Super_OK_S13

Hi! I'm Jimmy and I've lurked here and have posted in a couple of my favorite threads now for quite some time. I think it's time for a build thread of my 240sx.

I bought the car in late 2006 after I graduated for 800$ it had an Intake, Header and 3" exhaust. It had a stupid frp invader style front bumper that I ended up busting the lip up pulling into a gas station 6 months later, so I found a pignose bumper to replace it. I cant find any pictures of it before the pignose bumper.

It was maroon so I painted it to match the rest of the car and painted the faded, scratched hood primer black. I think I had owned it for about a year at this point.







I took the valve cover and intake off, cleaned them up, and painted them.



Car Stayed like that till may of 2009 when I think the head gasket had a slight crack and was eating coolant slow enough to not smoke but was MIA when I would check.

So I ordered a bunch of head parts. Brian Crower 264/264 camshafts, Brian Crower Titanium spring and retainer kit, Brian Crower .5mm bigger valves, ARP Head stud Kit, Cometic Head Gasket, Walbro 255 Fuel Pump. So I took a friends head to the machine shop and had it squared up and some new valve guides, valve seats and a 3 angle valve job and hot tanked.







Soon after, but not all at once, I ordered some interior parts, Bride GS seats from Group Buy #2 on here, Team tech Harnesses NRG Quick release, MOMO 320mm Tuner Steering Wheel, Nismo White Shift Knob, AEM Wideband o2, Stri Water Temp/Oil Pressure gauges, Apexi SAFC II.

Seats/harnesses


wheel/gauges (picture credit- Tom Janz)


About March of 2010 I ordered a Silvia Nose cut from JDM Engine Zone in Clifton NJ. when it arrived, I installed it that night in my pap's garage after work, which at the time was FREEZING!









A couple of energy drinks and some PB Blaster the old was off







I was up pretty late but got it done so I could drive it the next day.











for a while till it warmed up I drove around like that. then once the weather warmed up I primered it black and traded my trunk for one with a spoiler.





I also got some pedals at this point. Razo pedals. like the ones nakazato had in the live action Initial D.



I ordered Tanabe Sustec Pro Coilovers and bought some new wheels to go with them, Drift Z 517 wheels.





in February of 2011 I had the car painted by a friend at maaco. two-tone super white and dark grey. the day I brought it home, I put the black stripe on it before work.



after I painted the wheels silver I went to a couple meets and car shows with it.

(photo credit-Tom Janz)




my soon to be wife and I were moving out into our own place so I kind of stopped working on it and was just driving it. that's when I picked up a 92 Nissan Hardbody from a co-worker for 350$ despite sitting for a year it was a solid frame and ok body. since it was a parts truck and owned by my friend for a looong time I knew the engine and transmission was good.

the day I brought it home.



2 weeks later I did a full tune up. new filters, oil, belts, plugs/wires/cap/rotor.

a week after that a d21 pickup friend gave me some blocks/shackles and sold me a set of wheels. we painted it in his garage gloss winter grey.





a little bit later he sold me some flares.



both vehicles in the driveway..





one foggy morning before work.



also did an LED Lights in the cluster.

before


after


with the others lit up



OCT 2011 snow...



cont.

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Super_OK_S13

This is where things went bad.

On Nov 22nd 2011, I was working with someone and stopped at Mc Donald's. he drove away pretty quick and I was trying to see where he was going, so after my bite of food I set my food on the seat and drink in the ashtray spot and backed out started to drive forward,

BOOM! I was barely outta the clutch and bumped into a concrete light pole. the big mac and sweet tea ended up on the passenger floor. looked up and saw the hood kinked. mean while there was about 3-4 manager/corporate guys in the double lane drive-thru watching this all go down.. so I shut the car off, pulled the ebrake and jumped out. saw the broken glass head light. said the F-word a buch of times and called the wife. then AAA. I coasted the car back and into a parking spot. the manager must have called a guy out and sweep up the glass from the headlight. so after getting the run-around between the police and AAA, they sent a rollback out to get me and take the car home.



