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

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float_6969
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DUUUDDDEEE. I'm mourning the loss of the Advans. That sucks. I'm REALLY glad you're OK though. Was that your daily? What did you replace it with? Anyway, thanks for the updates on the S13!


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m tr4nch
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float_6969 wrote:
Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:46 am
DUUUDDDEEE. I'm mourning the loss of the Advans. That sucks. I'm REALLY glad you're OK though. Was that your daily? What did you replace it with? Anyway, thanks for the updates on the S13!
thanks man. yeah it sucks, i loved that car :frown: no sunroof which was rare (and i think helped protect me) and super clean with low miles. i'll get another eventually though. it was my nice weather car/fun car/dd when i needed it. i have a p11 g20 that i got about a year and a half ago which is the new full time daily, same color actually.

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m tr4nch
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made a bunch of AN lines, came out pretty nice!
still a few more things left to do


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LSDrift
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Buddy...I am once again in awe at your meticulous perfection! So awesome! Glad to hear you're ok and things are coming along!

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m tr4nch
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LSDrift wrote:
Tue Apr 16, 2019 9:36 pm
Buddy...I am once again in awe at your meticulous perfection! So awesome! Glad to hear you're ok and things are coming along!
thanks man. getting things done little by little.


pressure tested all the AN lines, they all came out fine. this consisted of capping off one end and using an air valve on the other end, pressurizing the line and sticking the ends into a bucket of water. if no air bubbles come out within a few mins of being submerged then you're good to go.

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so back to this radiator/fan/shroud crap. i feel like i'm the only one having fitment issues with everything. every pic/story i hear of people running clutch fan setups in an s13 with rb25 seem to have no problems and everything slips right in fine. maybe it's the syko mounts and r33 crossmember? no idea. but anyways, had to trim the shroud quite a bit to make everything fit, and even then it's a pretty tight fit.

trimmed down, had to shorten it about 5/8" at the bottom. nothing some zip ties can't take care of!

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fitted in. had to cut around where the ps pump is, and had to cut the lower shroud for belt clearance. once everything is in there isn't even enough room to get the CAS out if i need to :facepalm:

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everything moves freely though with no interference so that's a plus.

so that's done for now, on to the next task!

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Damn you're not kidding. Tight for sure!

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float_6969
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That all looks pretty tight. I'm assuming you have a rubber/poly mount in there, are you sure it's not going to hit once the engine starts moving around in the engine bay?

I'm sure you've covered it and I forgot, but why no e-fans?

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m tr4nch
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float_6969 wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 6:36 am
That all looks pretty tight. I'm assuming you have a rubber/poly mount in there, are you sure it's not going to hit once the engine starts moving around in the engine bay?

I'm sure you've covered it and I forgot, but why no e-fans?
the syko mounts are aluminum/urethane hybrid so movement should be minimal, guess i'll find out lol. and i opted to do the clutch fan setup because it's supposedly better/more efficient at cooling, but has proven to be a pain in the a**. at least in my case. worse comes to worse i will ditch the entire thing and get some e-fans and change my setup.

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cgtdream
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Awesome thread. Actually caused me to log back in after a near 15 year hiatus! Next summer Ill be tackling a similar project, but thankfully with nowhere near as much rust as what you have. Either, thanks for doing this, as it is very inspiring!

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LSDrift
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m tr4nch wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 9:47 pm
float_6969 wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 6:36 am
That all looks pretty tight. I'm assuming you have a rubber/poly mount in there, are you sure it's not going to hit once the engine starts moving around in the engine bay?

I'm sure you've covered it and I forgot, but why no e-fans?
the syko mounts are aluminum/urethane hybrid so movement should be minimal, guess i'll find out lol. and i opted to do the clutch fan setup because it's supposedly better/more efficient at cooling, but has proven to be a pain in the a**. at least in my case. worse comes to worse i will ditch the entire thing and get some e-fans and change my setup.
When I had my setup running last, I was running dual FAL 12" pullers on an S14 auto radiator and it didn't like the highway if it was above about 65°F out. That being said I also have a bigger front mount intercooler behind the stock pignose bumper as well as an AC condenser.

I tried running a fat Koyo radiator with the FAL pullers as close to the radiator as possible but ended up wearing a couple holes into the back side.

When I get back to that part of my project I'm planning on using a Chase Bays tucked radiator and some kind of pullers.

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m tr4nch
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cgtdream wrote:
Mon May 20, 2019 4:17 pm
Awesome thread. Actually caused me to log back in after a near 15 year hiatus! Next summer Ill be tackling a similar project, but thankfully with nowhere near as much rust as what you have. Either, thanks for doing this, as it is very inspiring!
thank you! yes in hindsight i would have started with a way cleaner chassis lol.
LSDrift wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 12:14 pm
When I had my setup running last, I was running dual FAL 12" pullers on an S14 auto radiator and it didn't like the highway if it was above about 65°F out. That being said I also have a bigger front mount intercooler behind the stock pignose bumper as well as an AC condenser.

I tried running a fat Koyo radiator with the FAL pullers as close to the radiator as possible but ended up wearing a couple holes into the back side.

