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aaronlosey · 02-10-2013, 05:10 PM

So here comes another big update! I keep meaning to do these more often, but I just get so caught up in working on stuff 12 hours a day that I am exhausted when I get home. A couple months ago I understood that Tyler's car wouldn't be done anytime soon since I am doing everything myself and I am incredibly slow at mechanical stuff, and since my S13 has been dismantled, I figured it was a great time to bring Tyler's missile car back to life. I need a vehicle of his to spread his ashes in out at Mineral Wells, as well as to entertain his friends and family at the memorial event coming up in April. More info on that will be posted soon.

So knowing that I needed some serious help with Tyler's car I first made a list of what really needed to be fixed.

Blown turbo.
Condition of motor was unknown and after spending a day getting it running it puked all its oil out.
The car only had a side mount intercooler from the factory.
Starter wasn't working for some reason.
Window regulator was messed up.
Hood wouldn't release and the hood cable was messed up.
Door wouldn't close.
Trunk wouldn't latch and close.
Power steering system needed attention.
Car was hot-wired to run with broken ignition setup.
Plugs were fouled.
Car wasn't charging and alternator wasn't working, battery was dead and wasn't tied down or captured.
Motor mount is broken.
Leaks everywhere and motor soaked and caked in oil.
Car has Derrick knuckles on it but steering isn't setup correctly and the wheels rub everywhere, tension rods need to be modified, fenders banged out, alignment done, larger wheel spacers added.
Ebrake isn't working well enough.
Wiring is SCARY SCARY SCARY. The wiring is really really really bad.
Radiator isn't actually mounted to the car with anything but 1 zip tie.
Fan shroud is broken.
And on and on.

So I asked Derrick if he would come down for a weekend and tackle this with me, and thank god he said yes. I am really excited to get the car going immediately and to pilot a simple SR20 car again for the foreseeable future while my new chassis is being built. Marty at Autocomp was super inviting and let us do everything at his shop, which is an amazing place to get to work on my projects at! So Derrick came over to give me a hand and that is where we begin the pictures.

So I started by pressing out a bearing on the old Autocomp press and getting ready to swap in a new bearing.

That left me with a race I had to cut off and a bearing to throw away.

I super carefully cut away the race and then put a crack in it, being super careful not to contact the material of the hub itself and the surface I was going to put a bearing back onto, although it probably wouldn't have been too terrible had I nicked it.

Now a peak at the car in question. You can see it had no bumpers, a trunk I have to hold down with a tire, and a permanently downed window. It has lots of dents I am temporarily going to ignore, but I have a plan for those. Many of you guys will remember this car as the one Tyler brought out to GGP and a few other venues a few times to play with. It was T25 at the time and probably 14 psi through a side mount! Too much for the little turbo to take! He drove amazing well in the car though, and we tossed him into single qualifying runs with everyone at GGP and he qualified 1st or 2nd and then bowed out since there was no cage. That was without driving with us for a year in a really ragged out car with maybe 200 whp.

I go through all the effort of pulling the starter and ordering a new one from Courtesy Nissan and carefully explain what I needed, telling them over and over again I needed a RWD SR20DET starter, blah blah blah and they send me a FWD one : ( That took a week to sort out, and was a time suck!

Tyler's catch can setup! Mine is a Starbucks tea cup!

We compression checked the motor to see if we should even bother putting all this work into such a ragged out salvage title car that has so much damage to it. And it checks out 170 across the board! Or at least that is what Derrick told me, as I was sitting inside the car working the key after we found a solution to our starter problem!

Poor little spark plugs. At least they weren't melted and destroyed from detonation!

We started breaking everything down on the car getting ready to put another turbo on it, and fix all the broken or neglected stuff.

Working on a table inside finally, since the car is in the backyard of Autocomp.

