Sir Warrior - S14GTOLS240

Slow day

2009-05-30T03:14:00.002-05:00

Well not really, but not a lot of the stuff on the list got done. I did get the hadrware for front calipers and put those together, stopped by a dealer and ordered the missing bolts. The rear axles are in and ready to rock, rear brakes are ready to be bled. But that was pretty much it. The rest of the day was visiting Lewe and getting Vin the motor he needed for his drill press, as well as browsing around the shop and shooting the shit. looking around for someone who's got dimple dies didn't help, but at least it was something that I knew I should try before ordering them online. Once we got back more people came over and as it always ends up in shooting more shit.

Need to kick it into high gear and actually get the wiring knocked out in the next few days. As hearing the beast run is my main focus right now.

Another day another setback

2009-05-28T00:17:00.002-05:00

OK, not really, but still. Today I found out that Z32 brake bolts are longer than S13/S14, so Z32 spindles must be helluva lot thicker. Not good, need to go back and order right ones, I tried taking them from the donor car, but they looked like they would be trouble. While at Nissan, I need to get some diff bolts/nuts for the 6bolt axles (again 5hole z32 diff uses bigger bolts - DOH!!).

Now onto the good news, Vin came through and fabbed up the throttle cable bracket, and shit looks sweet. Vin connected most of the brake hard lines, and I wanted to get all the calipers install, but I could only do the rear. It seems that I also forgot the front caliper hardware I have at my garage (double DOH!). The power steering line needed some more trimming and few tricks in routing so that its not next to the header, nor so its rubbing on anything. And since the clutch bracket was the wrong size for the Wilwood clutch master cylinder, Vin fabbed up a new one.

Overall there was progress so I'm happy.

Is all the little stuff

2009-05-26T02:21:00.004-05:00

It takes time, but one thing after another gets done. Since last update, Vin had cut up the right side header as it wouldn't fit with the header bolted down. So he had to redo two of the runners. It fits great now.

Diff took a little bit but its in and the driveshaft is hooked up. Only thing we're missing is the axle bolts to get the driveline finished. Have to stop by Nissan and order some.

Zoltec came through with the improved water neck adapter. His shit is top notch, and came out better than I expected. Note to self: need Zoltechnologies Inc grafic to put on car.

I finally was able to swap over the heater/ac/blower assembly to the new chassis, something I've been looking forward to. Since I was missing some pieces, the old chassis provided source for all the little stuff I misplaced or lost. The brake pedal needed the pin and is now installed. Throttle was missing the cable, but I swapped the entire pedal assembly in as it was easier. We just need to make a bracke for it on the throttle body side. Clutch pedal requires some more work as the u-shaped bracket needs to be fabricated. The dash bar got painted and swapped in. The shift boot got installed onto the shifter. It doesn't fit perfectly, but it should do just fine.

I still need to swap out the e-brake handle, as the one in new chassis is a little beat for my taste.

I did find couple of good generic heater hose lines that I hope will work, otherwise I'll just go with AN stuff and stainless braided lines. That shit looks baller anyway.

Bad news is that I broke one of the header bolts, but that I hope would be an easy fix.

I am starting to get concerned about the hood fitment, but I might have something lined up for that.

Next step?

throttle bracket, brake lines, engine wiring harness, install tires, hvac wiring, cage paint, radiator mounts and hoses, ect.

Little by little I can start to see a light at the end of the tunel.

and yeah, I need more pix

Lots of wiring

2009-04-10T09:20:00.003-05:00

So for few days now I've been getting my head around the wiring harness. Rewiring a car isn't as hard as it may seem. FSM saved me alot of time so having it available is nice.

For now I finished wiring everything in the trunk, as it was pretty straight forward run and it allowed us to locate the fuse panel in the same spot as stock. After we had that done, we loosely routed to front harness, as the motor will determine the final place for it. As far as yesterday, we rewired everything that had to do with doors, so now I have power windows, power door locks and most of the power mirrors.

M20 plug is only needed for power locks, but I opted to leave it in as I'd still need it for defrost (one thing missing from the rear harness).

We also started sorting the wiper motor harness, but we'll finish that on another day.

