JBB's redtop s14 build

[JBB]

Hello!
I am going to be copying over my build from one of those other 240sx sites.

So I got introduced to the import scene when I was around 19. I was hooked and started searching for my first toy.

I picked up this 89 s13 coupe and loved it. My plan was "save 2 grand to buy an SR and have FUN!", I was a little naive at the time.



The ride height was terrible and it smelled like a dog (not surprised since the redneck I bought it from showed up with his pit bull in the back seat when I went to check it out/buy it). I had fun with it for a little while and even though it was an "old car" it still got looks.

Well it rained particularly hard one night and when I went to start the car up the next morning, nothing happened. There was a live power cable for a sub in the trunk sitting in the wheel well (lowest point) and apparently the trunk didnt seal well because it was sitting in a puddle of water. I fried several relays. After replacing them I started finding more and more things wrong with the motor, including a broken woodruff key...I eventually ran out of cash trying to get it running right and just sold it. That was around 2009 or so.

Fast forward to 2011 and I picked up a somewhat clean and stock 95 s14.


Non-SE, 5 speed, hard top, power options, about 140k miles and nothing majorly wrong with it. Typical 20 year old car issues...peeling clearcoat on the hood, some surface rust on the trunk lid, etc. Small crack on the dash and weird cut looking marks on the door panels. Nothing that really couldnt be fixed.

I tucked away some money for a while and got to a point that I felt comfortable starting my project so I began placing orders (end of the year 2012).

For the past 5 years I had planned on ordering my SR from oaskajdmmotors but I did a little reading before placing my order and read on a subaru forum actually that most of their inventory at that time was tsunami flood damaged motors. I also heard that it was pretty easy to get the short end of the stick when dealing with purchases made out of the country.

I decided to go with jspecauto.com since they were located in virginia. I bought a redtop from them (through ebay actually, for the points and added paypal protection). It looked pretty clean, they claimed it only had 54,000 miles, and they had a compression test video. 174, 173, 170, 174. I thought it seemed pretty good even though it was a little overpriced ($2,299 fee shipping). I bought it on a sunday and it was delivered the following thursday.

I unwrapped it and snapped these two pictures while my friend I started looking it over.




My buddy was over and we decided to just give it a look-over that night. As we started inspecting things, we noticed that there were a lot of parts that looked pretty much brand new. After further inspection, it turns out that just about everything that looked brand new actually had a little dab of green paint...we thought maybe this is how they had marked parts that they had replaced? Who knows...anyways, the parts that had the paint were: injectors, throttle body and cable assembly, idle air control valve, and the throttle positioning sensor. Some other parts looked brand new: water pump, the belts, and the power steering pump.

One thing that caught our eye, that Im still a little concerned about today, was the ECU. It had 2 stickers on the top, "TBO Racing Parts For Racing Purposes Use Only", and "FAST Made in Japan". There were also "fast" stickers along the sides, so that if the ECU was opened up you would have to break the stickers. I attempted looking these companies up, but I found very little information. All I could find about TBO was that they made aero parts, which wouldnt make any sense why there would be a TBO sticker on the ECU. Secondly, the information for FAST was alaso very limited -- I found that it stands for "Fuel Air Spark Timing" and apparently was a tuning company in Japan? Im guessing that this ECU is chipped, and Im really hoping that the tune on here isnt funky...and that it actually runs for now



Anyways, this thread is going to be pretty picture intensive. I took all of the pictures with my phone, its an iphone 4s, so they might not be the best of quality but I dont have a digital camera. I might not list a description for every picture, so if you have any questions just ask.

