Tale of too many Silvia's - Vegemite Edition
Discussion
Hi guys
Last year my daily car forum over here in the land of ned kelly and kangaroos had a server meltdown which lasted a month so I went looking for an alternative and found Piston Heads.
I'm sure somone smarter than me could do a post doctorate in the differences between the motherland and the colony's as analysed through car forums, but in any case Piston Heads has become my second haunt and I find myself enjoying the forum very much. Maybe it's my mum's influence, she emigrated from Great Yarmouth 30 years ago.
The following is my sordid tale of the last 10 years or so. I hope it's enjoyable and apologise for where it's disjointed as I'm copying past posts.
Cheers
Alex
Last year my daily car forum over here in the land of ned kelly and kangaroos had a server meltdown which lasted a month so I went looking for an alternative and found Piston Heads.
I'm sure somone smarter than me could do a post doctorate in the differences between the motherland and the colony's as analysed through car forums, but in any case Piston Heads has become my second haunt and I find myself enjoying the forum very much. Maybe it's my mum's influence, she emigrated from Great Yarmouth 30 years ago.
The following is my sordid tale of the last 10 years or so. I hope it's enjoyable and apologise for where it's disjointed as I'm copying past posts.
Cheers
Alex
17-01-18
I grew up with a love of cars via my Dad. Growing up in country NSW it was Ford and Holden V8's with some Valiant 6's thrown in. I knew nothing of Japanese cars and it would have stayed that way if the drought hadn't hit. Without work on the farm I got kicked off to Melbourne for Uni and towards the end I'd shacked up with this girl who had a black 180SX with a catback exhaust. It was otherwise standard so it was pretty slow but it handled like a champ and made cool noises.
I don't have a photo from way back then but it looked like this. I would drive it at any chance possible.
We went our separate ways unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how I look at it, and I could no longer borrow her 180SX. At the time I was close to graduating and was previously searching for a Mustang or a Camaro for getting through four years of engineering (instead of using my savings to buy property like I should have), however this all changed after driving the 180SX and I eventually found the modern equivalent, a white S15.
Being a demo car for a local shop it had all of 23,000 km and came with a bunch of APexi and Tien parts and a genuine Nismo R-tune kit. I can still remember test-driving it and the feeling of when the car came on boost. It felt like the car was trying to outrun itself
I joined up with the local S15 club MelbS15 and started going on cruises, gymkhana's and track days. The track bug bit which led to more upgrades and the car becoming less and less streetable. I think at this stage I'd installed a Velo seat so I could actually fit in it properly and some Brembo calipers off an Evo 8.
Mount Donna Buang in the wintertime. The snow took us by surprise.
I met a lot of great blokes through the club and the guys are are still my closest friends years on.
At this stage I wanted to go faster on the track. If I've one regret it's at this point I didn't just leave the car as is and enjoy it as a semi-street, weekend track car...
Instead it came off the road and would remain in the garage in various stages of disrepair for the next 2-3 years. During this time and without a Silvia to drive on the road I did the most logical thing and instead of buying a house again, I picked up a red S15.
The red S15 was another ex-demo car for a workshop in QLD and it came with some lovely auto-salon styling. But it also had a fully built, blueprinted SR20 and went hard. After changing the gold wheels and gold mesh and gold anodising on the trims and locks I took it home to show the old man and almost converted him lol.
[video=youtube;ZAKeUGSj3r8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAKeUGSj3r8[/video]
The red S15 had a full HKS head with solid lifters. After checking the lash realised it was out of spec and rather than giving the job to a workshop I stupidly decided to do it myself. At this stage I was moving up the ladder at work and the red S15 would remain apart for another year of so. Nothing like having two broken cars
.
Back then MelbS15 had an annual track day which I desperately wanted to attend. I took 2 weeks off work and spent every minute of it in the garage finishing all the jobs that were half done on the white car. I've lost most of the photos but at this stage it had front tubs for wider wheels, solid bushes and adjustable everything, no interior, a diy fully sik candy red engine bay job (one of my poorer choices :s) and full re-wire which I'd attempted 3 times before paying a mate to do it the night before it was booked for a tune, with the tune being a day before the track day. Just in time delivery.
:knock:
The tune was booked with Rob at Sabbadin Automotive in Mulgrave on a recommendation from the club. On a very tight schedule Rob fixed the last of the wiring gremlins and got the car running and tuned. This was 5-6 years back and since then Rob has done and still does all the mechanical, tuning and fab work on the cars.
After 3 years I was a pretty happy lad to drive her again. Excuse the head.
I collected the car from Rob and the final touches were made by 4AM the morning before the trackday in my garage at home. I think I grabbed couple hours sleep and then did the 3 hour trip up to Winton.
It was a grouse feeling to make the day but the joy was short lived and I managed 10 laps before smoke started billowing from the car. Because I was up it the smoke didn't come into the cabin and I had no idea the car was on fire until I pulled back into the pits. My mate Dan grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the flames coming off the left side of the engine. In the aftermath we worked out the PCV valve had failed pushing 24 pound of boost into the rocker cover, down the front of the timing cover and out the dipstick throwing hot oil on the turbo beanie.
On the bright side I'd taken 2.5 seconds off my PB
After the effort of getting there and the fire she got pushed in the garage and I didn't lift a spanner on it again. As you can see in the pics she looked much worse for wear after sitting around for 3 years and having go-fast mods done without any consideration for aesthetics. At the time I had also just changed jobs, moved to an apartment in the city to be closer to the job site and had little spare time so I gave it to Rob to work on when he could. The red car went to a mate's place where it also sat unfinished and unloved. I think at this point I leased a VE SS for a while to get about but it wasn't the same, so after a series of good decisions I decided the best thing to do would be to not fix the two broken cars I already had but buy.... another Silvia.
:knock:
This time a jungle-green S14. This isn't my pic sorry, but the car looked just like it.
Unfortunately I bought the S14 with a lot of undisclosed issues so I fixed what I could and it was soon moved on. But this left me once again without a running Silvia so the hunt was on again. When I bought the white S15 I had started off looking for a 180SX to replace the black one but there were no decent examples for sale at the time. As luck would have it a gunmetal grey Type X popped up for sale in Geelong so we raced down, took it for a drive and struck a deal.
The Type X went straight to Sabbadin to fix the previous owner's work before we took it to Winton. Rob had just finished a round of upgrades to his S15 and wanted to test it out. He's since kept going with his car and holds the the S-chassis record at Winton.
I kept the grey 180SX for a while and had blast hammering it around being a general menace. Destroyed 2nd gear attempting to drift out the back off Dandenong one night and had to replace the 5 speed, had to replace a bent LCA in another ill fated attempt, but she just kept taking it and never skipped a beat. Never forget this young bloke coming up to us, looking at me before looking at the car and saying how great it was forty y/o's are into drifting - I had just turned 29
must be the lack of fuzz on top.
Anyhow, as much as I enjoyed the 180SX I still had a lot of guilt about the two S15s that I hadn't touched for better part of two years. Thankfully Rob and my mate were understanding, but I wasn't happy, especially about the white car being the first real car I'd owned. This ultimately lead me to sell the grey 180SX to a mate and bank the cash for the white S15. I was still living in the city 2 minutes from my job site and didn't need a car, but I dearly missed going on weekend runs up Donna Buang and Black Spur.
As luck would have it the mate who I'd sold the 180SX too asked to buy a bunch of spare parts I had sitting around. This guy is a Honda nut from way back and after lamenting how I missed driving a car hard he offered me the keys to his EG Civic that he'd used for 2 seasons of Nugget Nationals. The EG had a stock 1.5L D15Y4 no vteks, fixed bucket seat, Shockworks coilovers and Enkei rims with Hankook RS3s. It was very slow in a straight line, but in a corner it stuck like s
t to carpet.
We made a deal and the spare 180SX parts were swapped for the EG. To the amusement and much ridicule of my mates, I had become a Honda owner. I was a bit embarrassed of how much I liked it.
After swapping the parts and the car's plates the boys were rallied and we made for Donna Buang that same night. Donna was and is still my favourite drive. It's remote and quiet at night, it has some awesome tight, cambered sections until around half-way where it opens up and you can really give it to it. There's also a massive car park just below the summit for activities.
Because the 1.5L is absolutely gutless she spent most of the uphill run at high revs in second gear. Shifting up to third lost all torque so needless to say I was hanging out for the downhill. 3 corners into the downhill..
Still owe my mates JC and Llyod for driving the 1.5hr trip back to Melbourne to pickup a trailer at 2AM only to turn around to go back again to collect the EG. 2 seasons of Nugget Nationals and a hillrun had taken it's tole on the D15 and it had spat a rod. Being a non Vtec engine a replacement motor was sought for little $s and swapped over. I was still living in the city so the engine swap was done on the street outside a mate's house.
The new motor had a few extra ponies and I thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with hipo Silvia's and GTRs on tight downhills. The car was so secure to drive at the limit of the tyres.
One night on the way back from Lake Mountain the civic snap over-steered out of nowhere coming out of a corner. I did a 360 spin and ended up in the spoon drain. There was no damage and I could drive the car home but after that I couldn't trust it. It no longer felt secure. It also didn't have air-conditioning so coming into summer we pulled the good bits off, the coilovers, wheels, seat, etc, and replaced the white civic with a red EG5. The red EG had a D16Y8 with single cam Vteckez and we replaced the bushings throughout. It was a much nicer car to drive.
Whilst I was off playing with Honda's the red S15 had sat idle and we'd done a few jobs here and there on the white S15. I was about 8 years in and both S15s were still not running. I felt like I'd ruined two perfectly good cars and had spent a lot without much to show for it. I was also frustrated with the direction management were pushing my project at work and had a few personal issues at the time. One day I decided everything had to go and rage/Emo quit. I gave the red S15 and all my tools to the mate who'd been storing it and sold the white S15 much to Rob's protest. The civic was also sold.
This was about 2 years ago. In hindsight I wish I'd kept the white S15. But it lead me to ultimately change jobs, invest some money finally and start a relationship. Everything happens for a reason and life is better for it.
2 years on and my illness wasn't cured however lol.
:knock:
I found a neat Type X in Brisbane which satisfied the itch, but deep down I wanted another S15 to replace the white one.
I looked at just about every S15 for sale in Melbourne but nothing was right. They were either drift missles, had repair damage or were half complete track cars (the irony). Then my mate Luke decided it was time to sell his. Luke had had his for ages and Rob Sabbadin had done all the work on it. And it was red. Just before Christmas I went for a test-drive with Luke and was lucky enough to buy a very well looked after S15. Took naccas for a spin and he rates it. Nopics thinks it's too ricey :gay: lol.
Even found an old pic of the white S15 parked next to it years ago.
There are a few jobs to do which Luke was upfront about. The 5-speed gearbox that's in there was one we pulled out of an S14 about 5 years ago and whilst it drives the syncros are cooked. One of the JDM coilovers is knocking at the front and the diff is loose.
The car's making 260kw at the wheels and we've plans for more so Rob's already ordered a RB25 Skyline gearbox for it to go with a Nismo 1.5way LSD. We're dicing up between MCA or Shockworks coilovers before getting into the engine for more power. I prefer a plainer look and will be removing the carbon fibre dress-up bits and canards, paint the wing mirrors to match the red and spray the TE37's silver or get some Advan GT or LMGT4 wheels for her.
All in all am stoked with the car. Have spent the last 5 weeks travelling through the States with the missus and am looking forward to putting her through the hills when we get back.
I also have this boat and will start a thread in the race-car section. One mistake I want to learn from is to not compromise between a street and track car and whilst I'd like to have a Silvia track car the R33 is more affordable, it has a stronger drivetrain from factory and parts are easier to find. Can't wait to get back to the track.
Anyways thanks for reading my ramblings. Cheers
Alex
I grew up with a love of cars via my Dad. Growing up in country NSW it was Ford and Holden V8's with some Valiant 6's thrown in. I knew nothing of Japanese cars and it would have stayed that way if the drought hadn't hit. Without work on the farm I got kicked off to Melbourne for Uni and towards the end I'd shacked up with this girl who had a black 180SX with a catback exhaust. It was otherwise standard so it was pretty slow but it handled like a champ and made cool noises.
I don't have a photo from way back then but it looked like this. I would drive it at any chance possible.
We went our separate ways unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how I look at it, and I could no longer borrow her 180SX. At the time I was close to graduating and was previously searching for a Mustang or a Camaro for getting through four years of engineering (instead of using my savings to buy property like I should have), however this all changed after driving the 180SX and I eventually found the modern equivalent, a white S15.
Being a demo car for a local shop it had all of 23,000 km and came with a bunch of APexi and Tien parts and a genuine Nismo R-tune kit. I can still remember test-driving it and the feeling of when the car came on boost. It felt like the car was trying to outrun itself
I joined up with the local S15 club MelbS15 and started going on cruises, gymkhana's and track days. The track bug bit which led to more upgrades and the car becoming less and less streetable. I think at this stage I'd installed a Velo seat so I could actually fit in it properly and some Brembo calipers off an Evo 8.
Mount Donna Buang in the wintertime. The snow took us by surprise.
I met a lot of great blokes through the club and the guys are are still my closest friends years on.
At this stage I wanted to go faster on the track. If I've one regret it's at this point I didn't just leave the car as is and enjoy it as a semi-street, weekend track car...
Instead it came off the road and would remain in the garage in various stages of disrepair for the next 2-3 years. During this time and without a Silvia to drive on the road I did the most logical thing and instead of buying a house again, I picked up a red S15.
The red S15 was another ex-demo car for a workshop in QLD and it came with some lovely auto-salon styling. But it also had a fully built, blueprinted SR20 and went hard. After changing the gold wheels and gold mesh and gold anodising on the trims and locks I took it home to show the old man and almost converted him lol.
[video=youtube;ZAKeUGSj3r8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAKeUGSj3r8[/video]
The red S15 had a full HKS head with solid lifters. After checking the lash realised it was out of spec and rather than giving the job to a workshop I stupidly decided to do it myself. At this stage I was moving up the ladder at work and the red S15 would remain apart for another year of so. Nothing like having two broken cars
.Back then MelbS15 had an annual track day which I desperately wanted to attend. I took 2 weeks off work and spent every minute of it in the garage finishing all the jobs that were half done on the white car. I've lost most of the photos but at this stage it had front tubs for wider wheels, solid bushes and adjustable everything, no interior, a diy fully sik candy red engine bay job (one of my poorer choices :s) and full re-wire which I'd attempted 3 times before paying a mate to do it the night before it was booked for a tune, with the tune being a day before the track day. Just in time delivery.
