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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I've been wanting something to have a bit of a crack at some motorsport in for a little while. Even though I had a ball in the stagea at the CAMS come and try day, it was clear to me that tracking this car regularly wasn't going to be possible. I was after something cheap, with plentiful parts, at I could tinker and work on in my spare time. Best of all, it meant if I broke it, I wouldn't be driving the Mrs around because we were down a car.

So I started the hunt. I intially thought I wanted a HCR32, that suited the bill. I looked through lots of adverts and still didn't find something that was in my price range, with the condition and mods I wanted.

It was then when a long time member of SAU NSW made a passing comment in a chat thread about selling a car. I was interested. The car was proven in motorsport events, had a lot of work done to it, and was at the top end of my price range. I went and drove it. It went like stink. Scared the shit out of me. There were a couple of little things I got the owner to fix up, but after agreeing to that, I put a deposit down. The deal was done.

I drove it back home and garaged it. I have been working on it since, fixing up little niggles here and there.

I've decided to keep going with this build thread, because I don't want to create a new one to suit this car. It will be more about my journey than a particular car.

So heres the teaser.

8440362370_1e4b5e668d_c.jpg

Well, I've been wanting something to have a bit of a crack at some motorsport in for a little while. Even though I had a ball in the stagea at the CAMS come and try day, it was clear to me that tracking this car regularly wasn't going to be possible. I was after something cheap, with plentiful parts, at I could tinker and work on in my spare time. Best of all, it meant if I broke it, I wouldn't be driving the Mrs around because we were down a car.

So I started the hunt. I intially thought I wanted a HCR32, that suited the bill. I looked through lots of adverts and still didn't find something that was in my price range, with the condition and mods I wanted.

It was then when a long time member of SAU NSW made a passing comment in a chat thread about selling a car. I was interested. The car was proven in motorsport events, had a lot of work done to it, and was at the top end of my price range. I went and drove it. It went like stink. Scared the shit out of me. There were a couple of little things I got the owner to fix up, but after agreeing to that, I put a deposit down. The deal was done.

I drove it back home and garaged it. I have been working on it since, fixing up little niggles here and there.

I've decided to keep going with this build thread, because I don't want to create a new one to suit this car. It will be more about my journey than a particular car.

So heres the teaser.

8440362370_1e4b5e668d_c.jpg

haha 180sx, :yes:

Ban???

Come at me bro!

Hahaha, be patient. Pics will come. Bit busy with lots of stuff atm.

The next stuff is firstly getting a matching set of tyres, and that will help with getting the cars handling sorted. It has quite a few parts, but I need to get them working together to start to handle like a track car should. Not just stiff, but responsive and grippy.

Aim for the car is a regular track car with times under 1:10 at Wakefield when the driver does his thing.

I'm committed to get someone else's car done before I charge into this.

  • 3 weeks later...

OK, so thank you for being patient!

I have been working on this to get it back driving - story to come - pics first!

8493266899_d5e5dd2db8_c.jpg
8494368698_358f53755c_c.jpg
8494369524_0834b79492_c.jpg
8494370516_7dfed06998_c.jpg
8494371422_1a4630caef_c.jpg
Ok, so you can see its a pretty serious bit of kit! :P Please forgive the copy paste, but its easier.
1994 180sx
S14 motor
Unigroup cams
Tomei cam gears
Rocker arm stoppers
6boost manifold
Tial 44mm wastegate
GTX3071r, .83
Custom hard piping
Greedy copy plenum
Intercooler
780cc injectors
Braided oil and turbo lines
Z32 afm
Power Fc
S14 gearbox
Nismo single plate copper mix competition clutch
Kaaz 1.5 way diff
Tien monoflex coilovers
Whiteline sway bar front and gtr sway bar rear
Caster rods - adjustable
Some random upgraded bushes here and there.
Makes 285rwkw @ 24 psi on 98 pump poo
So far I have melted the turbo oil return after a couple of drives, thankfully it happened very close to home. I wanted to do it properly so I got a 45 degree fitting, and had motorsport connections make up a proflow fitting braided line, that gets the return well out of the way of the manifold and gate.
It came on a set of drifteks, with odd tyres (R888 semis on the back, shitters on the front). I didn't particularly like them, and I had a set of 17x8.5 +22 Gram Lights that I bought off Fatz sitting around. SAU NSW gets discounts on federal tyres, so I got a set of RS-Rs and got them mounted up. I haven't run them in yet, as it needs a little roll of the guards.
I changed the engine oil/filter, and Diff oil. Apparently the KAAZ diff needs pretty regular changes since its a mechanical clutch style diff.
So I have lots of little bits of tidying up to do basically, get it clean inside, outside, and underside.
So my list of things to do is:
Get PhillB to Roll the guards all round
Up the coast to Jez to put it on the Dyno and check the tune is good. ( Should be good, unigroup tuned it)
Repaint the front and rear bars, LHS Guard in Red
Repaint Roof in Black
Fit the 324mm 2 piece GTR rotors with spacers
A1RM pads all round
Upgraded Fan
Fit ARC oil cooler
Rear toe rods (one is bent)
Corner weight the car
Set the car up to handle - shock rates, adjustable camber arms etc.
Go and track the bloody thing!
So what are my goals for it? Well, firstly I want to improve my driving. Learn the technique of the track. While I can drive a track day, that doesn't make me a good driver. My skills and feeling need fine tuning. Secondly, dip below 1:10 at Wakefield. This car has done 1:11 before. I'm not sure if the RS-Rs are up to this, but we'll see. I really don't have to increase the power of this car any more - a bit under 300rwkw is plenty enough for a little RPS13, what needs improvement is the handling to make it a very fast car. Then go and rape a few GTRs on the track :)
Mods feel free to change title if you want to something more appropriate, and I CBF making another build thread, and lets face it, build threads around about our progress more than individual cars.

