Mestizo's 92 Nissan 240SX Coupe Build Thread, yeah it was an automatic. Options

[mestizo]

Ok so I broke down and decided that I wanna return to my roots of going sideways... since 10 years of my life I raced quads and that yearning has never really left me. So after a couple of months of pondering I decided that I wanted to do this and to get out of the Honda game for a while. With that being said I looked for a couple of weeks and found this car in November 2006 on craigslist for $500. There were a few things wrong with it but nothing that I couldnt fix, it had a dent in the drivers headlight area, a large dent in the passenger rear quarter panel and an overheating issue from a neglected cooling system. Well needless to say that 95% of those problems are gone and I have had that car about 3 weeks now. Anyways here is the progress of the car since i got it, along with some pics too. I will be documenting all the progress and taking more pictures along the way


Current Specs as of 6/29/2010

Car:
1992 Nissan 240SX SE Coupe

Car name:
Layla

Engine, Transmission & Drive Train:
Stock JDM Zenki S14 SR20DET Engine, tranny & ECU swap
Circuit Sports 1 piece O2 Elbow & 3 inch downpipe
Mr Gasket copper turbo manifold gasket
Greddy M Spec Front Mount Intercooler Core
Greddy Type RS blow off valve
Custom charge piping done by Jonnie Fraz
Circuit Sports rocker arm stoppers
VHT wrinkle red painted valve cover
Exedy OEM replacement clutch kit
Kazama motor mounts
Nismo tranny mount
SPL hardened clutch fork pivot bolt
1995 Nissan Altima Electric Fans
FAL Variable fan speed controller
Koyo S13 SR20 Aluminum Radiator
A/C lines, compressor and condensor removed
Weld Locd version 3 welded rear diff
Cruise control removed
Odyssey PC680 battery
Walbro 255LPH HP fuel pump
No Name 3 Inch air filter with MAF adapter
No name Stainless Steel 3 inch exhaust piping from the down pipe back with a 3" tip
Greddy "GREX" thermostatic oil sandwich adapter
B&M oil cooler core with Russell -10AN lines/fittings
Ford truck power steering cooler core with custom bent 3/8" aluminum hard line
STRI DSD-SLM 60mm oil temp, water temp and 30 PSI boost gauges
Sun Automotive Hyper ground kit

Exterior:
JDM S13 Nissan Silvia Front end conversion
Rebased Lexus/Phillips HID kit
B Magic D1 Series full kit (Vertex knock off)
Aftermarket Origin style red/Clear tail lights
LED rear signal and tail light bulbs
Rattle can primer black paint (lol no money for paint yet)
Custom Vinyl graphics by Infinit Graphx

Interior:
Modified driver's side floor pan with custom seat bracket to get the seat as low as possible.
Bride MO Passenger seat rail
Corbeau Forza II seat driver side (wide version cuz im a fat ass)
Recaro SRD seat passenger side
Momo Hub
Momo Mod 8 steering wheel
NRG Version 3 Slim quick release (FET Copy)
Relocated stock E brake mounting bracket to the right side for more leg room
Generic aluminum Drift E brake knob
1995 Acura Integra shift knob (yup! it's my car fuck off)
Custom 4 point roll bar with door bars by Blu808 and Stealth Custom Fab, using 1.5" .120 wall DOM tubing

Brakes:
1990 Infiniti Q45 front brake calipers
Brembo Q45 X Drilled/Sloted front rotors
PBR XBR pads in front
Brembo X Drilled/Sloted rear 4 lug rotors redrilled to 5x114.3
PBR ULT pads in back
Russell Stainless steel braided brake lines front
Circuit sports rear lines

Suspension & Steering:
Stock S13 Hicas front steering rack swap(quicker ratio than non Hicas)
Aluminum steering column bushing
Stealth Custom Fab modified steering knuckles
Battle Version weld on FLCA adjusters
SPL - KTS Coilovers 8k front and 6k rear spring rates
SPL - Nagisa Fender Braces
SPL - Nagisa Pro RUCA's
SPL - Nagisa V2 Rear toe arms
SPL V2 front Tension Rods
SPL V5 pro outer tie rod ends
Moog S14 inner tie rods
Battle Version rear traction rods
Techno Toy Tuning rear sub frame collars
Energy Suspension full bushing kit installed
Stealth Custom Fab prototype front strut bar
Stealth Custom Fab welded front tension rod brace.
S13 Hicas 21mm rear sway bar
Stitch welded engine bay by Jonnie Fraz of Stealth-Cutsom-Fab.com

