Just another home built 180SX

[RPS13180SX]

So, brought this in 2008 from a guy in Auckland, NZ. being 18 years old and not knowing much/the finer points brought the car with some issues, those were fixed and on our way, then alot of parts where robbed off her one night.


All of the above was stolen, Car sat there for a while, insurance didnt want to know anything about it, so, she sat there and saved up for more parts.

Come 2011-2012, after the car was sitting gathering dust, i decided to put more time/money into her. Found that the previous only had snapped the last exhaust stud off in the head and decided he would drill in in place and made a mess. We pulled the engine out, found it had a standard clutch(not a nismo clutch) and put it away in dry storage, brought a replacement long block for 2k and set about stripping the factory parts off and upgrading small parts on it.

Decided to replace the factory sump for a larger cast ali chinese copy, Sinco customs top mount manifold, DSR430 turbo, TiAL 38mm vband wastegate, Xtreme HD clutch, 52mm ali radiator, fixced back bucket seats, harnesses, walbro 500hp intank pump, off to fabrication.

 

[RPS13180SX]

Enjoyed the car for a little, but it needed a new engine loom and ECU, the old loom was a repair job from the previous owners, it had been too close to the dump pipe and was damaged, splicing in repairs here and there kind of helped, but where always chasing problems, along with the fact i missed the chance to put the rego on hold by a day, it lapsed meaning the car couldnt be driven on the road anymore and had to go through a full revin. FFS.

After sitting around for a couple years in storage, it was once again time to upgrade her and sort out getting her back on the road. From here it was decided to go with a Link plug in ECU over the Apexi Power FC D-Jetro, add in a greddy copy plenum, 1000cc injector dynamics injectors, top feed fuel rail conversion, surge tank with a bosch 044 pump and go to the dyno.


nd a week before the dyno i decided to remove the DSR430 T3 turbo and go to the Master Power MPR- 49 turbo, This netted 240kw at the rear wheels on 16psi.

240kw was a little bit of fun from the factory power, but i got use to it pretty quick and wanted more, thats when we went down the rabbit hole of 300kw then 450kw.

To get 300kw, i pulled the head off, sent it to E&H motors in auckland who specialise in SR work and solid lifter DET setups to build the head.

Parts consisted of purchasing from Taarks in Australia, Tomei japan parts from Nengun,
- Tomei 260 degree solid intake and exhaust cams
- Tomei Solid lifters and test shims
- Tomei valve springs
- Tomei 1.2mm MLS headgasket
- New nissan cam oil bars, welsch plugs.
- Taarks cam trigger kit.
- Supertech valve stem seals.
- Heaps of other bits, HKS cam gear from my mate Patrick.

While the head was away, i decided to go back to the factory S13 intake manifold, i had a spare so it was vapour blasted, clear coated a couple times, brought a bosch DBW throttle to use and a new fuel rail, my brother fabricated the backets to make it work and it was ready to install.

Couple weeks later the head arrived, looking good, all blasted clean and built, ready for my brother and i to install.

 

[RPS13180SX]

With that finally installed, it was off to see Mark Haynes from Revolution Engine Services to finish some wiring for the trigger kit and hit 300k

 

[RPS13180SX]

F**k sake, after pushing the car to 26psi, we hit 299.99kw. With the PSI so high it helped push the NM up. I will take it.

So as the common theme has come, 299kw was getting boring, dont get me wrong, it pulled like crazy for a stripped out car. But the idea come about that with all my spare engines id gathered, it was time to build a 400kw forged engine.

Used my S13 DET bottom end, brought a DET head and off to GER engine specialists in auckland, This resulted in the team finding that the factory bore liners had been replaced and the maching to the block was out by a tiny amount, we decided to scrap this block and go with a SR20DE engine which had only done 16,000kms, it was in very tidy condition, sent it to them and boom, the crank was stuffed, found another crank and sent it to them, measured all good and off we went. Brought a full rebuild package from NZPerformance, parts again from Mazworx, Nengun, taarks and Pten developments.

