S13 Coupe Restoration

General discussion forum about the 240sx, and a great place to introduce yourself to the board!
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PapaSmurf2k3
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Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
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I was thinking that clutch line actually looks kindof long... like its hanging down low but its difficult to tell from that shot.
I'm finding it difficult to get motivated to do stuff with all the darkness and cold lately.


Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Well the line is hanging down because its not long enough to mount to the top of the tunnel. I suppose I could just mount it to the top of the trans, but I have a shorty SS line already and it has the fitting for a line clip to hold it up so I may just use that if I can find the dang fitting I lost lol. I feel you on that, I spent the last week with a sever ENT cold. Today I was finally feeling better. I took my old heater core out. haven't put the new one in yet ill get pics of that process soon too, but today I went ahead and took the manifold back off for ease of access to start replacing all the lines on it. Took the Idle control off (I think this is the IACV but theres that other idle control component [ACC? or something]) and cleaned it all the way through...


Ton of carbon deposits...
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Manifold and disassembly (I didn't realize till after I took the picture that the golden shaft also slides out and has a special looking rubber grommet / o-ring, but I cleaned that as well and the rubber was in fine shape like new so I reused it)
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close up after a spray down with carb cleaner. There are two spring loaded sensors that control small valves (black pieces to the left). There is a great write up with pictures on all this already up by someone else so I won't go into detail.
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PapaSmurf2k3
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Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

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Watch, you'll do all that and still have a crappy idle haha.

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Haha probably I mean it is a KA LOL. but no I think as long as these sensors/actuators are still functioning properly everything should be good cuz its all new parts! well ok I did reuse a few parts so its defiantly possible lol

Used parts list:

Fuel tank (will clean next week as final prep work)

One brake hard line, passenger front lol

MAF sensor (off a Buddys car, supposedly works lol)

Injectors (cleaned and serviced with kit but untested)

Breather Separator (Is it even possible to service? I need to research that.. or just run a catch can off it? though if its clogged in some way obviously that'd be no good... )

Oil Pump (pan and pickup tube are new and cleaned the pump and checked it and should be good to go, gonna put a gauge on it for safety though.)

Timing gears/chain (looks to be in ok shape though it does seem to have some slack at the top, my diesel tech friend claims it'll tighten up some once I get oil pressure going and be fine, guess ill find out!)

Transmission internals (I did split the case and the gears look fine and everything works smoothly, was originally in this car when I got it, and mated to a running SR the PO kept as part of trade deal so no worries there tbh)

Rack and Pinion (doesnt seem to leak fluid, looks in good shape, not running PS but I will keep a reservoir to it with fluid so it doesnt burn out on me till I can decide if it could use replacing or not and buy a pump)

Cylinder Head (This is the big one really. Y'all know how bad KA valve stem seals are don't even get me started lol. these lifters look to be in great shape, the valves look ok to me, but im merely lookin in the intake and exhaust ports. And this is the most interesting part of this whole ordeal to me. I picked this engine up after getting one that was claimed to be good, removing the oil pan, and discovering a rod loose as s***. Sold that one and picked this one up for $400. Ad said new rods and bearings. when I met the guy we took the pan off and the rods did in fact look new, as did the bearing caps, and there was fresh assembly lube seeping out the sides. it spun over just fine and I stuck a borescope into the combustion chambers and the walls looked smooth and cross hatched like they should be. So I gave the man the money and thats whats in the car now. BUT its always had this cylinder head on it, which is clearly used or atleast not cleaned, which means it wasn't serviced I imagine, and the tops of the pistons are black with carbon build up. Not alot of carbon build up mind you. The construction of this engine would allow someone to drop the pistons out the bottom if they drop the oil pan and crank, so I suppose one could leave the head on to do that service... and for some reason, and maybe im mis remembering, but I think dude said he had boost on it at one point? but idk, and idk if thats why rods got replaced lol OR was it they boosted it and blew a turbo or something, part out, I get the engine after it got rebuilt and had a short run. cant imagine you'd part out and not fix but hey thats how it goes in this neck of the woods with these cars sometimes... who knows. all im saying is I pray it doesnt burn oil real bad or drop a valve or find out its got low compression pistons after all this lol that'd be awful but also I guess id have an excuse to tell the wife why I need more turbos in my life LMAO.)

But as long as the cylinder head is fine and the pistons are good, basically if I didn't get screwed on this "rebuild" internal wise, everything will be fine cuz ive only left easy to replace parts as potential failure points, so life should be easy here on out long as the head holds up and those pistons are making the compression I need ill be golden :) or possibly buying a turbo kit lol

Heres those intake valves, not much insight to be gained from just looking but here they are...

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Oh yeah follow me on snapchat for all the latest car updates lol

And yesterday I put the Intake Manifold back together new hoses and all. IACV cleaned, and the other Idle control I took apart and it looks like its just a spring on a little swivel flap type valve controlled by a sensor/actuator or whatever the technical terms are haha, I cleaned its port and just put it back together, did break the gasket so I slapped thin layer of smoothed out RTV on each side to seal it without risking it squeezing out on the inside and binding the flap, seems really clean inside and all, probably doesnt work lol. regardless I installed it...

First things first, I cleaned it before putting hoses or sensors back on it. I found after trying almost all brands of carb cleaner at AutoZone that the Gumout REGANE Parts Cleaner / Degreaser worked beyond the best of all of them, in fact it was the only one that got all of the grime off.

