S14 from scratch

[4g6387]

I am currently in the market for a 97-98 240sx. I have a few parts laying around for the car already. But the plan is rb25 swap with a goal of around 400whp. Anyway I'm just going to use this thread to kind of mark the progress of the build and let everyone see how things are coming and to get feedback on everything from parts, ideas, motives, whatever. Anyway, first topic: Has anyone used the zerolift autolab mounts and if so what do you have to say about them?

[pepesilvia]

welcome to nico

[Hijacker]

Fixed the title for ya.

[Flicktitty]

Welcome, 400WHP is an awesome number in an S-Chassis, Zerolift mounts have been pretty proven, do you have any pics of your car/build?

[Hijacker]

He said he's still looking for one. Hopefully he can find a fairly unmolested kouki, although those are getting extremely rare these days. It might be best to start with a zenki and get all the bits to make it look like a kouki.

I would avoid buying someone else's project car, unless they were trying to stick with a KA. Primarily, you don't want to be following in someone's attempt at wiring on the OBD-II cars, as it can become a quick nightmare. I just checked NCDOT's website, and they do OBD based emissions testing in Craven County (did a quick IP lookup on you to see what county you were in). To run a kouki (or a 96 Zenki), you'll need to get the OBD port to run nicely with the RB ECU. It's doable as I've personally seen an OBD-II port work with an SR 60-series ECU. If wiring's not your thing, I think a call to Yuri at Wiring Specialties will be in order.

[4g6387]

He said he's still looking for one. Hopefully he can find a fairly unmolested kouki, although those are getting extremely rare these days. It might be best to start with a zenki and get all the bits to make it look like a kouki.

I would avoid buying someone else's project car, unless they were trying to stick with a KA. Primarily, you don't want to be following in someone's attempt at wiring on the OBD-II cars, as it can become a quick nightmare. I just checked NCDOT's website, and they do OBD based emissions testing in Craven County (did a quick IP lookup on you to see what county you were in). To run a kouki (or a 96 Zenki), you'll need to get the OBD port to run nicely with the RB ECU. It's doable as I've personally seen an OBD-II port work with an SR 60-series ECU. If wiring's not your thing, I think a call to Yuri at Wiring Specialties will be in order.

First off, thank you for the spelling fix. Secondly, not in Craven. My county does not have emissions testing what so ever. Hence why I've ran with just a downpipe on my 92 talon for 3 years. The main reason for wanting a 97/8 is to obviously avoid doing the front end swap and to get a car that's already one color and wont need a tone of body work/paint right off the bat. I wouldn't mind doing it, but if I can find one and not have to all the better. Sadly there are only 5,xxx of them out there, and they are harder and harder to find. But I have found some decent ones for decent prices (<$4000). And that has been either all factory or small bolt on performance like an intake or exhaust. Ideally a 98 100% factory, first or second owner is exactly what I'm looking for.

As for the wiring of anything, not really a problem. I am a mechanic by trade and wiring is one of my specialties. However I have talked with wiring specialties about their pre-made harness and will be ordering it. Obviously this is a lot quicker than trying to wire it up myself and from what I've seen their harness looks factory and is long enough to route through all the factory holding clips for that OE look. If need bee its nothing to add a little extension here or there though to make that happen. I've custom built harnesses before (b16a1 in 88 CRX, 4g63t into Mighty Max), its just very time consuming, and seeing as I really only have nights and Sundays to work on this project, I need to cut down on the headaches as much as possible. Plus nothing beats a true turn key start up.

I already have a motor (ser. 2) and trans sourced for the car. I'm just waiting on the call to come and pick them up as they are in an R33 still. The motor runs, but has a blown head gasket. So obviously a little work will have to go into it before it goes in the car. I had already planned on having to do a new timing belt kit and water pump anyway, but this was too good of a deal to pass up. Full long block minus accessories, trans, spec stage 2 clutch, factory flywheel, ecu, $1500 and its only 20 minutes away. Plus the fellow has a nice bit of aftermarket goodies and factory goodies so I can pick him from time to time when I need something. So the first thing to get done on the motor will be the head gasket and some aftermarket studs. I've done a fair amount of research on the motor itself and talking with my friend who I'm getting the motor from, and it all guides me to believe the rb25 is plenty reliable at 400hp, and will not take entire too much to reach. Internally the motor will stay factory for quite some time, unless of course the worse happens. Externally, a new intake manifold, some injectors, fuel pressure regulator, and a properly sized pte turbo will be all that's different. Still contemplating a top forward mounted manifold for a little bling, but we will see.

