/4" thick, and then figure out what shroud to run, whether it's making a custom one, or trimming down an r32 shroud. so yeah, still need to work all of that out.

but here is what the clearance looks like with gktech fan, KA fan clutch, and oem manual trans s13 radiator (5/8" thick core). just shy of 2" iirc between the front of the fan and the radiator core. enough room to work with i think.

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and of course i couldn't help myself.. i threw on the valve covers, clear cam cover, strut bar, etc. to see how it would look :biggrin:
can't wait for it to be in there permanently!

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and last but not least, made a little brake master cylinder heat shield. not totally finished with it yet, but came out good so far.

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centralcoaster33
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I can understand the forgetting the chain cover, you probably thought it was clear like the top one, haha!!! Hmm, now I see why it's good you have a clear cover, gotta see that Nismo Belt to get your money's worth!

I did a round of work on my 240sx a while ago, drivetrain stuff mostly. Got the new flywheel and clutch and bits on and torqued when I realized I had an extra part on the floor. The dang dust shield! So apart it all went, and back again.

Good luck with the fan choices/ options. That's a snug fit up front for a skinny radiator and I see your AC part is out of the way. No electric fan for idle I guess? Maybe adding a shroud will help that fan suck from the furthest corners of the radiator. BTW - that radiator looks like the dirtiest thing on this car. Are you gonna powder coat it?! :rotflmao

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Hijacker
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Matt, if you have any issues with editing old posts in the thread to clean up the picture linking, let me know. I'll try to do what I can to help.

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PapaSmurf2k3
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I did the same thing when I put the ATI damper on my miata. I got it about halfway on and realized I had forgotten the timing cover. Normally, I wouldn't give a s***, but that lower cover has the dowel that points to the crank for setting ignition timing :(

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float_6969
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Looking great as always!

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m tr4nch
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FINALLY got all my pics moved and updated the thread. whew.. carry on lol.
centralcoaster33 wrote: I can understand the forgetting the chain cover, you probably thought it was clear like the top one, haha!!! Hmm, now I see why it's good you have a clear cover, gotta see that Nismo Belt to get your money's worth!

I did a round of work on my 240sx a while ago, drivetrain stuff mostly. Got the new flywheel and clutch and bits on and torqued when I realized I had an extra part on the floor. The dang dust shield! So apart it all went, and back again.

Good luck with the fan choices/ options. That's a snug fit up front for a skinny radiator and I see your AC part is out of the way. No electric fan for idle I guess? Maybe adding a shroud will help that fan suck from the furthest corners of the radiator. BTW - that radiator looks like the dirtiest thing on this car. Are you gonna powder coat it?! :rotflmao
haha yes, gotta show off the nismo belt! that's my old radiator that was originally on the car, i saved it for this exact reason. its only use now is for test fitting lol don't worry i won't be using that one. but yeah the plan is to find one that fits in there with the fan clutch setup and then either make a shroud or use the r32 shroud. also this car didn't come with ac from the factory, but i want to add it and am looking into that as well. i already have the evap core box that goes under the dash, just need everything else. the front of this car is going to be stuffed to the brim with a radiator, ac condenser, intercooler, and then oil cooler, power steering cooler :eek:
PapaSmurf2k3 wrote: I did the same thing when I put the ATI damper on my miata. I got it about halfway on and realized I had forgotten the timing cover. Normally, I wouldn't give a s***, but that lower cover has the dowel that points to the crank for setting ignition timing :(
yep i realized it immediately after i got the thing cranked on all the way. didn't want to leave the cover off though so dust and crap doesn't get in there, and of course the timing mark.
float_6969 wrote:Looking great as always!
thanks!!

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m tr4nch
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finally updating this thread. been busy busy busy. anyways, i'll continue where i left off.

went to install the greddy manifold and the threads for the coolant pipe were gunked up with powdercoat overspray and felt like it was going to strip out if i kept threading it in. tried using a wire wheel on a dremel and it helped a little but didn't get everything out. so to be on the safe side, i bought an ebay china-special tap (the cheapest i could find) and ran it through. this thing is huuuuge, m36x1.5 is the thread for anyone wondering.

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i cleaned out the valve covers and put the baffle plates back on with screws and rtv. got this tube squeezer on amazon for like $25 and it's worth every penny, makes applying the rtv so much easier and a lot better to control the flow.

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got the intake manifold installed with fuel rail/injectors, valve covers on, installed exhaust manifold and turbo all with oem hardware. starting to look like something now!

