Fortuneka's KA Hatch

[Skylinechaos]

Hello Zilvia,

Having killed a lot of time in class reading these threads I have finally decided to start my own! I know some say that Zilvia is a dying forum, but I have learned so much on here that I figured Id maybe give back a little and add my 2 cents.

Some background: I started getting into s chassis in middle school and high school and I instantly knew that I had to have one. Watching old risky devil videos and option clips on youtube and reading build threads really inspired me to one day build and drift my own s13. Sure enough junior year rolled around and I bought my first car November 2 2015, a 1991 Nissan 240sx hatch. The car was straight out of the 240 missile crisis. Plastidiped matte grey, shot valve stem seals, gutted interior, welded diff it was a mess but it was rust free and had good bones which for a Chicago car says alot.






Being in high school and having a minimal budget I had to pick and choose my battles. First was replacing all of the cheap ebay parts, trying to get the car driving straight and restoring the interior.

Junk ebay wheel, hub and quick release



Put in a radio and speakers



Peeled of the dip to reveal the junk paint





Picked up some 26mm Z32 calipers from a buddy cause good brakes are never a bad thing



Heres the initial alignment specs with its bent tie rods



Being able to use my high school autoshop I decided to bite the bullet and pick up some parts so I could get it aligned before summer. So I bought rack bushings, Fortune auto prime coilovers, adjustable rucas, isr tension rods and isr inner and outer tie rods (do NOT buy these they stripped out and I ended up just buying some moog oem style). I also rebuilt and refinished the front calipers which I ended up shaving to fit my junk wheels










The local drag strip then decided that summer to hold some drift events on their skid pad so I decided to show off the fact that I couldnt drift a car for shit. I guess you only get better with practice. So I went to couple of those in the summer





Forgot to mention that I had bought some isr aluminum lug nuts that decided to strip on me which caused one of my front wheels to fall off. I figured it was a good time to go 5 lug so I bought some new hubs and 2 s14 wheels and swapped my front to 5 lug while I saved up the buy wheels for the rear.
I also had my water pump go out so I decided to do the whole cooling system. This included ISR hoses, Cxracing radiator and a couple speedhut gauges for water temp and oil pressure. I also found some s14 seats local and some black carpet.






Also had the same good buddy that sold me the calipers give me 1 17x9.5 +15 mb battle so I bought a 2nd and threw them on




Then bought 2 17x9 +22 cosmis s5r local for really cheap and swap the rear to 5 lug





Getting to be winter of 2016 I put the car away and picked up a daily, a 1998 Isuzu Trooper. I then pulled the subframe, put it in the back of the trooper and drove around with it in the back, slowly working on it when i had time.




Did stance subframe risers, Gktech gussets and some more adjustable arms (sorry about the obnoxious purple)







After throwing that together I was in my last semester of high school which meant I only had the spring left to work on my car in the auto shop. I decided that it was finally time to fix the oil burning and refresh the motor. This then snowballed into tubing the car, painting the bay etc. Learned how to do my first welds, learned how to use a plasma cutter and an angle grinder. It was a big ordeal but in the end it was worth it.











I think Ive hit the limit on pictures at think point so I will have to make a part 2. If anyone is actually reading this, thank you! Feel free to give some feedback or ask questions if you have them.

[Skylinechaos]

Ok I guess it got posted! I know its not the most exciting build but it means alot to me.
So I guess Ill continue,

Put in a corbeau fx1 pro and street faction seat mounts and a bash bar while it was down



Hooked up the hydro to an ASD with a MA motorsport mount




Had my good friend paint my bay LP2 (R33 midnight purple) at his shop.








Shit came out soooooooooo good
Engine wise bottom end made good compression so I did ARP studs, Supertech valve seals, New timing chain, New oil pump, Excessive Mounts, XTD 6 puck and all new gaskets.





Threw her in



Got it running



Then I threw on some Duraflex Type U aero that I had picked up 6 months prior and started driving it just in time for summer.





This brings me up to about summer of 2017. That summer I hit my first couple USAIR drift events. I progressed a ton and had a blast.





Picked up some Z wheels for some spares and polished the cosmis.



Ive always wanted some ganadors or east bears but those were definitely not in the budget so while I save up for those I put on some OEM E36 M3 sedan mirrors which fit almost perfect.



Late august I put the car away while I started my first semester in college and started to stock pile a few goodies...






