Nissan Silvia S15 Part II, with less JZ this time.

[Chopaholic]

After promising I never wanted another project after the last troublesome JZ S15, I have went against my own words and done something I am sure at some stage I will regret.

Some will remember the funky JZ S15 I built last time which ended up having engine failure due to knocking the sump off the road too many times, the car also nearly gave me failure as from the word go nothing ever seemed to go smooth.



The past few months I have been living the boring life and pretty much spending my weekends playing PUBG and searching the auctions and dealers in Japan, ultimately saving some pennies together.

This car came up on a dealer website, it fitted my needs and I messaged about the vehicle with no response so I just sort of forgot about it and kept on searching, me and Alan (Driftwizards) bidded on a few auctions cars and hunted high and low for stuff which met my budget. A few weeks had passed and I decided to email the dealer directly instead and got a response, yesterday we had agreed on some details and I paid for the car.

It is a year 2000 Nissan Silvia Spec S Auto, it seems from the images to be in fair condition and it suits my needs perfectly as a base to start on.













Rewind back to last week, on a Tuesday morning I was sitting in work and I spotted a "knocking" SR20 for sale on Driftworks for reasonable money, I decided to make the 8 hour round trip to collect it with the thought in my head I will rebuild it for something at some stage not knowing I was buying that S15 yet, I also ended up buying an SR20 manual gearbox when I was there. For anyone interested, an SR20 fits in the back seats of a BMW E46 330D.



Got the engine back into my garage, had a bit of a poke around and decided to investigate the "knock". I was pleasantly surprised to find the following:





It had done the common SR20 thing and broken a rocker, so that is what the knocking was, I was obviously over the moon as the price I paid for the engine reflected the knock.

As the rocker had broken I decided ive got a few months until the car comes so I stripped the engine on down to check out the bottom end and replace the headgasket for a metal one, giving myself some future proofing, upon taking the flywheel off I was presented with this mess:




It looks like someone has tried to remove the flywheel with a fucking bulldozer, it has wrecked the mounting surface of the crank, so my inspection of the bottom end would now need to go further as the crank > flywheel mounting face is now going to need machined.

Thankfully enough there was no metal in the oil and everything else seems to be spot on in the engine.






The plan now is to get the crank mounting face machined and when building it back up replace the bearings for piece of mind, a new metal head gasket, some up rated BC valve springs to hopefully solve the rocker breaking issue and some new up rated cams when I am there.

S15 will take a few months to make its journey around the world so I will just start trying to collect some parts.

More to come soon.

[tricky_ab]

[TheRealSy90]

Dual rocker guides will be a greater benefit to the rockers than stiffer springs.

[Big Zee]

looks like a good build so far!
S13 sr ? or is it a notchtop?

[tricky_ab]

Originally Posted by Big Zee

looks like a good build so far!
S13 sr ? or is it a notchtop?

It's not a notchtop SR20...

[Chopaholic]

Bought Some Dmax coilovers which I spied on eBay:



Bought some wheels



18x9.5 ET12 Metal Bright finish Work CR KAI - Just the couple of week wait on them coming from Japan now.

So it arrived today finally, after a massive head ache with customs not sending me out documents I had to wait an extra week, but today it came and I couldn't be happier.




In typical just off the boat style, the battery was dead and there wasn't a dribble of fuel in it, so that was the first thing to do and then a quick wash in the pitch black.

[Chopaholic]

I managed to gather up all the parts needed for my manual swap and decided I would swap it to manual until such times as my DET engine is built and ready to go. This weekend me and my friend Hamish (Yes he is very Scottish) decided to have a go at fitting it, using the motor club at work I booked out the ramp for a few days.

The original suspension was quite soft so I decided to start by installing the coilovers, also a pic of the underside showing no rust.




Before the manual swap commenced I got the car in for an MOT at a local garage, a big smile on my face when it passed first time with compliments on how fresh it was considering the miles.


Most of the manual swap waiting to go in, my shifter and clutch fluid never arrived in time so I have to wait until Monday to complete fully, some Redline shockproof gear oil to keep the box healthy.




