pyroteck's build thread (building a better driver)

[PyroTecK]

ive been sitting around here for a long time w/o a proper introduction or build thread so im gonna give it a shot. i had thought about making one for each car but thats just too much work so here goes my best shot.

a lil bit of history. ive wanted a 240sx fastback since 2000/01... specifically i wanted a 93 5speed se. well, i decided i was tired of having an auto and sold my civic (yes, civic, stock automatic ex w/ transmission problems) and late january 07 i picked up my car. 137000 miles and a few dents but lil to no rust ( i can deal w/ dents, rust is a pain in the a**)

these are the pix the dealer had posted online

it was love at first sight. i brought her home and the next day i did sleepy eyes (yes i still like the sleepy eyes)

some time passed and a year later while reading through ka-t.org i ran into a for sale thread... looking through the pix and after alot of thinking i decided it was time to get a coupe. so again i sold my civic (this time a beat up broke a** auto dx 4 door w/ all kinds of problems) and in feb 08 i drove the coupe home.

heres a couple pix from the original thread

as things stand right now i just got done last weekend w/ my first redline time attack event (still running an na ka) and the coupe is sitting under a car cover w/ an unsure future. ill try to get the thread updated w/ the progression that the cars has gone through and lots of pictures of course. heres a couple of how things stand.



and some pix from this weekend



short vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bqFlFBxOnQ

ill keep updating w/ whats been done to the cars and what else ill be doing along the way. the blue coupe is being setup for daily driver duties so that i can prep the red car for ka-t time attack status

ive gotten this far thanks to:

D&R Auto Services in New Milford NJATX in Bergenfield NJSlidewayz in Palisades Park NJDuck and Art's Fantabulous House of Go-Fast n' DeathCalum http://www.CalumSult.com
Modified by PyroTecK at 12:13 PM 9/13/2009

[Ramonesfreak2010]

Maybe I missed it, but what did you do to the hatchback? Besides rims obviously. lol

Clean coupe. What color is that?

Nice video. lol

[Doya]

Maybe I missed it, but what did you do to the hatchback? Besides rims obviously. lol

Clean coupe. What color is that?

Nice video. lol

Yeah, you didn't really list any mods or anthing

[PyroTecK]

tru... i slowly wanted to build into what is done but fk it... here goes.

red car

95 ka24de arp headstuds felpro headgasketproject silvia motor mountspeak performance transmission mountshort intake currently using a borrowed jwt popchargerbattery relocated to behind the passenger seatdc front & rear strut tower barss14 intake runnerswrapped header w/ stock catfujitsubo power getter exhausttanabe sustec pro coiloverscusco & project silvia suspension armss15 hlsdfidanza 9.5lb flywheel for the RBexcedy oem replacement clutch for an n/a z32b&m short shifterams hammer shift knobstripped out interior180sx/maxima front brake calipers w/ rotors machined to fit w/ no pad overhangs14 rear brake calipers (made to fit somewhat properly) stock rear rotorsporterfield r4 brake pads all aroundgoodridge ss brakelinescalumsult chipped ecu w/ a 91 octane tunetxs knocklite17x9s (x4)kumho ecsta xs 245/40/17 (x4)

the blue car is currently a rolling shell waiting to get sent off to the body shop within a couple weeks

[Doya]

Cool I really like the blue s13. What are your plans motor wise for that.

[PyroTecK]

i forgot to say the color is nissan tk3. saphire blue.

lol everyone likes the coupe, thats y i made the desicion to keep it. ive been toying for the past month w/ the idea of selling it, but with potential buyins saying "nah, thats too clean i cant buy it", i figured fk it, ill fix it. motor wise im a fan of the ka... so unless an LSx/T56 combo falls on my lap ill prob swap all my na mods over to the coupe.

[Doya]

Are you willing to sell it now. If so , how much

[PyroTecK]

hahaha no... ask me again in two weeks.

[hbpignosePA]

hey looks good i remember talking to you at the philly meet.

don't sell the coupe its really mint!!

hope to see some nice progress here

[Doya]

hahaha no... ask me again in two weeks.