:knock:
The tune was booked with Rob at Sabbadin Automotive in Mulgrave on a recommendation from the club. On a very tight schedule Rob fixed the last of the wiring gremlins and got the car running and tuned. This was 5-6 years back and since then Rob has done and still does all the mechanical, tuning and fab work on the cars.
After 3 years I was a pretty happy lad to drive her again. Excuse the head.
I collected the car from Rob and the final touches were made by 4AM the morning before the trackday in my garage at home. I think I grabbed couple hours sleep and then did the 3 hour trip up to Winton.
It was a grouse feeling to make the day but the joy was short lived and I managed 10 laps before smoke started billowing from the car. Because I was up it the smoke didn't come into the cabin and I had no idea the car was on fire until I pulled back into the pits. My mate Dan grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the flames coming off the left side of the engine. In the aftermath we worked out the PCV valve had failed pushing 24 pound of boost into the rocker cover, down the front of the timing cover and out the dipstick throwing hot oil on the turbo beanie
.On the bright side I'd taken 2.5 seconds off my PB
After the effort of getting there and the fire she got pushed in the garage and I didn't lift a spanner on it again. As you can see in the pics she looked much worse for wear after sitting around for 3 years and having go-fast mods done without any consideration for aesthetics. At the time I had also just changed jobs, moved to an apartment in the city to be closer to the job site and had little spare time so I gave it to Rob to work on when he could. The red car went to a mate's place where it also sat unfinished and unloved. I think at this point I leased a VE SS for a while to get about but it wasn't the same, so after a series of good decisions I decided the best thing to do would be to not fix the two broken cars I already had but buy.... another Silvia.
:knock:
This time a jungle-green S14. This isn't my pic sorry, but the car looked just like it.
Unfortunately I bought the S14 with a lot of undisclosed issues so I fixed what I could and it was soon moved on. But this left me once again without a running Silvia so the hunt was on again. When I bought the white S15 I had started off looking for a 180SX to replace the black one but there were no decent examples for sale at the time. As luck would have it a gunmetal grey Type X popped up for sale in Geelong so we raced down, took it for a drive and struck a deal.
The Type X went straight to Sabbadin to fix the previous owner's work before we took it to Winton. Rob had just finished a round of upgrades to his S15 and wanted to test it out. He's since kept going with his car and holds the the S-chassis record at Winton.
I kept the grey 180SX for a while and had blast hammering it around being a general menace. Destroyed 2nd gear attempting to drift out the back off Dandenong one night and had to replace the 5 speed, had to replace a bent LCA in another ill fated attempt, but she just kept taking it and never skipped a beat. Never forget this young bloke coming up to us, looking at me before looking at the car and saying how great it was forty y/o's are into drifting - I had just turned 29
must be the lack of fuzz on top.Anyhow, as much as I enjoyed the 180SX I still had a lot of guilt about the two S15s that I hadn't touched for better part of two years. Thankfully Rob and my mate were understanding, but I wasn't happy, especially about the white car being the first real car I'd owned. This ultimately lead me to sell the grey 180SX to a mate and bank the cash for the white S15. I was still living in the city 2 minutes from my job site and didn't need a car, but I dearly missed going on weekend runs up Donna Buang and Black Spur.
As luck would have it the mate who I'd sold the 180SX too asked to buy a bunch of spare parts I had sitting around. This guy is a Honda nut from way back and after lamenting how I missed driving a car hard he offered me the keys to his EG Civic that he'd used for 2 seasons of Nugget Nationals. The EG had a stock 1.5L D15Y4 no vteks, fixed bucket seat, Shockworks coilovers and Enkei rims with Hankook RS3s. It was very slow in a straight line, but in a corner it stuck like s
t to carpet.We made a deal and the spare 180SX parts were swapped for the EG. To the amusement and much ridicule of my mates, I had become a Honda owner. I was a bit embarrassed of how much I liked it.
After swapping the parts and the car's plates the boys were rallied and we made for Donna Buang that same night. Donna was and is still my favourite drive. It's remote and quiet at night, it has some awesome tight, cambered sections until around half-way where it opens up and you can really give it to it. There's also a massive car park just below the summit for activities.
Because the 1.5L is absolutely gutless she spent most of the uphill run at high revs in second gear. Shifting up to third lost all torque so needless to say I was hanging out for the downhill. 3 corners into the downhill..
Still owe my mates JC and Llyod for driving the 1.5hr trip back to Melbourne to pickup a trailer at 2AM only to turn around to go back again to collect the EG. 2 seasons of Nugget Nationals and a hillrun had taken it's tole on the D15 and it had spat a rod. Being a non Vtec engine a replacement motor was sought for little $s and swapped over. I was still living in the city so the engine swap was done on the street outside a mate's house.
The new motor had a few extra ponies and I thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with hipo Silvia's and GTRs on tight downhills. The car was so secure to drive at the limit of the tyres.
One night on the way back from Lake Mountain the civic snap over-steered out of nowhere coming out of a corner. I did a 360 spin and ended up in the spoon drain. There was no damage and I could drive the car home but after that I couldn't trust it. It no longer felt secure. It also didn't have air-conditioning so coming into summer we pulled the good bits off, the coilovers, wheels, seat, etc, and replaced the white civic with a red EG5. The red EG had a D16Y8 with single cam Vteckez and we replaced the bushings throughout. It was a much nicer car to drive.
Whilst I was off playing with Honda's the red S15 had sat idle and we'd done a few jobs here and there on the white S15. I was about 8 years in and both S15s were still not running. I felt like I'd ruined two perfectly good cars and had spent a lot without much to show for it. I was also frustrated with the direction management were pushing my project at work and had a few personal issues at the time. One day I decided everything had to go and rage/Emo quit. I gave the red S15 and all my tools to the mate who'd been storing it and sold the white S15 much to Rob's protest. The civic was also sold.
This was about 2 years ago. In hindsight I wish I'd kept the white S15. But it lead me to ultimately change jobs, invest some money finally and start a relationship. Everything happens for a reason and life is better for it.
2 years on and my illness wasn't cured however lol.
:knock:
I found a neat Type X in Brisbane which satisfied the itch, but deep down I wanted another S15 to replace the white one.
I looked at just about every S15 for sale in Melbourne but nothing was right. They were either drift missles, had repair damage or were half complete track cars (the irony). Then my mate Luke decided it was time to sell his. Luke had had his for ages and Rob Sabbadin had done all the work on it. And it was red
. Just before Christmas I went for a test-drive with Luke and was lucky enough to buy a very well looked after S15. Took naccas for a spin and he rates it. Nopics thinks it's too ricey :gay: lol.Even found an old pic of the white S15 parked next to it years ago.
There are a few jobs to do which Luke was upfront about. The 5-speed gearbox that's in there was one we pulled out of an S14 about 5 years ago and whilst it drives the syncros are cooked. One of the JDM coilovers is knocking at the front and the diff is loose.
The car's making 260kw at the wheels and we've plans for more so Rob's already ordered a RB25 Skyline gearbox for it to go with a Nismo 1.5way LSD. We're dicing up between MCA or Shockworks coilovers before getting into the engine for more power. I prefer a plainer look and will be removing the carbon fibre dress-up bits and canards, paint the wing mirrors to match the red and spray the TE37's silver or get some Advan GT or LMGT4 wheels for her.
All in all am stoked with the car. Have spent the last 5 weeks travelling through the States with the missus and am looking forward to putting her through the hills when we get back.
I also have this boat and will start a thread in the race-car section. One mistake I want to learn from is to not compromise between a street and track car and whilst I'd like to have a Silvia track car the R33 is more affordable, it has a stronger drivetrain from factory and parts are easier to find. Can't wait to get back to the track.
Anyways thanks for reading my ramblings. Cheers
Alex
Edited by gmr1234 on Sunday 2nd May 08:00
12-02-18
Back in the country and back at work for 3 weeks well and truly back to the grind.
Celebrated the last day of our trip by hiring a 65 Mustang and cruising through Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Old girl was a bit rough around the edges but it made a lovely noise and picked up pretty well when floored. Flatbrim was acquired to stop my head becoming a tomato in the sun.
The want for a 64-67 Mustang is definitely up there.
Came home to the S15 covered in a thick layer of dust. Gave it a clean and have thoroughly enjoyed just driving it.
The red isn't actually the factory AR2 Flame Red, my mate I bought it from had it re-sprayed maybe 3 years ago in Honda Milano Red with a white metallic pearl. The boys call red with unicorn sprog or something lol. I didn't like it initially but it really pops in the sun and is growing on me. Car needs some shiny dish to go with the paint I reckon.
She's due to go back Sabbadin start of March. Rob's stockpiling the adapter kit and bits and bobs needed to swap the RB25 box in, Nismo 1.5 way is bought and Shockworks are due in a couple of weeks. We ended up going with Shockworks over MCAs as I've had them before in the civic and 180SX and loved them, and Rob's had a few issues with the entry level MCAs fitted to other customers cars. BTW if anyone has a 4.11 or 4.3 R200 diff in an abs housing would be great to know (abs has longer nose for the sensor), having some trouble tracking one of these down.
Nopics and I got McFuzzy a mate and at 3 months he already loves boost.
Hanging for March to get the car sorted
25-02-18
Went down to Toyota Car Club Cars n Coffee in Ravenhall last weekend. First time I've taken a car to any sort of meet in a long time.
One of the downsides living on the edge of the city is the car always get covered with exhaust particulate. Wash it and the next day it's got a layer of grey dust. Can't trust the young one yet to not piss and st literally every 5 minutes so took the old boy who was not impressed with the time they were taking and use of car wash brushes.
Was a decent turn-out. I stupidly wore thongs so couldn't try out the electric go-karts.
There were a couple of nice street drifter Silvias and this Corolla historic rally car which was pretty cool.
All in all was fun getting the car out, but am hanging to fix the gearbox, knocking coilover and shaky diff next month.
15-07-18
Like every Silvia I've owned, the red car has now been sitting at Rob Sabbadin's for yonks lol.
The hold up has been trying to work out which gearbox conversion to use to replace the dead S14 5-speed.
Late last year, we bought a new RB25 gearbox to use with Powertune's adapter plate as it bolted straight in without needing to cut the chassis, however after we bought the box we soon learnt that Powertune no longer manufacture their kit. There are other adapter plates for the RB25, but they require notching of the chassis to fit the shifter as the RB25 box is a lot shorter than a S14 5-speed or S15 6-speed.
Coupled with the HMAS R33 needing a new gearbox the decision was made to use the RB25 box for the car it was made for and investigate other options for the Silvia.
We first looked at a Z32 5-speed conversion using the Alpha & Omega kit. Rob's done a few of these and rates the A&O kit, though the shifter feel threw me as it relies on a W'ish shift pattern to avoid notching the tunnel.
PMC in Finland have developed a kit to fit BMW M20 / M50 / M52 / M54 / S50 / S52 / M57 boxes. We were interested as these boxes can hold monster torque and the guys claimed no cutting nor hammering of the tunnel is required. Keen to follow this and see how they go once a few people have done the swap successfully.
The last two options were T56 and Z33/Z34. A few yankees have done a T56 swap but again a lot of bodywork is required which left us with the CD009.
There a few choices out there for CD009 swap; cut and shut bellhousing, locally made kit (Melbourne), Collins and others adapter plates, and Mazworx's bellhousing/kit. Rob had installed the local kit previously and wasn't a fan, a mate of a mate had has a cut/shut bellhousing done by a guy who was meant to 'the best' but it was off alignment and wrecked his box, and the Collins kits and similar still require a lot of hammering to fit.
The only option we could find that did not require cutting or hammering of the tunnel and kept the standard shifter position was Mazworx's kit. Unlike the adapter plates, Mazworx machine a replacement bellhousing which bolts onto the front of the gearbox. The CD009 bellhousing and input shaft are cut back to suit, a few unnecessary brackets are cut off and the whole things slots in without having to bash the st out of the car.
:fap:
http://www.mazworx.com/mazworx-sr-vq...s-chassis.aspx
https://youtu.be/nkyRquTwNoE
The nice thing with the Mazworx kit is we could pick and choose which bits we wanted, which is good because the packaged shifter is an ebay special and pretty st by most reports. THe plan is to use either a GKTech or Serial009 shifter and get the tailshaft made up locally as this saved nearly $400 on shipping. We're also going to use the S13 slave as Nissan have had a few issues with the internal slave https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2...-lawsuit.shtml
All going to plan it should look something like this.
The downside is Mazworx quoted an 8 week lead-time before shipping, and I'm assuming this is based on minimum order and might blow out which is only a problem if Rob starts charging me rent. Which he probably should :knock:
Hopefully we'll have an update in 8 - 11nty weeks time!
09-08-18
Oh Canada
First piece of the puzzle to arrive, thanks fist for your feedback it's a nice, solid unit.
For any Jay Zee fans Serial Nine do a nice looking CD009 adapter bellhousing + kit.
Haven't done the sums but at a guess it would be around the same price as R154 gearbox + supra tax if you can find one.
14-10-18
The 370Z gearbag showed up last week having made the 10 week trip on the slow boat from UAE or wherever Rob gets his oem bits from these days.
Also bought some SPL rear camber arms to replace the farked Cusco ones and SPL traction arms to tune the toe steer.
Mazworx bellhousing also arrived, but we're still waiting on the Nismo GT Pro 1.5way centre to show up.
Hoping to have the car driving out of Sabbadins by Cup weekend, but Rob's been distracted playing with this slightly modified datsun up at WTAC.
Back in the country and back at work for 3 weeks
well and truly back to the grind.Celebrated the last day of our trip by hiring a 65 Mustang and cruising through Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Old girl was a bit rough around the edges but it made a lovely noise and picked up pretty well when floored. Flatbrim was acquired to stop my head becoming a tomato in the sun.
The want for a 64-67 Mustang is definitely up there.
Came home to the S15 covered in a thick layer of dust. Gave it a clean and have thoroughly enjoyed just driving it.
The red isn't actually the factory AR2 Flame Red, my mate I bought it from had it re-sprayed maybe 3 years ago in Honda Milano Red with a white metallic pearl. The boys call red with unicorn sprog or something lol. I didn't like it initially but it really pops in the sun and is growing on me. Car needs some shiny dish to go with the paint I reckon.
