Hoffman5982

Seeing as how Nico gets no attention any more, I think it's finally time to move my build to Zilvia. I guess an intro is required to properly start off any story.

I'm Steven. I come from a little po-dunk town out in Alabama, recently relocated to the ass hole of America that is Florida. I'm 21 and work part time while attending school. I currently make a measly $8/hr. That's personal business, but I state it ahead of time to show all of the kids that are "ballin on a budget" that It can be done properly on any income. So let's get started from the beginning.

It's 2007, and I'm freshly 16 and needing a whip. Being a spoiled little shit, I refused to take my brother's hand-me-down purple Ford Escort with some sweet spider webbed chrome hub caps. After bitching and crying I finally got my parents to relent and buy me a different car. At the time I knew nothing about cars. While searching I came across a 1995 240sx. I didn't what they were, I just knew it looked sporty enough. I did, however, immediately join Nico to see what they were about. So we go and look at it, and I fell in love. Looking back, it was clean enough. It was bone stock, automatic, and had 183k miles. The interior was all there, although I think the PO ripped most of the panels out without unscrewing them. For $2500, it was clean enough.


So I'm 16 with a "sports" car. Most of you know exactly what that means. I was an idiot. Everywhere I went I had the gas pedal pinned. I drove way too fast with no regard to the law or the well being of others. I had no idea what maintenance was. On multiple occasions I was reminded to check the oil, only to find there was none on the dip stick. The engine was a trooper. I inevitably became aware of the whole drift scene. I had to do it.


A rainy day meant fun. I slid the car as much as I could with an open dif and auto trans. It was really just gunning it into a corner and have the ass slide out. No real skill was involved, but I felt like a bad ass. So after a year of reckless driving, I obviously wrecked the car. It had to happen at some point. I was driving out to my girlfriends house after pretty big storm had hit. My rear tires were bald, but this wasn't on my mind. I was driving too fast for the conditions and while going around a corner the back came out on me. I fish tailed and ended up sliding through a barbed wire fence, a field, and into a poll. No seat belt or anything. Not a scratch on me.






I'm sad that it had to come to that, but in the end I had come out alive while getting all of the stupid shit and reckless driving out of my system by the age of 17.

So I need a new car. I loved my first s14. I wasn't ready for something different. I started looking on Nico and found nothing. That was when I joined Zilvia. After a week I found a really clean s14. It was a manual, which I wanted, and it was very clean. I lowballed the owner enough to rightfully feel insulted, but luckily he didn't take it personally. We eventually agreed on a price and set a date to meet. I drove 6 1/2 hours to GA to look at it. I'll never forget his garage door opening and seeing such a clean s14 rear end. I was speechless. I was sold at that moment.




The car was immaculate inside and out. It had very tasteful mods done. Engine wise it was stock other than the RS*R ExMag exhaust. It some decent suspension work done and z32 brakes front and rear. So it was paid for and I had the pleasure of learning to drive a manual in an Atlanta traffic jam.

So that's really where the journey(read as death of my financial life) begins. This was in January of 2009 during my sophomore year of high school. During this whole time Nico and Zilvia were my bible. I followed all of the well-detailed build threads and learned as much as I could about these cars. I was inspired by the owner of this car and people like Broadfield and Positron for how meticulous they were. I knew I wanted a clean, well put together car, I just didn't have the experience to make that a reality. For the first few months the car wasn't touched, other than the maintenance I made a habit of doing at the proper intervals. I got my first job at Best Buy and finally had money to throw at this thing. At first it was basic things like restoring headlights, painting the valve cover


and brake calipers.



Then I did the typical subwoofers. At first I just wanted two 12's that filled the trunk and rattled everything loose in the car. I succeeded. After quickly growing out of that phase, I still focused on the sound system. I bought some Kenwood Component speakers and an amp to run them, and picked up a nice Alpine head unit.

Now I had a decent sound system, but so many rattles, and too much outside noise drowning it out. At some point I had some wiring issues causing my stereo to intermittently shut off. So the dash came out to work on the harness. While that was out, I pulled the carpet up and filled all the dead space with Great Stuff foam, an idea I got from an old build thread here on Zilvia. It mimics the sound deadening foam that Ford used in their vehicles. What a mess..