Ill start with the parts that Ive been ordering:

My first order came in: (enjukuracing)
Isis m-spec FMIC with piping pre-flanged for a Greddy BOV. I heard that this front mount is identical to the Greddy M-spec.
Mishimoto aluminum radiator
Circuit sports metal coolant overflow tank (my plastic one is all broken and the plastic was flaking into the coolant)






2nd thing to come in was my walbro 255 high pressure fuel pump



3rd order came with some exciting parts: (phase2motortrend)
OEM water pump (didnt snap a picture)
ARP head studs (also didnt take a picture)
Circuit Sports 3" downpipe with a flex section
Exedy stage 1 organic clutch
ACT streetlite flywheel
Greddy type RZ BOV







Then I received order 4 and 5 on the same day so Ill lump them all together: (amazon and FRsport)
AEM Uego A/F gauge
AEM Truboost b00st controller/gauge
Optima redtop battery
ARP rod bolts
Summit racing battery relocation kit (I guess I only took a picture of the power cable..)








I had another order from Enjuku, however Ive only received 1 part so far:
Circuit sports 3" turbo elbow/up-pipe
Not yet shipped from this order:
steering wheel gauge pod
s14 to s13 A/C conversion bracket
OEM timing chain
NGK iridiums
belts




order 7 was actually the very first order I placed...and one of the last to be delivered (z1motorsports)
Nismo motor/tranny mounts
z1 silicone radiator hoses
OEM oil pump assembly
s13 redtop SR20 gasket kit







Also from order 7, but directly from GReddy:
Greddy type RS 3" exhaust (I really really really wanted the TI-C, however, it was discontinued a year ago. I called just about every performance shop I could find and NO ONE had one left. I was told that the RS is the exact same exhaust, just minus the titanium / burnt tip.)
Greddy oversized oil pan (I guess I didnt take a picture of this..)



[IMG]http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s189/knuck1es
/240%20parts%20and%20build/IMG_0375.jpg[/IMG]

Order 8 was from FRsport again,
Circuitsports 480cc oil catch can
Circuitsports 250cc oil catch can
You can just call me TwoCan Sam!! My buddy has a pretty good idea for running these dual catch cans, more on this later




Here's the pile of parts that has been slowly growing in my 2nd bedroom. Coming home every day brings such mixed feelings, Im happy to see these and know that it will be awesome one day soon, but its also depressing looking at so much money just sitting there that I cant do anything with yet.





So thats about it for parts for now, if anyone has any comments or suggestions please let me know. As a side note, although these circuitsports items are made in china, the quality is far greater than expected. The welds on these things are absolutely sick as well, someone definitely took their time crafting this stuff.

[ayrtonlucyk]

pretty sweet pile of parts there!

[ferrariowner123]

Cant wait to see how all of this turns out!! I love coming home to parts!!

-Kyle

[flatout]

Nice collection of parts. Looked like the corner of my room until i started putting the motor and car together

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[JBB]

Thanks guys, I wrote this out last night and it would only let me post like 1/3rd of my post so I just went to bed. Sorry, I should have pm'ed a mod to reserve some spaces ;D

[JBB]

Ok, engine tear down pictures-- GO!!:

[JBB]

:-\ not excited about seeing oil in there

[JBB]

double posted this one

[JBB]

pause in time

got the cylinder head off



went on vacation

pulled silencer from exhaust, thing was huge



finally got tranny off

[JBB]

got a few things in
Belts
Plugs
AC conversion bracket
Timing chain



needed this for the crank pulley nut



got this gauge pod



picked up a gpopshop rebuild kit for the stock turbo. i contacted a local tampa shop (the boost lab) about pricing for rebuilding my turbo using the gpopshop kit and balancing. instead of giving me pricing they said they dont use gpopshop kits and didnt offer any pricing for alternatives. I dont know who turns away business in this economy but ok, guess Ill rebuild it myself. great tutorial here -> (HOW TO: Rebuild a T25/T28 Turbo - SR20 Forum)


broke up with girlfriend and started looking for new place
friend ended up moving into my 2nd room (office) so I got to stay at current apartment with 1 car attached garage for a while longer

picked up a few more parts (please dont flame)




finally got flywheel and crank pulley off




did first cleaning of block. pro tip -> brake clean worked so much better than engine degreaser (auto zone brand for both)



my friend picked up the block and we got it on an engine stand that i picked up

[JBB]

