My AWD RB26 S13 Coupe Project

[Tofubadguy]

Hey there 240 land people.

Well I bought this car about a year ago,


I got one of these just recently and it's going in....


But this thing is in the way...


& I'm itching to break these in...


so it's coming out & I really don't want to keep it. It actually runs great, just registered & emissions tested, etc... but it's an automatic, a NA 4 cyl, & just not my plan. Anyone looking for a good running 2.4L for their project? I'm thinking of putting it on Craigslist for the Phoenix area & in the classifieds here on NICO.

So this is my project... it will be some months until things really start moving on it, but I'd like the engine out soon so I can start fabing stuff. I figured if whoever might want it could see it run in the car and even drive it or whatever, it'd make everybody a little happier and have a better feeling about what they'd be getting... power, oil press, etc...

Have any better ideas for me, I'm all ears!

Thanks,Russell

Re-added original pics whose links seemed to have just disappeared... again.
11/02/10... Also many of the pics seem oddly auto-cropped or something. Not sure how to fix that...

[locoluna825]

nice car man

[s13 iDRIFT]

nice!

what kit?

[str33tprintz]

Good luck on the build very clean coupe by the way

I want one of those

[OutToWinPAHC]

I spy harbor freight?

[killernoodle]

I spy harbor freight?

Nothing wrong with buying big heavy hydraulic tools from HF.... Just stay away from their electric stuff and most of their hand tools. Some of their air tools are OK if you aren't using them every day.

Stay away from their electric stuff though. Its JUNK.

[Tofubadguy]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

As far as the kit... who knows. It was on it when I got it. If you know please tell me, not that I really care though. It's good enough for now, but in the future I think I'll just make something myself... I like the one of a kind thing anyway. I really dislike the red, & the extremely gawdy rims too. I eventually want to do a complete strip down on the shell once all my fit and fab work is done and the design/build has proven to be sustainable. I'm going to paint the car the same white as my 99' F350 Superduty. Rims I plan on being some 7 or 9 thin spoke wheels like something classy you'd see on an Aston Martin Vantage V8... but of course 'all murdered out'. If it's not white or a peice of glass, it's going to be a matt satin black.

As far as Harbor Freight stuff... I know the game, don't worry about me. Been doing this stuff for a long time now, just not out here in the desert("but it's a dry misery"). Most of my bulky stuff is still back at my home in South Texas. Could only 'move' out here with so much stuff ya know...

Russell

[duffman1278]

Should be an interesting project for your.

Nothing wrong with HF's stands and lift. I've used both of them before plenty of times and they work fantastic.

But like others said, anything that has electrical sucks.

[fender-startocaster]

anymore pics of the clip?

[Tofubadguy]

Lots actually. Just not at work or online anywhere. I'll pull more off my camera tonight and have more available. Why do you ask?

Russell

[Steady_One_S13]

Nice ride! I actually like the kit on it. Looks good. Sssweeet RB26 front clip! Can't wait to see it in the 240.G/L

[fender-startocaster]

Lots actually. Just not at work or online anywhere. I'll pull more off my camera tonight and have more available. Why do you ask?

Russell

idk lol i just think its crazy how they cut the car in half and send it out.

[Az24tsx]

Goodluck with the swap good to see some more AZ people in here

[Bumnah]

Are those mid 90s Enkei's? OLDDDDDDDD SCHOOOOLLLLLL

[Tofubadguy]

Here's a few for now...Yellow screwed up my delivery day, which could only be on Monday, so I had to go pick it up...


The next two pics aren't that good. I didn't have my camera with me so I used my phone. This was a few days after I got the clip into the garage and late the same night I put the engine and tranny back into the clip...



Now it sets in it's spot where I'm gonna pull it all apart...


Russell

[Tofubadguy]

They in fact are Enkei's! 17inchers.

Would you want them eventually? They're the 'pick your 4 lug pattern' type. I really think that looks so tacky. Then the squiggly flamey looking design... just not my cup o' tea I reckon.

I'm definately going for something in this style...

Russell

[jeff420]

looks like the start of a good project. good luck!

harbor freights stuff isnt so bad. i got an angle grinder from them for 14$ and its lasted me a long time. hell ive even left it outside in the rain on accident and still works fine.

[zeeth2800]

beautiful clip man!

i love the car too! cant wait to see the build... i will keep checking in!

[Tofubadguy]

Well I've got the GTR crossmember, engine and tranny sitting in the 240. I had everything measured and marked for mounts, clearancing the passanger floorboard for the transfercase, the firewall for a 1.5" rearward shift, and strut tower swap.... but

I still wanted to get an eyeball on things and couldn't help myself. I'll post a few pics with it 'in the ball park' when I get them off my camera.

