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Thread: Jimbothemagnificent's S14

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    Jimbothemagnificent's S14

    Hi chaps and chapettes,

    I'm Jamie, I joined a wee while ago but I've mostly been lurking in the tech section.

    I bought a fresh import '94 S14 a couple of months ago. There's no rust and mechanically it's spot on, but the wiring is truly horrendous.

    The long drive home was eventful. The headlights turned off, on the motorway, in the dark.... So a quick ride on a flatbed to the nearest halfords, a night in the passenger seat wrapped in a space blanket, a couple of hours of ripping out the HIDs and finally got her home.

    home3.jpg
    Sil1.jpg
    IMG_20180504_095344_Fotor.jpg

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    Guest JackB's Avatar
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    Welcome dude, it looks very nice!

    The rear lights are questionable though

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    Welcome, i had similar issues with my S13 when i picked it up ended up running home with no lights shooting flames out the exhaust

    Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

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    Since I got it I've mostly been fixing all the annoying problems. The boost has been turned right down and I'm taking it really easy on the old girl until I get a few more things done. I had moved into a new house with an epic garage in February, pretty much as soon as I got the car my landlord decided he wanted to live there and gave me 28 days notice. Gutted. So now I'm in a tiny flat with no garage, it's going to slow things down massively, and I don't think my new neighbours are super impressed with me pulling this thing apart every couple of days....

    I pulled this out of the headlights, now they work.
    IMG_20180513_190910_Fotor.jpg

    The fuel gauge was stuck on full, turned out to be the sender unit floating around in the tank. That was an unpleasant job, mostly because my guesses at fuel usage were WILDLY conservative and the tank was mostly full. Facepalm.

    The belts were all humped, they've been changed but I discovered the source of my squealing on start. The locking bolt for the tensioner on the alternator is snapped. The local Nissan dealership found one, but managed to send it to Dunfermline, then it disappeared.... so still waiting.


    The TechTom that came with the car wasn't working, I took it apart and fixed it, which is great because the speedo doesn't work. I'll post up the symptoms in the tech section, because there's some really weird **** going on in there....

    All the usual service stuff; plugs (old ones were in really good shape), oil and filter, and it's just been to a garage to get it up on the ramps and have a good once-over. Actually, it's still sitting there waiting on the elusive alternator bolt, because **** trying to change that from above. I've changed the brake pads, and I've got a full rebuild kit including pistons and braided lines all around, but that will have to wait without the garage.

    JDM gadget porn:
    IMG_20180505_151239_Fotor.jpg
    IMG_20180516_045214_Fotor.jpg

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    Plans are, as always every changing, but currently:

    Fix that bloody speedo.
    Rebuild brakes.
    Fix indicators (from oem four down to two on the front, just need to track down the wiring and fix).
    NEW WHEELS.
    There's a Rocket Bunny spoiler living on my couch right now.
    Fit my tasty Stack boost gauge.
    Mega interior tidy up, there's wires everywhere and some shoddy trim.
    Fix cracked dash and retrim.
    Crank up the boost!
    Send those awful tyres back to the pit from whence they came.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JackB View Post
    The rear lights are questionable though
    I know, I know...

    Quote Originally Posted by s13spooner View Post
    Welcome, i had similar issues with my S13 when i picked it up ended up running home with no lights shooting flames out the exhaust
    Yep, hence I turned down the boost and drove very sensibly.....
    I also had to buy and tape a torch to the steering column so I could see the dials, zip tie the front bumper on, and guess how much fuel I had. It wasn't dull.

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    Guest s13spooner's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimbothemagnificent View Post
    I know, I know...



    Yep, hence I turned down the boost and drove very sensibly.....
    I also had to buy and tape a torch to the steering column so I could see the dials, zip tie the front bumper on, and guess how much fuel I had. It wasn't dull.
    Its like your car says welcome to s body ownership, my speedo also refuses to work and the rev counter dose this funny dance at 5k

    Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk

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    Oh aye, straight in at the deep end! I've had plenty cars that don't behave, but never one that has made me say "uh, wait....f**king WHAT?!" so many times in the first month of ownership!


    That TechTom has been a godsend. Still have to do the mental acrobatics for kph to mph though.

  9. #9
    Now with 400bhp....
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    Black zenki's are sexual
    1998 Nissan 200sx s14a , 2000 std 5 speed with nismo supercoppermix clutch bn6 Sapphire Blue

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    I'm getting right into the spirit of silvia ownership, today I had to bodge the alternator tensioner to get it home from the garage, so now it's held on by zipties. I'm fairly certain that's what the owners manual would recommend.

    I ordered a bolt from Nissan two weeks ago, they sent it to the wrong place. Twice. Last I heard it should be in Amsterdam by the 27th So it's been sat outside the local garage for a week, which gave me lots of time to buy bits off the interweb...
    Big pile on my couch: New windscreen mouldings, alloy radiator expansion tank, ducktail, bungs to block off the recirc valve, wheel nuts (to replace the nylon lock nuts some Japanese ****wit put on), battery, massive roll of black suede for the interior and a whole mess of nuts and bolts.