She's due to go back Sabbadin start of March. Rob's stockpiling the adapter kit and bits and bobs needed to swap the RB25 box in, Nismo 1.5 way is bought and Shockworks are due in a couple of weeks. We ended up going with Shockworks over MCAs as I've had them before in the civic and 180SX and loved them, and Rob's had a few issues with the entry level MCAs fitted to other customers cars. BTW if anyone has a 4.11 or 4.3 R200 diff in an abs housing would be great to know (abs has longer nose for the sensor), having some trouble tracking one of these down.
Nopics and I got McFuzzy a mate and at 3 months he already loves boost.
Hanging for March to get the car sorted
25-02-18
Went down to Toyota Car Club Cars n Coffee in Ravenhall last weekend. First time I've taken a car to any sort of meet in a long time.
One of the downsides living on the edge of the city is the car always get covered with exhaust particulate. Wash it and the next day it's got a layer of grey dust. Can't trust the young one yet to not piss and s
t literally every 5 minutes so took the old boy who was not impressed with the time they were taking and use of car wash brushes.Was a decent turn-out. I stupidly wore thongs so couldn't try out the electric go-karts
.There were a couple of nice street drifter Silvias and this Corolla historic rally car which was pretty cool.
All in all was fun getting the car out, but am hanging to fix the gearbox, knocking coilover and shaky diff next month.
15-07-18
Like every Silvia I've owned, the red car has now been sitting at Rob Sabbadin's for yonks lol.
The hold up has been trying to work out which gearbox conversion to use to replace the dead S14 5-speed.
Late last year, we bought a new RB25 gearbox to use with Powertune's adapter plate as it bolted straight in without needing to cut the chassis, however after we bought the box we soon learnt that Powertune no longer manufacture their kit
. There are other adapter plates for the RB25, but they require notching of the chassis to fit the shifter as the RB25 box is a lot shorter than a S14 5-speed or S15 6-speed.Coupled with the HMAS R33 needing a new gearbox the decision was made to use the RB25 box for the car it was made for and investigate other options for the Silvia.
We first looked at a Z32 5-speed conversion using the Alpha & Omega kit. Rob's done a few of these and rates the A&O kit, though the shifter feel threw me as it relies on a W'ish shift pattern to avoid notching the tunnel.
PMC in Finland have developed a kit to fit BMW M20 / M50 / M52 / M54 / S50 / S52 / M57 boxes. We were interested as these boxes can hold monster torque and the guys claimed no cutting nor hammering of the tunnel is required. Keen to follow this and see how they go once a few people have done the swap successfully.
The last two options were T56 and Z33/Z34. A few yankees have done a T56 swap but again a lot of bodywork is required which left us with the CD009.
There a few choices out there for CD009 swap; cut and shut bellhousing, locally made kit (Melbourne), Collins and others adapter plates, and Mazworx's bellhousing/kit. Rob had installed the local kit previously and wasn't a fan, a mate of a mate had has a cut/shut bellhousing done by a guy who was meant to 'the best' but it was off alignment and wrecked his box, and the Collins kits and similar still require a lot of hammering to fit.
The only option we could find that did not require cutting or hammering of the tunnel and kept the standard shifter position was Mazworx's kit. Unlike the adapter plates, Mazworx machine a replacement bellhousing which bolts onto the front of the gearbox. The CD009 bellhousing and input shaft are cut back to suit, a few unnecessary brackets are cut off and the whole things slots in without having to bash the s
t out of the car.:fap:
http://www.mazworx.com/mazworx-sr-vq...s-chassis.aspx
https://youtu.be/nkyRquTwNoE
The nice thing with the Mazworx kit is we could pick and choose which bits we wanted, which is good because the packaged shifter is an ebay special and pretty s
t by most reports. THe plan is to use either a GKTech or Serial009 shifter and get the tailshaft made up locally as this saved nearly $400 on shipping. We're also going to use the S13 slave as Nissan have had a few issues with the internal slave https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2...-lawsuit.shtmlAll going to plan it should look something like this.
The downside is Mazworx quoted an 8 week lead-time before shipping, and I'm assuming this is based on minimum order and might blow out which is only a problem if Rob starts charging me rent. Which he probably should :knock:
Hopefully we'll have an update in 8 - 11nty weeks time!
09-08-18
Oh Canada
First piece of the puzzle to arrive, thanks fist for your feedback it's a nice, solid unit.
For any Jay Zee fans Serial Nine do a nice looking CD009 adapter bellhousing + kit.
Haven't done the sums but at a guess it would be around the same price as R154 gearbox + supra tax if you can find one.
14-10-18
The 370Z gearbag showed up last week having made the 10 week trip on the slow boat from UAE or wherever Rob gets his oem bits from these days.
Also bought some SPL rear camber arms to replace the farked Cusco ones and SPL traction arms to tune the toe steer.
Mazworx bellhousing also arrived, but we're still waiting on the Nismo GT Pro 1.5way centre to show up.
Hoping to have the car driving out of Sabbadins by Cup weekend, but Rob's been distracted playing with this slightly modified datsun up at WTAC.
24-10-18
2 steps forward 1 step back.
Rob's got a few conversions on the go. Even compared to the RB25 box on the right the Z33/Z34 gearbox is big.
Thankfully, the Mazworx bellhousing, crossmember and Serial9 kit worked. Box fits perfectly with zero hammering or cutting required. Am stoked with how the box fits.
Unfortunately the clutch is proper farked.
Rob's got a new twinplate on order which we've spec'd for 500kw and the tailshaft is getting made up too. We were hoping to have everything done this week, but it's going to take a bit longer.
06-11-18
Tailshaft done. Need to ask Rob exactly what he ordered lol.
11-11-18
Dropped into Sabbadin during the week and took this for a quick burn.
First impressions are the shifter is awesome, the throw is short and very tight similar to a S2000 and the CD009 ratio's match well with 4.11 final. It would be too short on the track but for hooning in light traffic it's perfect the car just wants to get up and run.
The single mass/twin plate combo is noisy on deaccel and light load which is to be expected and the old diff is still rattling around in the housing, but the Nismo lsd finally arrived last week and is getting put in a non-fkd 4.11 R200 next week.
Shockworks coilovers are comfy and once the diff is sorted the bump/droop will get setup at Razz. Oh yea one of the rear brembos is leaking at the seal which is also getting fixed.
Everything going to plan should be picking it up from Rob's end of next week
18-11-18
The leak on the rear brembo caliper was just the seal.
Unfortunately the other rear brembo had a hairline crack in it :wtf:
After trying to find another set of R33gtr rear brembos had a think and decided to change the brakes for R33Gtst all round. On first glance it looks like a downgrade but the evo brembos are a pain in the arse on these cars because the wheel size/offsets that fit the front guards won't fit the massive evo caliper. Given this car is not going on the track and I've always been satisfied with R33gtst brakes on Silvia's in the past, and I want decent size wheels with dish, decided they were the go.
Thankfully my mate Kurt had a full setup in his garage. Because he's sipping cocktails by the pool in Bali his flatmate dropped them off to Dan at Razz who got them to Sabbadin where Rob rebuilt them and gave them a lick of paint.
DBA T3's and intima pads rocked up on Friday and Rob got it all bolted together in time to get the car over to Dan at Razz by late arvo. Before it left Rob also touched up the cold-start on the PowerFC bccause cranking when cold was a bit rough.
Dan spent more than a few hours setting up the bump and droop on the coilovers, setting thealignment and tuning out the toe steer at the rear with the traction arms. He got dynamic toe within less than 1mm of static which for a s-chassis which has good curves until the car is lowered just a little bit is pretty awesome. Camber is bit too aggressive for the street but is needed to fit the TE37's. They're going to be replaced with higher offset wheels eventually so we can dial some of this out and fit a bigger tyre.
Still the car feels fkn amazing to drive. Full disclosure Dan's a mate, but if you want someone who knows what they're doing and will take the time to get it right and not just good enough give him a bell.
Rob said I needed to do a few km's to finish breaking in the gearbox, clutch and diff so Albo and I went for a drive last night to V-Spec in Blackburn for the Mine's Performance GTR day.
After that went to Docklands as there's usually a few cars parked up at the Pizza shop down there.
It's really nice having her driving again. Can't wait to do a few more km until everything is broken in so I can give her a proper flogging
09-12-18
Have had a few ups and downs with the S15.
Started with the car dropping power twice on the way home and then dying 3m from my garage. Not a bad spot for it.
Came back the next day to a flat battery and..
No fuel on ignition
Fuel pump fuse and relay was good so diagnosis was dead Walbro.
This was a Sunday and we had a tender closing Friday at work which meant no time during the week to work to install a new pump. Not wanting to leave the car outside on the truck it went back to Sabbadin.
Picked up the car yesterday with a new Walbro which was the good news. Bad news was it wouldn't go into 5th or 6th gear, and would go into reverse without pushing the shifter down and across like normal.
The nice thing about the Serial009 shifter is it maintains the reverse lockout the stock shifter has. I had no idea how this actually worked but sent an email to Serial009 in Canada at 10AM Saturday and had a reply at 1030.
The reverse lockout works via the little tab of to the right of the shifter. It strikes the top plate which stops the shifter going beyond the 5th and 6th gear gates. Turns out with all the vibrations with everything solid mounted the top plate had come lose allowing the shifter to move too far right, beyond the 5th and 6th gear gates and far enough to be able to select reverse.
5th and 6th.
And push down for reverse. Nice system and a lot simpler than I thought.
The bug bear with the CD009 trans is the noise from the box when a single mass flywheel is used. All the 350Z / 370Z guys complain about it. Rob gave me a sheet of sound deadening and a new boot to try and keep some of this noise out of the cabin. The sound deadener doesn't really work in isolation but figured it was worth trying.
Went in okay.
Stretched the stock S15 boot over the shift block to seal it.
Everything back together. Sorry for potatocam.
What do you know, even that small piece of deadener over the trans hole made a big difference. The car is noticeably quieter with the trans noise reduced in the cabin.
The carbuilders guys have some pretty neat vids on youtube showing the different types of deadener and the applications. We take a decent break at work over Xmas and am going to do the whole tunnel and floorpan, and eventually the doors pillars and roof.
16-12-18
Had $100 in supercheap credit expiring so bought some unnecessary st.
From yes it's stock officer.
To insta-defect. Can hear the turbo whistle and whine now though :w:
03-03-19
Since picking up the car after the Z33 gearbox was installed the car had severe vibration coming from the gearbox between 3000-2300 when decelerating.
It had a chuga-chuga sound that emanated through the whole car because the engine and box are all solid mounted. It was deafening and I was getting headaches after 30mins in the car, forget taking nopics in it anywhere. It got to a point where I didn't drive the car for weeks because it was so bad.
Reading through every 370Z forum out there, a lot of owners experienced the same thing when changing out the stock dual-mass flywheel for a lightened flywheel and new clutch, especially with JWT clutch kits.
When we swapped the gearbox over, we used a Direct Clutch twin plate rated at 600kw. The twin plate uses solid centres which meant there was zero dampening in the drivetrain, just like the JWT kit. The penny dropped and I realised I had the same issue with my first white S15 which had an undampened ORC409 clutch and had the same vibration on deceleration, albeit the sound wasn't as bad because the gears in the Z33 box are so much larger than the stock 6-speed.
My mate Danutz had used a NPC dampened single plate clutch in his S15, which also has a Z33 box and lazy 400kw.
He had no vibration so we figured what the hell, worth a shot. Picked up the car last Friday from Sabaddin with the NPC clutch installed and fk me, it was quiet as . Strange to think a few springs in the clutch plate could make such a difference.
After deliberately not driving the car for a couple of months because of the noise I spent the whole morning just cruising around enjoying the car. Also sold the wing to a mate and bought another boot with the original three mounted wing and tasmania light which will get painted along with the rest of the car in April.
The passengers enjoyed it too.
25-03-19
Few weekends back we took the S15 for a cruise to Sugerloaf with some of the old MelbS15 guys to celebrate my mate Manny and I both having running cars at the same time in the past 5 years.
Which didn't last long lol (Manny's car in the pic).
Thankfully it was an easy fix and we made our way up to the reservoir.
The following weekend went for a trip home and got the rego swapped over finally, excuse the passenger.
Dmax towed like a champ, I love that ute.
After a friendly blueslip, pleasure of a green slip and some time at RMS the reg was swapped. Much betterer.
This weekend got to addressing one of the issues with the car that's bugged me for a while.
Common theme with Nissans of this vintage is that one rear wheel sits further out from the guard than the other.
Bit hard to see but the passenger rear wheel is further out by 5-10mm.
People reckon this is due to the position of the four subframe mounting points being slightly out.
My guards were pumped quite a bit when the car was sprayed so me and my OCD wanted to know whether the guards were uneven side-side or whether the subframe was mounted off.
Que plumb bob / anal plug. Trojan have certainly captured the market.
Dropped the plumb bob from the centre of each of the four subframe mounting pins and from the centre of the two bolts that the front k frame bolts to.
Marked each location on the concrete.
And got to measuring the diagonals.
Which resulted in this.
All in all pretty happy.
I reckon my accuracy with the bob and tape measure was +/- 1mm, but even then any of the small differences aren't enough to account for the 5-10mm difference of the rear wheel left to right (doing trig in my head to get the adjacent dimension).
While the subframe is sitting square the LCA mounting points on the subframe may still be out and I'm going to check these next time the car is on stands.
Until then have a motorkhana booked for this weekend coming and am looking forward to leaning on it like the red headed step child that it is.
2 steps forward 1 step back.
Rob's got a few conversions on the go. Even compared to the RB25 box on the right the Z33/Z34 gearbox is big.
Thankfully, the Mazworx bellhousing, crossmember and Serial9 kit worked. Box fits perfectly with zero hammering or cutting required. Am stoked with how the box fits.
Unfortunately the clutch is proper farked.
Rob's got a new twinplate on order which we've spec'd for 500kw and the tailshaft is getting made up too. We were hoping to have everything done this week, but it's going to take a bit longer.
06-11-18
Tailshaft done. Need to ask Rob exactly what he ordered lol.
11-11-18
Dropped into Sabbadin during the week and took this for a quick burn.
First impressions are the shifter is awesome, the throw is short and very tight similar to a S2000 and the CD009 ratio's match well with 4.11 final. It would be too short on the track but for hooning in light traffic it's perfect the car just wants to get up and run.
The single mass/twin plate combo is noisy on deaccel and light load which is to be expected and the old diff is still rattling around in the housing, but the Nismo lsd finally arrived last week and is getting put in a non-fkd 4.11 R200 next week.
