greenmachine300zxtt

nice build! keep it going

FaLKoN240

More info on this? I just rubbed the shit out of my harness yesterday at an event.

jr_ss

It's basically removing the piece of plastic the harness runs through right there, pulling it up as high as you can get it and bolting on a piece of rub resistant material to protect the harness there. You can also notch the metal right below the top frame rail to pull the harness up straighter, away from the wheel.

Glad you see you hung around Hoff. I remember when you were complaining about this site(must have been a recent relocation from Nico) and talked about leaving indefinitely...

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My SR20VET

Hoffman5982

Pretty simple. The hole where the harness comes out of the firewall was cut upwards about an inch an a half. I then cut the plate out of sheet metal and secured it with self tapping screw. I had someone hold the harness as high as it would go while I screwed it in. I have a metric shit ton of the edge guard laying around so I put that under the harness to keep the plate from cutting into it.

At the bottom left of the plate you can see the extension where the hood release cable originally came out. I drill a hole under the harness and just pulled the grommet through. All in all, took about 15 minutes to make. Of course your fender being off makes it a hell of a lot easier.

It's really all about getting it low enough to the piping to go under the fog lights. You can see the original mounts here:


The core was pretty much mounted straight vertically. When I did the fog lights, I angled the core a bit more to sit flush against the bumper cover. I used the same mounts and just bent them downwards and added an extension. Nothing crazy.


To do this, the core has to hang pretty low. Without an SE lip, it looks horrible. With the lip you can only see it if you look under. I haven't had any issues with scraping or anything.

I've been contemplating re-doing it and connected it to the bumper retainer just to make it cleaner/more structurally sound.

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FaLKoN240

Okay sweet. Thanks for the in depth description. My harness goes through the engine bay and it still wasn't enough to keep it from getting chewed up. The starter wire was catching signals from all sorts of shit so I couldn't drive until I "fixed" it.



I like yours more because it looks really clean. If you painted it, it would look almost OEM.

ClintFiske

Hey man. Loving this build, however.. your pictures appear to be messed up. I hate photobucket.

Hoffman5982

Lol whatever works right? Before this I just had a metal strap that I had screwed in to hold the harness back. It was ghetto and took a few chunks out of my tire.

I'd like the spray the wheel wells with truck bed liner in the near future. I just need the s13 running so I have something to drive.

Ugh. I hate photobucket. I'd convert to imgur but there's too many photos to re-upload and then re-link in this thread, so I've up-ed my photobucked to the 20gb bandwidth. You people need to stop checking my page out

Edit: photos still aren't loading. Does anyone know if I have to wait a little while for it to take effect? Surely that didn't change all the photo URL's?

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bc.

that coupe screams 80's! It looks like the engine bay needs a bath too.

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* S14SR22 * 9.0 c/r * GT3071R *

S14Serge

Wow thanks for going a bit more in depth with how you did your setup Hoffman. I'll be doing this for sure on my swap in two weeks super stoked to finally installing it! Anyways im subscribed to your thread so bring on the updates as often as possible lol!

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FaLKoN240

Pics work fine

Hoffman5982

Yeah it just took a little while to update.

I should have an update in the next couple of days. I haven't gotten much done due to apartment shopping.

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Hoffman5982

Update Time

Let's catch up on the S13. In the beginning progress was slow. When I pulled the KA out of the s14 it took me almost 3 months to sell it, and even then it only sold because I dropped the price down to $350 for everything. When I bought the s13 I thought "I'll have a KA in less than a week for about that much". Wrong. These things have become scarce apparently. The only ones I could find usually had a knock or something. One person wanted $600 for a motor with a spun bearing and a blown tranny. Crazy. So the car sat.

In February I finally got a lead on a motor. It was a long block. The guy said it belonged to his friend who was pulling it to put in a built motor he had bought, but he knew nothing about these cars. The motor was an auto and had ~130k. According to him it ran fine, just had a few leaks. So I went and took a look. It looked like a long block. I asked him to text his friend and get a price. $60. Sold.





It had a lot of grime.


I popped the valve cover and it looks clean enough.


