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

[speedeast]

Thanks dude. You should come out and check it out or give me a hand sometime.

[DRFTBLD]

Does anyone know of any VH45 guys in the San Fran, CA area??

P.s.. didn't mean to thread jack

[speedeast]

Check out the Q45 or the VH45DE section. You'll find a lot of performance driven Q45 drivers, some of which may be in that area.

[Keshi]

God I want this for my S14... Have a friend thinking about getting rid of his Q45 and I WANT TO SCAVENGE IT!!!!

[speedeast]

Takes a lot of work, but TOTALLY worth it.

[mtmetzger]

Finally found a spart couple hours at work to read your entire thread. Excellent job! Sounds like it runs very smooth!

[J14cm7]

Finally found a spart couple hours at work to read your entire thread. Excellent job! Sounds like it runs very smooth!

Zach all due respect your thread is awesome but i gotta ask Metz if that is kilcare speedway in his sig pic. If so PM and let me know what area your from.

[mtmetzger]

Yeah that's Kilkare and I'm sure you recognize Chad's old car. That's my old S13 and I'm in Lexington.

Zach - so you just cut your water neck off and slipped a hose over it? I'm debating on what to do with that big thing right now.

[speedeast]

Yeah. I wasn't using any of the "vacuum" part of it and I wanted the top line to route towards the left because of the radiator I had. The only thing to keep in mind that you still need to maintain positive crankcase ventilation, and you need to have a way to properly bleed your coolant system. What I did, and there will eventually be pictures, since I kept the coolant lines to the throttle body, is unhook those lines and put a capped piece of pipe (Radiator Flush Tee) in between them and use that to bleed the system. This is the piece I'm talking about:

[amolao]

Congrats to you, Sir...

Excellent attention to detail and your work show extreme quality of crafmantship. I'm with you on that one, do it right the first time and you dont have to worry about it later. This is how auto work is performed,,,,

[speedeast]

Thanks bro; I appreciate the respect.

[meet07]

How durable is the stock bottome end?? I would throw boost to it

[speedeast]

Very durable. The stock bottom end is supposed to safely handle 1500hp. Obviously that isn't possible without upgrading the bottom end. You would want some rods and pistons that help reduce the compression from 10.2:1 down to something a little more suitable for boost. Subscribe and you'll eventually see some boost in here.

[mtmetzger]

Oh snap! BOOST!

The guys on my local board are saying the same thing about throwing a couple snails on my setup... Like a v8 won't be fun as is. LOL. You probably feel the same way as I do, but at this point, I'm just ready to get this thing on the road! Shooting you a PM BTW.

[mtmetzger]

OK, so either PM's arent working or you have them disabled...

Hey Zach, Give me a call when you get a spare few minutes. I would like to compare notes on a few things and get some specifics on your PCV, alternator and PS setups. Now that I'm sure my engine is not knocking, I guess it's time to get everything else going so I can put this thing back on the ground! Thanks!

[speedeast]

I'll give you a call sometime this weekend. Edit out your phone number, I got it.

[HeadAblaze]

If I see some boosting going on here, I think I'll poop a little

[DRFTBLD]

^^ Agreed

[speedeast]

Well it'll be quite some time... and honestly considering the length of this thread and the fact that I have to rebuild a motor, it'll probably have it's own thread.

[DRFTBLD]

All I can say is you better link the two :p.
I also want to speak with you. Can you email me a time/number/etc if we could speak. [email protected]

[3Q Jay]

Nice job--youhave a lot of skill and fortitude.
couple o' thoughts for you: if you haven't already replaced the stock oil pressure sender, at least get an OEM countermeasure one with a black insert. the 'yellow' insert ones are known to blow out with age.
also at the risk of starting a war over what weight motor oil is best---i would use 0w30 german castrol or maximum of 0w40 M1 in this engine. i have good experience with both in the VHand can link you to UOAs if you wanna see. many already know that the tight bearing tolerances are the achilles heel of this engine. using a 0w30 will not only help cold startup flow, but allow oil to keep flowing thru the tight bearings when hot.

[speedeast]

Thanks dude. I definitely have a new means of measuring the oil pressure. I actually have a sandwich adapter on my oil filter that allows me to hook up a few more things. I have a mechanical oil pressure gauge hooked onto that, and will soon have an oil temp sensor as well. I won't be using the OEM gauge cluster, as they piss me off, but my alternative will have an oil pressure gauge as well. This car also won't see very many cold starts.

[speedeast]

On the hunt for a 5-lug front...

[S13_love]

Update?

[speedeast]

I'll throw up an update this afternoon after work. Not a whole lot has changed, but I got some stuff.

[speedeast]

Just wanted to throw out a little update. Not too much has actually changed. The holidays usually mean my pockets are shallow. More coming soon though.

First up, I wanted to show everybody the hood clearance issues. With the hood on and the fenders on, the clearance doesn't look that bad.


I bought this muffler from Summit. Welded for the win. I wanted to see how this would sound.


This is the air filter i had to order. It is a reputable brand, and the filter is of great quality. The important thing that made this filter right for me is that it will fit over my 6" velocity stack.


Last up for this update, I had my brake calipers powder coated gloss black and the we machined the paint off of the letters to give it a clean, classy look. I love 'em!

[SC90S13]

looks good man, cant wait to see what you do for the hood.

[island240_s13]

the best thread ever!!!
shock and awe the whole time
your my effin hero

[speedeast]

Thanks bro.

[SX APPEAL]

Burnout vids or ban! haha