Shockworks coilovers are comfy and once the diff is sorted the bump/droop will get setup at Razz. Oh yea one of the rear brembos is leaking at the seal which is also getting fixed.
Everything going to plan should be picking it up from Rob's end of next week
18-11-18
The leak on the rear brembo caliper was just the seal.
Unfortunately the other rear brembo had a hairline crack in it :wtf:
After trying to find another set of R33gtr rear brembos had a think and decided to change the brakes for R33Gtst all round. On first glance it looks like a downgrade but the evo brembos are a pain in the arse on these cars because the wheel size/offsets that fit the front guards won't fit the massive evo caliper. Given this car is not going on the track and I've always been satisfied with R33gtst brakes on Silvia's in the past, and I want decent size wheels with dish, decided they were the go.
Thankfully my mate Kurt had a full setup in his garage. Because he's sipping cocktails by the pool in Bali his flatmate dropped them off to Dan at Razz who got them to Sabbadin where Rob rebuilt them and gave them a lick of paint.
DBA T3's and intima pads rocked up on Friday and Rob got it all bolted together in time to get the car over to Dan at Razz by late arvo. Before it left Rob also touched up the cold-start on the PowerFC bccause cranking when cold was a bit rough.
Dan spent more than a few hours setting up the bump and droop on the coilovers, setting thealignment and tuning out the toe steer at the rear with the traction arms. He got dynamic toe within less than 1mm of static which for a s-chassis which has good curves until the car is lowered just a little bit is pretty awesome. Camber is bit too aggressive for the street but is needed to fit the TE37's. They're going to be replaced with higher offset wheels eventually so we can dial some of this out and fit a bigger tyre.
Still the car feels fkn amazing to drive. Full disclosure Dan's a mate, but if you want someone who knows what they're doing and will take the time to get it right and not just good enough give him a bell.
Rob said I needed to do a few km's to finish breaking in the gearbox, clutch and diff so Albo and I went for a drive last night to V-Spec in Blackburn for the Mine's Performance GTR day.
After that went to Docklands as there's usually a few cars parked up at the Pizza shop down there.
It's really nice having her driving again. Can't wait to do a few more km until everything is broken in so I can give her a proper flogging
09-12-18
Have had a few ups and downs with the S15.
Started with the car dropping power twice on the way home and then dying 3m from my garage. Not a bad spot for it.
Came back the next day to a flat battery and..
No fuel on ignition
Fuel pump fuse and relay was good so diagnosis was dead Walbro.
This was a Sunday and we had a tender closing Friday at work which meant no time during the week to work to install a new pump. Not wanting to leave the car outside on the truck it went back to Sabbadin.
Picked up the car yesterday with a new Walbro which was the good news. Bad news was it wouldn't go into 5th or 6th gear, and would go into reverse without pushing the shifter down and across like normal.
The nice thing about the Serial009 shifter is it maintains the reverse lockout the stock shifter has. I had no idea how this actually worked but sent an email to Serial009 in Canada at 10AM Saturday and had a reply at 1030.
The reverse lockout works via the little tab of to the right of the shifter. It strikes the top plate which stops the shifter going beyond the 5th and 6th gear gates. Turns out with all the vibrations with everything solid mounted the top plate had come lose allowing the shifter to move too far right, beyond the 5th and 6th gear gates and far enough to be able to select reverse.
5th and 6th.
And push down for reverse. Nice system and a lot simpler than I thought.
The bug bear with the CD009 trans is the noise from the box when a single mass flywheel is used. All the 350Z / 370Z guys complain about it. Rob gave me a sheet of sound deadening and a new boot to try and keep some of this noise out of the cabin. The sound deadener doesn't really work in isolation but figured it was worth trying.
Went in okay.
Stretched the stock S15 boot over the shift block to seal it.
Everything back together. Sorry for potatocam.
What do you know, even that small piece of deadener over the trans hole made a big difference
. The car is noticeably quieter with the trans noise reduced in the cabin.The carbuilders guys have some pretty neat vids on youtube showing the different types of deadener and the applications. We take a decent break at work over Xmas and am going to do the whole tunnel and floorpan, and eventually the doors pillars and roof.
16-12-18
Had $100 in supercheap credit expiring so bought some unnecessary s
t.From yes it's stock officer.
To insta-defect. Can hear the turbo whistle and whine now though :w:
03-03-19
Since picking up the car after the Z33 gearbox was installed the car had severe vibration coming from the gearbox between 3000-2300 when decelerating.
It had a chuga-chuga sound that emanated through the whole car because the engine and box are all solid mounted. It was deafening and I was getting headaches after 30mins in the car, forget taking nopics in it anywhere. It got to a point where I didn't drive the car for weeks because it was so bad.
Reading through every 370Z forum out there, a lot of owners experienced the same thing when changing out the stock dual-mass flywheel for a lightened flywheel and new clutch, especially with JWT clutch kits.
When we swapped the gearbox over, we used a Direct Clutch twin plate rated at 600kw. The twin plate uses solid centres which meant there was zero dampening in the drivetrain, just like the JWT kit. The penny dropped and I realised I had the same issue with my first white S15 which had an undampened ORC409 clutch and had the same vibration on deceleration, albeit the sound wasn't as bad because the gears in the Z33 box are so much larger than the stock 6-speed.
My mate Danutz had used a NPC dampened single plate clutch in his S15, which also has a Z33 box and lazy 400kw.
He had no vibration so we figured what the hell, worth a shot. Picked up the car last Friday from Sabaddin with the NPC clutch installed and f
k me, it was quiet as . Strange to think a few springs in the clutch plate could make such a difference.After deliberately not driving the car for a couple of months because of the noise I spent the whole morning just cruising around enjoying the car. Also sold the wing to a mate and bought another boot with the original three mounted wing and tasmania light which will get painted along with the rest of the car in April.
The passengers enjoyed it too.
25-03-19
Few weekends back we took the S15 for a cruise to Sugerloaf with some of the old MelbS15 guys to celebrate my mate Manny and I both having running cars at the same time in the past 5 years.
Which didn't last long lol (Manny's car in the pic).
Thankfully it was an easy fix and we made our way up to the reservoir.
The following weekend went for a trip home and got the rego swapped over finally, excuse the passenger.
Dmax towed like a champ, I love that ute.
After a friendly blueslip, pleasure of a green slip and some time at RMS the reg was swapped. Much betterer.
This weekend got to addressing one of the issues with the car that's bugged me for a while.
Common theme with Nissans of this vintage is that one rear wheel sits further out from the guard than the other.
Bit hard to see but the passenger rear wheel is further out by 5-10mm.
People reckon this is due to the position of the four subframe mounting points being slightly out.
My guards were pumped quite a bit when the car was sprayed so me and my OCD wanted to know whether the guards were uneven side-side or whether the subframe was mounted off.
Que plumb bob / anal plug. Trojan have certainly captured the market.
Dropped the plumb bob from the centre of each of the four subframe mounting pins and from the centre of the two bolts that the front k frame bolts to.
Marked each location on the concrete.
And got to measuring the diagonals.
Which resulted in this.
All in all pretty happy.
I reckon my accuracy with the bob and tape measure was +/- 1mm, but even then any of the small differences aren't enough to account for the 5-10mm difference of the rear wheel left to right (doing trig in my head to get the adjacent dimension).
While the subframe is sitting square the LCA mounting points on the subframe may still be out and I'm going to check these next time the car is on stands.
Until then have a motorkhana booked for this weekend coming and am looking forward to leaning on it like the red headed step child that it is.
22-05-19
Did this.
Then this.
But the kunt is still doing this
So the sensor is fine, my red scratched up arm is not.
I have a genuine Nissan filter coming as there is a chance the ryco one might be a dud. This was the only other thing that changed when the pressure first dropped and in hindsight I probably should have done this first before the sensor.. fingers crossed.
And the S14 is ready and towie is booked so all going well we'll have it picked up and dropped on on Saturday.
21-07-19
Been a while between updates sorry.
Took delivery of nugget 2.
And upgraded to the double garage next door with space for both nuggets.
The S14 is not the cleanest of cars, but it doesn't need to be either. Once I rebuild and blow up the SR again three or four times over all it's got to do is go sideways fast
Nopics bought me an engine crane and stand for our anniversary, she's a good egg.
But unfortunately plans got a bit derailed due to work and I only got started on it this weekend.
No hotside, AC off, PS off and intake needs to come out to get at the oil cooler lines.
Got this far this arv, once the rest of the intake comes out it's 5 minutes to disconnect the oil filter and then it's just the tailshaft before she's ready to be yanked.
We're on hols end-August and my aim is to get the engine apart and to Rob Sabbadin for machining while we're away.
The red car is still being a right old kunt. The next step with the low oil pressure saga was to try a different oil filter as this was the only other thing that changed before it started running low. From left to right is the pre-low oil pressure filter, the filter that got changed over, and the new nissan filter I bought.
Turns out the filter made fk all difference. My last resort is replacing the oil pickup gasket on the chance it's sucking in air, otherwise the oil pump needs replacing or a bearing's out - either one is a pain.
In the face of a potentially expensive mechanical repair on the S15 the last thing I should be doing is worrying about aesthetics. So I bought a genuine Vertex Ridge widebody kit.
It looks like this when not in pieces taking up room inside.
In all honesty it was a bit of an impulse buy. I'm a big fan of Nobu Taniguchi's HKS S15 and since I had the Advan's that wouldn't fit the stock guards figured this would be a good solution.
Still not sure if I'll use it or run the Vertex lang kit which fits the stock body, this is one of my old S15's that my mate Kev had fitted with the Vertex lang kit and painted this week - I reckon it looks horn.
The HKS S15 also runs Craftsquare mirrors which I prefer over the Ganadors so when a faceballs wtb ad came up looking for Ganadors (which are now discontinued) I pulled them off and am now waiting 3 months for the made to order Craftsquares to come from j land.
Good thing the engine's potentially knackered lol. Tried out the Advan TC II's from nugget 2 on nugget 1.
Looks good but unfortunately they're burrito af.
In summary, a lot of dicking around with nugget 1 and some progress on nugget 2..!
All going to plan will have the S14's engine out next weekend.
24-10-19
Three months on and I've been chipping away at the S14 in my spare time. Nopics recently became nomorepics so will have some more time now I guess.
Got the intake and maze of leaking coolant hoses out the way to get to the oil cooler lines.
Made up a couple of brackets.
And up and and out.
Thought I'd be clever and not drain the gearbox oil which worked out great because it drained itself for me.
Self draining gearbox removed.
And engine down.
First problem, the Supercheap engine stand didn't fit in between the Supercheap crane, even with the arm at full extension.
Second problem, the bellhousing bolts had stripped a few threads on the way out.
Tapped some threads.
Drilled some holes.
And was finally able to get the engine on the stand.
Got a nice surprise when the rocker cover came off.
Adjustable cam gears on intake and exhaust. There's an argument the stock Variable Cam Timing gear is more responsive, but they also flog out with anything more than standard valve springs and rattle to the sthouse making the SR sound even more like a John Deere.
The head was nice and clean too.
The sump told a different story however.
Hellooooo.
When my mate did the motor he lost oil pressure at the track. He shut it off straight away and towed it back to a workshop who cranked it, heard the death rattle and shut it off so seeing copper in the sump wasn't a surprise.
Pan off.
More tell tales.
Head off.
Head gasket looked OK.
Got the bottom end apart and this is where the story took a turn for the worse.
All rod bearings have uneven wear, half of piston four rod bearing isn't there lol, third main bearing is scored to copper, fourth is worn and the thrust bearings are scored.
All of which is fixable, but the crank..
Is not .
There's chunks missing and cracks in the radius between the journal and counterweight. It's fubar'd.
I probably should have known better when shards of bearing appeared in the pan but oh well.
From here I'm debating whether to try and find a second hand crank or go an engine swap. I'm not invested in the SR as I bought the S14 without hot side and really only have the Power FC ECU which can be sold. I've got a brand new R33 box which makes RB25 neo a logical choice, the other option is Ls swap.
In the meantime I still have to sort out the S15's low oil pressure :knockknock:
24-11-19
Sorry to disappoint lol
My mate Shev is stripping his S15 and sold me his motor subject to pulling it down which will hopefully happen next weekend. The head lifted on this one w/ stock head studs but we're hoping the bottom end is OK. If anyone's chasing a nice widebody S15 rolling shell https://www.facebook.com/groups/2773...70416456413447
Care package arrived from Japan a month early.
I'll hopefully have these on the red car next weekend too.
Did this.
Then this.
But the kunt is still doing this
So the sensor is fine, my red scratched up arm is not.
I have a genuine Nissan filter coming as there is a chance the ryco one might be a dud. This was the only other thing that changed when the pressure first dropped and in hindsight I probably should have done this first before the sensor.. fingers crossed.
And the S14 is ready and towie is booked so all going well we'll have it picked up and dropped on on Saturday.
21-07-19
Been a while between updates sorry.
Took delivery of nugget 2.
And upgraded to the double garage next door with space for both nuggets.
The S14 is not the cleanest of cars, but it doesn't need to be either. Once I rebuild and blow up the SR again three or four times over all it's got to do is go sideways fast
Nopics bought me an engine crane and stand for our anniversary, she's a good egg.
But unfortunately plans got a bit derailed due to work and I only got started on it this weekend.
No hotside, AC off, PS off and intake needs to come out to get at the oil cooler lines.
Got this far this arv, once the rest of the intake comes out it's 5 minutes to disconnect the oil filter and then it's just the tailshaft before she's ready to be yanked.
We're on hols end-August and my aim is to get the engine apart and to Rob Sabbadin for machining while we're away.
The red car is still being a right old kunt. The next step with the low oil pressure saga was to try a different oil filter as this was the only other thing that changed before it started running low. From left to right is the pre-low oil pressure filter, the filter that got changed over, and the new nissan filter I bought.
Turns out the filter made fk all difference
. My last resort is replacing the oil pickup gasket on the chance it's sucking in air, otherwise the oil pump needs replacing or a bearing's out - either one is a pain.In the face of a potentially expensive mechanical repair on the S15 the last thing I should be doing is worrying about aesthetics. So I bought a genuine Vertex Ridge widebody kit.
It looks like this when not in pieces taking up room inside.
In all honesty it was a bit of an impulse buy. I'm a big fan of Nobu Taniguchi's HKS S15 and since I had the Advan's that wouldn't fit the stock guards figured this would be a good solution.
