A sad day - advice welcomed!

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vrmilionzx
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Location: Norcal

A sad day - advice welcomed!

Post by vrmilionzx »

Today is a sad day. I've been going through a small army of problems with my car, and as a result, I think I've decided to go back to N/A for the time being. I've come to describe the situation, and ask for everyone's advice on how they thing I can make my N/A S14 the most fun possible until I go back to a boosted setup. I'll throw down some history for those who are interested, those who aren't, feel free to skip ahead to my tentative plans. Feel free to give your :twocents-02cents: in the thread, I'd love to hear suggestions. The goal is a fun, canyon carving curve loving bastard.

:violin: The saga:
S14 has been boosted for about 8 years, was daily driven for roughly 6 of those. In the last 8 months or so, it started to develop a gremlin - occasionally would give me bouncy idle. It would run seemingly fine, and then burp after a slow transition to boost - followed by a little puff of smoke out the tailpipe, and held boost fine. For those of you who are good at diagnosis and guessed valve issue, you are correct. Lost a valve guide. Whatever, decided I'd have it all handled when it came time for smog, since I have to go back to stock(ish) for CA smog anyway. So, the shop pulls the head, sends it to the machine shop for a valvejob, and they tell me the head is cracked. My lovely ported and polished head that I've loved for it's life of service. The hunt began, and the short version is, I ended up with 2 full motors and 2 (additional) heads before I got one I could use. One had been damaged (cam channels were scored up, didn't know if that could be fixed), one had a coolant line tapped by a redrill of an exhaust stud, and one didn't have cam caps (the shop was afraid to use cam caps that didn't come with the head). So, all in, about $1k in buying heads and motors before I found one. Awesome. Got the head cleaned up and on there, my PMD cams in, crank seal replaced, and stock injectors, computer, maf, intake and exhaust back on the car for smog.
Drove it about 12 miles before it died on the freeway, and wouldn't turn over :angry-teeth: . Towed back to shop - number 2 injector had seized open, flooded it, and made it die. Starter died at the same time, stuck out, broke some teeth off my JWT flywheel (dead). Clutch was also looking pretty rough, and i was already hemorrhaging money... so, white bunny setup ordered from Enjuku (FAST AND GREAT SERVICE btw - they overnighted a second one to me when the first was damaged in transit), a starter, and a new injector went in. Running great (but slow, at 8.8:1 compressiong). Passsed smog BEAUTIFULLY (again, 8.8:1 compression - cleaner than when most of us exhale, apparently). Did I mention slow?

I figure at this point, the turbo setup is out, so I'll send the turbo to be rebuilt, as it had been burning a little oil when it came out. Now's the best time, right? Get the turbo off the manifold, and find a delightful crack in the manifold. It's an old cast RevHard, and it certainly did it's duty, but ended up cracking like most do. Not sure when, but that would explain why i smelled exhaust in the engine bay on occasion - thought it was a bad gasket somewhere. So, the tally is, about $4k all in, and now this.
So the cost to bring it back up to my satisfaction in boostland would be roughly:
$450 for a turbo rebuild at a good shop semi local.
$?? for 2 new 740cc Deatchswerks injectors (2 of them broke/got mangled) coming out of the car
$??? for a new manifold (could upgrade, but then that makes a reworking of the downpipe necessary)
$???? for any additional surprises.
I'm just not feeling great about dropping even MORE money at this juncture. I wouldn't starve, but it's getting pricey, and I'm a little burned out on it. So...
The block is just about the only thing that seems to have come away unscathed (crosses fingers that there's no surprise THERE)

My Plan:
As the car currently stands, it's at 8.8:1CR. Has lovely PDM stage 2 cams, a metal headgasket, and a good clutch kit. Loving the Enkei RPF1s, suspension, brakes, and all that.
I think I'll have JWT reprogram the ECU to make it a little more fun - I assume they can do quite a bit with a good fuel and timing map, given that their program for the turbo setup felt like stock when i wasn't under boost. I'll keep the stock header, then have a decent 2.5" exhaust with a high flow cat and resonator, and probably a magnaflow muffler (really like the 3" i have for the turbo setup, it's probably just a tad loud for an N/A car - stealth is the name of the game here). All flat black (stealth). Probably wrap the header in some extra heat wrap I have to keep it as hot as possible (for exhaust velocity given the larder diameter of the exhaust). The MSD stays in (nicer spark, why not, right?), along with the Injen intake I have. The electric fans are not coming out, because why would I?

So, that's my plan - what do you guys think? What else could I do, aside from headers (i will likely boost it again in the next year or two, just want to take a break from the expense, and not having much time to drive it), so i don't really want to go balls to the wall. The JWT retune is about $100 every time, so minimal cost there. the exhaust shouldn't be more than a few hundred bucks. I'll keep the stock ECU and exhaust to throw on when it's smog time again, and pass with flying colors. Probably do some vacuum cleanup (stupid viper's nest on the back is still there), and some wiring cleanup. Otherwise - thoughts?
arias pistons (8.8:1), pauter rods,
cometic headgasket
garrett t3/4 50 trim
mild p&p, pdm cams, 3" turbo back,
jwt flywheel and ecu, clutch specialties clutch
740cc injectors, ebay fmic,
elec fans, msd, stock vlsd, z32 brakes and mafs, safc2, hks evc 4, Koyo Radiator, protective layer of dirt.
-"stock" s13 dd - Project MPG
adamky
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Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 6:40 am
Location: Louisville, KY

Re: A sad day - advice welcomed!