Wheels and Tires:
S5 / Ichiba Bolt on 5 lug conversion
Drag DR-31 17x9 +17 offset 5x114.3 pattern custom painted white
Front tires Falken Azenis RT 615 225/45
Rear tires Federal 595ss 225/45

Current Sponsors:
Stealth-Custom-Fab.com
Infinit Graphx - InfinitGraphx.com
Blu808.com

Alignment Specs:
Front:
-3.5 degrees camber
stock caster
1mm toe out

Rear:
-1.5 degrees camber
traction rods shortened 12.7mm / 1/2 inch
1mm toe in

Fluids:
Redline 5w40 engine oil
Amzoil gear oil (tranny)
Redline Power Steering Fluid
Redline Water Wetter Plus 60:40% water:coolant
Motul 90PA gear oil (differential)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/6/2006
Picked up car from Yuba City for $500 Clean Title and Drove it straight home. Here are the pics from the craigslist ad.




Here are the pics I took of it the night I drove it home, these show the various dents that it had.












11/7/2006
Registered/payed tax on the car at the DMV. Removed all rear interior parts from car, cleaned the interior of all the stank smoke ashes and dirt. Checked tire pressure and ordered up a factory thermostat. Picked up a set of black seat covers to cover the stank seats that were in the car as well as a leather steering wheel wrap. Washed trunk floor of oil and debris, pressured washed floor mats and washed entire car.






11/8/2006
Pulled the ecu and checked codes, fixed the EGR vacuum leak, fixed the power steering bolt, topped off brake fluid, bought a brand new battery hold down to fix the non existent one I had and changed the air filter.

11/9/2006
Popped large dent out on passenger quarter panel, pushed out small dent on the rear taillight area, checked/replaced all fuses, removed 80% of the faded/bubbled tint, removed fan shroud, fan/fan clutch, removed all belts, pulled thermostat and water pump.




11/10/2006
Diagnosed parking light problem, removed extra wires from under the dash, flushed engine block and radiator of rust. Replaced water pump, thermostat, alt/power steering belts and radiator hoses. Found coolant leak in the thermostat bypass coolant line.

11/12/2006
Removed coolant bypass hose. Replaced with a similar hose from Kragen.

11/22/2006
Fixed dent with front headlight and core support. Here are some pics when we were using the come along to pull the core support back out and putting in the new head light bucket. The first pic is the passenger side and what the core support should look like. The light is good enough for now I could make it look better but i really dont need to since I am getting a Silvia front end.










11/24/2006
Pulled the stock diff and had my dad weld it, filled with new gear oil. 1st DRIFT Happened this night!

11/26/2006
Changed engine oil to mobil1 synthetic and replaced oil filter. Purchased KTS Coilover’s from SPL.


Next update will be the installation of my KTS Coilovers which will be here this friday!

[RicerX]

Hey, I have a dent in the same place. I hope everything wotks out for you cuz its not for me.

[mestizo]

Hey, I have a dent in the same place. I hope everything wotks out for you cuz its not for me.

Thats sucks bro, i kno the feeling well tho, that's kinda why i got this car was so I could go play on the weekends again. It would have taken me a couple more years to finish my hatch, so I decided that I needed to have fun now. Hence the decision to sell my Hatchback and all it's parts was made. Altho i will tell u it was not easy to come to this decision and I did feel some pains towards abandoning my project that I have worked so hard on for the past 3 years. But luckily my girl and my freinds have been there to support me

[RicerX]

I just wish I had tons of money, I got some new problems that ima show you guys a lil later. Aside from that, I just got a $2,000 ticket which really sucks. It REALLY sucks not having a police scanner.

[mestizo]

I just wish I had tons of money, I got some new problems that ima show you guys a lil later. Aside from that, I just got a $2,000 ticket which really sucks. It REALLY sucks not having a police scanner.

Amen I wish I tons of money too bro, lol I know tickets very well myself. I think in my life I have prolly paid in the tens of thousands to the Sacramento County Courts, just sign up for payments and drive cool for a while thats what I always had to do. Also I have always had radar dectectors and freinds have had police scanners, they dont always give you a warning however it is better than nothing at all.

[RicerX]

Amen I wish I tons of money too bro, lol I know tickets very well myself. I think in my life I have prolly paid in the tens of thousands to the Sacramento County Courts, just sign up for payments and drive cool for a while thats what I always had to do. Also I have always had radar dectectors and freinds have had police scanners, they dont always give you a warning however it is better than nothing at all.

