VinnyJDM's S13 Hatch Drift Build

[vinnyjdm]

Sup Zilvia! Hope you like my build! Car is a KA-T built strictly for drifting.

Special thanks to Ken at Enjuku Racing. Bought almost all of the parts for this build through Enjuku.
& Special thanks to my neighbor David (Zilvia name: dreimers) for being my parter with this entire project!

I picked up this 1990 240sx Hatch rolling chassis in July 2014 for a pretty fair price. Being from Illinois, it's hard to come by a rust free 240, so I when I found this without a single spec of rust I knew it was the car. Not to mention, the car came with all Megan suspension, a really high quality roll cage, a welded diff, a hydraulic e-brake, and was 5 lug converted. It's the SE model non-sunroof (perfect for drifting!) but the car came completely gutted. Got an auto check report and learned that the car was originally from Arizona and spent most of it's life in California. The original color was white. The roll cage, hydro, & diff was done by a shop in Indiana called Neukin (before I purchased it.)






So the original plan was to just get the car running ASAP. So I was just going to through a stock KA in it and drive it & enjoy the summer. Then I thought.... welll since my last drift car had an SR I should keep the option open to turbo charge the motor. Which involved taking care of it a bit.

My neighbor about 10 houses down has a 100,000 mile 1995 S14 that he decided to SR swap, so I bought his KA.



Pulled the motor out!



Decided to lightly freshen up the motor, so I bought felpro: head gasket, valve cover/spark plug gaskets, front & rear main seals, fuel rail insulators and a few misc gaskets. Also got ARP head studs. (Wish I got a metal head gasket instead but the felpro is rated for 400whp and my power goal is 300WHP)

..Anyway, got the motor on a stand and started cleaning everything up. Used a wire brush to get all of the loose grime/surface rust off the block.



A lot of degreaser, a hose, and a wire brush to try to get it as clean as possible before paint!



Got a lot of engine paint and primer to get the motor/trans looking fresh before it went in the shell!


Head is off and the painting starts!


Headgasket, head studs, and misc gaskets all installed and motor painted!


Got a little further putting the motor together, painted the pulleys & the fuel rail w/ Metalcast Anodized Blue! Took the intake manifold apart because I'm deleting all of the extra bullshit from in between it! Not running any heat or AC on it because the plan is just track time & occasional shows/meets


Motor pretty much completely together! Decided to go with the OBX Lightweight Pulley kit to free up some extra revs Kept the OEM Crank Pulley. Also got a Borg Warner Distributor Cap & Rotor from Pep Boyz. You can see I finished painting my transmission as well (behind the motor)

I got the valve cover sandblasted at a local blasting company and painted it with duplicolor metal cast anodized purple


Bought a Competition Stage 3 White Bunny Clutch Kit from Enjuku and got it installed! (350z Competition stage 3 clutch w/ Competition skyline pressure plate) Throw out bearing was a bitch and a half to replace.



Used a hose, soap, and degreaser to clean out the engine bay before dropping in the motor.


Dropping in the motor! You can also see I got a -10an Earls Oil Return Bung welded onto the oil pan for the turbo line! Got it welded at a shop nearby that does all my welding work for me
Also got the Circuit Sports Engine & Trans mounts brand new! If you look hard you can also see that I upgraded my steering rack bushings with Energy Suspension.


Motor successfully in the car! Also picked up this Origin Stylish front bumper. Still deciding whether to keep it or go with an Origin Aggressive kit instead..


Decided to completely skip the NA KA idea and go straight to turbo. Picked up this ISIS turbo setup with an RS3871 Turbo, V2 manifold, and the turbo elbow. I also got a Circuit Sports oil filter relocation kit as well (to run the oil feed line to the turbo)


Decided on the setup I wanted to run and snagged these Deatschwerks 550cc injectors.