I remember a while ago someone noticed this. so I made a collage.



after getting it home and inspecting the damage. there was no frame/engine/radiator damage. just body damage to the bumper and fenders.



after I took the bumper/fenders/hood/lights off my uncle and I hooked the car to a pole in the driveway and my step-dad beat on the core support while backing up so I could straighten the radiator hose back to normal.



deciding a day or 2 after that the no body panels would line up with the core support I chopped it off.

folded the wiring back



first cut



GONE!



I started to think how I was going to fix this since I sold the silvia nose cut core support to a friend. I pulled the engine and put in on a stand and covered it till I needed to work on it.



I ended up deciding on tubs and a front end like this...



2011 was warm enough through December that I could work in the driveway and weld the tubs in place. so out with the old in with the new.



stripped the OEM seam sealer and welded/patched parts of the frame and bay.





one side done, onto the other side.





tubs done and back on the ground.



my father in-law let me put the car in their 1.5 car wide garage and work on it in there. since it was inside I started on the chassis wiring in my living room. don't mind the alien eyes dog.

started with a rats nest.



slowly started to separate and run the wiring from the SMJ to behind where the A/C box was.





layed it on the dash bar and figured out where it needs to be routed/lengthened/shortened and where I needed to make the splices for soldering.



most of it tucked away nicely.



I finally ordered the loom and heat shrink to finish it.

brake booster



wiper motor.



time to get back to work on this thing.



pulled up the street around the corner to my uncles garage and suspended it on the engine hoist.



put some stuff on the motor and plugs some holes to degrease it with super clean. (this stuff is AWESOME)





after the cleansing, back on the stand it went for teardown and paint.



oil pan off



remember when I built the head in 2009? well i dropped a washer and it fell down into the oil pan after trying to grab it with a skinny grabber tool. it was there for 2 years and 10-15kmiles...



front covers off



pulleys and brackets off and ready for paint



painted front covers, oil filter neck, thermostat housing



laid out and lined up for paint



all cleaned up, painted, and back on with new seals.



oil pan on, with nothing inside of it...



took the engine to the car to start on the wiring for that. had a helper come out to the garage for a little.



engine in for engine wiring mock up.



engine in for engine wiring mock up.



started with the injectors, coolant temp sensors, and crank angle sensor wires.

loomed and plugged in.



MAF plug



coil cluster



starter wires



you can see the routing of the wires.



test fit radiator



with most of the engine harness done. i figured i would finish the chassis/interior/lights harness.

made a ground block that bolts to the body.



cluster has power.



dome light and radio power.





all lights working.



cont.
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Super_OK_S13

Since my two-tone fenders were kinked near the corner light and headlight brackets out of spec, my friend that is doing a silvia front on his coupe let me borrow his fenders and hood to fabricate the core support and headlight brackets.

fabrication begin!

core support tube after bending into shape



side mounting tabs



bolted support in and taped lights in place for headlight brackets



head light brackets



both welded up and ready to mount, but first i needed to replace the rusted lower support first.



cut it out!





marking for the headlight bracket holes and tension rod brace holes



in my pap's garage to mill access for the tension rod brace bolt plates and other holes for the brackets.





bolt plates for the tension rod braces.



ready to weld in place.



welded and frame rails trimmed flush



my uncle that runs the metal shop i get my metal from cut out some frame patches for me.



drilled some holes to plug weld in place till i welded around the outside of it



not completely done, you get the idea.



time to finish up welding in the bay before body filler.



after I stripped the bay to bare metal it was time to shave and tuck some stuff in the bay. i chose to use fiberglass reinforced body filler mainly because of the heat in the bay, then finish in some spots with regular and a glaze to fill in pin holes.





little more sand, fill, repeat...







