1992 Nissan Pulsar GTi-R

[Icehouse]

Got a lead from  Chriss a  Datsun buddy on a Pulsar that was about to go up for sale.  It was his neighbors car and had been sitting a few years due to wiring issues.  My Datsun buddy Chris thought of me due to it having wiring issue.  haha I told him I would have a look at it.  He said he was sick of it.  After driving Sam's Pulsar I sure wouldn't mind having one, so I drove down and checked it out.  The owner said he bought it from RHD Specialties and Drove it for a couple weeks and before the battery wouldn't stay charged.  He paid a shop 1200 bucks to install a new alternator which didn't fix the issue.  Not sure how many of you guys are of the era when the SAFC2 was a common add on but this car had one.  I adjusted it to show voltage and it showed the alternator working.  ( Yes Hainz I brought my multi meter, since I didn't know if would have a SAFC2).  I took it for a test drive and it drove fine.  Some boost cut but it was almost out of gas.  Sam told me it's a common issue. So I made him an offer and drove it home.  He told me I was crazy driving it that far but I wasn't worried.  Also I have AAA so if things go south I will just get it towed home.  Stopped and filled the tires with air and got some gas.  

 

This is how it looked when I showed up.  Mint for its age.  Some dings but zero rust and no cracks in the dash.  

 

 

Every mod is 2000 era, SAFC, Big wheels, Front mount IC, fancy grounding kit.  

 

Since I've had a bunch of SR cars on a new engine I always pull the pan and check for debre and pound the pan out beyond flat so it doesn't oil starve.  O wow did I find some goodies.  It turns out the PO somehow lost the dip stick and replaced it with some random dip stick from pick and pull that was a foot too long and didn't even seat in the dip stick tube properly.  This allowed oil to come out, and wouldn't you know it spray onto the alternator....  So this extra long dip stick was so long infact it went under the crank and acted like a whip hitting the oil squirter until the tip broke off and it was 3 threads from falling out!  This would have killed the engine.  SO SO glad I pulled the pan!!!!  Luckily I have a stock pile of SR junk and found an minty oil squirter.  I had to pull the mid pan to install it.  Not to bad on my new lift.  

 

 

 

Not sure what the spring is from.  I never figured that one out haha.  It could have been in my drain pan and I just didn't notice it.  I accidently dropped the oil pan when I was prying it off the engine.  Luckily it landed in my oil catch pan.  

 

 

 

 

The wiring issue was pretty simple.  At the time Sam also had a pulsar so at work I had him pop the hood on his so we could do some test.  Not that we needed.  When you connected the battery with the key off you could hear a relay click, two in fact.  It had a cheesy after market steering wheel.  Somewhere along its life the horn got stuck down, the fix was to unplug the noise maker not fix the stuck switch.  Like every JDM car I've seen it had a aftermarket horn setup. It had the factory relay and an added relay making the power draw over 1 amp with the key off.  Later I removed an alarm, added horn harness, ground kit and more. 

 

 

 

 

 

Before and after the cleanup.  

 

 

 

 

 

After all that I thought I had a minty daily.  Not quite.....  They made 230HP stock, this in turn with worn out motor mounts and old radiator hoses allowed enough flex to crack the lower rad hose.  Being the Datsun guy I am I shorted the lower hose and hooked it back on.  The next day it cracked in the same spot haha.  SO I ordered new hoses which took forever to show up.  That fixed that problem though!!  

 

 

 

Parked next to Sam's pulsar which days later was stolen out of my driveway 😞 he had full coverage at least.  

 

 

 

So it has a burning oil smell at stoplights.  I tracked it down to the rear output seal fling oil into the tunnel which drips onto the exhaust.  I bought that seal and the front main because it leaks too.  I haven't installed the front main yet.  Ran out of time.  I want to do it while the auto parts stores are open so I can get a new belt too.  

 

 

 

 

 

Someone along the ownership busted the guts out of the CAT.  So installed a new one.  You're welcome environment!  

 

 

 

Pretty much everything on the car that's been touched needs to be re done correctly.  When installing a short shifter they didn't reinstall the shifter boot all the way!!  Like really guys...  

 

 

My boy loves it!!! 