It didn't have an oil pan so I could see the crank and all and they seem to check out. I peeked through the valves and could still see cross hatches on the cylinder walls. Hopefully all is well with this motor.

I decided to replace most of the gaskets on the engine. This included:

• Front Main Seal
• Rear Main Seal
• Oil Pan Gasket
• Intake Manifold Gaskets
• Exhaust Manifold Gaskets

Anything is better than nothing. The front cover is what the PO told me was leaking, so I pulled that off and replaced that gasket as well. I ended up replacing the front cover with a newer/cleaner one as well.

Over the next month or so I gathered most of the missing parts for the motor. A good friend of mine really hooked me up with most of it.





The intake manifold is off an s14 motor. I got the subharness with it so running it shouldn't be an issue. Losing the butterflies should help the top end a bit.


Everyone I know with a KA has had an issue with their EGR at some point. I decided to circumvent this and delete it.


The oil pan I got had already been tapped for an oil return. I had planned on doing this beforehand anyways just in case I decided to boost it later on, so this made me happy. The cap is worrisome though..



So the engine is almost complete. I needed a clutch. I decided to go with an XTD. I know these are hit or miss, but having a $500 clutch setup on a $100 motor seemed silly for me. I got the stage 3 with the lightweight flywheel. I figured I might as well go with a clutch I can kick with out any issues if I decide that's what I want to do with the car.


Threw the new rear main seal in before I started.




Then I learned not to clean these things with brake cleaner. Never had this issue on my Fidanza...


I ended up getting an SR tranny(friend hooked me up) and somehow managed to find a ka bellhousing for cheap within the same week. Got it mated up(IG quality)


At this point I had stripped the bay(within the first week) and pressure washed it as best as I could. I got the engine in without any issues.


The battery tray area was pretty bad. I had found one that looked structural sound in the junkyard, but I looked under and it was about to fall through. All I've done was wire wheels it and cut anything that was more than surface rust. I primered it for now until I can figure what to do with it.


I've slowly collected just about everything I need for the engine.


Moving to the interior, I threw in my old S14 SE seats within the first week to replace the ripped stockers. I also picked up a Tomei Duracon 90mm Shift knob and an ebay shift boot. For all of you people who "ain't care" and run without a boot, search "240sx shift boot" on eBay and buy the $9 suede boot. There's no reason to make your interior look crappy. These are more the sufficient if you just want something cheap. Be careful though, I ordered red and got gold. Didn't look too bad though.



I have the retainer coming in the next couple of days so that the boot is secured properly.


As I said before, this was an auto shell. I picked up a manual brake and clutch pedal. Turns out the kid sold me s14 pedals, so I just cut the auto brake pedal and put the manual cover on. Drilling the hold in the firewall was the biggest pain in my ass. I should have invested in a compact drill.



Now we're about up to speed with this car. After buying two harness and having them either cut worse than I thought or being for a single cam instead of dual cam, I did a little online searching and got an clean, uncut upper and lower harness for a pretty good price. The harness had one plug that was already broken and one single wire plug that broke off while installing. both were an easy fix. I started last night by replacing the dash plug with the single cam plug.

I solder everything I do, no matter what.



A little heat shrink. The marine heat shrink from harbor freight is my new best friend. It's adhesive lined which really does help.


And then I depinned the leftover wires.



Then I threw that shit on the ground.


Then picked it back up because it didn't make sense on the ground..



And that's where I am with this. So what's left?

• Need to install driveshaft(sitting in the trunk of my s14)
• Install the ECU
• Buy a clutch line
• Buy a clutch slave cylinder
• Repin two tranny plugs since it's an SR tranny
• Fluids
• Battery
• Start

As you can see, I'm close. At first it won't have A/C or power steering, since I haven't collected the parts needed for that.

Now that the s13 is caught up, let me catch you guys up on last weeks endeavors with the s14.