Time for primer after a good wipe down to get all the dust clear.







so i sanded the primer with red scotch brite pad. up until this point i have done everything. the only thing i didn't feel comfortable spraying the actual color because i only had a couple hours behind the gun spraying primer which is forgiving in the sense i can sand out the runs or high spots. so i had the friend that sprayed the car in 2010 come over and spray the color and slipped him a couple $$ for the paint and his time..

the color i chose was "viper white". very bright in the sun! i was very happy he sprayed it but there was some runs and fisheye/dirt in it.



so we let it sit for a week or so, then he came back to spray it again. this time i sanded it with 600 grit and right before he sprayed it i wiped it down with a cloth and acetone followed by a tack cloth to get the dust out..



about a week or so later after letting it sit to cure it was time to start putting parts back on.

first was my powder coated crossmember.



i painted my tension rod braces and put those in and put the throttle cable through.



i made some changes about how and where the fuse box was (jammed in the old A/C condenser box). so i took out the box and made a custom duct and plate so the fuse box doesn't fall to the floor and stay behind the blower duct.





all installed and hooked up.





pulled the wiring through and started adding more parts to the bay. also bolted the front suspension on minus the tension rods.





after putting the new clutch, flywheel and transmission together (white bunny setup) my awesome wife came by and was on the floor guiding the transmission while i guided the engine onto the mounts. it was really easy since there was no core support to lift over.



made sure the dash and interior was working still..



motor wired up and ready for the intake materials to get here.



So, i got all the stuff ready to just crank the motor since it hasn't ran for 2 years now. i put a little oil in the spark plug holes to lube the cylinder walls, a little on the cams, timing chain, and left the plugs out so it would crank easier with little to no compression. i tried and the motor cranked a couple times then i saw smoke in front of the valve cover. so i stopped, jumped out and saw the wire for the crank angle sensor was melted through. i unhooked the battery. i was so pissed, that night i had the car towed to my garage.

after fixing the wires and feeding them back through the engine. i cut the belt i was going to run from the water pump pulley to the crank with no tensioner. i think it was too tight and caused the starter to over work. i also had the coil wire hooked up but draped over the lower core support so that could have caused the short..

i wrapped all the spark plug wires and coil wire in little towels and unplugged the igniter, filled the motor with oil and cranked the engine a couple times and forgot the oil filter so there was a puddle on the floor. i put the filter on and cranked it a couple more times and realized im probably flooding it so i stopped. i know its priming and has oil in the top end.

i found the parts for a single belt conversion on a KA24DE.

single cam alternator brackets and thermostat housing and a .25" spacer in between the upper bracket and the alternator.



cleaned up and painted



after i installed that, i put the final touches on the motor. the valve cover was disgusting, so i painted it low gloss black and sanded the letters. this is temporary as i think there is WAAYYY to much Black and Sliver going on in the bay.. i will add color to the valve cover, the intake pipe, and the injector caps to break up the black and silver.





i have ALOT more to do, including -> tucking the brake lines, booster line, clutch line, wrapping wires on the passenger frame rail, building a triangulated strut tower brace, cooling panel to cover the headlights infront of the core support.

thanks for looking!!! =)

-Jimmy

vJilly

whered you get the speedstars sticker?

d_nice

keep up the good work man.looking good

Super_OK_S13

vJilly- the speedstars sticker was printed and cut by a friend that has a local vinyl wrapping business. I have however see them pop up on ebay every now and then.

d_nice- thanks! Its been a long time, but patience pays off. =)

Reece

Great build so far. I love that speedstar sticker haha.

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Oakville

That engine looks beautiful! I also love the speedstars sticker too...a lot

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BNR32 connoisseur // 1990 GT-R

vespaman

nice work.

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IRRegular Kids!!!!

dallaceseiuli

Is your key attached to a spark plug!!!!!

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you ed hardy wearing f150driving mexican immigrant !!

ayrtonlucyk

keep that valve cover black! it looks clean as hell in your bay
great work man

justindee88

Nice work, keep it up. By the way, the "I Love" stick on the hardbody is AMAZINGGGG haha

Hatemy7

wow this is awesome work!! seriously

5280VertDET

Wow, thats one of the cleanest KA bays I've seen.

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S13 Vert | SR | PE1420 | 5-Speed | 15x9.5 - 0 |

supersayianjim

kool, I have a akina sticker on my s13 also!!

