R3LAX SR20DEbT Build

[S-Nation S13]

Ive been creeping in this forum for a awhile now, and I finally decided that its time for me to contribute this is my build thread.
Welcome to the sh!t show aka the RELAX SR20DE-BT build.
This is my second s-chassis learned a lot over the last 11 years of owing an s-chassis. So here we go.

First coupe bought in 2006. Bone Stock s13 from a mom and pop style used car lot that was filled with Hondas and Integras.

2006

My s13 and my brother's s14, which by the way I should add that he was the one that influenced me to get a 240sx.
First day I got her.





PROS
Got a 240

CONS
Had frontend damage minor (so i thought) used carlot "prefered" bodyshop decided to slap 5 pounds of bondo to crushed driver fender
Missing coolant reservior
Missing both side markers
Missing both headlight covers
Missing ashtray/cig lighter/auto-mirror switch
Cracks on dash

2007 When I decided to start modding the car but first I had to crash it.
CRASH DAMAGE






Notice the JDM driver elder badge didn't mean sh!t (bad choices)

B&M short shifter was a must bought one used from a homie of mine who crashed his hatch added the NISMO GT Knob for comfort.
Shifting through the gears felt great didn't feel like I was driving a semi truck.


Hitting the big leagues I decided to upgrade suspension and steering so I snagged some Tein Type Flex's and Tein inners and outers.
They came with spacers so I guess during that time that was the best way to grab a little more steering angle.






Injen Intake came next to ward off the SMOG Nazi's of California. Did it actually add horsepower...hell if I know just knew I wasn't going to be ref'd


Now I needed some noise so I bought the biggest exhaust I could find at that time which was the Greddy Ti-C 80mm.
This sounded "ok" with silencer, but without it that was a different story (Cops didn't like it first ref'd ticket .... THUG LIFE )

Slammed on Se's. Looked decent but way better than the steelies I was rocking.


Now the JDM scene was in full effect, and I got hit with the JDM bug.
Although the HUD cluster came as an option here in the US, I saw the first one on a JDM s13 I google'd.
I bought this one from Driven08 along with the JDM sun visors



Hella JDM so I thought.

First track day OPEN DIFF so no mad drifts, so I just threw down on the auto-cross course.


Saw so many S13 front end conversions, I knew I just had to get one to reach that hella JDM level 3000.
So I got one but wait theres more it was haggard to sh!t. But that s13 conversion though.
Sitting on XXR's 501 16x8 +0mm


OH! how could I forget MUD FLAPS were the plug everyone wanted a set.
I snagged a full set off a hatch at the junkyar, threw some paint and swag'd out for years.
LOL at the 2 different rim set up but couldn't say no to Enkei meshies.


Took some shots but this one was the best I could find.






This was pretty much the end of the build of my first coupe.

I lied found this one just before I parted her out. Annual K1 meet Anaheim, CA 2015




After that meet I parted her out. Sold the Ka24de as well as the shell.

The end of my first 240 coupe.


Engine was sold, take care of her, its ready for turbo.


The feels so sad to she her go, but onto a better conditioned chassis.

[S-Nation S13]

The Inspiration damn this car looks so good!


Bought a new rolling chassis.
FINANCIAL MISTAKE NUMBER 2 ♴♴

Year: 1991 Coupe (Coupe love)
Transmission: Manual

Photo taken with a potato best quality ever.
Quick history Im the 3rd owner 2nd owner just wanted to flip the car.
Straight Frame, the body did have dents but nothing that can't be fixed. I was more concerned and happy with the fact that the car had a straight frame.


Bought the coupe as a rolling full interior shell.


Trailered her home and it sat for 2 months before I got my hands on tearing her down, pretty much waiting for parts to come in.

INTERIOR WORK

Interior was, lets just say not to my standard.
Oil stains on the carpet, shag carpet, and really faded out interior panels.





Took about a week to complete.

This time around I decided to keep the sound deadening.
My previous coupe I removed all the sound deadening and I wasn't about to make that mistake again.



ENGINE BAY WORK

First thing was to remove everything and that I did.
Took about 2 weeks to complete.





Front subframe was covered in grim.
Previous ka24de was leaking from somewhere on the engine.



After about an hour Simple Green and a lot of shop rags later ...



Decided to paint the engine bay since I had no engine, so no better time than now.
Cleaned and prepped the car for paint.



Aftermath.