Thats all for now, this brings me up to winter of 2017/2018. Sorry about all of the weird size pictures, I guess when I switched programs they changed sizes and Im not really sure how to fix this. That being said, I hope you enjoyed!

[Krusty_s13]

Looks promising dude!

[240sx_sr20det]

I like the E36 mirrors!!

[PoorMans180SX]

Love the midnight purple bay and the simplicity of things so far. Nice work.

[Skylinechaos]

Thanks guys for the kind words!
I guess I will continue.

That winter I picked up a couple more parts.

Got a used header



And picked up a type x wing locally for really good deal




Then on my birthday, April 1st I decided to drive my car down to school in Carbondale IL, about 5 hours and 450+ miles south. When I left it was 50 degrees in Chicago and 55 degrees in Carbondale, perfect. Well little did I know there was a huge blizzard for the 400 miles between and at the time my car had; no wipers, busted passenger window motor and no heat. On top of that I had Falken rt615s up front which had absolutely no grip in the cold. You can probably figure out how this story ends, ended up losing front grip at about 60ish mph and shot off the highway. Luckily the car made it out pretty much unscathed, the bumper eject it self but the rest made it out, even the skirts. I got towed out and the officer said there was only about 50 more miles of snow before it turned to rain, so foolishly believing him I kept going about 3 hours and 70 miles farther it was pitch black and still snowing with no plows so I abandoned my car behind a gas station and had my buddy pick me up. Ended up finishing the drive a few days later.




Well I made it down and tried figuring out how to work on the car living in the dorms. Did some little things here and there and ended up finding an abandoned dorm room and turned it into a body shop, whole floor smelled like bondo.






Ran an IFO in St.Louis which was bumpy as hell



Also used some of that fabric paint from autozone and painted the rear seats black



Car ended up making the drive back in May with no problems. Back in my driveway I was finally able to install some of my parts. Put on a cusco strut brace along with an angle kit from by a local guy, top notch mod This included front drop knuckles and 40mm LCAs, wayyyy more angle then ill ever use but I needed to fill out the new Origin 40mm fenders I had bought.










Ran some local events at USAIR, Autobahn raceway and Great lakes dragway








Got a ton of seat time and although the KA is kind of a dog, it makes you drive wayyy faster and aggressive and has been dumb reliable.

Got a chassis mount splitter kit from Kam Caldwell to protect my bumper and built V1 out of plywood




Pretty nifty idea even though the plywood didnt last long V2 might have to be out of some abs plastic.

After the events it was time for the car to go back into hibernation where it is currently. Ive got some parts already piling up for next year.

Got 2 17" cerbs which are getting 3.5" lips to make them 17x9.5 +14 and I am currently putting 4" lips on the rear to make them 18x10 +11 which will really push stock body.




Also scored a 4.63 ring and pinion from a real small Illinois farm town, I figured it was out of pathfinder but the guy told me he got it out of a European spec s15 where it was a factory option. Idk if its true but I guess its kind of cool if it is.



After rubbing the shit out of those new origin fenders I decided to get some bigger sway bars. After reading all the write ups on the I decided to get the big boy LARGUS bars so I sourced some from croooober.



Upon further inspection my rear upper control arms are smacking my frame rails too so I got some Voodoo billet ones which are a little angled for more clearance



Got a killer deal on a tomei manifold too so I had to pick that up. Not planing on boost anytime soon but ill take the good deals as they come.



Other then that Im gonna get another URAS style kit and GKtech drop knuckles to go a bit lower and fit these DUBs a little better. Also after 3 years I think its finally time for paint so trying to make that work before I hit another event. Other then that this is pretty much up to date, I left alot out, put in a new koyorad, Driveshaft shop one piece and some autocollect storm goodies and a bunch more but this is already boring enough so if youre still reading this, Thanks!

[Fuglychuki91]

i like this build alot man. what made you get those largus sway bars?

[koukizhang]

Always wondered what it would be like to have to work on my car while living in the dorms lmao. Good thing I waited until I had my own apartment.

[JrDarknes]

Man, my heart dropped seeing the car go off the road like that. Thankfully its okay haha. Nice progress man, loving that engine bay.

[fallen_51]

Like this so far ! Keep it up

[CamryOnBronze]

I can't imagine how scary it must have been driving that thing through a snow storm, haha. Glad you and the car are OK! Nice to see your progress despite being young. Way to be resourceful!

[Skylinechaos]

Originally Posted by Fuglychuki91

i like this build alot man. what made you get those largus sway bars?