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replaced the water pipe on the block with one from an RB26 that has the nipple coming off the side so i can run the turbo coolant line from there. got some fittings and test fit the coolant/oil lines. bought all steel fittings instead of aluminum for strength purposes. i then figured it would be a good idea to wrap the lines with some gold reflective tape for heat protection, plus the gold matches the black and gold theme. ;)

fitting sizes:
coolant line on block: m14x1.5
oil line on block: m12x1.25
coolant in/out on stock rb25 turbo: m18x1.5
oil feed on stock rb25 turbo: 1/8" npt
metric threads use a crush washer with the fitting, the npt thread uses thread sealant.

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had the syko exhaust elbow fitted up and had to bash in each side a little where the middle bolt goes through for socket clearance when installing/removing the bolts. also the flanges were slightly bowed so i had to sand them down a bit to get them nice and flat.

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the spark plugs were corroded and the coils weren't in any better shape. :frown:

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threw some new ngk copper plugs in for now, and found a good used set of neo coils on ebay in much better shape. :bigthumb:

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installed them using some new "sems" bolts (sems meaning assembled with washers built on), exactly like the ones nissan uses, except a lot cheaper than buying them from nissan. got 2 packs of 25 of these m6x1.0x20mm bolts with washer/lock washer for $18, when nissan wanted like $2.50 for EACH bolt. :facepalm:
also replaced the old valve cover bolts with these new ones while i was at it.

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moved on to the transmission stuff. pulled the front cover off, cleaned it, replaced the oil seal, and reinstalled with a new gasket.

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installed nismo clutch pivot ball, pressed on a new oem throw out bearing onto a new release sleeve, then installed with new springs back on the clutch fork.

new superceded sleeve vs. old original sleeve:
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new dust boot and new oem slave cylinder

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replaced shifter return springs with the gktech ones. installed new rear dust shield, installed nismo mount and powdercoated crossmember. new breather hose. and done! ready to get mated up.

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m tr4nch
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back to the engine.. got a different clear timing cover. saw this one on ebay for $16 shipped from china (idk how that's even possible to turn a profit) and i like how it uses neo style mounting vs. the older shoulder bolt allen key/grommet type (pain in the a**). slightly lower quality than the other one (some micro scratching) but i figured for the price, why the hell not.

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so with the clear timing cover i installed the power steering pump and alternator with some gatorback belts to help with any misalignment. speaking of misalignment, i had to move the power steering pump forward 3/16" so the pulley would line up with the fluidampr crank pulley. i did this by measuring 3/16" on the front of where the fixing bolt slides through the pump, cut it off on a bandsaw, and got a 3/16" aluminum spacer to put on the backside of the pump, thus moving it forward. i also needed 2 spacers to move the adjuster bracket forward as well. everything bolted up nice and the belt looks pretty damn spot on now.

the great thing about this is if i ever wanted to go back to an oem crank pulley, i can take the spacer out and flip it to the front of the pump and it will be back in the oem spot.

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looking like this now... getting sooooo close to dropping this thing in finally!

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m tr4nch
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and last but not least. rebuilt an AC evap core and installed it, for adding AC in the future. i thought now would be a good time to do this since everything is still bare-bones and would be easy to swap in.

box gutted and completely cleaned

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old evap core vs. new

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anyone looking to do this, new expansion valve threw me off, but the arrows point to the correct pipe, so all is good. just need to carefully bend everything to fit the plastic box.

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everything done and new foam insulation tape wrapped up.

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box reassembled. excuse the fruity silicone caps lol.

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non-AC vs. AC grommets/drain

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installed!

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decided to put a new blower motor in while i was at it as well. old on right, new on left with fan swapped over.

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both installed!

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m tr4nch
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wow just realized this thread is exactly 10 years old as of right now. time flew by.
:cheers:

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float_6969
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Thanks for the update!

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LSDrift
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Boom! Nothing but continued perfection I see! Nice work, glad to see it's still coming along. Now that I've finally got the weather I'll be starting mine back up and getting a thread going that will look very similar to this, starting with re-coating the underbody...

flartius
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Aww man this is a sweet build, subscribing to this for sure! Keep up the amazing work!!!!