And now the fun of choosing a turbo out of my collection! This little turbo is too big. This little turbo is too small. This little turbo is JUST RIGHT. That would be the 2860RS or Disco Potato, otherwise known as a T28RS or something. Basically it is a T28 visually, but makes a bit more power. Sitting them side by side you really can't even tell a difference in size or anything. I chose the turbo because I wanted an enjoyable playful car that didn't make a ton of HP, had really quick response, and would let me show people they don't need to go V8 to tandem well and have an awesome time. The SR20 S14 is an amazing platform that can compete with the best of the cars in our series with just 250 whp, and can keep the build budget in check. A fantastic S14 can be had for 4-10K $, while building yourself a V8 car will cost something approaching 20k $ at the minimum. The turbo on the left is a GT3076R, next is the 2860RS, then the S15 T28, then the T25. The party starts from left to right at 4500 rpm, then 3500, 3000, and probably 3000.

I sand blasted the exhaust manifold to clean it up, found a Tomei turbo elbow to spice up the parts list and cancel out the Meagan manifold, and Derrick kept working on getting everything lined up and tacked together so it wouldn't fall apart.

I went to go inspect the fuel pump and see if it was up to par, and try and figure out why the fuel level wasn't working on the dash. Also, nothing else works on the dash, so there are probably enough reasons you can just take your pic. The car had a walbro and no fuel level setup, so I just put it back together and let it be.

We then tackled the fun part of all this, and the most time consuming. We took a knockoff front mount Greddy intercooler and turned it into a sweet mid mount intercooler.

This contraption was required at one point.... That battery mount is really neat! I stole it out of my E46 drift car I got off of Chelsea.

And then the cutting begins back at the front of the car! Have to make room for those intercooler end tanks... which we also had to cut off and remake.... I don't think I got a single picture of myself, it is always Derrick in the pics! Unless you see a POV shot, then that is me.

Then there was tons of measuring, cutting, stealing intercooler pipes for end tanks, etc to get to this pic.

And of course Sam the Autocomp dog is constantly looking for love, trying to show you things and get attention and scratching.

I hope he doesn't stare at this too much!!!

And finally after two days of building the setup and piping, it gets put in the car for ALMOST the last time! Notice how little intercooler piping there is, and how hidden away the setup is. I should be able to run into quite a few people without killing my piping hopefully, and sidelining me for a day.

TO BE CONTINUED....