I sure will

[troskinatior]

saw your car at d1 yesterday and love da wheelsyou might of said it already but whats the plans with the coupe

[Doya]

To sell it to me

[PyroTecK]

To sell it to me

lol dont get ur hopes up... im so back and forth w/ that damn car but i know if i do fix it it aint going nowhere.

saw your car at d1 yesterday and love da wheelsyou might of said it already but whats the plans with the coupe

should have stopped by the slidewayz booth and said whats up, chill on the couch for a bit and what not lol.

the plan for the coupe is to put it through a wall at a race track hopefully not in the near future.

actually im planning to drive it as much as possible, its getting put back in driving condition and gonna be used as a DD. i was thinking about selling it but realized that w/ as hard as i push the red car on the race track it would be a good idea to keep a spare shell near by. knock on wood of course. i plan to keep it clean and swap over the suspension and n/a mods from the red car. (planning on redoing the suspension and boosting the red car as per rta streetclass rules for next year)

[troskinatior]

i walked by it and was wondering what that nissan inline6 was (it wasnt a rb) i was gonna ask but got distracted hahayou going to clubloose on sat, ill be there watching

[PyroTecK]

the booth car? that was steve's car... rb25 actually. its also a road race car that gets a good amount of use at pocono race track. idk if ill be there or not, its east coast bash right?

[troskinatior]

no, you know how there were the engines on the side of the slidewayz booth. there was a nissan strait 6 and look brand newya ecb you should come down its gonna be sick and JR is coming

[PyroTecK]

oh ok yeah... that was an rb25 neo. the one that said turbo straight six neo



1jz 13b rb25(neo) sr20(s15) b18c h22 in that order

[troskinatior]

im a idiot ive never seen a rb that looks like that

[PyroTecK]

i had no idea what it was either when i first saw it then poked around some. i think they said it was from a stagea maybe... i didnt really pay attention.

while im here i might as well post... not so much an update but repost an explination of how my clutch setup went in. ill try to get to my brake setup later on today too.

after very little searching, alot of stupid questions, some research and hoping for the best i got the new setup in. i had the flywheel laying around for a few months just waiting for the stocker to give up, and as u can see in the pictures, it deffinetly gave up.

details on the setup:$250ish = rb20 fidanza aluminum flywheel used off ebay rated at 9lbs iirc measured at 10lbs on my bathroom scale (part# 143341) $145 = exedy oem z32 na clutch kit from clutch city online (part# 06-045)$40ish = 240sx throwout bearing and pilot bushing from nissan (not used)$30 = fluids and random sht$$$ = 3 pressure plate to flywheel bolts from nissan (i didnt get them but u deff need them)

we ended up using the throwout bearing and pilot bushing that came w/ the kit... the z32 throwout was bigger and fit better in the pressure plate so we opted for that and the pilot bushing was the same from nissan as the one that came w/ the kit. surprisingly everything bolted on perfect. there was no issues w/ grinding on the dustshield, or anything affecting fitment. i do reccomend getting the three extra bolts needed to hook up the pressure plate to the flywheel. the ka clutch goes in w/ six the z32 goes on w/ 9. i didnt bother to get them and we spent like 30min just trying to find some that would work and finally sourced them from... well id rather not discuss that part lol.

everything bolted on w/o an issue and the trans was filled up w/ 2qts of mt90 (all we had left at work) and half a qt of shockproof heavy (i had left over from my diff) and the car was ready for clutch break in.



the flywheel being prepped and cleaned

clutch comparison

there wasnt much left of the old stocker

and a random pic of my mess

overall impressions? well i fking love it... let me emphasize i fking love it. the clultch isnt too heavy but deff a lil stiffer (clutch dampner has been removed for a while now) and it grips great now that its broken in and i can really use it. the flywheel, well i love it, the car revs like nothing now, i miss the ka sound of it through the exhaust but its soooo much smoother now. u can hit the gas, blink and itll be at 5.5krpm. the rpms also drop faster which to me is a plus when shifting fast w/ the b&m.

video added



Modified by PyroTecK at 5:19 PM 10/26/2008

[PyroTecK]

lets just say it all started with this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFd6p_KBD-Q

i took the car to poconos for the nasa grand slam event hpde and from early in the morning the instructor (mr. bob fischer) was concerned about my brakes. so much to the point that after his first drive in my car he asked me if i even passed tech lol. anyways that didnt stop any of the action and after 2.5hrs on track beating on my hawk hps/stock rotor combo... (and an autocross that i did a week later) i decided it was time for a slight upgrade. especially w/ time attack coming up.

sitting on a very tight budget of both time and money and not wanting to deal w/ reliability issues or bad brake bias i decided to do the maxima/180sx upgrade along w/ some silly old brake pads reccomended by a crazy old man.