Yea, since my girl works at best buy, ima try to get the best scanner they got. He busted me for my turn signals. I haven't had a cop mention them to me until this pig. He also got me for my exhaust, and he didn't put a meter to it. I give him some respect cuz he didnt suspend my license or tow my car. Oops, sorry, I think this would go under a different blog. I don't mean to take away from your thunder.

[mestizo]

LOL its cool man... Back on topic tho I got some more work done tonight in preparation for my coilovers which should be delivered tomorrow. I thought that removing the stock suspension would prolly take me a couple of hours considering that I have never done a nissan before and the fact that I thought most of the bolts would be rusty or stuck, but it took all of 30 minutes for my dad and I pull the suspension, to be honest I think even without his help it would have still been 30 minutes. The 240 suspension is much easier to work on than my honda's, i just wish the engine bay was easy like honda. Anyways I didnt take as many pics as I should have so most of this is after everything was already out of the car.

Up on 4 jack stands


Front spring/shock removed


Rear spring/shock removed


Here are the stock springs/shocks out of the car

[mestizo]

Lunch break update, MY KTS'S ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mestizo]

Ok I got my coilover's installed, man it was so easy! Only really hard part was doing the hieght adjusment cuz u gotta jack the car back up and remove the bolts then turn the lower adjuster till u get it right luckily i only had to do this once on the front and rears were perfect! I don't have any pics of the full car just shots of the install. However I will tell u this my car is super fucking stiff and kicks the ass sideways so easy now!!!!

UPS brings goodness!




It's like Christmas morning!!! All unwrapped.




Front Upper Camber Plate


Front coilover installed


Rear Coilover


Rear Adjuster from inside the trunk

[mestizo]

Well I went out to pick and pull today to look for some odd and ends that my car was missing, I went off a lil back road and had my first real chance to drift the car and man what a difference those coilovers made!!! The car is real predictable and corrects really nice, the ass goes side ways much easier. I have not had much time to play but from the lil the i did it's great for me at this point.

A few things I forgot to mention yesterday was I found out my front passnger side brake caliper is leaking and my rear pads are shot, so I had andrew order up some factory rear pads and im gonna go pick a rebuilt caliper soon too. Ill try to take to pics of the whole car later.

[mestizo]

Well time for an update, had a good sunday at pick n pull getting parts for my car, picked up a set of manual transmission pedals, clutch master cylinder, clutch hard line and a driver's front side fender.

Altho sunday was not a good day for all of us. Andrew a.k.a. ASSASSIN10000 on here was in an accident, a large cuiser motorcycle going at a high speed hit his AE86 on the passenger side late sunday evening. The car is totaled and man did that bike cause some seriuos damage, the people on the bike were alive when Andrew last saw them in the ambulance however no other info is known at this time about them. Andrew is ok other than some soreness and bruising, but his car however sadly is gone, the front end seems to be in ok condition but pretty much everything from the doors back is damaged. I'm just glad Andrew wasnt hurt badly.

Monday was not much better for me, my motor in my daily driver decided it wanted to start rod knocking so it's rebuild time for it, this is an unexpected $700 expense for me. So Xmas will suck this year.

Today I got paid... decided that I had enough bad news for the past 2 days and spent some money. I bought a set of Bride MO seat rails so I can put my Recaro's in the 240 and also picked a set of mint JDM Silvia Brick Head Lights for when I do the Silvia front end conversion.

So yea that's all for now, sorry for the lack of enthusiasm just a lot going on with one of my best freinds has a bad accident, my motor goes out and o yea I forgot to tell u i got a ticket for no front plate on my girls car today too

[RicerX]

Ooo. That suks. In a way, its kinda wierd cuz whats happening to you, im goin thrue right now. My friend totaled his civic, rear ended a diesel. Aside from that, it sounds like im getting piston slap again. Difference, no money to fix anything. I hope assassin1000 gets his car runnin, and those people are ok. Its sometimes good to have 2 cars.

[mestizo]

Yea there is no fixin his car, but he is prolly getting a great deal on a shell that we can transfer all the parts that are still in good condition to.

[RicerX]

Yea there is no fixin his car, but he is prolly getting a great deal on a shell that we can transfer all the parts that are still in good condition to.

Oh yea, that sounds good. He'll be up and running in no time.
Hey, is every one else on vacation or something?

