my vh45 s13 project!

[craigztoyz]

Mad respect for doing the work yourself, keeping the costs down, and making it work. Keep us up on this.

[Carl H]

thanks for all teh kind words, they're appreciated.so after 1.25 spools of al mig wire and almost a whole 40lb bottle of argon gas i finally finished the bellhousing.I'm pretty content with how it came out, but it probably could have been a bit better...oh well welds appear to be strong and holding so we'll see if they last; i threw as much heat onto the bellhousing pieces as i could for as much penetration as you can get with a mig torch so its as good as it gets.

here is a pic of the bellhousing mounted on 4 of the 6 bolts, needed to see where i needed to section for the last and hardest part of the sectioning: the starter bulge.

front end view of the final product, yes its messy i know.

rear view of the same:

trans mounts to the engine nicely, i was lucky that i checked several times while fitting the trans to ensure flush fitment, its pretty good but i feel that i could have done better with it.

overall assembly:

back shot of the overall assembly, note breather hose and extended bits for the starter bulge due to bellhousing diamater differences.

clutch fork engages within an 1/8" of movement so i feel that it should be just fine in the car, when i mock mount the engine/trans for engine mount fab i'll bolt the slave up to make sure it actuates properly; would be very sad if it didnt.overall it was about 8-10hrs worth of work and kind of a pita, would i do it again?proly not but if the trans blows i can always source out another ka box cheap and reuse the bellhousing or ball out for the mazworx adaptor plate.anyluck i'll be able to testfit the engine tommorow if it doesnt rain.

[Carl H]

so another short update...tried to fit the motor into the car...no bueno.ps pump pulley hits and alternator needs clearancing, plan is to try and fit a maxima ps pump and remove battery tray for clearance.I've already taken measurements for the alternator and ps pump so i will modify the frame rails before the engine goes back in again for engine mount fitment/construction.

be sure to check to make sure that there isnt a bronze mfp in the engine bay, they can cause all kinds of trouble:

intial drop in, yes i am standing on the transmission.

in the bay...kinda

the oil pan looked nummahs according to neil, i said it was proly axle grease.

measuring from the trans mount forward for fitment ideas...best idea of the day!

thats it for now, check tommorow for possible updates.

[CrazyTrance]

why dont you take the front bumper off and cut the upper radiator support.. makes install WAY easier. Just slides right in.

[Carl H]

dont care too much about the paint as its complete crap anyways...gotta love maaco.bit more progress today, started clearancing the frame rails but didnt do both sides.dont know what i was thinking but low and behold the oil filter hits, do'oh!

removed the battery tray and all 50 spotwelds holding it in place, began to mark off for alternator clearance:

frame rail cut:

quick shot of the engine in the car, not bolted in but resting on the ac compressor bracket...will have to be cut off for proper clearance.

suspention droop is not apparent, car appears to sit HIGHER than with the ka in place,odd to say the least.

front shot of the engine to the radiator support, again good clearance here.

alternator and clearanced rail...

oil filter fouling on the frame rail, FAIL!

shot of the rear of the trans bellhousing, ample clearance around the bellhousing so much that i could change the clutch in car.

while the engine was mock fitted into the car the slave was bolted up to the trans, aside from the normal pedal adjustment required for good feel the clutch engaged and disengaged smoothly with no issues.i suspect next time the engine goes in i'll have a large majority of the stuff needed for modifications marked, clearnaced, and/or cut...so with any luck it will be headder fab time.

[SuperHatch]

Carl, Everything looks great up to this point. Kudos for your hard work. I needed to clearance my framerails in the same two spots you've had to. The only thing I've noticed though, is that I have much less clearance on the alternator side of my motor and much more clearance on the oil filter side. I still needed to notch both, but my filter barely needed it. Are you positive you have the motor centered?

[anyotherone]

I second what Superhatch said, I am relocating the filter so I don't have to clearance at all, but I definately had more room than you do before I moved it.

[Carl H]

you cant see it in the pics but the motor was NOT centered and was tilted twards the drivers side due to the ac bracket resting on the sway bar.I have since removed the offending protruding bit of the ac bracket as it is obvious now that the car will never have ac with this engine simply due to placement.I plan to drop the engine back into the car tommorow and mock up the engine mount brackets...trick now will be finding some 3" wide 1/8" thick flat stock.

I did manage to box in the frame rails ala superhatch's setup...came out ok but for some reason the welder wasnt feeding the wire smoothly so i had to go over the welds in some places a few times; frusturating as i spent more time grinding material back down than i did welding it in.

spraybomb primer for now, just to keep it from rusting.



where i cut on the ac bracket:

[DriftingisLame]

Hey carl, I just thought you should know that your Coupe looks exactly like mine, minus the black wheels and the bad paint :P

Cool project, Do you have any thoughts on the difference in weight between this engine, and your RB20, or the KA that came out of it?

[ramper]

Carl first let me say thanks for your silent help with my rb swap I did. And now I have a few questions for u. 1. ac bracket I`m going to pick up my motor tomorrow from the junk yard. But can I simply remove the ac bracket or will I need to cut it like you did. And does it have any other purpose or is it like the ka where its on its own.

