A Poor Man's Dream S13.

[PoorMans180SX]

Joe and I made a video about the subframe mods.



I was going to run a 350Z rack, but I wanted to move my rack 45mm forward, and the Z rack was going to require pretty extensive modification to the crossmember, so I just decided to stick with OEM for now. Someday I'll probably just make a tubular one.















I definitely understand why wisefab just makes a whole new section, sheesh. Still needs some more work before painting and going back on the car.

Merge collectors for my tubular, thinwall turbo manifolds came in. Prepare yourself for VG equal-length awesomeness!

[PoorMans180SX]

Finally getting around to assembling my engine MAHLE makes a really nice complete gasket set, so I snagged that and some new head bolts since I was silly and tossed mine.



I've never seen so much oil coked in the oil control ring lands, so I've had these soaking over the past few days.

Should make some good progress this week!



Got a small oil cooler... I just wanna do hot laps! Haha.

[PoorMans180SX]

Had to drill and tap the oil filter area as the VG33 doesn't use this normally. The Z31 VG30 has an "oil filter pressure bypass" in this hole, but that's included in your oil filter 99% of the time now, so a plug it is!



Remote filter and cooler unit (yeah I gotta scrape that concrete gasket off still):



Polished my crank and assembled my shortblock.

[PoorMans180SX]

Got my Tial MV-SA gates in. 16lbs in these guys should be enough to turn it up to 20 or so for my 400whp goal.



Decided to take some quench out of the combustion chambers while I have the heads apart. Of course I was moving too fast and nicked the decks, so they'll be off for surfacing and probably a valve job.

Not finished in this picture:

[PoorMans180SX]

Making the front crossmember bomb-proof.









Por15 on the rear subframe. Pain in the ass. If I did it over again I'd skip the foam and have the thing e-coated and then powdercoated, which is what I'm going to do with the front subframe and tension rod brace.

[Motary]

Yummy yummy parts! Good progress

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Motary

Yummy yummy parts! Good progress

Thanks mate!

Finally got the right size radiator today. Stoked to get this mocked up and build some ducting. I'm going to sandwich my oil cooler in there somewhere.

[PoorMans180SX]

About that vlsd...



Took it one step further and self-etching primered the frame (there were some small nooks I couldn't get with the Por15) and painted it Ford grey.



Tomorrow I assemble the rear suspension setup and get it in the car!

[5280VertDET]

Fixed that first image:

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by 5280VertDET

Fixed that first image:

LOL.

Put the rear diff in the subframe and assembled with wisefab kit, which is a PITA if you don't check your fitment before you weld up the gktech reinforcments. The LCA hardly fit, and I had to pry and hammer them in. Oh well, it seems they'll work like they are. Keep forgetting to take my last bucket of hardware to the plater, so I don't have the eccentric bolts for the camber and toe arms, or it would be in the car already!





It'll be interesting messing around with the new Geomasters and the Gktech offset top hats. Also reallyyyy pumped to be on a high-quality coilover from FEAL.





Current state of affairs. Gotta get this thing rolling and to the shop!

[PoorMans180SX]

Meats came in Saturday. Planning on trying out quite a few combos so I started with Zestino's.



235/40/17 and 265/35/18.

[PoorMans180SX]

Snagged my second and last batch of hardware from the platers.



Picked up my subframes from being e-coated and powdercoated. There was a communication error about what color grey, so it's definitely off from the rest, but oh well.



Pressed out the junky grease-able S13 balljoints and put in these quality sealed S14 ones.



Popped the crossmembers in. Mock up time! My tension rods and hub nuts will be here next week, and this thing will be a roller!





I might actually need a little shorter lower control arm, hence why I haven't done the conversion on the inner bushing to a rod end yet.









I'll most likely be running more caster than this, so it'll look a little different.

[PoorMans180SX]

Max low, full droop.



Yeahhhhh, in my rush to get this thing to the powdercoaters, I forgot to test fit the rack... Debating just building a tubular one at this point...

[tuzzio]

[PoorMans180SX]

The brake brackets I bought off of Nissan Road Racing at least three years ago appear to work with zero modification, so that's nice. This is a 350Z track rotor, and the caliper will be a willwood superlite 4-pot.







This is my current strut tower position, with the front of the car up.



Without the tension rod, the tire hits the frame full right (before the tie rod end hits) and the wheel hits the lca full left. My GKtech tension rods will show up today, so I'll toss those on and see where it really lies. I'm hoping to run around five degrees of caster.





Camber seems a bit too much for me, at around six and a half degrees. I'll probably shorten the lca a little when I add the inner adjuster rod end, and possibly notch the strut tower. I'd also like to be able to fit a nine inch wide wheel up front.

[Bluejayde]

Just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying this thread; I'm considering a wisefab kit myself but wondering if it's overkill for a street car.

[battery1882]

It's coming along nicely!

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Bluejayde

Just wanted to let you know I'm enjoying this thread; I'm considering a wisefab kit myself but wondering if it's overkill for a street car.

Thanks! Yeahhhhh it probably is. We at Whalen's Speed work closely with Feal Suspension, and with our dealer discount, this wasn't too much more than a full arm and drop knuckle combo, so I went for it!

Originally Posted by battery1882

It's coming along nicely!

Thank you sir!





Clearance for days!



Wheel still hits the LCA, so I'm going to have to notch that on the front side a little. Who would have thought? Haha. Not sure if I can really do anything about the wheel hitting the frame rail... Really the only way to fix it is lengthen the LCA more, and I don't really want to do that because camber and wheel fitment. I guess that's the compromise of not going full drift car. I keep telling myself I don't need all the angle, hahah.

Really pumped to have a super responsive front end.

[PoorMans180SX]

Did some mock up now that I can secure the hub. Bashed in the frame rail and was able to get a ton of angle out of the setup, and a reasonable contact patch. Still have to notch my FLCA on the front side. Sadly I don't think I'll be able to keep all this angle, as the camber is at about -7* and wheel fitment looks really close. I'd like to get it down to four or five degrees so as not to compromise normal driving and straight line braking. I always chase angle, but only because I really like high-angle driving style. I'm sure it will take some optimizing and fiddling with after it's on the ground and the fenders are actually mounted.



I always take pictures with the camera even with the strut tower, so as not to "cheat" the angle haha.



TDP kit for comparison:



This is with the 265/40/18 on a 18.9.5+15 wheel. It just scrubs the frame.

[Skilz10179]

Wow, haven't been on this site in a long time and I'm surprised to see this build still going. I used to follow this on XceedSpeed back in the day, keep it up!

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Skilz10179

Wow, haven't been on this site in a long time and I'm surprised to see this build still going. I used to follow this on XceedSpeed back in the day, keep it up!

Thanks man.

Here's a photo dump of me modifying the stock VG33E plenum. I'll be running one large line to a vacuum block, so I don't need the forty vacuum ports this thing has. Also going to be running a remote IACV. I'm going to weld an Evo throttle body flange onto the front so I can run an Evo X e-throttle, which will be controlled via a Link Ecu Thunder.

[PoorMans180SX]

After more than two years, it's back on the ground. Gotta get this thing to the shop to start on the fun stuff.

[IIIXziuR]

High quality components and good workmanship. Very nice thus far, my dude.

I am very surprised to see the VG33 things in here.
It is always nice to see that lump getting some love!

[Jyttah]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

This is with the 265/40/18 on a 18.9.5+15 wheel. It just scrubs the frame.

With this setup, how much space do you have from the inside of the wheel to the coilover? Im thinking about fitting the same size wheel on my S13, but i have a set of Aircups, so i need some more space at the coilovers.

And what width is the overfenders?

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by IIIXziuR

High quality components and good workmanship. Very nice thus far, my dude.

I am very surprised to see the VG33 things in here.
It is always nice to see that lump getting some love!

Thanks! I'm hoping it's as bulletproof as everyone says it is. I'd like to make 400wtq.

Originally Posted by Jyttah

With this setup, how much space do you have from the inside of the wheel to the coilover? Im thinking about fitting the same size wheel on my S13, but i have a set of Aircups, so i need some more space at the coilovers.

And what width is the overfenders?

I can take a picture. There is also some adjustment for positive camber in the lower coilover bracket that I am not taking advantage of. Fenders are 55mm Origin Type III's, but you won't need as large. My lower arms are extended 50mm and the strut tops pushed out with gktech strut tops.

[UJCD]

I don't know if you answered this before, but why did you go with that engine?

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by UJCD

I don't know if you answered this before, but why did you go with that engine?

A few reasons. My friend Mike G has a very well developed Z31 with a VG33ET in it, and it sounds absolutely amazing. I was also impressed with how it delivered power (GT35R). Then there's the fact that you can snag them in junk yards for $200-400 all day long, and they can hold 500wtq on the stock bottom end.
Basically the engine is cheap, plentiful, strong, reasonably light, and sounds awesome.

Here's his setup.

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Jyttah

With this setup, how much space do you have from the inside of the wheel to the coilover? Im thinking about fitting the same size wheel on my S13, but i have a set of Aircups, so i need some more space at the coilovers.

And what width is the overfenders?

[Jyttah]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Thanks a lot!

I can see it might be a problem when my LCA isnt extended.

[turboshoebox]

feal taiwan coilovers....ughhhhh