Tenchuu

Just thought i'd let you know, after:
buying a S15 SR20 In japan
Moveing back to US
Motor anlong with cash for extras never showing up
waiting a year
re-saveing up
talking to Dave for a long ass time about picking up a RB
slowly haveing the guy starting to pay me back

I am finally starting the swap into my car that i have been planning since 2003 .. RB25DET 1998 240sx.


i will put in pics and updates as i go along, but any advice is welcomed since i don't have swap knowledge. Anyone around San Diego is free to help.

Just thought i's share this with everyone as i have been talking about it/buying shit/selling shit/buying more shit for the longest time and i am happy as hell to finally get it going. car is in the shop today, RB should be showing up tommarow. it's about damn time.


Here is cliffs of this entire thread:

Day 1
So I went to upload the pics from today to Photobucket and my memory card decided that it didn't want to store any of the pics. so it will be tomorrow with the pics i guess.

Happened today:
Front bumper removed
Center panel removed
Auto shifter mechanism removed
All fluids besides brake and power steering removed
Air intake remover
Lower engine harness removed
Fan/fan shroud removed
Radiator removed
Stared at OK looking wemen
Called around trying to get people to show up that said they would.... no dice
Broke a creeper
Car on jack stands
Watched a guy pull a V6 out of a firebird in a little over 2 hours while i was still working on shit
Took pics that didn't work

And lastly found out that the Water pump face on the RB was bent, so it looks like I will have to get a new water pump.

3-18 Morning



Afternoon:



Out with the old



Soon to be in with the new:



Clean way to drain the PS pump:




And you can see where the pulley has been rubbing on the bent water pump:


that's it for today. I think that once i get the water pump i will be making a RB water pump replacement FAQ with pics for future use.


3-19
skyline X-member in :

be sure to use a pry bar and jack to get the LCA's in

Cali lift:



RB intimate pic:



This is going to get flushed out:



3-23
Got the new motor mounts from Drift Freaq/Syko performance:




3-24
So the engine is almost in. I had to remove the igniter to get it in, and the brass looking tube that cones off the brake booster to get the engine past the lip and into the bay.

I spent a little over an hour and manned to get 1 motor mount to line up. Tomorrow will be another one.

As you can see I said hell with it and used the stock Power steering loop highly modified until the time where i buy a trans coolant to use for the P/S


Also to Drift Freaq you might want to include the fact that the power steering hose needs to be 3/8 hose not 5/16 hose like it states in your install to fit on the rack.

Ready to install bay:


and the sway bar spacers:


Also i am ditching these 2 lines that were attached to the KA as they are useless evap stuff. i am thinking to block them off:
#1

#2


Any help with those would be appreciated.


Word to the wise: don't accidentally dip your hair in gear oil that split out of the trans when getting your motor into the engine bay. I've washed my hair about 7 times and it still stinks

Also he S14 power steering rack nozzle has a 3/8 output on my car. but i did notice that the R33 had 2 different size metal hoses, you were probably talking about using the small one.


But for anyone that wants to hook directly up to the S14 rack nozzle, don't be like me and get a ride to the parts store only to return and find that you need bigger hose.


3-25
Busy day at the shop today

I got the engine in. Had to pry bar the tunnel (do yourself a favor and hammer it back while the engine is out) around the starter housing, move a few hoses around, and move this vent thing:


also you have to take off the igniter, and use a jack to lift the trans while sliding it in and you can get it in with all the pullies on. That and it worked best to mount the motor mounts to the engine and not to the x-member.

Then I had to pry to get the trans mounts to line up, but they did. Drive shaft fits perfectly.

Here’s how it sits with the Syko mounts:


Also when I put the engine in I left the shifter on (the stick) and it fit fine.

on the down side when I was messing with getting the engine in i notices that the hose that goes into the steering rack got flattened out (see pic above hose in middle goes out, now it is flat) so I am going to have to bend and hope on that next time i am working.

the turbo outlet/down pipe is a BITCH!!!! Syko kit provides 2 bolts (cause the stock won't fit) for the sides, and I am here to say that those 2 side bolts are horrible. they are 12 sided, so a 11mm open or a 10mm closed wretch. but there is no clearance on the upper one so I took the open 11 and had to put it parallel to the ground coming out of the bolt and twist by turning my fingers. my had was cramped to hell by the time I was done. EDIT ATTACH DOWNPIPE BEFORE INSTALL TIP COMES FROM SYKO and the proper tool is a standard 12pt 10mm wretch.

