My RB S14 Build Thread

[thefro526]

You're from NJ, I'm from NJ.

I like how you get down with the get down.

[240Shwag]

Okay got some stuff done.

All the RB crap is off the motor so I can regasket and clean it.










Valve covers are off. Very clean inside woo hoo.


The polishing begins.


Chipped crank pulley, I am not happy.


Parts bagged and organized.


No wires!


The remainder of the sound deadening is out.


Pass me the grinder, please.




More to come! Got the clutch, radiator hoses, fuel pump, regulator, and rack bushings in on tuesday. Pics of that crap as it goes in. I still have a ton of work to do on the chassis, I will try my best to document that.

[jbballa9876]

Why RB25? Everyone is trying to get rid of theirs. I drive mine everyday but my money would have been spend better i tend to think... Its a nice motor near stock, but not sure if i would spend the money to build it.

Dohc v8tt ftw, no pushrod crap

[kimchi29]

sub'd cant wait to see where this goes

[fliprayzin240sx]

Sub'd, I'm about to tackle this in the next couple of months. Wiring guide would be a fucking God send and same me a couple hundred bucks...

[240Shwag]

Originally Posted by jbballa9876

Why RB25? Everyone is trying to get rid of theirs. I drive mine everyday but my money would have been spend better i tend to think... Its a nice motor near stock, but not sure if i would spend the money to build it.

Dohc v8tt ftw, no pushrod crap

The way I look at it, it doesn't really matter what motor you start off with. The same amount of money is going to be spent to reach certain power goals reguardless of where you start.

If you think your money would have been better spent on something else, you shouldn't have spent it on a car/parts to begin with since its all a "waste".

[jbballa9876]

Originally Posted by 240Shwag

The way I look at it, it doesn't really matter what motor you start off with. The same amount of money is going to be spent to reach certain power goals reguardless of where you start.

If you think your money would have been better spent on something else, you shouldn't have spent it on a car/parts to begin with since its all a "waste".

I was just wondering why you chose rb25, if "it doesnt matter what motor you start out with". Sorry just being the devils advocate. The motor has a lot of pros and cons, the only con being the risk you take in its reliability when you take it past stock. Even fully built and everything, there are a lot of horror stories pertaining to its long term reliability. And thats just scary when you put a ton of money into it and dont know when itll fail, like cracked block, oil starvation etc. And about 700 hp is about its theoritical limit, and torque wont be extremely high


The nature of the low stroke L6 is something to be desired by everyone, how quickly itll reach high rpms and how awesome it pulls. Ideally good choice on skipping the 4 banger, and not going with the typical ohv.

Good luck though, i wont even say what engine i would be using if I had 10 - 15k, but chances are i wouldnt continue with the rb25. I wouldnt not consider the rb25 a "waste" whatsoever in its current stage of life and how cheap it was for me to do the swap, and how it hasnt had a single issue yet.

And i think for me it was the best bang for the buck, but fully built- might be a risk im not willing to take.

[240Shwag]

Originally Posted by jbballa9876

I was just wondering why you chose rb25, if "it doesnt matter what motor you start out with". Sorry just being the devils advocate. The motor has a lot of pros and cons, the only con being the risk you take in its reliability when you take it past stock. Even fully built and everything, there are a lot of horror stories pertaining to its long term reliability. And thats just scary when you put a ton of money into it and dont know when itll fail, like cracked block, oil starvation etc. And about 700 hp is about its theoritical limit, and torque wont be extremely high


The nature of the low stroke L6 is something to be desired by everyone, how quickly itll reach high rpms and how awesome it pulls. Ideally good choice on skipping the 4 banger, and not going with the typical ohv.

Good luck though, i wont even say what engine i would be using if I had 10 - 15k, but chances are i wouldnt continue with the rb25. I wouldnt not consider the rb25 a "waste" whatsoever in its current stage of life and how cheap it was for me to do the swap, and how it hasnt had a single issue yet.