Parts list was
- Ati super damper
- CP pistons 86.5mm
- Manley rods
- ARP head studs, flywheel bolts
- ACL race bearings, thrust washer.
- Super tech valve stems, bronze guides.
- Geniune nissan parts again, new cam oil bars, welsch plugs, seals, water pump, timing chain kit etc.
- Taarks P12 VVL oil pump upgrade, oil sandwhich block, timing pin relocation kit.
- Mazworks main stud kit, rear breather fitting, and new bolt kit(which is an awesome idea)
- Tomei 1mm oversized valves, solid cams 260 in/ex, cam gears, springs, 1mm headgasket.
- 400kw single plate clutch, lightweight flywheel, this was replaced for a twin plate ORC 659D from RHD Japan.
- Mazworx intake plenum, 82mm DBW throttle body.
- 1170CC bosch injectors
- Haltech 1500 wire in ECU, PDM16, EGT kit, wide band O2 sensor kit.
- HKS oil relocation plate.
- AEM water meth kit, 1000hp fuel reg.
- Sinco top mount ram horn exhaust manifold, tial mvs 38mm wastegate.
- MRP big brake kit.

While the engine was being built, my exhaust manifold came in, this had the T2 and 2 bolt flanges cut off and my brother welded on the new t3 flange and 38mm band, mazworx manifold came in which is a work of art, ive always wanted one and decided to buy it.

 

[RPS13180SX]

 

[RPS13180SX]

During the end build at GER in auckland the valve guides were outsite tolerance on the exhaust side, always happens, so they were replaced, we deceded to go with the s14 bottom end and s13 head, since my head was in good nick. 5 weeks later the engine was ready for pickup.

Engine recieved a couple coats of high temp clear coat, i have had good success with this from my previous head build without it failing so it was a good choice, spend a fuck load on A N fittings and lines, purchased a Taarks power steering relocation kit and installed that along with some engine brackets and cusco engine mounts. From there i decided to purchase all new heater pipes and a LS1 alternator kit from Taarks and set about installing those along with deciding on the final location of the AEM fuel rail, this ended up going to the rear of the engine/attached to the fuel rail, from there it was mounted, car was stripped and sent to be completely required with the old engine still installed, that engine was put up for sale in the mean time and waiting 6 weeks for the rewire to be completed, then brought a type x tail light set, carbon garnsih, new vertex body kit, all the new window trims and seals i could before they stopped production ready for the day the open door repaint happens.

Found a buyer for my old engine, just in time while the rewire was finishing, they visited the shop, where happy with it so i pulled it out and sold the long block. This gearbox wouldnt hold 400kw being a factory s13 sr gearbox, i decided to purchase my mates new setup which he hadnt used, this was a 300ZX z32 gearbox with a billet 3rd/4th shifter and a Alpha Omega conversion kit. Was now time to install the new engine and send it off it fabrication.

The fab work consisted of dump pipe, wastegate pipe and recirc kit, intercooler pipping and a bracket to mount the HKS sandwich plate, once this was completed it was back home to strip the engine bay out, take the new engine out and send it off to panel and paint.







With the AEM water meth setup and forged engine, i decided to change the clutch from a WAGS 400kw clutch kit and flywheel to a twin place ORC 659D from RHD japan, it is honestly a thing of beauty, with the fab work completed it was time to take out the gearbox again but not before measuring the driveshaft length for Mark from A T L Balancing & Driveline in hamilton, we also upgraded the yoke to handle the extra power, driveshaft was cut to length, refurbed and balanced rear to go in, then the engine bay was completely stripped and the old opening that a previous owner cut into the battery tray was removed, this left a hell of a mess which required a repair cert. Colour chosen was Nissan R33 GTR Super black or KH3. Could believe how good it looks after painting, was super happy, from there all the parts to finish the long block were installed, engine and gearbox bolted together after clutch install and fitted to the car, made and fitted all the AN lines, installed the boost solenoid.

 

[RPS13180SX]

Once this was installed it was time to reinstall the new looms from the full rewire of the entire car, this was needed due to the old wiring and Haltech releasing there PDM16, also the install of the EGT sensors and the haltech thermocouple box.