Still not sure if I'll use it or run the Vertex lang kit which fits the stock body, this is one of my old S15's that my mate Kev had fitted with the Vertex lang kit and painted this week - I reckon it looks horn.
The HKS S15 also runs Craftsquare mirrors which I prefer over the Ganadors so when a faceballs wtb ad came up looking for Ganadors (which are now discontinued) I pulled them off and am now waiting 3 months for the made to order Craftsquares to come from j land.
Good thing the engine's potentially knackered lol. Tried out the Advan TC II's from nugget 2 on nugget 1.
Looks good but unfortunately they're burrito af.
In summary, a lot of dicking around with nugget 1 and some progress on nugget 2..!
All going to plan will have the S14's engine out next weekend.
24-10-19
Three months on and I've been chipping away at the S14 in my spare time. Nopics recently became nomorepics so will have some more time now I guess.
Got the intake and maze of leaking coolant hoses out the way to get to the oil cooler lines.
Made up a couple of brackets.
And up and and out.
Thought I'd be clever and not drain the gearbox oil which worked out great because it drained itself for me.
Self draining gearbox removed.
And engine down.
First problem, the Supercheap engine stand didn't fit in between the Supercheap crane, even with the arm at full extension.
Second problem, the bellhousing bolts had stripped a few threads on the way out.
Tapped some threads.
Drilled some holes.
And was finally able to get the engine on the stand.
Got a nice surprise when the rocker cover came off.
Adjustable cam gears on intake and exhaust. There's an argument the stock Variable Cam Timing gear is more responsive, but they also flog out with anything more than standard valve springs and rattle to the s
thouse making the SR sound even more like a John Deere.The head was nice and clean too.
The sump told a different story however.
Hellooooo.
When my mate did the motor he lost oil pressure at the track. He shut it off straight away and towed it back to a workshop who cranked it, heard the death rattle and shut it off so seeing copper in the sump wasn't a surprise.
Pan off.
More tell tales.
Head off.
Head gasket looked OK.
Got the bottom end apart and this is where the story took a turn for the worse.
All rod bearings have uneven wear, half of piston four rod bearing isn't there lol, third main bearing is scored to copper, fourth is worn and the thrust bearings are scored.
All of which is fixable, but the crank..
Is not .
There's chunks missing and cracks in the radius between the journal and counterweight. It's fubar'd.
I probably should have known better when shards of bearing appeared in the pan but oh well.
From here I'm debating whether to try and find a second hand crank or go an engine swap. I'm not invested in the SR as I bought the S14 without hot side and really only have the Power FC ECU which can be sold. I've got a brand new R33 box which makes RB25 neo a logical choice, the other option is Ls swap.
In the meantime I still have to sort out the S15's low oil pressure :knockknock:
24-11-19
Sorry to disappoint lol
My mate Shev is stripping his S15 and sold me his motor subject to pulling it down which will hopefully happen next weekend. The head lifted on this one w/ stock head studs but we're hoping the bottom end is OK. If anyone's chasing a nice widebody S15 rolling shell https://www.facebook.com/groups/2773...70416456413447
Care package arrived from Japan a month early.
I'll hopefully have these on the red car next weekend too.
05-01-20
Write something.. everything takes longer than it should.
Took me a month to drop off the Craftsquare mirrors to Vu at DT Panels and he had them turned around in a week. The clear is renowned for being stful so they were cleared over.
They came up great.
In between fitting the mirrors I drained the Castrol out to replace it with Martini. This was the same oil the car was running before the oil pressure dropped off after changing it out for the Castrol.
Put the mirrors on and off three times trying to get the fit nice before giving up and deciding DT can fit them properly lol.
I like them better than the ganadors and miles over the stock wingnuts.
Took the car for a bath and some fresh cornjuice.
The wheels are Japanese Vertini, got them cheap off FB to tide over until I decide what to go with but they're growing on me especially the dish on the rear.
The good news is the idle problem seems to have been fixed with some contact cleaner on the AFM, but the oil pressure is largely unchanged. Rob Sabbadin keeps telling me it's fine. Having tried everything I'm giving up and will just keep an eye on it and if gets progressively worse worry about it then.
Next jobs aren't mine to do so they'll get done a lot more quickly. Car's going to Rob's to get the diff looked at and the Blitz Nur exhaust that's been sitting in his workshop for a year chopped and rewelded so it fits up nice and tight. From there it's over to Vu's to get the bootlid with the GT wing painted and a few things tidied up up here and there. I was going to respray the whole car but it doesn't really need it and I don't want to spend the money.
I also bought a genuine Origin CF bonnet from a mate who brought two over from Japan. This is the other one that's on his car. It needs bonnet latches which DT will do as well.
I really need to just drive it more, had a ball today hooning around.
05-04-20
There's been a bit going on with this thing.
Put a brand new Nismo GT Pro2 1.5 way LSD with a 4.1 final in the car about a year ago and it's been nothing but noisy af and it feels like it binds up. I've had mechanical diffs before and this thing is something else. Googled it and apparently this is how they are.. I'm not convinced it has been set up right so I swapped the Cusco 1.5 way with 4.3 final out from the S14 while I can check out the Nismo properly.
fk I love this thing. Eats tight nuts for breakfast.
On the bench to be looked at later.
Cusco out of the S14. It has 6-bolt flanges so the half shafts had to change too.
I was hoping to put fresh japanese whale oil in the diff but after waiting 3 months I lost patience and put it in the car. The oil showed up the next week It can be done in the car but not all the old oil drains out so at some point maybe over Easter I'll pull it out again.
First impressions were good. The Cusco is magnitudes quieter, doesn't bind and still locks up both wheels like it should . On the downside the 4.3 and CD009 ratios are ridiculously short.
After getting the diff back in the car it went to Dan at Razz Automotive to get a wheel alignment.
It was among good company. Was very clean.
After selling the TE37 I wanted Dan to pull a lot of the camber out. The TE's needed -3.5 front and -3 rear to fit, good for a racetrack st for the street. I also want to buy new rims for it and wanted a baseline based on the alignment I want to run. The fronts are easy, anything around 18x9 +25 to 30 will fit. The rears are a bit trickier. After Dan adjusted the alignment to -1 we got under there with a measuring tape. The wheels on there now are 18x9 +35. Based on this I can fit a 18x9.5 +35 to 40 easily which is in the ballpark of what I want.
After finishing up at Dan's went to Rob Sabbadin's around the corner.
About 2 years ago I bought a Blitz Nur catback and dropped it at Rob's. After 30mins of looking we eventually found it lol. Any japanese catback hangs low so I asked Rob to make up a new catback section so it sits up nice and high. This is third or fourth exhaust Rob's made for me and he always does an unreal job.
[video=youtube_share;pn4ZnJpWHrY]https://youtu.be/pn4ZnJpWHrY[/video]
At idle and on boost it sounds awesome, but it's boomy at cruise so we're going to try and different resonator or swap it for a muffler in the middle section.
The next steps for the car is to get the bonnet and boot resprayed along with the rest of the car and buy the wheels, but the fkn bat flu has put the brakes on any non-essential spending so this might happen later in the year hopefully.
When I moved to Melbourne from the bush I didn't have a car the first couple of years until my Uncle found me a SV21 Camry wagon. This car got me around and never once failed, used it to move house four or five times, transport engines and gearboxes and it did it all on the sweat of an oil rag.
For nostalgia I've been looking for another one on and off. Before bat flu hit my mate sent me an ad on faceballs. 1992 SV21 wagon, manual, barely run in at 217k and all the guy wanted was to save it from the wreckers for a princely sum of $350 with a new alternator and battery.
It needs a bit of work to get it roadworthy, but I reckon I can get it on the road for under $1k especially as it qualifies for club reg. One of the guys at work is going to teach me how to correct the paint which is something new for me.
Going to get into it over Easter.
26-04-20
Pulled the cusco diff back out of the S15 today.
I just love the smell of diff oil in the morning.
Nearly broke my wrist tipping it over into the pan so yanked it up and left it to drain. New, exy, 3 months from japland oil will go in next weekend.
31-05-20
Going back to start of May put the Cusco whale oil in the Cusco diff and oh boy did it make a difference.
The diff was pretty quiet before, but barely made a squeak afterward and still laid 11's no dramas. Passenger was a fan.
With Chairman Dan opening up the roads a few mates and I went for a drive up to Marysville through the spur.
While the Cusco LSD worked great it lives on a 4.3 cwp which is way too short with the CD009 6 speed ratios. This made punching 3rd gear and spinning the rears on the spur a bit hairy.
The Nismo LSD with the 4.1 ratio was easier to control and still punchy on the street. After how much difference the Cusco oil made took Yohoes advice and bought some 250w OSGiken oil from RHDJapan which arrived from Japan before the local distributor had even replied.
Put the Nismo diff in its viet sex swing to drain the old oil.
And up in and she went.
Took it for a swing and fk me all the issues are gone. The binding and knocking has disappeared, it's much quieter and locks up like a champ. I'm not sure what the old oil was (it was blue..?) but thanks for the advice Yohoes that OSGiken stuff is the st.
I also picked up a set of Rays Volk Challengers in 18x9 +40 in matching red for 90's JDM bling.
They need a +10mm spacer to clear the front strut but I love em they're light as a feather too. With the Origin carbon bonnet it's going to look pretty rice.
A mate also bought my set of Advan SA3R's this weekend. Going to use the proceeds to order a set Advan AD08R's for the Challengers on Monday. I want 255's all round but should probably play it safe and go 245s.
06-09-20
So before the lock down sold the Rays wheels for more than I paid which does not happen often for me lol.
Without being able to actually drive it I've gone back and forth with what to do with the thing.
Was going to just do some small paint and panel jobs to tidy up the few imperfections that trigger my not really ocd. I also had the issue where the battery leaked in the engine bay and wanted to get this fixed.
Eventually got to the point where I said fk it if it's worth doing it's worth doing right and started stripping the engine bay to get the whole thing sprayed.
Chipped away at it and got to pulling the motor this weekend. This was attempt 1 where I fked up and had the chains too long, got the bloody thing half way out and ran out of stroke :knockknock: Because the CD009 box is about twice the size of the standard 6 speed it's especially painful. Rob Sabbadin dropped the k-frame when he put it in the first time and I should have listened to him.
Dropped it back in and did it properly.
And out.
Pulled the gearbox off so I can put the engine on the stand to make it easier to move around.
And will get started on the rest next week.
Have a couple of orders coming from Amayama which are taking foreverrrr to get the parts to their warehouse. Hoping to have it ready for DT Panels by Oct.
Write something.. everything takes longer than it should.
Took me a month to drop off the Craftsquare mirrors to Vu at DT Panels and he had them turned around in a week. The clear is renowned for being s
tful so they were cleared over.They came up great.
In between fitting the mirrors I drained the Castrol out to replace it with Martini. This was the same oil the car was running before the oil pressure dropped off after changing it out for the Castrol.
Put the mirrors on and off three times trying to get the fit nice before giving up and deciding DT can fit them properly lol.
I like them better than the ganadors and miles over the stock wingnuts.
Took the car for a bath and some fresh cornjuice.
The wheels are Japanese Vertini, got them cheap off FB to tide over until I decide what to go with but they're growing on me especially the dish on the rear.
The good news is the idle problem seems to have been fixed with some contact cleaner on the AFM, but the oil pressure is largely unchanged. Rob Sabbadin keeps telling me it's fine. Having tried everything I'm giving up and will just keep an eye on it and if gets progressively worse worry about it then.
Next jobs aren't mine to do so they'll get done a lot more quickly. Car's going to Rob's to get the diff looked at and the Blitz Nur exhaust that's been sitting in his workshop for a year chopped and rewelded so it fits up nice and tight. From there it's over to Vu's to get the bootlid with the GT wing painted and a few things tidied up up here and there. I was going to respray the whole car but it doesn't really need it and I don't want to spend the money.
I also bought a genuine Origin CF bonnet from a mate who brought two over from Japan. This is the other one that's on his car. It needs bonnet latches which DT will do as well.
I really need to just drive it more, had a ball today hooning around.
05-04-20
There's been a bit going on with this thing.
Put a brand new Nismo GT Pro2 1.5 way LSD with a 4.1 final in the car about a year ago and it's been nothing but noisy af and it feels like it binds up. I've had mechanical diffs before and this thing is something else. Googled it and apparently this is how they are.. I'm not convinced it has been set up right so I swapped the Cusco 1.5 way with 4.3 final out from the S14 while I can check out the Nismo properly.
f
k I love this thing. Eats tight nuts for breakfast.On the bench to be looked at later.
Cusco out of the S14. It has 6-bolt flanges so the half shafts had to change too.
I was hoping to put fresh japanese whale oil in the diff but after waiting 3 months I lost patience and put it in the car. The oil showed up the next week It can be done in the car but not all the old oil drains out so at some point maybe over Easter I'll pull it out again.
First impressions were good. The Cusco is magnitudes quieter, doesn't bind and still locks up both wheels like it should . On the downside the 4.3 and CD009 ratios are ridiculously short.
After getting the diff back in the car it went to Dan at Razz Automotive to get a wheel alignment.
It was among good company. Was very clean.
After selling the TE37 I wanted Dan to pull a lot of the camber out. The TE's needed -3.5 front and -3 rear to fit, good for a racetrack s
t for the street. I also want to buy new rims for it and wanted a baseline based on the alignment I want to run. The fronts are easy, anything around 18x9 +25 to 30 will fit. The rears are a bit trickier. After Dan adjusted the alignment to -1 we got under there with a measuring tape. The wheels on there now are 18x9 +35. Based on this I can fit a 18x9.5 +35 to 40 easily which is in the ballpark of what I want.After finishing up at Dan's went to Rob Sabbadin's around the corner.
About 2 years ago I bought a Blitz Nur catback and dropped it at Rob's. After 30mins of looking we eventually found it lol. Any japanese catback hangs low so I asked Rob to make up a new catback section so it sits up nice and high. This is third or fourth exhaust Rob's made for me and he always does an unreal job.
[video=youtube_share;pn4ZnJpWHrY]https://youtu.be/pn4ZnJpWHrY[/video]
At idle and on boost it sounds awesome, but it's boomy at cruise so we're going to try and different resonator or swap it for a muffler in the middle section.
The next steps for the car is to get the bonnet and boot resprayed along with the rest of the car and buy the wheels, but the fkn bat flu has put the brakes on any non-essential spending so this might happen later in the year hopefully.