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m tr4nch
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thanks guys. hopefully this year is the year i finally get it running. lol

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m tr4nch wrote:
Mon Apr 16, 2018 6:28 pm
thanks guys. hopefully this year is the year i finally get it running. lol
Man I'm not going to lie, I read this thread from front to back looking at all the attention to detail and the meticulous effort put into this car. I can't wait to see pics of you driving this thing!!! Your patience in this build has me absolutely stunned, but kudos to you sir on an awesome build! :dblthumb:

:greg:

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m tr4nch
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flartius wrote:
Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:19 am

Man I'm not going to lie, I read this thread from front to back looking at all the attention to detail and the meticulous effort put into this car. I can't wait to see pics of you driving this thing!!! Your patience in this build has me absolutely stunned, but kudos to you sir on an awesome build! :dblthumb:

:greg:
i appreciate the kind words! i'm hoping i'll have it running soon and back on the road. i'm almost there :biggrin:

Mitec
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This build will always be such an inspiration to me... glad to see more progress! Also makes me feel a little less bad about how slowly mine is going, lol

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m tr4nch
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Mitec wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:59 am
This build will always be such an inspiration to me... glad to see more progress! Also makes me feel a little less bad about how slowly mine is going, lol
thanks! i think this is the slowest build everrr lol. at least in the s13/s14 world.

not much to update lately. got the fidanza flywheel on and spec clutch on the other day. used blue loctite on the flywheel bolts and pressure plate cover bolts. now just figuring out what the best approach is to get it put in the car, whether it's bolting the trans up and dropping it in as a unit, or putting the engine in, tilting it back a little, then mating trans up. i haven't decided yet. either way i'll have limited space for maneuvering. i might even be tempted to drop the crossmember, raise the car, and pull it up from underneath. also, i installed an oem throw out bearing, and i'll need to pull that off and press the spec one on instead, it's thicker and i wouldn't want to get everything in and not have the clutch disengage fully and have to pull it all out again just to change it out.

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float_6969
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Trying to get the engine and trans to line up in the engine bay SUCKS, but it's do-able. You'll almost certainly mess the paint up on something. Because everything is so clean, I would HIGHLY recommend putting the engine and trans in together. If you can put them in as an assembly from the bottom, it's actually SUPER easy that way, as that's how Nissan installed them when it was new. But with out a lift, getting the vehicle up high enough to be able to do that is pretty difficult. I've never been able to do it with jack stands on the garage floor though because I can't get the car high enough.

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m tr4nch
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float_6969 wrote:
Mon May 14, 2018 4:11 am
Trying to get the engine and trans to line up in the engine bay SUCKS, but it's do-able. You'll almost certainly mess the paint up on something. Because everything is so clean, I would HIGHLY recommend putting the engine and trans in together. If you can put them in as an assembly from the bottom, it's actually SUPER easy that way, as that's how Nissan installed them when it was new. But with out a lift, getting the vehicle up high enough to be able to do that is pretty difficult. I've never been able to do it with jack stands on the garage floor though because I can't get the car high enough.
yeah i'm leaning more towards pulling it up through the bottom like that so nothing gets banged up, but i'll have to make some blocks or something so i can get everything high enough to roll it under. got some more planning to do.

Miss'nMyS13
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Awesome thread, everything looks amazing. Great job and thanks for sharing.

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LSDrift
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I put my RB25 into my S13 engine first from the top, then transmission from the bottom when I did the swap in 2011. When I pulled the setup in 2015 I took the engine and trans out as an assembly and that worked great minus dinging the old crappy inop A/C condenser.

In the future I'm either going to drop it back in as an assembly before I put any coolers into the front of the bay or I'll set the car down on top of the front crossmember with the engine/trans bolted to it. Dropping the assembly in from the top is definitely the way to go if you don't have a lift, but you will require patience and a couple other sets of eyes/arms to make sure nothing gets scratched. And if you haven't already (which I'm sure you have) make sure to bang out a notch for the starter bulge on the transmission bellhousing.

Glad to see things are still moving along with OCD detail! :cheers:

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m tr4nch
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thanks guys!
some more updates..

got a set of these proper length power steering fittings from k00laid83 on zilvia who had a bunch of sets made, which was awesome.

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also threw some metal zip ties/bands around the ends of the turbo lines to keep the reflective tape from unraveling itself from heat.

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messed this up right here :slap:
went to clean the threads out on the trans bellhousing for the slave cylinder and used a m10x1.25 tap instead of the correct m10x1.5 :facepalm:
so in order to fix it the right way i opted for the m10x1.5 time-sert kit instead of a regular helicoil. a little more expensive but i'll never have to worry about it again. also got the stainless fittings instead of using the regular steel ones.

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messed up threads:

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drilled out, tapped, counterbored:

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completed repair:

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back in action with new oem bolts:

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also removed the oem throw out bearing and installed the matching spec one.

