Excuse the shit photo, but the bulk of my engine is finally back in my posession. Ordering a timing kit tomorrow, and then the shortblock will be well on its way to being ready for a head.
Put carpet and most of the interior back together in the last few days, looking good, just need to get the bay painted, so I can run the body loom. Light was too shit for a good picture of it.
More updates in the next few days!
My radiator came with some unbranded shitty fans. I knew they wouldn’t work that great so decided I’d get rid of them for a better setup. I need to straighten up a few of the fins, but it should clean up mint.
I’d seen a guy use AU Falcon fans and shroud before and it looked to work pretty good with a bit of trimming, so i picked up a set off a wrecker, cleaned them up and got to trimming them up.
Made two top brackets, and some bottom locators and it mounts pretty solidly.
Came up pretty good after an hour or so with a dremel. Still need to do a bit more trimming so the hoses will fit properly, and get some rubber edging strips to seal the shroud to the radiator.
Also ordered a new oil pump and picked up my clutch the other day, so hopefully the shortblock will be back to me soon and I can finally get this thing going.
So I’ve been working hard on the car the last couple of days. Getting what I can done.
After looking at the head that came with my engine, I decided to get a second hand head and swap everything over, as there was some wear in the cam journals that I’d rather not take the risk with.
So I picked up this mint head off an S15 SR20DET, and made up some head stands and got to work. I’ll dismantle the old head, and remove the valves, springs and retainers from that and use them on this head as it came with none. I’ll be running factory cams and valvetrain for now, as there’s no point in getting too wild with cams while running a T28.
Currently the engine is at the machinist’s being bored, honed, decked and having the crank balanced, but I’m waiting on my new oil pump to arrive before the block can be decked, So that’s holding me up pretty bad.
Scraped/wire wheeled all the seam sealer in the bay and in the tubs away so I can remove any rust starting to form underneath. There were a few small bits, but I’ve fixed them up nicely and primered it, so this chassis should last a while. I’ve also wire wheeled back around all the holes that still need to be welded, and trust me there’s a few.
Here’s the tower minus its seam sealer, now, should I seam weld this thing?
Also picked up a flywheel and ordered a custom clutch setup from the boys at Autoclutch. Shit should work really good. Gotta pick that up in the next few days so my engine builder can balance the crank up.
Hopefully next update should be when the shortblock comes back!
So today I decided I’d give myself a present.
Been meaning to get myself a vice for a very long time, so finally bit the bullet and went down to my local engineering shop and bought this 6″ Irwin example. Can’t believe I’ve lasted so long without one, I used to have to go to work for every job that needed one. No more of that!
As soon as I got home I realised that I’d forgotten to get a pair of Soft Jaws, as most of the work I do is kind of delicate. So I hopped onto Trade Tools and grabbed some, while I was there I had a quick look through their specials and found these Infar long reach spanners on clearance for a price I couldn’t pass up! They’ll come in handy doing those pain in the ass bell-housing bolts when the motor’s still in the car.
In progress related news I picked up an SR20DE Manual throttle body, as they’re a bit bigger than the turbo ones, and also this had a manual TPS, so I don’t have a spare plug doing nothing, looking ugly. As soon as I got it, I got to cleaning it up, and removed the whole fast idle cam/coolant nipple setup, as I won’t be using it, and I figure I’ll just adjust the idle on the throttle body itself, as I’ve also completely removed IACV/AAC from the loom, and manifold.
Also got a number plate light off a friend of mine, and got to cleaning that up, came out pretty good with a bit of CRC and wipe with a rag. Ordered some LED bulbs for it, and grabbed some for the tail lights while I was at it. Should make it look a bit better than the horrible yellow light that regular bulbs give out.
Also been cleaning up all the front suspension bits before I put them back in once the bay’s finally painted. Here’s the crossmember and steering rack after being seperated, cleaned up, and painted with some epoxy black. Even though they won’t be seen once they’re in the car, they still needed some cleaning up as they were filthy.
