My RB20DET S13 build up

[M.D.]

well i should have done this ages ago but i just never got round to it, its a project threa but i think you have to be a member to post there, which i will do but i just havent got round to it,

years ago i had a mate with a grey s13 pre facelift, he was always had better cars than us (better off parents lol) and ever since i sat in one i wanted one so much,

a good few years later i got myself a grey facelift, unfortunately it was a bit of a nail under all its shiney bits, so i got rid of it about 2 years ago,

and craved another one ever since, so i did it, and here goes my s13s story,

got home from work after one late shift and saw it on ebay and saw a tatty looking black facelift that needed some cosmetic work but was mechanically sound and already was stage 1. so i emailed the bloke and said i want it when can i collect,

that weekend i got the train to salasibury from plymouth and drove it home, was faultless, and i remembered why i loved them so much.

this is as i bought it,



i then got pissed watching the england game and decided it would be fun to ride my mini moto home, ufortunately taking it flat out with my head down set it in a speed wabble and threw me to the floor breaking my collar bone......... arse.
and the day after to make myself feel better i went out and got these wheels, they looked well sexy when they arrived and i got moaned at for ages when i decided to fit them with a buggered collar bone lol



and there it started, lol it then needed lowering more, but i was tempted with a FMIC from apex at a very good price, so it arrived and here it was fitted




next were the coilovers which unfortunately i was not happy with as it made the car dangerous to drive so they were soon sent back and replaced with an apex kit.



did look nice low with them tho



while waiting for the new coilovers to arrive i turned my attention to the engine bay, it was a bit of a pikey affair so i sorted it with some old samcos and stainless pipework i had in work.
to look like this



i wanted to change the interior from the bland standard seats and got a bargain on a full grey leather one with alcantara glovebox and doorcards


with somewhere nice to sit i wanted to start replacing all the suspensio parts, i had a sneaking suspision that the subframe bushes were on there way out so apex to the rescue again with some locking collars,


i a great lover of ebay bargains, so i got these rather nice looking camber arms,

[M.D.]

the next bit was not so nice, i went to walk the dogs with some mates and tried to get into a carpark with a very very small brick speedbump on the entrance, (wembury carpark for those of you who live or know plymouth)
but as the carpark entrance was sloped the backbox clipped the bump and decided to remove itself, totally buggered it and that was something else i needed to replace, so got a complete xs power system for less than 300 quid delivered and have been extreamly happy with it ever since.




new




by now the apex coilovers arrived



fitted and looking clean for once



being that im a toolmaker engineer i started to make my own stuff

strut brace



catch tank


and then braking more things


but making myself feel better by fitting the skyline callipers i got of a lad on here for a very good price, while i waited for the new wheen to arrive

[M.D.]

after a few months of abuse the engine started to show its 120k miles,
one of the inlet valves started leaking, so i was down to 7bar compression on no3,
then the exhaust started blowing at the turbo due to the exhaust ding,
but it was more of a pain than that as two of the studs snapped on the turbo flange,

i decided to start collecting engine parts to replace my old ones,

but as we all do, one thing leads to another and what was going to be a head change and re gasket, became a full blown stage 3 + build,

the first thing was a standard head that i ported mildly (after scrapping a head in the past by going through the roof into the spring seat)



skimmed it all up in work and mammouth on here who i got the head from re fitted the valves for me,

some more suspension parts then arrived


and fitted


and some engine parts arrived slowly




and made some spacers,



here come some more home made goodies

made a custom inlet for the t28 i just bought

and i decided to bore out a standard tb as i had done it before on an old nova, worked a peach

[M.D.]

ive not got pics but i then got a z32 afm, 440cc injectors, HD stage 3 chip, full head gasket set, and a 1.9mm metal headgasket

and here it goes,
the top end engine build.

turbo off



head off


manifold off to show this,


not good but deffo th cause of the leaky valve

there was a lot of blod sweat and tears in that last few pics but im sure some of you will know, and i wont bore the rest of ya with the pics of ho to loosen bastard bolts lol


i had some ebay verniers that ive had to mod to fit due to them beng a little to big, but they now do on the inlet side, (ideal due to having an exhaust cam to fit in the Inlet)



going to fit one to the exhaust side but not untill i get some kind of stand allone ignition so i can remove the cambelt cover and cas.