Custom CNCing by Zoltec

2009-02-28T00:32:00.003-06:00

This little sucker here was a piece of work. I threw up a general idea and dimensions, but than came the Zoltec's awesome engineering into play and it just started to look better and better. He did things on that CAD drawing I have no clue about, but it took him few clicks. And that was just the drawing of the part. He than proceeded to get out his CNC machine and actually get it for me with the specs we needed. Fucking A!!! Zoltec does indeed rule!

So here I am proud to present Zoltechnology's very first part. Only one in the whole world, and it's going on my car. Got to get the bitch running and show off the bling that only Zoltechnology Inc. can bring! HAHA..

Thanks again Matt.

Back to work

2009-02-23T23:01:00.002-06:00

With the new tire machine ready for use, I went back to Vin's and finished putting my rear wheels together. It didn't take long, but I did manage to scratch one of them in the process, so I'm pretty pissed at myself. They look good and I'm looking forward to getting some tires on them soon. Maybe I'll have a chance to slap them on this week if Vin comes over or if we head up there with Martin tomorrow.

Tire machine - yessss!!!

2009-02-17T12:37:00.002-06:00

So I finally got a tire machine. The wheels need some sealant and I'll be slapping on the tires on them soon. Need to get some tires for the rear as well. Can't wait to play with new tools :D

Till than, I'll be taking it easy and working on electrical system untill weather gets better. Which I hope will be soon.

More LED

2009-01-11T22:32:00.001-06:00

So the third brake light came out very nice. Excited with the outcome I started looking at doing the same for the tail light assembly. Its ALOT more involved, as the same LEDs will be the parking and stop lights. So I looked over at the thread in the ziptied forums and got the stuff I needed sorted out. Ordered parts and they arrived quickly. Now is a matter of putting the entire circuit together...

LED brake light

2008-12-12T13:47:00.002-06:00

Messed around a little with the third brake light. I got the boards cut out to fit into the housing perfectly. I soldered most of the LEDs and resistors in, but I still got to connect them into one solid light as I again ran out of fuel. But the new gun with small tip helped out a lot.

I also grabbed a spare power supply from an old computer and I'm using it as a benchtest for the LED.

Wheels are back

2008-12-04T01:12:00.003-06:00

On Sunday I went and we prepped the wheels to get redone again. Didn't take too long for Zoltec to get them back to me. And today I see how awesome they are. Can't wait to get them put back together again.

Till than I got to focus on other shit to keep me occupied. Maybe finally finishing up the LED setup - we'll see.

Wiring. Oh the wiring.

2008-11-30T15:38:00.003-06:00

Having a good resource for your wiring schematics makes a lot of things easier. Whenever LS1 swap comes up, the wiring thread is "the" source that everyone points out. So, I went on and hacked off the un-needed wires. BUT, what they don't tell you, is that some of the wires listed, are actually needed. Like to make the reverse lights work. And the such. So playing with plugs 220 and 230 was the most PITA to find out what they actually go to. They're not needed to make the engine run, but for lights on the cluster, etc.

In the end, I needed to fix one wire, but the wiring harness is looking awesome. Vin went and resleeved the parts of harness that he could depin the plugs on, and left split loom on the rest. Overall, it looks good. The one thing that needs to be fixed still is the starter sub-harness, as in needs to come out in a different spot from the main trunk to make it look cleaner.

We pulled the motor - AGAIN, and layed out the harness out. Made things easier to work on and check the routing. Got to do the same when we're messing with the SR.

As for homework, I took the thermostat housing and I'm making a clocking spacer for it, so the hose points toward the radiator outlet. This will make hose routing shorter and cleaner. The picture above shows how the 45* spacer will point the waterneck down.

Wheels getting nakked

2008-11-17T03:18:00.002-06:00

With some spare time and Zoltec being a good buddy, we went to clean up the wheel centers. The sandblasting machine wasn't exactly cutting it, as there were at least 4 layers of different crap on there. We took some sanders and some 80 grit and got to it. It went a lot faster than trying to sandblast them, so in about an hour, we had all four wheels almost ready for powercoating. Only thing that was left was the small areas in the spokes. But that should be something that sandblaster will take off relatively quickly.