It definitely worked. The car sounded a lot more solid afterwards. Before putting the carpet back in, I dyed it black to make the interior a little darker.


I also re-did my door cards:


After that, I just drove the car around for a few months and enjoyed the fruits of my labor.



Next thing I know, it's January of 2010, and I had some cash saved from working the Christmas season at a retail establishment. I wanted coilovers. I didn't want a super harsh ride. After a lot of searching, I settled on some Stance LX+'s, so I happily spent my money. Ordered them in January, didn't receive them til the day of my highschool graduation, May 26.

In the mean time, I had slowly collected new wheels.



Clean right? They were refinished 350z Track Wheels v.1 which were Forged by Rays if you couldn't tell. I liked the clean OEM-ness of them. I acquired them before coilovers, so I rocked them at rally-like height.




And I removed my grille and fog lights because I thought the open-ness was cleaner. I was clearly still an idiot


My coilovers finally came in at the same time as I was realizing that my car was way too far off the ground



I didn't slam it, because at the time I thought it was stupid and I was too cool for school.




Now it's summer. I was happy with how the car looked, but I was getting to the point where I felt the KA was too slow. I considered boosting it, but didn't feel comfortable with doing so without a rebuild, something which I didn't trust myself doing. So I started searching for a new motor. I went back and forth between the RB25 and an SR. I decided that the RB25 wasn't worth the trouble since I would be starting college. I set my sights on a notchtop SR. I figured since it's an s14 chassis, I wouldn't be putting an s13 motor in it. That's silly. In the few months leading up to the purchase, I collected parts. I wanted to do it right so I bought all new gaskets, a water and oil pump, all new belts, along with upgrades like a Fidanza 2.1 Carbon/Kevlar clutch kit, CXRacing FMIC, Godspeed Radiator, and quite a few other things. So I bought one from JDMOnline. Fuck those guys. It was supposedly compression tested. Cyl 4 was dead. I didn't find this til way too late to warranty it out.
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i4...x/DSCN0806.jpg

The trial and errors I went through with this slut of a motor went on for a little over a year. I'm going to skip through all of it and go straight to the end. I had run into literally every single problem a person can have. Everything on the motor except the bare head, block, and crank had been replaced with new OEM parts. Out of the year, I got a solid month of driving with no issues before it blowing the ringlands on two cylinders the first time I took it to 6k. It turned out that the shop that assembled my bottom end forgot to gap the rings. Fuck me right?
Some pics from along the way:

Repainted bay:








During the down time I started tucking the bay. I had purchased a WS Premade harness to replace the short-ridden oem harness. Best purchase I made at the time







Hooked up the AC with CodyACE Brackets




Hooked up Cruise Control with a g20 throttle body and custom throttle cable brackets



Then we were nearing the end of this poor pathetic motor. It had blown for it's last time, and I was sick of it. I had started looking for a new motor. Another notchtop, because that's what all of my parts were for. As fate would have it, at the same time I started looking, an automatic motor popped up. At the time these were rare. I knew auto's were generally driven easier, so I wanted it.





I'm going to stop here for the night. This brings us up to Feb. of last year. My laptop is about dead and so am I. Until next time..

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Broadfield

It's nice to see you over here Steven!

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KiLLeR2001

Finally I don't have to stop by Nicoclub once in a blue moon to check up on this build. Excited to read the next installment!

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KendallH

This is so true. The key element is just a little patience. Build looks good so far

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Okinawandrifter87

Loving it! Looks great and keep up the great work!

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Driftphreak87

FaLKoN240

Subbed because it's nice to see someone with their head on their shoulders putting a car together. Instead of ruining it because "Racecar"

jr_ss

I miss my Rays V1... They pretty much complete the stock car look. I wish they came in a tab bit wider sizes though.

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tricky_ab

Co-signed!

I'll be following this build...I am never on Nico, so I didn't realize that you had a build thread...