Also hooked up fuel lines, they are 5/16 and i found out that the factory fuel filter holder will hold a 300zx fuel filter without breaking a sweat. I just bent it out a bit and the filter popped right on and is held securely.

Lastly here is mount solution to the throttle cable issue. I read on how Henry did it, and I was looking at my bent to hell stock bracket and thought that by the time I finished straightening that one and doing the mod I could have built my own. So I checked for clearance and went to cutting on a block off from my auto trans and 30 min later I had this:

No throttle

WOT with no clearance issues:


Later I will worked on the angles some more and also securing the throttle cable to things, but I have a metric shit-ton of stuff laying around from the KA so I am not worried.

that was my day from about 11-4



3-28
Mellow- for cooling i am sporting 2 10” HP perm cool fans---- got too good a deal on them to pass up plus between them both should push 2500cfm (http://www.perma-cool.com/Catalog/Cat_page16.html)
*******THEY DO NOT WORK, GET FAL DUAL 12 PUSHERS*******

Today I wasn't paying attention to the time and only got like 2 hours of work in.

The List:
-Drained trans/cleaned plug
-Filled trans back up 3 bottles Royal purple
-connected clutch line
-filled/bled clutch
-made big power steering line fit that bolts into PS pump
-Found out that the small line has to be replaced, but it's not high pressure so should be no problem

Getting vacuum diagram from Gary (thanks) so the mystery of the lines will be solved.

3-29
New stuff:

The mounts**** EDIT, you do not need the heat shielding with the SYKO mounts!****:



Got the heater hoses connected today. They were a bitch.

here are actuator and mysterio hoses that i was wondering about before:


and after:

Yes I realize that it is wrong. I just realized tonight that the hybrid FMIC kit uses 1 or the stock pipes with a nipple on it so i am going to hook that up to the pipe rather than where it is right now and block off that small hose pictured.

The other 2 hoses blocked off and unbolted:


My handy dandy reverses Power steering line:


Also for the big power steering reservoir return line I bought 1.5 feet of 5/8in hose and used that to connect it, perfect fit.

Now I am fumbling through the wiring, but Gary is willing to work with me on it so I am not quite so confused so. problem is that I had an OBD II and have never disconnected the wiring on a RB before so it is really hit and miss on me finding where all the stuff goes since I have about 10-15 extra OBDII plugs that I don't use now. But when I run into something rather difficult I will include it here.




It is the fuel pressure dampener, helps to cut pulsations in the fuel lines, and Not totally necessary.


3-30
Another day at work! Got all the wiring installed today. It was really easy thanks to Gary. thanks!

I am working on some pics to show you where some of the harder stuff was at.

I never took the harness off the car, but I was able to put everything back on. Here are the 3 hard wires to get:

the two green ones are knock sensors that are round and have 1 prong on them. the green is where a blue plug goes onto. that one i never would have found without Gary telling me about it. still to come where the wiring goes.

But then I went to the intercooler piping. Now this stuff is a biatch.
The kit is the Hybrid kit for the R33 RB with S14 mounts. And boy is it interesting! Here is me trying to fit it:




and me denting it trying to bend it:


It does not like me at all right now for as far as i can tell this fits my car as well as it would fit a F250.

So I said screw it and went to the other pipe to see if it was a bit more cooperative.

things looked good!

And it worked!!!
Next issue is that damn power steering hose. I am going to have to find another way to mount it. Looks like I am going to have to get all sneaky sneaky with it to get it to fit.

not too bad, about 4 hours today.