scooped these touge factory pulleys and a cheap magnetic oil drain plug



picked up a few more parts

heater hoses
oem water pump




did a little reading and decided to pick up an s14 water neck



did some more reading and figured i should get the s14 oil pickup/strainer



my friend thought it would be a good idea to get new timing guides. (later on when we got the front cover off one of the guides was cracked in half, the one that the newer version has a metal plate reinforcing it, so it was good that I bought these before we found that)


picked up these seats



got a 2 1/2 ton engine hoist for 80 bucks. it was a 45 minute drive to white-trash-ville where it was chained to a tree. no pictures

started rebuilding my turbo






this whole time i debated with myself about painting my engine
i had some down time and not a lot of money so i decided to stay busy by painting everything

i started out painting some of the accessories. I originally used VHT engine metallic on my turbo but it came out really blue so I ended up using duplicolor high heat aluminum paint



i saw this build and liked the idea of a gloss black with rainbow flake so i tried it out on my intercooler pipes




taped off my block, took like 12 hours to tape and cut all the electrical tape :O (i am no professional, and did it in couple hour increments while just relaxing, listening to some music and having a few beers)




i hit it with like 5-6 coats of primer and the same with the paint










started hitting a few other things like the upper oil pan

[JBB]

set a few parts on the motor to get an idea of what i was working with




woo

taping/painting the head





gettin some head



more down time...painting other things



i jacked up the crank pulley, was hanging by a coat hanger and i missed the spot underneath it. ill probably just touch that spot up with a sharpie or something



motor mount brackets, ac bracket, alt bracket, p/s bracket, intake manifold support







hit up the intake manifold



I found a greddy oil filter relocation kit on ebay and the guy had it listed for $200. I emailed him if it didnt sell, Id like to offer $150. He said ok, I considered your offer and relisted it for 150 so you can bid. Im like, sweet, and I bid on it. Last minute some guy bids it up to like 168 and I end up stealing it in the last 5 seconds for $170. 2 days later the owner emails me and says hey, sorry, it was my dads and he wanted to sell it locally. So Im sitting here like WTF?? I ended up picking up the circuit sports kit because I couldnt find any other good deals on a greddy one :\



picked up some turbo lines



drain tube



dual activation dual fan thermostatic switch from painless wiring



After taking Mikester's advice the other week, I was about to pick up a nismo power brace from FRSport because they were on sale...but I was waiting to see if they would drop any more. I was on zilvia looking for a zenki lip and happened to come across a barely used (2000 miles) s14 brace. I got it for $170 paypal'd/shipped, so that was a pretty sweet deal.



time to tackle the valve seals




womp womp picked up an SE lip in the mean time




also some LED kouki tails from our resident kriskouki!

[JBB]

at first i thought that valve retainer tool was too big and for domestics. I ended up ordering a smaller one (that only came as a pair with the same sized one that I already had). the small one was TOO small. I placed an order for a better style valve keeper tool.


Well a few days after ordering that new tool, before it arrived, I tried the original tool again and it DID work, I just wasnt hitting that shit hard enough.

Found out from some people on this forum that the SR is an interference motor and you dont need to hook up an air compressor. just set the current cylinder to TDC to prevent the valves from dropping. I was retarded and didnt see one of the oil galleys and didnt block it off with anything. I dropped a valve keeper down in and heard it drop quite a distance, DOH! Dumbass! I tried air in a can, tried pouring oil down the galley, even tried a magnetic strip tied to some fishing line but no luck. !!!! will have to get back to that.