One step forward, two steps back

2008-11-16T02:53:00.002-06:00

OK so maybe not THAT bad, but still.

Started off getting the engine bay stirpped down and stitch welded, cleaned up and painted. Once the paint dried (long time in cold weather), we moved on to finally dropping the motor in. It was going to be a little tricky, as the driver side header had to go in at the same time. Dropped the steering rack AGAIN, and as we were putting it in, I lowered the whole thing onto the radiator support - FUCK!!!!!! Well that tweaked the sides, so I'm pissed. We cut the thing off (Vin was really happy about that one ) and get the engine to go in. Sort of. Both of the motor mounts went in, but the trans had some issues, as we got it on, the left side header (which was held in place by only 2 bolts, and loosely at that) decided that it didn't have enough clearance against the floorpan. And it ripped out a few threads from the rear most hole in the head - FUCK!!!!!

At this point, I was too pissed and tired, so we called it a day. Hopefully the head can be cleaned up with a tap, as I hope that only few front thread were fucked. The header on the other hand - thats all up to Vinny, as he'll have to make it work, HOPEFULLY without having to pull the motor yet again. We'll see how it goes next week.

Few less things

2008-11-09T03:47:00.002-06:00

Started again kinda late, but I still managed to get some work done. I started by taking off and painting the front cross member, something that for whatever reason has been put off for a while now. With final fitments and assembly, I wanted to get it out of the way. That itself wasn't a big deal, as I had to change to coilovers, so shit had to come apart. One thing I forgot was the exhaust manifold gaskets, so we couldn't install the engine for the last time like I wanted to. But live and learn.

I did get the dipstick hole plugged up, something I was a little worried about. But with Vin's great setup, it was a easy task. A little threadsealer and a spare bolt and it became a non issue.

As I was leaving I again didn't grab the radiator bracket, so I'm going to try to make it over there in the next few days, as well as grabbing the rear coilover mounts from Megan's to see if they will work with Stances I got. If they do, that saves me some time and puts me on the road faster. And at this point every little bit helps. Wiring and cooling systems are going to be next, I've been slacking in both departments and need to get back to research a little more.

Some progress

2008-11-04T23:37:00.002-06:00

I'm getting little things done, and it feels like a lot closer to the end. As promised the pics of my motor mounts. Well just one, but it shows off the powercoating very nicely.

On Saturday we managed to get all four wheels apart, which was a long process, one I am not looking forward to again. The centers are getting power coated, so I am very excited about that. The rims in the pic are going on the S13 so they're not going to be seeing any duty anytime soon.

Last thing that I managed to get done is to grab a set of coilovers for my ride earlier tonight. The purchase wasn't planned, timing couldn't be worse, but price was VERY hard not to jump on, which I did. Soon the S14 will have lots of low.

Motor Mounts

2008-10-30T16:42:00.002-05:00

Mounts are finished. Can't wait to check them out later today. Going to be picking them up right after work. Will post some pics later tonight.

Headers - Part 3

2008-10-25T19:21:00.002-05:00

Today I started way early, with lots of shit to do. Once we got started, everything seemed to go smooth. Pieces lining up like they should, clearing the rack was actually easier than we anticipated. Once we got the pipes welded up, thats when problems started. Fitting individual pipes was easy, removing them as a whole - big difference. We redid the first pipe which seemed to be the one that was having most issues with hanging up on everything, but even after that removing it as one piece was an impossible task.
So we pulled the steering wheel column to see if that helped to solve the problem - nope. Than the steering rack came out - nope. Took off the motor mounts - nothing. Lifted the motor - still not enough! We finally dropped the trans and pulled the entire thing out.

Looks like this won't be a simple bolt on. Luckily its only on the driver side.
By this time it was 4am, we were both tired, so we ended there.
Motor mounts went to powder coating, as I should have them back by Saturday. Next weekend, headers/motor is going back in. Clutch needs to get installed, dipstick tube tapped and threaded, and couple other things that escape me at the moment.

Headers - Part 2

2008-10-21T01:10:00.002-05:00

So this Saturday we started where we left off. But with some trial and error, we noticed that the headers needed further modifications. Fitting them on the car as we went along helped to avoid big issues when it came to finally put them on. But at the end of the day, we ended up with one fully finished header - from flange to the collector. Took us longer than expected, but thats pretty much anything with this project.