Hoffman5982

Thanks a lot guys, I really do appreciate the support.

I'm going to back track a little because I skipped a few things in my intro.

If you couldn't tell by now,m y main goal was to make this car a nice daily driver. The only time I slide the car is in an open lot in the rain where wrecking it isn't a possibility, and even then it's once in a blue moon. I'm sure some people noticed the "doing it right" and then the CXRacing FMIC and the Godspeed Radiator. I "cheaped out" on these because they were proven to be more than adequate for a stock to mildly modified set up.

So let's move on. While I was waiting on finding/buying the new motor, I had acquired all the parts necessary to spruce my interior up with the s14 digital climate control. My stock manual controls were showing their age and I was about to order new buttons from Courtesy Parts to make it look better, but the DCC fell into my lap for super cheap. I used the Chuonthis guide for reference, but I didn't like not having a full functioning unit. So I pulled my dash to add the 2 pins to the intake door motor plug to retain the 20% recirculation and 20% fresh air functions.



After a few hours of wiring it came to life


So i threw it back together. This pictures poory shows my gauge setup. They're the Prosport tinted gauges. I removed the tinted covers and mounted them behind a tinted piece of plexiglass. I have since re-done it to make it look cleaner.


For anyone considering Prosport gauges, I highly recommend to stay away from them. All three of my gauges have eventually failed after only 2 years. They start with randomly jumping up and going back to where they're supposed to be, then will finally just completely die. I've contacted Prosport and they basically told me I'm SOL.

So the new engine is on its way. The old one needs to come out.



With the old motor, I had followed Positron's thread and painted the motor with the Duplicolor Cast Aluminum paint to make it look new. It looked good, but to me it makes it look fake. With the new motor I wanted to keep the natural aluminum color. The motor came in on a Thursday, and I spent that night and most of the next day scrubbing it with degreaser and wire brushes to make it look as clean as it could. I freed it of it's automatic-ness. I threw my barely used Fidanza clutch setup and resurfaced OEM flywheel on and bolted the transmission on.



Friday afternoon, the day after the motor arrived, I had some really good friends who have helped me out more than I will ever be able to repay come over and work double time with me to get this thing in and hooked up.



And and the first start up:



So what had happened was..The seal for the sandwich plate between my oil filter for the oil pressure gauge got pinched and broke. The sound that my friend mistook as belt squeal was the sound of about half of my oil coming out and onto the floor. Took the plate off and went and picked up more oil and she was good to go. After a year and a half of dealing with a motor that gave me nothing but problems, the simple fact that this thing idled so smoothly was enough to make me happy.

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Hoffman5982

So with that I was able to actually get out and do stuff. The fact that I was able to get out and make the friends I did when I did nothing but try to fix my car was a blessing
The first time in months that the car had seen anything but the inside of a garage. Shitty cell phone pic incoming..


My friend showed me an open lot that is covered in hard packed clay. You can literally slide out here for 30+ minutes without burning through tires. Only issue is the clean up afterwards





To give you guys an idea of how mint this motor was, I had started replacing bolts in random places with newer/brighter ones, and this is what the water pump looked like when I changed those



So now I have a perfectly running car. I can actually spend money on upgrading stuff instead of fixing something. The first thing on my list, something that I wanted to do since painting the bay, was get rid of the horribly bent up brake lines.


I decided to go with the Suspicious Garage kit from AceUpMotorsports. Vitaly was awesome and hooked me up with a matching clutch line instead of the ISIS line I had ordered at the same time.


So off came the wheels





These route between the oil pan and cross member


And the aftermath



Then I focused on the cars stance. It had a lot of reverse rake, so I evened it out.


Then I went JDM and ripped the bumper off.


But really, I was remaking my intercooler brackets to lower the core and allow me to run the OEM fog lights, something I was desperately wanting back on the car. I also installed a new bumper retainer so my bumper would be right and I'd have the brackets for the grille. I was lazy before and just cut through it all dumb like.



I also picked up some OEM mud flaps, which I painted to make them look less old.


I really do miss how well the Z wheels cleaned up.