Hope everyone has a rad New Years, I’ll be stuck in the city, would have loved to have gone away, but got a few commitments, and gives me a chance to get stuck into the car. So anyways I’ll leave you guys with a song I’ve been really digging lately. Pretty sweet video too!
In between doing Christmas type stuff I’ve been trying to get as much stuff done out in the garage.
Dropped my engine off at the machinists last week, to have the short block assembled, it should be done early in the new year so I can get to assembling everything!
With the majority of the engine out of my hair, I’ve been getting on with smoothing this damn engine bay, welded almost all of the passengers side of the engine bay, just gotta go crazy with the filler, and get sanding. It’s already starting to look much better.
Also picked this Koyo aluminium radiator up for cheap a few weeks back, which is one less thing for me to worry about, and should keep temps down nicely, with another couple of additions to the cooiling system.
Also completely pulled my speedo cluster to pieces, removed the airbag LED, which is a prick of a job in Type X speedo’s, not just a case of pulling the bulb out like in older S13′s. Also while it was out, I gave it a thorough clean up and polished the outer plastic with Meguiars PlastX, which gave it a really nice finish. In this photo you can see some imperfections still, but it’s all just dust that’s accumulated since I polished the cluster, so I’ll give that a clean up once it’s installed.
So now all that’s done I’m gunna enjoy a few cold beverages over the break and keep on going with the engine bay, so I can finally paint it and install that damn engine!
This is what my life looks like at the moment. Wires everywhere, just simplifying everything I don’t need to run the car. Should come out cool once I’ve wrapped it all back up.
Finally organised my garage with some shelving and a bench to make things a heap easier to work on. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Makes it a heap easier to work on and around the car.
Also got some super white bulbs for the existing sockets, to try and combat the shitty lighting in my garage. Came out good, so I can finally work late at night.
Managed to pull the front suspension out yesterday, so now I just need to take the front brake setup out and then I can get going on welding the holes up in the bay.
So I finally got my order of engine parts for my rebuild today.
What have we here then?
Well first and foremost, a set of CP Pistons, with an 86.5mm bore, and 9:1 compression ratio.
Tomei 1.2mm Metal Headgasket.
Those are the two biggest things, but I also got a Stance Waterneck adapter, ARP Headstuds, and a full Nissan Gasket kit.
So now I’ve just gotta take the old pistons off the rods, and send everything away to get machined.
Did some really next level stuff this afternoon after work.
Because the car will get driven in the rain, and on the street and so on, but I won’t be running A/C, I need the blower motor for the heater/demister. I decided to get rid of the condenser under the dash, and the fittings that stick through the firewall to clean things up a bit nicer.
Now I could’ve just pulled the whole thing out, but because of the way Nissan designed the system, it would leave a big gap between the blower fan, and the next part of the system, which directs the airflow.
So I decided to pull the duct that houses the condenser, apart and see if I could pull it out, and leave the duct in tact, so I can retain the blower system, without the A/C
Sure enough, undo all the clips, and pop the lid off, and you can just lift the whole thing out.
I guess 15 years of dust and crap certainly adds up.
Sweet birds nest.
And all back together. Just have to seal up the old holes with some blanking grommets, and buy a roll of sealing foam.
Then I can reinstall it all after I’ve welded up the firewall.
Now I don’t normally post photo’s of other peoples cars, but this is certainly an exception to the rule.
Here’s Broadfield’s engine bay. The guy has crazy attention to detail, and has just overhauled his engine bay in amongst his LS Conversion.
If my engine bay comes out half as good as this, I’ll be pretty happy.
Lots of progress!
Got my new arms in, looks sweet, and they’re beefy as hell! New locking system is sweet too.
Got rid of both ABS & the airbag system. Along with all the associated wiring. This is less than a third of what I pulled out all together.
So with no wiring running through these holes anymore I’m going to weld them up before I paint the bay and underseal the guards. Along with a few holes in the bay and firewall.
And I’ll probably completely replace this section, where the battery tray once was.
And this is how the front suspension looks now. Should look radically different when it all goes back together.
Hopefully I’ll pull all that stuff out tomorrow, and get going on prepping for paint.
