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The season is basically over now here in Minnesota so now I have time to finally get started on a build thread. Earlier this year I sold my ?89 Nissan Laurel in favor to build up an RPS13 shell I had picked up. I loved the laurel and it was a super fun car but every time I drifted it I felt bad and didn?t want to destroy it(even more than I already had).
43581905_702066006833902_1457125323409616327_n by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
Let?s rewind a little to July of 2019. I was randomly browsing craigslist and found a sr20 motorset for sale for a pretty good price. It came with a bunch of ?goodies?(hybrid valve cover, 18g turbo, freddy IM/oil pan, powerFC, 1 piece driveshaft, blahblahblah) and couldn?t pass it up.
20190722_193006 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

The original plan was to put it in the laurel but being the dummy I am I was randomly browsing facebook marketplace and found a 180sx shell not terribly far from me. It was definitely rough around the edges and needed a lot of work, but that didn?t stop me from scooping it up(did I mention I?m a dummy yet?)
20190727_201242 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
20190728_141302 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_0591 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

Over the winter I started to collect parts here and there and I started to dig into the SR a little bit. I popped the valve cover off and saw right away that 2 of the rocker arms had popped.
20190729_211204 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

No big deal as the extra parts alone was enough to offset the cost of what I paid for the engine. The head looked super clean so I decided I was going to try and salvage it and see what happens. If I?m going to pull the cams and whatnot why not get bigger cams? Voil?, JWT S4 cams showed up.
IMG_0105 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

As I was disassembling the valvetrain I found the source of why the rocker arms were popped. Whoever assembled the top end had put the guide shims on the opposite side of the rocker arms on the entire exhaust side and the guide shims actually snapped in half. Luckily I found the pieces after dropping the oil pans. Before reassembling I went ahead and did the dual guide conversion as well.
IMG_1145 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1146 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1183 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr


I dropped the rear subframe for some much needed work. I?ve broken rear subframes on previous s13?s so this time around I wasn?t going to mess around and I bought and installed the gktech reinforcement kit. I am not a professional welder by any means but I was still proud of my work.
IMG_1168 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1175 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1190 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

While it was out I tossed in some Stance arms, pbm drop knuckles, pbm riser bushings, z32 calipers/drum parking brakes, 5 lug hubs and a Cusco 2-way differential.
IMG_1218 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

The front I wanted to go with a pretty basic setup of extended lca?s, pbm knuckles, ikeya formula tie rods, spl tension rods, nismo power brace and a relocated steering rack. Silk Road coilovers all the way around until I can afford some new Stance XR1?s.
IMG_20191122_153602 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
20190926_191505 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1063 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

I?ve been drifting for 5-6 years at this point and one thing I?ve always wanted was a tire machine. My buddy and I ended up finding and splitting the cost of a used coates machine.
IMG_0992 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

With the suspension basically done I started moving onto the wiring of the chassis. The shell came with a hacked up usdm body and engine bay harness. Originally I was going to make an entire custom harness but diving into it more I realized I was in over my head. Found a 180sx body harness on YAJ and had Streeter ship it on over for me. The engine bay had tubs installed already so I at least felt comfortable extending the bay harness and tucking the fuse boxes under the dash.
IMG_1078 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1059 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1101 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1433 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
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IMG_1461 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

Installed an Odyssey battery and neat little box for it.
IMG_1253 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

I finished assembling the engine finally. Found some deals on a radium fuel rail and id1050x injectors.
IMG_1160 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1292 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

As far as the clutch goes my buddy gave me his old cusco super single that was slipping and I bought a rebuild kit for it. Local machine shop was able to resurface the flywheel and towers. Also since I?m keeping the sr trans I?m opting to install the clutch masters flow control valve to keep from destroying everything.
IMG_0556 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1227 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1068 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1480 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

I dealt with quite a few cooling issues with my laurel so this time I wanted to do everything right the first time. Incoming koyo n-flo, stance water pump pulley, gktech fan, blitz fmic and swirl pot.
IMG_1041 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_0803 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

Started fitting up the exterior bit which consists of PS Duce aero, BN Sports hood, East Bear mirrors, Origin 30mm overfenders, and kouki tails. Overall everything fits great except for the bumper to hood gap. Oh well.
IMG_1404 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1310 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1324 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

Dropped the engine in and wired it up using a wiring specialties harness and found out that the power fc was fried.
IMG_1521 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1482 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr

As I waited for another pfc to come in the mail my buddies and I started prepping my car for paint. The color we(as a ?team?) decided to go with was a fire red pearl. Dropped a dumb amount of flake into the clear and overall didn?t turn out too bad for a last minute garage paintjob.
IMG_1543 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1542 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr
IMG_1633 by XtreManiaK, on Flickr