The hydro e-brake wasn't setup for where I wanted to mount it, and was looking a little ratchet so I took it apart painted it and sold it to a buddy. Now I have a Powered By Max Hydro setup with a wildwood cylinder.. i'll show pics of that later


Went on a little part buying spree!
Got my tune from Martin at RS-Enthalpy ECU & Jumper harness since it's an S14 KA going in an S13 Chassis (for z32 maf, 93 octane fuel, RS3871 Turbo, Stock Cams, & Deatschwerks 550cc Injectors)
Got an Origin 3D GT Wing, a Tial Q's Blow Off Valve, A Nardi Steering Wheel w/ NRG Quick Release setup, AEM Digital Boost Gauge, AEM Digital Wideband Gauge, an OMP 6 Pole Master Kill Switch, & Moroso Rocker Switches for the switch panel I'm going to make inside! Aerocatch Locking Hood Pins (Since the car doesn't have the OEM core support this is the only way to lock my hood!)



Since the car came completely gutted, I started piecing together all the interior that I wanted to put back into the car, which is just going to be a dash, seats, and a center console! But the interior I got is is CLEAN! Also got a Sparco Speed II Bucket Seat



So the previous owner of the car was extremely tall and decided to cut out the drivers side seat bar that is spot welded to the floorboard, and he hammered down the cat hump so the floor was flat(ish). I am not tall, and my seat brackets bolt to the stock setup, so I got that bar cut out of someones car and decided to to try fix the floor (the best I can). First I used a wire wheel on a drill to get off any surface rust that was forming on the bar


Then I used a small piece of wood on a jack under the floor board to try to bring back up the cat hump (because that hump helps support the bar.) Got it the best I could to fit the shape of the bar


Primered the seat bar in black primer and test fitted it in the car. Now I just gotta get this car running so I can drive it to my buddies shop and he can weld it in! You can also see that I upgraded the shifter to an ISIS Short Throw Shifter. I was considered the B&M shifter but I watched a comparison video where they opened up the shifters and the ISIS one was almost identical!


Since I'm not running heat or AC and the car is strictly a drift car, I decided to get rid of some extra weight and delete the entire heater core assembly. It's definitely a lot of stuff gone and will make wiring on the inside a hell of a lot easier. Seemed to way about 30-40lbs (just a guess)


there was more removed, but this is the meat & potatoes of it


Now the inside is completely gutted and READY FOR PAINT! I'm going to go with a Scion Cement Gray for the entire inside of the car and possibly stick with the "tiffany blue" for the cage.


Heres a HUGE jump as far as progress on the engine bay! Got NGK spark plugs & spark plug wires, Circuit Sports brake master cylinder heat shield, wrapped the manifold in blue heat wrap, got the deatschwerks injectors installed, Mishimoto Aluminum Radiator w/ Mishimoto dual electric fan shroud, blue silicon radiator hoses, got the Tial BOV installed on the ISIS front mount intercooler kit, and I got the turbo oil & coolant lines installed as well as the circuit sports oil filter relocation kit. BTW, building AN line/fittings is a bitch... if you wanna keep the red/blue finish decent anyway.


Swapped out them wheelz for some 18x9.5+22 white powder coated Rota Grids... just til I have money for some baller wheels.


Added ISIS 4" Blast Pipes, and had to get my downpipe extended (because the SR downpipe was hitting the floor board. I also installed an adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator, as well as a distribution block (that reads the battery voltage), and the circuit sports coolant overflow tank. Have a power-steering cooler that I'm installing as well. Don't forget! Almost all of my parts for this build were purchased through Enjuku.

Got the car running, still needs some tweaking, having some issues with the fuel pressure. Got it fixed once, (seemed like the fuel return line was clogged) but now the fuel pressure is spiking again Anyway heres the most recent pic I have of the bay!