Got busy reading someone elses build thread and they showed a gasket that they put on their oil strainer/pickup. WTF the FSM doesnt mention a gasket, I installed mine with a little liquid gasket just to be safe. This made me worried, so I ordered that gasket and took mine off and cleaned off the liquid gasket.




got the wrong sized gasket and had to wait for the correct one to come in


Back to the valve seals

I pulled the oil baffle plate and got really lucky, the keeper was sitting right there ontop of it. I was thinking I'd have to pull the upper oil pan, and maybe rotate the motor which would mean bleeding the lifters since the head was installed at this point.



so I go to use my new sweet lever style valve keeper tool. It only came with 3 small bolts, 3 fat bolts, and some bolts without threads. I thought that was weird since you need -4- to bolt the horse shoe sides down to where the cam caps connect. I figured Id try and see how snug it is with 1 bolt on the one side. Im torquing down the bolt slowly and all of a sudden the head turns sideways. WTF. I tried reversing it and SNAP, the damn bolt head snapped off



the one thing I was trying to avoid was taking the head back off. I tried a ryobi screw extractor and my hole got off center and it did not work. my roommate and I tried some reverse thread drill bits, which just didnt want to bite and turn the bolt. we went to harbor freight and got a pretty aggressive screw extractor kit. It started turning the bolt but was hitting the sidewall, so we were like....lets give it a little tap with the rubber mallet to straighten it out. DUMB! snapped the screw extractor off inside the broken bolt. this is turning into a disaster.

We pulled the head and I found a local shop (for hondas..) that said they could get it out. It would normally be $10 but because the extractor is broken off in there it would be $20. Im like ok, sweet, this isnt so bad afterall and I drop the head off.

At this point in time Im unemployed so I have a lot of free time but not a lot of free money

I drop the cylinder head off and they said they would get to it the next day. 3 days later I call them (several times, because any time I call before 2pm its a spanish guy that answers who doesnt speak english other than "call back after 2 for ray") and they say they cant get the bolt out because of the material of the extractor, and they actually ask me about cutting the section out to remove it and welding it back in. Im thinking to myself these guys cant be serious, how is that even possibly considered an option. I told them no way in hell are you cutting a chunk out of my cylinder head and welding it back in. They said ok, let us look at it a bit more and see what we can do.

2 1/2 weeks later, I call them up and they say they cant get it out and start asking me how much a new cylinder head is because I should probably just buy a new one.

..............

I go pick up my head and say thanks for the effort guys

went down the road to zFever (now Fever Racing)

man, what an awesome shop!! its literally like a fantasy land for adults. the owner, Doug, is the coolest guy ever. He tried welding a nut to it (even let me hold it with some pliers while he did the welding). We tried 3 times but it did not work :\ on the plus side I got to see a ton of cool cars, talk to the owner for a while, and he referred me to a REAL machine shop in north Tampa (galaxy machining, I recommend this place highly)

Doug, the owner of zFever, has a pretty sick NSX, an s13.5 vert, and an r33 as a daily


Also saw a ton of z32's, a couple 240z and 280z, handful of s13's, a good amount of s14's

alternator died in my 240 on my way home from school one night about 10pm. barely limped home with no lights, every time my hazards flashed my car would jerk--but I made it!! this totally killed my optima redtop (purchased through amazon, they conveniently have since removed this purchase from my order history and I cant do a return on it). had to swap in a new alternator and battery. went for a cruise and I guess I didnt have the tension bolt tight enough because the belt popped off, took off my water pump belt on its way off, caused my engine to almost overheat, radiator hose burst off shooting coolant everywhere lol man what a day. got a replacement bolt, installed, new belts installed, and got back on the road.

got the head back from the machine shop this evening. $155 to get the bolt out, heli-coil the cam cap section. He also cleaned and decked the bottom for me.

Unfortunately, he says theres metal shavings in the head so Ill have to clean it. He mentioned that the easiest thing to do would be take it to napa for a hot tank, but Ive painted it so he recommended maybe cleaning it out with brake clean or carb cleaner

got a new job at this point. took my head to NAPA to hot tank and yes, it took off all of the paint. While I was there I had them use their air tools to put some pulleys on (this is on a quest alternator, I also picked up a quest alt conversion bracket from CodyAce, just no pictures)



head was super clean though

before:



after:




installed my LED tail lights and my seats

[JBB]

had to paint the head a 2nd time :\




deja vu


started installing new valve seals (got a set of supertech valve seals since I had previously installed 8 of the OEM ones from my rebuild kit and had to pull them for the hot tank, oems are way more expensive)



picked up this HKS intake, thats that mushroom tip! (hodgetwins reference)


started checking things out again for an idea of what it would look like





picked up these isis control arms (please dont flame)



my lease ran up and my roommate had to get a place with his sister to help her out. I moved into a 1br with a detached 1-car garage. the garage wasnt available until a few days after I moved so I had to put all of my car parts in my dining room for a week lol.