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trans mated up, support braces bolted up, starter installed, ready to go!

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m tr4nch
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now the big task of getting it in.. i decided to remove the front crossmember and power brace so i could install it all from underneath. i jacked up the rear quite a bit, a few inches from full extension on the jack stands (they go up pretty high), then lifted the front up and put the smaller jack stands on cinder blocks with wood in the middle to help distribute the load on the block more evenly. i brought it up just high enough to clear the frame rails from the top of the engine, then brought the car back down a bit and pulled the engine up into place with the hoist and a jack under the transmission. worked so well that i was able to do it all by myself, didn't even scratch anything :bigthumb:

ready to go:

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barely sliding under, had like 1/4" of room lol.

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in place ready to be pulled up

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up and bolted in! finally!!!!!!

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and talk about firewall/starter clearance :eek:
might need to use a pry bar to push it in another hair

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so it's finally in, been a long time coming. :mike now i just need to fit everything else in around it, i'll be knocking that out little by little.
:bigthumb:

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float_6969
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WOOT!!!!! Hell yes! This is fvking exciting!!!

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m tr4nch
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i know it's been a while since i've updated this thread, been working on a lot of stuff.

first off, just want to say i'm thankful to be alive and well. got in a pretty bad accident on the highway back last august in my g35, ended up off the road and in the woods/a tree, almost upside down on the driver's side. climbed out of this with only a few scratches, not even a headache... i'll miss the car dearly :frown: but i'm grateful to still be here and uninjured.

scary stuff.. but the car did its job very well, so thank you g35. RIP

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m tr4nch
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so back to the 240...

installed the shifter with a new rubber boot and gktech brass bushing

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installed clutch line and reused the oem bracket and the loop from the clutch damper with a union instead of bending the actual clutch hardline. makes for a clean install.

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went to install the front sway bar and ran into a small problem. the syko rb25 mount kit comes with sway bar spacers to clear the oil pan, which my sway bar kit doesn't take into account. the brackets for the bushings were flat mount instead of staggered like the oem brackets. some quick research resolved that with some whiteline sway bar bushings in the correct diameter for use with the oem brackets.

problem bracket, plus the spacers aren't made to the right measurement as you can see :facepalm:

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whiteline bushings and new oem brackets

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original bracket from 1992 vs. updated bracket

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installed with washer to even the spacer out, plus added some sway bar stoppers for good measure.
problem solved!

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ran new fuel lines with new z32 filter and pressure gauge. i later added some hose protectors where they would be rubbing on the fuel rail.

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couldn't remember if i used submersible fuel hose on the pump, so i pulled it out and replaced it with a gates piece. rather do it now and be 100% sure than find out the hard way later and deal with a big mess.

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had a genius idea that pretty much solved my radiator/fan clearance issues. ordered 2 oem replacement radiators from the same company, one s13 and one s14. the s13 radiator is 5/8" thick, the s14 radiator is 1" thick, same exact core size however different end tanks and different mounting points. so what do i do? pull the end tanks off both and use the s13 end tanks on the s14 core to give me a 1" thick s13 radiator! so now it's thicker than stock, and fits no problem. bending all those little fingers up and clamping them back down took a long time.

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rented a pressure tester, capped off the hose connections, filled the rad with distilled water and pumped it to 15psi and after about 5 mins it didn't budge. oem rad cap is rated for 13psi so i say it passed the test.

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still going to run the gktech fan and a KA fan clutch but needed about another 1/4" for the fan blades to clear the crank pulley. had my cnc buddy make me a spacer for the fan based on my measurements, fits perfect now. also picked up a new r32 fan shroud, will need to trim it to fit properly.

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i did have to make some spacers for the radiator mounts though, the fan was rubbing slightly at the top edge of the radiator. spacing the rad up about 1/4" or so moved it enough out of the way to clear well and still clear the hood when it's closed. wish it all sat flush but it is what it is, better than cutting up the support.

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made a new coolant pipe for the heater core and used silicone elbows. also grabbed the Z1 19mm water temp adapter to stick inline as i think it would give a more accurate reading here than in the usual upper radiator hose location that you always see.

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intercooler and piping next! grabbed a satin black mishimoto intercooler and a few 2.5" 45 and 90 degree pipe bends and got to cutting and fitting.

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mounting brackets made and intercooler mounted up

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pipes chopped up and test fitting

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picked up this bead roller from jegs

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pipes welded up and bead rolled

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managed to score this new in box greddy type-s blow off valve. got a flange and welded onto the cold pipe.