3-31
OK once again I forgot my camera. I think I am going crazy. All I have to say today is that I worked on my IC piping and mounting from 3pm-730pm and that i would rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon than buy a hybrid piping kit again. NOTHING and i repeat nothing fits like it is supposed to. allot of hacking and hole sawing later i have the piping 1/2 way working, but it still needs to be cut more. And 1/6 mounts might fit. That is right the only 2 mounts that 1/2 way work are directional and they sent me 2 lefts. BOO HYBRID!!!!

4-1
OK I remembered my camera today...... but forgot to get the battery out of the charger.

So I finally got the radiator hoses after running around all day I ended up with this:

And at $70/hose I feel like I just raped by all 3 pep boys.

Both of these are the 2 foot length. pics later on what I did wit them.
Also hybrid kit I found out that 0/6 mounts work. I had to hack the mounts to make so the headlights could sit in there, more on that later also.

What I did today:
Mounted electric fans
Hooked up Inter cooler top mounts
Hooked up and re sized all inter cooler piping to work
Made inter cooler upper mounts work
Found, sized and installed radiator hoses and temp sensor

Left to do tomorrow:
Make and attach lower IC brackets
Re-connect all rear battery wiring/power distribution blocks
Attach intake
Change oil
Start engine to make sure it is all good
Assemble car and drive away.

Oh yes........................... i should be done tomorrow and it's about damn time.




4-4
IT'S ALIVE AND RUNNING!!!!!
So I am driving it around today. One thing that took me awhile to figure out is the screw to bleed the coolant system. Here it is circled in yellow:

Basically took a funnel and shoved it in the radiator when cold, then poured coolant in it until the hole that the screw was in had coolant coming out without bubbling.

As far as the ride height goes, I will have pics soon, but it used to have a 2.5 finger gap on the front wheels, now it is a 2 finger gap. And that is with tokiko blues and RSR TI2000 springs.

PICS:






Also as mentioned by everyone else the strut brace won't fit because it hits the throttle assembly. Also my ARC induction box is a no go cause of it being too big. So invest in a pop or cone filter.
Yeah my Origin front bumper is going on vary soon. Also i broke a hose clamp on the IC tonight, or course it had to be pouring when it happened, but luckily i had a spare radiator hose type clamp. I think I will be switching all my clamps over to that type.

Just to re confirm it, I broke a screw on the hybrid clamp kit with stock RB boost.

Once again, that kit is not the best... you save money, and with a lot of effort it can be made to fit, at least i didn’t have to weld anything.



Some loose change I am still working on:
Correct temp sender
Trim the auto brake pedal slotting the holes in the KA ECU holder so the ECU will fit
Eventually hook my SAFC back up
Type R BOV
Trading my ARC intake box for a filter that will fit


4-8OK I went to NAPA and CARQUEST and they list one generic sender that is for all Nissans 93-99..... Which is wrong? After a lot of head ache I tracked it down to AutoZone as a water temp switch that is a Wells TU222 that is the one for a S14 stock gauge. Learn from my headache. Also the brand new Napa thermostat isn't opening at the correct temp. It is opening at about 208 instead of 170 so I would also suggest the NISMO low temp unit (Part number 21200-RS580) cause now I already paid 90 for a coolant flush to find this out and i will have to drain and replace the coolant while the motor is in the car. This will suck.

Fuel pumps being switched out (hopefully) Sunday.


And don't forget to change the oil filter, in my rush I forgot. It’s the same oil filter as a 300Z or S14 240sx. so look for both those when you cross reference it.

Any other little things jump up as possible problems I will address it as i go along.

4-9
I Installed the Walbro fuel pump today. Yes the one that broke because I ordered a second one and that one was broke too in the exact same spot. so JB weld to the rescue, let it cure for over 15 hours and tossed it in today.****EDIT DO NOT DO THAT< IT DOESN"T WORK GET A NON BROKE WORKING ONE***** It noticeably pulls harder at higher RPMs than it did before. of course I only pulled higher a couple of times before cause of fear of blowing the fuel pump. but now the only thing I really have left is the lot temp thermostat that i will be ordering Monday.

On a side note, my front tires now kind of squeal, but I am taking in for an alignment on Monday also so hopefully that will go away.