anyways, I got settled in and my friend came over to help me get the cams installed. Oh I forgot, I had to buy a new headgasket because when I pulled the head off to take it to the shop I tore a layer or two. Sweet waste of $60.



So we get the cams in and timed correctly. then we realize that we didnt install the "inside sub bolts" basically underneath the cam sprockets. you can get the intake one in no problem, but I couldnt torque down the exhaust side one due to the extra length on the exhaust cam sprocket (the part that the CAS connects to). faaaark. so we pull the cams and torque those bolts and the following weekend reinstall the cams and get them timed correctly.

Im still driving my 240 with the KA because its a lot more fun to drive than my "daily" driver plymouth neon. at this point my gas tank (probably lines) starts leaking. Currently (to this day) i cant fill my tank up past half capacity or I will start dumping about 1/2 - 1 gallon of fuel when I turn the car off. Im thinking, and heard from others, that its probably the lines to the sending unit, I just havent had the time to tackle that project. Ill handle it when I go to install the walbro pump.


started test fitting things on the SR



my friends and I had an inside joke about me selling my 240 and getting a fiat 500. I had a fun moment convincing them that I sold both of my cars and picked up this one:



went back to Fever Racing and had Doug cut my coolant line (from under the intake manifold) and weld a bead around the end since I will be using the tap on the s14 water neck. No pics here, sorry. Again, I have to mention how cool this guy is. He let me ask questions for an hour. I found out that they now own Enthalpy and he has convinced me to come back to have Martin tune my car when Im done. I will most definitely be doing this.
Saw some more bad ass cars again, this time another R33 (GTR)

And this sick rb25 in a 280z

[JBB]

Anyways

Installed those isis control arms, that was fun


Had some more fun:




I decided to take a different route with the initial install. I had rebuilt my T25 and was going to roll on stock boost for about a year or so but talking to Doug and how many times they have done 300hp tunes, I thought I would go down that path for now.

I picked up an s15 turbo



some s15 injectors



z32 maf



drain tube



clocking adapters



oil restrictor (turned out to not fit my line, it was -4 to .035)


got these
transmission gasket
ss braided clutch line
-3 to .04 restrictor (hope this doesnt hurt the turbo, i heard that ideally you want .032



installed my power brace and front control arms






thats where I am as of now. Ive had this engine since Oct. 2012 and have been slowly working 1 or 2 hours here and there every weekend. I know that a lot of people get these and throw them right in the weekend they get them, or do serious work and have them in quickly. I am not a mechanic, I had never even changed oil or done anything besides an audio install prior to ordering this motor.

Im hoping to have it done soon. I just ordered poweredbymax comp coilovers (will be delivered 01/07/14). Im in talks with someone about buying their oem s15 front end. Looking to go 5 lug/z32 brakes/gramlight 57d in luminous yellow 17x9 in the next few months. Eventually would like to go with house of kolor galaxy grey paint but Ill probably do a matte black plastidip after the s15 front, jdm kouki rear bumper/valances/sideskirts.

Power wise I think I will be happy with around 300hp from the s15 turbo. I originally wanted to ride stock for a year or so and then pick up a 2871r but we'll see how this goes as Im thinking about doing a drag oriented build after this car

interior wise Im planning on a 350mm perforated nardi wheel with the dark aluminum spokes, nrg neochrome hub to match my ARC shift knob, and wrap my dash/console/headliner in perforated black leather with red stitching to match the nardi wheel. Will eventually remove the rear seats and build a nice box to house 2 10's, 2 6" mids, and 2 1" tweeters for highs.