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made a pressure testing rig just to double check everything. you can see here that i switched the clamps to regular t-bolt clamps, reason being that the gold phase2 clamps have such a small window of adjustment they didn't seem like they were clamping tight enough at full tight. would have looked cool but oh well.

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capped off cold side end and pressurized from the hot side. held 20psi without dropping after a few minutes. done!

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

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started making more mounting brackets for everything else.

bought a power steering cooler and modified the brackets so i could mount it to the lower rad support just behind the intercooler. perfect fit!

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decided to mount the greddy oil filter relocation to the frame rail here, so made a bracket for that.

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bought an earl's 19 row oil cooler and mounted it right behind where the passenger headlight would be. made a bracket from some 3/16" aluminum angle.

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wanted to use a g35/350z power steering reservoir since it's transparent and you can see the level of the fluid rather than the stock metal one. cut the middle of the 350z bracket, and cut the ends of the s13 bracket and welded them together.

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made a bracket for the catch can which will be mounted to the passenger shock tower. and made a bracket for the hks boost solenoid to mount next to the clutch master cylinder.

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air filter/mafs bracket. took some planning to mount/connect this to the turbo- used a 60 degree 2.5" elbow coming off the turbo inlet, to a 45 degree 3" to 2.5" reducer elbow joined with a hose union.

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

Post

started to gather things for all the wiring next.

went to install the wiring specialties harness and since it was made for the fuse box being in the stock location, by moving it over to make room for the intercooler piping a few of the plugs didn't reach it now. so i had to make some extension harnesses. good thing i still had my oem harness and a spare chassis harness laying around that i could cut the plugs from. these actually ended up being too long but i've shortened them a little more since taking these pics and they fit perfect now.

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the original oxygen sensor was badly dented in a couple of spots so i got a new bosch universal unit that showed to cross reference to the oem one. cut to length, new pins crimped on, and original connector back on. good to go.

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speaking of o2 sensor, bought a plx dm6 wideband. still need to get it mounted up in the downpipe.

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and speaking of gauges, i sold my old greddy ones a while back since they lit up orange (even though it said red) and got some speedhut gauges instead. went with white background with red letters and red backlight in boost, water temp, oil temp, and oil pressure. should look sweet. so i'll have a total of 5 gauges now including the wideband. 3 in the center vent and 2 on the a-pillar.

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collection of supplies to do all the power and ground cables:
got an optima redtop battery with side post connections. 1/0 gauge power cable rated to 375A, and 1/0 gauge and 4 gauge ground cables. lug connectors & boots, cable protector/sleeving for running the power cable through the chassis to the trunk, 300 amp fuse, battery terminals, firewall boot, and new oem positive connector cover.

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some cables made up

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made a bracket to mount the battery post on the passenger wheel well in the engine bay. the idea here is simply connect the battery to the original ring terminal positive cable without cutting & joining things. the cable that runs from the battery to the front will be sandwiched under the post and isolated from the chassis to prevent shorting.

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ran the cable through the hood ledge, firewall grommet, into the rocker void, and over the rear wheel arch to the trunk, then across to the driver side where i will be mounting the battery with a billet aluminum tray.

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made a tab to mount the fuse to and welded it onto the side of the tray

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also put together a subharness for all the speedhut gauge sensors and ran it through the same firewall grommet and across the firewall behind the engine harness.

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by then i was just about ready to get everything powder coated.

all the brackets i made, plus rear sway bar brackets, battery tray, fan spacer, brake master heat shield. and all the intercooler piping & coolant pipe

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back from being coated!

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drilled/tapped the turbo outlet elbow with a 90 degree hose barb for vac/boost line

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all piping installed. whooooooooooo i love it...

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starting to come together!

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threw a sheet of DEI reflect-a-gold on the brake master heat shield & installed.

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and you can see the AN fittings on the valve covers in those last few pics. bought all earls fittings & hose. $$$$$$

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made my first AN line, -6 power steering low pressure line from rack to cooler. still need to make all the others.

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so that's about it for now. i feel like i'm really close to first start up!

things left to do:
-finish wiring and plugging everything in
-finish making AN lines
-run all vacuum lines
-connect heater hoses/radiator hoses
-weld bungs in downpipe for wideband and crankcase evac
-test fit/connect exhaust
-trim & fit r32 radiator shroud
-add fluids

that should be most of it. i'm hoping to get this thing fired up in the next month or so depending on how much i can get done. can't wait!

as always, thanks for looking!


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