Shadowman's S13 blacktop hatch build thread

[ShadowMan]

I've had this car for a few years already. But as you'll see it's still in rough shape. Due to my deployments and obligations to all that, this hog gets pushed to the back burner often. Due to leaving it in the hands of not so knowledgable friends who fiddled with the Power fc settings, cylinder number 4 detonated and destroyed the ring lands. So I broke down and decided to try my hand at rebuilding the motor myself, armed with an FSM and the tools I've acquired over the years, I gave it my best shot. So here goes, didn't take alot of pics, when I get on point I just zone in to the task at hand
how she sat before the rebuild


the tear down



addressing the harnes while rebuild kit from frsport is on order



As I didn't know the cause of why she was burning oil, this was my first clue to the problem

son of a bitch, knew this coming

tear down continues



not good

Pretty happy about how clean this all was after removing the valve cover


And finally the problem rears its ugly head, this is why driving on a shitty tune is bad

pulled it out and little ring land pieces went everywhere



All the pictures of putting it back together got erased so bummer on that. I reused the rods, went with oem pistons and rings, arp hardware, acl bearings, supertech valve seals, new timing kit, new oil pump, apex hg, new rear main seal. I ran into the same problem with a couple of the main studs hitting the oil pan. I initially shaved the oil pan little by little until i thought i had the clearance but ended up cracking it anyway. So I had the pan welded and shaved the excess off the studs. Suggest just trimming the main studs from the get go, as have many others. Got everything back together and reinstalled. Ordered a base map from Steve Shadows, and broke her in nice and easy with conventional oil. Changed after initial startup and 5 min run, 50 miles, 100 miles, 500 miles, 1000 miles and now on regular intervals. Drove it up to canyon racer motorsports for a dyno tune. The motor came with after market injectors and Steve and I could not figure out their size. I havent have them flow tested either. So we played it safe and stopped at around 200 whp until I get my fuel system sorted out. I plan on going with a top feed setup soon so hopefully my fuel setup will be completed soon. I still need to go thru all my sensors to make sure they are getting the right voltage as she still has an irregular idle and wants to sputter when trying to cruise at any steady speed. Acceleration is strong but not quite consistent, so hopefully I'll have all that sorted out. I just need to pick up a reliable multi-meter, and a wideband O2 as well.
S13 blacktop
z32 maf
3" exhaust straight piped
turbonetics t3t4 60 trim
38 mm tial wastegate
open dump pipe
greddy turbo timer and boost controller
Apex power fc
aeromotive fpr with marshall gauge
Battery relocated to trunk
I hope to stay on this steady as I'm done deploying, so hopefully the updates will be steady as well.

[Kk_kalina]

pics are way to small

[ShadowMan]

I had a knock of nismo fpr and wasn't too sure about the reliability of it so I went ahead wand threw the aeromotive unit on with a tomei fuel rail adapter, along with a marshall fuel guage and black -AN fittings to tie the return lines all together.
Also had to jerry rig a mounting assembly for the fpr, just some aluminum anlge and flat stock from Lowes, made it larger than neccsary in case anything else needs to get mounted nearby.




Redid the intake filter and pipe as well

And some pics of the battery relocation install I did


The interior with the greddy turbo timer and boost controller, boost gauge, oil pressure and tem gauge and the power fc. I plan on relocating the gauges to a more practical location when I get around to it.

And the screamer/dump pipe, when I finally tackle the exhaust I plan on plumbing it back into the exhaust. Its been fun deafening people for a while but I've had my fill with it.

Slowly but surely. Hopefully I can get a wiring specialties harness and wideband O2 soon to help eliminate some gremlins and keep a better eye on whats going on under the hood.

[ShadowMan]

added this dc strut bar, I like this look alot better and its a solid piece , no swivel bolts so its alot sturdier


Got this hatch spoiler but it wasnt quite what I wanted so a little fiberglass, body filler and paint. Still not exactly what I like but it's closer than the little wedge that showed up.
this is how it originally looked



and this is after my amatuer fiberglass job



New/used parts showing up at the rapid so more to come. Hopefully I'll finally be able to get my power steering assembly finally pieced together and be able to enjoy one hande steering.

[S-Nation S13]

your in oceanside, im surprised i dont see you cruising around lol..probably bc your cars been out of commission..keep it up seem like you having fun with the whole build thing..

[lewisfk]

Hey man did i stop by your house a month ago? Black dude in blue Ford Ecoboost? If so did u find that extra zmaf sensor?