When I moved to Melbourne from the bush I didn't have a car the first couple of years until my Uncle found me a SV21 Camry wagon. This car got me around and never once failed, used it to move house four or five times, transport engines and gearboxes and it did it all on the sweat of an oil rag.
For nostalgia I've been looking for another one on and off. Before bat flu hit my mate sent me an ad on faceballs. 1992 SV21 wagon, manual, barely run in at 217k and all the guy wanted was to save it from the wreckers for a princely sum of $350 with a new alternator and battery.
It needs a bit of work to get it roadworthy, but I reckon I can get it on the road for under $1k especially as it qualifies for club reg. One of the guys at work is going to teach me how to correct the paint which is something new for me.
Going to get into it over Easter.
26-04-20
Pulled the cusco diff back out of the S15 today.
I just love the smell of diff oil in the morning.
Nearly broke my wrist tipping it over into the pan so yanked it up and left it to drain. New, exy, 3 months from japland oil will go in next weekend.
31-05-20
Going back to start of May put the Cusco whale oil in the Cusco diff and oh boy did it make a difference.
The diff was pretty quiet before, but barely made a squeak afterward and still laid 11's no dramas. Passenger was a fan.
With Chairman Dan opening up the roads a few mates and I went for a drive up to Marysville through the spur.
While the Cusco LSD worked great it lives on a 4.3 cwp which is way too short with the CD009 6 speed ratios. This made punching 3rd gear and spinning the rears on the spur a bit hairy.
The Nismo LSD with the 4.1 ratio was easier to control and still punchy on the street. After how much difference the Cusco oil made took Yohoes advice and bought some 250w OSGiken oil from RHDJapan which arrived from Japan before the local distributor had even replied.
Put the Nismo diff in its viet sex swing to drain the old oil.
And up in and she went.
Took it for a swing and f
k me all the issues are gone. The binding and knocking has disappeared, it's much quieter and locks up like a champ. I'm not sure what the old oil was (it was blue..?) but thanks for the advice Yohoes that OSGiken stuff is the st.I also picked up a set of Rays Volk Challengers in 18x9 +40 in matching red for 90's JDM bling.
They need a +10mm spacer to clear the front strut but I love em they're light as a feather too. With the Origin carbon bonnet it's going to look pretty rice.
A mate also bought my set of Advan SA3R's this weekend. Going to use the proceeds to order a set Advan AD08R's for the Challengers on Monday. I want 255's all round but should probably play it safe and go 245s.
06-09-20
So before the lock down sold the Rays wheels for more than I paid which does not happen often for me lol.
Without being able to actually drive it I've gone back and forth with what to do with the thing.
Was going to just do some small paint and panel jobs to tidy up the few imperfections that trigger my not really ocd. I also had the issue where the battery leaked in the engine bay and wanted to get this fixed.
Eventually got to the point where I said fk it if it's worth doing it's worth doing right and started stripping the engine bay to get the whole thing sprayed.
Chipped away at it and got to pulling the motor this weekend. This was attempt 1 where I f
ked up and had the chains too long, got the bloody thing half way out and ran out of stroke :knockknock: Because the CD009 box is about twice the size of the standard 6 speed it's especially painful. Rob Sabbadin dropped the k-frame when he put it in the first time and I should have listened to him.Dropped it back in and did it properly.
And out.
Pulled the gearbox off so I can put the engine on the stand to make it easier to move around.
And will get started on the rest next week.
Have a couple of orders coming from Amayama which are taking foreverrrr to get the parts to their warehouse. Hoping to have it ready for DT Panels by Oct.
13-09-20
The boot hasn't been sitting right for ages. Pinpointed it down to the latch which wasn't sitting right. Turns out one of the threads had stripped causing it to sit crooked.
Pulled it out and tapped the threads.
The boot now sits perfectly, small job but the result is so satisfying.
Also bit the bullet and ordered Vertex Edge kit from T&E through Import Monster. I'd say covid made me do it but the truth is I had no problem with poor life decisions before covid lol. Looking at 8-10 weeks for manufacturer and another 8-10 to ship it to Melbourne.
22-11-20
Been pretty busy with work so haven't had much of a chance to do much meaningful with these two.
The red one's kit is still getting made somewhere in Japan so given it's not going to be going anytime soon am focusing on getting the S14 running and registered.
Plan is to take one SR from here
And put it in here
But nothing is that simple especially if you don't make it simple. Decided dropping the k frame to clean the inch of caked oil and grit off it was a good idea and I'd replace the zenki castor brackets which are open with S15 ones that are boxed on the bottom. The sway bar mount had different ideas, the nut had siezed in a very inconvenient spot.
Nothing more satisfying than when the balljoints drop.
Eventually, after a lot of swearing it was out.
And clean. Unfortunately the grit was serving a pretty good rust protectant so with it gone gave it lick of rust convertor and top coat.
New Cusco mounts and back in.
Next job was to clean an entire bearing out of the Greddy sump. The S15 engine had a Moroso one but I'd sold this to a mate.
Degrease, wash and hot bath it's looking better.
When you don't have a bench grinder cleaning bolts becomes an exercise of Dodgi Bros garage.
Had lent my silicone to the neighbour so it'll go on when it boomerangs. Not planning to go overboard tidying up the S14 but after giving the engine bay a degrease it became apparent a battery had dumped it guts all over the drivers side tub and tray.
Cue Dodgi Bros sprayshop.
Cleaned up as much of the surface rust as I could, hit it with rust convertor and top coat in a white that'll match once there's a layer of oil and grease over it. Good from afar but far from good.. eh.
Got a bunch of Covid lockdown antidepressant parcels arriving over the next few weeks so I can keep going with it. Trying to decide which front bar to go with. Found a cheap Nismo 400r copy but I think Vertex looks the best out of the lot.
If anyone has a set of 18x9.5 +12ish TE37's let us know.
29-11-20
Put a couple layers of clear on and the paint has actually matched up alright. More arse than class for sure.
In the Hardrace parcel are replacement bushes for the rear knuckles.
Got so far as pulling all the arms off before I realised the previous owner had already installed poly bushes der.
Weather in Melbourne was st today, waiting for some sun to paint the engine cross member so I can get the SR back in.
15-02-21
Tried yelling "oi just get in there kunt fk ya" but Jayzee clearly doesn't speak strayan so I'm going to actually have to do something to make it happen, which is a lot more than I've done in the last 2.5 months.
Was going to LS it after seeing what 2jzgte's go for, but then watched the skid factory and goleby's video and realised the 2jzge isn't too badder a thing. Plan is to do head gasket, studs, cams/springs, gte oil pump and convert to coil packs. Looking for around 600hp on the standard bottom end.
21-02-21
Started swapping the drivetrain over from the S15 to the S14. First up the diff. The S15 has a 4.1 and the S14 a 4.3 which is too short with the CD009 ratios (tried it earlier in the thread).
Had to drop the subframes for other stuff anyway.
Off come the arms and LCAs.
Bought a bunch of hardrace bits a week before their 15% black friday sale last year, should have waited didn't even think they'd have a sale.
Set everything at stock dimensions for the time being until the car eventually goes to Razz for an alignment.
Spot my fk up :knockknock:
Half shafts need to go in before the diff
All back in and bolted up.
Had a couple of little dramas with the hardrace arms. The flanges are thicker than stock so the factory bolts aren't long enough and hardrace don't supply longer bolts.
Luckily had a set of camber bolt delete bolts from gktech which I'd bought before realising the S14 already had them. Thick washers helped space the bolt back too so it didn't hit the coilover.
The camber arm hole was also too small for the shank and had to drill it out a mm or so.
Tried to find superpro grease for the poly bushes in the knuckle but couldn't find any at supercrap luckily luckvl had done his RX-7 not long ago and bought a similar moly lithium grease to what he used (thanks for sharing this mate).
Eventually had everything all bolted up at ride height ready to go. Cracked myself pretty good when the spanner slipped off the bolt into my forehead
My mates in the group chat were sympathetic lol.
A couple of things for the 14 arrived too.
Rob Sabbadin had issues on the dyno with pinging when he put timing in. He's not a fan of the 2867gtx 2 turbo, in his opinion the 0.63 AR turbine is too small for head.
Rather than splashing out for a new turbo bought a 0.83 AR housing from Makemegofast to see how it goes, we're also changing the dump pipe from a CES which is split to the new type Tomei dump which is massive. Hoping this removes any restriction in the exhaust and we can put more timing in to take advantage of the E85.
As much as I wanted the Vertex kit for the S14, T&E are already running way behind on the S15's kit (current ETA is in March, 7 months and counting) so bought an Origin Labo stylish kit from Corporal Industries in SA. Can't say enough good things about this bloke was a pleasure to deal with. The fact that it's a third of the price didn't hurt either.
Looks like this when tarted up.
Picked up the refurb'd steering rack from Rob last week but forget to get the front wheel bearing which needs replacing. Once I get this will get to getting the k-frame in and bolting the S14's front end back together, as well as getting the engine in. I want to get the S14 going before the S15's kit rocks up.
28-02-21
[QUOTE=Mr Ree;n7229109]Loving the 2JZ NA-T plan...theyre every bit as good as the GTE for your hp goals
Epic progress with everything else...hope your head is better too lol[/QUOTE]
Thanks mate. It feels good to be getting into it.
Had to work most of this weekend so got the drivers side bolted up and sway bar in.
Used the motoiq trick of thread tape on the bar to stop it squeaking and greased the other sides.
Don't usually run a thicker bar in the rear, but the whiteline is what the S14 came with. Went on the softer setting will see how it goes.
Arse end all done.
21-03-21
Started on the brakes last weekend. A previous owner had already removed the ABS.
All the hardlines had been bent to suit, it worked but a tad too dodgy for me.
Bought a kit from HEL which replaces the hardlines with braided. Grabbed some plugs too to stop fluid going everywhere and to keep condensation out.
They work a treat or as well as the old lines cut and pinched.
Rob Sabbadin had ordered a new 1" BMC for me but like everything coming from Japan it's taking forever so I borrowed the one out of the S15, it's officially now a parts car.
Swapped in.
Unfortunately the HEL kit turned out to be pretty st. One of the lines was too short to get to the tee and the angle on the drivers side caused the braided line to bend and pinch.
Tried to get it to work but cracked the sts after a while and ordered GKTech's abs delete kit which funnily enough has HEL lines. Grabbed some new exhaust mounts to qualify for free shipping woo.
The GKTech kit fit much better. The tee sits in the fuel line bracket and they have an angled hardline so it doesn't pinch.
Overall the GKTech kit goes together great. The passenger line sits in the clip that holds the heater hoses and I only needed one p-clip to hold it secure once it got over the other side.
Next job was getting the steering rack back in. It came out so Rob could get it rebuilt because the boots had more ps fluid in them than the rack did. It is possible to get the rack in and out with the engine in but it's a pain in the arse so I decided to get it in first.
Had to centre the rack which is done by turning it from lock to lock, marking the two points and then putting the rack between the two. Unfortunately the S14/15 racks are 3.5 turns lock to lock so had to transpose it from one side to the other. Left me scratching my head for a while but it worked out eventually and looks right.
I'd bought some solid rack mounts mounts from GKTech which are a copy of Parts Shop Max but buggered if I know how they're meant to work. They're too small to wrap around the rack like the stock rubber or Superpro poly mounts and don't hold the rack in the right spot . Either I'm too stupid which is entirely possible or they're farked. Either way I turfed them and have Superpro's on order which are currently somewhere between Jupiter and AusPost's distribution centre.
With the rack on hold got started on motor jobs. First step was to get it in the same room as the S14 which is made harder by the engine crane not fitting through the door so put it on a tyre and dragged the heavy milkshake in.
With the engine up cleaned all the schmutz off the sump flange.
Everytime I put a sump on I've changed how the sealant goes on the sump in the vain hope that it won't leach oil this time - fingers crossed. The Greddy cast sumps are meant to seal better than the Moroso sump which it had on last. Will see how it goes.
I usually leave it in the sun so the silicon gets tacky before putting it on, but Melbourne.
The Moroso sump uses studs which makes it easier to line the sump up on the flange. The Greddy one uses bolts so put a couple in the wrong way round just to locate it.
And on.
With the sump done cleaned up the oil plate flange. SR's have a habit of running hot and I have a hard time getting to the oil filter with my sausage fingers. The oil plate lets me use a remote filter and an oil cooler if it needs it.
I love Japanese st like Tomei and HKS, Greddy, etc it just works like it should.
Put the stock oil pressure sensor in and the Apexi sensor to run the gauges which are coming out of the S15.
Anything thats not an AN thread got a light coating of this. Havent had an oil fitting leak since it was recommended it to me.
Last job for the weekend was to swap the turbine housing over. Last time Rob had the car on the dyno it was pinging with relatively low timing and on E85 which we figured was a restriction in the exhaust. It's a GTX2867r gen 2 with a 0.63 rear. Rob's had a couple of similar size turbos with similar issues.
To fix it we're removing anything that could be holding it up. The dump pipe is getting swapped from a CES split to a big ass Tomei bellmouth and we're changing out the S14/15 exhaust manifold to a S13 manifold.
The S14/15 exhaust manifold has a EGR port which traps hot air in the fourth runner. The S13 manifold above doesn't have this and it's 1/8th the price of a Tomei one.
The last thing that's getting changed is the rear housing. Got a new 0.86 housing from Make Me Go Fast - service was great, it rocked up with a couple of days of ordering it.
Also got a handfull of studs and cone nuts from Rob because every single time I've swapped a turbo I've had a stud sieze or stripped a nut. Also grabbed some locking tabs because an exhaust leak after bolting everything back in makes baby jesus cry.
To get at the bolts that hold the turbine tabs all the lines and fittings had to come off.
From there it's just a matter of undoing the bolts and popping off the CHRA.
Old 0.63 vs new 0.83. If anyone's chasing a smaller T2 housing let me know. The oil is out of the oil line which spat over everything.
Housing on.
CHRA in.
If I do this again I'll put a witness mark so I can line up the housing in the right spot the first time
After a few goes of trying to line it up with the waste gate I got it on in the right spot except the waste gate flange sat slightly differently. With the waste gate wound all the way back it still wasn't holding the flap closed.
Put a couple of washers under the waste gate so it held tight.
After that it was just a matter of putting all the lines back on and fitting the dump.
Which is fuggin hoooge. I hope it fits in the bay.
The steering rack bushes are due to arrive next week (I hope). Everything going to plan should have the motor back in next weekend.
The boot hasn't been sitting right for ages. Pinpointed it down to the latch which wasn't sitting right. Turns out one of the threads had stripped causing it to sit crooked.