2.was budget the only reason you decided to go with the altered ka transmission or was there anything else like fitment involved?

3. Have you noticed any clearance issues with the brake booster?

Im very interested in your progress u have revealed some things I didnt know I was going to have to tackle but like they say what cant u put in a 240 lol.

[anyotherone]

Hey Carl H, what do you plan on doing about hood clearance, and are you planning on leaving the coolant filler as it is?

I ended up with an Origin hood that adds an extra 1 1/2" due to it's design and I've cut the filler off.

[Carl H]

update foos!hood will be cut for clearance, i know enough people that do metal work and bodywork so i'll modify the stock hood for an overly large hood bulge.engine is bolted into the car currently thanks to my handy dandy welder, chopsaw, helper kittah (she loves fab work) and a bit of measuring.

First a few pics of the clearanced frame rails for the alternator and oil filter...alternator has just enough and the oil filter loads; however this will help when changing filters as you need some space to maneuver the old one out and the new one on.Unfortunately when i install an oilcooler i'll also be relocating the filter so at that point it will have become redundant.

Alternator shot, note moved fusebox.

oil filter:

due to placement of the engine using the ka trans there is LOADS of space behind the engine, so much that you can change the clutch with the engine in the car.not that intend to do so...

front shot of pulley placement, as center as i could get it.

oil pan clearance of the crossmember, it sits a touch lower than the actual crossmember but its better than having it hang an inch or more below it...chopping hood is perfered over loosing all my oil if i bottom out.

quick shot of the engine mount adaptor plates to use the vh engine mounts and mount plates with the ka crossmember, very VERY simple and VERY effective.

engine in the car and on the mounts loaded up, will be pulled out and painted but needed to make sure it 'worked' before i went further with them.

to fab your own set of adaptor plates you'll need about 20"l x 3"w x 1/8"t plate steel and length of about 12"l x 3/4"w x 1/8"t.cut two lengths of the 3" stock about 5.5" long as well as two 3"x3" pieces; you'll also need to cut two lenghts of the 3/4" stock about 5.5" long as well and assemble as shown.you'll need to drill holes for the ka xmember and access holes but that will atleast get you going.

bronze mfp actin a foo and showing us that saftey is coo.

and for the last bit, brake master mock mounted with a mystery booster, first person to correctly guess the booster gets a cookie.fitment is damn near perfect and is an almost bolt on application...gotta love having a good eye for fitment.did i mention that it bolts into the factory location and bolt holes with about 1/2" clearance to the head?



any luck i'll have the factory headders on and the car rolling under its own power this week.

[ramper]

that wouldn`t happen to be a jdm brake booster would it? and if not please do so and tell because Id love to go buy one right now!!!!

[anyotherone]

Are the numbers on the sticker at the top of the booster unreadable?

[elwesso]

bummer you wont have AC...

[Coolwhip]

not bad for what you get when selling kittah to the devil.

[SuperHatch]

quick shot of the engine mount adaptor plates to use the vh engine mounts and mount plates with the ka crossmember, very VERY simple and VERY effective.

engine in the car and on the mounts loaded up, will be pulled out and painted but needed to make sure it 'worked' before i went further with them.

How do you plan on reinforcing these? The Plate->Crossmember bolts are heavily loaded in this configuration. I'm not knocking the design, an adaptor is the easiest solution. However, those bolts and/or the sheet metal they're bolted through will not hold up long under this stress.

[sinfiniti]

QUOTE=SuperHatch]

How do you plan on reinforcing these? The Plate->Crossmember bolts are heavily loaded in this configuration. I'm not knocking the design, an adaptor is the easiest solution. However, those bolts and/or the sheet metal they're bolted through will not hold up long under this stress.[/QUOTE]^^^ WHS

and why did you cut and shut the trans bell housing so much?

[Carl H]

superhatch - consider the mount plates a 'prototype' of sorts, i really just needed something to keep the engine suspended in the air while i fitted everything. I plan on going back and making another 'cleaner' set with gussets under the mount plate that will bolt to the xmember (drill hole).

sinfiniti - no way to chop the bellhousing off in one section or way to refrence the alignment without sectioning the bellhousing...not my favourite mod on the install but its pretty strong and should do fine.

so I've run into a few snags on the install and it looks like i wont have it running by the time i head back to school...sucks but what can you do right?A majorsetback was the factory headers not clearing the car, the passenger side BARELY clears the frame rail (suprisingly enough) but the drivers comes no where close to fitting even with modifications to the header its self.issue with the drivers header is the placement of the steering column, there is no space for it...i suspect this is because in the q45 the steering shaft is located a bit further out than on the s13 which makes sense due to the s13's narrower frame rails.currently chopped the headders off at the collector tube so i can atleast crank the car and make sure the engine/wiring runs.

I did snap a few photos of the mounts and undercar clearance, oil pan is just about on the same level as the xmember which isnt bad but not what i really wanted.swaybar clearance is tight but there is about 1/8" between the bar and the oil pan.







adaptor plate from the bottom, next revision will have a trangular plate welded between the vh mount bolts and then a piece of flatstock welded to the trangular part to bolt to the xmember.

i painted the adaptor plates and de-tetanusified the brake booster, it got a quick coat of paint too.

