Do iiit!
It feels awesome.

<3 <3 <3
My guide on how I built mine:
improving-the-stock-shifter-t561008.html

In other news, I finally masked everything and painted the scratched areas of the cowl.


Then this happened. >:|


I sanded it back down to factory primer, washed it with diluted soap water and wiped it with a damp cloth.
That seemed to have stopped it from getting all weird.

Painted the bare threads.


Gooped on some water resistant grease.


And since the factory nuts were rusted to heck, I used nicer ones from a Q45.

Hopefully the closed end will help keep the moisture out better.

These are the areas that rubbed the paint away.

I later sanded these so they were smooth, same with the circle lines left over from the molding process.

No more gray plastic!

youre doing all this to mine when im out there

LOL nope.

I really like your car.period.

Razi wrote:LOL ok!

damn right.
looks awesome tho. im gonna have to do that. if i even have that plastic cowl. im not even sure haha

jsturges18 wrote:I really like your car.period.

Thanks.

Your a genious that shifter is brilliant

Thanks!

Once issue I had with the KA-T setup was the added heat from the turbo. Okay in normal driving, but it gets kinda high when I turn on the A/C.
Since coolant and oil goes through the turbo, all the heat from the exhaust follows it back into the motor.
Stock Nissan turbo cars have a mini heat exchanger thing at the oil filter area.

When the coolant is warmer, the oil gets warmed up quicker. Then when the oil is hotter, the cooler coolant brings it's temps down.
KAs don't have this, so I thought adding a cooler on the turbo's coolant lines would help a bit.

Since the weather was nice today, I decided to do it today.
Bought a B&M 70268 cooler, and spent some time figuring out the simplest way to bolt it up without drilling holes in my car.


The fins are pretty neat, they are slightly thick and they have a cool wavy pattern to them.
Cooler measures 11" x 7-1/4". Good fit.


Thankfully Nissan left the bracket on the left, which was for sidemount intercoolers.


Other side, I had to bend one bracket and bolt it to another and used some spacers that came with my intercooler kit.
Very sturdy setup. Barely moves at all.


Ta da!


My dad measured everything and traced exactly where the cooler is.
Gonna cut it out to improve airflow then maybe put a mesh screen on it to protect the cooler. Not sure if it'd need it though. It's fairly sturdy, and I don't think rocks fly towards that direction very often.

Oh yeah.
Bonus dead dog juice...


It's from when I hit a dead dog on the freeway way back when. I thought my car was high enough to clear it.
I have some on my rear subframe too. I think I'll wash it off with a pressure washer when I get one.

why you dont mount that oil cooler on the outside boso style is beyond me. and like i said, you should have kept the dog and mounted him as a warning too all other animals that you give no s*** about them.
for real, it looks good. hopefully the new set up keeps everything cool. im gonna drive your car so hard when im there haha

If it blows up, you're paying for it.
Took a test drive today.
Temps during this sort of weather is usually around 180-185 degrees but today it was below 180. I guess it's doing something.
I'll keep driving and we'll see how effective it is.

I just read thru all 24 pages the last couple of days Razi and I must say WOW liking the way everything is on your car. TOP NOTCH bro

Thank you!

My oil cooler keeps my water temp down too, it's really nice. On hot days oil and coolant stay right around 180. The highest oil temps I've seen were 220, and that was hot lapping on a 100+ degree day. You should get a lot of airflow in that area, especially with the fender liner cut out.

Nice.
If my temps start to creep up too much then I might get an oil cooler as well.
I need to bleed the coolant again and go for another test drive.

Oh wow, totally didn't read and thought this was an oil cooler haha.

Razi wrote:I think I'll wash it off with a pressure washer when I get one.

Lookin good Razi

Redtop!
Thanks dude.

I'm bleeding the KA right now, and it's being a pain in the butt as usual. -____-
Just about done though.

Edit: Bleeding took forever, but all is well now.
The hose going to the cooler is way too hot to touch, but the hose coming out is actually touchable. Guess the cooler is working good.

Thats freaking cool, how do you find these things!?! Is that off of a z32?

So you've got coolant running to the heat exchanger, then out the exchanger to the oil cooler, then back into the car?

Uh what? That cooler is just for coolant, has nothing to do with an oil cooler. Its a mini heat exchanger that he put in line with the coolant hose from the turbo. I am assuming its in the return line from the turbo back to the throttle body, is that correct? Would make more sense. Cool idea, but if it was me I would've spent the effort on an oil cooler. Also not sure about the location. Does your car have the plastic under tray/fender liner extending all the way up to the front edge of the bumper cover? Because if so then that cooler is going to be getting literally almost no airflow at all, you'll definitely need to cut that hole in the fender liner like you showed to make it effective.

krash wrote:Thats freaking cool, how do you find these things!?! Is that off of a z32?

