Zach's S13 Build Thread!! LOTS OF PICS! VH45 SWAP!

[DRFTBLD]

Hows the car coming? Had any time to work on it?

[speedeast]

I just got back from NY on Thursday. I'll be getting a few more things done as soon as I can, but money is tight right now driving back and forth to NY all the damn time. I am going to be hitting the "1 Year of Working" milestone next month... not really excited about that. There is just so much downtime with the army and finances. She'll be purring before too awful long. Thanks for the interest. Expect another update of sorts in the next couple days.

[pflicht]

Man just read through this... awesome work man! And i noticed on page 4...good ol' ed edd and eddy keep up the great work!

[getthedrift86]

I haven't seen a VH with a stock hood on any mounts as yet. But it means you have some pretty cool options for hood vents you can play with.

Oil pan is still above it so that means you don't have clearance issues which is good right?

P.s: Looking sweet. Can't wait to hear this thing Roar!!!

Clearance is actually very nice.. I'll throw a picture of that in tonight. The sump in the oil pan still sticks out underneath though. I don't suspect it being a problem.

DIdn't see a follow up picture. Are you saying that with your custom mounts the hood clears with no modifications?

Awesome build! Looking great so far!

[speedeast]

^No... Hood clearance is virtually impossible with this engine. Some may have done it, but with some risky modifications. I will have to cowl my hood or something, but I'm not sore about it. There are a couple other fitment issues, but nothing too serious. You'll see them show up as I go. The mounts that I made for my motor are not going to be available to anyone; it's just not a venture I want to try to tackle right now.

[ILoveMyRHS13]

How far BELOW the sway bar does the oil pan sit? I've thought about this swap but I can't have an oil pan lower than it already is.

[Johnnydrfter22]

hey Ilovemyrhs13!! i regocnized your pix from sundance valley.

Anywho nice build!! if i ever want to do another swap ill look into this!!

[speedeast]

Thanks guys!

How far BELOW the sway bar does the oil pan sit? I've thought about this swap but I can't have an oil pan lower than it already is.

Probably about an inch or better. In the next 4-6 weeks, pictures of everything will surface and you can see from there. After my next Ft. Drum assignment next week, I hope to be able to spend much more time tinkering.

[getthedrift86]

^No... Hood clearance is virtually impossible with this engine. Some may have done it, but with some risky modifications. I will have to cowl my hood or something, but I'm not sore about it. There are a couple other fitment issues, but nothing too serious. You'll see them show up as I go. The mounts that I made for my motor are not going to be available to anyone; it's just not a venture I want to try to tackle right now.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm looking forward to see what solution you come up with to do such an incredible build justice!

[speedeast]

Well here is another update of sorts. I managed to find some time/motivation to get some stuff done.

First off, I have a couple pictures under the car at the oil pan clearance; it runs almost flush with the bottom edge of the crossmember. It is still in a very risky spot, but I'm going to build a cage or a sled for it.




Alternator!!! It's beautiful! $130


New Battery!!! $98 (935 CA, 8yr warranty) + some more relocation supplies I picked up


I began installing the relocation kit. I have the box mounted. I have the wire run to the engine bay. I have the ground installed. The first couple pics are of the ground, obviously; I machined the paint off the surface in the car for the ground with a Dremel tool. The ground is bolted into one of the old rear seat bracket holes (already threaded). I positioned where I wanted the battery box. I installed the little strap retainers conveniently over the hole that I made replacing the crossmember stud. I got some little nylon clamp thingies and they made real clean work of running the wire.











I installed the headlights just to get more of the "I accomplished something" feeling.






More coming soon.

[speedeast]

Just ordered stainless clutch and brake lines. I also ordered a new fan temp sender and rear caliper rebuild kit. Should make for some detailed updates real soon.

[PyR0NiAk]

Looks good, man. Sorry I haven't been too active in the thread and only through texts. I'm at WTI in Yuma, AZ so my time to get on NICO this month has been minimal.

[DRFTBLD]

Looks good man. The progress is looking really good!

I had everything planned for my sway and the car getting set and now I have to sell it.... moving to CA!!

[speedeast]

Well, that sucks dude. Good luck in CA. Go Packers!

[DRFTBLD]

Thanks!!! I'm trying to figure a way to keep everything but it's not looking good so far.... Packers all the way!

[speedeast]

one step at a time...

[NISSAN240SX12]

this is an awesome build yo great flippin work! gives me hope to make my s13 great once again.

[speedeast]

1000th Post!!!

this is an awesome build yo great flippin work! gives me hope to make my s13 great once again.

Thanks bro. It looks like you have a very clean car to work with.

I should be getting several packages today. I am also going to pull a couple parts from the salvage yard. I should have some more of an update coming real, real soon.

[DRFTBLD]

Which is a bigger accomplishment.... 1000 posts or things on the car! jk

Can't wait to see the update!

