LuckyX2's S13 SR Build

[LuckyX2]

Most useful posts in the thread:
PART 2 OF THE INITIAL POST
NEW SHELL MEGA-UPDATE W/ ENGINE BUILD
VE FUEL MAPS TPS/MAP
TUNING A LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL
TWIN SCROLL EFR7163 ARRIVAL

Build Summary:

Drivetrain:
SR20DET redtop
GT2871r .64
10.5:1 ceramic coated JE pistons with moly skirts
Manley rods
Clevite rod and main bearings
Micropolished crank
Hand ported head
Jim Wolf S3 260 degree cams with JW cam gears
Solid lifters
Supertech dual springs
Supertech titanium retainers
Supertech valve guides and seals
Cometic MLS headgasket
Greddy RAS
Injector Dynamics ID1000's
Walbro E85 400LPH fuel pump
Tomei FPR
Greddy FMIC
Greddy Type RS BOV
LS2 truck ignition coils
3" exhaust
Lowered poly engine mounts
Act 6-puck sprung clutch
Nismo GT new style 20 clutch LSD
All tuned by myself on a Haltech Platinum Sport 1000

Suspension:
Ohlins PCV 450F/350R
Full Geomaster 2 setup
Adjustable RUCAs, RLCAs, FLCAs, tie rods, tension rods and toe rods
Aluminum steering bushing
Tanabe Sustec front sway bar
Removed rear sway bar (possibly Whiteline on the softest setting in the future or stock)
Defsport Wilwood 12.2" 4-piston front brake kit with E compound pads
Altima rear rotors and Hawk HPS+ pads
1" Z32 master cylinder
SS brake lines
SPL solid subframe bushings
5 lug Ichiba front hubs with OEM bearings
5 lug Z32 TT 31 spline rear hubs
Q45/R32/Z32 TT 6x1 bolt 31 spline rear axles
03 Mustang Cobra replica wheels 17x9 +25 all around
255/40/17 BFG Rivals

Other:
Cobra Suzuka
Suede Nardi Deep Corn
Nismo leather shift knob
Generic short shifter
Prosport Oil, boost, AFR gauges
LC-1 Wideband
Haltech electronic boost solenoid
JDM cluster with converted 180MPH speedo and 9k tach
Battery relocation w/ Deka lightweight Battery

Future Plans:
GTi-R ITBs (Bought, just waiting to install)
2nd gen mixed flow twin scroll EFR 7163 (ORDERED!)
VE head if I get a good deal and feel motivated
Z32 trans since I'll probably break my stock one at some point
Get it back on the dyno to tune it again once the engine is "finalized"
Redo my IC piping for a shorter path
Partial cage
275mm+ Hoosiers
Cosmetic stuff (Finish the Kouki conversion, paint, etc.)
Dominate the SCCA Street Mod class?

Hello everyone!
I thought I'd put together a build thread finally since I'm getting towards the end of college and starting to have enough money to fix it up right. Also, it will help keep me motivated to do good work knowing that the vigilant eyes of Zilvia are watching.

My goals for this car are to have a responsive 350-400whp, make it light and make it very well handling. Basically I would like an all around fun "driver's car" that will be at home on the track/strip but still see significant street time.

I've been around the 240 scene since summer 09 when I graduated high school and picked one up to go along side my DD, a Volvo S70




So here's the 240 coming off the tow truck


Here's the reason why I needed to tow it. It came like this...


A valve popped loose, and the previous owner got fed up mid repair so he sold it to me for $3500. What I got for that price was the car (obviously), an SR20DET with an S15 turbo, Koyorad radiator, Greddy FMIC, Greddy Type-RS BOV, Greddy turbo timer, an incomplete "Freddy" manifold full 3" exhaust, ACT 6 puck clutch, ISIS short shifter, Nismo slave cylinder, z32 VLSD with 4.6 final, Megan coilovers, Q45 Brakes, z32 maf, 550cc injectors, a "tuned" SAFC II and an extra set of cheap-o wheels that I sold for like $300. Pretty sweet for $3500...

The interior was nice and clean too


I tore out everything in the rear though, who needs that?