When I get back to that part of my project I'm planning on using a Chase Bays tucked radiator and some kind of pullers.
yeah definitely sounds like you had a lot of things stuffed in there for the temps to rise. i had the thick koyo before but would have had to run pusher e-fans if i kept it, and with wanting to have AC eventually, that might be a problem for space in there. hence another reason why i chose the clutch fan setup.

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m tr4nch
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so in preparation for first start up, i threw the gauges on the cowl and wired them up temporarily

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dug out my original gauge cluster, swapped the tach out for a jdm one (goes to 9k instead of 8k on the usdm one) and plugged it in. bought a dakota digital tach signal converter to make things easier and wired that up. i'm not one to go snipping wires up but i cut the tach signal wire and crimped on blade connectors so that it can easily be reversed if needed in the future.

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to prime the oil pump, i read that you basically run a hose to where the oil flows out of the block into the oil filter, pour oil down into the block from there while spinning the engine backwards by hand and it should flow back through the oil pump into the pan. this should minimize time spent cranking to try and build oil pressure.

to do all this i made another AN hose from clear vinyl tubing. the 1/2" ID tubing at home depot fit the -10AN earls fitting perfectly, i even pressure tested it and it held pressure with no leaks! i then unscrewed the hose i had on the output fitting on the block and put the clear hose on. i poured about 3/4qt of oil in while spinning the engine backwards by hand and it took it all in no problem. hooked the regular hose back up and it was time to crank...

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after a couple minutes of cranking, houston we have oil pressure!

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all i have to do now is throw the rad back in, fill with coolant, and go get some gas to throw in the tank! i'm shooting for friday to fire this thing up! :mike

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If you pull all the spark plugs and just crank it with the starter (fuel and spark disabled for safety), the oil pump usually primes and you have pressure in about 5-10 seconds. At least that's what I've done with every CA and KA I've rebuilt. With the plugs out, there's no real load on any of the bearings, so nothing will wear.

Can't wait for a startup vid!!!

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m tr4nch
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float_6969 wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 7:34 am
If you pull all the spark plugs and just crank it with the starter (fuel and spark disabled for safety), the oil pump usually primes and you have pressure in about 5-10 seconds. At least that's what I've done with every CA and KA I've rebuilt. With the plugs out, there's no real load on any of the bearings, so nothing will wear.

Can't wait for a startup vid!!!
yup that's exactly what i did. pulled the coils & plugs, and left the fuel pump disconnected (even though there's no fuel in there, don't want it running dry) and unplugged the injector harness. took about 2 mins of cranking in like 10-20 sec intervals and then the needle started to move.

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m tr4nch
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well guys...

IT RUNS!!! :biggrin: :biggrin: :mike


small update before the video..


installed the tomei expreme exhaust temporarily for start up.

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right before the garage party :ohno:

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used some pennzoil 10w30 for first start. let it warm up and then dumped it out and filled with some rotella. no metal particles or anything in the oil whatsoever. super clean! and nothing on the magnetic drain plug. really happy with it! also decided to use evans waterless coolant.

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m tr4nch
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running super smooth so far! had to adjust the idle screw on the throttle body since i deleted the aac valve and it wanted to die as soon as the throttle plate would close. no leaks at all, everything seems to be sealed up well. one little thing though, sounds like the power steering pump bearing is making a little noise. other than that, it's running great!

can't wait to drive it now! hopefully i'll be getting the remainder of crap done a bit quicker.
:dblthumb:

sounds a little weird in the video because my phone blows. definitely sounds better/normal in person.


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LSDrift
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Hell yeah man! Can't wait to see it drive!

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float_6969
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yyyaaaassssss! Congrats!!!

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LSDrift
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Quick question for ya that might benefit others on this same path - who removed your quarter glass? I'm currently in the process of doing so on a donor car that I'm taking the roof panel from and it is quite the pain. I've read a lot of different places about how they've done it and watched some videos, and it doesn't seem there's any real good way to do so since they are "encapsulated" glass.

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m tr4nch
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LSDrift wrote:
Wed May 29, 2019 7:22 am
Hell yeah man! Can't wait to see it drive!
float_6969 wrote:
Thu May 30, 2019 10:14 am
yyyaaaassssss! Congrats!!!
thanks!! :cheers:
LSDrift wrote:
Fri Jun 14, 2019 8:10 am
Quick question for ya that might benefit others on this same path - who removed your quarter glass? I'm currently in the process of doing so on a donor car that I'm taking the roof panel from and it is quite the pain. I've read a lot of different places about how they've done it and watched some videos, and it doesn't seem there's any real good way to do so since they are "encapsulated" glass.
the body shop that painted my car had removed them, no idea what their method was. yeah it's pretty tight between the glass and metal there. looks like they scuffed or "bruised" the black coating on my windows in a few spots and you can kinda see it from the other side. sucks but not much i can do about it :gotme

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m tr4nch
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okay so more progress..

3 out of the 4 mounting holes for the battery tray went right through the floor, the frame rail was in the way of the 4th hole. i drilled a hole in the floor and welded in a nut flush with the floor to act as the 4th mounting point. mounted the tray, battery, and 300A fuse/holder. good to go.