Looks like all I'm really going to have to do is drop an extension off my unibody frame rail about an inch for the rear crossmember mount (behind the drive axle dip), make a pan to stich into the firewall so I can give some relief to the rear of the head/block/bellhousing, and cut a window out of the passenger floorboard to get the tranny tucked up in the car a bit further, to level out the whole thing and then make a pan to replace the floor section.

I'm thinking a couple more months and it will be roughed in and mechanically operable.

Russell

[blacksrjdm]

Wait, so you are making it AWD also??? Like to see that done. There is an s14 conversion avail but havent seen an AWD s13 coupe yet... Good luck and hope you have patience.

[Steady_One_S13]

Wait, so you are making it AWD also??? Like to see that done.

x2

[Tofubadguy]

Yup. It's the whole reason I wanted to do the swap.

As soon as I relocated to the Phoenix area for a job, I went to FullRace and checked their car out. It's pretty cool, but they had alot of limitations trying to keep it as a 'bolt in kit'. Meaning no cutting of the car for better fitment.

As far as the S14 goes though... I have a similar distaste as I do for the R33... ya know, with that lazy, roundy, swoopy C-pillar. Looks too much like a, I don't know, a Pontiac or Olds or something to me. The flat faceted, sharp, defined C-pillar of the R32, R34, and the S13(COUPE!) is the ticket for me! The S13 hatch looks like a Ford Probe and I dislike them equally as much as the S14's.

I wanted a R32 Skyline, knew that legally it's a no go, so a street legal S13 coupe with all the driveline from a R32 GTR is as close as I figured I'd get.

There are a few other S13 AWD conversions that I have found. A few posted on this board too. I'll try and get the pics posted tonight of my progress.

[24j0hn]

sick build comin along, keep us updated

[Tofubadguy]

Well here's a few pics finally.

The plan is do the trimming of the floor board and firewall then stick the motor and trans back in, support the crossmember and motor with floor jacks from underneath, set the hood on it and jack the assembly up until I have 5/8 to 3/4 inch of clearance between the hood and valve cover, then build the spacer frame extensions down to the crossmember. It looks like I'll be copping out a section of frame rail for axle clearance when it's all done.

[Tofubadguy]

So I've been working on it little by little as time allows. With the outage at work finally over I plan to get a lot done this Summer...

The last few days my buddy Vern from work and I have managed to get a good run at grafting the towers and getting them tacked up. Here's a few pics.

Before the motor and tranny was taken out and placed of to the side, I got it tucked up into the tunnel by clearancing the passenger floorboard for the transfer case.



That made it possible to rough out some transmission crossmember mounts as well as allowed me to measure for the crossmember rear frame extension/spacer blocks.

Right side frame rail mount




Left side mount off tunnel/floorboard inside of Y-pipe.


Motor crossmember space and spacer

Don't seem to have a pic of the spacer block tacked in place right now. I'll upload one tonight.

Stripped engine bay enough to start cutting out the towers.

If you look closely you can see the spacer under the left frame rail in this pic.

Made a jig so the R32 towers will retain the exact relationship with each other when they're in their new home.







Once I was happy with the R32 towers staying put we started cutting on the 240.





Then the R32...



This pic just shows it laying on top of the 240 inner fender well. We however fitted the R32 tower from the under side so the overlap seem is pushing upward into the 240 sheet metal.



Here's the upper and lower part of our jig to locate the towers not just in relationship to each other but in exact relationship to where the crossmember bolts up and at the proper angle too.


My buddy Vern doing some fittment triming so we can bring the R32 towers in from underneath and some pics of the towers rough fit.









We decided to keep the guset/straps from the R32 just for fun and give it that extra something that will make people do a second take.


You can see the front to rear length difference between the towers really clearly with a side by side.



After everything fit really well and all the fine trimming was done, we put everything back together, jigged it up and started tacking it all in place.




Vern's "tacks" are always around 1" long... lol


That's all the pics I have for now. The towers are welded out right now, inner and outer seems. The next step is to pull the jig off and start on cutting the axle travel window into the lower half of the frame rails and filling them in with some 1/8" flat strap. I'll take more pics soon.

Russell

[Tofubadguy]

And yeah... this R32 is my track car...



Russell

[breadbox]

Holy balls! WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

[Xdisaster240sX]

Nice build man...Looks effing awesome.

[Steady_One_S13]

Sick!! I love the fab work. Looks so promising.

[project213]

You lucky s.o.b. beyond epic win. Your actually doing the swap that i wish i coul afford to do. Cant wait to see more progress on this one.