So you've got coolant running to the heat exchanger, then out the exchanger to the oil cooler, then back into the car?

I just think them up. :P
It's a B&M cooler.

SX APPEAL wrote:Uh what? That cooler is just for coolant, has nothing to do with an oil cooler. Its a mini heat exchanger that he put in line with the coolant hose from the turbo. I am assuming its in the return line from the turbo back to the throttle body, is that correct? Would make more sense. Cool idea, but if it was me I would've spent the effort on an oil cooler. Also not sure about the location. Does your car have the plastic under tray/fender liner extending all the way up to the front edge of the bumper cover? Because if so then that cooler is going to be getting literally almost no airflow at all, you'll definitely need to cut that hole in the fender liner like you showed to make it effective.

The cooler is on the line between the engine and the turbo.
I'd guess that the turbo getting cooler coolant is more effective, since it'll give it a chance to cool down the turbo and the oil as well.

The fender line extends all the way to the front bumper.
I've been driving without the fender liner and it's still cooling it plenty fine, I don't see why you'd think that area wouldn't get any airflow without the liner on.
It's the same area the OEM sidemount intercooler sits.

I was going to mount it with the same holes as the intercooler, but it was way too close and it was preventing the fender liners from going on.
During the test drives without the liner, the feed line was way too hot to touch, but the return line wasn't so bad, so the cooler is doing it's job. Still gonna put it on though.

Anyways, it was cheaper than doing an oil cooler setup, and it's keeping the temps down, so I'm happy.

No, I said it wouldn't get any airflow WITH the liner on, so the way you've got it now is good. And honestly I don't think it would make that much difference which line you put the heat exchanger in, as the turbo is the last stop in your cooling circuit before the coolant goes into the radiator anyway, from what I understand of your setup. If anything, having it that way, with much cooler liquid going to the turbo, contributes more to the turbo's longevity than anything else, which is not such a bad thing, is it? But as far as vastly improving the running temps and thus the longevity of the engine itself. I'm still a bit unconvinced. But I'm no thermodynamicist so I'll STFU now LOL. In the interest of science, and if you have the time, you might try it both ways just to see if there's any difference in engine temps.

SX APPEAL wrote:No, I said it wouldn't get any airflow WITH the liner on, so the way you've got it now is good. And honestly I don't think it would make that much difference which line you put the heat exchanger in, as the turbo is the last stop in your cooling circuit before the coolant goes into the radiator anyway, from what I understand of your setup. If anything, having it that way, with much cooler liquid going to the turbo, contributes more to the turbo's longevity than anything else, which is not such a bad thing, is it? But as far as vastly improving the running temps and thus the longevity of the engine itself. I'm still a bit unconvinced. But I'm no thermodynamicist so I'll STFU now LOL. In the interest of science, and if you have the time, you might try it both ways just to see if there's any difference in engine temps.

Nah, the coolant coming from the turbo goes straight back into the engine, no cooling off in the radiator. I imagine that would put a lot of heat into the engine.
And yeah, if anything it should keep the turbo and it's oil cooler, that's why I put it before the turbo.

Anytime the weather is a bit hot my motor would overheat if I turned on the A/C.
So we shall see if anything has changed. If I want even cooler temps, I'll either get an oil cooler or use a smaller A/C condenser.

You could be super JDM tyte and get an oem 180sx fender liner.

That's dope.
Doubt I can find one though.

Got a 17/16" Z32 BMC finally. Woot.



Now I just need the e-brake cables.

Chris28 wrote:

^ that would eliminate the airflow problems I was talking about. Was wondering about the stock SMIC design/placement after what you said last post. Surely you could find someone who has one or can get one. How many guys do we have living or stationed (military) in Japan right now?

Don't feel like hunting one down, or paying for one. Sucks that all S13s didn't come with those.
I'm just gonna cut mine up. Everything is traced perfectly anyways.
Why are you even worried about airflow? I planned to cut out the back from the beginning.

You're right, cutting the liner would do pretty much the same thing. I wasn't worried, honestly after you told me you put it in the same spot as the stock Silvia/180sx SMIC, I was a little confused about how they got effective airflow to that area until Chris posted that picture.

Some people with SR swaps that keep the sidemounts just run without liners.
The OEM liner would be neater and hella JDM tyte though.

Now I need to stop being lazy and install my new fuel and MAF setup. BLeh.

HAHAHA, but as we know, many people with SR swaps don't really give much attention to whether or not their car is all one color, much less the style of fender lining. But nevertheless, I have officially learned something new today.

BTW, stop being lazy, we all want to see that thing with 300 to the wheels! (And an oil cooler )