[mestizo]

Oh yea, that sounds good. He'll be up and running in no time.
Hey, is every one else on vacation or something?

lol no they just dont post, sucks cuz i wanted there to a decent amount of traffic thru the board but i guess there is nothing of value to the rest. Andrew is still recovering from the accident so I dont think he will post for a while but the others really have no excuse.

[RicerX]

Well, My wishes go out to Assassin, hurry and recover so you can post, and I cant wait to see the rest of the 240. Kinda excited cuz its also a learning experience. Sham on everyone else

[mestizo]

Well I got a lot of work done on the 240 yesterday, on friday night I went out to drift. Went out to a known spot and started to drift, when my car starts to overheat, so I figured I would drift a couple more mins and go to the gas station to check it. Well when I get to the gas station i fond out my engine is covered in coolant, the heater hoses pretty much decided they had enough and blew. So that cut my night short.

Anyways yesterday I decided to change all the heater hoses so that I could drive the car still. I knew it was going to be hard to replace them since nissan decided to run the heater hoses thru the middle of the 2 piece intake manifold. Man it was so much more work than I wanted to do but it had to be done. So in end what I did was remove the intake manifold entirely and then go to Kragen to find hoses that were pre-bent to fit the 11 hoses that are in between the intake. Also picked up new manifold gaskets too. I started at 3pm and finished at 10pm.

WOOOHOOO it was woth it tho cuz the car only overheats after like 10 - 15 mins of drifting, this is without the stock fan/fan clutch which I removed cuz I will be getting an electric fan later. But man I learned a lot last night!!!!!! Only downside is my power steering started to leak like crazy so I got to fix it again. Also while I was looking for spot to drift I met a guy that was drifting who has 2 manual trannies he is selling, he said he would sell me one for $100, yea doggy 5 speed time! Anyways enough with this novel I am writing... here are some pics of the manifold project.

Here is the lower piece of the manifold I just set it on the rad support so as not to remove the 5 vacuum lines going to the front of it, you can't see it but I removed the A/C line from behind the engine and the cruise control actuator.


This is the upper manifold


Here u can see the block and all the rust stains from the leaking hoses the car used to have before i owned it


I took this pic to show that I had this dam thing in peices. I had to take the hood off cuz it doesnt raise high enough to really work on it


Reassemblly of the lower/upper manifold along with new hoses, this is where it got tricky to hook up the 6 vacuum lines on the back of the manifold as u put it back together without knocking them off as u tighten all the bolts that hold it on.

[mestizo]

Ok just a quick up date before the weekend begins. I sold my CP pistons, so I order up a bunch more stuff with the money. Brand New Nissan Silvia S13 head light brackets, Brand New Silvia Corner Lights and Intense Power GT-Racing 3" Stainless Steel Cat-back Exhaust. Can't wait to get all this stuff. My Bride MO rails should be here tomorrow, so it's Recaro time baby!

I had some issue's with power steering lines, as I said before last saturday I found out my power steering line was leaking, so I went to Napa and picked a new lifetime warranty line. The problem is when I got it home my power steering pressure sensor wouldnt thread into it cuz the new line had the wrong thread pitch. So back to Napa it went, I ended finding out all of the Napa line's have the wrong thread pitch, these must be for a different sensor or something. Anyways I went to Kragen's, got one that worked and popped it in Monday night. So I am ready to go now.

Tuesday I took the car to the pressure wash place down the street... washed the engine and underhood, man what a difference that made. Plus this will make it easier to track down leaks if they develop now that the engine is shiny and clean.

[assassin10000]

I had some issue's with power steering lines, as I said before last saturday I found out my power steering line was leaking, so I went to Napa and picked a new lifetime warranty line. The problem is when I got it home my power steering pressure sensor wouldnt thread into it cuz the new line had the wrong thread pitch. So back to Napa it went, I ended finding out all of the Napa line's have the wrong thread pitch, these must be for a different sensor or something. Anyways I went to Kragen's, got one that worked and popped it in Monday night. So I am ready to go now.

Tuesday I took the car to the pressure wash place down the street... washed the engine and underhood, man what a difference that made. Plus this will make it easier to track down leaks if they develop now that the engine is shiny and clean.

Sweet, glad it fits (and they had it in stock). Does that rubber bushing/bracket thing at the bottom fit?

Andrew

[mestizo]

Sweet, glad it fits (and they had it in stock). Does that rubber bushing/bracket thing at the bottom fit?

Andrew

Yes its a lil off but it fits better than the Napa one i had and my rails are here!!!!!!!