S13 Track Car Rebuild

[SlaterRacingNZ]

Nice man, enjoying watching the progress you are making on this.
Remember seeing this a few months back when I picked that spoiler up and it looks like a totally different car now.

Keep up the good work.

A long and steady process that's for sure.

I didn't realize how much of a job it is to build a car from ground up until this thing was bought.
And always wondered why it took others 1-2 years to complete their built.

At least now it's getting pretty close to being raced.

[SlaterRacingNZ]

All the work appears to have paid off on the floor, and the results definitely speak for themselves.

Painting all Done & reassembly Complete:












It was nearing Friday pretty quickly and still had so much left to do.

Initially I thought I was ahead of schedule getting everything ready for the motor this weekend, but the rain on Thursday\Friday night really stuffed things up. Fitting the passengers seat up in the pissing down rain, is not my idea of having fun in any way shape or form. That and I'd been a little bit worried that the pressure plate bolts weren't going to show up before Saturday, luckily they arrived Friday afternoon.

The a frame was all fitted up Thursday arvo & brake\indicator lights wired in.



Then onward to Joes Mechanical for the engine drop in, and fit the rocker arm stoppers an new water pump.
Along with wire up the starter motor\alternator loom,  and move the radiator back for the front mount.

Nice and clean virgin 26,000km s15 sr20det :



Unfortunately I Forgot to take pictures of fitting the rocker arm stoppers & blocking off the heater hoses..



Fitted Sandwich Plate, Flywheel & arp bolts, Extreme Clutch & Pressure Plate:



And finally she's in the hole !:




There will be plenty more pictures of the engine as it's progressed along the fabrication path:

-Radiator Relocation
-Front Mount & Oil Cooler Fitted
-Intercooler pipes made & bov fitted
-Exhaust Fitted
-Fuel Lines Fitted
-Wiring Loom Complete & assembled
-Catch Can fitted
-Afm & intake fitted

[ecozile]

Car looks much better in flesh Cam, look forward to seeing it in action.

[b00stinz]

Why'd you choose Xtreme clutch over an Exedy type?
Looks good all coming together. S15 SR20DETs are nuts, capable of so much power and so reliable. I'd way prefer one over an RB for track days to be honest.

[SlaterRacingNZ]

We've moved back the radiator a good 76mm, which will help  incorporate the front mount behind the rad support.
This should hopefully help with being able to run the car even if the front end gets stoved in.

It's reasonably simple to do with 2 inch square plates welded to the A member, with the adequate size hole drilled for the radiator bushes to slot into.
Then it's just a matter of shortening the radiator pipes & figuring out what size front mount we'll be able to fit behind the rad support.

[SlaterRacingNZ]

Fitted up some new fuel lines & will probably heavily upgrade them at a later date:



Then it was straight onto fitting the belts up.  Little did I know that the ps pump I had was 4pk instead of 3pk.
So it was pretty much an instant fail as soon as I properly looked at the belt configurations.

Anyway: So I nipped down to Joes the next day and swapped out my ps pump for a 3pk.

The unfortunate aspect is the lines between s13 & s14/s15 are a bit different, which meant the hose mounting points when using a ps s15 pump for it were to far on the piss.
All the brackets and everything lined up fine, I just had to grind out the high pressure pipe bracket notch so the s13 pipe would slot in as the s15 notch is smaller.

Long story short. A bit of grinding, filing, test fitting and it was all in with it's respective belt fitted.

Yeah That's not going to work:



Much Better:




Also replaced the low pressure hose as well, and all hose clamps as well:



All that's left to do now is:
- Intercooler & Pipes
- Bov Plumbing
- Oil Cooler Fitment
- AFM & Intake Pipes
- Exhaust Install
- Catchcan (Can be done after the cars running)
- Winged Sump (Can be done after the cars running)

[SlaterRacingNZ]

Finally I've had a chance to Mock \ Rig up the intercooler setup.