So first things first was disconnecting and removing the automatic box, a total nightmare with the weight of the gearbox and size of the bellhousing compared to a manual one, even with the engine mounts loose and the engine tilted fully back it was very hard to get to clear, the gearbox stand at the motor club came in very handy to save our backs from stress. Eventually we had it out.


The next challenge was really frustrating, the automatic pilot bush! I have always managed to get manual ones out with bread or grease, but after literally hours of battering it stupid it was not coming (3 full slices of bread into the hole :grinning: ), so we went in hunt of a blind bearing puller however we did not manage to get one. A tactical Nandos dinner happened and on return I managed to get a slide hammer and used the MIG to weld a threaded nut onto it, a few smashes off the slide hammer and it was off.



Hamishes face when he does stereotypical scottish thing and drinks Iron Bru says it all.


Next thing was onto clutch installation, again didn't have a clutch alignment tool so had to get a little bit funky with some sockets and a spare cut down extension bar, worked a treat and it was in ready for the gearbox.



Literally 15 minutes to get a manual box in when you have a ramp, I am used to doing this on a garage floor with a gearbox laying on your chest so it was a dream to have it so easy.


Then onto making the holes for the clutch pedal and master cylinder, didn't have a hole cutter so done some chain drilling.




Done some wiring after this to make the car think its in nutueral and make the reverse lights etc work. Now I am just waiting on some clutch fluid and my new shifter to arrive before giving it its maiden manual voyage. At the times when we were at a loss for waiting on parts or trying to figure things out I decided to also fit my Bride Artis with Driftworks superlow rail and my gorgeous Nardi with Works Bell snap off boss.

[Chopaholic]

I haven't done an update on the car for a little while, have been busy with work and general life, Christmas was a financial misery so only managing to get some car stuff now after recovering from it lol

Spent a little time with my Skyline and gave it a good clean for the first time since ive owned it, cleaning cars is really not my thing but I was happy that it came out so good with my basic knowledge.



Back to the important one, the Silvia.

Stuck the cage in





Got the tyres mounted on the wheels and done some testing for fit




My plans for the car have changed a little since I began the project, ive started building the SR20 back together but after reading too many project threads and getting jealous I have decided to go down a different route which will hopefully start coming into play in the next few months.

More to come.

[CamryOnBronze]

Great progress so far! Love the cage and wheel choice. Keep it up!

[tuzzio]

Originally Posted by Chopaholic

It looks like someone has tried to remove the flywheel with a fucking bulldozer

Almost spit my lunch out reading this.

[tricky_ab]

Keep it up my man!

[ANVIL]

White s15 is so sexy.

[Dolph_KYAS13]

Originally Posted by chopaholic

back to the important one, the silvia.

woah, hold up.

[Chopaholic]

I have been away for the past 5 months working in much warmer climates, so have not been able to get much progress with the car, although slightly painful to be leaving clear water and glorious beaches I was excited to get home to the stack of parts I have gathered up whilst away.

I took a head stagger when I first left to stick another 1JZ into it, deciding on a 1JZ VVTI for ease of install I set about buying one, then got my time wasted twice in a row and had people trying to sell me scrap constantly, I almost seen it as a sign. After some more thinking I decided to stick with the SR20 which I already have and keep it simple to hopefully enjoy more seat time instead.

First a list of things I have purchased as not all of them are pictured:

- Nismo 740CC Injectors
- Tomei M7960 Turbo
- HPI mid mount manifold
- Blitz NURSpec exhaust (Turbo back)
- 180sx Engine harness
- HKS 1.5mm head gasket
- ARP Head bolts
- BC Racing uprated valve springs
- ACL Race bearings
- OEM Nissan gasket set
- OEM Nissan Piston rings
- ARP Flywheel bolts
- New OS Giken clutch release bearing
- HKS 60mm Gauges x3
- HPI Air Filter
- Z32 MAF
- Aero Bumper (FRP)
- Genuine Aero Spoiler
- Modified Knuckle setup
- FMIC
- Stock 180sx ECU
- HKS Pipe work









Still to buy I have the following:
- Up-rated Cams
- Link ECU

The plan is to run the engine in on stock ECU and cams leaving me a little bit of time to save up some more money to buy the ECU and Cams, some parts such as the Z32 MAF will be able to be sold on at this point.