With the engine out I also decided to swap out the old steering bushing replaced that on with the DIF Aluminum Steering Bushing



So with no engine and my beloved KA gone, I wasn't going to run the new chassis on hopes and dreams.
So many thoughts ran through my head, when it came down to choosing the engine. SR's RB's or JZ's So many to choose from.
Finally decided to settle with the SR20DE-T



Pick your poison, and so I did.
Redtop sr20debt
Wiring harness, Trans, Ecu, (needed MAF and Ignitor)



Time to hustle at this point I worked on my car in my fiancé carport and worked on my engine in my parents garage.
Me and my homie stripped the engine down removed of all the accessories, intake and exhaust manifolds within a hour.



Valve cover got some love VHT High Temp Wrinkle Black.





Intake and exhaust manifolds received all new gaskets/nuts/bolts and painted them with high temp flat black paint.









The stock garrett T25 also got some love with brand new gaskets/studs/nuts/locking tabs the works.
( No shaft play if anything minimal I would say, nothing that would make me second guess the condition )



Everyday I worked on the engine I had to put the engine back in this position.
If you haven't noticed by now ... no engine stand



Transmission was next.
Separated the transmission and immediately saw that the flywheel needed to be replaced



Had to get a new/used flywheel since the one on the SR wasn't cutting it for me.
Had a broken bolt so I had to extract it out before resurfacing.



Snag'd a DMAX hood but it was cut up so the homie did some surgery and brought it back to life.
The surgery process









Test fitted on the car DAMN!!! Looking good



JAZZED up the interior.
Made her look like a car again panels, carpet, dash, headliner, cage all made their way back in.



SFE Street Faction Engineering bash bars made their way on to the coupe.
Front basic, Rear with optional jacking point.





Brand new WS harness, blood lines almost time for the first start up !!!



Sr20 needs to chill so for cooling I went with ...
Mishimoto aluminum radiator with dual efans with aluminum shroud. (Bring the hate blah blah blah)



Finally dropping the engine in. I did this in 2 parts, 1st the engine, followed by transmission, had some help on the way thanks to my homies we were able to get this done in 2 days.
I decided to go with the OEM SMIC as I still needed the Piping for my front mount (also I was eager to get the car finally moving under its own power.)

[S-Nation S13]

First time my 2 cars were seen together lol.



Mounted my tires on the MB's and they sat in my living room.
Wife didn't like that they sat in the living room but ... I DO WHAT I WANT LOL.



So befor I sold the shell I had to remove the subframe and swap it over to the new chassis since it had all my links.



Sold the Tein Flex's and went with PBM's.
Better than the KYB's and "DROP" springs.

My Tein Type Flex Coils served me well.



It was time for a change so this time around I went with PMB's Competition Coils



Now with the suspension all squared away. Finally after so many years I got around to doing my 5 lug swap/ z32 30mm brakes









New shoes at this point she ran rough, really rich.
Damn near dying every time I drove her.
FIRST START UP 12/26/15

[S-Nation S13]

PART 4 coming soon

[240sxRuinedMe]

Loving the build dude. Can't wait on more updates! *thumbs up*

[Malik]

nice build man, I love your signature also that chick is cute.

[hanzbrady]

Originally Posted by Malik

nice build man, I love your signature also that chick is cute.

Agreed, too bad she's not in the industry anymore.

[S-Nation S13]

Now I got the car semi running at this point still ran really rich, idled 1100, and some boggin issues under throttle.
So I decided to change out the usual suspects I.E TPS, MAF, O2,
TPS 22620-53J01
MAF 22630-52F00
O2 22690-50F00
CHECKED FOR BOOST LEAKS. Found a leak on the turbo flange TYPICAL.

"Sunday Fun Day" S13 K's bumper off FMIC mock up.
Bye bye SMIC hello FMIC



FMIC all finished up



ADDED BONUS The elusive BOMEX Aero K's front lip. ( its already getting beat up!!! )





Leaky Injector so I grabbed me some new 370cc



Swapped them bad boys in.



She ran better but not to my standards.
Pretty irritated to be honest. Swapped ECU and BAM!

Currently the SR runs the way it should Im pretty happy with it so far.
I want more, just like any car guy. The search for more power.

APEXi Power FC with Commander
Got it at a steal of a price. So I couldn't pass up on the chance.



Now the search begins need a reliable tuner that can tune my SR with POWER FC.
Post any recommendation.

Currently waiting for
GT2860rs
740cc
Greddy Intake Mani ✔
Tomei Exhaust Mani ✔
AEM 320 91/E85 ✔

Going all in. My build philosophy is build the damn thing for yourself.

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by 240sxRuinedMe

Loving the build dude. Can't wait on more updates! *thumbs up*

Thanks for stopping by. Going to update this as I start to receive more parts. The waiting game blows

Originally Posted by Malik

nice build man, I love your signature also that chick is cute.