Pulled it out and tapped the threads.
The boot now sits perfectly, small job but the result is so satisfying.
Also bit the bullet and ordered Vertex Edge kit from T&E through Import Monster. I'd say covid made me do it but the truth is I had no problem with poor life decisions before covid lol. Looking at 8-10 weeks for manufacturer and another 8-10 to ship it to Melbourne.
22-11-20
Been pretty busy with work so haven't had much of a chance to do much meaningful with these two.
The red one's kit is still getting made somewhere in Japan so given it's not going to be going anytime soon am focusing on getting the S14 running and registered.
Plan is to take one SR from here
And put it in here
But nothing is that simple especially if you don't make it simple. Decided dropping the k frame to clean the inch of caked oil and grit off it was a good idea and I'd replace the zenki castor brackets which are open with S15 ones that are boxed on the bottom. The sway bar mount had different ideas, the nut had siezed in a very inconvenient spot.
Nothing more satisfying than when the balljoints drop.
Eventually, after a lot of swearing it was out.
And clean. Unfortunately the grit was serving a pretty good rust protectant so with it gone gave it lick of rust convertor and top coat.
New Cusco mounts and back in.
Next job was to clean an entire bearing out of the Greddy sump. The S15 engine had a Moroso one but I'd sold this to a mate.
Degrease, wash and hot bath it's looking better.
When you don't have a bench grinder cleaning bolts becomes an exercise of Dodgi Bros garage.
Had lent my silicone to the neighbour so it'll go on when it boomerangs. Not planning to go overboard tidying up the S14 but after giving the engine bay a degrease it became apparent a battery had dumped it guts all over the drivers side tub and tray.
Cue Dodgi Bros sprayshop.
Cleaned up as much of the surface rust as I could, hit it with rust convertor and top coat in a white that'll match once there's a layer of oil and grease over it. Good from afar but far from good.. eh.
Got a bunch of Covid lockdown antidepressant parcels arriving over the next few weeks so I can keep going with it. Trying to decide which front bar to go with. Found a cheap Nismo 400r copy but I think Vertex looks the best out of the lot.
If anyone has a set of 18x9.5 +12ish TE37's let us know.
29-11-20
Put a couple layers of clear on and the paint has actually matched up alright. More arse than class for sure.
In the Hardrace parcel are replacement bushes for the rear knuckles.
Got so far as pulling all the arms off before I realised the previous owner had already installed poly bushes der.
Weather in Melbourne was s
t today, waiting for some sun to paint the engine cross member so I can get the SR back in.15-02-21
Tried yelling "oi just get in there kunt fk ya" but Jayzee clearly doesn't speak strayan so I'm going to actually have to do something to make it happen, which is a lot more than I've done in the last 2.5 months.
Was going to LS it after seeing what 2jzgte's go for, but then watched the skid factory and goleby's video and realised the 2jzge isn't too badder a thing. Plan is to do head gasket, studs, cams/springs, gte oil pump and convert to coil packs. Looking for around 600hp on the standard bottom end.
21-02-21
Started swapping the drivetrain over from the S15 to the S14. First up the diff. The S15 has a 4.1 and the S14 a 4.3 which is too short with the CD009 ratios (tried it earlier in the thread).
Had to drop the subframes for other stuff anyway.
Off come the arms and LCAs.
Bought a bunch of hardrace bits a week before their 15% black friday sale last year, should have waited didn't even think they'd have a sale.
Set everything at stock dimensions for the time being until the car eventually goes to Razz for an alignment.
Spot my f
k up :knockknock:Half shafts need to go in before the diff
All back in and bolted up.
Had a couple of little dramas with the hardrace arms. The flanges are thicker than stock so the factory bolts aren't long enough and hardrace don't supply longer bolts.
Luckily had a set of camber bolt delete bolts from gktech which I'd bought before realising the S14 already had them. Thick washers helped space the bolt back too so it didn't hit the coilover.
The camber arm hole was also too small for the shank and had to drill it out a mm or so.
Tried to find superpro grease for the poly bushes in the knuckle but couldn't find any at supercrap luckily luckvl had done his RX-7 not long ago and bought a similar moly lithium grease to what he used (thanks for sharing this mate).
Eventually had everything all bolted up at ride height ready to go. Cracked myself pretty good when the spanner slipped off the bolt into my forehead
My mates in the group chat were sympathetic lol.
A couple of things for the 14 arrived too.
Rob Sabbadin had issues on the dyno with pinging when he put timing in. He's not a fan of the 2867gtx 2 turbo, in his opinion the 0.63 AR turbine is too small for head.
Rather than splashing out for a new turbo bought a 0.83 AR housing from Makemegofast to see how it goes, we're also changing the dump pipe from a CES which is split to the new type Tomei dump which is massive. Hoping this removes any restriction in the exhaust and we can put more timing in to take advantage of the E85.
As much as I wanted the Vertex kit for the S14, T&E are already running way behind on the S15's kit (current ETA is in March, 7 months and counting) so bought an Origin Labo stylish kit from Corporal Industries in SA. Can't say enough good things about this bloke was a pleasure to deal with. The fact that it's a third of the price didn't hurt either.
Looks like this when tarted up.
Picked up the refurb'd steering rack from Rob last week but forget to get the front wheel bearing which needs replacing. Once I get this will get to getting the k-frame in and bolting the S14's front end back together, as well as getting the engine in. I want to get the S14 going before the S15's kit rocks up.
28-02-21
[QUOTE=Mr Ree;n7229109]Loving the 2JZ NA-T plan...theyre every bit as good as the GTE for your hp goals
Epic progress with everything else...hope your head is better too lol[/QUOTE]
Thanks mate. It feels good to be getting into it.
Had to work most of this weekend so got the drivers side bolted up and sway bar in.
Used the motoiq trick of thread tape on the bar to stop it squeaking and greased the other sides.
Don't usually run a thicker bar in the rear, but the whiteline is what the S14 came with. Went on the softer setting will see how it goes.
Arse end all done.
21-03-21
Started on the brakes last weekend. A previous owner had already removed the ABS.
All the hardlines had been bent to suit, it worked but a tad too dodgy for me.
Bought a kit from HEL which replaces the hardlines with braided. Grabbed some plugs too to stop fluid going everywhere and to keep condensation out.
They work a treat or as well as the old lines cut and pinched.
Rob Sabbadin had ordered a new 1" BMC for me but like everything coming from Japan it's taking forever so I borrowed the one out of the S15, it's officially now a parts car.
Swapped in.
Unfortunately the HEL kit turned out to be pretty s
t. One of the lines was too short to get to the tee and the angle on the drivers side caused the braided line to bend and pinch.Tried to get it to work but cracked the s
ts after a while and ordered GKTech's abs delete kit which funnily enough has HEL lines. Grabbed some new exhaust mounts to qualify for free shipping woo.The GKTech kit fit much better. The tee sits in the fuel line bracket and they have an angled hardline so it doesn't pinch.
Overall the GKTech kit goes together great. The passenger line sits in the clip that holds the heater hoses and I only needed one p-clip to hold it secure once it got over the other side.
Next job was getting the steering rack back in. It came out so Rob could get it rebuilt because the boots had more ps fluid in them than the rack did. It is possible to get the rack in and out with the engine in but it's a pain in the arse so I decided to get it in first.
Had to centre the rack which is done by turning it from lock to lock, marking the two points and then putting the rack between the two. Unfortunately the S14/15 racks are 3.5 turns lock to lock so had to transpose it from one side to the other. Left me scratching my head for a while but it worked out eventually and looks right.
I'd bought some solid rack mounts mounts from GKTech which are a copy of Parts Shop Max but buggered if I know how they're meant to work. They're too small to wrap around the rack like the stock rubber or Superpro poly mounts and don't hold the rack in the right spot . Either I'm too stupid which is entirely possible or they're farked. Either way I turfed them and have Superpro's on order which are currently somewhere between Jupiter and AusPost's distribution centre.
With the rack on hold got started on motor jobs. First step was to get it in the same room as the S14 which is made harder by the engine crane not fitting through the door so put it on a tyre and dragged the heavy milkshake in.
With the engine up cleaned all the schmutz off the sump flange.
Everytime I put a sump on I've changed how the sealant goes on the sump in the vain hope that it won't leach oil this time - fingers crossed. The Greddy cast sumps are meant to seal better than the Moroso sump which it had on last. Will see how it goes.
I usually leave it in the sun so the silicon gets tacky before putting it on, but Melbourne.
The Moroso sump uses studs which makes it easier to line the sump up on the flange. The Greddy one uses bolts so put a couple in the wrong way round just to locate it.
And on.
With the sump done cleaned up the oil plate flange. SR's have a habit of running hot and I have a hard time getting to the oil filter with my sausage fingers. The oil plate lets me use a remote filter and an oil cooler if it needs it.
I love Japanese s
t like Tomei and HKS, Greddy, etc it just works like it should.Put the stock oil pressure sensor in and the Apexi sensor to run the gauges which are coming out of the S15.
Anything thats not an AN thread got a light coating of this. Havent had an oil fitting leak since it was recommended it to me.
Last job for the weekend was to swap the turbine housing over. Last time Rob had the car on the dyno it was pinging with relatively low timing and on E85 which we figured was a restriction in the exhaust. It's a GTX2867r gen 2 with a 0.63 rear. Rob's had a couple of similar size turbos with similar issues.
To fix it we're removing anything that could be holding it up. The dump pipe is getting swapped from a CES split to a big ass Tomei bellmouth and we're changing out the S14/15 exhaust manifold to a S13 manifold.
The S14/15 exhaust manifold has a EGR port which traps hot air in the fourth runner. The S13 manifold above doesn't have this and it's 1/8th the price of a Tomei one.
The last thing that's getting changed is the rear housing. Got a new 0.86 housing from Make Me Go Fast - service was great, it rocked up with a couple of days of ordering it.
Also got a handfull of studs and cone nuts from Rob because every single time I've swapped a turbo I've had a stud sieze or stripped a nut. Also grabbed some locking tabs because an exhaust leak after bolting everything back in makes baby jesus cry.
To get at the bolts that hold the turbine tabs all the lines and fittings had to come off.
From there it's just a matter of undoing the bolts and popping off the CHRA.
Old 0.63 vs new 0.83. If anyone's chasing a smaller T2 housing let me know. The oil is out of the oil line which spat over everything.
Housing on.
CHRA in.
If I do this again I'll put a witness mark so I can line up the housing in the right spot the first time
After a few goes of trying to line it up with the waste gate I got it on in the right spot except the waste gate flange sat slightly differently. With the waste gate wound all the way back it still wasn't holding the flap closed.
Put a couple of washers under the waste gate so it held tight.
After that it was just a matter of putting all the lines back on and fitting the dump.
Which is fuggin hoooge. I hope it fits in the bay.
The steering rack bushes are due to arrive next week (I hope). Everything going to plan should have the motor back in next weekend.
05-04-21
Got a lot done over the long weekend starting with the rack. Replaced all the o-rings with the ones the guys who rebuilt the rack supplied and connected the pump and lines. Superpro bushings fit perfectly.
Plan was to bolt the gearbox up next. Thankfully I realised beforehand that if I bolted it up where it was the engine crane legs weren't going to get anyway near the engine.
Better.
Gearbox went in easily enough except for a stripped thread on the starter.
And then after I dunno a year lol... up it went.
And in.
Well kinda. dhead me didn't extend the arm on the engine crane all the way out so the engine couldn't go back far enough without the crane hitting the car. kunt.
Did some dodgy st to extend the arm out.
And after another hour or so it was in. I think the last 5mm took 95% of the time. The cusco mounts sit the engine further back so I had to lever the gearbox up with the jack and inch it in.
After that I needed a break from the engine so started on the front end.
The front drivers wheel bearing was fubar so got a new one from Rob.
The front bearings are pretty easy to replace.
1. pop the cap and lever the tabs off the flat sections on the thread.
2. Grab big birtha and rattle that nut off like it's butter as you sing Shanie Twain's You're Still The One to your rattle gun.
3. Put the nut back on and nearly max out the torque wrench to 280Nm.
4. Pop your shoulder out torquing it up.
5. And done. Probably easier doing it on the car which I'll need to do for the passenger side, somehow I missed that it is shagged too.
The rest of the front end went on pretty easily, just tried to match the threads on either side until Razz align the car.
Did the same motoiq trick on the sway bar of using teflon tape to stop it squeaking.
Got it lined up square.
And then when I tried to bolt the links on had another wtf moment. With strut jacked up and the links lined up the sway bar is hitting the sump.
The links are supplied specifically with the LCAs because on the stock LCAs the links bolt through the bottom rather than at 90 degrees both ends.
Figured could take 3mm off either end of the adjusting nut and trim the threads down to get some more clearance, but then again it's not even at full bump because I didn't take the spring out and I really don't want to risk the sway bar smashing the front of the sump.
The other option was to drill some more holes through the sway bar bracket beneath the existing ones but there wouldn't be a lot of space to get a nut on if I did that nor meat between the existing holes and new ones.
Pretty sure Hardrace will say it's because I'm not using their sway bar but in the photos it looks the same as the one I have and at $380 I don't want to try it and have the same issue. It wasn't until I checked the Whiteline swaybar in the S15 that I noticed the legs on the grey Whiteline appear a bit longer than the blue one in the S14.
Or maybe I'm just imagining things? Ran out of time to swap them over this evening but will check it first thing next weekend.
11-04-21
Well..
The blue bd was smaller.
Not by much but it made a big difference in clearing the sump in bump.
Front end ticked off.
Started bolted everything else back on to the motor.
Even though the S14 and S15 both have a VCT SR20 there's odd differences. Like the knock sensor plug is different.
And then looking at the S14's original block it doens't look like it even had one, Silvia nerds do you know if series 1 S14 did?
Another difference was the AC bracket.
For whatever reason they changed that from S14 to S15 too.
Got the turbo bolted up, AC and PS on. I need to ask Rob Sabbadin to make me a new intake pipe. Once I get as far as I can it'll go to him to finish off.
On the intake side used the -10 breather lines to try to work out the best way to route the oil lines to the relo plate and then to the cooler.
Want to put the relo plate where it's easy to get to the filter. I put it in the engine bay last time but this usually resulted in oil going everywhere during each filter change - here ain't going to work due to the IC piping but hoping ot can be squeezed in nearby.
Getting there.