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Super_OK_S13

Thanks for the kind words guys

i will try to post a picture (with progress) when i post so i dont needlessly bump the thread. Heres another more recent pic of the garage and truck.



I COMPLETELY forgot about these... i picked them up i think in march of 2013 for 400$ and they've been my coffee table since...the wheels are chrome 17x9 +24 fronts and 17x10 +22 rear. Mustang SC reps. Dont mind the glowing alien eye dogs..

DJPimpFlex

Where did you get that braided wire loom?

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Super_OK_S13

I started the car this morning with my dad who had come over to check it out, and the car had the same problem when I tried to start it before and slightly melted the Crank Angle Sensor ground wire pin in the connector. We found a bad ground at the coil and one from the motor to the body and made sure that it was grounded and the car started up after spitting up a bit. i ordered a pigtail for the CAS and will solder that together when it arrives.



it was LOOUUD as hell since it was just the header and a 12in. extension piece off of that. i need to get the throttle idle corrected and set the timing with a light not by sound. but the motor did run smooth and have plenty of oil pressure and at first the air fuel was ok but when i was lowering the idle at the throttle body the A/F settings were thrown off a bit and wouldn't stay idling and would choke/flood itself and cut/die out so I'd turn the key off. i'll have to mess with the fuel settings on the SAFC II when i get my exhaust pipe, exhaust made and get some extra backpressure as well.

i did some researching and found that NA KA24DE s13 motors don't like it when the secondary butterflies are removed from the intake manifold. the low end RPMs, (i read under 2500) power, and torque is lowered. but high end RPMs (above 2500) felt stronger.

any tips on how i can handle the tuning issue around the idle-2500 rpms if i cant solve it with dizzy timing/fuel? hopefully i don't have to get a stand alone ecu or chipped stand ecu.

I bought it on ebay. I think it compares to the techflex brands heat-resistant loom (up to about 260*F continuous and 480*F melt)

heres a link to techflex's site and best product to describe what I bought on ebay.. Techflex - Flexo PET

I found the store that I bought it from on ebay. here is the section labeled "flame retardant". 1 4 EXPANDABLE SLEEVING FLEXO 25ft FLAME RETARD bl w items in FURRYLETTERS store on eBay!

juvi22003

What did you use to paint your white valve cover?

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***FortuneMinds***
95 240SX S14 / 14 Lexus IS250/ IG / Twitter: juvi22003

240sx707

I love the valve cover. The whole engine bay looks crazy clean! Mind if I ask why you didn't do a motor swap while having all the wiring and motor out? Got your self a new subscriber good work bro!

Sent from my XT881 using Tapatalk

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Just a 16 year old kid trying to slide.

UNDECIDEDFBODY

subscribed love this thing

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93 S13 HATCH ROLLER 90 S13 DAILY HOOPD
99 SILVERADO Z71 beater

motteramm

I really like your attention to detail, that bay is super clean. Just a shame its not a real two tone..

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Super_OK_S13

I think I used rustoleum gloss white then used high temp clear. it held up nicely.

Thanks! i don't think its that i couldn't handle the swap or the fabrication part of the project. i already had the head upgraded, and i really didn't/still don't have $ for a swap. more so "if it ain't broke don't fix it" i'm not sure how many people are keeping KA24DE and shaving/tucking the bay, i just wanted something plain and simple. I think when the wife gets a new car I will Z32TT swap the truck and daily her old maxima.

thanks!!

thanks! not sure what color i'm going to re-spray, but i'm thinking of different a two-tone since its all scratched and needs a little work on the rocker panels.



PICTURE UPDATE when i'm done with my exhaust.

WV_SR20

Did you ever get anything figured out regarding the rough idle from the lack of butterflys? I removed mine when cleaning up my motor, since I plan to turbo it later on and didn't want to have to tear is all apart again, and have yet to get it back in the car and running. I know its noobish but never really thought about the consequences of doing that without some sort of re-tune or adjustment.

P.S. I love this thread, your car is beautiful, and your attention to detail is also inspiring.

Super_OK_S13

I finished my exhaust finally after finding time and the ambition to work in the cold weather in the garage.

