Dat73z

Getting rained out again so I put some more time into the build. Tonight I pulled the leaky RMS, retapped all the hot side bolts, and test fit the stage 8 hardware. As with everything on this build I'll need to clearance some of the stage 8 hardware to fit is tight for a couple of holes.

Looks like parts are finally going to start trickling in starting tomorrow. It will likely be another 2-4 weeks until I get everything I need in. This AM I removed the turbo studs. Whatever was left of the nickel antiseize had turned into black dust. None of them came out clean but the threads are still there, so I'll need to chase or retap the hot side. I'm thinking when I was losing timing and throwing fire out the exhaust, my egts were likely spiking contributing to all of this. I'm tempted to pull the turbo and replace the hardware with inconel and stage 8 as well since I'm already this deep. I guess I'll simmer on it over this next couple of days.

Did some more tinkering this AM before work and realized I should probably add some bracing to the downpipe or midpipe as well. Although I welded in a flex on my downpipe I suspect the movement along with the heatcycles, especially with the inconel shielding isn't helping. Likely in its current configuration, I doubt the setup would last a few 20min track sessions.

I couldn't resist just continuing disassembly, since I need to measure out the studs for their inconel replacements. All of the studs were still tight in the turbo and none of them backed out as I removed the nuts. I think I had torqued the studs in at 30ftlbs or so with nickel anti seize. The copper coating had burned off on all of the nuts which I suppose is expected when things get glowing red hot. What I suspect happened is all of the studs stretched. Hopefully inconel studs and stage 8 hardware will mitigate this. 20230103_181925.mp4

This evening I removed the surge tank to gain access to the turbo. All of the carbs and barrels look good. I'm thinking after I get things reassembled, I will run things in NA for ar least one heatcycle and check the sync on the carbs before putting the surge tank back on. If I can squeeze in some time in tonight I'll start removing the heat shielding over the hot side.

Last night I cleaned off the rear of the block. For sure the rear main is leaking, but it is questionable if the pan is. The new OE RMS should be in later this week, and flywheel bolts maybe next week. Since I'm waiting on parts again, the (hopefully) last thing that I found on teardown which needs to be addressed is the loose wastegate housing. After some research I went ahead and ordered stage 8 locking nuts which were quite expensive but basically like safety wire as it prevents the nut from rotating off. I also found a supplier for 718 inconel studs. Basically the idea is the materials selected should have similar thermal characteristics and also be resistant to high temp creep as to not lose tension and let the wastegate housing come loose as it has for me. I'll need to teardown the turbo hot side and measure all of the dimensions before I order, so I'll start on that later this evening.

Thanks @rossman I'll take a look and weigh the options. After getting my holiday lights down I went ahead and quickly cleaned the clutch and trans for reassembly, at least the areas that matter. No leaks from the trans as I had fully resealed it after machining and assembling, so the light oil I saw on the front edge/corner of the bell housing was likely dripping from the rear main as there's no way I can see how it made it there from the pan with the bellhousing plate in place. This PM I'll start the removal process for the RMS as I've already ordered a new OE Nissan RMS. Hopefully it doesnt take a month to get here.

Yeah @rossman, a poly mount would be more ideal. Do you recall which Jeep mount you used? Thinking about this more, I think I have some steel tube stock and remnants of a few ES master poly bushing kits for various cars in my shed. I may consider just fabricating something since that would basically cost me nothing.

Got the clutch pack off without difficulty. All of the bolts were still tight which is good, and the wear looks normal to me for a few k street miles with some launches and burnouts but I've only ran an exedy multi plate on another mostly track focused car before this. One interesting finding is it almost looks like my RMS has been leaking and not the pan gasket as I thought. I didn't install the RMS so I guess I'll look real close and clean the whole area off to see. On past Ls I've always just installed the OE Nissan RMS and never had any issues so I may give that a try since I'm this deep into it and at this point the driveline teardown is for peace of mind and to fix that pesky oil leak I guess. Later today I plan to tear down further but need to get the holiday lights down before another storm rolls in this AM

This AM I started back in on the driveline disassembly. I noticed that maybe my trans mount has been making contact with the trans xmember. The zinc coating on the nuts isn't worn through, but the xmember has some marks which is interesting. Maybe it is minor enough with the good condition OE trans mount that it self clearanced, but because the power and trq levels with the turbo and stroker are much higher than stock, maybe it may get worse over time and should be addressed now. I'll investigate further once I get the clutch pack off.

Finished the transmission pull tonight and everything looks good so far. I'll take my time and paint mark everything on disassembly, as to ensure I reassemble the clutch pack and multi-plates in the same order and direction it is currently in. The tiny oil weep I noticed before is more visible now as well so I'll investigate and see if I can fix it while I'm in there.

Finally getting back into the build after the holidays. It's been a really rainy and cold winter so far this year and due to other projects I haven't really been motivated to finish the s30. This evening I somewhat organized the area and am going to start back in on the trans pull now. It seems my flywheel bolts won't be shipped until 01/06 so I'll have some time to work on other deferred items as well.