My power goals for this car are going to be around 500hp max.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Originally Posted by jbballa9876

I was just wondering why you chose rb25, if "it doesnt matter what motor you start out with". Sorry just being the devils advocate. The motor has a lot of pros and cons, the only con being the risk you take in its reliability when you take it past stock. Even fully built and everything, there are a lot of horror stories pertaining to its long term reliability. And thats just scary when you put a ton of money into it and dont know when itll fail, like cracked block, oil starvation etc. And about 700 hp is about its theoritical limit, and torque wont be extremely high


The nature of the low stroke L6 is something to be desired by everyone, how quickly itll reach high rpms and how awesome it pulls. Ideally good choice on skipping the 4 banger, and not going with the typical ohv.

Good luck though, i wont even say what engine i would be using if I had 10 - 15k, but chances are i wouldnt continue with the rb25. I wouldnt not consider the rb25 a "waste" whatsoever in its current stage of life and how cheap it was for me to do the swap, and how it hasnt had a single issue yet.

And i think for me it was the best bang for the buck, but fully built- might be a risk im not willing to take.

Why I decided to go RB25? I had enough buddies in Japan that are running stock bottom end RB25 with stock HG and ARP studs pushing over 600hp on Holset HX40 turbo.

I've ridden in a couple LS1 swapped S14 and I wasnt too impressed. I like boosted engines better. Then again, when you've have a 500 hp'd SR and you sit in a stock LS swapped S14, it wont really be exciting.

My goals is 400-450 hp RB. I think for that power level, an RB25 would just be barely breaking a sweat, while the SR is pushed to its limit.

[240Shwag]

If it doesn't work out with the RB or I decide to go a different path, its only money. I work for a living. I can do whatever I want.


Got the motor test fitted today. Needs to go back about 1.25" and down an undetermined amount because I didn't get the sway bar in or the hood on.








This picture shows where the clearance issues will lie with the bellhousing/tunnel.

[fliprayzin240sx]

So your just using stock mounts with R33 crossmember? You can mode the mounting points on it to push the engine back a bit...this is what my buddy in Okinawa is doing...

[240Shwag]

Sorry for the lack of updates, my mother was sick, then I was sick, and during that whole time I was busy as hell at work. On with the pics!

One weekend during a lot of drinking, I painted and baked the exhaust manifold. It came out okay.




Also painted the Z brakes.


Inspected the injector o-rings, they are gtg.


Pulled the motor back out, and made a slick set of casters for the front. I used the holes the crossmember bolts through. They turned out nice. I plan on doing the same with the rear, except probably not with wood. You can seriously push the car around with one hand. Oh yeah and I cut some of the front end off.




Then I got started on a top secret project. Solid billet aluminum motor mounts. They may not look the best in the end, but function over form. Nobody offers these anywhere for any RWD nissan motor AFAIK.












Drilled one with the wrong size holes. So, I cut another peice. It rode shotgun in the Tacoma.


Tapped, 1/2" - 13. I plan on enlarging the holes in the factory mount brackets. Those little M10 studs are too hard to come by, and in my opinion, extremely undersized. Course thread, because from what I gather it will have more pullout resistence vs. NF in aluminum. I am considering making a set of hybrid studs. 1/2"-13 one end, 1/2"-20 other.


Of course, the last hole I tapped, I tapped crooked, so I have to remake one of the mounts. No big deal, I have plenty of bar stock left.

That is it for now. I imagine that once BF3 comes out, progress might slow.

[240Shwag]

Its been a while since I updated this. I have been working on it and it did not get swept under the rug or forgotton about. I have some more goodies inbound tomorrow. Here are some pictures...

Mocking up front end.










Back to fabrication...


































Pretty much where I ended today.





All of the tubing is 1.75" x .095" DOM. If you dudes have any input or anything it would be much appreciated!

Also got more stuff yesterday. Fidanza flywheel, SPL suspension arms, and some other stuff.


I'm going to remove the rear subframe and get to work on that over the weekend. Hopefully get the engine bay primed too. This thread is kinda old, so if it could be moved over to the build subsection that would be cool.