4-10
Here’s a pic for you (Nismo 21200-RS580):


I'll add how it was to change the thermo with the engine in the car after I am done. It’s only a 2/ 10 difficulty, but i will see.

4-12
What I went through to find out that my fans weren't pulling enough air:
My cooling system is turning into a 1500 ordeal.

OK realistic break down
Fans 60
Water pump 125
Radiator hoses 150
Radiator 310
Coolant flushes 95
Nismo thermo 55
Reg thermo 20
Bad sender 20
Good sender 17
New FAL fans 230
Fluid 10


Total so far: $1092

(not to mention that the Koyo and the fans are the second set i have bought so on new rad#2 and fans#3)
And I am going to switch over to water wetter, plus that doesn't include shop fees involved with messing around with the damn thing or the time I have spent on it. Then the only thin I will have left to change out is the radiator. (Or remove the FMIC maybe that is blocking too much air).

Well good news, since I moved the fans off the AC condenser and put them onto the radiator, I got it lasered today and it was @178deg at idle after driving it around for 30 min or so stop and go in the heat of the day. I think that the AC condenser was blocking too much air. Not I will put the cooling panel back on and see it that makes any difference.
took the cooling panel off because the fans have to suck air from somewhere, and since the intercooler is so big it is blocking allot of air.... but mainly cause I was running out of things to change up to get it cooler. And I didn’t mount it on the radiator to begin with because I like, and plan on keeping my AC if at all possible. When I get the FALs in i will see if I can put them on top of the condenser and hook that back up but there is only one way to find out if it will work, which is waiting for someone on Zilvia to find out the hard way and learn from their mistakes if they write it up.


Also just a thought on driving the car, the alignment was WAY off, so I got that fixed and it handles just like it did before the swap, witch is to say great. Only thing is that the RB seems to detest low speeds, I drive it NA most of the time and only am getting about 200miles to the tank (12-14MPG) I have heard that it should get a lot better than that, but I will update this as it progresses and gets the bugs worked out of it. I have went through 2 tanks so far, but it is just now coming out of the project stage (bought air filter today) ... oh and that low speeds thing, at under about 8or so MPH in 1st, and at the low ends of every gear it is a bit jerky, kind of like the clutch is engaging and disengage but i don't think that is the case since as soon as I give it gas it takes off with the quickness EDIT WAS THE FUEL PUMP BREAKING< THE ENGINE WAS GOOD AND THIS IS NOT THE CASE.. Once I get above parking lot cruising speeds it wants to go like it's cool. After riding in a friends SR a while back, the feeling of waiting and then the boost hits, isn't there, it is go go go go go..(Sound of turbo spooling up like a jet engine).boost and then you're really kicked back in the seat.

I think that the turbo noise is louder than the BOV, and that is loud too. but all in all this is a very civil engine when cruising around town. I pretty much stay off the boost and drive just as fast as my KA around town, but when I need the power! It's always hungrily waiting on tap to be let loose.

I really would like to see this engine at my goal of 300-350WHP, cause it is quick now.

And that's a night.
And these are for everyone who is thinking why I didn’t just hook the fans up as pullers:



4-24
Well I have been fighting problems for a while, but needless to say I have switched out 4 fuel pumps in 4 weeks so I deserve some sort of frequent flyer miles or some shit. At least a secured decoder rings if nothing else. Total count:
2 broke Walbro HP pumps
2 fine S14 pumps, one accidentally chucked
1 nice new Walbro HP pump currently installed.

And I will see what happens from here.

For reference faulty fuel pumps cause an ass load of strange problems to include:
No torque
Turbo spools but no acceleration
Acceleration and no turbo spooling
Decreased blow off
Sputtering/stalling
Air in fuel lines
Almost like a vacuum leak sort or problems, I know it's a bitch to get to the fuel pump, but it makes a good place to start troubleshooting the fuel system.

That is the write-up on the install. hope everyone enjoys it and learns from my mistakes. FYI that engine probably tossed a rod or something. Something was rattling around inside and cyl 5 was at 0 PSI. Now I have a new car and may end up with another RB.