if your happy with a home job on the paint Aaron and i can sort that out, drive in and out of a weekend.

or we can possibly arrange for a booth if you want it to be awesome!!!

You might want more than 1 weekend for the front bar. Needs some quality sanding and prepwork to come out looking anywhere near 1/2 decent.

I'll let you know mate, but sounds promising.

Cam - GTFO. Don't you have headers or something to install and make you bleed from the knuckles? :P

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The signal does NOT go to the ECU first, the wiring goes to the cluster first then the ECU after (or so I'm told).  Problems/Roadblocks I first removed the part from the car on the underside of the transfer case (drain your transfer case fluid/ATF first, guess who found out that the hard way?), and noted the transfer case fluid was EXTREMELY black, most likely never changed on my car. When attempting to turn the gears it felt extremely gritty, as if shttps://imgur.com/6TQCG3xomething was binding the shaft from rotating properly. After having to reflow the solder on my AFM sensors based on another SAU guide here, I attempted to disassemble the silicone seal on the back of the sensor to see what happened inside the sensor; turns out, it basically disintegrated itself. Wonderful. Not only had the electrical components destroyed themselves, the magnetic portion on what I thought was on the shaft also chipped and was broken. Solution So solution: find a spare part right? Wrong. Nissan has long discontinued the proper sensor part number 32702-21U19, and it is no longer obtainable either through Nissan NSA or Nissan Japan. I was SOL without proper speed or mileage readings unless I figured out a way to replace this sensor. After tons of Googling and searching on SAU, I found that there IS however a sensor that looks almost exactly like the R33/260RS one: a sensor meant for the R33/R34 GTT and GTS-T with the 5 speed manual. The part number was 25010-21U00, and the body, plug, and shaft all looked exactly the same. The gear was different at the end, but knowing the sensor's gear is held on with a circlip, I figured I could just order the part and swap the gears. Cue me ordering a new part from JustJap down in Kirrawee, NSW, then waiting almost 3 weeks for shipping and customs clearing. The part finally arrives and what did I find? The freaking shaft lengths don't match. $&%* I discussed with Erik how to proceed, and figuring that I basically destroyed the sensor trying to get the shaft out of the damaged sensor from my car. we deemed it too dangerous to try and attempt to swap shafts to the correct length. I had to find a local CNC machinist to help me cut and notch down the shaft. After tons of frantic calling on a Friday afternoon, I managed to get hold of someone and he said he'd be able to do it over half a week. I sent him photos and had him take measurements to match not only the correct length and notch fitment, but also a groove to machine out to hold the retentive circlip. And the end result? *chef's kiss* Perfect. Since I didn't have pliers with me when I picked up the items, I tested the old gear and circlip on. Perfect fit. After that it was simply swapping out the plug bracket to the new sensor, mount it on the transfer case, refill with ATF/Nissan Matic Fluid D, then test out function. Thankfully with the rebuilt cluster and the new sensor, both the speedometer and odometer and now working properly!   And there you have it. About 5-6 weeks of headaches wrapped up in a 15 minute photo essay. As I was told it is rare for sensors of this generation to die so dramatically, but you never know what could go wrong with a 25+ year old car. I HOPE that no one else has to go through this problem like I did, so with my take on a solution I hope it helps others who may encounter this issue in the future. For the TL;DR: 1) Sensor breaks. 2) Find a replacement GTT/GTS-T sensor. 3) Find a CNC machinist to have you cut it down to proper specs. 4) Reinstall then pray to the JDM gods.   Hope this guide/story helps anyone else encountering this problem!
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