All of this was prep before the first decent sized meet I had attended.

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Hoffman5982

I then tinted my turn signals, painted the USDM side markers, and cut my fenders for EDM fender markers. I wanted something a little different, and I always thought these were coo..




Sometime afterwards a buddy of mine shot some pictures



At this point, I wasn't feeling the OEM black valve cover. I needed something different. So I hit up a member here(Silviaks2nr) and sent it off.



Before installing I put some Circuit Sports rocker arm stoppers and some fresh OEM gaskets(Instagram quality)



Then I focused on the harness. On the original harness, I had actually depinned it all and sleeved it with some nice nylon sleeving, and I also tucked a lot of it. I really didn't want to cut into my new WS harness and jeopardize it's quality. So I kept it simple and desleeved it to move the ignitor inside the cabin. This was easily done and only required the ground to be extended about an inch.


I "tucked" the coil pack and o2 sensor section. By this i mean I shortened them so they wouldn't extend past the back of the head and stayed, for the most part, out of sight.


And I extended and sleeved the MAF and CAS connectors about an inch to allow me to run the under the lip of the head. I was no longer running the recirc pipe so I didn't want these to be randomly running across the front of the valve cover. (I apparently took no pictures of it on the car, so look for it in later pictures)


Went to another meet and didn't take any pictures while there. Lowered my car a hair more before I left







The next thing on my list was the power steering. You may have noticed my Monster Can being used as a coolant reservoir. I grew tired of feeling so ghetto. I had relocated the factor ps reservoir to the corner where the factory coolant overflow was. I threw both of these out. I put the stock coolant overflow back in and picked up some AN lines and a LEE aluminum power steering reservoir. It was actually pretty nice and was one of the few I could find that were baffled and didn't cost $100. For the 10AN pump fitting, I cut the barb off and had a bung welded on. I had already had a Russel Performance high pressure line installed for a few months at this point.






This setup looked more professional and cleaned the bay up. Also not having a reservoir that sweat fluid out the cap was nice.

I had been running with the bov off a hose coming from the cold pipe. I believe this pipe coming off the cold pipe was intended for the stock bov. I had always noticed that I'd have to be accelerating fairly hard to get the bov to actually open. So I capped that off and had a flange welded on. I had just picked up an new HKS SSQV v.3 to replace my v.1 that had gotten scraped up being against the radiator. I decided not to run recirculated at this point for aesthetic reasons(dumb, I know).



My engine bay and exterior had now been shown some love. Time for a few mild interior upgrades. Picked up a leather steering wheel that was in decent condition. I picked up leather seats as well, but at this time I hadn't put them in, and I didn't take pics when I finally did have them in. I also got a new S15 shift knob to go with my new found love for leather.The old Alpine unit wasn't doing it for me anymore, so I bought an Kenwood KIV-701 head unit. I really like this thing. I prefer the look of Alpine units, but this actually has an LCD screen which just looks newer.

The gauges had been removed temporarily.

I noticed that the mirror adjustment switch was old and crusty.


So I picked up 2 different switches off an older(same as kouki switch) and newer Sentra. Couldn't decide which I liked more, so I wired both plugs in.

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Hoffman5982

It's now getting close to the end of 2012. I loved my Z wheels, but I wanted something that fit a little bit better. The wheels came due to the tires being dead. I didn't know what I wanted but I wasn't going to buy new tires only to sell them a week later. So back to stockness!


I also polished my intercooler piping



Being this high wasn't all that bad. Speed bumps weren't a problem and riding with the Stance LX's on full soft was super comfy. Shortly after this my J30 differential killed itself after I put poly bushings in. The bolts on the back cover had backed out after 2 years and emptied the fluid. The VLSD itself is fine, the bearing are pooped out. At least it looked nice.


While waiting for new shoes, I put some work into the brakes. I had noticed the last time I changed the pads that one of the boots on a front caliper was ripping. So I ordered the Z1 Motorsports kit for the front and rear. I decided that the red wasn't working for me anymore as well.
The culprit:



Torn apart:



Luckily the threads of the bolts holding the halves together were clean. I had seen where people found the threads had stripped out.


