I have absolutely zero experience drifting nor do I know where to begin. I do have tons of track and mountain road experience however. Of course that mountain road experience was when I was younger.... Is a car setup differently for drifting? I feel like getting grip isn't what I want to achieve? Anyhow, I'm looking for a donor car as we speak and then the long lonely road of actually doing it lies ahead.

So, Rob's videos are getting to me. I now no longer think I should spend my money rebuilding the KA. I need power...I'm doing a swap. No birthday present for me this year...maybe Christmas.

I've looked into this. It's legal as long as someone doesn't have legitimate complaint about it, i.e. noise complaint near homes, the owner of the property agrees to it, and it's unable to be accessed readily by the public, i.e. fenced and not on public road ways.

I've actually asked the fair grounds about using their parking lot for an autox event when I used to be into that. They said no problem, but they wanted an arm and a leg to rent and it didn't justify the cost.

Additionally, we needed to have waivers and insurance. It got to be very expensive. However, if someone had a lot and they agreed to let a small group of people use it then there is no problem.

Legally, however, the owner of the property is responsible if anyone gets hurt or any property damage and the individuals can sue the property owner if something happens. Thus, it's a slippery slope getting something together like this and it probably won't happen unless its a small close-knit group of guys who trust each other enough not to sue their friends.

*sigh*

As a small example, there is this Nissan/Infiniti meet in Fremont in May every year and, generally speaking, it's a medium-caliber event, sponsers, dyno, track-cars trailered in, etc. The year before I went, from what I hear, a kid was trying to drift on the road leading to the event and he smacked into a tree. (another 240 bit the dust) So, obviously, a lot of unwanted police attention came down on the event and it almost didn't happen the year I went. A lot of people were upset because all the people that come to this event are pretty chill guys with clean rides just into doing what normal people do at a car show/gathering. So, moral of the story, it just takes one 240 to ruin the party...j/k, but you get my point.

Sorry for the long-winded response, but i was finally able to contribute something on here.

Yes. 195/60-15 is stock size, however, 205/60 was an optional size. Also, that's interesting what you say about the speedometer being 5mph off. My 91 bmw also. came from the factory with a 5mph disparity. Apparently bmw didn't want its customers getting more tickets than other manufacturers. This is hearsay from a bmw seller but I tend to believe it.

Well then it sounds like ill just stick with the 215's and 245's and see how far I'm off. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, they look really well constructed. I can only compare them to Tein's and D2's, but so far I'm impressed just looking over them and the price wasn't bad either. I bought them from frsport.

Tire size is up in the air right now until I figure out what stock size was. Since I'll be driving this on the road, I want the speedo to work properly. I'm hoping stock size was 205/60 in which case 215/45 and 245/40 would make the speedo work properly.

Are you saying to remove your bumper quickly? Seems like a great idea.

If it's to hold the bumper up, I would have to agree with assassin.

O great, I'm going to be a guinea pig. Well, I will post a review when I get them installed.

Just a quick update:

Been tearing down the engine, about 50% complete. Took off the hood to do, so, that's headed to the shop to get prepped.

Also got an order of goodies in today as well as placed an order for everything from SCF.

OK, did some troubleshooting last night. Car is drawing .33 amps at rest with the key out. So, I narrowed it down to a 10a fuse called Room Lamps. With this fuse out, the car drops to .002 amps. So, I set about finding out what is on this circuit. This circuit has the door chime, dash clock, overhead lights, trunk lights, and radio on it.

The radio is an aftermarket Sony unit and I've had a sneaking suspicion for a while now that it might be the root of my issues. So, I unplugged the radio and plugged back in the 10a fuse. The car now drew .004 amps.

For s**ts and giggles, I decided to plug the radio back in, with it out of the dash and measure amp draw again. With the radio out of the dash, the amp draw is .009 amps. So, there is a short back there somewhere when I put in the dash. I'll have to fix that.

My question is, isn't .005 amps a little high for a radio to be pulling off? I understand it needs to run its clock and keep its presets, but .005 amps seems high, especially when the rest of the car is only pulling .004?


Ok, next question.

