Keep Drifting Cheap: turbo RB20 C35 Laurel for peanuts

Day 4

This is when shit went pear shaped

Dylan & I found the holes in the bellhousing for the clutch slave were stripped, so needed to be drilled & tapped to M12 & the slave's holes opened up too. We didn't want that to hold us up at the time and plan was to put the car in the air the next day so it'd be easy enough.

I put the battery on charge in anticipation and Niamh came over and we took the Silvia to do the now customary Bunnings trip as I found i didn't have the long bolt for the power steering pump, so found one the right thread pitch and noted the length to try, in vain as it turned out, to find the required bolt. Before heading off we thought we'd see if i had a spray can that was close to the factory colour. First try and we had a winner





Finally back at 1pm we cracked into putting the car up on ramps & axle stands for the driveshaft, exhaust and trans mount tasks.

Shayden, Nik & Dale turned up after a ride on the dirt bikes looking all well worse for wear. Nik cracked into making the radiator support a bolt-in piece and was spent. Shayden lay under the car looking at the driveshaft looking spent. Dale just sat in a chair looking spent lol

So massive setback number 2: I screwed up the driveshaft measurements. Where i went wrong was i measured the auto front half to the end of the cover, when in actual fact the yoke slides into the auto box and the cover slides over the auto box. I then asked them to add 10mm to the driveshaft as I thought it was going to hang out 40mm and i intended to go to a non-ABS diff. What resulted was a driveshaft around 10-15mm too long

Luckily i had a non-ABS 3.9 locked diff with 2 bolt rear and 3x2 stub axles. I'm going to use the 3.9 in the S13 eventually but using it in Lunch Money meant we didn't have to swap to 5x1's to fit the 4.1 locker. I'll do that when i fit the coilovers (foreshadowing). Shayden was under the car so he was nominated as diff change person. Complete stitch up on my behalf

We hoped there would be enough give in the hanger bearing (and there was) but i was prepared to make a spacer bracket if required.

However the driveshaft was now hard into the back of the box. Future plan is to jack the car up, take the engine mount frames off and slot / redrill the engine mount holes to allow it to slide forward ~5mm. Have enough fan-radiator and subframe clearance. May need to readdress the trans mount at that stage too

Lunchy left the shifter in his truck on Friday and couldn't make it over, and i couldn't find the bush for the crappy short shifter so was feeling pretty shite. But then, i sorted out with the guy i bought the crappy flywheel from that i could swap it for his mint carpet (paid $70 / 35 gbp so not bad) and he needed to offload his coilovers, so bought them for REAL cheap.



Nothing amazing but the prospect of being able to slam this thing on it's dick got me fizzing so the mahi started:

Shayden installed the driveshaft and swapped the diff.
Niamh painted the rear quarter, white guard and side skirts, then fitted the new carpet and the old seats
Dylan re-tapped the clutch slave holes, swapped the throttle cable for one from a C34, found that the R33 handbrake tail piece fitted perfectly into the C35 cable bracket (huuuuuuuge score!) and fitted the exhaust.
I changed the oil, fitted the radiator, found the isolator switch wires (will add the colours & location here for future reference), cut down the brake pedal, fitted the alternator & starter harness, trimmed the panel for the intercooler pipes, mounted the intercooler then mocked up & trimmed the intercooler pipes.



By now it was dinner and Dylan had brought some fresh snapper he'd caught so we did that on the bbq and cold beers in the evening sun. Idyllic

As another motivator i threw the Advans on the front and the RP01's on the rear and we dropped it on the ground



Shayden was flagging the whole day but perked right up and pushed us on when i was starting to flag. He employed his 20E knowledge to ID the plugs for wiring in the harness and we made a final push to get it to run. Dylan & Niamh jazzed up the underside of my bonnet too

We found the fuel pump wire, but the tank was dry so no go there. However, Start Ya Bastard was available!

At this point i realised we had lost the plug for the distributor, so Shayden wired up mini connectors and we prepared to fire it

Fitting plug wires:

Power feed for the engine loom, acquired via jumper cable lol!


And firing!



And this is how it ended the night



At this point it was 10:30 and the garage was a mess. We pushed it outside, pushed everything over to one side of the garage so i could get the Silvia in for the night and they trundled off home. I cleaned as much of the garage as I dared, then realised i needed to head out to the in-laws as it was rubish day the next day and they were camping, so took the opportunity to grab some gas for Lunch Money.

I got a second wind so spent the next couple hours in the garage fixing the damaged front bumper with No More Nails, and using a heatgun to push out the dent in the rear bumper, then painting them both



Why do such a thing? Because my wife & son were due back the next day and i needed it in a presentable condition so she wouldn't go apeshit at me having a junk car in the driveway

 

Day 5

Now I had no idea when my wife & son would be home, so I started off by getting the house in a presentable state. I hadn't spent much time in it tbh!

