zenki-s13"s CA!8DET BUILD THREAD!!!

[zenki-S13]

hey guys. ive been on here for a while now. and im finally posting my evergoing build. im going to try to cover as much as i can in this, unfortunately i do not have have every photo i need haha. but ill get started.

this is cliche, but like alot of people on here I have always wanted a 240.

i was 15 and just got my permit so i started looking for a s13. originally i wanted a coupe. but was only able to find my self this hatch




i picked it up for 400. i bought it for the engine.

the next day i posted a wanted ad on craigslist for a 240 shell with interior. got a call literally 1 hour later. i went to check it out and picked it up the next day for 600.






my dad and i started work that night by pulling out the motor and harness. for the next 2 weeks we worked on it day and night. ( took a while because it was my first time working on a car and my dads first time dealing with import cars haha.)
but we got it done along with replacing the interior with the not so worn out panels.






i was soooo excited to get this car up and running with my dad. we worked our asses off. The only downside to this was i still had to wait on getting my license. which was a couple months away.



and just to state i did pay for this car myself by saving up my money and selling old karting parts. and i do give much credit to my dad for helping me build this.

this is just the first part of the build, there is alot more to come just to lead up to where the car is now


personal note to all: i hate some build threads where questions never seem to be answered. so i am going to do my best and answer any questions you guys and gals will have.

[Lobo240sx]

Good start so far. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

[zenki-S13]

Good start so far. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

thanks man. and merry christmas to you too.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

Great start! I had a similar thing with my dad when we picked up my old sil40 in 08. It's gone now in favor of my BMW but I should be picking up a coupe on Monday!

Keep us updated. Looks like you started just before 09. I'm sure much has changed.

[zenki-S13]

Great start! I had a similar thing with my dad when we picked up my old sil40 in 08. It's gone now in favor of my BMW but I should be picking up a coupe on Monday!

Keep us updated. Looks like you started just before 09. I'm sure much has changed.

thanks man. i remember your sil80. why did you sell it?

and i did start just before 09. the dates are correct.
its changed a little. and i have some extra for this as well

[zenki-S13]

ok so after a few months i finally got my license and started playing around with my car. i had all sorts of fun in my car whether it was drifting or going on a date with my beautiful girl friend.

but it was time to start modifying my car. the first thing on my list was a new catback. i couldnt stand the quite raspy sound of my stock exhaust. so i ordered a 3 inch with high flow cat off of ebay for around 150 shipped.



i thought this was the coolest thing because of the burn tip.
im still rockin it to this day and it still sounds pretty good.

then i got a little bit of ricer diy in me haha
i didnt want to spend a bunch of money on an intake. so i made my own



it cost me less than 30 bucks. and to my surprise it actually did help the throttle response a tiny TINY bit.
but i no longer have that set up. it now resides on my friends honda civic just so it can run.

a little while after my wonder grandma got me a gift card for autozone. i used it to get my self some fog lights.
these were awesome. they didnt look the best but they were neat.

i cant find a picture with just those on though.

but ill move on to what was next, and im going to have a lot of hater on this



hate away people, i love these things.
i just hate that my car was still monster truck status. if it were lowered it would have looked good in my opinion.

[AZ89two4Tsx]

^ Lol, we all have "phases" that we look back and say "wtf why did I do that?" in anything we do....

I sold my old hatch because it was time for something different. I had a gut feeling something was going to break on it and I'd have to dump some serious cash to get it back up and running. Just wasn't worth it in my opinion. So I sold it.

And for $700 more than I sold it for, I picked up a car with WAY less miles, double the power/torque, two more doors, and a little more "class." But I sure do miss that car....idk why.

[zenki-S13]

so true haha.
ive learned alot since then.

and its good to see everything worked out for you. its gotta be aton of fun

[zenki-S13]

and the story continues,

i drove the car this way for about a year. didnt really do any other mods.
i was learning to drift on my old battered single slammer.

but i did do a couple things. i picked up a set of skirts for my car and made a home depot front lip.



i happened to pick up this for 200 not running.


i learned how to take a front end apart with this vehicle. i ended up putting the front back on and sold the car for 600 in the same condition.

i made friends with the kid that bought that car. he swapped in a dual cam ka and five speed.
i gutted my interior. (worst mistake i made at that point)

he called me up to go drifting one night. i went and met him down in vegas and was just doing great. connecting drifts and holding though straits. it was amazing.

but while cruising back to the spot we started i ended up with a bad rod knock. i lost all power and couldnt climb above 35 mph.

[zenki-S13]

time to continue


so i towed my car home the next day after blowing the motor. after the long lecture from my dad we got back to work on the car. within an hour we had the engine pulled and moved to the back yard.
the car sat for about a month until i found a ca18det for 1000.



it came with everything including a mishimoto radiator and an extra trans.

i painted my engine bay and and valve covers. and ordered a ton of parts.
im not sure anymore all of what i ordered.
but i do know i ordered a new HKS downpipe and some gauges. and my fmic

it turned into this


i was never able to get it running right though. i ended up selling it to the same guy i bought it from for the same price. only he didnt get the extra trans, rad, or any of the parts i ordered.

at that point i gave up on the ca18 and started saving for an sr20.

the car sat and sat and sat for about another 4 months

i only needed about 500 more to get my motor when i found a red coupe for 1500, it had 5 zigen wheels with brand new megan coilovers and most importantly a running motor. another ca18det haha

i talked the guy down to a weird number at $1360 and i took it home that day







i was going to keep it like this and just get back to drifting but i had a dead end job where i barely made enough for gas and couldnt afford my one project lil'own two

so i swapped all the parts over to my car and sold the shell to a friend for 300.

more to come

[zenki-S13]

update!

i got the motor running in my car but it was still super rich. i posted the motor on craigslist.

i got maybe 2 calls within a month.
my buddy james came over to take a look at how my car was progressing. (now after 2 owners he ended up with my old ca for 350 bucks and is now swapping it into his corolla.)

he noticed that i had a usb plugin on my ecu. later that night i took it apart to find that their was a nistune type 1 board in there.

i started doing a little research on it and found out that i could have it tuned to what i wanted.

so i got back to work going through the motor and making sure everything was how it needed to be. it had massive boost leaks as the turbo was barely on.

the previous owner had a spark plug in the o2 bung. i located the plug on the harness but it was to short and all busted up. i went to the junk yard and got a new plug for it and extended the wires on the harness. soldered and shink wrapped it all.

this all happened within these last two months.
the recent story is to be soon

for now, enjoy random pictures from my intercircle

this was one of the first pictures i took when i first started my 240


my old friend maddie trying to get warm from the engine heat.