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m tr4nch
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did some exhaust work next. welded a bung in the downpipe for the wideband sensor and then heat wrapped it since it sits pretty close to the floor. then modified a stainless test pipe- chopped it up and added in a flex bellow and another bung for the crankcase evac fitting. first time tig welding stainless, not too bad! ran the crankcase evac line and threw some heat wrap on it to protect the check valve.

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m tr4nch
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threw in the wideband sensor and ran the wiring up the firewall, under the brake master cylinder, and through the side hole to where the oem harness runs through the firewall. unwrapped the tape and squeezed the wideband harness and the boost controller harness through the same grommet. taped it back up for that oem look. :dblthumb:

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took on the task of rebuilding the axles. the outer joint supposedly can't be disassembled according to the FSM, but you can definitely take it apart. i pulled everything out, cleaned all the old grease off thoroughly, and reassembled using some redline cv2 grease. scored some oem outer boot kits, inner's weren't available at the time when i looked so i went with some empi boots. everything moves nice and smooth now.

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m tr4nch
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i managed to score a free set of 18" g35 wheels in pristine condition from my coworker, cleaned them up and threw on some fresh 225/40 firestone indy 500's (aka bridgestone re003) which i'll be running until i can afford some real wheels.

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m tr4nch
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so idk why but i never did the front lower control arm bushings, and being that they are the only rubber bushings left on the car, they would probably get destroyed from everything else being either solid or polyurethane. so i pulled the arms back off the car, torched them out, cleaned up the sleeves, and threw in a set of poly bushings.

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bled the clutch which went fine, went to bleed the brakes and the rear right caliper started leaking from where the 2 caliper halves meet. :tisk: i got these calipers back in 2005 and i guess the rubber seals must have dried out from not having any fluid in them. so i decided to just pull all the calipers off and rebuild them with new seals. kinda wish i made that decision before i added fluid to the system lol but oh well.

got some centric rebuild kits, and ordered some epdm o-rings (resists brake fluid) for the caliper halves. these are actually pretty easy to rebuild. now i won't have to worry about anything leaking or my brakes failing because of some old rubber seals.

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m tr4nch
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started on the wiring for all the accessories like the gauges, wideband, boost controller, etc. ordered some supplies which included a couple of hella relays, silicone jacketed wires, cable sleeving, and some inline fuse holders.

ran two 12 gauge wires with 20A fuses off the battery positive along the side of the car to the kick panel area which is where the relays will live. for the relay trigger, i used an "add a fuse" thing coming off one of the accessory circuits on the fuse box. mounted everything under the knee panel with velcro for ease of servicing and so it's all tucked away neatly. looks a little messy finished off but it's really not as bad as it looks. eventually i will get another fuse panel and make it all nice and neat.

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extended and sleeved the boost gauge wires since i will be mounting that on the a-pillar away from the other gauges. for the boost sensor harness i got some connectors and made an extension harness so i wouldn't have to cut anything up. mounted the boost gauge and plx wideband gauge to the a-pillar. came out spot on. i went with autometer carbon fiber pods there to match the carbon fiber rear view mirror cover.

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m tr4nch
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also made a center vent block off plate so the gauges don't get roasted. used some adhesive backed neoprene on the back side to seal it up.

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ordered some red led's for the gauge cluster so it would match the speedhut gauges.

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so that's about it for now, very close to getting this thing on the road finally!
things left to do:

bleed brakes again
finish wiring up gauges
get wheels mounted
adjust coilovers for ride height
take for a spin!

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float_6969
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Dddduuuuddee! You have to make soooo many vids, LOL!

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m tr4nch
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had to rig up the speedhut gauges. they are too shallow to mount in the center vent pod with their threaded lock rings. so i epoxied some long 6mm bolts to the back side and made some plates to hold them in place against the inside of the dash.

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then installed the dash in the car! starting to look like something now.

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back to this rear caliper fiasco.. after replacing the all the seals i went to bleed the brakes again and long story short, the rear left bleeder screw stripped the threads in the caliper :tisk: at this point i've had enough of these rear calipers, they were obviously rebuilt like s***.

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m tr4nch
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so i got the last 2 centric rebuilt calipers left. these are a nice powder coated black, but i immediately noticed the NISSAN letters looked smashed/shallow on one side. of course nothing can ever match correctly. :rolleyes: after much debating, i used one good half of the old caliper, stripped the s*** rustoleum paint off, mated it to the new replacement centric one (with new o-rings between the halves, of course), scuffed them up a bit, taped them off, and painted red to match. installed, bled the brakes again and thankfully, third time was the charm. no leaks or mishaps finally.
:mike


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btw, here are the o-ring sizes i used for both front and rear calipers. these go between the 2 halves. the larger ones are for the rear, smaller ones for front. you only need 2 o-rings per caliper but i got extras since they were literally only 5 cents each.
and torque on the 4 bolts holding the halves together is 50 ft/lbs rear, and 60 ft/lbs front. not in the service manual, but that's what mine were torqued to before i took them all apart.

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threw on the g35 wheels to see how they would look. :naughty:
and installed the rear nismo strut bar.

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