[S13x88]

Originally Posted by lewisfk

Hey man did i stop by your house a month ago? Black dude in blue Ford Ecoboost? If so did u find that extra zmaf sensor?

I don't think you have the right guy.....

[ShadowMan]

Originally Posted by lewisfk

Hey man did i stop by your house a month ago? Black dude in blue Ford Ecoboost? If so did u find that extra zmaf sensor?

Yeah definitely not me. And S-Nation s13 Ive been out and about a little, mostly running errands. I dont really know where everybody likes to go cruise either. Ive been to the thursday night meet off the 76 and college once. After Im finished with this marksmenship trainer course I'll be out a bit more hopefully.

[lewisfk]

Well there is a guy living in base housing with a similar car! If your selling parts let me know im local!

[ShadowMan]

new parts, well new to me anyway. In montana picking up my gtir motor I left behind, which is for sale btw. Be back to cali sunday, and hopefully have the energy to put some of these on, but after 22 hours of driving we'll see.

Newish clean valve cover with the lines and fittings


isis intake mani, not a polished type of guy so I'm going to give wrinkle black a try. Not exactly sure how to prep this mani for something like that, yet.


Oil catch can for the hose that runs from the VC to the intake before the turbo. Just curious if this is worth it or not. Got it all for a deal so I figured couldn't hurt to throw it on and see, right?


And the missing link to my power steering system, well at least I think. as far as the other lines go, its my understanding the other lines are just a descent rate rubber hose, but I'll have to look into my fsm to be certain.

[ShadowMan]

Originally Posted by lewisfk

Well there is a guy living in base housing with a similar car! If your selling parts let me know im local!

Did you hit me up at the px a bit ago, in the stuart mesa housing?
I am selling parts, I do have an extra z-maf but I'm hanging onto it for now until my next dyno run to make sure everyting I have is working good. I live in the stuart mesa area, so if you want to stop by and see what I have, by all means do. I would love to sell off the rest of my stuff so I can get other stuff for my car and stuff, nothing in particular, just......stuff.

[ShadowMan]

Alright, got some of this stuff figured out temparaily. Just need to figure out final mounting points and hose lengths. I'm going to try to take these blue and red -AN fittings over to vw heaven to trade em for some black ones since they carry alot of it in stock usually. I guess this a functioning mock up for my DD. I obviously need additional AN fittings to get rid of the black hose running from the greddy catch can to the intake pipe. I decide to do all this today as well as retorque the head studs, which were still at holding at 80 lbs. so it ended up just being for my peace of mind. Replaced to old vacuum hoses as well that run by the fuel lines. Once I get my isis intake mani prepped, this valve cover is coming off again and I think I'll go wrinkle red or black for the VC and probably wrinkle black on the intake mani but not sure yet.
Now for the pics


this big black hose is gay as shit, but it'll be gone soon enough as well as relocate the nipple on the side closer to the greddy unit.


Hit up one of the 240 meets last night off the 76 and college and got some insightful info from some local 240 guys and some ladies as well. Hopefully my power steering system will be finally pieced together tomorrow and up and running by Sunday. Got a father/son fishing trip in Dana Point tomorrow afternoon with my boy so it will most likely be sunday. Just need to source out a new fuel rail and injectors so I can get off this break-in tune and get some real power.

[PG BOOSTED]

Nice build dude

[ShadowMan]

Two other things that I am really excited about but most will probably think is stupid. Notice the pink fuse box cover on the passenger side engine bay box? Well Im just happy to have one now, wish it were white but whatever, itll keep the crud out for now, and now I can open my trunk using the key. Stupid right? I dont care though Im happy now. Thanks Vatche for the fuse box cover, refusing to let me leave the Denny's parking lot with out a working hatch lock and getting me the power steering parts I need.

PG BOOSTED- thanks for the compliment, hopefully I can start on cleaning it up a bit too.

[ShadowMan]

dual electric fans finally. Still figuring out some of my wiring so right now they are each wired into seperate toggle switches. Once I get my new WS harness I'll wire them into relays and a thermostatic switch or whatever they're called.

[ShadowMan]

Since I'm not big on chrome, I've been working on getting the intake manifold prepped. Since it is an ISIS unit, it has all the crappy casting "extras". So Ive just been using my files and harbor freight ghetto dremel to get all the chrome off and smooth out all the bumps and low spots.






Also got in the new WS harness. Aside from soldering on the new injector clips, I'm leaving all the clips on it so when I decide to resell it, more people will be able to use it.




