Steve's S13 Build

[steve109]

Update from ages ago;

Installed the new gauges and new a-pillar covers, can see the drivers side in the background of one pic





swapped the passenger a-pillar too as it had this scuff on it, no pics of the new one just yet.



also started on something that's been annoying me since I got it, the horn in the slim boss issue. With the slim boss and a standard horn it sticks out like this



so took it all apart to see what I could do about it



decided I'd just grind everything down 5mm ish, shorten the spring and knock in the backing plate with the horn connector to make it sit a little lower, then cut new holes for the holding clip and see if it'd work.

not exactly pretty




but it seems to still function and sits flush now. I cant test whether it actually sounds the horn as I'm missing the 10amp fuse and the horn connection, just another little niggle to sort at a later date.




Also lacquered the rocker tops and left them to cure all day




Looks 100000000% better than shiny shit brown.

I decided after a few miles of using the solid engine mounts that they are far too hardcore for me, caused massive booming in the cabin especially when stationary. I think this is mainly down to my engine not running particularly smoothly tbh, so I swapped them out for the originals bar the gearbox which I left uprated. This is a decent solution for me as it tightens up the gear changes I can feel the car a little more and nearly all of the engine movement isn't transmitted to the cabin. Much nicer, I'm just not hardcore.

So solid engine mounts up for sale people. Literally popped in driven 2 miles came straight out again.

Rocker covers are finished and back in, dented the exhaust around the diff area so that it didn't catch any more, also moved the rear hangar slightly and reattached and secured all the mounting rubbers, as two had fallen off. The exhaust now doesn't hit on anything but I've seem to either have not done up the rear section tight enough, or I've managed to move the flange slightly when I've dented the exhaust tubing, as I now have an exhaust leak around the rear joint.

Went to the SXOC NW rolling road day down at tuning developments in Warrington

Had a few niggles with mine which effected my running a little, boost leak for one which I'd noticed in the last two weeks but didn't think it'd effect it too much, second is an exhaust leak after denting my exhaust to make it not catch the diff its moved the joining flange a few mm and needing to leave the exhaust bung in due to boost spiking to 1bar and hitting fuel cut.

Despite this the car ran a 177hp at the wheels and a 212hp at the fly, dyno chap reckoned if I sorted those issues out it'd be more like 235-240 at the fly



In this printout you can see the super rich top end and the boost drop off after 5k


Video of all three runs

[YT][ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZeIr2tXVmI]S13 Ca18det Dyno Run Tuning Developments - YouTube[/ame][/YT]






few photos by others

by Dare

rest by Stone














Things on the list to sort out. Boost leak finding, exhaust leak fixing, body panel fitment all over and body work and sort the power steering line out..


With MOT, Tax and Insurance along with a holiday to Bulgaria this month and being a studentwanker I've had to take her off the road for a while, but don't fret she'll be back later in the year hopefully before winter, as I finish studying and can concentrate on finding a full time job.

I've also sold quite a few parts unfortunately including all my stage 3 mods that where ready to go on to fund Uni, so will have to save up later and buy them back.

I've got a few things lined up that need doing before its MOT time:

Wiper Pivot - Drivers side
Exhaust Leak to fix
New Rear Tyres
Horn Fuse
Power steering line replacement
ABS Removal
Un-seizing all of the brakes as the rears aren't particularly effective and whilst driving home the fronts where pulling to the left then straightening up so giving them a good once over
Front Crank Pulley change
Find Boost Leak

All these things will be done whenever I get time to, she's currently at my parents so I can work on it with all the tools and space I need.

So I'll leave you with a few pictures until my next update when I get to do some work on it again.



Looking sad not wanting to leave Lincoln


Looking even sadder at being left behind and being filthy

[steve109]

So I'll be getting this back on the road next weekend with some luck, job list for that is:

Rebuild brakes
Sort exhaust leak
Find boost leak
Replace power steering lines
Replace wiper pivot
replace crank pulley
sort out clutch pressure plate

Have some pictures.




Right been doing a bit of work over the weekend

moved it into position, started first time, ran smoothly. Missed this thing!

[YT]www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFfCfZ5CtAs]Moving the S13 - YouTube[/YT]

There's still an engine.



started to strip it down so i can whip the engine out and sort a few oil leaks and check the clutch cover alignment.



It rained a bit



and finally out




Inspected the clutch pressure plate alignment, loosened off the bolts and adjusted it slightly and then re-tightened, running it again will see if its made any difference but looking at it i doubt it will as it was pretty dead on central to the flywheel.

Had a loose bolt on the starter motor, looks like the threads have stripped so need to find a longer bolt and nut to go through to secure it before I put it back in. The rear half moons where still leaking so I've covered them in instant gasket. rocker to head oil pipe was leaking so replaced that, turbo oil return flexy pipe is leaking too so replaced that and also instant gasketed around the take offs of the sandwich plate as that's still seeping. quite annoying to have all these small leaks after the time that went into sorting them out last time.