I have been working on cars for a long time, done many things and tried many things but this will be my first time building an entire engine, I am very much a give anything a go and get stuck in sort of a person so I quite liked the idea of being able to teach myself the basics to building one anyway.

As seen previously in the thread I already have the engine stripped down, so it came to time to start cleaning stuff and getting everything ready for building, first up was the head.




I degreased this with some Gunk before pressure washing it, using a tooth brush around the hard to get areas, the valve side was all coked up with carbon, again with a scotch pad and alot of time I cleaned out the dirty exhaust side. At this point I applied some paint to it making it look nice and fresh again.



Then I cleaned the valves before re-grinding them to make sure they were not leaking. Also cleaned the rocker arms and cam caps.








Next up was starting to put it back together, first I started by opening my lovely gasket kit and putting in the new valve stem oil seals, quite easy, just tap them over the valve guides with a small mallet and a socket. After this, I placed the valves in as I numbered and ground them earlier.



With the help of my friend Hamish again we then put the new valve springs, retainers and collets in, a bit of a pain in the arse with a cheap valve compressor tool, but we got there.




Then I tested that my valve grinding had worked and the valves were seated correctly, I done this by putting water into the side of the head to the corresponding valves, intake side and exhaust side both with no leaks.



Hydraulic lifters need bled and installed next, submerging the lifter fully in oil and using a small allen key you compress the lifter and remove all the air from it, then keeping it upright you place it back into the head full of oil.




Finally I placed the correct shims into the top of the retainers and placed the rocker arms on making sure everything was fitting correctly.



The cams will be placed on once the bottom end is built and I can time it all up together.

I wanted to continue today building the bottom end but unfortunately I have been delayed until next week due to having to wait for my new crank to get here. Instead I decided to do some work to the car itself, a quick clean after sitting in a shed for months and put the new spoiler on. Still awaiting delivery of my Aero bumper mid week.






Once the rest of my stuff arrives I can hopefully crack on with completing the bottom end and getting the engine whole again, then it will be the push towards putting it into the car and getting it running, more to come next weekend hopefully.

[Chopaholic]

So I haven't updated this in a while, mainly because I have been busy with life, but also because i have been slaving away in the workshop making things happen.

I brought the car into the workshop expecting to just finish off the engine and throw the new SR20 in, of course when I started stripping things off you think "I may as well just do that now I am this far in".

So finishing off the engine















Then the S15 was up for the SR20DE removal




After some cleaning and painting some bits

[Chopaholic]

Got the car up off the ground to underseal it, ended up doing a full subframe/tank/lines out job and using paint over gravitex in below, before doing the under side gloss white.











Had a little incident with a flying tent and my daily, lost heart in the old girl and decided to go for an upgrade.






Stu called by with his JZX100 monster running mental power, Adam finished up his S14a, Ed as usual do some tidy work on his awesome Micra, tested my wheels on Kanes S13 and a random Tupac banner!









Next up was putting the rest of the engine stuff together






Fitted the engine





The car is now awaiting the silly bits and bobs being completed like intercooler piping and some wiring to make it work.

More updates soon.

[EFITTZY]

Great work so far, in for updates

[turboshoebox]

awesome you can have a s15 in the UK. sucks about the ugly women tho

[tricky_ab]

Damn that 2JZ swapped Chaser looked like the business.

Glad to see you're still plugging away on this swap. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[Chopaholic]

An update!!! I have to go back in time some as I have been a little lax with my build threads.

Me and Adam decided to split the cost of an AC/DC TIG welder so we could progress our projects without having to outsource any work, this came in the shape of a Stahlwerks welder, its a cheapy but for us as newbie welders it certainly does the job.




I done some practise on 5mm aluminium, it was a lot easier to weld on this compared to the thin aluminium intercooler pipe work but I managed to get some presentable welds with no foot pedal.





The engine was placed into the car, and after a few niggles with waiting for parts arriving I was able to drive it for the first time in ages, engine went well and I managed to get a few miles on the car towards the run in process. Pictures here with its custom intercooler pipes. A great feeling considering it was my first time building an engine myself, it pulled hard and everything works well.