I decided I wanted more power than an sr could provide so I bought this baby and its 1.6L of Honda fury!


Actually... that was for my girlfriend's civic whose piston blew through the side of the block. So yeah, I just got to work putting the head back together with some new goodies. I figured while it was all apart I should port it a bit, solid lifters, Supertech dual springs/retainers, new guides, new seals, new valves, Greddy RAS, Tomei Poncams; ya know, do it right. Here are the cams, lifters and adjustable gears which I later exchanged for Jim Wolf gears which do not have sliders that can break free and ruin valves.


Here you can see how I ground down the slight lip under the valve seat which reduced the area of the opening for the valve.


Here you can see how I ground down the casting marks.


And here you can see how I just generally smoothed things out and brought the divider in the middle of each runner to more of a point.


Finally, it was time to assemble it all which was very tricky since I wasn't the one who took it apart. I could now do it blindfolded though, considering how many times I have had to take this thing apart...


All done!


I took it out for a quick drive with my dad but it turns out we forgot to tighten the three downpipe bolts and it worked it's way loose about a mile down the road next to a corn field.


Rather than accept fate and call a tow truck I got inventive and shoved a corn cob above my muffler. Pressing the muffler down brought the downpipe up because of the exhaust hanger in the middle. Think "see-saw"


And here's some rust in the footwell I found shortly after. I have a growing rust problem that I have yet to properly take care of but I'm about to buy an angle grinder and mig welder so it's all getting cut out, welded over and painted soon.



Next on my list was some under-dash wiring for some new gauges including oil pressure, boost, wideband and a failed attempt to install a little 52mm tach since the sohc tach in mine doesn't work with the SR. Also notice my new leather nismo shift knob to replace the pos Autozone one that came with the car and most importantly the Haltech Platinum Sport 1000 ECU that I would be tuning myself.


Got a new tubular manifold, Nismo FPR and z32 BMC too


I also decided now that I had the Haltech, that I'd run LS2 truck coils because they're awesome and I can



I tuned this all myself on a side street for a few days off and on and then on a dyno for an hour. AFR's were pretty much rock solid under boost and I managed 293whp/299tq on a hot (94F) day. Pretty good for an s15 turbo so I was proud of my tuning job. Plus I could tell my little bit of porting work helped too since my s15 turbo could barely flow enough to hold 14psi. My engine was really sucking in some air and the turbo couldn't keep up.


Well that's enough writing for now. The story of my numerous valve issues, suspension goodies and a gt2871/S3 cams/Freddy manifold upgrade are coming up next

[future]

Nice job on the numbers! Idk abiut buying it for 3500 though. Sounds like alot for a car missing the head

[LuckyX2]

Thanks! I haven't yet dyno tuned my gt2871 so I'm excited to see what I can do with that.
Not like I'd be able to dyno it anyway with my crappy all-season tires I have for it now. It was spinning them so badly back when I dynoed the s15 that my first few pulls before the tires warmed up were coming out as under 150whp lol.
I'm not sure if I ever got the wheelspin under control actually. See two plots on there? The blue one was in 3rd gear and I suspected it was spinning the tires so I went for a more gradual 4th gear pull and put down another 20whp/20tq (red) over 3rd. Nice, grippy tires on some good wheels are next on my to-do list then I'm gonna hit the dyno once more.

Just to clarify, it came with the head but one rocker and valve was busted. So it was a complete engine, ready to run after reassembly.
And I just added to the description almost $2k of stuff that I forgot came with the car when I was writing it like Megan coilovers, Nismo slave cylinder, ACT 6 puck and an extra set of cheap wheels.

[2stepGoesPowPow]

nice, you're basically at your limit now since the s15 T28 maxes out at 300hp?, also 3500 is a little much, i paid 3700 for my 91 SE hatch sr swapped & i don't know much about LS2 coils how hard is it to swap stock coils for LS2? and were talking LS2 as in the V8 motor rite? And that is the nismo Type B fuel press rite?

[LuckyX2]

Yeah, I was being limited by the turbo pretty severely (could barely hold 14psi) but that's since been remedied with a gt2871. I'm actually a decent bit further along with the car than I've written so far. I'll update it soon.