I'd done a fair bit of research on the mid mount setup & how others have run their pipes, and decided to run mine a little bit different to others.
Most setups I've seen are of people running forward facing Intercooler Outlets, or welded on 45 Degree pipes to the end tanks.
There are a fair few kits out there to run the front mount under the radiator support, but I really didn't want to chop up mine just yet.

Many people complain of heat soak from the Intercooler touching the radiator, well this my friends is where you take the chance to make a little more room.
It may only be 5 - 10mmm clearance between the two & also running the intercooler just below the radiators top tank helps a bit.
This is all mainly based off theory and we'll only find out if it works when the car is actually out on the track.

There's still a little bit left to do on the setup, but it's really small easy stuff for now:
-Tig on 50mm tial V Band Adapter
-Tig on a Intake Vacuum \ Boost Pipe
-Purchase a Tial BOV
-Fabricate Intercooler & Radiator Top Brackets
-Fabricate Bottom Intercooler & Oil Cooler Brackets

And Obviously plenty of other things to do prior to the engines start up, for now here are some pics of what I've done:

Temporary Brackets & Cardboard Protected FMIC:




90 Degree 2.5" Hose Fitted to Outlet & cut to correct length, with a 45 Degree Alloy 2.5" Pipe cut to suitable Length:



45 Degree 2.-2.75" Reducer Hose Cut to correct Size:




FMIC Inlet in the mock up Stage. 90 Degree 2.5" Silicon Hose & 45 Degree 2.5" Alloy Pipe:




The inlet 90 degree hose didn't need to be cut shorter, but for it to suit the outlet side I chopped it to the same specs.
Next the 45 Degree 2.5" Pipe was cut to the correct length, and a 45 degree 2-2.5" Silicon Reducer was added (Unchopped).
Everything all clamped down and checked for sufficient free play, for the engine to rock without breaking the intercooler setup.




And conveniently there was enough clearance to run a factory Turbo Intake Flexi Pipe, which proved worth the trip all the way out to south Auckland.

This is where I plan to run the Tial Bov, which will hopefully provide a good pressure relief point for the bov to vent:



Minus a few fresh cuts to my hands I think it all went pretty well.

[gtsr]

Not so much heatsoak, but the intercooler core being restrictive thus not allowing enough air to reach radiator core is what I would worry about (higher coolant temps).

[SlaterRacingNZ]

Not so much heatsoak, but the intercooler core being restrictive thus not allowing enough air to reach radiator core is what I would worry about (higher coolant temps).

Here's hoping a good shroud will do a decent job of lowering temps.

[SlaterRacingNZ]

Yeah so a few of the earlier bodykit pictures maybe a tad useless now.

It seems Alex from ML Racing really managed to hussle me this time, but In reality I can't thank him enough for getting on board.
Head a long to his Facebook page's Origin Labo New Zealand & Moonlight Racing, drop them a like and check out the merchandise.

Take a look at the sweet new kit Alex Supplied us:

Origin +55mm Front Fenders
Origin Race Line Side Skirts
Origin Race Line Front Bumper
Origin Race Line Rear Bumper.

Fenders Fitted (Perfect Fitment):






Rear Bumper Fitted:



Bumper Fitted & General Shots:








We're still waiting on the intake pipe flange to be welded on, as well as the loom to be completed.

It's just a matter of pestering people again, to get stuff done.

[SlaterRacingNZ]

First and foremost I'm delighted to say that the Sil is now running, and moving around under it's own power.
We only have a few minor things left to sort out, but I'm sure were not far away at all from shaking down the car.

Last time we left a post we were up to welding some adapters on the intake pipe, and sifting through the box of looms to repair the s15 loom we have.
Now were at a point where we just have to modify the exhaust to clear the floor, and rewire the dash cluster loom to get the rpm working.

