A Poor Man's Dream S13.

[PoorMans180SX]

Back in. A subframe has been in and out of this car like 6 times now lol.

[PoorMans180SX]

Look at that axle angle.



Finally out of prison:

[PoorMans180SX]

Photo dump of my latest adventures. I've been all over the place. Looking to get the S13 running this month, so I'm pushing hard after work each day on all my projects.











Yes, I own two G35s now. One rwd auto, and awd. The plan is to eventually manual swap the rwd and have a seat time car, and the awd is going to be a daily driver.

Been doing a shit ton of work to the G35x. The valvecovers leaked and it had the classic #4 and #6 coilpack switch misfire. I've cleaned things up and added a Gktech plenum spacer while I was at it. Now in the middle of a front suspension refresh, which it desperately needed.

[PoorMans180SX]

I got these both for screaming good deals btw, and not what the windshield says on the black car haha.

[PoorMans180SX]

Also, I've finally got to the point where it makes sense to buy oil in bulk haha.

[PoorMans180SX]

Putting the KA in today. I have too many parts for the storage I have, so I had to do a lot of cleanup in the attached garage to get the car in there, haha.





Blasted all those nasty G35 parts and i'm having my buddy powdercoat them.

[PoorMans180SX]

It's rather dirty on the inside:



Aircraft stripper because I don't want to blast this one and have to pull out the baffles.

[Corbic]

1. Are the G35's Manual?
2. Are you now #VQ Gang or just flipping?
A. Check out Geo.Baz on Instagram

3. Where are you at with the 240s? You had two. Had and SR and RB25, sold the RB25 and bought 2x VH + swap parts, but now I see 1x 240 and a KA24DE.



Side Note - Fuck the Midwest LOLZ. I'm having flash backs just looking at those photos.

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Corbic

1. Are the G35's Manual?
2. Are you now #VQ Gang or just flipping?
A. Check out Geo.Baz on Instagram

3. What are you at with the 240s? You had two. Had and SR and RB25, so the RB25 and bought 2x VH + swap parts, but now I see 1x 240 and a KA24DE.



Side Note - Fuck the Midwest LOLZ. I'm having flash backs just looking at those photos.

1. Both are auto sadly, though the black one will be manual swapped at some point. There's no way to economically manual swap the awd one, or I would.

2. Nah not really, though I do like the cars. A. Will do.

3. I have three S13 chassis' all together, two VH's, two Z32 transmissions, two SR's (one sleeved 2.2 stroker going together soon), the complete KA you see, a torn down KA, and a torn down VG30DE hah.

All of them need chassis work because Midwest. I agree. I'm trying to relocate to Texas haha.

This chassis is in my yard.





And this one is in the garage, where it's been for seven years, hah. The DSM is long gone thank god.

[jr_ss]

Andy, I see a whole lot of potential if you just down size. Less projects, more time and money to throw at the others. Recoup some of the funds and make life easier on you, especially when you want to relocate.

Just my .02 worth, which isn’t much to some. I’ve had multiple projects, nothing ever gets done when you want it to, because you’re always fixing something else.

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by jr_ss

Andy, I see a whole lot of potential if you just down size. Less projects, more time and money to throw at the others. Recoup some of the funds and make life easier on you, especially when you want to relocate.

Just my .02 worth, which isn?t much to some. I?ve had multiple projects, nothing ever gets done when you want it to, because you?re always fixing something else.

Yessir. The red car will be going up for sale in the near future. Possibly the primer chassis as well.I Just need to decide what my overall plan is and I gotta get them together in a decent spec so I can make some money off them.

The orange car is going to stay with me forever.

[PoorMans180SX]

Got four six spoke G35 17x8's to run as my starter wheels. I've always liked these as they're a little concave.

Turns out they fit stock quarters pretty damn well at 0-.5 degrees of negative camber.









I'll probably run 235s next time to take up the gap. Not really interested in pulling the rear quarters more.

Got all the stuff for my next wiring project in.

[PoorMans180SX]

Photo dump of my other cars.



Look how beefy G35 tie rods are?



Got all the parts back from powdercoat.





Changed the oil on both Gs.





My life is now a constant balancing act between buying gear and car parts.

[PoorMans180SX]

Oh man, I've been bad at keeping up with this thread.