Thanks! Honestly Im pretty sure theyre one of if not the biggest available for s13s so I figured being that stiff they might help me drift with the little power I have.

[Skylinechaos]

Originally Posted by koukizhang

Always wondered what it would be like to have to work on my car while living in the dorms lmao. Good thing I waited until I had my own apartment.

haha yeah it was a huge pain having to drive around everyday with my jack, tools and spare wheels in the car. Luckily got out of the dorms this year.

[koukizhang]

That's exactly how my car is right now. Don't have a garage for it yet. I keep my jack, jack stands, wood planks to drive on so I can get the jack under the car, and tool box in the trunk. It's a HUGE pain in the ass, but when there's a will there's a way lmfao.

[Fuglychuki91]

I feel you dude I’m in the same boat. That 4.6 r&p should wake the ka up some forsure. Something I’d definitely like to do in the future

[Skylinechaos]

Okay, so I did not abandon this thread lol, I was just waiting until after spring break to make a post so I could actually document some progress.

So this past week over break, I was finally able to install some of the parts that Ive been stockpiling in my room since I last drove the car in August (this has been the longest Ive ever gone without driving it, screw winter.)
Was able to put on the mooneyes faceplace on my USDM cluster because JDM didnt end up working right



Put on the Largus Bars which look crazy compared to the stock




Was also able to test fit the Cerbs with the new lips



The 18x10 +11 are suuuuper close to fitting, when the tires are on its about 2mm from being able to be put on the ground. Being this close I figured that getting rid of my gktech dual caliper bracket which spaces the hub out 7mm would be enough to get them to fit so I saved up a little and bought the gktech rear drop knuckles




This knuckles ended up doing the opposite of what I wanted. With my new voodoo13 RUCAs maxxed in, the wheel looks like it only has maaaaaybe -1 degree of camber meaning that the wheel is now really far from clearing. Im guessing these knuckles are more catered towards donkei style FD machines but my NA KA doesnt give a shit about mid corner grip and now I have to figure out a way to get the wheels back near -4 degrees which means I will probably end up removing the RUCA lock nuts.
Even when I get these to fit I probably wont be able to spin em so I picked up some 18x9.5 +30 WMB CRKais as spares.



Switch around some wheels and put the junk aero on for shits and giggles






Rear still needs to go lower but if you noticed, I added a few dress up goodies like a new HIC roof wing, brand new type x tails and a pair of new raybrig blue H4 headlights




Also did a little welding in my driveway and got rid of the antenna hole and the rear marker lights




Decided to also clean up some of my junk wiring that I did in high school and redid my gauge wiring and finally wired my fans to 2 relays. I tucked a little fuse box behind the radio with accessory on
power feeding from the cigarette lighter to the gauges and to the trigger for the fans (nothing was tucked yet in the pic). Also added a little fuse box in the back right off the battery for the fan power and anything else I might add in the future such as an external relay for the fuel pump.



The new wiring meant I could finally replace my amazon fans with some nice mishimoto race fans that absolutely rip



Also picked up a new HKS Hi Power because my last one has a few holes in it and I need to quiet down the not so appealing sound of the NA KA. Did some very important engine mods too with the burstspeed reservoir covers.




Other then that, still need to order a new kit and paint it before driving it up to Final Bout Gallery (waaaaay not cool enought to drive FB, just to spectate). Also need to build the front cerbs when a certain company finally sends me my correct lips and install the 4.6. Thanks for reading!

[Dolph_KYAS13]

Solid progression of the car in this thread. Good Job

[RedSnow]

really enjoyed reading your build thread, easy to read and not overly lengthy! Love it! Look forward to see you update again.

[S14Serge]

Loving how your s13 is coming out!

[brndck]

see THIS is how you develop a car! suspension, seat time, and worry about power later!
I like it!!!

[Se3p_Steez]

WOW!! I think this is one of the best builds I've ever seen

[Skylinechaos]

Thank you everybody for the kind words! I'm just trying to progress with my car rather then have to build myself up to the cars level. I still feel like I can drive harder and more aggressive with the power level now but I've been piecing together a turbo kit for when I feel that I've reached the next level.

[Skylinechaos]

So its been a few months and the car has come a long way so I guess its time for an update.

