Finally getting around to posting my 200sx s13 on the drift works forum As the title says, I'm from the sunny country of South Africa (typing this while it rains and storms... ironic I know), currently staying in the mediocre city of Cape Town. I'm still an undergrad at the University of Cape Town completing my business science degree in Accounting and Finance. Been on the look out for a s13 and saving my cash for the moment that one became available. This opportunity cropped up earlier this year and I finally got my hands on a black RS13 200sx, still with its CA18det, with some cranked up boost and a diff that's as open as.... (don't think I can type my comparison on the forum) Some pics from the night I went to fetch it (Excuse the iPhone quality pics in the low light) After getting it home, I couldn't really do much on the car thanks to uni taking up most of my time that I'm awake, but tackled it on the weekend aaaaand found a few issues. First the rear lights and dash lights weren't coming on, the previous owner had put different size wheel studs on 3 out of the 4 studs on the front passenger side wheel and 1 different sized wheel stud on the drivers side front wheel (still need to press those out and replace). The fuel was spewing from the fuel pressure regulator that had been mounted, as dmediocreted in the picture, it was in a sorry state : So I decided to replace it with an adjustable FPR, and it came in a nice Candy red finish, I was happy at the appearance and the fact that fuel wasn't leaking anymore... but my wallet hated me On my general electrical inspection and wiring power to the rear lights, I found this dodgy fuse The previous owner had put loads of work into the fibreglass bonnet, but hadn't gotten anywhere with it, so I took over the bugger and started sanding... aand did it take a lot of sanding (thought it was enough) Before : So I sanded and water papered until I was happy with the finish, my dad and I progressed to spraying primer on it and after a day saw this happen The black substance had not properly cured and turned sticky when we tried getting it off with thinners, so I broke out the orbital sander again and took it down to the raw fibreglass , yet to paint it thanks to uni exam time now... The front tyres needed replacing as they were in a sorry state, so bought some new dunlop rubber The car was missing a drivers side mirror and a drivers side door panel, so acquired some cheapish mirrors and found some second hand door panels to help get the car back to looking more stock (for roadworthy purposes) (you can see my daily Bug that my dad and I restored 3 years back in the background) (The trusty brick wedge acting as a stop) Door panel after I picked it up Fitted Then my dad and I took it to his uncle's place for some help with tapping and dieing threads onto bolts etc that had been stripped, so I decided to take pics at their place (Their house has been used for movie shoots etc, so this car is rolling with the likes of Orlando Bloom etc by having a small impromptu photoshoot there haha ) And picked up stock SX lights from a person selling spares and fitted them instead of modding the skyline gtx tail lights. . Bought a harness for myself, yet to be fitted... And a pillar mount for my boost gauge (also yet to be fitted) Will leave it with a final shot of the CA18det Next things on the list : -Get the car through roadworthy -Shim the diff -Go drifting Future plans include caging the car with a bolt in cage, Coilovers, getting a decent deep dish steering wheel and some more skid wheels!! Cheers for checking the thread if you do!
Nice to see a fellow South African on Driftworks. PS: I have a set of tail lights for you if you interested.
Literally just bought the entire back lights off a dude! Shot for the offer though bru! Always good to find saffa's around
Welcome I'm over in South Africa for work just now. Stayin in Paarl, it's crazy over here,pretty much anything goes haha,is there much drifting over here ?
Haha the great beauty of the SA government systems hahaha, yeah there should be drifting on the weekend of the 30th if you can make it out to Killarney race track! Will confirm if there is, will prob be spectating this time around though :/
Been a while since posting here, achieved most of the objectives as stated in the previous post (YAY) The first hurdle was getting it through roadworthy (similar to your guys MOT) to transfer ownership of the car into my name… This was easier said than done in a country where people don’t know much about s-chassis in general After getting some suggestions on what to repair, headed to my friend’s workshop and we fixed the majority of the problems (Thanks Danger Dan) Eventually got fibreglass bonnet painted, pretty stoked with the results (first time spraying with spray gun) Replaced the rear lights with some smoked lights I picked up cheaply Top is before, middle and bottom are after’s. The next step was putting the drift knob in, quick mod but makes worlds of a difference while on track
The vinyl on the doorpanel was dirty and generally irritated me, so was ripped off and then replaced with black car interior fabric! before: during: after The steering wheel that came with the car flexed more than a gym bunny… so that had to be changed ASAP! Picked up a nice strong deep dish wheel and fitted it A bolt in cage came up for a steal, so it was a no brainer! Bought it and installed over the course of 2 days. artsy shots: Took it to the first local drift practice I could make (in my holidays) with my mates (Grassroots Drifters Cape Town) and was leant 15” stock rims and tyres to slide on by a good friend (Shot Jason!)