And really? It came with like 10k of stuff... The guy had the receipts to prove it too. Yea, iirc that's the type b that I have.
As for the coils, if you can solder than you can install the coils. You basically just need to cut the igniter chip out and solder the wires that were going into the igniter chip to the corresponding wires on the coils.
You're going need your ECU retuned accordingly then too since the dwell time on these is different. (5ms I believe) For me with the Haltech however, it was as simple as clicking the dwell time box, typing in 5 and saving it.

Yes, these are the GM V8 coils. More specifically they are the truck variant found on Hummers/Yukons/Denalis and are more capable. You can tell the difference between the two by the presence of a heatsink; the truck ones have one and the regular ones do not.

Here's some really good info on the coils and is what I followed to install them. This and the FSM to figure out the igniter chip wires should be all you need.
Megasquirt Sequencer Coils

[2stepGoesPowPow]

Thanks for all the info, I'm actually ordering my 2871 rite now

[Hoffman5982]

How was an s15 T28 barely able to hold 14psi? There are hundreds of people with that turbo running 18psi no problem

[LuckyX2]

No prob, good luck.

And as great as the gt2871 is for SR's you may want to save up a little bit more and wait a bit to see how the gtx2867 does. That should put out more power and spool faster too but nobody has proven this on a dyno yet as far as I know.

I know I'll be considering selling my gt2871 and getting a gtx2867 once there are some user reviews and I've taken care of other things on my car first.

Hoffman5982:
I know I wrote a lot so it's easy to miss but I hypothesized this came down to my porting. Suppose my porting was good, that means my engine was flowing more air and thus the turbo would have to flow more to maintain the same pressure vs a stock head. Also I had solid lifters shimmed very tight and poncams; that combination brings about a lot of lift which means more flow and yet again, makes it harder for the turbo to keep up.

The reason I suspect you have not seen other people run into this problem is because these modifications are generally reserved for higher power setups. I mean, how many people have you seen go through the trouble of solid lifters and porting just for a small s15 turbo? That's usually reserved for setups with big turbos that have the capability to flow more and thus it goes unnoticed.

Then again it could have just been my wastegate blowing open lol. But I highly doubt that since the shop I was dynoing at happened to have an adjustable preload wastegate off of a gt2871 that I swapped over. I put that one on, tightened it up for a lot of preload pressure and it still had the same problem keeping up. So I'm gonna put my money on it being caused by increased head-flow

[Tommy]

I like what you did with the corn. Did you notice a popcorn trail in your rear mirror driving back home? haha nice build btw

[va240dude]

Looks good man. I like it when people who know what they're doing take another person's mistake and turn it around! Will definitely stay tuned for more of the progress!

[LuckyX2]

Nope but I kept the cob so it's all dried out now and ready for popping...

And thanks, I'm glad to be getting some watchers. I think I have some good things planned

[HPKMotorsports3]

So how much power are you planning in getting with that 1.6L lol... Nice work on the head...

[LuckyX2]

Oh you know, I rigged up a special mani, gonna be running 4 gt30's on it, one for each exhaust port. Figured I'll be at 40psi by 3000rpm and making 2000hp or so at 15000rpm...

Thank you, it was quite tedious with a dremel and damn did my hand hurt afterwards but I think it was worth it.

And another thought on why I was only holding 14psi... It was pretty hot out and thus the air is less dense, less dense air means my turbo would be sucking in less air molecules per some time duration compared to colder weather over the same time duration and less molecules being forced into my engine means less pressure. I almost wish I still had the s15 setup just to see what I could have done with it on a cold day and tires that would grip the rollers better.

[josh_schul]

Nice save on someone elses old project man. Plans look solid and that head port looks well executed for a mild port.

Sub'd

[S14Serge]

Cool idea on the ls coils

[HPKMotorsports3]

Originally Posted by LuckyX2

Oh you know, I rigged up a special mani, gonna be running 4 gt30's on it, one for each exhaust port. Figured I'll be at 40psi by 3000rpm and making 2000hp or so at 15000rpm...