 

[MikeRL411]

Smart kid.

[Draker]

Dude! Bad ass car!!

[GT2]

Nice!

[Icehouse]

Fixed the fuel smell issue!  Turns out the PO mounted his stereo amp to the trunk floor with zip screws.....  5 of them went into the fuel tank.  When the amp/sub was removed I had direct holes from the tank into the car.  Took a few hours over a couple days to get it fixed.  Sure it much nicer to drive without the stink.  

 

removing rear suspension.  AWD=pain in the butt to remove the tank! 

 

 

 

Used my lift table to remove the rear suspension.  Being a junk collector sure pays off!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Icehouse]

Out!  Non ABS car so I didn't have to remove the wheel speed sensors which I heard isn't easy.  

 

 

 

Pulled the tank and found this.  5 screw holes!!!  

 

 

 

 

Turns out the trick to sealing a plastic tank is to use a soldering iron.  Worked like a champ!!

 

 

 

Welded up the holes in the body. 

 

 

 

 

Spark arrester I wanted any weld buildup on the top since there is room. The tank pushes against the floor.  

 

 

 

epoxy over the welds.  Just incase something else on the tank leaks.  Don't want the stink coming in the car. 

 

 

 

Dirty exhaust needs some polishing.  

 

 

All back together!  What a difference! 

 

 

 

[Lockleaf]

Sweet having 2 of these together.  Freaking sucks that the one got a stolen.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

I been craving one for a long time never had the funds to buy one even less today.  Its a killer little pocket rocket.

[Icehouse]

Wow I gotta update this thread.  I've decided I need to include every part number for every part I use.  Every time I try and find a answer on google it's wrong.  I gotta help out the next guy.  

[Icehouse]

Well I haven't driven my Pulsar in a bit.  The main reason being a major exhaust leak, the stink goes straight into the fresh air duct.... Dang it!  That along with, no heat, clunk in the front, bumpy ride with the 17" wheels and stiff JDM coilovers, O and a little smoke on startup and slight oil smell in the exhaust.  O and no radio.  haha

 

I got new valve guide seals a million years ago but misplaced them.  I was cleaning my shop and found them.  They now live in my Pulsar box with all genuine Nissan SR gaskets, which cost about. million dollars.  

 

Check it out!  JDM legends right there! 

 

 

 

First off I pulled the turbo.  Which if you don't own a Pulsar this is your warning.  It's the hardest car I've ever worked on. Dave's 300z TT in some ways is easier, I mean for most things.  

 

 

Found the leak!  Of coarse.  None Nissan gaskets are never a good idea.  

 

 

 

You know you are working on a Pulsar when you have to build tools.  Took me 1 hour to get the bolt off behind the turbo.....

 

 

 

Found the cylinder with the bad valve guide seals!!  

 

 

 

Pulled the valve cover to find a nice surprise.  Tomei valve springs and cams.  I bought the tool to pressurize the cylinder to not drop the valve.  Wasn't to bad, I mean at the end of 16 I was ready to be done.  I did loose 1 valve spring retainer clip down the oil drain in the head.  I'll get it next time I pull the pan.  

 

 

 

 

While living in the engine bay I happened to notice the alternator belt was damaged.  Before it snaps a belt and ruins the front main seal like my 240 did a year ago I decided to swap on 2 new belts.  These are the belts that fit for anyone wondering.  

 

 

 

Now the clunk happened when I went from reverse to forward.  Only if I used the brakes hard.  It sounded like a ball joint warn issue.  So everyone seems to think B13 Sentra ball joints fit.  I got news for you guys.  They don't fit.  You need S13 rear lower ball joints.  Or at least that's what fit mine.   I found the info on this site.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the heater it turns out 90's Nissan's don't have a heater cock, there is a diverter door.  There is a servo that adjusts the angle of the flap which changes the cabin heat. I found the servo and manually adjusted the flap, I have heat!!!  

 

I got a different set of coilovers installed with some old 510 sprints.  The rate might be a hair low for the Pulsar.  I can always swap them out.  While I had the suspension tore apart I had the rotors turned and painted the none contact surface of the rotors with high temp paint.  Sick of looking at rusty rotors and since there are none US I Didn't want to spend a million dollars ordering new ones.  