I ended up fixing my gktech drop knuckle situation by removing a RUCA lock nut and just bottoming it out, I sits me at around -5 degrees of camber in the rear which is just enough to fit the 18x10 cerbs. I also replaced my tension rods with some nicer ones from voodoo13 just because I feel they have alot stronger of a design and I like how they brace the LCA. Ended up re-aligning it and getting the 17in cerbs rebuild just in time for final bout gallery.





I threw on a new exhaust and hangar and drove the car the 4 hours up to gallery to spectate as my shakedown for the rest of the year. Unfortunately the car still wasn't painted but I still had a lot of fun going up with my buddies to see some of the most beautiful drift cars in the world.






I got back from Final Bout and bought a ticket for Dday 101 for the end of the month. Also decided to tint the car and it gets insanely hot in the car at all times (also cause it looks way cooler). went with 15% all around and have already been pulled over for it twice .




Drove 101 and it was a blast but I decided at that point that I wouldn't run another drift event until the car was one color so the day after I got back I started sanding.




Ended up spending way too long sanding and filling and after a letter from the HOA I decided I wasnt happy with how I was prepping the car so I decided to hand it off to a good buddy of mine who ended up sanding off all of my bondo and metal worked the quarter panels out.







The quarters and doors were really the only parts of the car I really wanted perfect as the rest of the car was mostly fiberglass that is pretty disposable and honestly only last about a year or so the way I drive.



After 4 years I finally took up my friends offer and had him paint my car. To be completely honest I had seen it multi colored for so long that I couldn't even picture what the car would look like one color. I went with Ford Magnetic Metallic on the body with Ferrari Nerro Daytona for the roof. It came out way better then I had ever imagined and we finished final assembly about 8 hours before I had to drive up to drive Rio Bash all weekend at USAIR.












Rio Bash ended up being the best event I've ever driven, the people and the whole atmosphere was so welcoming and Its amazing to see the legacy that Jake has left on drifting as a whole.

Car performed absolutely flawless as well, I drove the living shit out of it and got really comfortable tandeming with a few of my higher powered friends. Also decided that the wall needed a little more color so kissed that not even 24hrs after final assembly. Beat the car both saturday and sunday and still drove it the 4 hours home marking the 6th time Ive driven this car round trip to USAIR and the 5th event Ive driven it at that track.







Overall, Im super happy with the car, since Ive owned it I have put around 30k+ miles on it, I drive it everywhere (has a better sound system then my daily). Its driven 15+ events and It has never once broken down on me and has never been on a trailer (even pushed it to the body shop when I got the bay painted). So naturally with a car this reliable, Its time to fuck it up and put the kas 30 year old rod bearings to the test (I am completely aware that boosting an NA motor old ends one way). This fall Ill be driving the car down to school again (hopefully not it a blizzard) and ill be putting so go fast bits on it that I've been piecing together, s15 t28, Tomei mani, PBM cobra DP, Megasquirt, Radium fuel rail, etc. I only want 250hp max but like I said, we will see how long the ticking time bomb lasts and Ill update the progress right here. Thanks for reading.

[CamryOnBronze]

Car looks awesome painted- glad you are getting to enjoy it a bit!

[tuzzio]

Man, this car rules. Don't destroy it.

[brndck]

HELL yeah!!! looks sick with fresh paint!

[RedSnow]

Looks really good! Gives me hope that mine will be done at some point as well

[Skylinechaos]

So I guess Ill pick up where I left off in August of 2019.

I street drove the car 6 hours down to school with no issues except for my shoe melting to the floor board.





Then after a couple weeks of dailying it to class, I made the trip to St.Louis a couple hours to drive Import Face Off and did my 1st tandem competition where my 150hp KA went one more time with a crazy 2JZ Caged thing and eventually lost.





In my attempts to make it a better street car I decided to piece together and add A/C which was harder then expected due to all the wires being cut by the previous owner




Spend the rest of the fall doing other drive ability things, B&M shifter to replace the ebay one that kept falling apart and GKtech RUCAs cause the voodoo ones kept slicing my axles (psa: voodoo RUCAs dont place nice with drop knuckles).





My buddy made a recap of the summer and some driving if anyone cares to watch here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZP9cEQ1uj8&t=54s

After doing some streeting and putting some more miles on it I finally came to the realization that the NA KA just wasnt super exciting anymore and that it really didnt get my adrenaline going so around thanksgiving I decided it was time to inject the 30 year old motor with some boost and see if I could make the bearings do somersaults.