Can't wait for next weekend. Finishing the headers is the only thing on my mind for now.

Headers - Part 1

2008-10-08T02:14:00.004-05:00

We finally got back to work this weekend and hard. Worked our asses off till 4am. But it was well worth it. We stared off looking at different routing posibilities and started cutting and measuring and grinding and after lots and lots of trial and error, one side was almost complete. Big relief and lots of joy on my part, Vince on the other hand probably just wanted to go to sleep.

Wish I could say more of the same this weekend, but someone decided to get married and invited us, so it looks like the work will be finished in two weeks. Maybe I'll go over and snap a few pics to post.

Parts getting installed again.

2008-09-21T23:47:00.002-05:00

Its been a while since I last put on some parts. Bolting them up sure feels good. Getting some stickers is cool too. LOL.
So the driveshaft showed up as expected, went in and with quick check, it all works as expected. Time to put on the rear sway bar. After getting the right brackets (this is Progress sway - so solid links) I notice there is no way to really get it on without some voodoo wrench work. Nothing a welder can't fix. This is why I enjoy working at Vin's place. Something as simple as this, gets fixed in just 2 minutes, and I'm back under the car installing the sway bar links.

With those installed, I can measure the placement of X pipe and where/how to mount the exhaust.
Life is good again.

Gotta bug the guy with the 1 3/4 U bends again on Monday. Wish me luck.

More of the same

2008-09-18T23:20:00.001-05:00

So hunting for SS tubing is crazy. People either can't get it, won't get back to me or some other bullshit. I just need the damn headers done.
On a good note, clutch line worked out great, and driveshaft will be getting put in this weekend. VERY happy about that.
Still trying to find a place that will do mandrel bends locally. And I might be just SOL on that and get some from mailorder.

Shit needs to get on the road soon or I'll go crazy.

AN Lines are cool, but headers suck!

2008-08-22T01:45:00.003-05:00

So this weekend I managed to run the lines for power steering and fuel. Mounted the FPR/Filter right under the passager seat, next to the frame rail. It allowed me to have the rail sit lower than the filter, so nothing should rip it off. Cutting the stock hardlines and running a short section of hose to the back of the filter.

The first test fit of headers showed that they will need to be modified, ALOT. So we went down to flanges on most of the tubes, running new collectors/etc. There is a lot of trail and error stuff, but it looks like its going to work quite nice in the end. Can't wait.

Still need measurements for driveshaft to order it up.

The little stuff

2008-08-10T12:46:00.003-05:00

Now that I have the engine in, its time to start working on the little stuff that needed to get done. After few hours we got the battery tray welded in the trunk, made couple different designs for the clutch master as well as started to work with the power steering lines and started to look at the headers and what needs to be done for them to fit. Throttle cable looks like it won't be a big deal. There were a lot of distractions and interruptions, so not much more got done. I did get the measurements for the clutch line needed, but not for the driveshaft. I got to call DSS and see what they'd like me to measure exactly.

Another Summit order is going to be placed later tonight.

Ohhh, the mounts

2008-08-07T15:20:00.004-05:00

So there has been progress lately. Wheels are here, fit better than expected. 11in wide rears, 10in wide fronts. Just add rubber.
As for the chassis, after dropping in the motor, we found that the trans could go back some more without bashing the firewall, so the crossmember got re-cut some more. Once we did that, transmission mount was next. Ended up being simpler than expected, but we ran out of gas.

Yesterday, with Argon refilled, the motor mounts were created. lots of test measuring, test fitting and grinding, fitting, and measuring and all the fun that comes with fine tuning engine mounts.
At 2AM we ended up with a car with LS1 in it. The fun part of project has begun.

Motor mounts are done

Wheels looking nice and flush.

Hope on the horizon

2008-07-22T20:36:00.002-05:00

With little progress over past few weeks, this weekend actually made me think that there is still hope to get this shit knocked out in short amount of time.
There isn't a lot of stuff that needs to get done, and more parts should be arriving soon as well.

On Wed. I plan on getting some of the chassis wiring started..

In the meantime, I wait for two more packages to arrive by UPS.