seattlejester

After a long deliberation, the current thought is to not rebuild the transmission. If I plan on keeping it there are some other things I want to do to it down the road, and I can tackle it then when it starts to show problems or when it is taken off the car for the next clutch job. Crank seems to be the first major hurdle. The rod portion of the crank seems fine, but two of the block bearings seems to be fairly scored. One of the bearings actually had material that was foreign to it under the bearing cap, as in metal sludge slid under there and formed a new layer. It is probably fixable, but at a price of around 300 just to get started with welding and grinding, I contacted someone about picking up a used crank that might be a better starting point. The block: after a lot of back and forth, the bores looked good so I decided I would buy a brush hone and see if the bores were hiding anything. The thought is if they clean up nicely, I can just preemptively order a standard set of pistons and rings and send it to the machine shop together and save a lot of time. Results were not very good. The brush hone works fine, it does make quite a mess, but on a few cylinders it left very good cross hatching. On three of the cylinders there are still marks remaining. One cylinder has some vertical looking grooves, two others seemed to have some pitting from when the engine sat for a long period of time with the PO. Nothing really catches my fingernail, so I'm kind of on the fence. Vertical Lines Pitting So what to do? Part of me says to just throw in the standard set of pistons since the engine ran fine before until the oiling problem, none of it catches on my nail, although there is a texture difference on some of the pitting. Even if using a standard piston set compromised engine life and brought it down from say 150,000 miles to 50,000 miles. That would still take me 50 years to hit that given my average mileage. Another part says to do the bare minimum I can live with, either buy oversized rings or try and source slightly oversized non-forged pistons (seemingly very difficult) and just go with that. I'll be paying about 250 to start the hone, but it will be better for it, won't have to revisit it within my power goals. Then there is the F*** it part of me which is saying if I am paying to have the bores honed, might as well get forged pistons, if I am getting forged pistons, might as well get forged rods. Then step up to a bigger turbo and stuff a butt load of boost at this thing. The problem then becomes needing to upgrade the fuel system, the transmission, the rear axles, I'm not sure I want to go play with that big can of worms again. I think even the cooling system will need addressing if I go much above 400hp.

Ereschkigal: Yes, a bit too much to infer. With flares, outboard is more or less fine especially with that offset. With coilovers it depends on the body of the coilover. Usually 5 inches of backspacing is pretty much it, some people have said 5.5 inch, but that depends on the rim manufacturer and how much of a lip they leave, the actual foot print of the tire, the sidewall bulge etc. Jacky is on point here. Use a piece of wood and a tape measure, or make your own wheel and put it through the motions. You are on the edge of a space where someone would feel comfortable saying that would fit for sure. Michael: Regarding tire size it is more or less dependent on manufacturer. I've had 205 tires with a wider footprint then a 225, and I've had a 215 tire with a thinner foot print then a 205. Some manufacturers run wide others run thin and sometimes it depends even on the tire even within the manufacturer. It is true though. If the tire was the desired item then he could put it on a narrower rim, I feel though that given the offset and size offered before the tire, he probably has a rim in mind already.

8.5 +4 has a quarter, as in a coin's worth of clearance. 9.5+0 is not going to work with factory suspension and flares inboard or outboard.

That kit or the Kmiata kit would make a very interesting start to an exocet project.

I had to take apart a nut and bolt with red, spun the wrench right out of my hand with the impact gun on the other side. I wouldn't do red unless you are pretty sure you won't be revisiting it.

Yea the use of the stick welder kind also points towards a chinese origin. BC coilover instructions are like 4 pictures. 2 for the front 2 for the rear. For the weld on coilovers you only need number for the height of the remaining stub to leave. Everything else is kind of self explanatory. Found my instructions: If you are looking at the ones on Ebay, be warned 240zdan has noted that his original design (which is copied by a lot of the eBay brands) is flawed with using the 240sx coilovers. His suggestions was the need of either a pillow ball or an inverted shock in the rear or a resulting premature failure of the shock seal can occur if memory serves, most 240sx coilovers do not have that kind of setup, a lot of the kits seemed to be offered by companies without this knowledge or experience installing the kit. These are the ones I think are trust worthy: Ground control (shortened stock housing, comes with either drill in camber plate or weld in, selectable shock and springs) TTT (same benefits as above, but with a prebuilt system, send in core for credit, potential new offering for drop spindle design for the fronts coming soon) Sakura garage (inverted shocks, weld on collar, comes with either stock or drill in camber plate, upgradeable with swift springs) Arizona Zcar (weld on collar, weld in camber plate, custom shock and spring will have to send shock to them for rebuild) BC (rear pillow balls (I think, they had angle even when bolted in at the top), weld on collar, need to clearance fronts for the hump, no need to drill for camber plate, or optional two hole camber plate, selectable spring rate with associated damper, or upgradeable with swift springs) I am not sure about Mckinney. They make adapters for the S13 megan coilover kit, megan I think has an inverted shock setup, although without a window in the adapter like the Sakura garage ones you won't be able to adjust the shock on the car. I am not sure what their complete kit comes with. Some people have said it is just a 240sx kit, mckinney says custom dampers and springs to match 240z's, the good thing is that this comes with the clearance hump for the front struts.

Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the family!

Gosh I love that kind of info, I've always known blue for temporary, red for permanent. I've always wondered about the green, now I know. I'm pretty sure I've seen purple and yellow around too. Haven't run into anything specifying those types though.

Definitely caught me off guard, good catch.

If you don't want to check them again soon, make sure you put some blue lock tite on the bolts. I found lots of mine rattled loose over time. And there is a design flaw with how the diff mount is setup, it is more suited to driving the car in reverse then forward. An RT mount with poly rear diff bushings is going to make the car feel much more connected, and you won't have to revisit the strap or ripped rubber mount every few years.

Congrats! Would love to see a picture of it or in person sometime

They do have some get up and go, how is the electronics suite? My friend almost lemoned his ST after 4 trips to the dealership for poor electrical connections. Problem I see right off the bat is the flat sump. Which in turn makes me curious about the deck height. You would either have to build the engine to sit taller, or you would need your own custom sump pan or convert to dry sump. Easy benefit right off the bat is the orientation, intake on the driver side, exhaust stuff on the passenger side. A concern would be the miata transmission, whichever one bolts up, I'm not sure how much power or torque it is going to like handling. I know the later S15 and miata boxes are the same so maybe that is a moot point. It is an interesting thought, but with how forgiving the engine bay is in a S30, I would almost be hesitant to stick a small motor in. Kind of feels empty you know?

Agreed, usually when you find 4 or 5 out of the 9-10 spots that usually rust out that far gone, the other 4 to 5 spots are not far behind. How do you know the floors are good? You didn't take any pictures. and the inside usually has a layer of sound deadening so looking at it from the top won't do. You are going to have to find or be a competent welder for the repairs, side panels, dog legs, fenders, hood, that's just the beginning really. You are a new member here and it is advisable to make a new member post in the new member section so we can learn how much you know, your experience, your expectations.

What do you mean by fail? Your descriptive abilities aren't intuitive here. The only thing we can gather is that you didn't break the tap. Did you try and lift the drill and the drill was too heavy and you failed? Did you try using the drill and the battery died so you failed? When you tried to go in did it twist on you and is now spinning freely so you failed? Did you hit it too hard with the drill and ripped the newly made threads out so you failed? You have some very very experienced individuals here who can and have offered good advice, but you have been amazingly vague. Post a picture for heaven's sake. I don't know how you plan on getting JB weld to stay in the threaded portion of a captive nut inside a hole. Use a helicoil if you buggered the thread. Or as is probably the case since you would have to remove it to helicoil it properly, make a new piece once you remove it.

...Wanting to part out a car for one stripped nut is a bit on the insane side. If this is a big hurdle it might be better to step away for a while. You can buy longer taps. Or tap holders. Any shop that can weld is going to be able to cut out and replicate the piece. If you are worried about alignment, have them cut it out from the inside of the car, fish out the piece, replace it and weld a patch over the whole thing. You could also take sawzall or something and cut parallel to the floor into the mount, pry it open, drop it out, replace it, then pry it back up and weld it. Tony that tip about shattering a broken tap is golden! Going to have to remember that for next time.

I am flabbergasted that that intake actually fit. I was sure you were going to have problems! Congrats on finally getting that beast in the engine bay. Keep us updated. I ran my fuel lines along the passenger side, it sits above the exhaust but so far haven't had any problems. In hind sight if I had the option I would pull it to the driver side, closer to the fuel rail and away form the exhaust, win win.

I think if you look a bit down there is a guy who did a challenger front end, I think it looks pretty decent. I mean you are going to have some pretty good fiberglass/sheet metal skills to make it look decent. The S30 looks kind of like a jaguar e-type from some angles, and a little bit like a porsche from some angles, certain ferrari's from others, definitely a european vibe. Hakosuka looks like a smaller american muscle car. It will be kind of odd to mash those two distinctly different styles together.

... If you broke the tap in the nut the shop is going to have to cut into the car to extract the whole plate and replace it. They would need a metric tap and dye set, an angle grinder, a welder, metal stock, and a drill press. That is going to require a very different shop from if you just don't know how to use a tap. This is also going to cost you a bit to tow the car since driving with just one side of the trans cross member is going to stress the crap out of the cross member. You are looking at a very expensive situation.

