DamnedButDetermined

A couple weeks ago I bought a 93 hatch from a nice guy in St Aug.



As you can see the drivers headlight wouldn't go down, so i tried switching all of the relays (in the drivers side relay box) around to see if I could get it to work, but nothing changed. I them swapped the passenger relay with one from a junkyard (free) and it still didn't work. So I figured it had to be something wrong with the internal switch inside the motor. I knew it wasn't the motor itself because if you started to manually twist the motor with would go all the way down and back up on its own. However I was not going to mess around with the internal electronics with the motor so i just swapped the whole assembly and the lights work great now.

Good old manual windows and locks


Hole in the carpet


Cigarette burns in the back seats

Hole in the front seat

I have a set of S14 seats getting shipped to me on Wed so they will hopefully be a nice addition.


The door trim pieces have separated from the sheet metal and it was allowing water to leak into the car. I have temporarily fixed this issue with black caulk , but I am wondering if you guys have any suggestions for a proper repair






There is a lot of work that needs to be done to the exterior of the car but all the sheet metal is smooth with no dents. I just need to sand everything down and respray it.


The hatch is nice and clean with no rust. I am up in the air as to whether I will miss the rear window wiper. My last hatch had one but I can't remember if I ever really used it. Anyone have any comments about that?


The previous owner told me that while he was driving the exhaust camshaft broke right at the sprocket and killed the motor.



I was going to just get a new head and swap them, but I figured I might as well do it right and do a complete motor swap. I found a KA from a 95 that was swapped out for an RB20DET and he said everything was good with the motor internally when he removed it from the car. There was A LOT of oil and dirt on all the accessories and block so hopefully it isn't too beat up. I have removed everything from the S14 engine except for the head.




I guess the previous owner was going to replace the OEM exhaust manifold or something and when he tried he broke one of the #1 cylinders exhaust manifold bolts flush with the head. Am I screwed and destined to have an exhaust leak or is there a way to remove the original stud and install a new one?


Well my plan of action for this car is as follows...
Remove original engine and transmission and swap all accessories onto the 95 KA
Clean up the engine bay while the engine is removed
Remove the cracked flywheel on the 95 KA and install a lightweight flywheel if I can find a deal.
I am debating whether i should upgrade the engine/tranny mounts while I have them out of the car
Replace the clutch, drain and fill the tranny and reinstall into car.
Hopefully she will start right up and I won't have any problems.
Then it is onto suspension upgrades I haven't figured that out yet so I will comment on it later.

I will be asking for assistance I am sure so hopefully I do not bore too many people away from this thread by my slow moving pace.

Zac