s13 with rb20det driven hard for 700 miles, a few problems have shown up (long)

[Vkoslak]

I took my rb powered 240sx on the "raging bull texas stampede" this past weekend. It was much fun, however a few problems arose while driving the car hard for close to 700 miles total for me. A few problems have come up that I thought I should share.

First Day.

1st problem, I now have intermittent brake lights. They were working perfectly on the way to the event.2nd problem, no fender liner = tire wears hole through window washer line.3rd problem, going uphill around twisty corners switching between 2nd and 3rd while equiped with a koyo racing radiator 1 FAL 12" pusher and 1 autozone 12" puller = pull over and look at the bubbling going on in the coolant overflow bottle.

From that point on I ran with the heat on full blast and the windows down. I sweated a lot Yes I know its Jan, but I think it got up to 80 this weekend.

All that happened on the first day of the drive. So much fun despite the cooling problems. I think my antifreeze/water ratio was too high. More than 50/50 anyways. I will probably flush the system myself and put more water in. I had a shop do it last time and they put mostly antifreeze in.

2nd day.

1st problem, hose clamps on upper radiator hose cut into the hose and caused a coolant leak. Took a box cutter, cut off the end of the hose where the leak was and put the hose back on with a little room to spare. back on the road!2nd problem, now the other side of the upper radiator hose has a split in it. It wasnt leaking as bad as the first, stopped at a gas station and got some kind of hose repair kit that looked a lot like duct tape. Much to my surprise, this worked quite well and I didn't leak the rest of the day. I will get that hose replaced ASAP.

Now for the biggie. We were hauling arse down this road going downhill, the road had a slight bump in it, rb powered 240sx goes airborne. Hard enough landing that I will need to get the car aligned again. From this point on, the car would stumble when I got on the throttle to try and accerate quickly. Slow acceration would not stumble. Cruising over 100mph would not stumble. Felt like it was missing. My first thought was that the bang from landing so hard had triggered the knock sensor, since I had my laptop hooked up to the consult port and datascan running (in order to watch the temp) I reset the ecu. 55 no errors, but the problem persisted. We were close to the end of the drive so I just took it easy the rest of the way. It continued to stumble the rest of the way home. It would backfire anytime the rpms dropped.

This morning I had to drive it because my 300zx is still at the place that made my intercooler piping. I had no stumbling problem and very little backfire (exhaust leak near cat). It is much cooler out today, so it could have been heat, but that doesnt make sense for why it only stumbled after going airborne. My only other thought is that junk in the fuel tank got stirred up. I have checked the oil pan and other places under the car for physical damage and have not seen any. Maybe one of those gas stations out in the middle of nowhere had the "93" sticker on something that wasn't 93.

The rb20det was an absolute joy to drive in this way, although it could stand to have more low end torque, especially for hill climbing. I was not able to stay out of boost while going uphill. Although I think if I wouldn't have been behind other cars I could have climbed the hill faster and allowed more air to hit my radiator keeping it cooler. I should note that the spot where I overheated going uphill was the same spot my 300zx twin turbo overheated 2 years prior.

There was another 240sx owner whom had a sr20det and simular intercooler to mine, he had switched to a silvia front end and had no cooling issues at all. It looks like the silvia front end can allow much more air in with the "gtr style" grill. As much as I love my pop-up lights, I may have to go sil-80 just for the additional air to the radiator.

Anyhow, I just thought I would share my experiances, and if anyone has any ideas on that stumbling issue, I'd love to hear them.

[tx_widebody]

Sry about ur problems man but where did u get ur IC piping from and how much was it? Oh and wat is ur set up?

[gawdzilla]

i would say the impact might have jolted your intercooler or something and caused a boost leak or air leak of some sort. might explain why your throttle transitions are rough..

[Vkoslak]

I checked all my intercooler hose connections and didn't find any loose connections.

I bought some pre-bent mandrel bends from Kuah at spl parts and a few silicone couplers. Then I took the pieces and had them welded together. The hot pipe is one piece to the intercooler. The side that goes through the battery tray is 2 pieces. They even made some bracing that bolts onto my koyo radiator and other places so that boost pressure won't cause the piping to separate.