JohnC suggested I go for it since I already had it. I decided the price for what it was going to cost ($500 for adapters then $900 for CV axles) I could probably do better without worrying about the diff being the weakest link. I also paid $250 or so for a really lightly used well documented CLSD STI diff which I flipped for $450 or something like that, which made my R200 swap pretty cheap, and it seemed a bit backward to step down to an R180 when I was already running an R200. A longnose R200 CLSD is pretty expensive. They used to go for about 300, now I don't think you can find any under 600. VLSD are fairly rare in the long nose so those kind of depend on if the axles come with them. Shortnose R200 VLSD are really cheap in comparison drifters go through lots of them and pull lots of them as spares so they are usually pretty easy to get a hold of. CLSD I'm not sure which cars that came in, but those are also fairly readily available. Yup I pulled a VLSD from a J30 in the junkyard for $100 or so, then got a Z31 turbo housing from a parts recycler for $115 I think to swap in. To do this swap you either need a diff housing from a Z31 (they are the only ones that came with a 12mm ring gear, or you have to buy sleeves to shrink the holes in the center section down to 10mm if you are using the housing from a z or 280zx car. i ran 280zx turbo companion flanges with the driver side being a 280zx turbo axle with some grinding to fit the snap ring. The passenger side needed a frankenstein axle which I adapted to the VLSD input from the diff I took it from, and then back to the turbo 280zx. Not a bolt in affair. Going to have to get real dirty and even my little axle required welding and even then I'm not sure if it is happy. There is a thread on here where they go over making a frankenstein axle using an AMC axle and tripod gears. Even then I'm not sure how much power a tripod setup will be happy putting down vs an actual cv joint.

With what limited exchange I had with JohnC when I was pondering if the R180 STI was good enough for higher levels of power, he said with frequent changes it could be fine. His concern was that it would probably overheat and would need frequent changes to keep it happy. An R200 will handle the abuse, but then that is the diff that will handle the abuse not the axles and such. I put a short nose pumpkin into a long nose housing, there are a few people here who have and there is an excellent write up on the xenon site as it used to be done with non turbo Z31 cars quite often it seems. The problem is unless you find a clutch type you are going to need VLSD input axles which has proven to be quite difficult. If you do find a clutch type finding replacement clutch packs may prove difficult. Even if you find a diff with the correct inputs then you are sitting on the axle selection being limited. You can either hunt for a used set to rebuild, build a frankenstein axle, go full custom, or buy one of the aftermarket offerings from DSS or CFR. I found 280zx turbo adapters for cheap and went for those, not real CV's but they should handle some power and some angle. I would almost say that for the effort it might just be better to go with a TTT short nose mount kit or something of that nature, you will need a new drive shaft anyways so that takes a big part of the cost out of converting, and you can run 240sx or 300zx or gt-r axles shortened and resplined by TTT.

Very nice sir!

I dont recall the diff being that close to that lever. Is your transmission tucked up higher? That would be something to ask people running the same swap kit or the people that supplied the swap kit. Newzed is pointing you in the right direction, the standard mount is not all that great especially if you are putting high amounts of torque and hp to the ground. Is it functioning fine now? I guess the driveshaft rubbing on that bracket could cause the car to feel like it is catching or something in the rear.

Not really what we call a TPS now days, it is more akin to a WOT switch although it does know when you are off throttle and not on WOT yet, I guess a 3 position switch is more accurate. If you put the stock TPS on an aftermarket throttle body on a stock ECCM with uprated injectors with an aftermarket cam it wouldn't be surprising that the engine is stumbling on acceleration. I think the correct problem description is insufficient acceleration enrichment, or excessive acceleration enrichment seems like the idle problem is mostly figured out. If you are using a stock ECCM there is a very limited amount of things that can be done. Other then making sure the fuel system is in tip top shape (good line pressure, fuel pressure gauge, good flow) not much else you can do other then playing with the injector size, which still isn't much of a solution, more of a way to trick the ECCM. If you are running an aftermarket system, you would go under the accel enrichment tab and add or remove injector pulse width based on your AFR readings based on your TPS rate of change, which you wouldn't be useful at all if you were using the stock TPS as that cannot communicate correctly with an aftermarket ECU. This is of course with the assumption that the timing is running on a stock curve on a stock system. If the timing is off car can feel sluggish or feel like it is bogging, at which point it would be moot playing with the fuel until the timing is figured out.

If you lock down the half shaft (get someone to stick I think a 14mm or so size wrench in the u joint area and put a pipe on it, and try to rotate the stub axle by using either a pinion or a flange holder or two lug nuts and a pipe would work as long as you don't start bending the studs on the wheel flange end, you can find out if the outboard stub axle is broken. Something spinning and catching kind of points towards a spline interface. If it was a gear interaction you would almost expect it to catch and release. As long as the chain isn't broken from the transmission and the stub axle is fine it wouldn't be surprising to find something splined in the diff being awfully worn out. Best case scenario the clutch pack would be worn. Any info on the milage on the diff?

I had forgotten this existed. I used to live a few blocks from newport, wonder if he is still around.