[flatout]

looks awesome. im in the process of doing a build sort of like this all new wiring and what not. keep it up man.

[240Shwag]

Got some stuff done over the weekend.

I hate when this happens. Stupid crack head hands.


Primed. Also, I added a light flatbar on the edge of the round part to give it a little more rigidity.


Got this side primed too, but forgot to snap a picture of it before I left. You can see that flatbar I was talking about better here. Also, I welded that from other side, so penetration was no issue as you can tell.



I took tomorrow and tuesday off of work, so I hope to get the rest of the undercarriage banged out. The after that I will beefen up and paint the subframe, then move on to the body work.

[240Shwag]

Decided to give myself some room under the car and made a dolly. This is going to work perfectly.

[fliprayzin240sx]

You got that wiring guide done by any chance?

[240Shwag]

Originally Posted by fliprayzin240sx

You got that wiring guide done by any chance?

As soon as I'm done with this Mac and cheese I can pm you what I have so far, its untested though and you'll need to design a circuit to work the ac.

[fliprayzin240sx]

I'm trying to see how tedious it is...I might just bite the bullet and get a pre made WS harness and sell the stock harness to recoup some of the money back.

Anyways, figured you'd be further along with this. Do you have the RB put back all together already? I'm playing jigsaw puzzle with mine, I tore it down over a year ago and sat in the box. Most of my labels on my zip lock bags are barely readable so its been interesting so far.

[240Shwag]

Originally Posted by fliprayzin240sx

I'm trying to see how tedious it is...I might just bite the bullet and get a pre made WS harness and sell the stock harness to recoup some of the money back.

Anyways, figured you'd be further along with this. Do you have the RB put back all together already? I'm playing jigsaw puzzle with mine, I tore it down over a year ago and sat in the box. Most of my labels on my zip lock bags are barely readable so its been interesting so far.

The wiring is cake really, it only took me a few hours.

I was hoping I would be further along as well, but the more I took apart the car, the more I changed my plans for it. The RB is still in pieces but it won't take me long to put back together, I remember pretty much how everything goes.

I am still waiting on some parts for it thought lmao. Belt tensioner and the dip stick tube. I could more then likely reassemble everything without those for now but there is so much left to do on the chassis.

[240Shwag]

Okay got out there for a little bit today. Popped the wheels off and started removing the ebrake cables. I need pb blaster before I can continue anything, every bolt seems to want to snap. Also met the enemy under there.

Exibit A, inside the truck room LH wheel arch:


Another shot of Exibit A, from the outside of the wheel arch


Exibit B, forward side of LH quarter panel:


Another shot of Exibit B but from inside (my god, thats all three panels!!! This will be the hardest to fix):



Exibit C, RH quarter panel, forward side, not as bad as the other side, but stll pretty crappy:


Finally, Exibit D, LH side floor pan where it meets the rear seat deck, this one is probably the easiest to fix:


So yeah, I have my work "cut out" for me. Seems like the tech that was in charge of the seam sealant must have been absent that day at the factory. I hate that ****ing guy.

[240Shwag]

Subframe is out! It was pretty funny how I got it out. I lowered it onto the forklift, and moved the car away from it lol. That dolly sure is handy.


Unfortunately, something went INTO my palm lol:


More progress tomorrow.

[240Shwag]

Fuel tank is out:


This sleeve from the bushing is stuck, anyone have any ideas on how to get this ****er off?:


A peek above the fuel tank, the picture makes it look worse then it is, just very mild surface rust ill blast that shit right off:


I would have started to work on those really rusty sections by the subframe studs, but everything still smelled like gasoline and I was a little scared of being on fire honestly.

[240Shwag]

Subframe before:


After:


Keep pile on the right, discard pile on the left:


I think I'm going welded diff, so this is for sale:


I then tucked all that stuff away into storage along with the front end and all the other crap until I'm ready for it. I have to concentrate on the chassis then I can begin reassembling all of the little nick nacks one at a time.

[240Shwag]

Rawr!