Originally Posted by hanzbrady

Agreed, too bad she's not in the industry anymore.

Thanks guys more updates to come. Damn photo bucket messed up my sig. Tried to keep it low key had a scaled down version of my sig years ago, photo bucket had one job to do and failed. lol

[jsu1012]

Nice dude! where did you pick up the high temp flat black for the manifold?

--Deleted--

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by jsu1012

Nice dude! where did you pick up the high temp flat black for the manifold?

Thanks brotha .. seen your coupe on the gram .. that sh!ts fire!! I'll look for he exact one I used in the garage so far it's holding up.



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[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by Tucker240

Those bash bars look clean, lets be honest though I only came here for the Remy gif.

Lol thinking most of you guys are haha .. I'm mean sh!t seen one 240 you've seen them all right haha.

STREET FACTION bash bars hit them up if you interested. Quality on these bars are top notch in my opinion.


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[jsu1012]

Originally Posted by S-Nation S13

Thanks brotha .. seen your coupe on the gram .. that sh!ts fire!! I'll look for he exact one I used in the garage so far it's holding up.

thanks man. ya i like that, I'm probably going back to stock manifold. sick of fixing cracked manifolds lol.

[S-Nation S13]

Blessing and a Curse to have these guys here locally.

Still running rich even with all the replacement parts so I brushed it off and just drove her the way it is.
Started to lose boost so I inspected the engine and found this.


For the second time Locking Tabs were the culprit.
you had one job!!

The exhaust manifold studs also failed literally 2 studs were complete and the rest either broke or backed out (due to vibration) so I grabbed a new set of these .... PLEASE WORK !!!


Decided to mount my gauges in a better location so I planned, and i came up with this.
Im pretty content with how this came out, and yes I could have gone with the all in one style cluster, but last time i check this was my build.


*** My RPM/TACH doesn't read the signal coming out of the ecu any recommendation on what I need in order to make it work.***

ENGINE BUILD planned for the winter just acquiring parts. We all know how that can go, takes time and pretty much sucks.

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by jsu1012

thanks man. ya i like that, I'm probably going back to stock manifold. sick of fixing cracked manifolds lol.

Very nice .. heard that no matter what manifold you get tomei/Megan/eBay special they all end up cracking from the welds. OEM is best I believe.

The paint I used VHT SP102


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[taeisbeast]

Very clean stuff man, keep it up.

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by taeisbeast

Very clean stuff man, keep it up.

Thanks for the kind words .. still building haha


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[taeisbeast]

Originally Posted by S-Nation S13

Thanks for the kind words .. still building haha


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Ha for sure my man, need to get on mine as well.

Sent you a text bro

[S-Nation S13]

Acquired and will be installing soon.

Greddy Type RS BOV
Cusco Front Strut Bar OST (resto needed)
Cusco Front Tension Brace (resto needed)

[corkscrew]

Awesoem build dude. I love the cluster

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by corkscrew

Awesoem build dude. I love the cluster

Thankyou .. took a while to put it all together. Still trying to get the rpm gauge to work but for now I’m using my power fc as my rpm gauge lol


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[Aureus Mente]

Props! Looking good, will check back in for that engine build.

[snatchmarks]

what did you use to make the cluster?

suuuper clean build man

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by Aureus Mente

Props! Looking good, will check back in for that engine build.

Thanks planning on tackling the engine build over the winter, but we all know how it is with this car, we can plan but theres always something.

Originally Posted by snatchmarks

what did you use to make the cluster?
suuuper clean build man

Its a custom gauge cluster holder 18 gauge sheet metal. Drilled some holes to hold the gauges most of the work was making the harness. Thanks for the kind words, still have a lot to do.

[S14Serge]

Dam looks great man! Parts list is on point for sure.

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by S14Serge

Dam looks great man! Parts list is on point for sure.

Thankyou slowly but surely I’ll be updating this more. Parts should be coming in soon at this point it’ll just be pictures until I actually tear down the engine.


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[S-Nation S13]

Update: Currently upgrading steering. (Increasing steering angle)

SFE 25mm extended front lower control arms
Moog 1999 Maxima Inners/Outers
Debating on modding my knuckles

[rawgarage]

anyway to smooth the lines on the knob? or sell me your old tomei...

[S-Nation S13]

Originally Posted by rawgarage

anyway to smooth the lines on the knob? or sell me your old tomei...

That’s just the nature of 3D printing even at the highest setting I still get the lines, although I haven’t tried sanding the lines down but it could be an option.

That tomei one isn’t forsale I would only trade it for a yashio factory one.


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