I needed a shifter for the s13. The transmission came with the plate, but nothing else. I had a v.1 short shifter on the s14, so I decided to put it on the s13. I ended up getting a v.2 because it was cheap and had decent reviews. This may sound blasphemous, but I don't really like B&M shifters. I've felt 3 and they all seem to twist when going side to side, if that makes any sense. If I were to spend a decent amount on a shifter it'd only be for a Tomei or a C's shifter. Moving on, with the shifter I ordered an OEM shifter base boot and an OEM bushing to make my cheap shifter 1/4 legit. I ordered an intake manifold gasket as well but I haven't put it on, so disregard that.




Then my alternator took a poop on me. I can't complain since it was a second hand unit that lasted me over 2 years. I was running one off a '96 Nissan Quest, using the CodyAce Brackets. Since I work at an auto parts store I pulled one out for a '99-'02 to make sure they were the same as far as exterior. Reason for this is the '98 and below are 110 amp, and the '99-'02 are 125. Both are an upgrade over stock, but they both cost me the same, so why not?

Old and New


To use the CodyAce Kit, you have the drill the mounting holes out. I highly recommend covering all vents with tape. Metal shavings inside are no bueno.


The kit is very straight forward. You have to remove the top section of the factory alternator bracket.Then you just put 6 washers(only 5 pictured, 6 needed) on the bolt between the alternator and the bracket. This has to be done to adjust the bracket and tighten the belt.


You bolt that end to the top ear of the alternator, and the other end to the mounting hole of the stock bracket you removed.


And you just adjust it light you adjust aftermarket suspension arms, tightening the lock collars when you're done.


That's it for now. I have a day to myself tomorrow so I might try to get a few things done. We'll see..

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Hoffman5982

Small Update

It has been storming the last few days so progress on the s13 has been put on hold. Until today.

I got sick of waiting so I kicked my mom out of her garage bay and pushed this piece in.



The other day I picked up a clutch slave cylinder and went and had a clutch line made. I had been planning on just buying an Agency Power/ISIS line, and I wish I had just done that. I went to a local place that everyone told me was awesome and cheap. It was neither. I went in and asked for a 3/16 banjo on one end and a 90* on the other. The guy behind the counter informed me that they were out of stock of the 90's, so I asked for just a straight fitting on the other end. According to this guy, who works at a place who's sole purpose is making hoses, told me there is no such thing as a straight fittings. A bit bewildered, I tried explaining that I just needed the hose to go straight into the slave cylinder. Doesn't exist. So I ended up with banjo's on both ends, which still works. For the material, I told the guy I didn't need anything fancy. I said it was being used for a clutch so as long as it worked as it should it can look like garbage for all I cared.





I routed the line the same way I did in the s14.




Overall length was 62", which was perfect. However, I bled the clutch as much as I could and there doesn't seem to be a lot of travel when engaging the clutch. I have a sneaky suspicion that the line is flexing. Has anyone experienced this kind of line and know whether it's suitable for a clutch line?

So anyways, that was done and it's nice to have all the pedals in and working. Next I got the driveshaft I had picked up installed. Nothing special.


Then I pulled my box of ES bushings out and noticed I had steering rack bushings. I ripped the old ones out. They weren't horrible, but new is always better right?
Old vs New


Can't tell, but they are installed


Next up were the sway bar bushings. As of now I've only done the front as I'm missing one bushing for the end links in the rear.


Old vs New again



While I was under the car I noticed that I desperately need tie rod boots



And that's it! Like I said, small update. Tomorrow I plan on doing the rear sway bar bushings and, if I feel frisky, the much needed tension rod bushings and sub frame inserts. We'll see what else I can get into. It's the first sunday I've had off in literally months, so I don't want it to go to waste.

Thanks for looking!

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Hoffman5982

Not really an update, but my buddy shot some more photos of my car today.








The engine bay shot would have come out better if I had actually cleaned it in the past 2 weeks. Oh well.
I'll post any more that he uploads.

As far as progress, not much has happened. I got my new fuel pump in for the s14, but I didn't think about it
and filled up on my way home yesterday, so I'm holding off until I have about half a tank.

I attempted to start the s13 the other day. Didn't get anything but a click from the starter, so I'm taking it off
and bringing it with me to work to test it. I have a spare I'll test as well. I know for sure I need to do the wiring
side of the 5spd swap to complete it, and I'm willing to bet my issue lays somewhere in there. We shall see.