Post by adamky »

I hear ya. I've run into one thing after another during my rebuild and throwing money at it left and right. It wears on you, both financially and emotionally. An extra resonator would help if you want to quiet it down some. When I added 2 resonators to mine it was a night and day difference. Are you running stock cams? My JWT S1's really woke the car up in N/A form.
Wiseco/Eagle, JWT S1 cams, BC valve springs, PT5857, ID1700 injectors, SR20DET ECU w/ Nismotronic, COP conversion with LS ignition coils, etc, etc...
--> YouTube channel --> my build thread
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ViperGT
Knows Some Stuff About 240's!
Posts: 445
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 1:26 am
Location: long beach

Re: A sad day - advice welcomed!

Post by ViperGT »

i think he said pdm stg2. theres nothing wrong with that head that got broken into coolant port, get it time serted or coiled whatever you wanna do, timesert is better, and then with proper loctite or other sealant there will be no problem, or have it welded up, im in san luis obisbo right now, going back to long beach for a couple weeks if you want me to weld it up.
in a datsun 510:
arias 8.8 .020
eagle rods
clevite bearings
ferrea/exhaust supertech/intake stk
supertech springs and retainers
bc valve guides v2 cams currently crower 288/288 (no good)
port and polish
arp head, main, rod bolts
osk timing
current: custom log mani, TIAL mvr,
later: ati SD garret gtx3071 currently in my possession looking for gtx3576
custom downpipe
lol:
sdaigle240 wrote:beat that thing like it owes you money.
240Life
Driving Mom's Station Wagon
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Location: GA

Re: A sad day - advice welcomed!

Post by 240Life »

I'm not sure what kind of look you are going for with your S14, but have you looked into stripping some weight off of it if you haven't already? Always a good one if you don't want to throw more money at the car. When I was broke in college I was just searching for things to come off my S13.
adamky
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Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 6:40 am
Location: Louisville, KY

Re: A sad day - advice welcomed!

Post by adamky »

Sorry, I overlooked the PDM cam part. Here's another idea. Rather than have JWT give you a tune, invest in a tunable ECU like Nistune. Get a wideband gauge and some DIY "knock ears" or some other form of knock detection. Play around with the tune and learn how to get the most out of the car. You can't beat a N/A motor for getting your feet wet with tuning.
Wiseco/Eagle, JWT S1 cams, BC valve springs, PT5857, ID1700 injectors, SR20DET ECU w/ Nismotronic, COP conversion with LS ignition coils, etc, etc...
--> YouTube channel --> my build thread
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vrmilionzx
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Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 1:17 pm
Location: Norcal

Re: A sad day - advice welcomed!

Post by vrmilionzx »

Thanks for the feedback! Like you said, definitely emotionally and financially wearing on me.

I appreciate all the thoughts! To give a bit more info -

The PDM cams were there before it was turbo'd, and I love em - help it breathe all the way to the top. While I have a good bit of monitoring in place (really digging the Zeitronix setup I have in there), I'm hesitant to tune myself. I've considered trying several times in the past - it always comes down to being afraid I'll miss one critical point somewhere and screw the motor up. If anything, I'm even more hesitant now, after this debacle. Certain worth considering, though, when I'm feeling a bit better about it. It'd also be good when it's time to re-turbo it.

As far as the look/interior, it sounds funny, but it's kinda nice when it's all cushy and comfortable. Considered stripping half of the interior, but then I'd have to pull the sound system too, because I can't really see doing it halfway (2 woofers, amp, etc). That said, I've removed the spare and jack (the spare doesn't fit over the brakes anyway), and put a custom box for my toolbox back there. The tools aren't currently in it, but when i'm going anywhere more than a few miles away, they're on board in case of any surprises.

In terms of the low cost stuff, I'm also thinking that now is a good time to do some wiring and vacuum line clean up, while there's more space in there.

The exhaust already has a high flow cat, and a resonator. Slapped onto the stock header and that weird resonator/post header pipe that nissan calls the "front pipe" (http://www.courtesyparts.com/nissan/240 ... front-pipe), i'm hoping it's pretty quiet... ish. When I"m on it, i'm ok with a little noise :D

Viper - if you feel like welding it, I might take you up on that! Apparently it's good to keep a spare head around - or so i'm learning!

While I don't drive to LA very often anymore, it's a nice enough drive when I don't have to do it all in one day/night....

The other option is to start building the spare block that's on a stand at the in-laws' place now, and use that head on it. I've got basically a complete motor that way, that I can potentially swap into my "daily" s13, or do something else fun with it. Though I doubt I need ANOTHER project...
arias pistons (8.8:1), pauter rods,
cometic headgasket
garrett t3/4 50 trim
mild p&p, pdm cams, 3" turbo back,
jwt flywheel and ecu, clutch specialties clutch
740cc injectors, ebay fmic,
elec fans, msd, stock vlsd, z32 brakes and mafs, safc2, hks evc 4, Koyo Radiator, protective layer of dirt.
-"stock" s13 dd - Project MPG
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