I loaded the Mark X up with all the scrap parts in anticipation of a rubbish dump run. I then cleaned all the facelift parts I bought and took photos of them before storing them in the shed, along with the AC parts for the Silvia.

Then it was time to fit the bonnet and front & rear bumpers, however due to a little front on the RHS the bumper iron was tweaked. A bit of death wheeling and bending and it was "near enough". I then took the brake clean and cleaned what marks i could off it, sat back and was really pleased at how it came out!


Here you can see Niamh's effort on the bonnet! Hahaha (the Y is a penis btw)



Now the shots above with it next to the tree on an angle is me trying to solo-push a 1.7ton car with a locked diff and 235 AR1 semi's on the back in 32 deg weather

Never again.

I was so over it i tried to move it on the starter but it didn't have enough juice in the jump pack. In the end i pushed it somewhat straight, then jacked the rear up and shoved it over to the fence in the position of the final two shots.

After an obligatory beer and clear birthday messages, at this point it was 2pm and found out the family wouldn't be home until 6pm. Crack into again!

So i moved the gazebo over top of it and stropped it to the car and worked on plugging all the leaks to the manifold, namely the PCV port, IACV hose, throttle body port, and connected the boost gauge, BOV and brake booster.

A quick trip to the transfer station & another bunch of gas and I was back to fit the battery, wire up a power relay for the ECU off switched power, grounded the fuel pump and tried to fire it.

No go

Powered the relay directly from the battery

No go

Swapped the fuel lines around

No go

While swapping the lines i noticed decent pressure in the feed, and almost none coming out of the return. So my thoughts are that something has crawled inside the fuel feed pipe and block the fuel damper on the rail. The engine sat outside under a tarp for a year so not surprised. I'll check the injectors are getting pulse first though. If crap has gone through the rail and injectors, then i'll clean the rail as best as i can and fit the 270cc DET injectors and wire in the VAFC.

There is a possibility the dodgy wiring on the dizzy may have fried the ECU, but i'll sort that and try another if all come back clear

So that's where it's at. I didn't hit my goal but I'm damn proud of what we achieved. I learnt a heap of new things, and am so utterly proud of what we've created.

The before & after is properly amazing



During all this i even found there are two recessed dimples in the transmission tunnel that line up perfectly for the handbrake!

So a bit of trouble shooting still to do, some wiring, sort the heater hoses, a top radiator hose, slot the engine mount brackets, trim the screamer pipe so it doesn't point at the body and we're ready for some road tuning.

As for track prep, I have rack spacers, rear camber arms and the 4.1 & 5x1 swap to go in when i do the coilovers. I also have an ABS delete kit coming (another deal i couldn't pass up). I want to do the alignment myself with the toe plates and see where i get. With 215/40/17s up front and only rack spacers, this thing could be seriously slammed. However, the muffler after the front pipe hangs quite low, so we'll have to see what needs to change

I also want to refit as much of the interior as possible and fit a spare clip-in harness i have lying around.

I'll go into the budget a little more next post, but the coilovers blew it out closer to 1500 gbp / NZ$3k. Still not bad I'd think you'd agree

Now to make it run!!!

 

So I've got a bit of a plan forward with this. A mate is coming over after work to help diagnose the fuel issue. Hoping it's just stuck injectors due to sitting outside for a year or said blockage but it could still be wiring related

However, headlights finally turned up. Looks much more respectable now



I caught myself polishing the lights and trying to make the drivers side fit better. Smacked myself good and proper

I am a little concerned about the clutch. When i was trying to move it on the starter it was grabbing but slipping. Time will tell

If i have to pull the box to change the clutch then I'll take the chance to pull the engine brackets and get the engine slid forward.

Exhaust is now the limiting factor for going low with this, so will have a talk to my mate when he comes over. We may be able to angle the muffler better and possibly add a flexi

Pulled out a few more trinkets last night, specifically a FPR and seat harness, and cleaned the garage as much as possible. Have made a huuuuuuge list with everything to do and feel a lot more organised. Found it's currently running a body-mounted fuel damper, AND a rail mounted fuel damper. Will remove both of these as soon as i get home from work

 

Thanks dude, didn't know if people are actually reading this or not, or even enjoying it...

Spent a bit of time last night trying to diagnose the non starting. Pretty sure ECU needs 12V to 5 different pins and i had it going to only 1. Connected a wire and got it going to 2 more. And found the wire i need to connect to do the other 2 but by then the mrs called me in for the night

That white one there is the culprit. It'll be getting spliced into one of the others that have 12V already and i'll use that end to power the VAFC




Yellow/red is tach output, and orange/black is check engine light


Now i'm at the point where i can test voltage at the CAS, AFM & injectors and confirm if it's a wiring issue or not

Our next Matsuri has been moved to a date that i can't attend, so I'm a little bummed. However, the weekend on the 29/2 & 1/3 is when D1NZ is in my town. We're talking about putting a Matsuri booth up to show people interested in the sport where they can get involved. I want to drag Lunch Money along and put it in the booth to show you don't need to spend a heap either.