I finally managed to get the new bumper on, pretty good fit considering its FRP.




Work called me away for about a month and I was home in Ireland for Christmas which meant not a lot of driving got done, I had been a little more focused on buying some parts for my AE86. Whilst at home, obese from Christmas, all my friends back to work and me sitting trying to cure my boredom, I started on a youtube binge with the idea of making a cool new exhaust for the S15 and then started to get stupid ideas into my head, the result of those ideas has been this............... (No this is not a pre-fitting picture).






I put a Driftworks thread up as soon as I got back from Ireland with the stuff for sale, prior to removing the engine pretty much most of the stuff was "dibs" so yesterday I packaged everything up and the engine was also collected today by Alex Stark who owns my old PS13.



So where am I going with this? The main reason for losing the SR is mainly the challenge but also I think there is something exciting about an engine swapped car. When I decided to lose the SR I hadn't quite decided on what would replace it, I had been looking at LS swaps for ease of power, but with the lack of part availability in the UK and after crunching some numbers it didn't seem that viable. SR20's are making SERIOUS money in the UK now, believe it or not most of the stuff I had gathered is pretty much paying for my new engine/gearbox/clutch/prop.

After a quick message to Dave Lee @ JDMDistro I sourced an engine and am having to eat my own words of "I will never do a 1JZ again", this time I have gone for a VVTI version for the standard single turbo and front sump, the engine is due next month from Japan.

Does this mean I need to change the thread title now? :worried:

The plans are to run the engine mated to a GS6-53DZ BMW 530D gearbox, I am currently researching the mine field which is adapter plates and flywheel/clutch conversions, if anyone knows of a GS6-53DZ HGD model gearbox for sale please let me know.

Now I am on the waiting game for the engine, its time to get this bugger MOT'd for a potential drift day next month.



More to come.

[Chopaholic]

A quick update before the weekend begins.

Got a gearbox, a BMW 530D 6 speed GS6-53DZ HGD, supposedly good for LOTS of power, its a 6 speed with ratios not a million miles away from a standard S14 diff.




Took ages to decide on what sort of adapter kit to go for, its a bit of a minefield and I have heard horror stories about every company that produces them, even the expensive ones. After some research I decided to go for this kit from a company called FTWL Motorsport in Poland, they make LOTS of custom BMW stuff and the guy who owns the company Karol seems to be very knowledgeable, he has gone as far as offering me a full refund if I am not happy with the kit at all even after install.

Its a twin plate kevlar clutch kit, with sashs pressure plate, conversion flywheel from 1JZ to BMW and an adapter plate, all fitting bolts and ARP flywheel bolts included.



This weekend should hopefully see some more prep on the car before the engine arrives in the coming weeks.

[Chopaholic]

So a bit of an update for the weekend, on Friday afternoon the car looked like it did above, on Friday evening I decided to get down and dirty to make some progress before the new engine comes.

Pushed it up onto the ramp as I had a little idea, started to strip it down.





Re-done some underseal, why you ask when the white underseal was so cool? Well, I decided I might not want the car white any more, but haven't fully decided, if the underseal is black it makes it a lot easier for a colour change, so when in the arches I got the black gravitex out and gave them a nice coat.



My plan of putting the car on the ramp was to use the ramp as a little bit of a ghetto paint booth to stop the whole place getting covered, it actually worked a treat.



Then I made the magic happen.......





I then done a few coats of lacquer and this was the end result.








It is now drying over night, tomorrow I will hopefully manage to get her dropped back down onto her wheels to free the lift up again.

[Chopaholic]

The car needed to go back outside to leave the ramp free for other people, so I started putting it back together today. Put my INGS+ wings on too, now its decision time for putting fenders on the rear?








And still haven't decided on a colour.

[Chopaholic]

Quick update - Not much has changed, my engine has been delayed my a month which kind of holds me back in the things I can do, but it does give me more time to gather some parts.

I annoyed my girlfriend by doing the standard and wishing my three cars a Happy Valentines day.



