sr20det s13 hatch build for wife!

[bestlowrida]

Hello and welcome to this long journey for our 1993 240sx hatch! Some background of this car is that it belonged to a young lady since 2009. I was driving around in the work truck in Glen Burnie, MD when I first saw the car sitting in the parking lot with a flat tire. I only was about to get a quick glimpse of it when we hit a u-turn to come get a closer look. I quickly wrote a note to the owner and left it on the windshield. This would of been the 4th s13 I left a note in the area sitting around so I didn't look forward to a reply. Low and behold a week later I received a text saying I can come look at the car closer! I was beyond excited! I have had two 93 hatches in the past 4 years and sold them to fellow enthusiast but always regretted a year later. I knew this third one would be the love of our life! A fresh blank canvas to start from the ground up. So we agreed on a fair price so now my wife and I begin a new journey with this awesome little fastback! So that was a little background and here are some pics.



Now its time to start sorting it out! The car has a sunroof seal leak! So the inside is pretty moldy and the PO removed the carpet. Yikes indeed

I found prolly $1 worth of old pennies. Check out this custom mat though

The joys of sorting a 23 year old car! So after lots of cleaning with vinegar, pine sol, water and a wet/dry vac its pretty clean!

The interior isnt too bad at all. Just needs carpet and a decent steering wheel. Of course a sunroof seal to stop the leaky roof! Heres a quick shot of the motor, thats a whole nother story for a different day!

This tire ka needs a good long bath and with 231k on it she looks tired lol.
Much more work and updates coming until its time to start the fun stuff!
Engine swap with 5 speed manual
Fresh funky paint job
Aero kit maybe the type x kit.
Coilovers wheels and other suspenion bits and much more!!

[centralcoaster33]

I can read the enthusiasm in your words! And it's not for you, but for your wife huh? Well, I hope to see progress pictures. Congratulations!

[Wanderer Ace]

Looking forward to the build, I know it's going to be a lot of fun

[Hijacker]

Looks like you're going to have some fun with this build!

[bestlowrida]

Thank you all for the kind words! Well today I had a few hours of free time. So I went to sort the leaky roof. I didn't get the seal yet but I want to see if the drain tubes functioned properly.
I went ahead and changed the oil in my little trusty dusty harbor freight compressor.

Blew compressed air in all four corner drain tubes.

You can see in this picture were the seal on the glass is torn and broke, but the seal on the body is in decent shape.
So I proceeded to pour water in each four corners. So I expected all the water to fill up and overflow into the cabin right?

We got drainage in the front

And we have drainage in the back on both sides! So all the drain tubes in the sunroof work so all I need is a seal and all should be good. I guess only time will tell.

[centralcoaster33]

That's good luck! Looking at the other photos, I though you might get leaks. Maybe the previous owner didn't hardly ever open the sunroof.

[SoundEfx]

The car is not in so bad out of shape, so decent starting point.

Waiting to see who would drive it the most....lol

[bestlowrida]

Thank you all for the kind feedback! So glad that people on here are so responsive and excited as much as I am! That serves as great motivation. Today I sorted a few things so on to it. We have the saggy rear hatch interior trim.

It's held up by this custom hair twisty looking thing.

I pop these extra little rivets things in.

She looks good as new now. So on to the coolant system. When I drove her around the block I notice the temp getting hot. So time to bust out my little trusty pressure tester.

I started pumping and immediately heard the whistling sound of air escaping. It was a pretty quick find.

Its the inlet throttle body hose above the throttle body next to were the top radiator hose connects to the motor. So it was time to take off the throttle body to access the hose and of course the 23 year old gasket is soo done!

Off to advance auto to gather a hose and gasket now!

I found a gasket and a generic same size diameter coolant hose all for $8. Only thing i had to do was cut the hose to proper size. It has a little kink to it but it will work I hope. The old gasket took like 20 mins to scrap off clean with a razor carefully not to nick the metal. Putting it all back together wasnt bad just dirty becasuse everything was covered in old oil and 23 years worth of grimey muck! So now everything is bundled up so its time to test again.
I go to pump and I still hear the sound of leaking. This hose was loose but how? I didnt loosen it. I looks new so I guess the previous owner didnt tighten it correctly maybe?

