my new RB project!

[kevwa]

I have not updated in a while since I didnt accomplish much over the winter.... finaly im back in the garage and have been continuing working on a new front clip and as always have run into an issue. My radiator support has alwasy been very close to the front of the motor, but now with the new support im using it wraps around the front of the motor instead of going straight across like the stock one did. This puts the the radiator support and the back of the headlight housing in the way of the intercooler piping coming off of the throttle body.... so far all i can think of doing is making an adaptor off of the intake to reposition the throttle body slightly so i have clearance for the intercooler piping - anyway thats where im at at the moment - id like to get some pics up soon of the front clip but i want it a little farther along before i put up pictures....

[l0nestar]

Have you considered going back with the stock TB and making an adapter plate?

Your build has always impressed me. I really hope to see you at The Dragon again this year.

[bmxarmy]

whoop whooop, I missed the build kevwa....Your build is right up my alley. I look forward to seeing the updates. Your build pretty much made me cut up the rambler and start the swap (including the megasquirt) Keep up the good work and keep us all posted!

nolan

[bmxarmy]

also can you allow pm's or pm me.... I have a couple ms2 specific questions for ya. thanks

[kevwa]

thanks guys - i hadnt thought about using the stock throttle body - even if i did i would have the same issue - the ISIS manifold aimes the throttle body directly at the radiator support - i think there will only be about 3" between the throttle body and the radiator support so its just really tight to fit piping

[bmxarmy]

hey kev, I got your pm, I cant reply, says you dont allow pm's,

on the pipe delema can you get some tight radius mandrel donuts and cut them up? I have seen some super tight donuts at rod runs before, not sure who makes em but they are way tighter than a standard mandrel u or j bend

[kevwa]

just use my email - [email protected]

as for the bends i hope i can make something like that work - i took another look tonight and i can trim some of the coupler off the throttle body so that will help alittle - but its going to be such a tight fit i wont know exactly what i will need to do untill the radiator support is bolted in - right now its only mock fitted on the passenger side because i had to cut about 6" out of the center to make it the right width.

[kevwa]

Well after some more work I finally have a picture of the new front end for the S10 which has made everything even more of a tight fit than it was, but it looks like everything should work..

[l0nestar]

Orly? Very interesting man. Do you have any shots of the side ?

[Coolwhip]

damn this truck gets better and better... more pics!

[meet07]

I can't belive this. You just amped it up alot. Whoooo dude!

[kevwa]

Thanks everyone! I dont have pics of the side yet that im going to put up im waiting until i have the fender fitted more - I had to cut the camaro fender in a few pieces as well as the S10 fender so I can make a new fender out of them - it will ultimately be about 2" wider for the flares on the fender - hoping to get some work done on them this weekend..

[bmxarmy]

Any updates kev? the front end looks sick!! Also we need to talk about how you made your vct work. I am working on wiring up the rbambler and want to keep it if I can.

nolan

[kevwa]

Thanks!
I have been making good progress but not alot of visual stuff - the fenders are turning out to be more difficult than I had anticipated. Since the fenders were aggravating me I got the intercooler piping redone and it barley fits. I got it running again this weekend and everything seems good - Also I made some good progress today on my windshield - I decided to go with a little bit older look and do a split window and since the camaro front end has a decent point to it I incorporated that into the split window which gives it a pretty different look.

As for the VCT i currently do not have that hooked up - correct me if im wrong but the VCT is a solenoid that engages at a certain RPM right? - megasquirt offers relay kits to allow you to control various things and my thought was to use a relay kit to control the VCT but I have not got that far yet.

[bmxarmy]

Right on! I cant wait to see some split window pics! I have a 1949 chev truck that has a stock split window. If done right im sure it would look killer. I also plan on making it run then working on aac and vct down the road. Just as you suggested off rpm through squirt. Keep up the good work.

nolan

[kevwa]

Here are a couple pics of the progress.... i had to change my intercooler piping slightly to fit - it clears good on the passenger side but i think my tire with rub on it on the driver side a little.. and i have the fenders and windshield mostly mock fitted!