Thank you, it was quite tedious with a dremel and damn did my hand hurt afterwards but I think it was worth it.

lol i know what you mean i used a wiz wheel fitted with scotch brite pads to sand my rims and holy shit i could barely grip my steering wheel when driving home from work... but it was worth it lol

[LuckyX2]

Originally Posted by HPKMotorsports3

lol i know what you mean i used a wiz wheel fitted with scotch brite pads to sand my rims and holy shit i could barely grip my steering wheel when driving home from work... but it was worth it lol

Yeah, that's rough too. Another hard one was cutting off bumper supports on my friend's AE86 with a cheap saws-all. My arms were jello that night haha.

Originally Posted by S14Serge

Cool idea on the ls coils

Thanks, not quite my idea but I guess I am one of the few people who have done it.

Originally Posted by josh_schul

Nice save on someone elses old project man. Plans look solid and that head port looks well executed for a mild port.

Sub'd

Cool, thanks for the kind words

[LuckyX2]

Alright so here goes part two of my initial post... I'll try and fit everything in here up until the point the car is today.

So first off. I had some bad machine work done when the engine was going together originally I was going to shim everything myself but at the recommendation of my dad I went with a machine shop. Turns out they wasted practically my whole summer that year on my head and then charged some ridiculous price for their work. This is what happened shortly after their work and not due to any fault of mine, I was simply highway cruising at 3000-3500rpm



So I did what any car enthusiast would do and took things breaking as an opportunity to upgrade! Here you can see me test fitting my Jim Wolf S3 cams


And also, since I was disappointed with my little s15 turbo and its ability to hold a good pressure; I sold my s15 turbo, picked up a gt2871 used along with some shiny new lines and turned the fuel pressure up on my 550's, making them essentially 640's.



This time I built and shimmed it myself... So much engine bay room!


Everything was good with that setup for a while but I figured I'd try and put on the Freddy manifold I've had lying around since I bought the car. While it was all out I decided to wrap the exhaust manifold too. Oh and don't worry, shortly after I got rid of my valve cover "breather" and rigged it up better with a catch can and suction from the intake.

The most annoying part of getting this on was cutting the intercooler piping. Oh and the IACV coolant lines didn't line up right so I wound up just plugging them. The car idles rough in the cold now but whatever, race cars don't need to idle well I'll probably fix that later down the road but it's not really a big concern.

So yeah, that basically brings me to how the engine is now. This but with the breather fixed like I had said. Oil dripping on a hot exhaust is a no-no...


Woo-hoo, engine's built! Now let's get to suspension!

Ooooh, shiny The RUCAs wound up not fitting though. They're supposed to be the dual s13/s14 style but there was a mix up somewhere along the line

Here's the s13 style ones I replaced them with and you can clearly see the difference in clearance for the coilover.


Got some Tanabe sway bars for both front and rear along with some new endlinks. One of the stock endlinks in the rear was literally snapped and the rear bar was doing nothing

Here you can see the front sway and tension rod. I don't have a picture of the rear though since I didn't get the RUCA's on that day due to the s13/s14 mixup.


A little later on I was having some trouble with blowing fuses and my taillights and I found this to be the culprit which I promptly fixed.


Ew, go away rust! can't wait to get my grinder and a mig...

So that's pretty much where I am today. Here's a more recent interior picture with my gauges and a bubble knob I won in a contest lol, I was feeling festive... Merry Christmas from my 240!

Don't worry though, I still primarily use my nice, leather Nismo knob

And finally, a little sneak peak into the future... I just bought these bad boys! Along with z32 uprights for the rear.



