kairojya

I've been away from TR for quite awhile as I finished up school. In 2008 I had this 1997 240sx:








At the time I couldn't afford to do much more with the car. I became even less interested after having an off along I-75 in the rain:








I also learned an important lesson about trying to buy cheap parts:



I bought an XS Power manifold, recommended to me by a MKIV Supra NA-T owner who used one of them. Well, they make those perfect but the fitment sucks on SR's. The flange was quite a bit off, cylinder #4 runner was hitting a boss on the head, and it was full of slag.

After fucking around it with for a couple days taking it on and off and massaging it to fit, I was a bit frustrated and apparently I took this aggravation out on the turbo oil feed tap on the block while dicking around with the stock hardlines. The result? Developed a common leak from stripping the threads:



Ended up doing one these that became all too familiar:



Acquired a new tool:



Anddd took some portraits of the motor:




I tried some drifting:





Note the quarter panel damage from the I-75 slide .


Dyno'd the car at the BVP Supra Meet on 8/30/08, 205 whp lol





I ended up selling it in 2009 after it sat in my garage for several months. My childhood friend (shinmei2006 on here) picked up the project from me at that point. Frank daily-drove the car for awhile, and ended up in an unfortunate rear-ending facilitated by a stupid old-fuck ....

kairojya

[continued]

Frank acquired some very nice parts to get the car back on track ... but he too had other priorities at the time, and was pursuing much more important opportunities. This week is his first week living in Japan as he is about to start a new job. With him leaving the country for awhile, I decided to take over the project.


This is how the car is currently:



^^That is a core/radiator support from a '95. I'm not too happy with it and I'm debating cutting up the frontend for tubs and a tube-front, or something. I definitely will be doing a beefy crash-bar this time around.






dat ass ^^


The parts cache is currently comprised of:

-Enkei RPF01 18x10.5 +15 all around, Michelin Pilot Sports 265/? rear, 245/? front, Special Brilliant Coating (SBC)

Aero
-Origin +20mm front fenders
-Origin Type II +50mm rear overs
-DMAX 'style' +30mm front fenders (undecided yet which I will run, going to play with fitment and see which will be best)
-JDM Kouki wing
-JDM Zenki skirts
-JDM Zenki spatz rear valences
-JDM Kouki front
-Trust Gracer front lip
-DMAX 'style' roof wing
-rain guards
-JDM turn signal deletes
-JDM grille
-New door skins

Powerrrr
-Z32 MAF
-Garrett 2871r .86 (off the Aero-K guy's kouki)
-STi yellow 550s
-Ryo tubular manifold
-Ryo t25 elbow
-Synapse 40mm wastegate (the 2871's internal is welded)
-HKS mushroom intake filter

Misc
-Innovative LC1 wideband + flat gauge
-Prosport oil filter adapter


----------

Parts already on the car:

-Carbon Creations CF hood
-Aerocatch hood latches
-Apexi N1 catback with cat-delete and resonator deleted
-Greddy downpipe I believe, may be some other brand
-Greddy FMIC and piping
-HKS SSQ BOV
-Koyorad
-Clutch fan
-Z32 front brakes
-D2 coils
-ACT clutch
-Greddy profec B spec 2 boost controller
-Some JDM bar boost gauge
-Greddy turbo timer
-A/C
-Prosport digi water gauge
-J30 diff
-B&N short shifter
-R32 knob


I'm sure that I'm missing stuff but this should cover most of it. I'm shooting for getting the car into paint by the end of the month, but I'm having the hard time finding a fabricator .... they all seem to be too busy or not interested in making money.


I'm open to suggestions/pointers, could always use the help! I moved back to Tampa recently, most of my car friends are in Sarasota and further south and don't like to travel north much

kairojya

Part One

Moved the car from one garage to another. Got myself a rental shop/garage to finish the car in. Living in an apartment, I'd say this is the best car related thing I've ever paid for lol.


First steps are to tear down the front end, then decide what I want to do with the upper radiator/core support. I'll post pics when I get there.




I'm not sure when this happened, but this is the passenger side front fender. One of the bolts was accessible enough to get off, the other is rusted to hell and some metal from the pinch weld is wrapped up around the nut on the back. I started to drill it out. Once I get the fender off I'm going to try and fix the pinch welds, and pull out part of the dent to the left. Then I'll pull the driver side fender off, and test fit my front wheels and the sets of front fenders I have .




Here's the next problem to tackle, drivers side rocker which was damaged during the I-75 incident.

kairojya

Got the passenger front fender off the other day:






Looks like the P/S system has been leaking for some time. There's a thick coat of grimy shit all over this side of the engine bay. I've been slowly disassembling everything on both sides so that I have room to do tubs




Front-end disassembly is coming along:

kairojya

Over the weekend I put the intercooler on a press and worked back into it's original shape. I don't have any comparison pictures but due to the front-end collision it was like someone took hold of both end tanks and twisted them in opposite directions maybe 10~15 degrees .




It held a little over 20 PSI when I tested it after the fact, that's plenty for my current plans.




Next up was further disassembly of the front-end. I had a similar issue with getting the driver's side fender off, actually the area where it mounts behind the side skirt was banged up quite a bit more than the passenger side, and the bolt inside the door jam area was stripped out on top of it all. I ended up getting it off after a bit of work:




The 'new' radiator/core support is not attached so it came right off. I'm leaning more and more towards making some kind of tube front. I'm still undecided whether I want to keep A/C or not though ...




While I decide what to do with the front end, I'm pulling the harness and I'm going to relocate the fusebox and stuff inside the cabin. During this time I'm hoping to get rid of anything unnecessary so that all my wiring is nice and clean inside the cabin and in the bay.








It's getting there lol

mewantkouki

Don't be a ricer... Keep A/C!

kairojya

we'll see. If I keep it, Frank is going to send me the sensors and dash piece for JDM auto climate control

kairojya

I like these things




The wiring was an absolute mess with this car. That's going to change!




Pulled the dash and that crash bar. Removed all the wiring from a failed cheap alarm install. Separated all aftermarket wiring from stock (turbo timer, profec b, aftermarket headunit, boost gauge, prosport water gauge, can't think of what else).




Engine room harness is out! That was a little more involved then I expected but much easier with the dash out of the way. Now I can take it apart and delete anything unnecessary and shorten the rest (fusebox is going in the cabin somewhere).




Put +20mm spacers up front and test fit the wheels. The 20's are overkill, I could likely get away with 5's but I may run 10s .. these 20's will be for sale soon. Also, definitely going to need tubs or to cut out the stock ones:




This has me a little more concerned:




I also test fit the +20 and +30mm front fenders I have and neither are quite wide enough ... hence the reason I want smaller spacers so I don't have to run -3 deg camber. One or both sets of these fenders will be for sale soon too..


I'm liking how it's looking though




Can't wait to get the body done and painted, then focus on powerrrrr

Empire

very nice. very nice.

kairojya

^^ thanks



Here's what I've been doing the past few days:




I have to say it's been somewhat of a pain in the dick. Since I didn't do the original SR swap, I am a bit lost as to what some of the wiring was done for. I've just been tracing everything around and checking both the KA FSM and s14 SR FSM like crazy.


Here is my goal for the engine bay .. I found this randomly the other day and it's exactly how I want the radiator support to be (idk if this particular car has it where it can be un-bolted, but that's what I want too). I think the tubs are a bit small too, if I'm going to cut the stock metal out, I'd make mine a bit bigger .. Oh and the RB26 looks great in there, maybe someday