The new color:




Around this time I picked up a Circuit Sports oil filter relocation. I threw it on during my next oil change.



I immediately noticed how bad my fuel lines were intertwined. It looked awful. So I tucked them under the intake manifold.
Before:



I removed the small hardline section that comes off of the rail so that I could curve the lines to run under the runners. The fuel filter was relocated to the back behind the manifold. Changing it is now a bitch and a half.




After:



My only gripe with the CS kit is the length of the hoses. As you can see, I have them fold towards the fire wall. I guess it was intended to be mounted elsewhere. They will be shortened eventually.

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Hoffman5982

I was tired of looking stock. My wheels finally sold right after Christmas, and I made enough off of them to basically trade straight up to the new Konig SSM's.



They're the 18x10 +15's all around. I went with Federal SS595 225/40 tires. Major step up from my old Nexens.



So I threw them on:




A spacer is required in the front. Mine rubbed the coiloverover without it. It also rubbed the chassis harness where it exits the firewall on anything over 1/4 turn to the left. That was a no go. I had already relocated the harness above the lip, but I went ahead and pulled the fender to notch the chassis to raise it higher.
Before:


After:



This helped, but it still rubbed the elbow where the harness comes out and curves up, as well as the hood latch cable. So I notched the hole upwards and made a plate covering it, and pulled the hood cable a good inch and a half higher as well.


This finally solved it, and I was on my way to scrape everywhere.


The red lug nuts didn't clash well with the new color scheme of the brakes. Fixed that.







Going this low made my rear all out of whack, so I purchased these fellers


If you've ever held SPL arms, you know how nice they are. I couldn't believe it. They were light and nice to look at. The adjusting collars were a gift from God.




I rubbed really bad now. So I broke out the ol baseball bat


Then turbo craved some attention


Decided to buy a full OEM turbo seal kit


A new filter was needed after.


I found that my turbo has absolutely no shaft play. I was super happy about this.

Then my buddy shot some more pics with the new wheels. At this point, he has gotten pretty good at editing and whatnot:





We are now pretty much caught up to the present. About a week ago I attended a local meet that had a decent turnout. The week before I sanded down a bunch of imperfections in my bay and repainted most of it to brighten it back up.








And here we are, all caught up. What can we look forward to?

My dash recently cracked, and my dash harness has developed a short or two over time that has left me with the inability to adjust the brightness of the cluster lights. I have, over time, picked up a fresh dash with uncracked windshield vent, and a new dash harness that I have been rewiring for the DCC in the most oem way I can. I have also acquired a full Energy Suspension bushing kit, along with the ES differential bushing kit. I have a full rear end out of a car with 90k miles, and the subframe bushings look brand new. A new j30 VLSD will be put in at the same time with a special touch




I also plan, hopefully by the end of the year, to have the motor pulled to have tubs done to allow me to go full lock without rub-a-dub-dubbin. At this time I will properly paint the bay and actually clear coat it this time.

Other than that, it will be whatever else I can find to throw at this thing.

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Hoffman5982

Wait a second... "What the hell did he mean by 2 for 1???"


So back in November I was searching Craigslist, something I never did. 15 minutes before I had gotten on, a posting was created for an s13 shell. This was the only pic.


I thought the side decals were rad, so I sent an email asking if I could take a look. I got a reply the next morning with an address and a time. When I got there a lady came out to greet me. Turns out, she was the owner. Her mother had purchased it new back in '89, and about a year ago the head gasket went. She attempted to drive it home with it over heating and killed the engine. This shell was mint. The interior was complete with a crackless HUD dash. The only rust was in the battery tray, or where the tray would have been. 100% stock. I was sold. We talked price and I snagged it for $500. Picked it up the next night.







The purpose of this car is unknown right now. It was just a good deal that I didn't want to pass up. I was originally looking for a shell in rough shape that I wouldn't care to beat on. After all of the time and money I've put into the s14, I've grown afraid of driving it to its full potential. It defeats the purpose. This car will have less time and money in it, so I won't be afraid. With that said, I have no intentions of destroying such a nice piece of history.