They had my car for 3 days doing the custom IC piping, making spacers for the sway bar so it clears the oil pan, and installing a miata battery with a custom tie down for it. Intercooler is an apexi core. I think it blocks too much air. I didn't have overheating issues before I installed it and was just running a funky U from turbo out into the intake plenum. Granted I wasn't driving the car as hard then.

I had ordered pre-made intercooler piping at the same time I ordered the intercooler. The intercooler arrived, but I never got the piping. So I had to scramble to get some piping before the driving event. Cost me $1000 for all the custom work. At least I know its good stuff.

If I ever get the intercooler piping I had ordered from Y3llowS14 (ordered before thanksgiving) I will probably sell it. Supposedly for an rb25det.

I could take my welded pipes to a local shop and have them use my welded pipes as a template to make these mandrel bent IC pipes. Ill try to get pictures up later.

My setup is s13 super hicas model (hicas intact!)rb20det 5 speedturbo xs dump pipe with the seperate wastegate tube (this was modified to clear steering)3" dump pipe3" high flow cat2.5" exhausttop hat mountska oil filter300zx fuel filter300zx fuel pumpkoyo racing radiator1 12" FAL pusher1 12" autozone puller (its terrible)5 lug swapspl solid tension rodsspl brake linesspl clutch line300zx front brake swap17x8 +25 front 5zigen fn0117x9 +35 rear 5zigen fn01 those are black with polished lip235/45 and 245/45 bridgestone potenzasstock lsdr33 front seats, 180sx rear seats350z nismo floor mats j-spec front turn signalscheap boost gauge from advance auto partscrappy radio and off the shelf speakers

Im picking up kts coil overs this week. I already have kaaz rear subframe spacers and z32 front tie rods with spl tie rod ends, but they arent installed yet.

In my attempts at getting better cooling I purchased some things I can't use, FAL dual 12" pullers, these wont fit between koyo and power steering pump. 12" fal pusher, could only get 1 to fit.

I think when my bank account recovers, I will switch out the crappy autozone fan with a 12" fal puller. I wouldn't mind swapping out that bar and plate intercooler with a tube and fin designed one as well.

[Valley]

do you have ducting from your rad/ic ??

[Vkoslak]

I did have some before the pipes were welded, but I was just outside showing someone my pipes and noticed the ducting I made was gone.

[Vkoslak]

update on this.

one of my radiator fans had the polarity reversed. car runs much colder now.

also, tried a new MAFS but the stuttering problem still occurs. Tomorrow I will hopefully be trying a nismo fpr. If that don't work, I will be checking my fuel pump install to see that nothing got knocked around in there.

[SeVa-S13]

update on this.

one of my radiator fans had the polarity reversed. car runs much colder now.

also, tried a new MAFS but the stuttering problem still occurs. Tomorrow I will hopefully be trying a nismo fpr. If that don't work, I will be checking my fuel pump install to see that nothing got knocked around in there.

Ha! I had the same problem my first week, as Summit sent me the wrong fans but a quick switch at the control box had me sucking small children and pets into my bumper opening in no time.

[Vkoslak]

Figgured out today why my car has been stumbling under acceration. When my car jumped (accidentally!) i must have damaged the turbo.

Today I put a nismo fpr in, set it for 36psi, and took it for a test drive. Wow, car was driving faster than it ever had pulling hard to redline, then BAM! no more power. Car still runs, idle is real smooth, nothing is leaking. When I drive it. I get 0psi under acceration, but it no longer stumbles or backfires even under heavy acceration.

So, anyone have a turbo I can borrow? :p

[Yellow4g63]

Just go find a Sab T3 turbo and rebuild it and make it work. That turbo should last a long time since it's steel wheels on it. My friend use to use them for turbo kit's back in the day and the turbo ran pretty good. If I wasn't going all out with mine thats the turbo I would go looking for.