One night i was sitting at home and watching some vids on facebook when i seen two young guys thrashing around a circuit in their honda when they clipped a large tractor tire which knocked the driver out and went into a wall with the seats breaking at the hinges, seeing that i have replica SR3 recaro seats same as they did, i decided to contact Richard and Neil from Allports Motorsports to order in some beautiful Corbeau RRS black vinyl seats, and universal seat mounts to make it all work, stoked with how they come out, awesome seats and the vinyl makes it easy to get in and out and wont deteriorate like the fabric does.

 

[RPS13180SX]

With the gearbox bolted up and setup, it feels great, only issue is its slightly forward and to the left. other than that, awesome kit from Alpha Omega in Australia.





Next its off to the dyno

 

[RPS13180SX]

With the bits all finished, we decided to upgrade the fuel feed pipe to the fuel rail, this was upgraded to 8an and the return left as 6an, we also added a Taarks fuel pulse damper. Mark from revolution engine services installed the driveshaft, bolted it all up, fixed a few leaks haha, and then started the tuning process.

Few issues come up, we found that the engine builder used paralell plugs in the head instead of npt for an interferance fit, this allowed oil from the head to escape out onto the exhaust manifold nearly catching on fire, we stopped the session and repaired the plug, this changed to a NPT but found the intake side were also leaking, Mark (the tuner) wasnt too keen on completing the change with the head on, all precautions were taken to stop any metal debris going into the oil galleys and should be on the engine builder. This fixed the main leak which allowed us to continue on the hub dyno, using 98 ron fuel.

HOWEVER, during the low boost map tune we found that the 38mm tial mvs gate was too small for the pulsar G30-770 and couldnt flow enough, this with the 1170cc injectors sitting on 99%. So we dialed it back to 365kw on 22psi which is low boost.
From here i contacted my engine builder, took the car back to them, brought a new tomei headgasket and they removed the head, stripped it, completed the plugs and drove it home, on the way home the gearbox decided to lock in gear, finally got it out and returned home. dropped the gearbox to find id lost reverse, a bolt had come out that holds the forks in, this has resulted in a new reverse gear and collar having to be ordered, the collar is in stock, the gear is a special order 8-12 week from Nissan. *sigh.

Ordered a new Turbosmart hypergate 45mm gate, Bosch 1650cc injectors, reverse parts for the gearbox, wastegate recirc kit. Once the gearbox is back it can go back in, i am looking at a dog gear set from SpeedTek auto in australia, but they cant even send a $100 order after a month long wait, so we will see. But for now the z32 will do for the high boost tune with water meth injection, hoping for 450rwkw on 29-30PSI


Next the manifold is being removed to have the wastegate outlet v band flange changed from the 38mm to the 45mm, then modify the wastegate pipe and reinstall it. I am looking to possibly have the exhaust manifold, rear housing, dump pipe, wastegate pipe coated in Ceramic coating to help reduce engine bay temps, the gearbox parts are still weeks away so by the time thats ready to go back in the manifold setup will be back for me to install, i have the injectors to change as well once the extension kit arrives.

We completed low boost, that was fine, ended up pulling out the gearbox, reverse was cooked, so ordered a new gear and sleeve through EFI Solutions thanks to tarrick.

While the gearbox was off being rebuilt, i decided to pull the turbo setup, order the fabrication parts and hand it over to my brother, regan, to fit the new wastegate in the clocked position to match the existing dump pipe, finished item below.

Since i have spent thousands on a new custom ECU and body loom for the pdm, i decided to send them off to Tim at ProCoat to work his cermaic magic

 

[RPS13180SX]

Couldnt find my twin plate clutch bearing, new one ordered from RHDJapan

Gearbox is all finished and looking schmick!


Fitted the turbo and manifold, new bolts and gaskets

Fitted the gearbox, put everything back together, check it over, new fluids all round, went through the brief for the high boost tune, no higher than 28psi, water meth on high boost only. Id love to see 450kw but i want my motor in one peice, no windows added.

Below is the result.

Heck yeah, 448rwkw, 602hp, 590nm - 30PSI - LOL

However... my tuner was having a pig of a time trying to get the cold idle to function without stalling, it was determined that the throttle body - an 82mm DBW unit it too big, the 1650cc injectors probably arent helping either. so the decision was made to fit a smaller DBW unit, after searching around 82mm is usually for large CC engines and drag cars. some people are using them just fine, the mazwork plenum is massive as well.