i ordered some parts and a week later i got this in the mail from frsporti got everything ready and the car up in the airold stockersgot all the parts togethernow time to do some comparisons. maxima calipers next to the stockerssentra SE-R 280mm rotors w/ the stockersbrake pads side by sidenow before slapping it al together make sure to bend/beat/hammer/cut/pimpslap the dust shield out of the wayand then proceded to install. here u can see the pad overhang that the 180sx swap is known for. most people seem to just let it ride and not worry about it. it measured out to 7.5mm of overhang. and everything put together (i know the caliper is backwards i corrected that later on)

and now, on to the back of the car

the rear brakes were a whole different animal, i wasnt planning on doing anything upgrade wise except for the pads and new rotors but i was struck w/ issues from the start. first w/ the lines not wanting to come off then w/ a siezed bleeder screw when i tried to bleed it. i decided if i was gonna go w/ new calipers i might as well use the s14 ones which have a slightly larger piston and should compensate for the larger piston in the front. keeping near stock brake bias.

but the problems kept coming.

the rear pads sitting pretty in their little boxmy first issue started w/ the brake lines. i changed one side and then got to the other side and the rubber line refused to come off the hard line. i got some help from my friend bench vise.then i picked up the new calipers and noticed something was wrongthe problem here is the ebrake cable bracket and spring, it bolts on differently on the s14 and the sprint bracket and spring are also different. being impatient and short on time i decided to make it work. (the town gave me a notice that the car cant be up on jack stands. this ended up dragging out for a few days.)

here u can see how the spring bracket is differentand the springs themselvesi test fit the cable bracket and it didnt fit right, so i went to work w/ the bench grinderi got everything together and did a test fit on the car. i noticed that w/ the s13 brackets on the s14 calipers the cable brackets came in contact w/ the lca. simplest solution i could come up w/? run them btches upside down. i put the left side caliper on the right side and vice versa. it worked fine only problem is bleeding them since the bleeder screw needs to be above where the brake hose goes so u can just slap a piece of wood or a rotor in between the pads and hold it there while u bleed it.

it had been raining lightly for the past few days and all the new hardware was already showing corrosion, so i decided that while i had everything off, to spray the crap out of everything w/ some high temp spray to keep the corrosion off. nothing pretty since its all gonna get covered in brake dust anyway. everything went together well after that. tightend and bled w/ ate racing blue fluid

everything ended up working out pretty well after this, the difference was night and day, to say that i get into any other car and when i hit the brakes im thinking "wtf y doesnt this have brakes?"

NOTES: only two issues that i have

1: front pad overhang. doesnt seem to be much of an issue but id rather not risk passing tech inspection at an event over it. some people told me that the pad might break apart but i doubt it. my main concern was that i got some expensive a** carbon/kevlar brake pads and wasnt using the full surface area. lost potential.

2: rear brakes: when in reverse or rolling backwards there is a grinding sound coming from the back, it hasnt affected anything and i cant see anything wrong back there, ive looked. it goes away if i step lightly on the brakes or pull the ebrake a lil bit and the noise stops. it only happens w/ the car rolling backwards. current theory is that the rear pad is binding in reverse. not a big deal since it affects braking in no way so far.

the setup is awesome and very controllable on track and w/ a light foot very streetable. just dont panic stop or ur eyeballs will come out of ur skull.

randomness:the pimptastic off road lifted bumperholed civic back up vehicle

altima fan swap: a week later i decided to swap over from my mishimoto dual 10" fan setup to dual altima two speed fans brand new from dorman. i never had an issue w/ the mishi 10s till one day coming back from an autox that i got stuck at a toll for like 30 min w/ the ac on and the car started overheating. nothing is as fun or interesting as being in traffic w/ the hood open talking to the people in other cars while pushing the car through the toll booth. i paid the toll, shut the hood and got on my way w/o any more issues.

low speed runs constant off a relay tripped by the fuel pump fuse and one kicks into high speed w/ the ac.

i then took her out for testing at an autox, pouring rain but luckily i ran the pm session and worked the am. so it dried up by the time i was on track. brakes felt good but the car over heated while on grid for my 3rd run, i started the run and had to shut off and let the car coast back to the pits. i bled it for about 10minutes and got back to racing. 6 more runs w/o any issues.

[Otto.]

Your wheels are 17 inches, correct?