I lowered my tial on the bracket by clearancing the cast compressor housing and lowering the bracket. It gained me 1/8" but I could've probably gone for more. Otherwise I had also considered fabbing a new bracket but I had too many other things going on at that time. Your project looks great though, keep at it!

@rossmanyeah, it definitly had too much. This time I skimmed out the cavities quite a bit.

Today I finished reassembling and retorquing both axles. I pulled out what I considered excess grease and used new ZX locknuts. I also recalibrated my new precision instruments wrench to click off around 195 or so at 200 indicated. I guess you can't even trust new US made out of the box tools anymore. This weekend I'll finish pulling the trans and get that sorted, a week or two ago I ordered new OE thin flywheel bolts which have yet to show up. I had considered arp flywheel hardware, but I didn't want to get into machining bolts etc. like I did with the crank pulley. This next few weeks I need to start ordering some bodywork supplies as well and figure out how to keep all the grinding dust out of my house.

Just a light update, I've been working on the car this past couple of days and am considering tearing it back down to a shell again for a full repaint. It's something that has been bothering me since the past decade of owning and building this s30. This car is a high mileage survivor but mostly rust free. I am capable of doing any metal/body/paintwork but due to my current life situation I'd need to either pay someone to paint the car or rent a booth and paint it myself. I think the strategy here is to get the car one the road again in a couple of weeks then start metal/paintworking the body. Mainly with kids on the horizon this is one project I just want to get "done" as I know it won't as there are just too many vehicle and other projects I've been wrapping up along with this one.

Merry Christmas! Today my OSG clutch tool made it back from my buddy. So when the holidays simmer down I'm wrap up the trans pull and redo all the clutch pack and flywheel fasteners. This is to ensure the vibrations from the harmonic balancer walking off didn't loosen anything.

Things are finally slowing down for the year. I just received a NOS NSK bearing for the rear so I'll dust off my press and get that sorted today. I had considered seeing if I could save the seal and reuse the bearing but decided to just spend the $40. Also heard back from my friend that he finally finished his swap and will be mailing my OS Giken clutch tool back so hopefully that comes in before the new year. Time is limited this next week as I got another car back up recently and am dealing with the registration and all of that but I'm coming back around to the s30 here and there.

So I researched this extensively a while back. You want to get a hose made specifically for the temps and fluid, in this case hot oil. It's at low pressure and you need to ensure there is no restriction. Gates and a bunch of other co's offer off the shelf solutions to this, and I'd recommend you get the same hose rated and used for oil coolers.

https://www.yoesheadporting.com/

So I slapped out the stub axle and as I suspected, the outboard bearing seal has failed, blown outwards. I'm glad I decided not to just check the torque and send it. This is a new one on me. Did I overpack with grease? Brake boosting/launching causing excessive pressure? Burnouts? If anyone has any ideas let me know. I guess I have a week to research while I wait for new bearings/ZX nuts

This AM I disassembled the DS rear. It looks like the axles are fine with no leaks. I rebuilt them last winter so only a couple K mi boosted on everything. The DS inboard side looked fine, some red grease there but I believe that was from assembly. It was definitely leaking on the outboard side into the disk brake and wheel. I think what I should do next is disassemble the strut and inspect. Press the stub axle out and all that. I seem to recall the outboard side bearing had a factory seal on it so since I'm already this deep into it I figure it would be good to make sure it didn't pop out or something especially since the PS side is dry and fine.

Haven't had much time to work on the build this past week but I decided to purchase a new precision instruments 250ftlb beam style torque wrench to check the rear stub axle torque since I saw grease leaking from the driver's side rear. In the past I'd use my 150ftlb torque wrench and give it a bit more after it clicked off. I usually dropped off my old torque wrench to get calibrated locally maybe every year or two. Today I decided to weld up a quick test stand so I could check the calibration in my garage and save some time and money. My old 150 torque wrench clicked off around 145ftfbs when set to 150 so it'll need some minor adjustment. For some reason the new made in usa precision instruments beam torque wrench was reading 10-20+ftlbs low at this range and maybe 10-15 ftlbs low at 80. Maybe it got bumped a bit in shipping, I'm not sure but I'll set the calibration a bit later today and get back into the build

From what I've heard and seen from local vintage Porsche guys, if you're going to pay someone it's a lot cheaper to send it out of state. Apparently Idaho has some great body and paint shops. With the way the world has been going this past few years, the discount is probably less but even with transport I wouldn't be surprised if you save more than a few K over paying someone legitimate in SoCal to do it. On my fairly straight and mostly rust free but tired car I've been quoted 10-20k+ locally in the Bay Area CA with me doing a lot of the disassembly and of course all of the reassembly. Basically scuff and spray with some minor bodywork.

Still waiting on parts so tonight I got the rear end mostly back together and adjusted the ride height to my preferred spec. I noticed that some bearing grease was leaking on the outboard side of the stub axles into my disk brakes. I have never seen this before and I've redone the rear end with new bearings twice on this car. But I was also brake boosting and a bunch of other stress test stuff when I was tuning before the car went down. So I'm going to check the torque on the stub axle nuts this weekend, I believe to 200ftlbs or so.