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Supra_Lover

Great build siieeer!!

Hoffman5982

Hey guys, it has been a while since I updated this, but I finally have enough new content to warrant bringing it back from the dead. I'm still in the process of uploading pictures and videos, so it will be another day or two. I'll leave you guys with this to hopefully get a little hype going



Have a merry Christmas everyone

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Chrisk0

Wow! Excellent build and a good story. You have motivated me man. We have a really similar story.

I got my first job at Best Buy at 16. For my first car I wanted a stick shift. That was my only requirement. I went to a local used car dealership literally in walking distance from my house. I bought a wrecked, ugly, horrible interior, abused Nissan 97' 200sx SE. It was a 5-speed sports car. I wasn't really spoiled, I pay $2100 cash. BUT! I was an idiot. I learned how to drive fast and did no maintenance. Abused the ALREADY abused engine. Burnouts every day. No clutch left, slid with my ebrake in the rain every time it did so. And then one day my stupidness got me in a wreck.

About that time my uncle got an s13. I was in love with and was searching on my hands an knees for 240sx. I wanted to drift so bad. In the time of searching for one, (roughly 6 months of money saving and searching) I was researching everything about them. Doing a tranny swap, an sr swap, how to drift, coilovers differences etc.

Well I found one last month. A 91' 240sx s13. It had a blow engine. It was in excellent condition for sitting for 10 years though. I wanted to do an SR20DET swap anyways, so I got ahold of the guy. He was asking $1000. He was one of the nicest guys I have ever met. I gave it a couple of days to think. And I didn't wanna waste his time with price until I had the cash in my hand. 4 days later... payday happened. I called him and we settled on $750. So me, my grandpa, and my close friend slapped a trailer on the back of his f-150 and we rode off to Fort Smith, Arkansas for a road trip experience. When I got there I looked and it was in excellent condition. I wanted it because the body was in awesome condition. I didn't care about the motor.

Now I have it at my house, I'm 17 and I am saving up for my sr20det swap. Still haven't decided on my coilovers. I know how to save money on a budget, so if you have some decent ones in mind lemme know because I still don't know much about them. I figured you would enjoy this post because we are so similar. And what I have got from you build thread, I will learn from. Thanks man. And keep up the good work.

Sorry for such a long winded post lol.

future

I know it's only two pages. But that was a ton of reading! Thanks for my entertainment in this long ass holiday wait at the Barber shop

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jlchron

Your attention to detail is amazing. You don't see that a lot for 240s. Love how u keep the car friendly but fast. Will be watching this one.

Hoffman5982

Thank you guys for the kind words. It really keeps me motivated to work on these buckets.

Alright, I promised you guys an update, so here it is. Unfortunately, I have photos spread out among 3 cameras, and the one that had the bulk of my content is not in my possession, so I will have to edit that in at a later time.

I know it has been a while since my last update. I'd like to say that in all that time some complete transformations have taken place, but that simply isn't true. I recently moved in to my first apartment, and that took a good bit of time away from my cars. I also haven't been able to work on my cars as much as I used to because of living in an apartment that frowns upon working on vehicles.

Let's start with the s14, because I have barely done anything other than maintenance and destroying the pristine lip.

I thought my fuel pump was going out, causing the stumbling problem that I'm still dealing with today. So I replaced it with a Deatschewerks DW200. I gotta say, I'm very happy with this unit. I was running an OEM z32 pump, and this thing is much quieter. It's virtually silent. The first time I let it prime I wasn't sure if it was even working. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade. Enjoy a picture of a box.


I'm not sure if I've posted my gauge setup, but I tried to make it a little different. I have the ProSport smoked gauges mounted in a triple DIN mount under the headunit, and I removed the smoked covers. I then cut a piece of plexiglass to fit over them, and tinted it. The result is a completely blacked out hidden look when the car is off, but a pop when it's on. Recently, the tint decided to bubble pretty bad, so I pulled it all out to fix it. Yes, I know the edge under the face plate is rough, I've lost a few nights of sleep over it. Luckily, it's fairly hidden when sitting in the car. PS-Don't get Prosport gauges. All of mine have failed.