Also, my exhaust had been rubbing on my bumper, so I tried my hand at cutting the hangers and rewelding em to get it away from the side. They are crappy welds but they work.







got it moved just enough for it to quit banging against the bumper when it idles like shit. But I also ordered a new coolant temp sensor for the ecu so hopefully that solves the crappy idle.

[PG BOOSTED]

its coming along for you dude just keep at it. You should powdercoat the intake manifold gold like your current rim color. thats just my personal opinion

[kennedy8383]

I like how the battery setup at the back..

[ShadowMan]

Originally Posted by PG BOOSTED

its coming along for you dude just keep at it. You should powdercoat the intake manifold gold like your current rim color. thats just my personal opinion

Not sure if I'll be sticking with this color for the wheels but I will think about your suggestion once I pick a wheel color. I'm also just considering a wrinkle black for the VC and intake mani. But who knows...

[ShadowMan]

Originally Posted by kennedy8383

I like how the battery setup at the back..

Thanks, I've had this kit for a while. It was in my G20 first and now this. Aside from having to pull the lid off when I want to dissconnect the battery, I have no complaints about it.

[ShadowMan]

Just had my second son a week ago and everything leading up to him has kept me pretty busy getting everything ready for his arrival. But I have made a little progress. Almost got the intake all filed down and did some test fitting. Looks like the holes all line up with the stock fuel rail, just need to get some new injector bushings. I also ordered the cold pipe to get it mounted up so that should be here by middle of next week. I also ordered the FC datalogit and the Innovate MTX-L wideband which should also be here next week some time. Here are just a few pics of test fitment of the fuel rail to the IM.




I have pretty much hand filed the majority of the IM and used my ghetto harbor frieght die grinder to get the nooks and crannies where the files wouldn't reach. I have also filed and grinded a bit of the casting leftovers/marks or whatever they're called down a little bit. Here's where I would like some opinions. I have the circuit sports thermal barrier gasket for the IM and when I placed it on the manifold, the ports don't match the gasket. I'll get a pic up tomorrow to show what I'm talking about, but for those of you that know what I'm talking about should I port match the FREDDY manifold runners to the gasket or leave it be. I'm definitely not porting the head on my own so just looking for a little feedback. Thanks for looking.

[ShadowMan]

The Innovate Wideband showed up. Came packaged nice and bubble padded. So here it is. I know there are probably alot of others out there that would like to see a write and review on this so I will give it a try. This is the MTX-L unit and all it came with.

Hopefully by next weekend I can have this installed.

[pablo13]

Coming on well

[ShadowMan]

So I got the wideband installed and took pics. Went rather smoothly since there was already a bung on the exhaust and I already had a spot for the gauge. Overall, I'm happy with it. But I'll just get right inot it.
First things first, find a switched 12v source


Find a headlight power wire, I already have gauges over here so I tied into the wire supplying them.


Once I located the neccesary wires, I disconnected the battery


This is the oil temp gauge I no longer need, so the Innovate gauge will take its place.


MTX-L installed


Red wire on MTX-L goes to switched 12v, which is this green wire supplying 12v for my other 2 gauges


Again, white wire on MTX-L goes to headlight wire, which is this thicker white wire supplying switched power for the other gauges lights. This wire works differently for the MTX-L . It dims the display when lights are turned on so it's not too distracting at night. If you don't want the display on the gauge to dim when it's dark and you turn your lights on, then ground this wire to the chassis.


Black wire on MTX-L is the ground wire. Keep it away from radio grounds or anything similar that has a lot of "electrical noise". As per the instructions, it could interfere with MTX-L unit, similar to the reason MAF wiring is shielded.


The yellow and brown wire are analog outputs for either your ecu or datalogging, I will be using these later but for now not neccesary. So I individually heat shrinked them, then heat shrinked them together.


So here's the wires behind the glove box area. I'm not worried about how the wires look now as I have a few more things to do under here, so it will get cleaned up in later this week.


Before you hook up the actual sensor to the MTX-L, the unit needs to calibrate itself. So now that everything is wired up, hook the battery up and switch the car to accessory or on position. The gauge will cycle on lighting up the entire digital readout and sweep the light bar across the enitre spectrum. The it will show E2, which is error code for no sensor, which is great because the O2 sensor not plugged in yet.


Then the car gets turned to the off postion or just remove the keys, the O2 sensor gets plugged in and is allowed to sit in the open for a "free air" calibration. So I plugged it in and set it on the box to keep it off the ground.


Turn key to the "on" position, no need to start the car. The gauge will show "Htr". This is the sensor heating up so it can get accurate readings. I took these 2 pics because as the method the gauge uses to display the reading, the camera catches it in between it pulsing the readout, weird. It only looks like this in a pic. It shows a constant display to the human eye.



