Finally getting around to updating this build thread; I got really lazy about it.
I had a change of heart with this project and what I wanted to do with it. I realized that I wanted to keep the car very simple because honestly I'm getting tired of working on cars all the time and dealing with their bullshit, but I blame being a mechanic by day for all of that.
I decided to buy the original KA back. Luckily I sold it to a good friend of mine so he was willing to sell it back to me.
First thing was to put the motor on a stand and tear it apart to clean everything up and reseal that timing cover leak from when I did the timing chains.
I'm glad I had to take everything apart because things got a little messy when using RTV last time. Luckily this wasn't super clogged, it just looks bad.
I had no interest in repainting the engine bay on this car, so I just cleaned it up really well. I used WD40 and a few rags and it came out pretty damn nice.
Found this super clean Navan front bumper from YAJ. I ended up selling the fog lights.
While I had everything apart I figured I'd repaint everything. I used some specialty paint from Eastwood that was supposed to replicate cast aluminum; the stuff was awesome. I took a ton of time masking everything off to make sure the edges were clean and also the surfaces were completely clean so the RTV wouldn't have an excuse to fail. I also used their two-part clear coat to protect the finish.
I took the time to clean out all of the threads on the block for the timing cover and oil pain to insure it would basically never leak again. I also scuffed every surface with red scotchbrite to give the RTV a good surface to bond to. Then I added one stud in each corner of the block to make it easier to line up the oil pan when putting it back on for the last time.
Next was time to clean up the intake manifold and paint it to match the timing covers. I ended up deleting most of the coolant lines underneath just to keep things simple. We'll get to more of the coolant lines later on.
While I had the motor out I did the Energy Suspension urethane steering rack bushings. I even used some heat reflective tape on the little heat shield just because it looks cool. My stock ones were pretty worn out!
Also upgraded to a Shaft Masters aluminum one piece driveshaft to help the KA out.
With the car being from Florida, the weather seals are in pretty rough shape. One night drunkenly browsing Courtesy Nissan I bought new door seals and a new sunroof seal. After comparing new to old, it's easy to see they were worth every penny. The old door seals were brittle and indented from the window after all of those years in sunny Florida. The new ones were nice and
supple.
Old
New
With all of that stuff out of the way, I ordered a cheap-o longtube header from eBay. It was for an S13 so I had to clearance it to clear the steering shaft and extend it a bit to make it fit. I threw in a flex section as well. I'm definitely not great at welding, but it's cool to know that I did it myself. My apologies, I don't really have any pictures of the finished product.
After removing and installing the motor several times to ensure that the header cleared the steering shaft, the motor was finally put back in with the hopes that it wouldn't have to come back out.
Next came the mock up of all of the new coolant lines. It gets pretty cold in the winter months here in PA, and I'll drive the car until theres salt on the roads, so keeping heat is a must. I ordered a RB26 silicone coolant hose kit from ebay because it gave me the most hoses with a bunch of bends so I had creative liberty with everything. It ended up working out really well.
Once I got all of the coolant hoses sorted out, I could finally put the intake manifold back on and start doing the fuel lines. Also I forgot to include pictures of my tucked brake lines/ABS delete, but you can kinda see that here
PBM swirl pot and coolant system was next. Most of this was pretty easy. It's all just KA stuff in it's native chassis, so an eBay rad hose kit worked perfectly. Oh and I added a simple power steering cooler.
Now was the time to actually grow up. I had run pink accents on the car originally just to be flashy or whatever. Wrinkle black was the only option.
Really the last major thing I had to do before final assembly was to route the intake. I went with a little bit different routing than before, but still kept the short ram style.
Everything was just about done at this point except one important piece - a heat shield for the brake master cylinder. I had pictured this style heat shield for a while now and finally got around to making one out of some scrap aluminum I had laying around.
And with that, the bay was done.
At this point I had been trying to get the car ready for a roadtrip to Nashville, TN. About one week away from leaving I finally got to start this thing up to see if all of this hard work paid off. I was so nervous that it was still going to leak oil. Luckily the car fired first try and ran like an absolute top and didn't leak a SINGLE drop of any fluid - I was ecstatic. Now it was time to put the exterior back together and make sure it was solid enough to make a 2000 road trip.
By the way, heat shields are worth it.
I finally got to drive the car for the first time in almost 10 months. In all of the hustle I must have forgotten to tighten the throttle cable bracket nuts and it walked off on the first test drive, but other than that and an odd front wheel wobble it felt pretty solid. I drove the car to my mom's house the next day for dinner and uh... I found the wobble.
Luckily that bolt decided to stay in until I made it back to my house! No harm done; I got super lucky. I replaced those bolts and it's been solid ever since.
Got the car aligned monday afternoon. I was leaving for Nashville that saturday. I only had about 50 miles on the car since putting it back together; so I had to drive it everywhere to make sure it was good to go. If it was going to break, I wanted it to break when I was still around home, not 1000 miles away.
Oh, and I had a 10" sub and amp laying around, so I figured I'd throw that in for the road trip. Wiring it was super simple and clean because I already had the battery in the trunk.