 

Have managed to chip away at this over a couple of evenings once my boy goes to bed.

Spliced that white wire into the main power feed. Tested 12V and no power. Wtf?!?
Checked continuity on all the grounds. Good. Wtf??!?!
Pulled the tape off the harness on the cabin-side of the grommet and checked for splits or weird wiring. Nothing. Wtf??!!

Then started back at the start - making sure there was 12v from the relay i made. Found the feed off the battery into the fuse holder had fallen out.

...............
.............
.......

Proceeded to give myself an uppercut, then tested voltage at the CAS, AFM and injectors.

CAS: ~2.5V
AFM: 0.6V
Injectors: 12V

Better than nothing! But it was 10pm so not able to turn it over

So hoping i get a chance today to fit the pipe work, finish the idle control hose and hit the key and hear it fire into life!

 

Cheers dude

Managed to put the turbo intake, mount the AFM, fit the rest of the intercooler piping on and connect up the idle control hose



However, still not firing

I have a couple more things to check (are there 12v on BOTH injector pins indicating an issue at ECU/loom/fuses) before i can cross off wiring as being the issue and start looking at the injectors/rail/fuel dampers/fuel reg as being the culprit. If i have good flow out of the return and can make an injector click manually I'm getting pretty stumped, maybe all 6 injectors are gummed up?

Have however pulled the a/c exchanger out of the blower housing and blocked off the hole from the a/c lines. Also picked up some adjustable camber arms for $50 / 25gbp

Keep chipping away at it

 

Another two tone owner and absolute legend (Mat - @farnworthmat) filled in some of the gaps in my wiring knowledge yesterday so made another evening push on it.

I fixed a wiring mistake i made - that white wire above did not need power, it should have it once the green relay is triggered by the ECU

Swapped the green relay in case it was bung as we just grabbed one out of a pile of old wiring a mate gave me. Tested the new relay and it works.

Connected up the tach and check engine light wires (engine harness - body), so even nailing some of the luxury bits!

Added a ground wire from the engine grounds on the back of the engine to the firewall too, just in case. Will give it a kick in the guts after work today

 

Another kick in the guts, another failure

Was able to make an injector click by itself, so without having the ability to check injector pulse i think we're ok for wiring

On to rail pressure.



I pulled the return off the C35 fuel damper (on the strut tower) and ran the pump for 30 seconds. Have pressure in the fuel hose feeding the hardline that loops to the fuel damper on the rail (bottom hardline in pic), but no fuel coming out the return from the regulator

The fuel damper on the strut tower got Kobe'd into the bin btw

So plan is now to put an in-line fuel pressure gauge in the feed and check that, as the factory may run lower voltage to the pump when priming. If that checks out, pull the regulator off and see if we have fuel coming out the rail

My suspicion of a blockage in the hardline leading up to the rail-mounted fuel damper (on the rear of the rail), or faulty fuel damper is still guess number 1

 

We're there!!! Huuuuuuge exhaust leak thanks to the screamer. May have to change that, but let's be honest. I won't

I'm so happy it now runs, and embarrassed to say the reason. The old tried & true fuel line's round the wrong way

In my extremely flimsy defense i had them correct the first time, but switched them to test. But forgot to switch them back. I then found the white/black wire needing power and I believe at that point it should have ran.

Either way, so unbelievably stoked right now

Didn't manage to get a signal out of the AFM, but plug is broken and have another plug (that originally was on the AFM i'm using) to try and will double check the wiring. After that i want to get the oil pressure & water temp gauge sensors wired up, finalise the temp connectors into proper joins, mount the battery, finish wiring in the VAFC and tidy away the ECU wiring inside

However, I fly out at 6am tomorrow to the South Island for 10 days so updates will stop for a wee while sorry

 

So am back on deck after 1500km of driving a 6 berth camper around the South Island.

I'm pretty sure i need to swap the signal & ground wires around on the plug for the AFM to work. Once that's figured out and I've got a signal coming out of the AFM to the ECU it should like life and rev a lot better. Then it's a matter of tidying things up for a test drive

 

Apologies for the series of medialess updates. Been jumping into this whenever i can, and it tends to be an hour at a time at best.

But my son had a sleepover at the inlaws last night, so got a bunch of loud jobs knocked out

Got the final wiring for the oil pressure & water temp gauges and their sensors done, secured the battery and the power relay and kicked it in the guts. It idled waaay high, so unplugged the IAC and it was much better. Go figure.

