Wasup enthusiasts, my name's Casey and I live here in Kennesaw, Georgia. I've always been in love with cars but over the last couple years I just fell in love with racing and drifting. Last summer at 17, I started working at Steak'n Shake and worked my butt off until I got about $1,300 by the end of it. I wanted a cheap and easy to work on car that would be cheap and fun. I was drawn between a E30, E28, S13, or S14. With the money I had, I dealt with very limited choices. I ended up finding a deal for an 1990 S13 fastback for $1,200. My uncle and dad went with me to help me take a look at it and we found a couple problems with it that weren't previously listed. I talked it down to $900. I purchased the car and learned to drive a 5-speed in the same day, then took it on the hour drive home. 


The wiring in it was a mess, the engine harness looked rough, and the radiator fan was ghetto rigged. The engine ran sketchily, and the cooling system was rotting. After about two weeks of driving, the engine overheated and the engine was blown. I didn't even bother taking it apart to see what was up with it, I pulled it. I got it towed to my uncle's shop, the CEO of DIYAUTOTUNE.COM, were he and my dad had helped me through the engine rebuild and swap since I was in over my head.

Then I gutted the bay

I then cut out the hole that was rusted through from where the battery sat and riveted in sheet metal, then bondo'd it smooth.

I decided to throw a dual cam in. I bought the engine for $100, sent the block and head to the machine shop, threw single cam pistons in it, then painted it.

I read somewhere that you can put in two exhaust camshafts to raise the mid torque, then it took forever for us to get all the shims in spec, but we got some altima shims to help.

We finally had the engine put together, the rebuild's taken 4 months so far, but it was drawing near to the finish.

We got it bolted to the transmission with a new oem exedy clutch, and ready to drop in.

There's my pappy.

Dropped.

I painted the engine bay gloss black and bought a kayo radiator as well as dual altima electric fans.

After wiring a custom harness, ripping out the ECU, and wiring in my uncle newest product, a MegaSquirt3, we set up it's timing. My uncle ran it on the dyne for a bit and then set up it's tune using the new MS3.


We got it running and I got it home from the shop after 6 months. Here's it sitting in my driveway.

My power steering lines started to leak, so I swapped some lines.

I taught my girlfriend to drive a 5-speed, and she picked it up rarely well, stalled out a couple times no biggie. I then tried teaching my brother and he stalled it first try, and I heard a crunching sound. He blew out first gear and fifth went with it. I then got another one from a buddy of mine and swapped it in.

That's the drain plug from the old one, along with shreds of metal attached.

I got it swapped and it ran great, it finally ran smoothly and shifted clean. I was happy.
I traded the pig nose for a shark.


Needless to say, I was out drifting in a smallish parking lot. I came out of a drift unexpectedly and hit a curb head on at 25mph. Looks like I'm out of the game for a bit

Ps: the curb didn't damage the fender, that was me being pissed off.
So I'm pretty sure my car has the worst stance on this forum currently... I have more photos from the damage. I'm talking to a guy about getting used Isis tension rods and reinforced Bracket Assy's, also thinking of a polyurethane bushing set. If anyone can notice any other damage they think I'd need to repair from the photos let me know!





The wiring in it was a mess, the engine harness looked rough, and the radiator fan was ghetto rigged. The engine ran sketchily, and the cooling system was rotting. After about two weeks of driving, the engine overheated and the engine was blown. I didn't even bother taking it apart to see what was up with it, I pulled it. I got it towed to my uncle's shop, the CEO of DIYAUTOTUNE.COM, were he and my dad had helped me through the engine rebuild and swap since I was in over my head.

Then I gutted the bay

I then cut out the hole that was rusted through from where the battery sat and riveted in sheet metal, then bondo'd it smooth.

I decided to throw a dual cam in. I bought the engine for $100, sent the block and head to the machine shop, threw single cam pistons in it, then painted it.

I read somewhere that you can put in two exhaust camshafts to raise the mid torque, then it took forever for us to get all the shims in spec, but we got some altima shims to help.

We finally had the engine put together, the rebuild's taken 4 months so far, but it was drawing near to the finish.

We got it bolted to the transmission with a new oem exedy clutch, and ready to drop in.

There's my pappy.


Dropped.

I painted the engine bay gloss black and bought a kayo radiator as well as dual altima electric fans.

After wiring a custom harness, ripping out the ECU, and wiring in my uncle newest product, a MegaSquirt3, we set up it's timing. My uncle ran it on the dyne for a bit and then set up it's tune using the new MS3.


We got it running and I got it home from the shop after 6 months. Here's it sitting in my driveway.

My power steering lines started to leak, so I swapped some lines.

I taught my girlfriend to drive a 5-speed, and she picked it up rarely well, stalled out a couple times no biggie. I then tried teaching my brother and he stalled it first try, and I heard a crunching sound. He blew out first gear and fifth went with it. I then got another one from a buddy of mine and swapped it in.

That's the drain plug from the old one, along with shreds of metal attached.

I got it swapped and it ran great, it finally ran smoothly and shifted clean. I was happy.
I traded the pig nose for a shark.


Needless to say, I was out drifting in a smallish parking lot. I came out of a drift unexpectedly and hit a curb head on at 25mph. Looks like I'm out of the game for a bit


Ps: the curb didn't damage the fender, that was me being pissed off.
So I'm pretty sure my car has the worst stance on this forum currently... I have more photos from the damage. I'm talking to a guy about getting used Isis tension rods and reinforced Bracket Assy's, also thinking of a polyurethane bushing set. If anyone can notice any other damage they think I'd need to repair from the photos let me know!




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