I've done a lot of work on the black G, but that's boring stuff. Replaced the whole front suspension, put stock 350z springs and shocks on it, etc.

I bought another S13. It has some cool parts on it, and plenty of things to de-fuck, as always. It's a really clean chassis though, and a coupe! It feels good to have one again.

Gen 1 Gktech billet knuckles and Q45 brakes.



S14 subframe and 350z diff conversion.



Cheap coilovers and arms, but I'm just going to send it for now.



CD009 trans.



They installed the subframe conversion risers upside down... I hate installing subframe bushings haha. Wish me luck.



Rear knuckle is about to break. Glad I caught this before I went on track.



Offset rack spacer they ground the tabs off of, so it would never stay tight. Luckily I just happened to have a spare passenger side one that fit perfect. I've probably had that thing for seven years in a box on the shelf for no reason haha.



Car has 18x10.5 XXR's all the way around. Just going to leave them for now too. They don't limit angle in the front and they fill out the rear nicely.

The front sway bar has a broken nut in the frame, so I'll have to cut that open to fix it. No rear sway bar so I'll have to add one to offset the Sikky bar in the front.

The goal is to fix the little issues and get on track this year. I already have all the parts coming to fix the issues. I'll post more pictures when it's ready to rock.

[Corbic]

What engine? Pics of the car?

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by Corbic

What engine? Pics of the car?

VH45DE, it'll be ready for pics after this weekend.

Did some knuckle stuff today.











Lots of work to do over the long weekend.

[PoorMans180SX]

Went and sandblasted and painted the knuckles today.







And I put the new starter in!

Changed the oil before I fired it up for the first time. 6.5 quarts of HPL 5w40 supercar. Group IV/V oil.



And here it is. VH45DE powered coupe with a bunch of goodies. It's open header right now, so it's wildly loud, but even just taking for a rip down the street, it's rowdy. I love it.

Needs a few more things before the track next weekend.

[PoorMans180SX]

So much more work. Welded up the front tension rod brackets with GKtech's plates and their bolt in bar. They didn't have the weld in bar in stock and I really wanted this done before the first event, so I just welded in the bolt in one haha.

Fixed the separating lower rad support issue that all S13's have. Also the two nuts that hold in the tension rod bracket and sway bar broke off inside the frame rail, so I had to cut an access panel. Still need to weld that all back up.

Pulled the rear subframe to flip the bushings around so they actually raise the subframe and not lower it. This was actually easier than I thought it would be, just a three pound sledge and a hunk of wood. It's wild how much this changes the geometry. Massive positive camber and toe in from what the car was running.

Photo dump.

Knuckle was definitely broken.





Dude tried to fix it with self-tappers. Not gonna happen my guy haha.



















Trying something different.





POSI

[PoorMans180SX]

Successful first drift day in NINE years (well at least in my own car). Man, time is weird. I'll make a longer post when I get some action shots and such.

[thermogod]

WOOOOO! (at least 10 characters of excitement)

[kanyedian]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Successful first drift day in NINE years (well at least in my own car). Man, time is weird. I'll make a longer post when I get some action shots and such.

Car probably has some noice torque for spinny spin spins with all that displacement!

[PoorMans180SX]

I was still putting the car together the night before the event, and the morning of I had to align it. Everything went smoothly until I was finished dialing in the camber and I realized the traction rods were different lengths on each side. Pressed for time, I elected to just finish the alignment and correct it later.

Finally got the car back on the ground and fired it up. Loaded everything up (six tires in a coupe is no fun, we had to zip tie the trunk down), and started the trip to the track, only to realize the car runs like shit. We did a few loops from exit to exit on the highway, each time finding something that helped the car a little. The first was that the coolant temp was unplugged and jumped with a wire. The second was that the TPS wiring had a short in it. Unplugged the TPS and it ran much, much better. After that, we were finally on our way.



Arrived to the event a bit late, but unpacked and got the car through tech no problem.

The first few runs on track were a bit frustrating. The car wanted to immediately snap to lock and spin. We figured out that the 18x10.5+20 wheels were contacting the tie rod ends at full lock, taking some nice chunks out of the wheels in the process. Luckily a friend had brought some spare 18x9.5+30 wheels, which worked a treat.