i wanted to be able to adjust the exhaust cam for full gain but without removing the cover, so out came the CNC again and this was the final effect



with the head off i cleaned and painted the rocker covers but the best bit was the spark plug cover i made, i was well chuffed with it and cant wait to finish it for fitting,




and reverse of above i refitted all the bits i had bought to look like this




and finally, ill end this (for now) thread with todays pic



its running, and loads better than before too, not driven it yet but ill deffo keep this thread updated as the car progresses, there are other bits fitted to the car that i have not put up, (hard rack mounts etc) but i didnt have all night so this is a short overview of the last 10 months or so
hope you like

[Noz]

Brilliant stuff mate!

[mushtafa]

Very nice work mate

[Andy_F]

What was wrong with the K-sport coilovers? I have them on mine and they are excellent.

[IKRAM]

Excellent!, love the belt and cam covers

[shortcut]

fantastic and a great thread too!

[New200guy]

you wanna fab up a few of those strut braces. i would be interested in one for the front an rear if the price is not too high.

Over that is some great metal work there.

[Sibbers]

Very nice indeed - I was dubious of the shiny pulleys till I saw the inlet cam pulley showing through Good job fella

[M.D.]

id love to make up some strut braces and stuff but the time it takes it would just be easier and cheeper to get a pre made one.

my k-sport coilovers were mega bouncy, if i accelerated hard the rear bounced so hard sometimes you could see the revs rise and fall as it lost and gained traction,
handled a lot worse than the standard suspension did too,

ive just taken it for a drive and its got a little problem, basically it idles and starts really well and sounds fantastic, but if you rev it to hard it just splutters and misses, it will rev if you slowly ease the power in and sound fine when its there but im not sure what it can be,

what plugs do you guys think i should run for stage 3,. 7s or 8s, (ngk's) as the plugs were from my old head and may ahve given up while the head was being moved about and left in my shed, duno how but its a good opertunity to change them and re gapp to 0.8mm

other than that im stumped, maybe it does not like my new TB, or maybe the cam is causing problems, thing it that it was fine (ish) when it was cold and the warmer it got the worse the missing got,

any ideas

[redsx94!]

i had the same problem and the more i drove it the better it got. it done it after the apex front mount i put on. god knows.

[M.D.]

i think ive just fund my problem, basically it looks like the turbo front has been of in the past, maybe for inspection, god knows, but it looks like the tabs that go under the bolts to hold the front on the turbo have been missed out, there was one on the top but not on the other 4 (out of 6) bolts, this means that the front of the tubo housing can ever so slightly move in ad out on the corners without these tabs, causing an air leak i think,

it makes sence as it drives as if you have an air leak, but on and off,

i noticed it when i moved a few pipes round and noticed the top turbo pipe was moving independantly of the exhasust manifold, gav i a closer look and hey presto its that,

arse, anyone know where you can get the tabs (they go between 2 bolts to hold the font of the turbo on) from or if its possible to use large washers to the same effect,

[skippy]

if you mean what i think you do the two your missing are the brackets that secured the original oil and water pipes. the compressor housing effectively can rotate as only held on with a snap ring. should be ok without them.

if im wrong though someone correct me please as i think im right but may be wrong, if you get me drift!

skip.

[gangsta_goose]

looking good!

[sxowner]

thats a lot of good work man, well done !!

[mammoth]

good stuff mate

[stew]

What are those rims you have on there mate very sexy

[M.D.]

they are kei racing rss's mate, i love them altho at only 7.5j they couls be alittle wider, i have 235s on the back buts its pushing it a bit width wise,

imwonering if i can just use washers to hold the core into the housing as it seems that the origional brackerts only do what a washer on the bolt would anyway, hope its not my new TB as i want to try and retain it just for the simple fact that it was a free mod and would be great if it worked