I've also made a new front bumper bracket so i can secure my wings again properly before the mot, just need to weld some bolts onto the plates tomorrow.

Today:

Done some more today, dropped out the abs pump and re-ran all the lines from the MC to the fronts and to the join for the rears inside the drivers side of the bay.

Lines mocked up




Making up the flares, thought i'd take an arty shot and forgot to put the brass fixing on before i made the flare so had to re-do this one :wack:



And fitted



I've also sorted out the drivers wiper pivot, ended up having to grind off the three holding bolts as they where just spinning in the plastic.

Welded up all the front bumper brackets and welded in new bolt studs, no pics of these just yet. Crank pulley also swapped over.

Cant fix the exhaust due to a bent flange from me smacking it with a lump hammer to miss the diff, so the old back box will be going back on, no biggy there.

Jobs for tomorrow, engine back in strip all the calipers and then bleed all the fluids, remove abs ecu and put in the horn fuse. Then it should just be two new rear tyres and MOT time

Well everything's back in, but I've not fired her up just yet as its a bit late.

Waiting for engine





Home made brackets, home made on the left, genuine on the right with fresh studs welded on (both have been painted in black to protect since picture)



Home made one fits nice



Tucking up ready for a late night, just in time before the rain hit again



Just the brakes to sort tomorrow as everything took a bit longer than I wanted today, also since I'm working on my own so things take longer.

Managed to snap the connector of the front windscreen washer pump, so since my rear isn't needed I'm going to splice the wiring for that for now and pop a universal washer bottle and pumps on at a later date.

Stripped all the sensors off the front brakes, just need to quickly free up the brakes all round tomorrow and fill with fluids and it'll be ready to go.

Update from the other week:

Had a bit of a ballache with this last week, whilst also going to wales friday/saturday.

Before it went tits up



Thursday everything looked great, new brake lines in, went to bleed the system and got two leaks from the lines into the master cylinder. Turns out i had to re-do all the lines again as the flare I'd put on was wrong for the new fittings (should have checked first).

Also snapped the connector off the washer bottle pump to the front windscreen, tried to rig it into the rear pump but that doesn't work. Luckily i managed to get the headlight washer pump to work and plumbed it all into that.

Also sorted the horn connection out. Bled brakes, clutch and power steering and filled with coolant and all started up just fine, exhaust leak is sorted too.

The Big day, insurance, mot and tax and then driving it straight home as long as it all passes fine. Taken off the sunstrip because it was way to large to pass with ^_^ new one will be going back on asap.

So it passed again with flying colours, bar them having to jump start it :wack:

Drove it home after some issues with it starting warm, got it started and just drove all the way home.

A strip of wheel balance weights have fallen off the front so motorway cruising speed was horrendous. Another job to add to the list.

Turns out my Hot Start Solenoid was knackered, so I've had to by pass that this morning. Now it starts and runs and accelerates as it should.

Then had an issue with my lambda/o2 sensor plug which had a broken wire, so bypassed that and all is well and back running properly and being used every day again. :dw:

Vid of it moving out of the garage

[RolledAndPulledG]

i want your interior kthx

[Zic]

Wow, never seen this before. Love the interiour work man.

[steve109]

Been a while. Found a new job, bought a shit french estate as a daily and for picking up parts.

Took the s13 off the road as its tax ran out and I found a lot of rust to sort out so it sat for ages looking unloved.



Recently started working on bits in the attempt to start getting it close to being road worthy again.

Received refurbished front callipers









Started to strip down to shell for rust works.

















Refurbished hubs





Sold the ca18det and box ready to squeeze an RB25det in later on, tub the arches and smooth out the bay.





Got some motivational parts.

Front and Rear side markers





Did the lifestyler thing and threw a wheel on via the help of a trolley jack.





Now the kit and arches have literally just been hung on. Nothing is attached there so nothing lines up at the moment. When I come round to fitting it, it obviously will.

As of now.



There was 2 10 minute spells where it wasn't lashing it down today, so I jumped outside and began chopping out the front arches.





Tubs ahoy.

[Stuster]

I love your build !! I so want to buy an s13 myself.

[Tarmac180sx]

looking good man keep it up!

[Miroteknik]

omggggg

[steve109]

Steve's S13 Build

Thanks guys hopefully good things to come now I have time and money to spend on it since I'm not dailying it so don't have to cut corners to keep it driveable

Mocked up tubs.



Made some out of metal. pleased with how they've turned out so far. Not welded together here, will do that when they're in place.




Not managed to get them fitted yet due to weather. Feels good to be starting to put some metal back in, even if its not quite in yet!

Could really do with a day off where its actually dry to get some things done.. -_-

[steve109]

So managed to get a whole day on it today where it didn't rain!

Pretty much everything I touched went wrong. Managed to get grinding marks all over my windscreen. So that'll need to be replaced.. -_-

Pretty much every bolt that has a welded nut on the inside of a box frame snapped the welds so they just span. All I took off was the subframe and the front chassis legs.. so I wasn't too impressed. The front subframe bolts snapped the top holding bracket so they just span on one side..