    The garage let me use their lift, so I got my first proper look at the underside. Looks pretty damn solid to me. Well pleased about that.
    underside1LQ.jpg
    underside2LQ.jpg
    underside3LQ.jpg

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    Oh, and the clean bits on the subframe are where I spilled a heap of fuel while fixing the sender unit. Who knew fuel was such a good subframe cleaner?!

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    I seem to be spending my life fixing annoying little electrical problems, mostly I have no idea how it got like this in the first place, somebody has had some odd ideas about wiring. This is a good example; the wires going into the maf sensor had been cut or broken and were soldered in really badly, I guess I nudged them while removing the recirc valve output hose and two of them snapped right off. It took hours to strip the plug apart, solder on new wires and rebuild it. After googling images I'm not actually certain it's an S14 maf.

    Before
    maf1LQ.jpg


    During
    maf2LQ.jpg

    After
    maf3LQ.jpg
    Last edited by jimbothemagnificent; 15-07-2018 at 21:07.

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    I finally got around to making up new looms for the indicators, now I have two on the side of the front bumper and two in the fog light position. So now it's happy and flashing at a sensible speed and I have my sidelights back. I think that was my last big hurdle for an mot. No pics, because they're just wires.

    Nissan found an oem windscreen moulding hiding away in a warehouse for me. It turned out to be a super easy job. There was a LOT of sh*t behind the old one, so it had a good clean and a few hours to dry in the sun. The new one is a massive improvement.

    I made up new mounting points for the front bumper using rivnuts. I came up with a cunning plan for the sides so I can remove them with bare hands, bolts with lots of nuts covered in heatshrink. It works surprisingly well. The picture I have is of the Mk1, the 2nd version is a bit longer and uses rivnuts instead of wingnuts. Now the bumper comes off with one allen key in less than a minute.

    Before
    PSX_20180727_100452.jpg

    During
    PSX_20180727_100758.jpg

    After
    PSX_20180727_100831.jpg

    Bumper bolts
    PSX_20180727_101005.jpg

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    I've also removed the recirc valve and bunged up the holes, need to sort out my dump valve to work at full boost and allow surge at low boost. The carbon catch can thingy is gone as I need space for a new coolant expansion tank and catch can.

    I've been having trouble figuring out the lack of boost. I leak tested the system (including a comedy moment when we forgot to ziptie in the rubber bung blocking off the dump valve hole. It's now in somebody's garden several houses away....). I've checked the wastegate actuator and the bearing on the wastegate, removed the restricted pipe on the solenoid.... I was stumped.... until I realised that it has a oem solenoid. The profec controller isn't connected to anything. Bloody weeks that took me. Yeah. I felt like a right twat.

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    Oh, and I took the spoiler off. Unfortunately the ducktail doesn't cover the holes from the old one, so they're ducktaped until I can be bothered to fill them and repaint the bootlid. I'm going to make a start fixing the fibreglass in the ducktail this weekend, it's in worse condition than I hoped. BUT..... I'm really starting to like it without a spoiler.

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    Guest CrazySx's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimbothemagnificent View Post
    I finally got around to making up new looms for the indicators, now I have two on the side of the front bumper and two in the fog light position. So now it's happy and flashing at a sensible speed and I have my sidelights back. I think that was my last big hurdle for an mot. No pics, because they're just wires.

    Nissan found an oem windscreen moulding hiding away in a warehouse for me. It turned out to be a super easy job. There was a LOT of sh*t behind the old one, so it had a good clean and a few hours to dry in the sun. The new one is a massive improvement.

    I made up new mounting points for the front bumper using rivnuts. I came up with a cunning plan for the sides so I can remove them with bare hands, bolts with lots of nuts covered in heatshrink. It works surprisingly well. The picture I have is of the Mk1, the 2nd version is a bit longer and uses rivnuts instead of wingnuts. Now the bumper comes off with one allen key in less than a minute.

    Before
    PSX_20180727_100452.jpg

    During
    PSX_20180727_100758.jpg

    After
    PSX_20180727_100831.jpg

    Bumper bolts
    PSX_20180727_101005.jpg
    Interesting about the windscreen surround. Was it one piece or the 3 piece jobby with the channel?

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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    It's two pieces of rubbery plastic with a metal clip in the centre. Fits perfectly as you would expect of oem. I was very careful taking the old one out as it clips around another moulding that looks like it's sealed in with the screen.

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    Guest CrazySx's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimbothemagnificent View Post
    It's two pieces of rubbery plastic with a metal clip in the centre. Fits perfectly as you would expect of oem. I was very careful taking the old one out as it clips around another moulding that looks like it's sealed in with the screen.
    Yes exactly that, there is a channel which is sealed in with the screen. Hence I was wondering about your seal. Did you clip it into that channel. The channel in nine was destroyed when they removed the old one.

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    I guess I was lucky. There was a couple of spots where it looked like it might tear, so I lubed them with window cleaner and gently pried them apart with a dentist pick, worked fine but wasn't quick. I think that if the chanel is destroyed it's a screen out job, or find a universal trim that will fit.

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    Guest s13spooner's Avatar
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    Your fairly getting on with the graft! Good to see haha, wish I could be making same speed of progress as yourself

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