..and it runs

So, after getting the engine in, all hooked up, spending hours on the wiring trying to get it to work I got a call to say the bearings may not have been torqued up right. So...engine back out. Was a little loose so a good thing I pulled it back out.

Back in again. Still wouldnt run. New loom and ecu, still wouldnt run. By now it was completely doing my head in so I decided to take it back to where I bought the motor to get it running.

They diagnosed the problem. I had had someone out to try get it running and he said the timing was out 180 degrees which is turn it was right and he turned it out 180 degrees on me. Timing sorted. Another coil pack loom as it was the only thing left to change and it fired up for the first time!

I then had problems with the battery in the boot. The car would run with jumper leads into the engine bay but not with the battery in the boot. I decided to bite the bullet and run 2 earth leads in both the engine bay and boot and buy a new 750CCA dry cell battery. Starts up first time now and runs like a charm.


I also installed my Greddy gauges. Running water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, boost and there is an exhaust temp yet to be installed. All genuine Greddy. Very happy with how it all turned out.

Will have pictures up when its not midnight. I have recently purchased a new Canon DSLR camera so I will get the car outside and get some decent pictures when I have time.

For now Im off to bed as I have a big day tomorrow tidying up the aesthetics of the car!

Engine sorted

Ok guys and girls, been a couple weeks since I have been on here. Been absolutely flat out with work and havnt had a chance to update here. In the last couple weeks I have picked up my engine, fitted it and almost have it running.

The engine I decided on was a SR20DET Blacktop. I purchased the engine from a local import shop JDM Garage. The guys there are great to deal with a did a full check over on the condition of the engine before selling it to me. The compression test showed 160+psi across the board, the bearings are immaculate and they even found that the engine had Tomei forged pistons.

So the specs list on the engine is as follows:

• Tomei forged pistons
• Metal head gasket
• Unknown cams but appear to be a custom grind
• Aftermarket valve springs
• S15 480cc injectors
• HKS GT2530 turbo
• Nismo clutch plate with Exedy pressure plate
• Z32 AFM
• Koyo copper radiator

The night we got it we already had it sitting in the engine bay. Thought we were making great progress but as with all conversions there is always a few things that go wrong. We have sorted all of these problems now and the only things left to do is top up the fluid, fit my gauges and finish the battery relocation so I have power to start it.

I did my best to tidy up the wiring loom and make it look neat but one day I would like to make another from scratch and tuck it completely out of sight.

I dont have any clear pictures of the engine as it currently sits so I will attempt to get a few and do a picture update in the next couple nights.

Brad

Almost time for an engine

Been busy the last few days.

Pulled the crossmember out, fitting extra lock washers, cleaned the crossmember (this took a good half an hour in itself with the 20 odd years of grease and grime on it), refitted the body loom and tidied up a few of the areas I got overspray when painting.

Crossmember out:

Refitting loom. So far decided to mount it back in the standard location. Once its all in and hooked up ill see if I can tuck it away a bit better

Tucked up guard looms nice and high so they dont rub

Picked up some R33 rear calipers for the twin rear brake hydro handbrake setup

My new solid engine mounts arrived aswell.

Thats all today.

Ordered a solid steering spacer bush tonight and brake master cylinder stopper that should be here in a few days. Then to finish the last few bits and then drop an engine in.

Also decided to just mount my intercooler as a front mount for the moment as I already have piping for that. I still have holes for a mid mount so if I find it gets hot or too laggy I will change it over when need be.

Colour time

Bit of a late post however I had some free time over the long weekend and decided to throw down some colour on the bay.

Started off by throwing it up on some jack stands, pulled the coilovers out then went to town with the sander taking as much back to bare metal as possible.

Then layed down some etch primer (unfortunatly forgot to take a picture of this stage)

And then the next day once the primer had plenty of time to dry I came back and layed down the 2pac top coat. Not too sure what the exact colour is however it looked a lot like a generic machinery grey.

This was my first time ever spraying 2pac paint so I wasnt too sure what I was doing but overall Im rather happy with the end result.

What is started out as:

How it ended up:

Currently in the process of refitting the looms that I need. Got quite a bit of overspray on the crossmember however that will soon be coming out to have the rack moved forward to stop steering bind.

Thats all for now. Will hopefully get some more done over the weekend

Getting ready for colour

Today I got the car down to work. Threw it up on some jack stands and pulled out the front coilovers.

Went to town with the grinder and sander to get it back as bare as possible in the time I had which unfortunatly wasnt that long.

Used a sanding disc attached to the grinder to get the strut tops back to complete bare metal as the primer I had recently sprayed was reacting with the etch primer. Unforunatly I forgot to snap a picture after the primer was layed down but I will try to remember to get one before I get the colour on in the morning.

Choice of colour will be a machinery grey. Will test what I have at work out before applying to the car to check I am happy with it first though.

Thats all for tonight. Will have another update once I get the colour on.

More boring prep work

Ok so last Friday night I got to work again on this. Removed both front quarter panels, removed the lighting wiring loom as much as I could. It went right up under the dashboard and on a Friday night the last thing I wanted was to be laying upside down under my dash so I got it unhooked and pulled it outside the engine bay. Its all going back in so I will just paint around it.

Then got out the welder again and went to town with a few more spot welds under where the front guards mount. Now I just need to pull the brake master and booster, A couple other small things out, blast some of the grease and grime off the crossmember and then I can start sanding it down for its new colour.

Still not sure on engine bay colour so if anyone has an input go for it!

On with the pictures...

Stiffening the chassis

Due to the weak design of the S13 chassis and the few small bits of rust in the car I decided I wanted to stiffen the old shell up. I already had the motor out so figured it wouldnt be too much more work.

I started off by scraping/sanding/wire wheeling all the old gap sealer out of the joins in the tops of the strut towers and inside the wheel arches after removing the coilovers to make access easier.

Once I had all the old sealant out I had my best mate come over to start welding it all up. We decided multiple spot welds would be better than stitch welding due to the heat involved in stitch welding and not wanting to twist the chassis.

I would take a guess that there would be around 200 extra spot welds now in the front of the car. This should stiffen it up quite substantially.

Once we finished welding we primed the area to stop any more rust

Then the part i didnt like, we refilled the gaps with gap sealer. I dont like this as it covered all the spot welds so unless you really look you cant tell the car has had many hours work put into stiffening it up but atleast it will stop moisture getting in gaps and rusting it from the inside out.

Once we had sealed it all back up we resprayed inside the wheel arches black again. The engine bay will stay in primer for now as I will be respraying the engine bay shortly.

Thats all for today. Will have more updates shortly. This time ill try to make them less than 12 months apart!