And a horrible representation of when it's on(Notice the maxed out oil pres. and a/f gauges. Shitty mcshit-shits)


Then, the clutch slave cylinder pooped out on me, so I ordered a new Nabco unit from FRSport and threw it on. It was then that I realized the undercarriage really needs a cleaning, so that's on the list of things to do.




The End.

I do have some things in the works for the S14, so don't be discouraged by its neglect. Here's some motivation:




On to the s13. In the last update I had just put the harness in. I really can't remember why, but it was quite a while before I even tried to start it. In the mean time, I focused on other aspects of the car.

I realized very quickly how much I disliked the stock suspension. It had to go. I got a super good deal on some BC type BR coilovers.


I actually thought this would be low enough. I'm pretty sure it was higher than stock. These definitely won't go as low as my Stance's, but that's ok.


Then I wen't to replace the bellows, and the tie rod ends literally fell apart. I threw some OE replacements on for now, but will be upgrading to some adjustables soon.



When I got the car, the steering wheel was rough. The top section had separated, which was no bueno. I picked up a Grip Royal for fairly cheap. It has some flex, but I only notice it when I actively try to make it flex.


Got the horn button to match


At this point I finally got anxious enough to get this thing running. I got the battery and power system all sorted out, and this was the first official start.


I was slightly scared that something major was wrong, but I plugged a pretty bag vacuum leak and it started up, but sounded like this:


Again, I was discouraged. It was clearly noise from the chain, but I had removed all the guides that weren't mandatory. So I pulled the upper front cover and fount that the tensioner had not popped out. So I used a flat head and pryed it out, and started it back up. Finally, she purred.


So it's finally running! I couldn't drive it just yet because it had a coolant leak. I ended up replacing just about every hose under/inside the intake manifold to find it. After that I was driving it around the neighborhood and what not. It needed to make a 1 1/2 hour drive to Alabama to get registered(cheaper), and I needed to know it was somewhat reliable. In the mean time, I painted the valve cover to spruce up the bay a little.




I don't really like the color, but it's bubbling so I have a reason to change it.

After about a month of driving it around the neighborhood, I decided it was time. Before I could make the trip, though, I found the transmission was leaking from inside the bellhousing. Great. I knew exactly what it was: The input shaft cover. I should have replaced it when I was switching the KA bellhousing on to the SR tranny, but nothing I could do about it now except replace it. Which I did.




What a pain in the ass. Having to roll the transmission over to get it in and out without any help kicked my ass. I can't tell you how many times it rolled off the jack.

Now that the leak was gone, it was time to get it legal. The night before, I decided to attempt getting the SOHC tach working on the DOHC motor. The result:


One wire. Seriously guys, whoever said it couldn't be done is a fucking idiot. I also hotwired the ignition coil, but I really didn't notice a difference other than smoother start up.

The car made it to AL and back with no issues. It did great, actually. The very next day, it died on my way to work. Got a lift to work, and when I got back to it a few hours later, it was fine. Weird. Over the next few days, it kept happening, until one day it didn't start, and I had to tow it home.



It turned out to be the distributor. Easy fix. That was in Novemeber. I drove it around for a month, enjoying every minute. It had no power steering, no speakers, and was a lot harsher than my s14, but I could beat on it with no regrets. I found out there was an End of Year Bash out in New Orleans at the NOLA Motorsports park, so I signed up. I needed to get the car ready though. First off was the Open Diff, for obvious reasons. I had gotten a J30 VLSD in a straight trade for an open diff I had laying around. I didn't want to go welded, but I didn't want to put the J30 in and have it be worn out. So I shimmed it. I took the stock shim out and put two 1.25mm shims in.



I ended up putting the j30 pinion in the s13 housing because I didn't want to file down the half shafts. I put it back in the car, and what a difference. Honestly, it's like a welded. It skips tires when turning, but I think it might be starting to wear in and go away.

Next on the list was brakes.