After 30-60 seconds it will display the reading which will be 22.4 because that's the gauges upper reading limit of lean and since the gauge is sitting in open air that's correct.Now power the car off again and it's time to mount the sensor. You can unplug the sensor and you won't have to recalibrate it as long as you do not power the car on while it is unplugged.
Time to make a hole


After about 5 minutes it finally punches through. Here you can see the bung that was already in the exhaust for me as well. Score!


Painted the hole and applied some gasket maker.


Then a rubber gromet and more rtv.


Found this old broken scope cap that I filed a slot in, then used another grommet to help keep the water and debree out.


Slit the small grommet, slipped the wiring into that, generously applied more rtv and placed the whole ensemble in place.


Then sprayed it all black.


Everything went relatively smoothly especially having the bung already in the exhaust. Had an old broken O2 to keep it plugged. Old on the left, New on the right.


If anyone has any questions on it feel free to ask. I'd also like to point out that I got the MTX-L with the 8ft sensor cable option. Needless to say i have about 4 ft coiled up under the dash but when I use it for dyno tuning it will come in handy having the extra cable. They offer it in a 4 ft cable which would be fine, should be able to mount he gauge any where on the dash with the 4 ft option. Thanks for reading.

[ShadowMan]

Finally getting around to getting the new intake manifold mounted up. Still need a iacv hose and also need to modifly the cold side piping, but it should be done by thursday afternoon sometime. Anyway, on with the pics.

Getting the old one unhooked and out



New one prepped and ready to go in



Somewhat settled in


Slight mod to the fuel rail, out with uneccesary hardline and just an extended fuel line


Once I get it finished tomorrow I'll get the finished pics up.

[ShadowMan]

Got her all finished up. Just had to run out and grab some 3/4" ID hose for the IACV and cut up my new isis cold pipe to get it to match up to my other IC piping. All in all, I'd say this went pretty smoothly. Spent about 4 hours actually working to get it done. Thankfully I'm a hoarder and never throw/give anything away. I hade all the vacuum line fittings to screw into the ports under the throttle body and on the underside of the IM so now everything has its one vacuum/boost source, no tee's. My next purchases are a new topfeed fuel rail and some ID 1000's, so pay no attention to that fuel line running across the top of the manifold. When I purchased this badboy it already had the converted throttle body or maybe the whole thing is an s14 unit, I don't know. Either way all I had to do was flip my throttle cable bracket 180 and it works just fine.
fuel rail and lines fitted

All finished up


Any comments and critiques are welcome. Thanks for looking.

[KiLLeR2001]

Sweet build, very similar to my car! I see that the car was originally red. Are you planning on keeping it black or going a different color?

[ShadowMan]

I actually have been thinking of a different color but non in particular. Something that won't show the dirt as fast. Even after I'm done washing it, 5 minutes later it looks dirty. Maybe like a gunmetal grey or something.

[ShadowMan]

My FC Datalogit finally arrived so I'll be spending time getting familar with the software to get it to datalog with the wide band and get my map refined. Looking forward to learning this aspect of the build. Also, I have yet to see any oil collecting in the the catch can with my current setup, in case if anyone was wondering about trying this setup out.

[ShadowMan]

Well now that my new kid is a little more self sufficient and can entertain himself, I've been able to abuse my poor car some more. Decided that the placement of the intercooler was horrible, giving it more than its fair share of abuse, so I figured why not put it right where the old AC condensor used to be. While I was removing everything and test fitting the new spot I figured I might as well replace the front core support seeing how the previous owner's shop, did a half assed job of measuring and welding it in place for the s15 front end. While I was doing that, I knew I needed to get the wiring out of the way so that while I was welding new stuff, the harness wouldn't get fried. Thee-eeeeennn I figured since I had the front part of the chassis harnes pretty much out of the car already, I might as well do a wire tuck. So now, here I sit, with a plan that resembles a 2 yr olds finger painting, that originally started out with a simple intercooler relocation, that hasn't been done, that mutated into a semi tube front/bash bar fab, that has now transmorphorized into a mess which has led to the removal of the entire interior to get this wire tuck finished. Sometimes I really wish I had a different hobby, but I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. Anyway, here's the progress. Sorry for not taking more pics.

I separated the fuse boxes in half so I could snake them through the original holes w/o cutting new ones.



Couple pics of the interior gutted and the wiring taking control.



I bought some tubing and gathered some scrap for practicing and the new front end. But more of that later.
I'll try to get more pics tomorrow.