I am SUPER excited to replace the Megans that came with my car with a real, track-ready setup like this. Here are the details:

"Front:
veilside180sx front s13 housings
Koni 8611-1257 Race shocks (Double adjustable)
Hypercoil 8"x 2.5 x450lb springs
T3 Camber plates
T3 Camber plate upper hat system (Camber Plate Upper Hat System consists of 2 upper hats, 2 hardened washers, 2 needle bearings and two upper race washers.)
GC hardware
Coil over thrust bearings (bearing under springs)

Rear:
veilside180sx rear s13 housings
Koni 8611-1257 Race shocks (Double adjustable)
Hypercoil 8"x 2.5 x350lb springs
Tein upper mount
GC hardware
Coil over thrust bearings (bearing under springs)"


Only problem here though is that I'm waiting to put all my new suspension/brake parts on at once. No point in putting these coilovers on while I'm still running 195 all-season tires on steelies, ya know? I just got a new job so my first paycheck there is like a month out but when I get that I'll be putting the finishing touches on the suspension. I'm looking at z32/wilwood/350/Evo brakes (not sure which I'll go with yet and it largely depends upon what's for sale at the time), 5 lug conversion, some nice 17x9.5 wheels all around (rpf-1s maybe?) with 245/40/17 tires, a healthy amount of pull on the fenders and a touch of camber.

So yeah, updates will be slow for the next month or so until the paychecks start flowing in but please, let's keep the discussion going until then.

[2stepGoesPowPow]

Hah, "So I did what any car enthusiast would do and took things breaking as an opportunity to upgrade!"thats exactly what I'm doing by going gt28, i also plan on getting the same cams. How is your car running now? Psi? Tune?

[LuckyX2]

Car is running great now and I actually get 30+ mpg on the highway with my current setup And it feels great too but not any faster than my s15 setup since I'm severely traction limited for now. With 195 all-seasons, I just make a lot of smoke and go nowhere

I haven't gotten on the dyno yet because of my tiny tires and also because I'm contemplating building the bottom end and/or getting a gt2867. So I figured I'd wait and tune it once more rather than possibly twice more. I tune it myself on my Haltech, if you haven't caught that.

I'm running about 18psi for now on my tune I've put together gradually on the street. I'll be going for 20-22psi when I get it setup right on a dyno. The fueling is good judging from my wideband and logs but there's no way to extract all the power I can from it until I get on a dyno.

[2stepGoesPowPow]

I just noticed i got my S13 last summer from your area haha, i drove 100 miles to allentown/bethlehem to get my 240

[LuckyX2]

Ah, so it's you New Yorkers that made it hard for me to find a good one!

[2stepGoesPowPow]

Yep i got lucky and got my S13 Hatch SE No Rust rite before the end of summer & Polished RPF1's Would look dope , I plan on getting 17x9-9 rota grids b/c i cut afford TE37's . & what waste gate are you using on the 2871? I'm about to order an hks actuator.

[LuckyX2]

I'm just using a stock adjustable that's preloaded pretty heavy. So sorry, no experience with the hks unit. I'd like to go external eventually but that's down the road.

[driftsucky]

You R.I.T. kids are always taking something simple and building the ish out of it. lol. I love that. Car is looking good. I'm kinda surprised that you haven't had a local build thread where everyone calls your car stupid and slow (cuz that's typically the trend for some reason). Good luck with it all. Hopefully I'll see you around sometime once the weather warms up...permanently

[LuckyX2]

I guess that's just what we engineers do I'm a computer engineer though strange enough.

So actually, I'm the president/founder of RIT's car club. We're planning a car show at the end of April, I'll make sure to let you know more as we get closer. Hopefully, I'll see you there. And do you know any other RIT students on here? I've met ZX88, but that's it.

[Functiontheory]

i cant belive im going to say this but i like your volvo... good luck on the 240 build your off to a good start.

[LuckyX2]

Haha, thanks man. Yea, it doesn't quite fit the grocery getter image of your average Volvo. It's no slouch in the performance department either. Intake, exhaust manifold, 16t and a tune bring the 2.5L I5 right to about 225-250whp and I've got some sticky Nitto NT-05's on the OZ's, IPD lowering springs and IPD sways. Handles pretty well for a 3000lbs+ car. Too bad it's automatic tho...

[Big Zee]

which megans did you have ? whats the differnce in spring rates ?
nice build so far, keep up the good work

[LuckyX2]

Originally Posted by Big Zee

which megans did you have ? whats the differnce in spring rates ?
nice build so far, keep up the good work

To be honest, I'm not sure... I thought I had the street series ones but when I ordered a replacement damper for one a while back, it didn't fit. But my new rates will be 450/350, I can tell you that much.

And thank you