And lastly, I needed some wheels. I wasn't sure what I wanted though. Part of me wanted to stay small and go 15's, the other part wanted bigger. So I bought these super cheap steelies to hold me over. Whatever I decide, these can just be drift spares, so It worked out. Honestly though, I'm digging the look.


I had to run a 5mm hubcentric spacer up front, as well as removing all collars and bottoming the front coilovers out


The outcome:



It was finally time for the event. This was my very first drift event. The only drifting I had done was in a small parking lot at low speeds, and only one of those times was with the new diff and power steering(one of the things I have to edit in). The only other experience I had was Gran Turismo 5, with my G27 steering wheel setup. I know it sounds silly, but that really helped.

I knew I'd be beating on this thing all day, and anything could happen, so I decided to tow it vs driving there and risking getting stranded. I got her loaded up and headed out super early to get there by 9am



I decided to run through my stock wheels with almost dead tires before putting the new tires on. It turned out to be all I needed for the whole day. This track was really easy on tires.


So my first run out was pretty bad, but I was still proud of it.


I really picked it up quick though. This was my third run:


What had happened was: I had rigged a plug for the egr pipe on the header. It blew out and it sounded horrible. I was able to crimp it but it still leaks a little. Regardless, I was pumped. I didn't think I'd be linking the whole course so soon. The rest of the day went about the same, so I'll let the pics and videos do the talking.




One of my best runs, minus the cone slaying











I had a lot of fun. The car did great, although it started over heating towards the end. I got it home and it kept getting super hot, so I replaced the already new thermostat thinking it wasn't opening. While down there I found that the water pump pulley would spin freely, and when I poured a gallon of coolant in, it all came out of the seep hole. Can't have that.


And that's pretty much it. The car is running cool now. The next items on the list are a bucket seat, suspension arms, and steering mods. I know I'll be getting aftermarket Tie rods, but I'm problem going to put the bolt on spacers as well. I was at full lock a lot at this event, so I'd like a little more room to grow. I'm planning on going to the Chasebays event up in Birmingham on Jan 18, so hopefully I can have some of those things done before then.

In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy this cool weather. Thanks for reading!

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sleepyS14se

dude, get your ass back on here and make another page for us to read!!!!

i love 240sx stories like this with so much WIN!!!

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95 S14 se RB25DET 348whp

stroked_jz

loved the read. but you have to share a secret with the rest of us. how the fuck are you budgetting $8/hr into living expenses and building 2 cars. My supra took me forever to build, and even at that i was shaving corners on a 40k year salary.

sleepyS14se

^ kinda wondering the same thing lol. s14 is sick and the s13's side decals make me love s13's even more.

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95 S14 se RB25DET 348whp

Hoffman5982

Thanks guys!

As far as budgeting goes, patience is the biggest thing. My parents pay my rent, while I pay the utilities. If you look at how long of a gap it was between the last update, and how little was actually accomplished, you'll see how patient I have to be for some of the bigger purchases. For the first half of this year I was working 50+ hours a week and was able to establish a savings account, which I dip into a lot for this car.

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sleepyS14se

sweeet. i love how everything is done right and is so clean!!!

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95 S14 se RB25DET 348whp

stroked_jz

i need to learn better budgetting. that or less money spent on food an cigs... I had budgetted between 1500-2000 a month towards my build, and dont get me wrong, it always felt like christmas. but it still took forever... after a year of building i felt like i had accomplished nothing more than a bpu swapped jz mk3. then i looked around at what i could have bought for cheaper.

sleepyS14se

^ consider yourself lucky. I was spending around that much too until my wife and i made a baby. LOL



We need to start a budget thread so us folks with bad budgeting skills can converse and make better plans for saving money! LOL

Hoffman, how much did the aqua-dipped vc run ya from silviaks2ner?

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95 S14 se RB25DET 348whp

Kallixtos

Very nice!

I miss my fog lights too. May end up doing the same.

Good stuff!

stroked_jz

yah ive got a 3 year old little boy now. So funds fore my build are not moving quickly at all, ive got motor, trans, turbo, and aem. Just no car yet. Finding a good shell is a pain...

S14Serge

Any updates on your builds?! Lol

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