[speedeast]

Which is a bigger accomplishment.... 1000 posts or things on the car! jk

Can't wait to see the update!

Well, I don't care about my post count, haha.

[speedeast]

I now have a functioning clutch! Pictures tomorrow.

[speedeast]

^ And by tomorrow, I meant three days, haha. Oops!

Well, here is a picture of my home refurbished clutch master cylinder and the first few inches of the stainless braided, nylon coated 1-piece clutch line that I am using.



I installed brand new coolant temperature sensors/senders. Here is a half-assed picture with respectable part numbers for these pieces. One part is Wells, the other is Beck Arnley.


The glare makes it hard to see, but the part number ends in 4115.

Today should amount to a custom alternator bracket, as well as some power distribution up front. The radiator hoses should get sealed up. The clutch line should get tucked and fastened. I also plan to install the starter motor and radiator fans. I will ALSO try to remove the crank key I made, because as it turns out it is unnecessary.

[speedeast]

Well here's another monster update (on my birthday!!). We'll start with the radiator hoses. I had to rearrange them and make some custom modifications to get them to fit just right, but it's done! With the lack of clearance between the motor and the radiator, I had to create a clever way to elbow the line into the top of the radiator. I went down to the local Pep Boys and went browsing around on the belts and radiator hose storage aisle. I just so happen to get lucky enough to find something.








I went ahead and decided to start patching up the fuel system.





Next up: I made brackets to hold the radiator in; the old ones are impractical and unattractive, bulky, and one of them was missing anyhow. I bought a piece of aluminum from the sheet metal aisle at Lowes and some rubber grommets from the hardware section. I bent the aluminum in a vice with a rubber mallet and a piece of 1x2 where needed. I drilled holes, inserted grommets, installed, and viola!







^ Just gonna throw that in here. This s***'s the bomb.

I installed the radiator fans... At first I used the plastic retaining hardware that they sent with the fans, but I really didn't feel comfortable trusting the quality, so knowing me, I improvised. First pic is of the plastic retainer. To improvise, I cut four 6" pieces of threaded rod in half to make eight total 3" pieces. (in Barney speed!) I threaded a nut on the clean end all the way down to the other end, then threw a fender washer on it, as shown:




^Used a straight dental pick type thing to clean a proper hole for the rod.

On the other end I threw on a washer, split washer, and another nut to finish it off.




I made a custom mount to accommodate my alternator. On the stock VH block as configured in the Q45, the A/C compressor sits in the gap under the bank beside the oil pan. The OE position for the alternator is above the A/C compressor and slightly outward. Since this position would be impossible to accomplish with the S13 body, I had to create a mount that would hold it down where the A/C compressor should be. This is what I can up with; although, it isn't completely finished. It does hold the alternator correctly, installs correctly, etc but I want to reinforce it and connect it to the tensioner so that they both have maximum stability. Until then, everything functions great. I ended up settling for a 6-groove 34" poly belt.





Since I relocated the battery to the trunk, I wanted to install a terminal in the engine bay to serve two purposes: easy jump starts, power distribution. I'll elaborate. I bent another piece of the aluminum to act as a mount for the terminal. Then I bought some random, but necessary, supplies.



Among the supplies was a rubber expansion plug. I cut in half (like a hamburger <-- you like that, huh).





I cut a hole in the aluminum bracket I made to have a much larger diameter than the bolt that will act as the terminal. The hole has since gotten as large as slightly smaller than the expansion plug to ensure clearance for the bolt. I used the two pieces of the expansion plug to sandwich the hole cut in the bracket and then bolted it all together. I haven't yet run power to it, but I will update as soon as I do, so you guys know what it's for and how it helps.





More coming soon!

[LEMHEAD16]

Oil pan carnage. Granted it was after a pretty serious encounter with a curb while autocrossing.

Make sure you are using High pressure fuel line for your fuel rail, or it WILL leak. Ask me how I know.

[speedeast]

Haha, how do you know? Yeah, I know. I think that line is like 300 psi, but I'll double check.

[Amays U G37S]

u can put screws through a radiator???

[speedeast]

Threaded rod is a little less abrasive than screws... The coolant runs vertically, the horizontal slats are just heat sink like fins so the heat is distributed over a larger surface area.

[speedeast]

Ahhhh Packer anxiety!

[speedeast]

I have reverted back to the OEM gas tank plan of things. I will be picking up a clean one tomorrow; I will be able to utilize the Walbro I have and there will be fewer modifications required in order to get her running.

[CA18DETBoss]

wow. just read this thread.
love when people do things right.
I've been wanting do the vh45 swap for a long time now but haven't due to lack of funds.
I have a ca18det in my car now but a v8 would be way more legit.
new job and will start ordering parts soon.
your thread = inspiration