Drift S13 Couple build

[Icehouse]

After autoxing and road racing for a while I think I'm going to go way way back and build a car drifting again.  I had an S13 hatch in 1999, built it for street drifting (no legal ways to drift back then) until I almost lost my drivers license haha.  I like autoxing and road racing but I want more local seat time and although autoxing is often but its just an arms race, along with only 12 minutes of seat time, I want to do something else.  Club racing although cool looks boring after doing Lucky Dog Racing.  I go and ride with my buddy Aaron sometimes.  He is an amazing driver, who does the JDM style drifting.  I'll post a picture of his rig.  It's beyond fun to just ride in his rig.  I gotta do it!  I picked up this rig two years ago.  I let my sister in law borrow it for 9 months while her Toyota RAV4 was being delayed for delivery.  When I got it back I dug in and started building.  

Although its very rust free it was a daily driver all it's life.  Lots and lots of wear and dents.  I bought it from a girl who bought it in 94 for her high school car.  Her husband daily drove it until my buddy Squirl bought it and then I ended up getting it from him a little while later.  It has a after market sun roof.... dealer installed :(. 

 

This is my goal.  Rocket Bunny kit two tone with pink and grey.  Tell me that doesn't look like a 90's 510! 

 

As I said the PO cared little about the upkeep on the car.  It wore tires super bad and would automatically turn in at a certain steering angle. Super scary!!!!   I've never seen a ball joint this bad.  It fell apart when I took the front suspension off.  

 

 

While the car was at my brothers house to help them out I got a rear subframe from Danny and Datto dude down south.  I reinforced it using a kit you can buy online and also reinforced the hubs based on what Aaron said sometimes fails.  Then got I all powder coated.  Removed the sub frame bushings.  Going solid.

 

 

 

 

hopefully that helps

 

 

After powder coat.

 

 

 

 

Ordered some Voodoo arms for the rear.  

 

 

All assembled along with a Xterra 4.6 gears.  Welded of coarse.  O yeah and 350Z axles. 

 

The front is next.  Got these arms for it.  Heat Maker arms.  I also want to do the aggressive fast Japanese style drifting.  The V8 lots of smoke but slow is not anything I'm interested in.  

 

I have a SR set aside for it.  Along with a Z32 transmission, thanks Hobo!!! 

My buddy Aaron's car.  He's on the team Animal Style.  They are so good!  

 

 

[Icehouse]

I've been working on the engine bay lately.  Did some tubs, seam welded it and deleted all the unneeded holes.  I also made deflectors for rain in the inner fender wells.  I remember way back in the day my engine bay was muddy because all the water would come threw the million holes in the car.  Also I'm trying to keep the AC haha.  hopefully it all works when I get the car back together.  

 

 

 

 

finally in the shop.  It was outside for the mini tubs.  That made it tough haha.  

 

 

Pulled out all the interior but turns out I only need a roll bar and 1 door bar to be legal to tandem.  So I can put the dash back in.  

 

 

Sealer down.  Now I just need to do a little mud then I can paint it.  

 

 

[Rustbin]

You can sure tell when I guy knows what he's doing.

[Soundline]

Hoping to get to mine in 2024.

 

Well done Ice, I’ll be following this closely.

[Icehouse]

Some progress on my drift build.  Order some parts on Black Friday "sales". got a clutch, OEM rod and main bearings and a few seals.  Stock bearings have some wear.  Before I bang it off the limiter all weekend I wanted to swap in new bearings.  If you run OEM bearings they are graded.  So I had to check the bearings and figure out which ones to order.  I also finished up the engine bay paint.  Wow hardest engine bay I ever painted.  It's passable.  I was having real issues with all the AC in the way.  The glitter required wet sanding.... Looks cool though! 

[datzenmike]

Jeff, does the crankshaft have a bunch of bearing size numbers stamped into it?

 

 

When I got my 620 in the mid '90s it would suddenly steer into a tight corner too. The wheel would almost tear it's self out of your grip. The alignment was severely toed in.

[KELMO]

10 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Jeff, does the crankshaft have a bunch of bearing size numbers stamped into it?

 

10 hours ago, Icehouse said:

If you run OEM bearings they are graded.

When Nissan started doing this it was a real pain in the dick. The motor had to be torn down to get the #'s from the crank and the figure out what grade was needed from the chart in the catalog.

[datzenmike]

I have a '90 KA24E crankshaft from a 240sx. It's covered with numbers.

[Icehouse]

Yeah you gotta open it up and use the chart.  But the Nissan boys wanted their engines to last so I'm replacing the stock bearings with stock guys.  

[datzenmike]

 

Which one's the KA??? No the left one is an L series. Make 50% more power but run smaller main bearings. They must know something.

 

What are the mains clearances on a KA?  0.0008" to 0.0024" for L20B

[Icehouse]

On 12/1/2023 at 5:55 PM, datzenmike said:

 

Which one's the KA??? No the left one is an L series. Make 50% more power but run smaller main bearings. They must know something.

 

What are the mains clearances on a KA?  0.0008" to 0.0024" for L20B

 

Yep they know friction cost power.  I've heard some figures from racers on that topic.  Just like how new cars run the super thin oil.  

 

 

[datsunfreak]

Damn, I miss my S13...