Now we are going to change to a 68mm DBW unit, this can still easily flow 450kw and should fix our issue, driveability is key for me, the previous engine i had at 300kw and its tune was just spot on, this change will hopefully help, unfortunately, it requires a retune, will post once the change over is completed, video below of the run.

With the 82mm DBW being too large to operate properly, we decided to reach out to Steve at Outsider Garage, an absolute legend all the way in New York, USA, they run into this issue often and make the reducer brackets needed to downsize, among other kits, check them out!!

Once we had paid the bill, Steve sent through a render of the reducer before it was sent off to the cnc machine.

 

[RPS13180SX]

Once that was all fitted up, it was back off to the dyno again to retune the new throttle body setup. This lead to more power, 461.9rwkw at 30PSI. We also fitted a Haltech ic7 dash.


So i took her for a test drive, and it was interesting, the car is a rocket, came back from the test drive shaking and sweating haha. All was well so i made my way home which is about a 35 minute drive, after stalling about 20 times with the ORC 659D twin plate, it was evident i had an issue with the DBW sensitivity, as soon as you touched the accelerator pedal, it revved right ip, it was super sensitive where with my last tune it wasn't, this turned out to be a haltech issue which was fixed with an update, but the clutch was an issue for me.

Also an issue, was the z32 gearbox, it was fitted with a alpha omega aftermarket kit to fit the sr and my 180sx shifter hole position, but shifting with it was absolute aids, everything worked well and as it should, but i sit so far back to shift into first id be leaning right up and over to the left which wasnt for me, so on trademe that went, then boom is sold in about two days, that put a bit of panic on to have it removed in time, my tuning shop was too busy and it was a long weekend as well, eventually my mate troy helped out at his work and removed it for me.

The clutch was also removed, the flywheel skimmed and sold.

So the next question was, which gearbox will i go with, i wasn't interested in an adapter solution again, even though the z34 CD009 was interesting, i see how many people fit them, and them sell them.

I spoke to my gearbox builder and friend Liam, to discuss options, we narrowed it down to either the Speedtek 1-5 close ratio gearset from Aus or the OS Giken 1-5 gearset, ultimately we went with the Speedtek gearset, which was ordered, along with the new shift hub, shift forks, one peice synchro kit and new bearing kit.


We had already sourced a donor s14 gearbox which was pulled apart, hot tanked and the mainshaft checked for cracks before it was sent off to Heat Treatments in auckland to be cyro treated.

Once it was back, the gearbox was put together, we did have an issue with the gear being too big which enclosed on the shift rod hole, the shift rod was machined to add clearance

 

[RPS13180SX]

With the gearset together, we also had an issue with the 5th gear setup, it wont work with a s14 FS5W71c, it will work with a s13 sr20det fsw571c gearbox, we informed speedtek of this and are going through the refund process.

Another order was placed for misc parts to finish the gearbox

A new SR gearbox to engine block block bolt kit, driveshaft black sleeve, oils, and gearbox sensors were ordered to complete the setup

For the clutch i decided to go with the Uniclutch 1100 nm sport kit inc fitment ring, a new drews lightened flywheel, new arp pressure plate bolts, new arp flywheel bolts, new nissan hub sleeve and throwout bearing.


Sent this off to my mechanic to fit and test drive........and more issues, the gearbox grinds gears in first gear...sometimes, other times its fine, then when downshifting from third to second, you feel a slight grind, sometimes it will jam in first gear.

So we went down the hole of diagnosing this, could it be clutch drag, or an issue with the gearset design. We changed the nismo slave cylinder out which are known to cause drag, replaced with it a new nissan OEM slave, rebleed the system, and no change.

We altered the clutch pedal to see if we are pushed the most amount of fluid, which didn't change anything.

We reached out to uniclutch to go over the issues and went through a couple checks to see what is the culprit, after these didn't solve the issue, uniclutch thought it must be the gearset, so i found a virgin s13 sr20det unopened gearbox and took it to my gearbox builder to open up and check before it went in the car.


We had to change one bearing, but otherwise it was looking good enough to put in the car as a test, this will see if the clutch is the issue or the gearbox which will be installed after new years break