In this pic:



See, that red wire? It's running from inside the maf sensor connector to the intake runner where it is wrapped around a screw. Seemingly, grounding something. This doesn't look like OEM Nissan wiring work. What is it doing? Should I disconnect it? I don't know, I'm always afraid to just do stuff.

Also, thanks for all the help you guys are giving. What a frickin' awesome forum. I love the lack of flame and troll. So nice.

Especially if it's so small if I could do it in my backyard.

My weekend's efforts....dismal. Damn you playoffs!!!

Decided to start my tear down in the rear and take apart the leaking tail lights. Incidentally, and much to my horror, I found my spare tire practically floating in the lake of my spare tire well. Luckily no rust. Did find some rust by the tail light bolts, but body shop will deal with it.

You can see where the water leaked down.



So, football...yeah. Didn't get finished until dark and that's all I got done.



When I put this back, should I put the silicone on and wait for it to skin, or should I put it on and immediately install the light?

I planned on tearing down the engine as well, so I could pull it and get it to the machine shop, but that will have to wait until next weekend.

I also discovered that the PO must have done an R134a conversion, because the A/C is R134a. That's a relief.

In this picture, does the SCF rstb fit through these holes in the interior?



Also, you see that tiny light in the upper right hand corner? Is that stock? The reason I ask is that I'm chasing a parasitic drain and that light's wiring is actually run outside the interior quarter panels and run under the carpet over the gas tank sensor. It just doesn't look like a Nissan installation. Additionally, does anyone know the amps the car should be drawing with the key out?

Finally, what two pieces am I missing. I looked in the FSM, but it didn't show what goes here.

Wow. With a cage like that, I'm not sure you need the rest of the car anymore. Cool stuff.

Yeah, I've been knee deep in that thread for a while.

I actually intended on using S-C-F stuff which is part of the reason I found this site and joined. However his site is still listed as an attack site so I can't really make a purchase. Although, I would love to purchase some fender braces right now since the car is going to the body shop next week.

The problem I had with my M3 is that I put so much suspension stuff on it that it became sluggish. Don't get me wrong though, I really didn't care, I could easily fling myself through back roads at a high rate of speed and that was more fun to me than anything else. This is what I would like to accomplish with the S13, but I don't want to repeat the mistakes of my past and over-suspension my car.

Like this:



I had these on a 98 I30 I owned (just a Maxima with leather) They made a tremendous difference in the torsional rigidity of the chassis. However, the Maxima chassis is somewhat of a marshmallow. I've never really had the chance to drive the 240. So I don't know how it feels stock. I'm kind of going on what people suggest I do

Let's put it this way, I had a 90 M3. If I can make the 240 handle as well as that car did, I'll be happy. If I can make it handle better, I'll be exuberant.

If you're sure...

Well, answer this for me. Are there sub frame connectors for the S13? Does the car even need them?

Hey everybody,

I thought I'd post up my build as I'm finally starting! This will be my birthday present to myself this year.

So, I've had this car for about 4 years now. I picked it up in 2007 for the low-low price of free. That, in itself, is a long story, so I won't go into it. This is how it was when I picked it up and the damage it had.

This needs some work...



Not so bad...



A clean, non-smoked in interior



The stock engine with 238....yeah it needs to be rebuilt. It still runs though.



To be honest, I have no idea what model it is besides the fact that it's a stick and a hatchback. It has manual windows and no spoiler, so I'm assuming its a base model? But, it came with SE wheels? I don't know.

I immediately procured some wheels, however, and this is the car washed with the new wheels and that's it.





That was 4 years ago and the car has pretty much sat around with the occasional move. I didn't work on it because I became involved....OK...obsessed with another project that I finished last year.



So, with that out of the way, I'm finally going to give this car the much needed love it deserves.

Here is how it stands now.



My intention is to keep this car street legal. So, sadly no turbos. All we get is an intake that's CARB legal. How sad. Anyhow, right now I'm pulling out the motor and the tranny to be rebuilt. The A/C still works so I'm going to try my hardest not to disconnect the system, but we'll see how that goes. Does anyone know if its R134a?

Also, I'm no expert on modifying cars. Restoration, sure. So, I might be asking you guys some stupid questions, so I hope you don't mind or get frustrated.