Obligatory standing in pits shots Learnt two things that day… My car was breaking down on high revs, It overheated like a mofo aaaand the clutch slipped..But still got some shots from one of my friends (Thank you Sam!) But I still got some sliding done – concentrated on the smaller manoeuvres like figure 8’s to get a feel for the car and the tar (first time drifting on track ) - see video : [video]http://vid1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag458/Fin_alex/iphonmediocres2995_zpsd8260d36.mp4[/video] Ended up being towed home… by my pops… on his birthday (found out later that the alternator charge lead wasn’t connected hence breaking down on high revs :/) The radiator the previous owner/mechanics had put in was off a mk1 golf… so that was the cooling problem and bought an ally rad off a fellow 200sx enthusiast Said piece of crap radiator... New shiny ally rad: So my room currently resembles a parts store for a s-chassis at the moment , start final exams on the 24th of October and will be free after the 6th of November, once on holiday the s13 will start receiving some more love, this includes - getting rid of sound deadening - installing energy suspension poly bushes - moving steering rack a tad with rack spacers - respray interior Cheers for checking out the thread
Now why do I feel like you're my long lost South African brother... Im currently finishing restoring a bug for my daily when I can learn to drive and in 3 years ish when i can afford to insure it, I'm after an S13 too Small world
Haha literally sounds like what I did! Good luck bro hope all goes well, the bug is nice and easy to work on, got most of the mechanical knowledge I have from working on the bug PS could a mod please take a look at the picture links, driftworks changes every "E-P-I-C" to mediocre... and my iphone-pics line on the links got changed everytime, don't know how to fix it
Yeah just assembling everything now, painted her matt blue so should be a bit different. As much as I want an S body, I weirdly want to drop in a Subaru FA or a 13B at some point and try and get some lock to try and skid it purely for shits and giggles but ah well, would end up being a HUGE money pit. I'll just wait until it ices over before i try and slide it a bit 68 Bug Build - VW Forum - VZi, Europe's largest VW, community and sales if you're curious
So where to begin this update? … It’s been a while but loads of work has been happening After I finished my 3rd year finals (UCT takes my life and soul…) I finally had time to work on my rs13 Got the energy suspension tension bushes from my mate (he bought it in the US while he was working – getting car parts here in South Africa is a b1tch , the taxes get crazy expensive) Thankfully I took them to my mate’s workshop to get the old bushes pressed out (would have never got them out on my own) Installation of the new 3 piece bushes was easy peezy with the grease they provide in the kit
Next thing to sort out was the slipping clutch… when the car was sold to me I got told that the clutch was replaced with a new one and it “just needed adjustment”… well my mate offered his space and tools to me to pull the box… so back to his place with the car and proceeded to pull the box…. Well, box came out and clutch came out…. And the clutch plate was completely FUBAR’ed … So went around looking for clutch kits and other options… best option was to get the clutch double diaphramed and made into a 4 puck copper clutch with the flywheel and pressure plate being skimmed and cleaned … got told it would take a maximum of 4 days… welcome to the amazing SA.. And I waited 2 weeks for the clutch Got it back and it looked pretty decent for a local job, went off to my mate to install the clutch Old rear main seal out New rear main seal in
Got a front mount intercooler off a mate that upgraded his (after he got a ball bearing turbo etc.) for super cheap … bye bye shitty side mount intercooler crap ABS was pretty shit... when going backwards and having no brakes… so out she came and my mate helped me do the ABS delete with a t-piece And all this leads to a cleaner engine bay YAAAAAY
We got the clutch working and everything was running swimmingly after bedding in the clutch, the day before an event at the local racetrack Before driving through and after a quick wash: At the track with 15's on rear All our cars parked up in the pits On the line… nice view AAAAAAND car started causing shit again… misfiring like crazy and having no power after I chucked it into the high speed bend… no skids for me :/
Brought back to the pits cleaned the plugs, checked boost pipes etc, didn’t know what was causing it.. sat the comp out (I’m nowhere near experienced enough for tandems and with a car that was misfiring the way it was I wasn't going to risk it) My one friend went on to go to the finals (up against the 2013 drift champ in South Africa) and beat the former champ in his street legal sx with a RB26dett power plant , we all were super stoked and went for beers after Parked up at the clubhouse On the way home while limping the car back, I decided to see what my boost levels were going to … hung around 0.7-0.8 and then started spiking after some pressure built up – peak past 1 bar and ecu cuts ignition (thank you standard ecu for saving my motor) .. So overboost was my issue… Now to find the culprit…. And Bam, welcome to the shittiest turbo elbow ever put onto a s-chassis…. People in this country irritate the crap out of me , they don’t do any work properly.. especially when it comes to cars Notice that the wastegate is pretty much covered up by the plate, wonder which genius thought this was a good idea
