My S13 Build Progress - 56K Warning

[xblack240x]

Great thread, good job, been watching since the beginning, great work, especially DIY and on your own... Can't wait till I have the money and I'll do a thread like this except with an RB26 =) Congrats on finally getting the engine in (LOL "the eagle has landed," made me laugh)

[jrmiller84]

Update

One word: Bling.



The turbo outlet is balleristic looking. Really solid as well. Both the downpipe and turbo outlet are Greddy instead of Circuit Sports like I ordered, sadly it was back-ordered so I opted to get this instead.

Last night I only got three hours of sleep so tonight I'm trying to relax and watch the Gator game Although, if we win the championship I may have to hit up downtown Gainesville I AM going to finish the wiring harness tonight though, I've been slacking on it but now that the engine is in I've gotta get it done. If things go my way(parts get here before Saturday), I could have the car together this weekend.

Wish me luck!

[Oubre]

Really Good stuff so far, the basketball game was exciting, for the first 5 minutes... (See the guy get packed by the 7ft Freshman?)

[jrmiller84]

Update

Tuesdays I have class directly after work until almost 10pm at night so I won't be doing anything today. I did get a chance to go out there on my lunch break though and was able to get my wiring harness about 75% of the way hooked up. I'm going to have to redo a little bit of it because I have a few wires in weird places right now. I need some pictures of stock SR's wiring scheme so I can get a feel for how they are oriented. Perhaps it's even in the FSM.

Took this picture while I was there earlier. She's startin' to look mean.

[sepulchral]

time to relocate that wiper reservoir for piping


edit: or remove it entirely!

[bardabe]

Originally Posted by jrmiller84

Update

Tuesdays I have class directly after work until almost 10pm at night so I won't be doing anything today. I did get a chance to go out there on my lunch break though and was able to get my wiring harness about 75% of the way hooked up. I'm going to have to redo a little bit of it because I have a few wires in weird places right now. I need some pictures of stock SR's wiring scheme so I can get a feel for how they are oriented. Perhaps it's even in the FSM.

Took this picture while I was there earlier. She's startin' to look mean.

damn dude your car loos really nice, if u need pointers ont eh harness, wiring, timing, etc etc, just pm me or Email me. I'll be glad to help your car is coming out very nice. (ive owned several SR's)

[ManoNegra]

I need some pictures of stock SR's wiring scheme so I can get a feel for how they are oriented. Perhaps it's even in the FSM.

Yes, FSM has oem wiring scheme. Doing swap without consulting FSM...tsk, tsk.. . jp
Cool build man, she's coming along nicely.

[jrmiller84]

Originally Posted by ManoNegra

Yes, FSM has oem wiring scheme. Doing swap without consulting FSM...tsk, tsk.. . jp
Cool build man, she's coming along nicely.

Oh believe me, I've consulted it on almost every aspect of the swap. I just haven't looked that particular part up yet today

If it wasn't for the FSM, my tranny would still be in shambles.

[steve shadows]

Originally Posted by s13coupeluv

damn its looking real good, and you're doing all this by yourself...you're brave.

its not that hard....

clean job man

[kouki-gymkhana]

Originally Posted by sepulchral

time to relocate that wiper reservoir for piping


edit: or remove it entirely!

No need to relocate the reservoir, actually. I turned mine 90 degrees and I was able to cram my cold pipe in there after I cut a hole in the bottom of the battery tray. It's tight but it works. I've got the same IC too, but mine feeds an RB25, lol.

[hatchbaak]

Looks good.

[byebye_sti]

looking good can't wait to see it finished!

[jrmiller84]

Work Day 16 [Back to index]

I didn't plan on working on the car today but when I got home I had five boxes waiting for me Now I have all of the parts I need to finish! In those boxes were my exhaust, dual fan thermostat relay, oil pan, test pipe, and DOHC power steering lines. For some reason I assumed they would be used (the power steering lines) but they are brand new, very nice.



The exhaust is so much larger than I thought it would be. It's rediculous. I tried to coax one of our cats into crawling in it but that didn't work...

The quality of the exhaust is superb, you truely do get what you pay for.





Oh, and of course, stickers are the REAL reason we pay $600 for an exhaust





Once I saw all of the parts, I had to go work on the car. It's all up to me at this point, I'm not waiting on anything else. So I headed out to the storage unit and started busting ass.

The last time I was there, I wasn't able to hook up the driveshaft because the tranny crossmember wasn't lining up accurately with it's holes. So I had to losen the motor mounts and move the motor back some to get it into place.

When I did this, I noticed a small (yet an incredible pain in the ass) problem. I followed the advice of everyone and hooked up the heater hoses before installing the engine, but when I looked at them tonight they were crazy kinked. So kinked in fact I was worried they were going to break

So while I had the motor mounts loose, I pulled the motor back even more to give myself about 4-5 inches of room and I started reconnecting them. I noticed that the heater hoses I got didn't exactly line up so I wound up having to cut one of them so it didn't kink once the motor was pushed back into place. Once I got that done, I put the motor back in place, bolted up the tranny crossmember and starting connecting the driveshaft.

The driveshaft was a little bit of a pain to get together, at least for a first-timer. Holding that thing above my head and trying to connect the bolts was killing my arms until I had a revelation... use a jack. After that it was smooth sailing.