So I tighten that all up and it was time to pump it up again.

It held at 13 psi for 20 mins so that mean no more leaks I hope. So on to bleed the whole system

I popped this bad boy on the radiator and filled it up and turned the car on to let run for 10 mins. All the bubbles bled out and the cars temp gauge staed right in the middle with the heat on full blast. So that will do it for the coolant system sorting for now. I also am doing my 240z build if any one is interested in reading that over here at hybrid z
http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/124283- ... ndy-build/
Anyways thanks for reading more to come!

[xDRAGANx]

Your 240 hatch is a beauty.

[bestlowrida]

So on to the next part of the sorting. The driver window doesn't go down so I been searching on the interwebs and there was a possibility of the amp needing to be re-soldered. So I popped off the door panel. Sorry i didn't take pics of it but that's pretty straight forward. So here is the amp

I had to pull off that cover were that prongs come out and slide out the circuit board. Here is the amp all apart now.

So I know its hard to tell with these blurry iphone pics but the very bottom right solder had some cracking around it so I re-soldered it up.So here is the final product and again sorry for the bad blurry pic.

Time to plug in the amp back into the car to test it out! Just like that the window went down I was so excited and couldn't believe the windows both go down! Success!!!

So I know this stage of sorting is not super exciting but I'm trying to build the foundation of the car solid and reliable before I get to the fun major changes. The small stuff really matters to me for this car since my wife will be driving it the majority of the time. Thats all for now and thanks for the kind words guys and gals.

[centralcoaster33]

Good job with the amp. It feels great when it works afterwards!

[bestlowrida]

Yes it was indeed a huge accomplishment fixing the windows. Well since its July 4th weekend that means 40% off at pick and pull. I picked up a sunroof seal from a xterra. Same length and width maybe a few cm's off. I popped off the s13 roof glass.

I clean it up around were the seal needs to be re-glued for a decent seal. Here's the 23 year old crap RIP

I just had some 3m weather strip adhesive laying around that I use around the whole glass with a thin bead.

There is the finished product.

I guess it isn't bad for spending $1 and 3 hours for teardown/install. I'm sure in the future I'll eventually buy a new one if I can find it but this will do for now. So after that I did a quick little tune up. Spark plugs.

Also the air filter was filthy so I got a new one.

Then change the oil and filter.

While doing that I remembered the steering wheel shakes at about 40-55 mph so I checked the play in the front suspension and notice this front control arm?! bushing is worn.

I'm sure I'll find plenty more worn bushings. Oh well all that fun stuff to come later. I took her for a short ride after and its pretty nice but shakes a lot through the steering wheel. That's all for now enjoy the 4th of July boys and gals.

[DannySilvia]

Awesome so far. I have the same shake at 40-45, both of my steering rack boots are ten though and I think that's where mine is coming from, you might want to check that out! Keep it up!

[bestlowrida]

Good advice dannysilvia! I got around to getting to front of the car on ramps. So no surprise this is what I found.

The driver side of the stabilizer bar is missing a nut or stud. So maybe that has something to do with the shaking?! Hopefully yeah well all I have to do is find a screw and pop it in there. Ok so next we have this of course.

Broken steering rack boots on both sides. Which is probably due from this.

The whole underside is covered in oil/dirt/grime and years of neglect because lets face it. Who really thinks about cleaning up under there right?? Well I got to scrape and pressure wash the underside and replace those boots. I was looking at those stretch boots anyone use those before? http://www.stretchcvboot.com/ sucks shipping is just as much as the product but time savings could pay it self off for the install. Just a random thought I might try. It's been like 90 degrees all week plus 90 percent humidity if you live in the DMV area you know this is no joke so since I have no garage or cool work space sorting will slow down till it cools off but I try to get a few things done in the evening here and there.Thanks for the comments and looking and stay cool out there boys and girls.