After that the car performed better, but still wanted to snap to full lock, and transition FAST. For one, I am not used to having power and torque on tap, and was overdriving the car. The car also has some steering bind, I think from the offset rack spacers putting load on the worn rack. I’m trying to get rid of those asap. I did get some good laps in after figuring this stuff out and driving around it, but then we discovered the next issue.



The red line you see coming from the right and wrapped in exhaust wrap is the clutch line, and the guy routed it over top of the exhaust manifold and down to the slave. He told me he would only do two laps and shut it down, which made sense as on the fourth lap my clutch would go dead, the car would get stuck in gear, and it would stall. That lead us to the next problem: The car didn’t want to start when it was hot. Any coolant temp over 160 and you were basically fucked. I had to get towed off track for this once. I have a new coolant temp sensor and connector coming to fix this hopefully.

Overall, the event went well, and I had a blast. My adrenaline was peaked the whole time and I had a bunch of good friends there helping with the car and giving advice. I’m hoping to do another one next weekend, and this time I’ll start with the rear sway bar disconnected to see if that tames the car a bit. It was funny how many people came up and asked what engine it was, most people had never seen a VH45. Helped that it was open header I guess. I wore ear plugs on track under my helmet because otherwise it's just too loud. I do need to build some kind of exhaust for it at some point.

In the meantime, I’m going to fix the traction rod issues, clean up the wiring, re-route the clutch line, etc.

Here’s some action shots:











I drove the car uneventfully home and parked it for a few days.



I did fire it up a few days later to try and drive it in the rain, and it promptly shredded the alternator belt. I’m glad it didn’t happen on the way home. Looks like the tensioner loosened itself up at some point.



I have some work to do!

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by thermogod

WOOOOO! (at least 10 characters of excitement)

At least ten!

Originally Posted by kanyedian

Car probably has some noice torque for spinny spin spins with all that displacement!

It does indeed, much more than I'm used to! I was overdriving the car a lot, and then I switched to the 265 kendas, and had to go back to flooring it a lot more. So much learning to do!

[EDacIouSX]

looks like you had some fun, man i don't do a damn thing with my cars anymore. i hate washing them.

[kanyedian]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

It does indeed, much more than I'm used to! I was overdriving the car a lot, and then I switched to the 265 kendas, and had to go back to flooring it a lot more. So much learning to do!

For sure. I'm having trouble breaking my 245s loose but I'm not clutch kicking or really revving the heck out of the car. I'd like to be able to spin the tyres with like 3/4 throttle lmao. I read that guys will run upwards of 50psi in the rears to aid with slippage. But I'm nervous about exceeding the recommended air pressure! Ahhhh!

Originally Posted by EDacIouSX

looks like you had some fun, man i don't do a damn thing with my cars anymore. i hate washing them.

I feel that. I hardly drive mines only like once a week. The main reason is that I have three streetbikes that I prefer to ride to work. And then with no AC in Florida I'm unhappy and moist at the end of a 30 min commute xD

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by EDacIouSX

looks like you had some fun, man i don't do a damn thing with my cars anymore. i hate washing them.

Haha yeah man, I love driving these things.

Originally Posted by kanyedian

For sure. I'm having trouble breaking my 245s loose but I'm not clutch kicking or really revving the heck out of the car. I'd like to be able to spin the tyres with like 3/4 throttle lmao. I read that guys will run upwards of 50psi in the rears to aid with slippage. But I'm nervous about exceeding the recommended air pressure! Ahhhh!

Don't worry about it dude! I've run 70psi in cheap nankangs before, they do just fine. Just remember to air them back down before the drive home!

[kanyedian]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

Don't worry about it dude! I've run 70psi in cheap nankangs before, they do just fine. Just remember to air them back down before the drive home!

The funny thing is I was meaning I wanted to do that for the road rofl big oooof

[PoorMans180SX]

Oh man, I've done so much work to this thing. Not sure I have the energy at the moment to type it all out haha. I'll just post a bunch of pictures.

Built an exhaust.




old.


new.

[PoorMans180SX]

Post drift day.

[gsracer]

looks good, get a tune for that VH and it will run a lot better.

As an idea, i run more timing in parts of the map under boost then the factory does NA.