A community of enthusiasts dedicated to Nissan's SR20DE/SR20VE/SR20DET engines.
Start here: forum search. Be sure to search on what you're looking for before posting a new thread.
You are currently browsing the forum as a guest. In order to access special features, the image gallery, and post you will need to be a registered member. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the administrator.
Lo and behold, Andy finally decides to post about his project!
I will post some pictures and comments here, but the majority of the information can be found at my project_240 index page. The articles are semi-witty, and contain both good information for amateur swappers and great pictures. Check it out and lemme know what you think!
A subframe I had delivered by Robin of Barnett Performance and Development. Apparently his clips come with more goodies than mine did, and he had this left over. I mainly needed it because I finally came to the decision to ditch the HICAS subframe in place of a non-HICAS one. I am also using this as an opportunity to install some SPL pro aluminum subframe bushings. These completely replace the stock rubber pieces, and thus the rubber needs to be removed.
This is a 2" extension I bought from Advance Auto Parts a while back. Appearantly it isn't too "impact-friendly!" :smirk:
RUCA's, toe arms, and "traction rods" off the RPS13 subframe I bought.
The same parts after beadblasting.
Here I am using a SawzAll to remove the metal sleeves that are part of the subframe bushings. The idea here is that it would make burning them out easier if the metal was gone and some of the rubber removed with it.
This is the metal sleeve after it was removed.
Here I am using an Oxy-Acetylene torch to burn the rubber out. Sssshhhh...don't tell the California Air Resources Board!
After burning the majority of the bushing out, all that's left is some (relatively) brittle rubber. This is easily removed with a Brillo pad. Make sure to wear gloves, as this is some messy chit.
Cleaning with an air-powered buffing wheel. This made short work of getting the remainder of the rubber out and smoothing out the inner diameter.
This is where the old rubber subframe bushing used to be. The SPL aluminum bushings are eager to move into their new home. But the burning screwed up the finish on the subframe, and it will soon be treated to a primer and paint jorb. Since I have no $$ left over from buying all the bling-bling parts, I will probably go with a rattlecan jorb...
This probably represents <4% of the pictures I have. But I figured it's better to have more pictures than not enough.
Last Saturday we dropped the diff, then the subframe, and moved on to remove the wheels and all 4 struts. I have some KYB AGX's and Tein S-Tech springs waiting on the stock tophats to come off, then they will be assembled and reinstalled.
We are actually still stripping stuff, if you can imagine that. This coming Saturday will witness beadblasting and primering of the donor subframe, and possibly a layer or two of paint (depending on how many fumes I inhale by that point). I may get to install the aluminum subframe bushings, but the freezer at the shop may not be sufficient. We'll see...
I update my site every couple of weeks, so stay tuned. I will also do mini-updates ("are they evil updates?" ) on this site. Please provide any feedback, including constructive criticism. Thanks, and let me know what ya'll think.
Hehe...we actually bought them online...it adds to the ambiance!
While feedback on the content displayed here is important to me, feedback on my website content is also welcome. Please check out the articles linked in my first post, and let me know what you think. Hopefully they'll be at least mildly entertaining!
As for my beadblasting everything...why not? I have it at my disposal, and a lot of stuff needs to be cleaned up. If you look at my website, you can see before and after pictures. The only challenge pertinent to my love of beadblasting though is finding something to coat the parts with so they don't rust back...
Money: there are three of us working on the project, and we split the costs pretty evenly. This helps out a lot. Plus I have sold quite a few parts from our car and clip, which has helped to fund our work. We also picked up Barnett Performance and Development as a sponsor, which has lessened the cost somewhat in the past 3 months.
Time: What can I say? Although I'm newly-married (1-year anniversary was a month ago), I still have a decent amount of time for the car, because my wife is a patient, loving woman. I had more time, but now that we are in a house, I have "honey-do" chit to worry about constantly. I try to get as much done during the week as I can, but it remains a difficult task to get over to the shop to work on the car, even every other Saturday. Between taking care of the house, going out of town for weddings and other stuff, and all the "leisure" activities we have planned for the weekends, it's not easy. And once kiddies come in a couple of years, it will be even harder. I have basically come to an agreement with my wife that as long as I get all of my "chores" done, I can go to the shop every other Saturday or so. We'll see if this arrangement lasts...
We decided to go ahead and do a lot of work at once, which may not have been the best idea, but it certainly has been fun and challenging. I am fortunate in that I am able to keep my head up and keep going even though our car has never run in the 11 months that we've owned it!
Last edited by Shift_Munky : 07-13-2004 at 01:32 PM.
I did have a question then I was reading all the subtitles to the pics and pretty much figured it out for myself. I also got an s13 recently and am going to start on it soon, already a fun fu*king car to drive. Can't wait to see how your guys's turns out .
But I figured it's better to have more pictures than not enough.