Brief rundown of the turbo kit:
-Tomei Cast Manifold
-S15 BB T28
-PBM Cobra Flex Downpipe
-Radium Fuel Rail
-Deatschwerks 550cc Injectors
-Megasquirt PNP2
-Fuel Lab FPR
-Walbro 255

The KA felt super healthy so I figured an 8psi simple set up would be enough to wake it up a little and maybe hopefully be reliable enough to keep chuggin for at least a year or so while I saved to maybe build another block on the side.







A pic of the T from the heater hose that feed the water lines if anyone is looking to do something similar, I just used a dirt bike water temp sensor adapter and barb fitting to attach it to the -6 line



So pluged everything in and started it on stock ecu to make sure everything mechanical was good and it was perfect but when I would switch to the megasquirt in would just crank and crank. After about a month of diagnosing intermittent cam angle sensor signals (Swaping multiple CAS and multiple Megasquirt trigger wheels) I was able to pin it down to a crusty ground that mustve been good enough for the stock ECU but just bad enough for the MS to go crazy. So I pulled the crusty old harness and placed my order for a new Wiring Specialties PRO Harness for my set up. (You can see in the log how inconsistent the spark signal was).




During the month and a half of waiting for the harness I decided to buy a welder and stitch weld the chassis before dressing the whole car with new noico ound detoning.






Being the idiot that I am I guess I didnt get all of the foam out of the quarter panel so one ended up catching on fire on literally my last weld and melted the fresh paint on the quarter panel




Past that I was able to get a fresh single cam carpet to replace the shitty aftermarket one and also got a new Nardi Blue Stitch Wheel to freshen up the interior.




Then Finally, the new wiring harness came in and just as expected the thing fired right up. Then went on my 1st drive boosting to about 8psi and it felt phenomenal. Megasquirt is also super user friendly and a buddy and I were able to dial in a good conservative street tune to have a little fun. Butt dyno at this point felt around 220-230hp which isnt the fastest thing in the world but wayyyyy better then the 130hp I was used to. The S15 Turbo also spool ridiculously fast but died off along with the stock S14 Cams around 6k pretty hard.



Then COVID happened and I went home for spring break and never went back to school so being still snowy and gross outside in Chicago I wanted to trailer the 240 back home but I had nothing to do it with so I sold my trusty daily driver Acura TL and Picked up a 2008 Cadillac Escalade ESV and hauled everything back up.




Back up in Chicago I was able to spend some time working on little things to finish up the turbo set up and fixed some dash wiring as well, unfortunately I dont have a garage at home so progress was a little slow but I drove it everywhere when the weather allowed.



My ol trusty XTD Stage 3 clutch also started slipping after 3+ years 30+ miles and 10+ drift events so swapped it out with a competition clutch white bunny 6 puck. Also tried combating the power dying off up top with a set of Tomei 270 Poncams that I was able to score locally. I built an axle back section for the HKS us well just ho be a bit more obnoxious and also to get the tips to actually stick out the back of the bumper.





Cams picked up some top end but also sacrificed some low end torque which was expected. I can tell they definitely flowed more cause full throttle in 2nd and 3rd especially, would boost creep to 12psi ish. These things also loped super hard which had me worried about a boost leak or something.

https://youtu.be/lfrBUF7Giho

Did a boost leak test and found some huge ones, one of them being the pcv lines that go from the block to the intake manifold, again, being the idiot that I am I blocked off the nipples on the intake manifold and routed the block pcv to a catch can that vented to atmosphere. What I really did though is create a system that never let PCV out of the crankcase because that stock valve never saw vacuum and therefore never opened to let the vapors out. One week later she blew a hole on the piston skirt and blew the ringland and thats the end of that.

Pull of the hurt KA 20 Seconds before its demise:
https://youtu.be/ev5UCRv1bJI

Its Demise:
https://youtu.be/mLf9pkWUaFc

I got a good 3 months and 3k miles of it turbo and honestly with all the Covid stuff happening it was perfect timing as I wont be missing any events while I build the motor.




Ill make another update soon about the motor itself as its going back in next week but Im pretty excited that the block and crank were all fine and that I can build this particular motor as its been with me for almost 5 years now and 30k+ miles. She a trooper and wouldve gone farther if I wasnt an idiot but its coming back way stronger so that this time I can make some real pwer and blow the trans.

[andisan]

If you don?t mind me asking about how much did it cost you to boost you?re KA? I?ve been wondering, maybe want to do it to my KA

Nice updates


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[projectsupra]

This build is incredible, such amazing progression!
I wish someone would turn this into a movie.