18-04-21
Did the brakes today. Still waiting on seal kits to rock up to rebuild the calipers on the S14 so swapped over the S15s which have already been done. Both cars have R33 GTST brakes which are my favourite. I've had big brake kits and nothing works as well I think.
Any time I work on brakes I lose one of the fkn clips. Got a few spare with the other wheel bearing.
Swapped over.
I got a new gearbox mount from gktech. It's just a solid bit of aluminium.
The stock one which is getting replaced.
I should have looked a bit closer before ordering it. It's designed for a S15/S14 crossmember which is flat, my crossmember came with the maxworx kit for the gearbox which is different.
Measure once cut twice.
Three times.
Except I couldn't do up the bolt unless the mount was bolted to the gearbox first and then the crossmember to the mount. But that doesn't work either because the nut sits on the other side of it.
Seems to work. Need to get a bit of 4mm plate from work to make up the gap.
25-04-21
I needed to work out what fittings and how much hose I need to do the oil lines today. Don't want to waste money on the wrong fittings so mocked up the last few things that could snooker me later, intercooler, radiator and sprayer bottle.
With that done needed to work out where the relo plate could go. They're designed to bolt on to the alternator bracket like this.
But that spot doesn't work with a bigger sump, no room at the inn.
It means going thermos instead of the clutch fan and shroud, but I reckon this is the best spot. It also means I can run straight fittings from the engine to and from the relo plate which saves some coin.
I think it'll need 90's at the oil cooler. Plan is to mount the cooler 2" or so in front of the sprayer bottle.
Shibari'd the relo plate so I could measure lines.
Reckon this will do it.
Put an order in for combination of jiffy tite and 200 hose. 100 would work but I'm a sook and find 200 fittings easier to put together.
In the meantime need to sort out this :ambivalence:
01-05-21
Going to Sakura Picnic tomorrow so no work on the car this Sunday, but I did get a care package from Marcos at The Race Shop (ex MSCN).
Obligatory why didn't god give us four kidneys so we could sell more than just one pic.
Truth be told after redoing what I'd planned Marcos probably saved me $200-300.
Got a lot done over the long weekend starting with the rack. Replaced all the o-rings with the ones the guys who rebuilt the rack supplied and connected the pump and lines. Superpro bushings fit perfectly.
Plan was to bolt the gearbox up next. Thankfully I realised beforehand that if I bolted it up where it was the engine crane legs weren't going to get anyway near the engine.
Better.
Gearbox went in easily enough except for a stripped thread on the starter.
And then after I dunno a year lol... up it went.
And in.
Well kinda. d
head me didn't extend the arm on the engine crane all the way out so the engine couldn't go back far enough without the crane hitting the car. kunt.Did some dodgy s
t to extend the arm out.And after another hour or so it was in. I think the last 5mm took 95% of the time. The cusco mounts sit the engine further back so I had to lever the gearbox up with the jack and inch it in.
After that I needed a break from the engine so started on the front end.
The front drivers wheel bearing was fubar so got a new one from Rob.
The front bearings are pretty easy to replace.
1. pop the cap and lever the tabs off the flat sections on the thread.
2. Grab big birtha and rattle that nut off like it's butter as you sing Shanie Twain's You're Still The One to your rattle gun.
3. Put the nut back on and nearly max out the torque wrench to 280Nm.
4. Pop your shoulder out torquing it up.
5. And done. Probably easier doing it on the car which I'll need to do for the passenger side, somehow I missed that it is shagged too.
The rest of the front end went on pretty easily, just tried to match the threads on either side until Razz align the car.
Did the same motoiq trick on the sway bar of using teflon tape to stop it squeaking.
Got it lined up square.
And then when I tried to bolt the links on had another wtf moment. With strut jacked up and the links lined up the sway bar is hitting the sump.
The links are supplied specifically with the LCAs because on the stock LCAs the links bolt through the bottom rather than at 90 degrees both ends.
Figured could take 3mm off either end of the adjusting nut and trim the threads down to get some more clearance, but then again it's not even at full bump because I didn't take the spring out and I really don't want to risk the sway bar smashing the front of the sump.
The other option was to drill some more holes through the sway bar bracket beneath the existing ones but there wouldn't be a lot of space to get a nut on if I did that nor meat between the existing holes and new ones.
Pretty sure Hardrace will say it's because I'm not using their sway bar but in the photos it looks the same as the one I have and at $380 I don't want to try it and have the same issue. It wasn't until I checked the Whiteline swaybar in the S15 that I noticed the legs on the grey Whiteline appear a bit longer than the blue one in the S14.
Or maybe I'm just imagining things? Ran out of time to swap them over this evening but will check it first thing next weekend.
11-04-21
Well..
The blue b
d was smaller.Not by much but it made a big difference in clearing the sump in bump.
Front end ticked off.
Started bolted everything else back on to the motor.
Even though the S14 and S15 both have a VCT SR20 there's odd differences. Like the knock sensor plug is different.
And then looking at the S14's original block it doens't look like it even had one, Silvia nerds do you know if series 1 S14 did?
Another difference was the AC bracket.
For whatever reason they changed that from S14 to S15 too.
Got the turbo bolted up, AC and PS on. I need to ask Rob Sabbadin to make me a new intake pipe. Once I get as far as I can it'll go to him to finish off.
On the intake side used the -10 breather lines to try to work out the best way to route the oil lines to the relo plate and then to the cooler.
Want to put the relo plate where it's easy to get to the filter. I put it in the engine bay last time but this usually resulted in oil going everywhere during each filter change - here ain't going to work due to the IC piping but hoping ot can be squeezed in nearby.
Getting there.
18-04-21
Did the brakes today. Still waiting on seal kits to rock up to rebuild the calipers on the S14 so swapped over the S15s which have already been done. Both cars have R33 GTST brakes which are my favourite. I've had big brake kits and nothing works as well I think.
Any time I work on brakes I lose one of the fkn clips. Got a few spare with the other wheel bearing.
Swapped over.
I got a new gearbox mount from gktech. It's just a solid bit of aluminium.
The stock one which is getting replaced.
I should have looked a bit closer before ordering it. It's designed for a S15/S14 crossmember which is flat, my crossmember came with the maxworx kit for the gearbox which is different.
Measure once cut twice.
Three times.
Except I couldn't do up the bolt unless the mount was bolted to the gearbox first and then the crossmember to the mount. But that doesn't work either because the nut sits on the other side of it.
Seems to work. Need to get a bit of 4mm plate from work to make up the gap.
25-04-21
I needed to work out what fittings and how much hose I need to do the oil lines today. Don't want to waste money on the wrong fittings so mocked up the last few things that could snooker me later, intercooler, radiator and sprayer bottle.
With that done needed to work out where the relo plate could go. They're designed to bolt on to the alternator bracket like this.
But that spot doesn't work with a bigger sump, no room at the inn.
It means going thermos instead of the clutch fan and shroud, but I reckon this is the best spot. It also means I can run straight fittings from the engine to and from the relo plate which saves some coin.
I think it'll need 90's at the oil cooler. Plan is to mount the cooler 2" or so in front of the sprayer bottle.
Shibari'd the relo plate so I could measure lines.
Reckon this will do it.
Put an order in for combination of jiffy tite and 200 hose. 100 would work but I'm a sook and find 200 fittings easier to put together.
In the meantime need to sort out this :ambivalence:
01-05-21
Going to Sakura Picnic tomorrow so no work on the car this Sunday, but I did get a care package from Marcos at The Race Shop (ex MSCN).
Obligatory why didn't god give us four kidneys so we could sell more than just one pic.
Truth be told after redoing what I'd planned Marcos probably saved me $200-300.
Thanks for sharing ! Amusing how you seem to need two Silvias in your life at any one time. Is the Japanese performance scene still strong in Australia? I know for a while, it seemed like almost every surviving JDM performance car had gone Down Under for a nice rust-free retirement.
I had an N/A S13 Silvia (two-door) for nine months when I was in Japan teaching, my first quickish car and I absolutely loved it, also got to hang out with some friendly local enthusiasts :-) Then back in the UK, imported a black 180SX a lot like your old GF's car, got it fitted with FMIC and a few other mods, did some trackdays. After that I went rotary with an FD, but still have fond memories of the S13s.
Question - how do you find the handling the same/different between the S13, S14 and S15? Having had two S13s I'm always interested to hear how much different/better the later models may have been.
Took me ages to read but I was also trying to guess the locations.
As many Datsuns, as a fellow I work with! He has a 370Z, not for long, 2 1200? utes to make one and a heavily sedated GTS-T.
As many Datsuns, as a fellow I work with! He has a 370Z, not for long, 2 1200? utes to make one and a heavily sedated GTS-T.
gmr1234 said:
There's also a massive car park just below the summit for activities.....
Know that one, nice road. I do prefer the other spur though, when I can get over to that side of town. Lollypops said:
Wow, clearly a man who loves his Silvia's! Looks like you've spent a lot of time, effort and money on them.
I would like an S15 myself but they are silly money now.
Thanks mate. Yea they are, makes me wish I'd kept all the old ones and hid them away.I would like an S15 myself but they are silly money now.
samoht said:
Thanks for sharing ! Amusing how you seem to need two Silvias in your life at any one time. Is the Japanese performance scene still strong in Australia? I know for a while, it seemed like almost every surviving JDM performance car had gone Down Under for a nice rust-free retirement.
I had an N/A S13 Silvia (two-door) for nine months when I was in Japan teaching, my first quickish car and I absolutely loved it, also got to hang out with some friendly local enthusiasts :-) Then back in the UK, imported a black 180SX a lot like your old GF's car, got it fitted with FMIC and a few other mods, did some trackdays. After that I went rotary with an FD, but still have fond memories of the S13s.
Question - how do you find the handling the same/different between the S13, S14 and S15? Having had two S13s I'm always interested to hear how much different/better the later models may have been.
The scene is pretty good here! It died off a bit a few years back when the police went crazy defecting cars and cars were also being stolen left and right, but it's since calmed down and there's a lot of meets, local clubs, etc. I had an N/A S13 Silvia (two-door) for nine months when I was in Japan teaching, my first quickish car and I absolutely loved it, also got to hang out with some friendly local enthusiasts :-) Then back in the UK, imported a black 180SX a lot like your old GF's car, got it fitted with FMIC and a few other mods, did some trackdays. After that I went rotary with an FD, but still have fond memories of the S13s.
Question - how do you find the handling the same/different between the S13, S14 and S15? Having had two S13s I'm always interested to hear how much different/better the later models may have been.
Re the S13 vs S14/S15 it's a good question. To me the S13s feel more go-karty and lighter on their toes. The S15 is more solid and planted. I'd love to have a 180SX again, my mate has a blue one and I've told him to let me know if he ever wants to sell it.
motomk said:
Know that one, nice road. I do prefer the other spur though, when I can get over to that side of town.
Black spur? It is a great road too!Don1 said:
Welcome to PH then, I love threads like this.
PHers - thongs in Oz are flip-flops. The OP wasn't allowed to go gokarting because of footwear, not underwear....
Hahaha, thank you.PHers - thongs in Oz are flip-flops. The OP wasn't allowed to go gokarting because of footwear, not underwear....
DuncanM said:
Welcome OP, really enjoyed reading this
Owned an S14 and loved it
Owned an S14 and loved it
Sko77y said:
Great read and some great progress, look forward to seeing both back on the road.
aka_kerrly said:
I really enjoyed that. Thanks for taking the time to collate all your car history.
Ive always liked the S15 and should really have bought one a few years ago.
Cheers guys Ive always liked the S15 and should really have bought one a few years ago.
Scobblelotcher said:
Awesome read, thanks for sharing! What next?
Thanks mate. Focusing on the S14 as it's closer to running, still a long list to go.Made somewhat of a start on the oil cooler. First up was was a bracket for the relo plate. It's no blinky but it'll do.
Forgot about the BOV port until I took this photo, luckily it cleared it
I didn't realise how long the jiffy tite fitting is.
Straight fitting off the oil plate aren't going to work the bending radius is way too tight. Will need more 90s. It's all lightweight but thinking about making a bracket with p-clips on the hose to hold it.
I originally wanted to put the oil cooler here, but the cooler is bigger than what I thought it would be.
Needed to put the front bar on to work out how much space I have. Before I could put the front bar on had to sort out the issue with the intercooler not fitting with the reo. The plazmaman kit was for the S15 not a S14 which is why it's a bit off.
I was hoping I could just space out the mounts beneath the car to make room, but if the cooler is too low it gets smashed which was another reason to put the front bar on.
Got this far so put on the bonnet on as well to get an idea of what it'll look like. I wasn't sold on the origin kit, but I am now. Pretty happy with how the nuggets going to look eventually.
Bad news though, there's no room to drop the cooler
But there is space to go backwards.
After removing a bunch of no longer neccessary metal. Because I'm using a fibreglass bonnet and bonnet pins I don't need the factory mechanism.
Three bolts and nine spot welds later, plenty of room for activities. There's no flex in the rad support.
Drilled another hole out on the intercoolerm mount to push it backward, cut off the old one and chamfered it to suit the k-frame.
It fits pretty good.
Except for the chassis, need to notch it to get the piping on. Will sort this out next week.
Forgot about the BOV port until I took this photo, luckily it cleared it
I didn't realise how long the jiffy tite fitting is.
Straight fitting off the oil plate aren't going to work the bending radius is way too tight. Will need more 90s. It's all lightweight but thinking about making a bracket with p-clips on the hose to hold it.
I originally wanted to put the oil cooler here, but the cooler is bigger than what I thought it would be.
Needed to put the front bar on to work out how much space I have. Before I could put the front bar on had to sort out the issue with the intercooler not fitting with the reo. The plazmaman kit was for the S15 not a S14 which is why it's a bit off.
I was hoping I could just space out the mounts beneath the car to make room, but if the cooler is too low it gets smashed which was another reason to put the front bar on.
Got this far so put on the bonnet on as well to get an idea of what it'll look like. I wasn't sold on the origin kit, but I am now. Pretty happy with how the nuggets going to look eventually.
Bad news though, there's no room to drop the cooler
But there is space to go backwards.
After removing a bunch of no longer neccessary metal. Because I'm using a fibreglass bonnet and bonnet pins I don't need the factory mechanism.
Three bolts and nine spot welds later, plenty of room for activities. There's no flex in the rad support.
Drilled another hole out on the intercoolerm mount to push it backward, cut off the old one and chamfered it to suit the k-frame.
It fits pretty good.
Except for the chassis, need to notch it to get the piping on. Will sort this out next week.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff