First Car and First Build: S13 DD Ka-t

[R3b]

Hey guys! I started a build thread over at ka-t but didnt get that much attention, ill be copying everything in and post again with some new pictures and updates. As far as the engine, It was hydrolocked by my dad stupidly taking out an injector and tearing an o-ring. My afr is fine and turns out car is tuned for e85. fixed my speedo issue (cluster had bad connection to harness) and only issue im having now is knock sensor which im sorting out now. Looks like the wire had a short and made really bad continuity. So here is some copy pasta and hope you guys enjoy! Excuse all the bad terms and ignorance on this block of text, ive had the car for 3 months now and my knowledge for 240s and kas have grown so much and within this month everything will be finished up.

Hey guys! I recently got a car this last week. Its my first car and when I got it, it was running good, better than other 240s ive seen around for sale and got it. Its pretty clean but after picking up were the owner left off and fixing some of his stuff the engine was running loads of smoke a couple days ago and running extremely rich... like my afr would start at 14.7 then just die to 10. I couldn't stand the smoke so I turned the car off and turned it on again and herd a loud noise. Car wont start or turn over by the crank but thats not the point of this post lol

If anyone wants an explanation why or help me figure out why it locked up just for interest sake, I can copy paste something Ive already written up but TLDR previous owner had a dud ecu and I fixed a dry connection/injectors/took out safc settings and it dumped loads and loads of fuel into the engine (afr was dead on 10 and couldn't lean out the mix no matter how much I leaned it out with the safc) and when I turned it off it was flooded most likely and when I went to started it again there was a big denotation and timing was off and a piston hit and bent a valve. I cant turn it over at the crank and I check the timing belt and looks like my chain jumped a couple teeth, could of been before of after the lockup im not so sure. I could be wrong for all I know but thats what im guessing and reading up on other threads on various forums. I'll only know this weekend when I take the head off. So the car is sitting in my driveway basically dead lol. I was destroyed but now im exited to build my first engine and do everything right.

So long story short im going to rebuild the KA, not sure what parts to pick up besides a felpro headgasket and frsport timing chain. Will be looking up on good companies for internals like bearings, springs, and valves at good prices. Going to stay away from ebay kits while still being good with my money. I want to try get forged pistons since later I want to run some "big" boost on a different turbo other than the ebay one on it right now which i'll replace in a couple months or sooner. Depending on how the engine is, it will be bored out and honned.

If you guys have any recommendation on rebuild parts for the ka, go ahead and speak up! Im open to opinions and any recommendation. My biggest issue right now is do I go back to n/a and ride a couple hundred miles and then go turbo or just go turbo right off the bat?

Bit of a long post so heres some pictures over the past week and from the previous owner. At the end i'll say my goals for this build and exactly what I want to do.

Here it is in my drive, its a bit dirty now from dust and smoke but I think she looks beautiful :P


Previous owner pic


Another from previous owner


Another lol with his stickers, I will be taking them off btw.


Right when I got it, literally took 3 hours to load onto the trailer since it sat so low :angry-teeth: had to bend my fenders a bit and side bit cracked off also which I cried when I saw it fall off. After getting some wood at homedepo it took like 20 minutes to load and 5 to unload at my house lol. Another thing with the picture, I got two random guys ask me about the car and thought I was going to a drift event with it and said the loved it. Other guy was a honda fan but he said he loved 240s more lol just couldnt find a clean one


Engine bay before cleaning


Engine bay after


Bumper got scratched from taking it off and having it inside my dads truck sadly :c its no biggie to sand down and patch up.


One with the headlights on, got this one off of snapchat


Wheel after I spent hours taking of literally one coat of plastidip. Was a cool surprise to see a bronze color under. Think id use the same color on other wheels down the line. These are fine for the time being.


Dat ass <3, I want to swap some type x lights. Dont like these clear ones too much


Under body when I was trying to figure out why my car would shake after releasing the clutch. Figured its my mounts and having a stage 3 clutch in, heres a video when it was running and the shake going on at the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGJN_SGPR4
http://i.imgur.com/PfvOwqY.png (picture too big)

And the head from yesterday after seeing my timing chain which is off by a couple teeth


I'll be keeping up with this and dropping pictures whenever I can, my main goal for this build is to have a strong daily driver, so a good tune is a must for milage and some small boosting around 250whp. Then later I will buy a beater honda to daily and go 350-400whp with better internals, bigger turbo. As far as body goes, I want to do a bit of type X and run some 18in wide wheels. I want the interior to look clean and will be keeping the s14 seats in it right now, replace the carpet, do some covering on the door pannels, and have a nice system in the car since I want another place to reference tracks for music since I make music for fun on the side and bit of sound engineering so nice speakers are a given ahha On my youtube channel I basically go over how to make sounds and use a program to make music and other stuff but thats kinda boring to you guys. I might make a separate channel and post just car video there and vlogs with it.

So thats basically it for now, ill be taking the head off this weekend and looking to order parts. Any recommendations or word of wisdom will be very much appreciated!

[R3b]

So the things ive done since all of that mess was, adjust my timing, idle, fix my speed sensor, will be fixing up my knock sensor harness. There was a short and wire had really bad continuity. I replaced my steering rack with a brand new one, went and properly did the preload to my coilovers, the previous owner basically had the springs jumping around and where extremely loose. Did a by eye alignment, cleaned up my engine bay, got a new hose for power steering, replaced lights inside my cluster. Car sat for two weeks while I sent the wheels to be "sanded" down and powder coated. Place was run by complete idiots and it took the two times to get my wheels right.

Now for the stuff im doing right now, I took out my whole interior and hand washed all my center console, got a new short shiftier, shiftier small boot, and a new leather boot. Took out my seats and carpet to get deep washed, going to be selling the carpet and buying brand new plain black one online soon. Carpet looks amazingly clean but I think a nice black would suit the car better and later get some nice red dmax floor mats. While everything is out in the interior ill be washing down the chassis which is surprisingly still super clean, vacuuming all the left over food bits the past 25 years, washing the rest of my interior, spraying my trunk with bedliner and maybe the firewall where the feet sit. After all of that, new carpet is in, seats go back in, still deciding or not to repaint my console yet. I need to research some more on prep work and a proper color. After everything is back in, im getting a custom made AC line, the previous one was burnt and finished. I'll be taking loads of pictures of that and it cost relatively cheap. I'll be doing a write up of that for all you guys that have no AC, then once the AC is finished its time to go to a local shop for an exhaust. Will be buying an apexi muffler and then getting full 3in stainless steel piping from end of my downpipe. After all of that which will be finished in the next two weeks the car will be a lot cleaner and the next thing to do is touch up some paint, maybe order some skirts and a lip. Find bits of odds and ends I need to replace like boost controller, bov, turbo, bushings and maybe my diff or tranny.

I'll be posting up some pictures soon of everything so far.

[R3b]

Alright so picture dump

Was on stands for a bit while wheels were getting powdercoated and sandblasted. Previous owner was dumb enough to plastidip them blue, spray paint over them with gold, then plastidip the white while the rim was still dirty. I hate these wheels so much and the place that did the sanding and powdercoating was a joke, had to bring the wheels back because I still saw rust after I stripped most of the wheel, and there was still left over plastidip inside the rim well. They just powdercoated over them....


Took out the majority of my interior while I was installing a short shifter and scrubbed everything by hand, replace cluster with leds when I fixing my speedo issue, and I decided to take out the carpet and clean it along with my seats.



25 year old worth of food, human farts, dirt, oil, crumbs, and other fluids where under the carpet. Probably the most disgusting thing ive done in awhile.







Amazing what some soap water, a toilet brush can do on a weekend after work.



Previous picture from owner, wish he would of sent me pictures before he painted it



Taking off a lot of these gay stance stickers soon





This was about two weeks ago, topped off the car with e85. Guy forgot to tell me he rom tuned it for e85 but I only filled a qaurter of a tank since I got it. I drove to a close station, flushed it, topped with e85 and brought my fuel pressure up and wow the difference is just amazing. Best thing is not having that heavy exhaust smell when driving because I have my windows down because no AC (finishing AC this weekend, hose comes in saturday) and running open downpipe. Found a local shop to do full exhaust and whatever muffler I bring in. Ordering an apexi ni muffler and the following week go get my exhaust.

Also by far my favoirte picture of my car