02-10-2013, 05:10 PM	#8
aaronlosey Zilvia Junkie Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: texas Posts: 321 Trader Rating: (2)	So here comes another big update! I keep meaning to do these more often, but I just get so caught up in working on stuff 12 hours a day that I am exhausted when I get home. A couple months ago I understood that Tyler's car wouldn't be done anytime soon since I am doing everything myself and I am incredibly slow at mechanical stuff, and since my S13 has been dismantled, I figured it was a great time to bring Tyler's missile car back to life. I need a vehicle of his to spread his ashes in out at Mineral Wells, as well as to entertain his friends and family at the memorial event coming up in April. More info on that will be posted soon. So knowing that I needed some serious help with Tyler's car I first made a list of what really needed to be fixed. Blown turbo. Condition of motor was unknown and after spending a day getting it running it puked all its oil out. The car only had a side mount intercooler from the factory. Starter wasn't working for some reason. Window regulator was messed up. Hood wouldn't release and the hood cable was messed up. Door wouldn't close. Trunk wouldn't latch and close. Power steering system needed attention. Car was hot-wired to run with broken ignition setup. Plugs were fouled. Car wasn't charging and alternator wasn't working, battery was dead and wasn't tied down or captured. Motor mount is broken. Leaks everywhere and motor soaked and caked in oil. Car has Derrick knuckles on it but steering isn't setup correctly and the wheels rub everywhere, tension rods need to be modified, fenders banged out, alignment done, larger wheel spacers added. Ebrake isn't working well enough. Wiring is SCARY SCARY SCARY. The wiring is really really really bad. Radiator isn't actually mounted to the car with anything but 1 zip tie. Fan shroud is broken. And on and on. So I asked Derrick if he would come down for a weekend and tackle this with me, and thank god he said yes. I am really excited to get the car going immediately and to pilot a simple SR20 car again for the foreseeable future while my new chassis is being built. Marty at Autocomp was super inviting and let us do everything at his shop, which is an amazing place to get to work on my projects at! So Derrick came over to give me a hand and that is where we begin the pictures. So I started by pressing out a bearing on the old Autocomp press and getting ready to swap in a new bearing. That left me with a race I had to cut off and a bearing to throw away. I super carefully cut away the race and then put a crack in it, being super careful not to contact the material of the hub itself and the surface I was going to put a bearing back onto, although it probably wouldn't have been too terrible had I nicked it. Now a peak at the car in question. You can see it had no bumpers, a trunk I have to hold down with a tire, and a permanently downed window. It has lots of dents I am temporarily going to ignore, but I have a plan for those. Many of you guys will remember this car as the one Tyler brought out to GGP and a few other venues a few times to play with. It was T25 at the time and probably 14 psi through a side mount! Too much for the little turbo to take! He drove amazing well in the car though, and we tossed him into single qualifying runs with everyone at GGP and he qualified 1st or 2nd and then bowed out since there was no cage. That was without driving with us for a year in a really ragged out car with maybe 200 whp. I go through all the effort of pulling the starter and ordering a new one from Courtesy Nissan and carefully explain what I needed, telling them over and over again I needed a RWD SR20DET starter, blah blah blah and they send me a FWD one : ( That took a week to sort out, and was a time suck! Tyler's catch can setup! Mine is a Starbucks tea cup! We compression checked the motor to see if we should even bother putting all this work into such a ragged out salvage title car that has so much damage to it. And it checks out 170 across the board! Or at least that is what Derrick told me, as I was sitting inside the car working the key after we found a solution to our starter problem! Poor little spark plugs. At least they weren't melted and destroyed from detonation! We started breaking everything down on the car getting ready to put another turbo on it, and fix all the broken or neglected stuff. Working on a table inside finally, since the car is in the backyard of Autocomp. And now the fun of choosing a turbo out of my collection! This little turbo is too big. This little turbo is too small. This little turbo is JUST RIGHT. That would be the 2860RS or Disco Potato, otherwise known as a T28RS or something. Basically it is a T28 visually, but makes a bit more power. Sitting them side by side you really can't even tell a difference in size or anything. I chose the turbo because I wanted an enjoyable playful car that didn't make a ton of HP, had really quick response, and would let me show people they don't need to go V8 to tandem well and have an awesome time. The SR20 S14 is an amazing platform that can compete with the best of the cars in our series with just 250 whp, and can keep the build budget in check. A fantastic S14 can be had for 4-10K $, while building yourself a V8 car will cost something approaching 20k $ at the minimum. The turbo on the left is a GT3076R, next is the 2860RS, then the S15 T28, then the T25. The party starts from left to right at 4500 rpm, then 3500, 3000, and probably 3000. I sand blasted the exhaust manifold to clean it up, found a Tomei turbo elbow to spice up the parts list and cancel out the Meagan manifold, and Derrick kept working on getting everything lined up and tacked together so it wouldn't fall apart. I went to go inspect the fuel pump and see if it was up to par, and try and figure out why the fuel level wasn't working on the dash. Also, nothing else works on the dash, so there are probably enough reasons you can just take your pic. The car had a walbro and no fuel level setup, so I just put it back together and let it be. We then tackled the fun part of all this, and the most time consuming. We took a knockoff front mount Greddy intercooler and turned it into a sweet mid mount intercooler. This contraption was required at one point.... That battery mount is really neat! I stole it out of my E46 drift car I got off of Chelsea. And then the cutting begins back at the front of the car! Have to make room for those intercooler end tanks... which we also had to cut off and remake.... I don't think I got a single picture of myself, it is always Derrick in the pics! Unless you see a POV shot, then that is me. Then there was tons of measuring, cutting, stealing intercooler pipes for end tanks, etc to get to this pic. And of course Sam the Autocomp dog is constantly looking for love, trying to show you things and get attention and scratching. I hope he doesn't stare at this too much!!! And finally after two days of building the setup and piping, it gets put in the car for ALMOST the last time! Notice how little intercooler piping there is, and how hidden away the setup is. I should be able to run into quite a few people without killing my piping hopefully, and sidelining me for a day. TO BE CONTINUED....