[bestlowrida]

So it was only 85 degrees today so I decided it was time to tinker on the car. I was able to pop a bolt in the sway bar. I finally got around to cleaning the engine bay. I used a combination of dawn soap and spray nine.
Before


After


Looks much better. Still dirty in the hard to reach spots but oh well I didn't want to spend time and money on the KA but why not? It works and I won't be starting the swap for at least 6 months. Time to start dumping money into the wheels and coilovers/bushings.

[centralcoaster33]

Shedding 20 Lbs of grease and grime should get you better gas mileage... and help you find the sources of the fluid leaks. Lookin' good in these photos. And damn, this page is really slowing down my browser, but hey, I'd still like to see more pictures. How about standing back a few feet and giving us the overall of the car, interior and bay now that you have it cleaner and straightened out a bit? You use foil to protect your components from spray? I like that idea! Does it work well?

[bestlowrida]

Shedding 20 Lbs of grease and grime should get you better gas mileage... and help you find the sources of the fluid leaks. Lookin' good in these photos. And damn, this page is really slowing down my browser, but hey, I'd still like to see more pictures. How about standing back a few feet and giving us the overall of the car, interior and bay now that you have it cleaner and straightened out a bit? You use foil to protect your components from spray? I like that idea! Does it work well?

Sorry about slowing down the your browser lol. I been using the aluminum foil over the electrics components for over 10 years on all types of cars and it works great everytime! Car starts right up and runs properly! I will take pics of the whole car soon. With that faded grey/greenish paint and faded grey wheels it still looks the same as when I bought it lol My wife and I picked out a color its a bit flashy but I think it will be apart from the others. Wheels will be meh just because its a function street and some track car. Thank you for the kind words!!

[bestlowrida]

Hey guys I have some pics of the car. Nothing exciting just a super stock s13 hatch so enjoy!




The exterior will go through many changes in the next few months and not your average 240sx look either so stay tuned.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Looking good!
Did you ever do a compression check on the KA? I'd be curious what it gets after all those miles.

[bestlowrida]

Looking good!
Did you ever do a compression check on the KA? I'd be curious what it gets after all those miles.

No compression test but I will because now I'm kind of curious about the numbers too, maybe in the near future before I pull the old gal out. She runs like a champ though for 231k.

I received my new used trunk key lock tumbler today from eBay seller.

Bought it like Friday and received it today which is Monday lol soo fast!
Here is my old broken tumbler with the new one. Pretty much what happened is the c clip will not stay because a piece broke.

I followed this diy walkthrough and it was really detailed and worked perfectly. http://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=627706
Sorry I didnt take more pics but the diy posted is literally what I did but heres a pic of it all apart.

So thats really it I put it all back together and we can finally open the trunk! lol just able to use the key for now. Next will be the whole trunk/gas door cable release because that is broken also. It was 99 degrees today will I did this plus cut the grass and I have a headache so thats all for now stay cool guy and girls.

[centralcoaster33]

I'm jealous of your functioning keys! Mine will open the drivers door. Period. I sometimes wondered how to get those tumblers in and out of a car. I think I'll check out that tutorial you found, even if it's on someone else's forum. Thanks for posting more pictures! The car is looking pretty good. 231K? Ooh, pretty soon you'll be at 240K and you'll want to take a cruise and photos! Or, at least, that's what I do with my 240s at 240k. I see you popping up that sun roof. The new seal must be working. Cool! What's next on the to do list?

[peterlujan8]

Cool to see an S13 resurrection. Decent ones are getting rare at least around these parts! Are you going to run a stock SR or will it see some upgrades from the get go?

[bestlowrida]

I'm jealous of your functioning keys! Mine will open the drivers door. Period. I sometimes wondered how to get those tumblers in and out of a car. I think I'll check out that tutorial you found, even if it's on someone else's forum. Thanks for posting more pictures! The car is looking pretty good. 231K? Ooh, pretty soon you'll be at 240K and you'll want to take a cruise and photos! Or, at least, that's what I do with my 240s at 240k. I see you popping up that sun roof. The new seal must be working. Cool! What's next on the to do list?