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The manifold completed...

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and yes that is a fuel line on my PCV I know lol its temporary to get the length. and I capped the line that runs back to the throttle body from the heater core line.

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And on the front side of it I capped the other line that runs to the other TB port as well, chopped those ports off the TB for looks and filled with quicksteel, chopped all the bolt-on hardline vac pipe work since Im not running any of that EGR stuff and the FPR port is a separate port on the back of the manifold as well as the brake booster port. There is also a small VAC nipple on the manifolds underbelly I capped off bc I don't need it for anything right now.

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There are 4 hoses that will not reroute into the manifold and go elsewhere (well really 9 counting the port for the brake booster and the heater hose ports and the fuel line ports) large U shaped line that will need to attach to the thermostat port (necessary to keep the pump circulating the block when the thermostat is still closed), and the line at the bottom the PCV will attach to the breather separator on the front timing cover, and I kept the hardline that runs to the other idle control I mentioned that bolts to the manifold and has one hose to it that runs to the intake/PCV system, and lastly I did leave my hardline for the heater core so thats got a line to plug into the side port on the thermostat.

Then I mounted it up and secured those lines mentioned.

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(well ok not the intake or heater lines yet haha)

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I hope these pictures help someone out there! Ill eventually break these down into their own threads, well some of them, theres already alot of good information out there so thats why im mostly just grazing over it all, but the lack of pictures especially since some 3rd party image hosting sites started charging fees has been difficult for me so ill keep this up where I feel its needed! Thanks for reading! Just about two more weeks and its off to the shop to get the dash harness wired, NX cluster integrated, exhaust work and an alignment and it'll be first start up time around or just after New Years I hope! Merry Happy Christmahuanakaqwanzika everyone!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Trimmed some of the hoses so they weren't so close to becoming kinked, and then I was about to stick it back on when I decided I should probably check my PCV system and well...

old vs new PCV valve
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so I pulled the breather separator off to clean it out, but I could not get that screw in the backside to come loose, thought about drilling the head off it but got worried it might become a whole thing, so I decided id just try to spay it out. after trying a few different carb cleaners I finally found one that worked really well, Berrymans B12 TB and Carb cleaner by far did the best job which surprised me bc on the manifold runners it couldn't touch the grime and Gumout Regane Parts cleaner/degreaser cut through it better than anything while the B12 couldn't, on the PCV it was the exact opposite. anyways heres the cleaned Breather... took about 4 cans till I got it to run clear, just kept pouring and pouring a oil-carbon mix out, took like an hour to spray clean lol

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and I don't have a picture yet but I put the manifold back on, bolted it up and attached all the lines, hooked up the fuel lines and installed a new Fram fuel filter (was the only one we had available at work but I kinda want a duralast cuz the Fram is half plastic and the duralast is all metal). Then I centered up the steering rack and installed the boot clamps, and I was getting ready to put the front wheels back on when I got a FB msg from a guy about trading wheels and he had some of my favorite looking wheels so I jumped on it, especially since the meaty tires on these z wheels wouldn't let me turn (tire kept hitting the front bumper/fender bad).

His car with said wheels:

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SSR Vienna Kias.
Ive always seen the Work Euroline N Types which look just the same, but only recently did I find out SSR made an almost identical looking wheel. Having owned many sets of Work wheels I know how I feel about those, but ive never owned SSR wheels before. Seen them around, but never actually had a set. Theyre much heavier than I imagined. These are a two piece welded I was told 18x8.5 like +25ish offset. When I arrived to buy them the backside of the faces are stamped "4x100 5x100" so I was like HOLD UP. but they are in fact 5x114.3 oddly enough, and they don't appear to have been re-drilled. There was also no width or offset stamp which kinda blew my mind, ive never seen wheels that didn't have those stamped on them. maybe its on the barrel hiding behind the tire or something? that'd be odd. Best I can tell theyre more like 9in wide. the lips are 2.5in from the face out, and the rear is 6.5in from the face out. and the face is like a half inch soooo. and the offset if they are 8.5 must be more like +30 because they sit almost exactly the same as the Z wheels. maybe its just the skinny 195/30 tires on these SSRs but if anything id say theyre more of a positive offset by just a few mm. which is honestly ok cuz the Z wheels stuck out just a bit, and these will be a good fitment. I just would prefer to have a little more meat under me than that LOL but theyre new tires so ill use them for awhile atleast till we get moved. I also need some Hubcentric Spacers to center these up. *It looks so goofy with these skinny tires and up on jack stands haha I have some coilovers to bring down now too apparently lol*

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A little inspiration:

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Thats all for now! One more week till Christmas, Ive set up with the shop to have the dash harness done right after Christmas or New Years depending on how fast I can secure these lines! Just one or two more weeks of work! Dropping the fuel tank next to clean it and freshen those lines up, installing a new pump, and maybe rear subframe bushings if im up to it, may save that till after we move, also have some energy poly rack bushings to install! Stay Tuned!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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dropped the gas tank out! got lucky and it was clean as a whistle still inside and the fuel pump sending unit and pump assembly looked in fantastic shape, its got a worbarro (warborro? warberhoe? wheelberrel?_ whatchamacallit's) 255 fuel pump in it, haven't had a chance to test it yet though. Cleaned the tank up but got more work to do before it goes back in!

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and since I don't have to devote time to cleaning the tanks innards, I went ahead with the subframe bushing installation (I ordered some solid riser mounts awhile back)

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took a drill to the bushings just too make easier access to get my saw in there to cut the sleeves out...

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so that's pretty much everything on the underside of the back of the car out. I just need to clean all the dirt and grime off and then coat it with some truck bed liner, then install those solid bushings, and maybe ill coat the tank and paint the subframe while its out here, slap it all back in and the underside of the car is all coated and cleaned and fresh from bumper to bumper!

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I also made up a better bracket and secured the ignition coil, I seem to have lost the module along the way somehow so I gotta find that again lol :gotme and make its bracket, I finally treated the inner tie rods to a little more grease and secured the bellows as well as eyeballed the alignment best I could for the shop when we get there. These new SSR Vienna KREIS (sorry for the typo earlier lol) did not fit up front after all, but I was able to make it work. so ya know how most wheels have the cut outs between the drill pattern for the lug studs? well these wheels being a double drilled pattern means they don't have those exactly where they should be. this is a problem because of my bolt on spacers. the OEM lug studs are about 27-28mm long, and my front spacers are only 25mm thick. so my lugs stick out past the "flush point" a few mm. so little in fact I just ground them down while they were bolted up. so it all fits flush and fine now. the rear wasn't an issue because those 30mm spacers are thicker than the oem studs are in length. and just now my hub centric rings arrived on my desk :dblthumb: too many people don't use these lol :slap: :inout: :ohno: :gapteeth: but yeah all for now! Merry happy christmahawanikaquanzika!

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MeanGreenS13
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Hope you got a new camera for Christmas... That potato you are currently using makes the pictures tough to look at.

Jokes aside, progress looks great!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Haha yeah this iPhone 5s isn't cutting it anymore lol but thanks man! here ya go!

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Today I got all the old subframe bushings out and didn't hardly scratch the subframe :) and then I also cleaned the entire underside of the car and finally recoated it in bed liner :)

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ill get some better photos of the undercoating later and install the new solid subframe risers another day so thats all for now!

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MeanGreenS13
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Really has me wanting to buy another S13 and get back in the game!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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next stop: rear subframe bushings. this was without a doubt the worst job I've ever had to do lol ...

after being in the freezer two days and having a time beating out the old sleeves these enthuspec bushings refused to go in and I kept marring them up...

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Granted I was trying not to flip my subframe upside down to beat them out/in, but online everyone seemed to use a simple rubber mallet to smack their new ones in... not so much for me... after many attempts whacking it with a hammer I gave up on that idea. thought id get smart and hammer the top of the frame while resting the bushing on a cinder block, but well...

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when that didn't work I had had enough and got out my 240ft lb impact gun, a steel plate which I drilled a hole into for a bolt to pass through, and a nut and a big washer to pull the bushing into place. BUT my 240lb impact couldn't do it and started smoking like crazy. so I went out and returned my warrantied 240lb impact for a 400ft lb impact big boi gun.

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but even then it was all the 400lb impact could muster to get them pulled about 75-85% in, then everything came to a screeching halt. and in the process I bent the metal backing plate on my rig, and destroyed about 4 10.9 grade bolts because they couldn't handle the force. ridiculous I know.

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So all out of bolts and with two bushings atleast three quarters of the way in and too late to go get more I look over and theres my harmonic balancer pulley... which worked like a charm. had to do it by hand for the last bit since the gun couldn't do it, and it took forever and all my strength, but I got them in.

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then installing the subframe I realized the 1/2in rise it gives means the control arm mount of the subframe hits the cars frame. so I went to take the subframe back out to beat in the frame a bit (just needed a few mm more to clear) but the subframe refused to come back out. so after two more hours beating on it with a hammer (hammer one side, run to the other, hammer that side, it'd drop like a few mm each side but bind up, then the rear wanted to drop which put the front in a bind, this was the nightmare part besides the bushings, two damn hours just to let it back down to hammer the frame and I didn't even have a single bolt hooked up to it either) but finally it dropped, I hammered the frame in (ruining the undercoating I just put there of course) and slapped it back in. haven't hooked all the goodies back up to it yet, I'm just too tired.

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so yeah finally got the rear sub bushings done, complete nightmare of a job and took me a week working full time doing it in free time (WAY longer than I had planned on it taking). Oh and I also put new fuel hardline in while I was up there and ripped out all the tank breather components and hardline since mines gonna run a little breather filter off the rear. I also cleaned and coated the gas tank and picked up a new pump and strainer today, so tomorrow will be hooking the goodies up to the subframe, installing the fuel tank with a new pump and soft lines, and then I can bleed brakes finally! Just a few small things left after this luckily though. car will be done this month probably in about three weeks at the latest...

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Crunch time!

I got the coilers mounted back on, hooked up the P2M SS rear brake hoses, cleaned the gas tank up with the wire wheel, installed a new pump and strainer and gasket/o ring, coated the tank with bedliner like I did the underside of the car, ran a breather line and deleted the rear brake hardline since im running new rear brake hardline through the interior to make installing a hydro e brake down the road a bit easier, still have to hook up the T and two splits to the caliper hoses tomorrow...

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I also ran a new hardline for the fuel supply line as it was kinda rusty and easier to run a new one than clean up and coat the old one so. Also dumped the old gas out of the tank, inside of the tanks clean as a whistle luckily! I also ran a new breather line off the tank to a little filter on the rear. is it important to have a check valve in line here? don't seem to be anyone else using one, but I took out whatever that little cylinder thing mounted above the differential on the underside of the car is, I assume some sort of EVAP purge valve, but any who...

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Im off work for a good while now cuz were in moving mode starting in two days and im off next two days cuz tomorrows my birthday! and the 8th we take a trip to Washington. for now just flying out to scope some places to live, but when we come back we have two weeks till we officially move and im gonna be driving a box truck with the s13 in tow on a flat trailer so should be a good trip. might just pull it off the trailer and hit some good spots on the way across the country! Anyways, tomorrow and the next day will be securing loose lines down in the bay, hook the rear brake hardlines up, bleed the MC and then bleed calipers, throw the old crappy driveshaft back in temporarily for now to get this thing going, put wheels on with hub rings, install intake pipe and MAF and filter, hook up steering rack lines to the reservoir, loop off the heater lines (Ill install the HVAC system later when we get back before the big move, I just need to get it to the wiring shop before I leave on my trip), hook up the engine harness, and if I have time trim the dash for the NX cluster fitment and install the steering rack poly bushings and steering shaft solid bushing (last bushings on the car to do thank goodness), and put it on a trailer and haul it off with no dash to the wiring guys! hopefully they'll have the cluster and electronics sorted, welded the rest of the exhaust on, and aligned the car by the time I return, then ill be fitting the dash up, putting that HVAC in (just blower on a switch to permanent full power defrost for now is all I want, eventually ill snag one of those digital units!) , and heading out to get a stereo system and possibly finally clear coat the darn thing, and install a CB radio! After those two weeks its time to head across country. once settled in our new home ill focus on body work and possibly turboing this KA or I may just buy another bike or a good car to daily and get my credit boosted up. idk yet, but ill defiantly keep this S13 and see it through properly and keep it so for many years to come and keep updating this thread with the work done to it. Catcha on the flip=side. stay tuned.

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

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Man that subframe looks like it gave you hell!
Also, its walbro fuel pump haha.

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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made an intake today finally lol

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and bolting the rear sway bar on with energy poly to match the rest

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and ran the brake hardline for the rear finally. cleaned up the oem T and was able to sneak the hardline into the interior running by where id eventually have my hydro, and then snuck it down where the brake cables go under the car for a nice clean touch...

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that last pic really bothers me cuz I couldn't get the bend right to sit in the clip like I wanted lol but im in a rush so for now this will be just fine just not as pretty but im the only one whose ever gonna look at it anyways I guess lol also ill get better pictures later sorry for the potato iPhone 5 photos lol I take video most of the time of my work so I was attempting screenshooting to get the pictures cuz im lazy and don't wanna crawl up there again lol

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Been really busy in the shop lately. Today I got the HVAC stuff taken care of, I took all three units apart and cleaned them best I could.

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Then I put all new foam gaskets on them.

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Didn't take pics of cleaning the other two units but theres video on my instagram of it. I even cleaned the blower motor fan blades individually cuz im that guy lol. But new heater core as well...

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Here it all is reinstalled but the dash bar!

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As well my old roommate came by to help me with the wiring since he used to be an electrician for years, he ran the main battery cables today and started on the fuel pump wiring, tomorrow were doing the power distribution panel then onto the engine harness and gauges.

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Oh and I almost forgot I put the wheels on it and put it on the ground finally even though I still have to fix the driveshaft bearing, im stuck waiting on a bracket for the carrier/center bearing to mount properly rn.

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and it really really helped to knock the dust off of it. i have yet to get a good picture of it now that I cleaned it today cuz it got dark but ill update tomorrow or the next day, were probably going to be firing the engine over in two days time! Stay tuned.

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

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Winter hat, jacket, and shorts.
That used to be how I lived my life.

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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Haven't had the chance to update, been packing the house to move and trying to get the 40 to fire up. I built the relay and fuse panel...

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and we ran the new wiring specialties engine combo harness...

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But the MAF doesnt plug up to my MAF so I gotta figure that out. We were able to run all the starting wires and hook them up to the panel and test it.

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Sorry no video idk how to upload those here but its on my social media pages.

We can get the key to trip the relays appropriately, and we have fuel wired, and I can turn the key and crank the starter over but theres no spark. my ignition coil doesnt have power nor does my ECU I think (red led is not on). maybe I just don't have enough grounds, I only have the two form the harness and one extra from the engine to chassis hooked up right now. but I believe im supposed to put the ECU to a relay to power it. we thought it got power through the harness itself (it hooks right to the battery). or maybe its because my MAF is unplugged, I read the main ecu power wire directs through that so maybe thats my open in my circuit. which would make sense why my coil also isn't getting power. ill have to dig around with the probe a bit but like I said were moving Saturday so unfortunately I don't believe ill finish the car before we move. but soon after. if I can just get my ECU to power on and my coil to give spark I should be on the road and just need to wire the gauges up.

we've also done more to the car interior wise now but I don't have any good pics of that yet. got some great finishing touch ideas in mind, but for now ill just patch it up to get it on the trailer and across the country. till next time!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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oh I should note that that was a during install picture on the main harness. and as you can see I don't have the oem fuse blocks, well I do but they're jacked up so we robbed the terminal ends to wire off of to keep things clean. tbh most of it is AC and ABS stuff that im not using, but I did notice theres a relay or two labeled ECCS which, correct me if im wrong, would be the relays for the ECU so maybe thats where I tap into that? a friend told me the ECU needs power and good grounds and the ECU will control my coil so I just need power on the ECU which should come from the harness, so likely I just need better grounding. I have emailed wiring specialties about it but have yet to hear back. hearing multiple answers from people about how to wire these final two components up so if someone for sure knows please let me know, no guessing, I need solid answers on this please!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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What is up! long time no see! So past few weeks have been insane. I still have some wiring to run BUT I think I FINALLY understand how to get spark on this SOAB. More about that in a minute. I know this is a car forum but bear with me one second cuz these pictures are too beautiful not to share...

Last week we loaded up the house in Tennessee and the 240 finally saw sunlight for the first time in its reborn life and we headed across the states for Seattle Washington :biggrin:

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of course I had to stop and buy a lock for the rental trailer before we left town

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and I was paranoid about the car and trailer situation coming across the flats with 60mph+ cross winds and then crossing mountains, especially the rockies on the Wyoming Utah boarder and up through Oregon and into Washington there's sections with 6% downgrade for 6 miles :ohno: starting at an elevation of 4,195ft above sea level complete with curves and ice and snow and dear, and of course I didn't know this and did this in the dark on hours 12-14 of driving on the 4th day so that was a challenge. No electronic brakes on the trailer, a triton 6.2 that kept misfiring, and would rev almost all the way out in tow mode downhill trying to stop itself :facepalm: ... lets just say it was a test of my abilities as a hauler, and it aint my first rodeo either, so I have a newfound respect for these long haul truckers man holy crap.

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I'll skip ahead cuz most of the trip across the states was rather flat and tbh quite boring. Of course our lease ended right in the middle of winter when the polar vortex from the north came down, but somehow we managed to skim through and didn't hit any falling snow and actually had ok weather! The poor truck driver hauling my wifes car was only a few hours behind us and hit snow and also had two blow outs poor guy...

We hit Utah and that's when things got seriously beautiful for me anyways...

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Those mountains though... some of the downhill sections were practically a straight shot downhill, it was like being at the top of the worlds highest roller coaster and you're in control of it :ohno:

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BUT WE MADE IT HOME!

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so back to the S13! I didn't have a chance to take many pictures of the build process as we were packing up, my old roommate and longtime friend came by and was helping me move as fast as possible, 90% of the interior is together I just have the gauge cluster left to install and steering column cover panels and switches. but looks like she made it in one piece, heres what all that work ended up looking like...

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and of course not two days after arriving and unpacking it started to snow, more than usual for around here I'm told...

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and then my old iPhone 5s battery expanded and pushed the screen off and killed my phone so the good news is I have an iPhone 8 now that takes WAY better pictures!

I brushed the foot or so of snow off the car cuz I was tired of seeing it covered in snow. and im still on the wait list for a garage- could be months so I gotta get this thing going! this snow sucks!

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And yesterday a good 80% of the snow was melted but once again its started snowing today, the locals are calling this one SNOWMAGEDON cuz its supposed to be heavier than it was a few days ago...WA snows in Jan and Feb they say but not like this usually haha just my luck...

so today we pushed the car (its only allowed to sit in the same spot for 10 days and its been 8 and gonna snow so I wanted to do it now) was trying to get to the spot by my patio on the first floor where my toolbox is stored away so I can finish this wiring job as soon as this snow melts away, but for some reason this SOAB is SOOOOO hard to push. my wife and I were able to get it into that spot where its covered in snow, and where I took those pictures from is where we ended up moving it to by the front door of our place on the side of the building there. I swear it almost feels like its in gear or something. my driveshaft fit tight so im hoping it just a combination of that non ABS shaft pressure and the fact that its not had those fresh fluids really circulated to lube stuff up yet, and sat so long the rings bound up and we had to free them like I think I mentioned, but also the trans doesn't seem to want to go into two of the gears, everything spun fine and the trans shifted fine before I put it all together, and I took the trans back off to do that rear main and checked everything and its not the clutch binding up or anything, idk its weird. maybe bc I haven't bleed the clutch? theres no fluid in any of that system but I can't imagine that would cause this issue at all... :gotme it took three of us to push it the slight downhill into the spot by the front door... shouldn't be that hard...

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well thats all for now till this snow melts, stay tuned!s

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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OH WAIT. I forgot to mention the wiring situation. So yeah we got fuel and we got starter to crank all from the key, I just need the dang spark and ECU power. I found this diagram for the SR swap guys, but it list what the pinout of the F8 and F10 fuse block plugs are! So if this is correct im pretty sure all I need to do is run a wire from Pin 16 (IGN POWER aka coil power) to my relay board (I already wired the ignition relay accordingly so that one will stay powered when the other accessories cut power for the starter to have) so thats easy enough. and then take Pin 14 for ECU switched power and run it to the relay board to also stay on even when starter is engaged. and I believe that should be spark but...

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im still a little confused if I need to power the pins on the brown plug as well, aren't these just signal wires and since im running my own via my relay board I wouldn't need them right??? also big shout out to travis there he's helped me a lot on this wiring, he built his own engine and chassis harnesses in his old hatch he had a CA18DET in, now he's got a late model 300zx with the CA in it XD

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So what's left:
ground out neutral safety switch
put 3 or 4 more grounds on the engine to chassis
run switched ECU power wire to board
run coil power to board
wire in gauge cluster
attach leads I ran for the lighting and pop up motors to my power block up front by the passenger door/dash area
get some nicer seats... thinking bride Gias low max 2 reclinable, had them in my SC400 and absolutely love those seats...
get a dang radio finally once it runs and some speakers and maybe a small 10in sub to mount behind the rear seats under the deck with an amp and a bass level control knob at the drivers kick panel.
window tint
lower it a little more and maybe get 215s on the front like I did the rear (looks weird on those 195s up front to me)
get an alignment
weld on the exhaust I have or get a bolt on since im stuck working out of the apartment complex right now
get an ABS or one piece driveshaft maybe one day
finish body work and paint and body kit off one of these days...
maybe a turbo in two years or so or a whole new driveline setup who knows thats down the road...

still a ways to go to get it where I want but at this point ive replaced everything under it and took my time to clean and coat everything so it should be a very solid car for a long time just praying that transmission is good to go and not whats causing issues but hey they're like $50 a pop on craigslist so its whatever, im happy with the engine build and pretty confident in it, at least the block, it may end up leaking oil or blowing a head gasket down the road cuz those are still in used condition but on this car thats super easy to do, especially the way things on it are now. so all in all im happy with the build, I just wish this snow would leave so I can fire this puppy up! lots of good mountain roads around these parts!

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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OK well its stopped snowing finally but now its raining so ive been stuck inside still. I started going over all the wiring to make sure I got everything I wanted and I also took the OEM gauge cluster harness and re pinned one plug and soldered the other two plugs to the OEM harness so it will work as a conversion harness. So if I ever get another 240 or whatever I can quickly just plug n play this cluster up with the dash harness connected to it just like OEM. so super excited about that. I also FINALLY got some input back from somebody, you'd think as often as people do this s*** SOMEBODY would've been able to answer my questions about the F8 fuse block wiring. I even emailed wiring specialties and they were practically no help. I lucked up and found a guy that built his own chassis and engine harness for his CA car and showed me what I was missing. So last night I went through the F8 plug as well and got the ECCS, ECU (backup) main constant power, and Ignition coil/distributor power wire pulled off the F8 plug. the rest is essentially just AC stuff which I'm not using anyhow so. Far as I can tell the ECCS is power for all the air sensors and stuff. now I'm running my own signal wires to my own relays and my own fuse block so I havnt messed with any wires on the F10 plug (the other fuse block plug- the brown one). but on that brown plug there is a brown wire labeled IGN 10A so at first I assumed it was just the signal for the relay to kick the coil power, but upon tracing that wire, for some reason it goes to the IACV. only one IACV not the other idle air components-they stay powered through the main harness and run to ECU directly if I recall correctly- I just remember they weren't a worry. so I may very well have to power that one brown F10 wire to get idle right- we shall see. I was going to attempt to fire the car up today but no garage and lots of rain so maybe tomorrow. I took the time to write out every wire location and what it does with the F8 plug and the clusters, both OEM and the new conversion pinout. the NX cluster wire diagram I posted aligned 99% with what I have but my S13 was slightly different with one or two wire colors I believe or they were in transposed spots, probably just due to whatever package said models came equipped with. but the NX pinout aligned perfectly with my AUTO NX cluster except for the middle black plug, my VSS red and VSS neg signal green wires appear to be transposed in position on the unit and thats the only plug on the unit that isn't labeled on the back so I have no idea if he did his wrong or if mines wrong but also my OD and Door light wire locations were transposed as well so I'm guessing the wire colors to label is correct my pinout just happened to be slightly different. so ill assume the color of the wire indicates its function in this case. Here is all the wiring pinout stuff I wrote down, hopefully someone finds this and it helps them bc I know I couldn't find jack out there information wise on this wiring- idk if most just kept their main harnesses (likely) or if its just due to the age and stuff corrupting in the archives of the forums.... hope this helps...

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(the top part of this is the key switch wires thats the important part, the bottom was when I was trying to figure out how to make a janky harness work before I bought the wiring specialties one)
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(NOTE: do not use orange pin ecu wire for ignition power, in my case I am pulling it from the black with red stripe wire at the F8 connector!)
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and my parts list I finally added up just the total cost of parts on the car, of course this doesnt count things like sand paper, or zip ties, or hose clamps, or wiring spools, or loom, or pb blaster, or wire wheels gone through, or my time or any of that, and I'm sure I'm probably forgetting a few things here and there as well!

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

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2 things -
1. Good luck on the wiring... I don't envy you right now.
2. Dude you should invest in some Excel or knockoff of excel to make tallying costs and such a lot easeir.
2a. - Never tally up costs. It will make you feel bad.

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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yeah wishing I had just made a spread sheet for all parts and added to it as I bought stuff so id really know down to the penny what I've got in it. its more or less just for me to get an idea of what it really cost to build a car lol. I do have a binder with most of the receipts so when its done and I have time again ill actually go through and make spreadsheets and stuff of all this for the book. the wiring has not been as bad as I imagined but it has been tedious and time consuming more than I imagined. I just plugged the F8 back up and plugged the wires into my relay board, I also just finished making some little harnesses for two switches so I can run out here real quick and try to fire it up! fingers crossed, by this evening ill be doing the first startup in 5 years... god I almost don't even want to... what if it breaks in a real bad way lol...all this work... I shoulda just bought another 350z lmao

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PapaSmurf2k3
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haha good luck with the startup!
I also like to keep the links and stuff of the vendor that I bought the item from. Makes it easy and searchable if I ever have an issue. Although I guess I can do that via email as well.

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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ok so I cleaned up the ac vents and put new foam on them to finish up all the HVAC up.

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got some touch screen switches and a flip switch I had laying around and trimmed the switches and the gauge surround to get them to fit but it looks pretty good. I wanted everything to run off the key but im on time constraints and I don't understand how to do that yet so yeah to be safe and simple for now this will work just fine!

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I also got the cluster harness re pined on the cluster side, I did end up breaking the tabs inside the Yellow NX oem terminal, but luckily it turns out the white one from the 240 fits just fine. there are like 4 odd wires on the yellow NX, two on each side right in the middle where the tab is you press down to release it, they're yellow and yellow with a green stripe, they do not appear to contact anything however, its very odd but seeing as I don't need them this white plug will work fine. I re pined most of the wires but the black NX plug is like a half plug, like the oem 240 Digital cluster has, so I had to solder those wires, and a few on the smaller other white plug on the end as well because the wire lengths wouldn't reach to re pin it.

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I didn't do the best job in the world and ill likely go back and tidy this up later but best I could do for now, left some wires too long and maybe cut a few too short but I think it'll still reach. Ive had the faceplate off the NX cluster to trim the bolt locations on the top and feet off on the bottom so I havnt had a chance to flip it around and try to plug these in.

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also you'll notice theres a few wires not labeled (the red with black stripe and the yellow with green stripe). I was not sure which one is for fuel gauge vs clock or VSS vs belt indication light on the black and white terminal ends to the rest of the dash harness. ill have to pull the tape back off and trace them manually I suppose...

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also there is this big black boxy part on the back of the cluster right next to the yellow plug that has "PGD" printed on the back of it in white pen from the factory, it has a terminal on the bottom with two wires- a red with a black stripe that was tied into the "clock" black and red wire when I got it, and a green with a white (?) stripe that wasn't connected to anything. theres nothing for it on any pinout I find. no one talks about it. I cant find an FSM on the NX either so im in the dark...

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also I just now traced the wires from the F1 Dash plug to see where these wires go. The 3 dash plug wires boil down into two plugs, a black and a white plug, where they would connect into the rest of the dash harness. Following the FSM pinout I found that most of the plugs off the F1 terminal basically run right over to the cluster black and white plugs. so it appears the cluster takes signal from the ECU rather than directly from the component, except for the dummy lights and I believe the Speed Sensor (VSS). I still have to trace the VSS to see if it just runs right to the cluster or if it has to go through the ECU somehow.

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So thats basically it- just need to run a few wires between the cluster and the F1 dash connector and put some switches in and the speed sensor and whatnot and thats all the wiring to function and have the clusters working. it honestly wasn't as bad as I had thought. im just waiting on a new MAF to show up now because the S14 one I ended up with I read won't work so I didn't bother to fix the terminal end and hardwire it, tomorrow the new s13 one should arrive and I can plug it up and fire it up finally! that'll just leave plugging in and trimming the cluster and my makeshift cluster 'dash' harness, and I need to get a radio and hook a switch for the blower but yeah!

...of course though my passenger front wheel bearing feels broke. I hope I just need to tighten it or put a shim behind it. im worried about my spindle/tie rod/lca area bc the tie rods are s14 but the lca are s13. The spindles have the ends chopped off like people do when they run the j30 spindle with an s14 hub on it, but my hub is j30. it has the shims behind it like people do when they run the s14 spindles with front j30 hubs for a 5 lug swap. so idk what the heck this Frankenstein is lol its like both put together. but the s14 spindle requires s14 lca ball joint size, and my s13 lca ball joints fit just fine. so none of that makes sense either. and I had to make those spacers for the j30 calipers to come out another 5.5mm to fit right with the j30 rotors. I know its a j30 wheel bearing because I already did this once- so hoping I just need a shim back in there if I lost one. but in other words if I want to just make life easy and grab some s14 front spindles/hubs they won't work with my extended LCAs unless s14 FLCA ball joints can swap into s13 FLCAs...and I have like $160 in those control arms lmao theyre brand new and freshly cut and welded with the gussets... I guess I could get s13 spindles and get some s14 hubs or some aftermarket 5 lug front hubs for it... I think s14 tie rod ends work with the s13 spindles yeah? but would my z32 sized calipers fit??? who knows. my luck haha I finally get the wiring done and this wheel bearing breaks.

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PapaSmurf2k3
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Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

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https://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pulsar/198 ... 89_FSM.pdf
^There's an FSM for the pulsar. Maybe it'll have the wiring for the cluster in there.

As I was reading your thread and you not knowing which wire went to what, I was thinking to myself it would be badass to have a stand alone power supply that you could hook each wire up to and slowly increase the voltage to see what gauge changed.
Something like this (or maybe a cheaper model):
https://www.amazon.com/Eventek-KPS3010D ... pons&psc=1

HollywoodJackson
Posts: 262
Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 1:35 pm
Car: 2004 Infiniti G35
1990 Nissan 240SX Hatchback
1990 Nissan 240SX Coupe
Location: Hollywood, CA
Contact:

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Blaqkfox wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:19 am
...of course though my passenger front wheel bearing feels broke. ...with front j30 hubs for a 5 lug swap. so idk what the heck this Frankenstein is lol its like both put together.\
I have the J30 front hubs right now, with new S13 bearings pressed in. I couldn't find anyone to cut the groove inside the hub to be able to still use the retaining clip (S13 bearings are just a bit longer, and cover up the existing retaining clip groove). I did read in another write-up that I'm going to need spacers on the spindle to keep the hub from pressing against it.