This is just going to be a fun/weekend car really, not planning on being a d1 hero.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome, thanks!

[ferrariowner123]

All i can say is great, build up, lol'd at the Fiat joke...

Cant wait to see her all done, any plans for, when you get the S15 front to change the color, that greenish blue, cannot be favored?

-Kyle

[JBB]

Haha, thanks man! Yes I plan on dipping the car matte black for a while and possibly going with house of kolor galaxy grey in the future

[ZERTA RACING]

Sorry but....s15 front will ruin this car. Zenki or kouki with an Sr and nice paint and you will be breaking necks. But then again this is my personal opinion. I personally think that s15 fronts only look good on s15's.

But spending the time to do your motor right the first time like you have is great. I really like how the build is turning out!

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[bova17]

nice job man, you might want to put a little oil on those suspension arms so they dont get seized up

[TwelveAM]

Keep it Zenki man. But I will give you this......this is one of the best builds I've seen/read in a while. Very good list of parts, very descriptive, and a lot pictures.

Keep up the good work and you can see that you have been taking your time with this build.

[Snatch'D Factory]

Very nice build up of a SR20.

I personally think Zenkis look more classy, which is my style. I totally think you should keep it. You can do a nice widebody kit or go all oem and turn heads either way. Put make sure you do all you of you body work then paint it. That makes it easier.

Once again very nice build up.

[juvi22003]

Some nice legit parts you got there, so far so good dont worry i'll be buying ISIS arms too lol

[JBB]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the kind words!

I know there's a lot of people who dont particularly like the s15 front on the 13/14 and that's okay, they are entitled to their opinions. I was actually originally going to go with a kouki front end but for basically the same amount of money and just a little bit more work I can have the 15 front. Any day of the week I can hop on craigslist or even the classifieds here and find a kouki to buy, however, I haven't seen very many with s15 front ends (that have been done correctly).

I tried to include as many pictures as I could because I remembered back when I was still in the dreaming and scheming stage those were the types of build threads I loved to read. I would literally spend hours looking through pictures in people's threads thinking "hmm, thats neat" and compiling ideas. I hope that my pictures and some of my included stories will help those in the future to not make some of the same mistakes that I have made lol.

I am pretty excited to get these coilovers in tomorrow but at the same time kind of disappointed to put them on with my terrible wheels ;D

[JBB]

Got a couple things in today:

turbo locking plates
new studs for the turbo -> elbow
locking nuts for said studs
t28 gasket kit (altho I wont be using some of these due to the dif clocking adapters)

[ferrariowner123]

I love it when OEM parts arrive, there is just something about them....

-Kyle

[JBB]

I do enjoy some OEM equipment

I also enjoy these types of packages

[KevinEdgar]

Very nice job cleaning up the motor and whatnot. Nice that you decided to go with the T28, keep it simple and do not go S15 front. You'll be glad you didn't in the long run, and for the love of god please DO NOT plastidip your car. It is a huge waste of time, you are better off rocking a mismatched car for a while then getting a macco paintjob. Trust me, I like the way your build is going and I'll be watching.

[JIMB0]

very nice build and the abundance of pictures make this worth reading. Keep it up!

[JBB]

I installed my coilovers this weekend. Id upload the pictures but I ran out of time and wasnt able to adjust the fronts. The rear looks good, I will probably drop it another .5 or 1 inch. The front, however, is actually higher than my worn out stock suspension lol.

Side note. Well question. Ever since I installed my control arms, Ive been getting this squeeking metal noise. I saw on someone else's build that they used "copper grease" on all the threads on their arms. Is that to prevent this annoying squeeking noise?? Is there anything I can do post install to remedy it? I would hate to have to take them all off just to grease them up

[JBB]

Alright dudes, today was an interesting day. Had a few things show up







Also this came in


Before all the hating I actually purchased this s15 clip prior to posting my build thread here. I got an amazing deal on it and just couldnt pass it up. Its about the same or maybe even cheaper than a kouki swap would have cost me. I know its not for everyone