Twas still a little high, but probably due to having no coolant in it at all. That didn't stop me testing the new AFM setup, and I'm proud to report it revs clean as a whistle now!

Next up I need to grab the last bits so i can put coolant in it (fan shroud), then it's a matter of fitting the wideband, running the AFM signal through the VAFC and playing with the mixtures to get a good base line. Then throw some fresh plugs in, rip the fuel rail off and throw in the 270's and tweak the mixtures one more time

However work is sending me on an overnight to the South Island to train some people at our call centre down there. Exactly where i was holidaying 2 weeks ago. Only this time I'm on their dime

 

Another delay on the last parts, having now taken 6 weeks to fail to travel 40km. Threatened to go somewhere else which may have sparked a result but time will tell. Just sucks when it's a mate that screws you round, especially when he's already helped out massively.

So fluffing around for things to do, my son & I jumped into it for an hour and drilled the holes for the handbrake and dummied it up.

Then grabbed the centre console to see what needed trimming. 4 screws later and the cup holder was out, leaving the smallest amount of trimming in front. Pretty stoked tbh

Then we set about refitting the interior plastics, leaving only the DIN area and the glovebox which will be done when the wiring is finalised.

I need to pull finger over the next few weeks to make use of daylight savings as much as possible before it stops in a month. Weekends are chocka so that's leaving weekday evenings.

I think the decision has been made to use a dyno rather than road tune. The delay in parts turning up has meant the bank account has recovered so the money is there. Having the knock headphones and the ability to run it out in 4th without worry of the plod is worth it IMO, especially considering how cheap the place i use is. Full rates are only like $120/hr so not crazy money. I'm banking on 3-4 hours which is reasonable

I still want to tune it myself, but will pay normal rates to have the tuner (Brent) on hand and use it as a learning experience.

 

Power steering pump bolt in, radiator shroud on and filled it with water. Running a gutted thermostat so it took a while but still need to cycle it properly





And said pictures of centre console. I'm hoping that if i space the bottom of the handbrake up ~10mm it'll clear the shifter surround




That's the old short shifter in there at the moment, factory one to go in tonight after i pick up some new circlip pliers.

Then it's time for it's maiden punt up the road & back. All going to plan I'll park it, pull the fuel pump fuse and start ripping the fuel rail off

I've insisted on doing a test drive before going to far because we've done a huge amount to this already and i need to know if something isn't working before going any further

 

Thanks dude!

So, after struggling for 20min it came as no surprise that the shifter turned up with the wrong circlips. Have had enough of secondhand parts and hit up my mate at Nissan parts and order new. Time to get this show on the road!

In order to make some progress I wired in the CAS plug, which thankfully was correct. Had to delay the maiden punt up the road as the wife was not in a good shape so will shoot for this arvo.

The bush on the shifter was decidedly shit so ordered a brass gktech unit, taking the opportunity to nab some extended wheel studs and 10mm slipons for the front of the Silvia. A few weeks ago I picked up a semi-complete gktech ABS delete kit, so asked the question of gktech to buy the missing bits and they sorted me out for a little extra on my order. Top notch service

Also sourced some adjustable toe arms for $65 too, just front caster to go and suspension is pretty much sorted. Just need the time to fit the lot

 

She drives!!!

Finished installing the shifter, topped up the clutch fluid, secured the bumper and after a 79 point turn to get away from the fence it drove up the road and back

Still on the piddly little RB20E injectors (apparently only 169cc/min) but man this felt like a big accomplishment.

With the help of friends, I took a rolling shell, fitted a different engine than what it had, converted it from auto to manual, turbocharged it and successfully punted it up the road and back. Apart from the driveshaft & manifold modifications all the work was done in my own shed.

Feeling pretty chuffed right now tbh

The no power steering was a jip though, so as soon as it was parked I popped the bonnet and anchored the adjustment rod, fitted the belt and started tightening. Then, because the light was fading and things were going too smoothly, i didn't see the pressure sensor on the power steering line jamming into one of the lead elbows on the dizzy cap and the dizzy cap snapped that point off.

So new dizzy cap needed, but i couldn't care less tbh!

I rotated the offending power steering line and got the pump adjusted so the belt is nice and tight then called it a night to come in and share my excitement

Off to a wedding tomorrow so am missing our Matsuri, which provided me with the motivation this evening (and my son not being home and my wife being sick in bed).

With events over 500 people not allowed, and gatherings of 100 people inside also a no-no, Picket (the organiser) has had to jump through a tonne of hoops to get this to go ahead. It's looking like the last drifting event for a long time so I hope everyone makes the most of it

Keep an eye on @wearedriftmatsuri on IG if you want some drifting content on the weekend. With D1NZ cancelled a huge bunch of the drivers are heading along to this instead so shit will get wild