What did you use as a spacer to go between the hub and the spindle?

All the best,
~HollywoodJackson~

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:16 pm
https://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pulsar/198 ... 89_FSM.pdf
^There's an FSM for the pulsar. Maybe it'll have the wiring for the cluster in there.

As I was reading your thread and you not knowing which wire went to what, I was thinking to myself it would be badass to have a stand alone power supply that you could hook each wire up to and slowly increase the voltage to see what gauge changed.
Something like this (or maybe a cheaper model):
https://www.amazon.com/Eventek-KPS3010D ... pons&psc=1
I looked through the Pulsar FSM but the Pulsar doesnt appear to have come with the same cluster as the NX. I have been wanting an adjustable power supply for awhile! I may have to pick one up! had just been using my old roommates battery charger to test things- it could do trickle up to like 800CCA capabilities I could click through a few settings so thats how I had been doing things. they've tried to deliver my MAF for two days now and cant seem to find our place so im still in limbo. literally just need that and its fire up time.

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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HollywoodJackson wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:38 pm
Blaqkfox wrote:
Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:19 am
...of course though my passenger front wheel bearing feels broke. ...with front j30 hubs for a 5 lug swap. so idk what the heck this Frankenstein is lol its like both put together.\
I have the J30 front hubs right now, with new S13 bearings pressed in. I couldn't find anyone to cut the groove inside the hub to be able to still use the retaining clip (S13 bearings are just a bit longer, and cover up the existing retaining clip groove). I did read in another write-up that I'm going to need spacers on the spindle to keep the hub from pressing against it.

What did you use as a spacer to go between the hub and the spindle?

All the best,
~HollywoodJackson~
So to be completely honest I have no clue what my front spindles are off of- and thats my issue as far as how the control arm ball joint is going to fit, but because of the 'fins' on my hub im pretty sure its J30, but supposedly an s14 spindle is too large of a tapered hole for the s13 ball joint and yet my s13 ball joints seem to fit just fine, but also I have s14 tie rods and those fit this spindle just fine as well- I think thats a common s13 upgrade (s14 tie rods both inner and outer) so maybe I DO have s13 spindles??? so maybe I need an s13 bearing? I will have to measure the inner diameter of the bearing/ outer diameter of spindle to find out I suppose (assuming the s14 spindle is a tad larger diameter). I hear all you do is swap an s13 bearing in and probably shim it out and all the same as in the write up im about to link down below...

But anyhow you cut the ABS ring off of the j30 hub, take the hub seal off, its a sealed bearing so it'll be fine, then you have to get a washer to make a spacer, and then shim it as well at the very back side.

There is a good write up on it here for s14 to give you a good idea:
(this is exactly how mine looked when I took the hubs off, there was that square cut in a washer and shims and all)

https://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?p=2838062

Also, I made a write up for the rears here:
https://forums.nicoclub.com/s13-j30-rea ... 21849.html

HollywoodJackson
Posts: 262
Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 1:35 pm
Car: 2004 Infiniti G35
1990 Nissan 240SX Hatchback
1990 Nissan 240SX Coupe
Location: Hollywood, CA
Contact:

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Thanks! That write-up is ON POINT. Much better than the one that actually lead me in the right direction to getting the front brakes and hubs off a J30 in the first place. The second part of the write-up you linked, with the pics of the ground washers and shims... IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO SEE!

For the rears, after several trips to the junkyard, then back home, scratching my head while looking at the rear setup on the S13, and back to the parts store for tools... I said to hell with it and purchased the 5 lug conversion hubs for the rear, brand new. Nothing extraordinaire to see here but, https://www.instagram.com/p/BrytDUPAk7D/

Thanks again!

All the best,
~HollywoodJackson~

Blaqkfox
Posts: 159
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 8:34 pm
Car: 1992 s13 240sx coupe

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no problem mate. the rear was almost a straight bolt on deal all I had to do was remove the dust shield on the oem s13 axle so it wouldn't rub the rear hub seal. and grind the lca mounting point down a little. I used an 89 Sentra front lca ball joint in my rear lca and it fits up just fine. with the axle dust shield removed ithe axle fits within like a half millimeter perfectly inside the hub after that and doesnt allow enough space for the seal to actually fully back off if it ever were to come loose! the spline count is the same and it bolted right up no issues. I also have a 6 bolt j30 vlds that bolted right up, just have to get one of the year models that had the 6 bolt style output flanges not the star pattern 5 bolt the earlier models had. I bought mine (front and rear j30) used off a guy for $80 and they had new energy poly inserts for the rear still in the box to boot. they were a pain to press in then the wheel bearings on the j30 were junk and so I replaced every single one of them. it took forever cuz I had to find a friend with a press I could borrow and drive to him and pay him lunch and all that to do it, then for some reason I still needed 5.5mm spacers I made up out of some 6mm steel plate I found at Lowes to space my calipers out to fit correctly and theyre still probably .5mm off or maybe its just that bum bearing idk yet...


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