The big focus will be on suspension once the motor is in. This is one area I've always focused on as I do enjoy autox and have, with the introduction to the FR world, gotten into drifting. With any 15-20 year old car, I expect that the entire suspension will need to be gone through off the line. But what good is just putting factory stuff back in right? Poly bushings for both subframes. The front being done with the motor swap. New inner/outer tie rods, rear LCA's, camber arms, traction rods, and toe rods. Front side will be equally adjustable with front LCA's and caster arms. Your standard strut tower bars, trunk brace, c-pillar bar, floor bar, and some under bracing. Still trying to settle on a set of coilovers. However a few options in mind are Cusco Zero 2E, Blitz ZZ-R, or Tein Super Drift. Leaning towards the Cusco's or the Tein's as they both have electronic adjustability, and its always nice to do everything from the cockpit.

Anyway, as I'm sure you've noticed if you've read this entire thing, Attention to detail is my goal. And an overall factory appearance, minus the wheels, lowering, exhaust, fmic, is the main goal. The car should be a complete blast to drive once it is finished, on the track or street.

[Hijacker]

IP lookup failed me again

Good to know you've got a good road map ahead of you. Too often, kids show up and say "I'ma make a drift car and daily it." They end up with an expensive lump of sheet steel that hasn't moved in years.

As for Wiring Specialties, Yuri does some great work. One of the reasons his stuff sells so well is the factory fit and finish. I plan on refreshing my EFI harness in the near future and plan on buying his connector kit to replace everything with like new parts.

Poly isn't a bad idea for the subframe bushings in the rear, but if you go with a set of aluminum bushings, they tend to come with spacers to move the frame up and down to dial in anti-squat and roll center values. SPL and GKTech are my two top picks for those bushings.

[4g6387]

IP lookup failed me again

Good to know you've got a good road map ahead of you. Too often, kids show up and say "I'ma make a drift car and daily it." They end up with an expensive lump of sheet steel that hasn't moved in years.

As for Wiring Specialties, Yuri does some great work. One of the reasons his stuff sells so well is the factory fit and finish. I plan on refreshing my EFI harness in the near future and plan on buying his connector kit to replace everything with like new parts.

Poly isn't a bad idea for the subframe bushings in the rear, but if you go with a set of aluminum bushings, they tend to come with spacers to move the frame up and down to dial in anti-squat and roll center values. SPL and GKTech are my two top picks for those bushings.

I will probably go with poly's as the car will be street driven as well and the roads around here aren't exactly the greatest. I'd like to not be rattled to death driving the car around. And yes plenty of road map laid out. I've been around cars since I was 12 and built a few cars so I know what to expect and how to go about things. I've definitely seen the kids that think/know they can have the best of both worlds and have first hand found out that's not going to happen. Case and point my Talon. Started off as a 16G, fmic, dsmlink, daily. Now its a Crower 280 cam, 2.3L 4g63, PTE 6265 spooling, flame spitting tial 44mm wastegate dumping, tire eating, garage queen. Well except track days, weekends, and when it snows. But on the plus side, I can drive it to the track and drive it home.... Usually.

[4g6387]

Well small update. The S14 has become an S13. I found a deal on one and could not pass it up. The car is a 92 SE fully loaded with just about every option available from Nissan at the time. The car already had some small work done to it which was nice but the main concern being the body I was happilly surprised to find very little almost no rust, and an unbent unwrecked frame. The car came as a whole for only $1000 with a catback exhaust, tein/infinite coilovers front/rear, nrg wheel and quick release, falken torque 5's, electric fans, dual piston front brakes, welded diff, intake and single cam pistons with new rod bearings and rings. Just needing a headgasket to run it was a steal.

[4g6387]

Well the head is coming back from the machine shop this weekend. Turned out it needed a little more than just flattening. All the guides were trashed and all the seals just about beat. Being that the motor probably wont be in the car long I had the shop go back with regular factory spec stuff, ordered a OE head gasket and OE bolts. Hopefully by the middle of next week it will be back up and running. On a brighter note, the wire harness and the mount kit have been ordered/delivered for the engine swap, with the engine/trans hopefully being purchased shortly after the car is back running (considering I can't for the life of me get ahold of the guy I was supposed to have a deal lined up with). All that will leave for getting the motor in the car is the driveshaft, FMIC, radiator & hoses, exhaust, and the intake manifold. As long as things keep going like they have been this should move a long fairly quickly and be together before the end of summer.