[Cjmartz2k]

DAMN!!

[l0nestar]

Kevin, I'm still impressed. Keep it up!

[kevwa]

well as always as of late its been a while since ive posted.... Before the season ended I had put some work into relocating and routing my waste gate back into the exhaust - on my cheap manifold the waste gate sate directly under the manifold and caused clearance issues with the steering shaft as well as made the vacuum line too close to the exhaust so it melted.

Original location on manifold












It was great to actually not be running an open waste gate finally, however the test drive did not go so well - once i was a few miles from the garage i started getting oil splattering on my windshield. It started getting progressively worse and when I pulled off the highway and stopped the cab almost immediately started filling with smoke - It turns out that the oil pan had had some "patch work" done prior to me getting the motor that i never realized had been done. It looks like the pan was patched with an epoxy and then painted so from the out side of the oil pan it looked good - anyway the epoxy started coming off and needless to say it got oil all over, fortunately for me it did not mechanical damage. Not a fun way to end the season but now the motor is back out and I will be replacing the pan. In the mean time i have been starting to put some more work into the lack of windows in the truck. I am very happy with my mock up of the windshield and as soon as I verify my windshield frame is final, a local glass company is going to be cutting the glass for me! The next challenge is the door glass - Since I did the split windshield I thought I would continue the older styling and do a 2 piece door glass - I am going to be using a stock rear door glass from an S10 blazer and then will use a triangle shaped quarter glass. Im not sure what quarter glass I will use yet but I have a few ideas i just need to get the blazer glass in first and then see what sill work. The nice part about the blazer glass is it has a factory 20% tint to it -

anyway I hope to have more updates soon with some more pictures as well....

[bmxarmy]

Nice work man! keep up the progress, I love the idea of something so different!

[kevwa]

Thanks to Raw Brokerage I have my new oil pan!!! I had the motor back in last weekend and tonight I got it running again. Luckily it started right up with no issues and seems to be running good - just need to bleed the coolant some more and bleed the clutch. Should be back on the road with it this week or next weekend.

And since I cant seems to focus on one thing at a time I started doing suicide doors too... ill get some pics up soon and hopefully get some driving videos

[kevwa]

Im beginning to not like my transmission - first drive after reinstalling the motor and trans from doing the oil pan im getting a loud whining type noise which makes it sound like my truck is either supercharged or has straight cut gears...

[l0nestar]

It's been too long. Stock 25 MT or some AT?

[kevwa]

its the stock 25 MT

[kevwa]

I finally decided to tackle my transmission issue. Drained that transmission and found only a little build up on the drain plug so I was not concerned, put the plug back in and removed the transmission. After the trans was out i had it standing on end and started pulling everything apart. For whatever reason decided to take the drain plug back out and found a single ball bearing on it.. at this point i have the tail shaft off and have pulled all gears and bearings off down to the center plate and have pulled the rest out of the bell housing. From what I can see there is no damage to anything, no metal, and no sign of where the ball bearing came out of which seems kind of odd. Anyway thats where I am at the moment and called it a night....

[Orthank]

Man I gotta give you credit with all your work, I thought it was hard enough to put a car together with parts that it was intended for. You guys customize the hell out of stuff and make it look great.

[Nismo240lover]

Hey everybody im new to the club, but im working
on a s13 rb20 swap, and im trying to do alot of the work
myself to save some money. Right now im working on putting my fmic on. I bought the one with
the intake inlet and turbo inlet on the same side. Does anyone have a video on installing that fmic?

[kevwa]

I put the trans all back together after not really finding anything obviously wrong inside. All the bearings appear to be good. The only thing is the gears themselves are not in the best of shape, they have some small chips and seems to be scored a little. Regardless of the trans making noise i wanted to drive it again this year. We took it out for a few hours this weekend and managed to get a few new pictures.. I have made a little progress with the windshield framing - everything is mock fitment but i have started to make the A-pillars and connected the roof to the new windshield lines

[USMCgetsome]

MI GUSTA!

[Darius]

Your project is one of my favorites! I'm glad you kept it going. Completely original!