I basically started with a cat that was hollowed out by the previously. so I cut the ends off of it and expanded it just so the pipe I had would slide through and stick out long enough in case I wanted to make the whole exhaust slip over pieces. well the expander I used would have taken forever to expand everything.. so I decided to weld it all except the tip portion at the axle back and where the cat meets/slips over the header..





mid-pipe to the sway-bar hoop. you can see the 1st hanger that bolts to the body under the car.



you can see the hanger on the tip portion kind of.







Finally, I put my doors and front end back on, and tested fitment since they somehow seemed ok since I took them off and have left them sit.







The corner light spaces on the fenders need work and the bumper needs more of a support to hold the bumper up better.

Thank you for the inspiring words to continue.. to answer your question, I started the car today and every time I start, and let it idle, after about 20-30 seconds the car starts to lean itself out. I'm not sure how to tune the car so I might try to find another set of butterflies and vacuum piece on the back that rotates them open, and try to tune the car again. that's the only difference since I put the engine back in. If you plan to turbo the car I would just leave them out since you will most likely need a new tune on the engine.

nickmat619

awesome build man love the tubbed front end looks great

Super_OK_S13

thanks!!


since the car still wasn't idling right, and after some hard thinking of how the engine used to be before I eliminated the pcv tube and capped the nipples under each intake runner, vented the pcv on the block to the air, and had the valve cover pcv teed into the iacv line. I decided to re-do those things on the engine.

this is a before shot... you can see the valve cover line teed into the IACV vacuum line from the intake.



here is an after shot.. new hole for valve cover line in the intake. and you can't see it under the manifold, but I had to make the pcv tube out of hose, tees, and 2 90* fittings since I lost the factory one.




While I had the manifold off I replaced the gaskets and cleaned the IACV with carb cleaner. I also took the adjustment screw out and rubbed it with fine scotch bright pad and cleaned it with carb cleaner. I didn't want to damage the other brass screw trying to take it out so I left it in and sprayed the hell out of it with carb cleaner...


After I did all the work I started it and it idled perfect at 1500rpm and the started to drop as the car got warmer and would actually rev up. I shut it off and was going to time the motor with a timing light. then when I started it and let it run for a minute or so, I had 2nd thoughts and if something went wrong and I couldn't turn it off fast enough. So i tuned the car off and though MEH!! it was running good and didn't have any problems so i went to start it and it just CRANKED... NO Starting..

So i figured, the injectors were clogged. i took the rail off and took the injectors out. i figured while i had them out i would replace the O-rings and fuel fiter in the bay as well as well.. those are the old ones on the bench.




when i drained the tank before i moved the car, i just used the pump and primed it till no fuel came out of the line. so there may have been a little junk left in the tank when i filled it up with new fuel...

I ended up dropping the tank, (only had 5 gallons of fuel) draining it, washing the inside with a pressure washer the best i could, dried the outside and painted it with truck bed liner paint, let the inside and outside dry over night. The next day i wiped the inside the best I could with microfiber towels and installed the tank.



before i put it back in I changed the sock filter on the pump. the other one was nasty and brown and black inside. but still flowed.



after all this i started the car up and it idled and revved just fine.. then after a couple times starting it, it just cranked again with no starting... Sooooo, i began to think it was the injectors again and pulled the rail off AGAIN, and sprayed in the feed side with carb cleaner, and took the FPR off, blew about 20psi of air through the rail and repeated the process 2 more times. i re-installed the rail and started the car, it ran fine. and AGAIN after starting it and turning it off it would crank...

i unplugged the battery, left it sit 2 days and borrowed a friends ecu, i hooked the battery back up and tried to start it on my ecu. it started no hesitation twice. so i have NO CLUE whats up.... hopefully it will keep starting with no problems. Oh and I REALLY need a resonator and muffler for it.. its too damn loud....

cchondro

good work so far!
car is coming along nicely.

Oakville

That plate is awesome

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BNR32 connoisseur // 1990 GT-R

signals13

Nice build, you don't need a resonator you need a turbo!!!