The sunroof seal is working so far! I took a hose to it and no leaking so far. Thank you for the kind words! Next will be sorting the trunk/gas cable fun stuff right?

[bestlowrida]

Cool to see an S13 resurrection. Decent ones are getting rare at least around these parts! Are you going to run a stock SR or will it see some upgrades from the get go?

Thanks for the kind words. I had run previous 240's with shortcuts taken very long ago but with this one with my wife driving it is simpy unacceptable everything has to be looked over and sorted if needed. The sr will eventually recieve upgrades but will be ran stock for the first few months or so.

[bestlowrida]

Alright on to the cable release for the trunk/gas door. This had me stumped for a while. I researched for a week only to find dead ends about were to get a new cable thats not sourced from the dealer. Local prices was 120 I'm like what? Even though online prices for similar cars like the 300zx was 25 new! I just thought that was crazy well long story short I found a dealer online for 67+10 for shipping. Took about a week to get it here.

This the "updated" cable part number whatever that means. Which sucked because it didnt come with the nut that holds the gas cap actuator in! I was so pissed off but I ordered it which took a few days actually. Here is is

When I went to install it from the trunk to the front I noticed the bracket for the rear lock was short. So I had to compensate that with a long screw sorry for the bad pic.

So I was able to keep going sorry for the lack or pics for it really is just running the cable were the old one was with the interior carpet out and some panels removed already it was quick. I had to remove the actual handle to install the cable on it.

Once I bolted it back down I to adjust the cable lowering the rear latch more so my worn out rubber bumpers can pop it up. I also had to loosen the nut the hold the gas door popper. Won't be needing the paper wedge to keep it closed now lol it came with the car.

So all the handles and buttons and keys work now time to move on to fun stuff (aero, brakes, paint, wheels, suspension).
Not sure why the page loads so slowly? Is it the thread or the site? I post frequestly on Hybridz and I dont have problems there? Oh well I love nicoforums.

[bestlowrida]

Well no big updates yet still trying to figure out why the page is so laggy. I shampooed the seats and rewired the cigarette lighter so that it functioned properly. I'm just saving for some type x aero and energy bushing kit.

[GoodzKouki]

Nice job Bestlowrid, always nice to see someone give a 240sx some love . FWIW I'm in the middle of swapping out all my energy suspension urethane bushings. They don't allow the suspension arms to freely travel and they squeak like all hell for a DD car. I greased the crap out of them too when I was installing them. Companies sell hardened rubber control arm bushing and SPC sells adjustable arms fitted with hard rubber. That's just my $0.02, good luck with the car dude.

[bestlowrida]

Thanks @goodzkouki. I was looking around and saw that too. I guess I'll just buy some prothane strut rod bushings for now and see how it drives then decide what's next on the to do list.

[bestlowrida]

So I finally get around to taking off the worn out strut rod bushings. I bought this little 12 ton press from harbor freight. This isnt the nicer updated one but it still got the job done.

Here is the culprit right here.

I was pretty simple just 3 17mm nuts and it pops off.

Well I didnt have anything to press out the bushing out with so I cut out the rubber and proceeded to hacksaw the outer ring out. But that was way too much labor so I hit home depot and bought a 3 dollar 1.5 inch pipe cap.
I pressed out but it was kind popped first, I guess from old age? IDK but it scared the daylights out of me. Here she is

Now time to press in the new prothane poly bushing. Now I dont recommend the one piece design because it mushroomed up and popped out. Very dangerous! So I took a sawzall to it and cut in half. It went in much smoother and I added a 1/4 in zerk fitting along with slotting the inside so the grease can spread evenly. Here is the finished product.

Sorry no pics of it on the car because it got dark. So basically it stopped shaking super hard. Now you can tell it needs new tires, shocks, brakes, steering rack bushings etc. So thats all now time to save for coilovers, wheels and tires!

[haloman222]

Wow! I love it! Are you planning on any drifting ? Or is it just a daily driver? Either or, still nice for an old 240, loving it, any updates?