Recently Completed work:
-Fit SR Oil Cooler Block.
-Fit Oil Filter Relocation Block.
-Shorten Oil Cooler Lines
-Bead Roll & Weld on a -10 fitting & Tial adapter to the Intake Pipe.
-Replace Cracked Fuel Line & Swap over lines.
-Replace Two Faulty Coil Packs
-Remove Plenum to Free up Seized Injectors
-Rewire Cut S15 SR20DET Loom
-Make Intercooler & Oil Cooler Brackets
-Lower Rear Ride Height & Fit 15mm Spacers
-Replace LF Wheel bearing & complete wheel Alignment
-Make In Car ECU Bracket

I'm sure there is plenty of things I've missed but this will do for now.

Top Intercooler Brackets Made:



Lower Intercooler & Oil Cooler Bracket Made:



Complete Lower Bracket:



Fitted Oil Cooler:





Cooler Lines tucked away:





Flange Welded & bov Fitted:



Doesn't Look to bad from the Front:




Just to prove that it actually goes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCslq2DB7fo

[SKDSUP]

just got to say man, this looks amazing! well done on the rivnut idea-im currently fitting up my Origin Lab gear from Alex with Rivnuts too!

really enjoying watching this build, reminds me of my car,- the work that was done to it, the old owners should be shot for!

/subscribed

[SlaterRacingNZ]

just got to say man, this looks amazing! well done on the rivnut idea-im currently fitting up my Origin Lab gear from Alex with Rivnuts too!

really enjoying watching this build, reminds me of my car,- the work that was done to it, the old owners should be shot for!

/subscribed

It really does seem like a swift and easy access idea, plus to get under the car with skirts is just a pain in the ass.
At least with it fitted this way it'll avoid the bumpers and skirts falling off, no more of this hori cable tie it on g it'll be right attitude.

The Orgin Lab gear fits stupidly well, much to my surprise I didn't really have to shave anything off the kit.
It's true what they say when you buy someone else s project, you really do inherit a poorly built/looked after vehicle.

Hope you've made a build thread for your car


So now that all the major stuff was done, it was time to focus on the minor things that required attention.
My attention was quickly drawn to the oiling system, with fresh fluids already turning into black gunk & two leaky oil cooler fittings.

Two bottles later of 10w40 Fuchs Oil & a new filter (of course after completely draining the oil cooler & lines), the fluid was back to it's pristine colour.
Next on the agenda was to fit some gauges, starting with the oil pressure temp and pressure sensor.
With a bit of fiddling around I figured that it's not possible to run a pressure sender unit, as it's to big and won't clear the oil cooler outlet fitting.
I did how ever try and reduce the size of the sender unit in the vice, and as expected the unit to failed and read 45 psi with the engine off.

After that failure I'd elected to run a mechanical oil pressure gauge, which would more than clear the oil cooler outlet fitting.
With all the gauges and what not done, it was then onto finalizing the loom placement.
It's one of those processes that are slow and tedious, moving little things around here and there Including heat sleeving and tucking wires it above the arches.

At least we can now give you guys some proper pictures of the Interior \ engine bay finished:







There's only a couple of things to do now before our first track event e.g.:
-Modify the exhaust to clear the floor & make the rear muffler hanger bracket.
-Fix rpm cluster .
-Fit Front & Rear Bumper Supports.
-Repair & Repaint GTR Style Grill.
-And at some point paint the bodykit.

[benji-nz]

Did you run braided line for the oil gauge? The plastic stuff looks far too dodgy for me, and I heard reports that it is illegal in race classes due to its' poor impact survivability.

PS, awesome work with the car dude!

[SlaterRacingNZ]

Did you run braided line for the oil gauge? The plastic stuff looks far too dodgy for me, and I heard reports that it is illegal in race classes due to its' poor impact survivability.

PS, awesome work with the car dude!

You're not wrong on that one. If you run the plastic lines properly and protect them from rubbing on the firewall they'll work fine.
I opted to run a copper line for the moment, but will replace it with a braided one if they fail it for scrutineering.

I've also heat wrapped the copper line just for a bit more protection.