In all of my planning and good eye for estimation i had glanced at the brake booster and thought the studs were alittle shorter than the ones on the s13 booster, the solution was to weld on some short extentions but i decided to go junkyarding again and see what i could find.ended up finding another booster that was the same size (!) and diementions as the booster i had previously tried to use...except that the mounting studs were as long as the s13 boosters.the center bore for the master is also the same where the old booster is slighly larger.

shot from the front of the boosters:

back shot of the boosters, notice the shorter studs on the booster located on the far left:

all i got for now, going to try cranking the engine today and see if i cant get it to run.

[craigztoyz]

Cookie Monster Says the letter for today is L .

As in does your computer have a letter l that works? Sorry it made me laugh.

Nice project, we are deffinetly having a TXVH Club soon.

[Carl H]

craig - sorry the joke is lost on me, not following.

i found out why the car wouldnt crank even tho i knew the wiring was right...verified that the fuel pump went live at the relay and it does but the pump is seized, look at what fun i found in the tank:



previous owner i am now convinced is/was a FCKIN MORON.Irritated to say the least, tank is filled with corrosion and rust, gotta locate a new tank.

[l0nestar]

That is .. rather nasty.. you never checked the tank before now?

[Carl H]

After dropping the old gas tank and having to weld up a sawzall cut in the replacement gastank i was able to fuel the car up and install the q45 fuel pump in a new tank and strainer setup.As far as welding a gas tank goes, i would strongly reccomend you dont do it but this was free and im poor so i took what i had and worked with it.Initialy the tank had been sitting open for several months so almost all of the gasoline had evaporated.To test to see if there was any vapor in the tank I lit some papertowel, dropped and ran...stayed burning in the tank with no evident flame.needless to say I still wasnt confident in it so i took some of the argon i had left over from the bellhousing welding and flooded out the tank with argon and plugged it with a towel and proceded to weld...worked well and go it patched.

the real news here is that i started the car...and i'll say this open headder is some kind of phenomnal noise.She didnt take much to fire up but WOULD NOT fire unless i had my dash plug connected; apparently these engines need the ignition start signal to run right.Started strong with no hesitation after that and settled into a nice smooth idle, not bad for an engine thats been sitting for quite possibly over a year.blipping the throttle yeilds not only aural delight but also a suprisingly quick revving engine...engine revved up to approx 4k with just a breath of the pedal.Too bad i have to go back to school tommorow...i'd love to finish the headers and tool around.

[l0nestar]

Bah! School can wait! I need to see VH Power!!!11

Congrats man, hopefully you can finish it soon! When is your next weekend home? Labour day?

[Carl H]

not much to update since im back at school and the time i can spend on the car is sparse since i only have a day and a half on the weekends i go home to work on it...luckily its almost there with only headers and the ps system holding me back.I was able to get most of the cooling system figured out tho which is a good thing and allows me to make progress on the headers when i head home for labourday weekend.got the cooling system and driveline bolted in, she's back on the ground for a while now...least that is done...fwiw the stock s13 driveshaft is terrible...stupid rubber isolator.

under car shot of the driveshaft and trans.

shot of the shifter, it is tilted to the right but I'm 99% sure its due to the drivers header resting on the frame rail since when i originally dropped the engine into the car it was dead center.filled the trans with oil and the clutch engages and disengages nicely, shifting is a bit notchy but the box has been dry for god knows how long.

plumbing the radiator turned out to be simple...to reroute the lower hose i took the stock bracket and trimmed down the mount tab and flipped it upside down, then bolted it to the head using one of the thru cover bolts...worked very well.hoses were plumbed using the ka hoses with minor trimming but i'll need a joiner of sorts for the lower hose as can be seen from the pictures; that or a single piece of hose, would be perfered but hard to find.might be stuck with the stock radiator and stock ac cooling fan for now, a friend has a taurus sho fan which I'll try to mount for ultimate cooling.

front shot:

drivers:

passenger, note the rerouted solid pipe and connection lacking a joiner.

heater hoses, have to use two different sizes due to the differences in s13 and g50 inlets and outlets, clearance is super tight but is there.

watch this space for powersteering magic and headers next week!

[DJButton]

w00t wOOt! Loving the updates man! Looks good.

[ultrapulse]

craig - sorry the joke is lost on me, not following.

i found out why the car wouldnt crank even tho i knew the wiring was right...verified that the fuel pump went live at the relay and it does but the pump is seized, look at what fun i found in the tank:

previous owner i am now convinced is/was a FCKIN MORON.Irritated to say the least, tank is filled with corrosion and rust, gotta locate a new tank.

Holy ****! I have wrecked quite a few cars and owned quite a few and NEVER seen a fuel pump and tank that rusty!! I have certainly been wowed:)

[Carl H]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Chj_WHh6OM

[Neejay]

Total win.

[l0nestar]

Pix or BA.. Oh wait..

VERY NICE!