With the turbo setup I have, and the intake setup I got the intake setup was a bitch and a half to figure out (because the High Pressure line was hitting the intake coupler) I replaced the power steering high pressure line with an ISIS stainless braided one assuming it would eliminate the banjo bolt (since the description said "Make installing and routing the intake pipe much easier") but it doesn't. It also didn't help make the installation easier, made it harder cause it extends out more. Anyway, I got a 90 degree coupler and was able to route the intake like this


So I pretty much have ran out of good spots to mount anything in my engine bay with all of the shit thats in there right now, and since I got a full s14 power steering setup, I needed a new reservoir. I'm also running an aftermarket power steering cooler because the s14 cooler line wasn't very stable and would fall off the car.

Ended up getting a Circuit Sports mini oil catch can (which will hopefully help with space!) & a Mishimoto power steering reservoir!


The Circuit Sports catch can doesn't come with ANY mounting system, so I found this fuel pump mount thing on eBay and decided to buy it and see what I could do with it.


I took the S14 power steering reservoir bracket off of the reservoir and decided I'm going to attempt to mount the catch can and the mishi ps res side by side to it, which would involve some custom work to that bracket and to the fuel pump bracket I got to mount the catch can


Here's the S14 PS res bracket, got the holes drilled for the mishimoto PS res mount, and I got a hole drilled for the catch can mount, I also made another hole that will go in the middle of the catch can mount so that there is still 2 bolts holding it on (stability!) Also had to file down the end of the little step because when I mocked it up the PS res was hitting it.


Heres the catch can bracket. I completely cut off the one mounting point, and I filed down the other ones to an angle so that it would fit under the PS bracket. Also drilled a hole in the middle of the catch can bracket to make up for the mounting point I cut off.


All painted and got the brackets installed


They sit a bit angled but they are on and solid as a rock! Can't tell at all that there's an angle when it's actually in the car


Catch Can / Power Steering setup installed! The hoses on there are going to be replaced with stainless braided hose, just used those to mock it up to figure out the length. Going to have to take it back off to replace the brake master cylinder since I got some z32 front calipers


Got a couple cosmetic things done! Drift Armor Bash Bar up front. I think its pretty necessary to protect that intercooler and radiator setup!


Found these discontinued tail lights that were all clear. Enjuku was selling them for $399.00... pretty hefty price. Since they were the last pair I got them for a steal. They do have LEDs though which is pretty sick and its the only aftermarket tail lights i've seen that are the exact shape of the OEM 180SX Kouki tail lights. Got crafty and painted them red and I feel like they look more modern since they don't have the orange centers like the OEM lights do. Hate me if you want but I can say with confidence I like these better. Also got the Kouki center garnish and the lower metal garnish. And I threw on the Origin 3D GT Wing.


So I ended up getting to car pretty much all together and after 5 drives up and down a block it started running like shit. Had no idea what was going on but I had a weird feeling that I should re-compression test the motor. Sure enough cylinders 2 and 3 had dropped all the way down to 70psi -__- my luck. I did some research, dropped some oil in those 2 cylinders and retested (if the compression jumps back up that means the piston rings are worn.) Compression didn't go up. I learned if 2 adjacent cylinders drop and the oil doesn't raise compression this means the head gasket blew, so that's my situation now. I ended up purchasing Wiesco Pistons, Brian Crower Rods, Clevite main & head bearings, and ARP main & head studs. I figure once I pull apart the motor I might as well go for it this time around, going to run a bigger turbo setup and E-85 this time, shooting for 450 horsepower to the wheels now. Anyway here is my "finished" engine bay picture from the setup I've been documenting, not much has been added besides swapping out my ISIS fuel pressure regulator for an Aeromotive, I got a Full-Race Vacuum block to make vacuum easy, and I replaced just about every rubber hose in the bay with stainless steel braided hose. Anyway, time to pull back out the motor.


Also here is a pic of my switch panel installed with the new crack free dash! This is all the interior that is going to be in the car besides seats. I'm going to make aluminum door panels and do a diamond plate floor cover (just to clean up the ugly floor) Also installed my Nardi steering wheel thats not in the pic. Shift knob is tempary, one of my friends just gave it to me. Ended up using an HKS turbo timer harness to wire the push start without having to splice into any wires, pretty much plug n play push start