I'll call it a night here. I need to upload all of the progress on the s13 and have a post sometime this week. Hopefully some people have sifted through my ungodly amount of typing.

Until next time..

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RB180sxChris

awesome build man i wish i had the time for my s14 to do this =/

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TOO LEGIT TO QUIT.....

yomisiu

sweet. looking forward to see updates

KiLLeR2001

Everything you've done looks great. Definitely my kind of build. My only gripe is the hella stretch factor you got going on. 225's on a 10" wheel is pretty weak. Obviously you did it so you can fit it, but still...

Very similar story with my two-tone. 88,000 original miles, perfect body, blown HG. Owned by a little old lady who purchased the car new in 1989, and it's a factory 5 speed!

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fliprayzin240sx

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Burris167

Its about time you made a build thread!

mikerbike

Best graphics ever. Is that a dealer option or an enthusiast afterthought? Brings out the early 90s in that car. Jealous.

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fliprayzin240sx

What are those strips on the trunk for? Those supposed to allow you to strap things down on the trunk without scratching it? I've seen 1 or 2 other coupes that has them but its pretty rare now a days.

This is so clean, I'd just toss some coilovers on it and leave it alone. Hell, I'd rock it with the stock wheels.

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S14Serge

Your thread was the only reason I really checked nico lol! Glad you brought it over to zilvia.

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keifer

Knowing that most of this build or some of it, is you doing 8$/hr is awesome to me. I made that right now and i figured i'd put off buying an sr20 to start my 240 adventures till i got another job making 12$/hr. But fuck it. Now i'm saving every god damn penny. That s13 is pristine too! Goodluck with your build! Super clean car!

Hoffman5982

I definitely did it to fit them. 225 is as extreme as I'll go. I have a friend running like a 205 on a 10" wheel and it's ridiculous. But so far I haven't had any problems with sidewall flex or anything.

I wish the s13 had been a manual shell. Drilling the firewall for the clutch pedal without even a compact drill was a bitch and a half!


They were dealer installed. She mailed the window sticker and a couple of other historical artifacts that showed what all came on it. I'll get them scanned and uploaded for you guys.


I figure that's exactly what they are. I already plan on mounting a cooler there whenever I go to the river or beach. I just recently saw a trunk lid, same color, with them on it for sale here on Zilvia.

As of now, I plan on getting coilovers and throwing them on. I'll probably rock it as high as I had my s14 in between wheels so it still looks fairly stock. The wheels I'm choosing between are both 5 lug, so I can't do them until I convert. Most people call me an OEM whore. If I could get one of these brand new from the factory I would in a heart beat and never touch it.

It's all about patience. It was a couple of months before I could do the swap. After buying the new motor I made a good bit off of parting the old motor out, which helped a lot.


Thanks for the kind words everyone! Hopefully I can keep you guys entertained with future updates.

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FaLKoN240

You just use the last bit of code to embed videos, for future reference. n9issPCvH80 would go between the youtube embedding code.

fliprayzin240sx

I started looking up those brakelines since I need something like that to clear my damn RB25 turbo kit, did you have any issue when you first installed them? I read somewhere that 1 or 2 people said something about the banjo bolts being too long. Did you have the same issue?

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khal.lawson

Amazing progress man, it's inspiring. Amazing find on that S13!

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Hoffman5982

Actually I did. I'm using the Tokiko z32 master. Killer made aware that the description says something about being for s13 master's, so they may not have this issue. I had a friend with the Chasebay's kit who experienced the same problem. He just ground his down a little.

In any case, if you run into this issue, go to an auto parts store and pick up two packs of these:



Dorman part #66272. Just go to the help aisle and they should be there. I needed one extra per line in between the banjo and MC and it bolted down perfectly.

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S14Serge

I'm interested in what you did to the intercooler brackets to lower it and fit the zenki fog lights? Did you just redrill the existing brackets and lower it or did you get another bracket all together? Looks great love that look!

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STL240SXDRIFT

Nice build! Leave the 90's graphics...ha!