 

So if I could find some 15" steel wheels I could get it back on the road with fresh snow tires.  

 

 

[IZRL]

17 hours ago, Icehouse said:

First off I pulled the turbo.  Which if you don't own a Pulsar this is your warning.  It's the hardest car I've ever worked on. Dave's 300z TT in some ways is easier, I mean for most things.  

 

I mean I don't have any experience with a Pulsar, but I'm not sure there's any 90's vehicle that is more of a pain to work on than the 300zx VG30DETT. I smashed my first 90 300zx TT into a wall about 10 years ago. Thankfully I went through the wall in reverse as I was spinning. So other than one of my side mount intercoolers having a baseball sized hole in it, the engine was fine. There was about $9k including parts and labor (Pitstop performance PHX AZ, Highly recommended for anything nissan performance related, by the way). Anyway thank goodness the car was trashed and we could zaw saw the engine out of it. I purchased this white 300zx to transplant the engine into it. But with all the excitement of finding a Pearl white/ tan interior 300zx in my small town for a decent price. I didn't look close enough to see the body and front right suspension were trashed and than fix in a backyard probably. The car must have been in a roll over or something close to it. So now its all up in the air. I can't convince myself to put this engine in such a mess of a car. But at the same time I know it's going to be near impossible to find a roller for a reasonable price now days. On top of  that all of my vehicle project funds have been going towards resurrecting my recently acquired 1985 4x4 720. So no plans for this car anytime in the near or distant future hahaha.

 

 

 

[Icehouse]

Dude do a bell swap on a D21 V6 box and bolt that guy in your 720!  There was a guy who did it in his hardbody.  Also give me your non bell z32 trans since you won't need it 🙂. 

[IZRL]

21 hours ago, Icehouse said:

Dude do a bell swap on a D21 V6 box and bolt that guy in your 720!  There was a guy who did it in his hardbody.  Also give me your non bell z32 trans since you won't need it 🙂. 

Damn, that would be nutz!!! If I had the funds I might consider it. I'm over hear nickel & diming myself to death with this 720 😆. Not including the price of the truck I'm about $1000 over what I was anticipating to spend to get this truck safely and reliably on the road. And it's still a little ways away. I've been out of the game so long I forgot how expensive it can get to play. Let's just say I could've got the 300 running with what I've spent.

[Icehouse]

Okay just send that engine up to me 🙂

[IZRL]

🤠

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8 by IZRL

[IZRL]

I just realized I hijacked your post with my 300zx talk, my apologies 🤠.  Taking this post back to SR20DETs. After I went back and read your entire post. I saw the photo you posted of your manifold/gasket and it reminded me that I had tossed a turbo and a manifold in my junk pile in the back yard. They've literally sat in the dirt where the've gotten rained on for probably 8 years. It's the original t25 turbo that came on a black top s13 engine swapped 92 240 I used to own. Same hatch you have only white. The turbo wouldn't hold boost above 7 psi. If i remember correctly stock boost was 7 psi and I was trying to get 10 psi out of it. It would hold 10 psi up to like mid 3rd gear than it would drop back down to 7(I member that long ass 3rd gear hahaha). So I order a t28 from an s14 motor and boosted 12psi for a while. which I believe was the max on stock fuel/ecu, or possibly too much boost, I don't recall? I wanted the disco potato, but i was too broke to upgrade everything I needed to, to run that turbo. The manifold was a cheap aftermarket piece of turd that leaked. Honestly I'm an idiot for not taking more care of the turbo. It was in good shape.

In any case I might decide to take the turbo apart and clean it up for shits and giggles. But if that doesn't happen I might just give it away. If I do, you can have it for the cost of shipping since you're the first sr20 owner I've chatted with since I sold the 240. The manifold you can have if you want it, you can use it as a boat anchor😆.

Again my apologies for hijacking your post, If you want I can delete the content of my posts so it doesn't mess up what you have going on here.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5 by IZRL

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Neat little car. I saw a Mugen '86 Civic the other day that could be its brother.

[petercscherer]

Man, I got the GTi-R on my bucket list. In spite of their inherent flaws like cramped engine bay and limited stateside support, I just love the size and potential!