With all of the large stuff in place (aside from my exhaust) I should have a lot of light work ahead of me. This means I am green for this weekend

[SC_S13]

plumbing is the bane of any installation haha

[ctm_motortrends]

Great job man. I DIDN'T MEAN TO STEAL YOUR POST. IT LOOKS REALLY GOOD. GOOD LUCK CTM_MOTORTRENDS

[monkeyrps13]

Whats the size of storage? Is it big enough for you? I am planning to do a swap in a storage, too....

[fromxtor]

^^ Oh you mean like this?

He did this all by himself, your doing an excellant job.

[jrmiller84]

Originally Posted by fromxtor

^^ Oh you mean like this?

He did this all by himself, your doing an excellant job.

Awesome! If only our kitten wasn't a little bastard...

Originally Posted by SC_S13

plumbing is the bane of any installation haha

You're telling me. I have to figure out how to cut a hole in metal without electricity.

Originally Posted by monkeyrps13

Whats the size of storage? Is it big enough for you? I am planning to do a swap in a storage, too....

10x20. I would recommend a 20x20 if you can handle it. 10x20 is enough but it's tight sometimes.

[byebye_sti]

looking goooddd man! keep up the good work!

[drewc87]

what did you end up doing with the harness? what diagram did u use to wire it?

[jrmiller84]

Originally Posted by drewc87

what did you end up doing with the harness? what diagram did u use to wire it?

I wound up recovering the wires I thought were bad since they appear to be like that from the factory.

I used a combination of guides to do my harness. Mainly I used the one found at http://www.frsport.com/SR20DET_Swap_...SR20_t_26.html since it is nicely detailed. After I finished, I then double checked it against the Heavy Throttle guide to make sure everything matched up (it did). I feel pretty confident about my harness after that.

We'll see though, gotta stay optimistic.

[Z_Spool]

Abosolutely incredible job. Makes me wish I could start cranking on mine right now. I'm definately keeping the storage unit thing in mind though. Again, fantastic work... can't wait to see it done... and perhaps see a fire-up vid?

[jrmiller84]

Originally Posted by Z_Spool

Abosolutely incredible job. Makes me wish I could start cranking on mine right now. I'm definately keeping the storage unit thing in mind though. Again, fantastic work... can't wait to see it done... and perhaps see a fire-up vid?

I've been considering it, although the quality won't be the best. It should( ) be decent enough to show hopefully.

I may not wind up posting it if it's just a video of me cussing because it won't start, haha. I have a feeling that will be the likely scenario since this is my first swap ever.

[jrmiller84]

Update

I went out to work on the car today on my lunch break. Thought I could get a few small things done. I started by attempting to install my new shiney turbo outlet but realized something horrifying... Ok, maybe not horrifying but definitely time consuming and annoying.

The turbo is not attached to the exhaust manifold securely. I can move it back and forth about half a millimeter. Not good. Guess the idiot before me didn't think it was that important...

I thought I could tighten it while it was still attached but I can't reach half of the bolts as they are between the turbo and the motor itself. Sooo... I guess that means I'll be taking the headers off tonight to get to the turbo instead of installing my exhaust. I hear it's a beast to get the turbo off too. It will probably set me back a few hours.

[Justin Bernstein]

That sucks man...but taking the manifold and turbo off isnt impossible. Youll need plenty of light and patience because those oil lines are an absolute bitch to get to in such a tight space. I would suggest getting the header bolts off before trying for the turbo lines because it may give you some extra space to get your hands in there from under the car.

Good luck bro. Let us know how it turns out.

[jrmiller84]

That was my plan. Luckily I don't have any other accessories installed so pretty much everything is out of the way. Another problem being that the shock tower is pretty close to the turbo so it's hard to get a wrench in there as well.

[Justin Bernstein]

a socket will def fit in there. I def needed a small extention to get the bolts under the manifold tubes, a regular racheting wrench will help also. The manifold will def have more than enough room to come strait out once the lines are disconnected.

[statik]

Originally Posted by jrmiller84

That was my plan. Luckily I don't have any other accessories installed so pretty much everything is out of the way. Another problem being that the shock tower is pretty close to the turbo so it's hard to get a wrench in there as well.

Removing the turbo is ezmode, esp with no exhaust on, it's annoying with stock banjo lines, but you will be done in no time, the worst line is the water return against the block, i usually remove the manifold bolts, and the water/oil feed, then I just bend the turbo slightly away from the block to get the ratchet back there. The turbo to manifold bolts you just need to get a wrench in at the right angles and it will come off (or in your case, tighten down) in minutes, don't sweat it. Make sure those locking plates are on too!

[jrmiller84]

Originally Posted by statik

Removing the turbo is ezmode, esp with no exhaust on, it's annoying with stock banjo lines, but you will be done in no time, the worst line is the water return against the block, i usually remove the manifold bolts, and the water/oil feed, then I just bend the turbo slightly away from the block to get the ratchet back there. The turbo to manifold bolts you just need to get a wrench in at the right angles and it will come off (or in your case, tighten down) in minutes, don't sweat it. Make sure those locking plates are on too!

Hmm, that doesn't sound too bad. I don't think I've seen the locking plates yet so I'll have to keep an eye out. I did see a plate facing the firewall where the turbo and exhaust manifold meet, that's probably it I suppose.

Maybe I will be able to get that exhaust installed after all.

[t67s13]

Car looks good keep it up.