Other than that I stripped the clutch cylinder, brake cylinder and booster and chopped all the lines to the rear out as they're all shot as well..

Despite this I still managed to get a fair bit done. Half the tubs are in (mainly just tacked for now) and started work on the turret tops.




Started to chop out the front lower crossmember, still need to do the rear part of it but ran out of 1mm cutting discs (or lost another pack somewhere..)







Work on the turret tops. These where just flap disc'd back they will get the Deox gel once I've done all the welding around them





Before:



After:



Still a very long way to go yet, but I at least feel a lot more confident with 1: My welding 2: My ability to save this.

I actually feel like I've made some progress which I haven't done previously because I've just been tearing down.

Edit: Also managed to bend one bonnet hinge. Wind managed to blow it off its stay while there where tools under the hinge so its bent it...


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[steve109]

So update time..

Managed to do a bit in the last few months









Finished off the passenger side of the bay minus the turret top joining panel and got half way finished with the drivers side.









Given most of it a going over with POR-15. It's definitely not perfect, but its much better than I was hoping for and nothing a bit of seam sealer and filler wont iron out to make it look presentable.

rebuilt the headlight assembly ready for installation



Tub progress







Attached my turret tops, plug welded the holes and stitched up the sides for good measure



Both sides got this treatment, cleaned up all the splatter and then etchweld primered.

Started fitting the kit and seeing how far out it is in places. its definitely going to take some fettling to get it to my standard..
All the panel gapes are way out/uneven/too wide/not wide enough/too high/too low. That'll have to be fixed on the days I'm not grinding and welding!






Some pictures..






So I now have, spec1 rb25det standard
Rb25det gearbox
Front subframe
Clutch/flywheel
Front half of the prop
ECU and full loom

Pretty pleased with it, looks like it's done around 100,000km from the labels on the cambelt cover, but they're in Japanese so could be wrong.

Looks like it's very unmolested, which is good, but the clutch and fly look a little worn. Might change them before putting it in but not sure on funds yet.

I'll be swapping the plenum over before installing it and will be giving it a good once over. Can't wait to get stuck in now

So these turned up today









And something to fix all the bolts that snapped, a rivnut/nutsert tool meaning I can drill out all the shit bolts and replace with a shiny threaded nutsert and new bolts..



\o/

[steve109]

Had a little time this weekend, manifold turned up so I've started to test fit everything



Little more stretched than I was expecting being brand new.. But test fitting commenced

Old mani off



New on





Using the standard fuel rail, but doing a few little modifications to make it look a little neater, which I'll document later on.

Also removed an unneeded water feed instead of blocking off, just cut and smoothed down the pipework and then slid water hose further up.

Original


Removed and ground down


Pipe refitted


Also test fitted my turbo elbow, needed to grind down a little of the separator for the exhaust and waste gate gasses as it was too tight. Also snapped an elbow bolt which is a real pain in the ass. But I test fitted it none the less..







Next up is to modify the wiring loom fir the RB so it reaches some of the plugs that have moved due to the inlet manifold.

Modify the injector loom to suit new positions

Drill out the exhaust stud.. And tidy up some of the hoses and the fuel rail pipe

Fully stripped the abs ECU wiring out and re-wrapped the entire interior loom. Just waiting on some solder so I can repair the stereo wiring and add in a few connectors for my fade in/out interior lighting loom I made a while back and also a loom for my gauges to make them all plug and play.



Also finalised the fitment of the plenum, prepped all surfaces,gasket sealed them all and thread locked all bolts. The only problem I came to was the threaded bars that come out of the head actually bend when tightening due to the surface of the plenum not being flat, which is annoying but I noticed in time so I didn't over tighten them. Also quickly wiped off all the oily residue on the rockers from transport.. Much cleaner now



Also gasket sealed in the water pipe insert as I didn't trust its Chinese fitment.. I also sealed all the threaded nipples and the coolant temp sensors into the plenum for the same reason.



Also managed to get a partial refund on my plenum because of the scratches on the surface, which was handy because I also got my import tax bill for it last week..



Need to get me some weld in nuts now so I can fix my sheared ones in the chassis, then hopefully I can start the rebuild process after a few days welding now the weathers improving...

So I've stripped the injector loom and extended it to suit its new position

Mocked it up



New loom in the process.. all joints soldered, heatshrinked and cable braided or wrapped where I couldn't use the braiding because of plugs/wires etc as I didn't take the whole loom apart.



That little cable holder thingy is literally the best thing..

Loom made up



And fitted







Desperately need to clean up the fuel rail as its filthy..

[forgotten]

Love all the work you are doing! and damn that cluster its flawlessssssss :O

[parttimeprojectionist]

holy shit, your dedication to this car is on another level.

ida burned this to the ground years ago, lol.

gonna be soo good with the rb, massive props to you sir!

[steve109]

Cheers I almost have a few times...

Instagram @gentlemen_prophet for more regular updates!


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