[PyroTecK]

yup 17x9 all around for the track

[PyroTecK]

so how to resolve the pad over hang issue? i did some research and didnt find any info on what rotors would resolve the problem. i checked alot before even starting and found that the maxima rotors that go w/ these calipers are 280mm the same size as the SE-R rotors i ended up using except that the maxima ones are 5 lug. so y the over hang? idk, might be something w/ the knuckle but it doesnt matter. i looked around some more and decided to try out the se-r spec v rotors, these are sized at 305mm and nearly impossible to find.

for comparison heres the specs. 240sx, maxima, se-r, se-r spec v brembo.

and some side by side comparosand some measurements of the pad overhangso realisticly i only needed 7.5mm more of rotor to encompas the full surface area of the brake pad. i got my hands on the specv rotors as a long shot since i couldnt find any info on if they would fit or not. i noticed there wasnt much room but it was worth a shot.

low and behold i went for a test fit and the rotors were too big. the caliper bracket was resting on the rotor and i couldnt get the bolts on.

i let this project rest for a while and one day while talking to roger at D&R and trying to convince him to corner balance my car the topic came up. i had been turned away from a machine shop earlier that day on what i wanted to do but roger, well, he did it on the spot. actually made me go home pick up the rotors and even made me swap them in one of his bays before he closed up for the day. 15min brake job w/ hand tools? i think i can do it.

heres one of the many reasons road race roger is the man. we did some math and measuring and figured out that all i really needed was 290mm of rotor diameter. anything more would be cutting it close. so to remove 15mm of diameter it would have to be cut down 7.5mm all around. the rotor was marked and put on the lathe.once the first rotor was done he told me to bring the car in and swap it on to check the fit.

tight clearance, no bindingno more overhangperfect fitu can see the section of the pad that was being unused now contacts the rotor.hiding behind se's

pedal feel actually improved, the pedal was firmer and even w/ just using that small piece of the pad (untill it wore down) the car felt like it would stop on a dime.

random: heres another reason roger is the man. his old g production fiat spider race car.

NEXT STEP

prepping the car for Redline Time Attack

our original plan was to do a basic boost setup (t25, sidemount, basic ka boost). just looking for a lil over 200hp in order to be competitive. we were running mostly on donated/used/borrowed parts.

the bad news... about 2 weeks before the event the guy that was gonna loan the ka-t manifold backed out and we were left in a scramble to find any bit of n/a power we could.

the setup?

random header i had laying around from the coupe, wrapped and installed.battery relocated to make room for short intakeintake made from an aluminum ic pipe w/ a borrowed jwt pop chargercalumsult ecu w/ 91 octane tune we planned to bump timing and run 100octane unleaded as per RTA rules but mid day during the competition when i went to get some gas the dude at the station said he had run out of 100oct and the delivery never came.

duck removing the stock intake so we could test fit the short intakethe best lighting ive come across while working on the carpluging the egr hole on the header (i would have kept the egr but we had to cut the tube cuz it was seized into the stock manifold)coming togetherheader and jwt pop charger installedcar loaded up for the drive home and changing the transmission fluid at about 2am at duck's job

only thing left for me to do was relocate the battery and get the holes/fittings for the vacuum lines on the new intake and put it on. i dont have pix of that atm.

thanks goes to: road race roger at D&R for hooking it up w/ the brake rotorsand to duck and art for helping prep the car and being my pit crew for the event. i couldnt have done it w/o the help.


Modified by PyroTecK at 8:14 PM 9/18/2009

[Johnnydrifter22]

looks nice! where are you racing at can you send me the site or something.

[Doya]

Nice progress I love the lamp light

Soooo, are u ready to sell me da coupe I gotz cash moniez

[PyroTecK]

ill go just about anywhere within a 2-3 hr radius. its been my first year actually getting out to events and seeing what both me and the car can handle. this last event was redline time attack at raceway park, englishtown.

for autox in the area hit up http://www.autox4u.com that has alot of info and all the schedules. i usually prefer to run msne events, but ive ran w/ nnjrscca and sjscca before, i plan on running at the next msne ax on the 27th in bridgewater.

for road racing thereshttp://www.pdadrivingschool.com/http://www.red ... st.com/and u could always check nasa and scca websites for any info.

[PyroTecK]

Nice progress I love the lamp light

Soooo, are u ready to sell me da coupe I gotz cash moniez

make me an offer i cant refuse and ill consider it. email or aim or carrier pigeon.

[PyroTecK]

the coupe is officially for sale. non running rolling shell... get at me for details.

[troskinatior]

can you pm me about the coupe, why isnt the engine runing, any rust?

[the converted]

Stealing pics from me and Vin? J/k, looking good though. Shoot me an email and I'll get you the high res pics I have of your car.