I have so many parcels arriving I kind of forget when I buy things, I ordered these 3 months ago, one from the UK and one from Japan a nice combo of Red Bride Zeta and Red Bride Brix for the S15, I already had a spare passenger low mount Bride rail which was handy. Both seats need some minor fixing and certainly the Brix needs a serious wet vac.






My CoolerWorx shifter arrived, its for a BMW so will need some modification to work with the Silvia, my friend Ed got me some nice 3mm steel plate from work to mock some stuff up with. For anyone interested, this is a great solution to not having to run the big clunky shifter assembly which comes on a standard BMW box, I now just need a shifter rod cut and welded to size and I will have nice race car feel changes.



A common JZ/RB in Sbody issue is cooling, there is not enough space between the front of the engine and the radiator in standard position to run a viscous clutch fan, most people try to run electric fans instead but often still run into heat issues. An option is cutting the slam panel, moving the radiator further into it which free's up the space needed. I decided I didn't want to cut the panel as it kind of ruins the car and have opted to go for a more hidden style radiator which will sit in below the slam panel, some research found this Volkswagen Sirocco 56mm Radiator for not very much money. Note its got no filler cap and has same sided inlet/outlets. The JZ water neck will need modified to work.



While waiting on my engine I have found something else which can pass some time, pictures to come in the next few weeks.

[Wknd]

These kind of threads are a joy to read, especially it's making me jealous for not having the luxury of building my car in the winter at my workplace because I have to store it somewhere else. The engine bay color looks great, actually hoped the whole car would look like that.

[Chopaholic]

Back again with a MAJOR update which some will have seen on Insta/Facebook - Still waiting for my engine arriving (two weeks to go now) so I got busy with some other cool bits in the mean time.

Always liked an S15 with the middle brake light removed from the spoiler so got the dremel out and started cutting, filled it with expanding foam, fibreglass over the top and then smoothed with P38 Isapon.






Whilst I was waiting for bits and bobs to dry on the above I set about making a adapter plate for my coolerworx shifter.



Unfortunately to make this fit in an S15 you have to do some cutting to the lovely dash surround, losing the rear heated screen button (which will be relocated into the cigarette lighter slot) I made an aluminium panel to replace the old one, which I then painted crinkle black.




Will probably eventually change this for a slightly better setup once I get more time.

Made some adjustments to the radiator and tested it for size in behind the slam panel - Works a treat.



Decided I needed somewhere to paint the car, looked online for some options and decided to go for this 6x4 foot marquee from eBay, a bargain at £170 and with some modification could have been quite a good DIY paint area for a few of us.



I started prepping all my parts for paint, re-rolled the rear arches to dial a little bit of camber out and make them closer to the fronts. Done some repairs on the side which wasn't in great condition and also removed the stupidly cut intercooler holes in the bumper.









So on Saturday I set about painting the car, fantastic morning, dry day everything was looking good, with some help from a few friends I rolled the car into the marquee and started to drag everything I needed in, heater, cleaning stuff, air line etc etc then disaster struck..... with me and the car inside. The marquee and the 6 alloy wheels, wood and various bits of strap/bungee holding it down lifted, the wheels got flung about 20/30 feet away, narrowly missing myself and the car and the marquee came to rest against a barbed wire fence, somehow avoiding damage to all cars, even that RX7 its up against.





I pretty much shit my pants and was slightly disheartened with the amount of effort I went into putting it there and our plans to paint a few cars. The car was pretty much prepped, the paint was bought and that weekend I had set aside to do it, so I worked my arse off for a few more hours and salvaged what I could to make this, it isnt pretty, nor is it amazing but at this stage I just wanted paint on the car.





So I waited until everyone left the garage that night, covered as much as I could from overspray and went for it.......... it was almost 5am til I got finished with a big shout out to my pal Andy who stuck with me giving me a hand holding lights/heat guns to try and get the best I could out of a shit situation.






I left and got some much needed sleep letting things cure off a little, cautious that other people use the garage I got down as soon as I can to start throwing stuff together so I could move the car back out and it be water tight. This unfortunately revealed my wings had turned out a slightly different colour, they were grey to begin with and of course I skipped out on priming them thinking "fuck it" at 3am, which obviously I now regret as they need re-painted.