Cut a little bit of it:


Cut some more, getting closer:


The pile of debris I was left with:


Now, those are the crumple zones that are all rusted. They aren't really structural to the cars integrity, so I don't really know what I'm going to do with them just yet. Its not like anyone is going to be in the back seat or anything since it will blocked by the cage. I will have to rebuild that small area where the subframe spreader plate bolted to, since I just cut it off lol. I'll be sandblasting the rest of it tonight.

[CoalieG]

This build looks sick! Any update?

[Boss_S14]

This Build is INsane GOODLUCK!

[240Shwag]

I have some updates, a lot has changed. I had to move to a new shop, so that took some time to get set up. I was starting to get the ball rolling on everything, but then I got really sick and it wouldn't go away for months. Turns out I have cancer. Stage 4 Hodgkins Lymphoma. I started treatment in October and things are going well with that so far. I'm not working anymore, so I have a lot of free time to finish this build off. I plan everything on the days I feel like poop, and actually work on it when I feel good. Chemo treatments are every 2 weeks and I average about 4 good days before I chemo the fuck up again.

My excuses aside, heres the actual update:

This is where those triangular things go on the forward mounting points on the subframe. I had to rebuild them. Used angle iron and welded a nut to the backside.






Rocker sheet metal replaced, it was nasty inside:


Gotta replace that sheet metal I cut out.


Getting better, 18ga cold rolled.


Got a new tig torch


Driver side rear wheel arches. Its much worse then this.


Rear floor behind driver seat, fixed.




Making a mess uggggg this **** sucks!


Vacuumed!


Front floor in front of driver seat, fixed.


Just enough room for my little ass to get under there.

Got these jammies while I was droppin a deuce


OEM five lug! I have all four + rear bearings!


Took me a while to track this down. I have one on order somewhere else since last year but oh well.


Also, the last remaining parts to put the RB back together. Tensioner, idler, and spring. Again, these were on order, but they failed to come in within a year. SMH!


Going back together. I'll have some significantly better pics of the motor after it goes back in for the last time.



This happened. The car was hung so the entire bottom could be cleaned, primed and painted.




This was done with Raptor sprayed out of a 1.8mm tip on a HVLP gun. Raptor is a 2k truck bed liner that is normally sprayed from a larger tip. It is a 2k product, so we know it will last. Epoxy primer was used as the undercoat, all seams were sealed with the 3M 2k seam sealer after primer, but before the top coat.
Primed, my friend Brandon spraying the topcoat. What a nice guy.

Lovely.



Test fitting of the engine.


I decided I no longer like the first front end I made. Started on a new one. Stan gave me a deal on proper fitting fenders and a bumper, which was a life saver.










Everything is designed to unbolt for easy removal of everything!


Sandblasted the rear LCAs and knuckles. They need to be painted yet.


Picked up these sparco seats for a good deal, and started making brackets for them, its very hard to keep the seats low in this car. Installing these before the door bars is the best bet, that way everything fits.


Progress on the cage. Pretty much the entire cage besides the door bars fabricated.


Door bars almost finished. Preload son. Preload.








Finished up. Taking a break.


Dimple plate.


Door sill dimple plate.


Moarrr dimple plate.


Steering wheel mount.

[240Shwag]

My welding is getting good.


My girlfriend, doing what she does best.




Notched the seat crossmember to get the seats a little lower.


Figured I'd get the interior primed before it started rusting. Needs another coat.

Finished priming.

Moved on to the fuel tank and associated items.
Made some new straps out of stainless. No more rusty straps.


A quick test flare. I am using -8 AN hardline for the feed and -6 AN hardline for the return.


Tank is back up and fuel lines ran. Super easy. I recommend this to anyone with rusty fuel lines that has any kind of fuel upgrades done or are planning on them. Note, don’t use aluminum hard line. Word on the street is that it tends to develop pinholes, and nobody wants to die in a car fire.




These will change to flexible line to the top of the tank.


I will be updating. All kinds of little projects being worked on, many parts being ordered, etc etc.