And then I pushed it outside and the paint hangover/tired/stress had kind of been worth it - My little picture in my head of a Ferrari Rosso Corsa Red S15 on the polished CRKai's had became a reality.





Ordered some new buffing pads, G3 compound and plenty of 1500 grit wet and dry to flat it all down next week and remove some of the dust/imperfections, will also try and get the wings fixed for then. Thankfully this is 2K Direct Gloss acrylic with no lacquer so it can be made nice no matter what.

Hopefully the next update will be me simply dropping the JZ in.

Check back in a few weeks for more.

Dylan.

[da_crew10]

Looks great for a DIY paintjob!
Some time cutting and buffing should have you set. Great job.

P.s when the time comes, lower it.....a ton.

[Wknd]

Oh oh, this looks juicy.

[Chopaholic]

I have been fairly busy with work lately so really haven't had as much time as I would like progressing the car, usually I would do some form of tinkering every night but lately I have only managed weekends.

My package arrived from JDM Distro.


What could it be?????


Had my Xcessive 1JZ > Sbody engine mounts arrive from FRSport too.


Gathered all my parts into a central location


GS6 53DZ HGD 530D gearbox (These are supposed to be fantastic for taking high power)


Started putting my FTWL Motorsport BMW > 1JZ conversion kit together, mostly worked fairly well, had a few snags with using a 1JZ VVTI Auto starter but nothing a hole cutter couldn't rectify. This is the Twin Kevlar clutch kit which is supposed to be good for up to 1000nm of torque. The large flywheel is to gain the space from the adapter plate and box differences and deceptively only weighs 8.5kgs.








I then had something which looked like this.


Thanks to a late night eBay purchase, I managed to snap up this fairly rare stock location manifold from eBay for what can only be classed as a bargain, being sold as a factory 1JZ manifold.



Then to make sure everything was going to fit and work I fitted everything into the car, unfortunately it has to come back out this weekend so I can bash the gearbox tunnel a little for some extra clearance. It looks right at home.




I have now ordered up some steel box section to start welding up a gearbox mount, hopefully that will be done this weekend if I can manage to get the engine in and out. After that its time to get the prop shaft welded then some exhaust and intercooler pipe work made.

More to come soon :grinning:

[Chopaholic]

A thread update at long last, only a month later but its got lots of juicy stuff.

I pulled the engine back out, I needed slightly more clearance around the tunnel and I wanted to clean everything up and re-do the brake lines before putting it all back together - As per usual it never ended up this way. We had a wild Edward powered S15 for a few minutes.




Started cleaning and painting the inlet manifold.



Now I came to an awkward point in the build where I had to make some important decisions, my original plan was to run the car with the stock 1jz until such times I saved up enough to do a top mount conversion, after laying out my options, the work in getting the engine working/correct with a top mount setup was actually less all be it more expensive. I didn't fancy making exhausts, buying flanges and all the silly things to have it on the stock engine so I bit the bullet and went the expensive way.

Every spare penny over the last few months has been pumped into this now, I even had a garage clear out and sold off tons of spares just to help buy things.

First up some Siemens Deka 875cc injectors - Contrary to the internet, these do not fit in a stock 1JZ VVTI and require turning down on a lathe, thankfully the guys that work near to me done it for a box of beer.





Then I needed a proper manifold and turbo, not any Chinese stuff which would be useless but something beefy, I went for an APW Engineering custom made T3 Twinscroll 50mm wastegated manifold, as you can see Andy made a top job. Managed to get my hands on a new Holset HX35 7 blade 11cm rear housing, topped off with a second hand Turbosmart 50mm Progate. A quick loose test fit to the engine proved I had made the right decision.






Also, all this stuff can't work without some form of engine management, after considering a number of options I decided on an ECUMaster Black Standalone, you get amazing bang for your buck and they are starting to get VERY popular. Went for the whole kit which includes the Bosh 4.9 wide band and a MAC boost solenoid.



I am waiting for some paint to arrive this week so I can finish cleaning up the engine and covers, this should see me ready to put the engine back into the car and continue making the custom gearbox mount and exhaust. Once in I will be attempting to make a full standalone wiring harness with a little help from the HPAcademy videos.

Will try and get some more regular updates in the thread.