Too Many Two-Forties 2 Little Time

[deolio]

Not really much media for this post, so here's a pretty picture to start it off before a wall of text.



I finally got the car to the track. I was hoping to get a shakedown session in before doing full track on Thunderhill East at Super D, but due to Covid, the heat, and all the local street spots being a bust, I didn't get a chance. Literally 5 minutes into the track being hot, it was black flagged due to someone leaking oil all over it. Fortunately Super D had the small skidpad rented out too so I got a chance to get a quick shakedown in. The car felt amazing temps and psi's looked great, but in such a small area it was difficult to keep my eye on the gauges under WOT.

Once I hopped on track, I did a couple grip laps. I was surprised how many blind and off-camber turns there were. Once I got a chance to go WOT I noticed the AFR would periodically shoot off the gauge, but would drop back to safe range after a second. So I let'er rip and holy fuck did it feel good. Legit the best driving car I've ever driven. So much turn-in, yet manageable and grippy and fast. For the first couple of laps I just left it in third gear and everything worked great, aside from me initiating everything a bit too early and using far too much e-brake.

I took a break and then went back over to the skidpad and did a few laps with Dom and Nic. The flat spots from sitting on the e-brake were so bad I though I had broken my car  I've never used the e-brake that hard before. After the runs, I noticed the AFR was sticking at 18+ for a lot longer than it had been in the morning, but it was still running fine, not stumbling or acting like it was leaning out. Nic suggested the wideband sensor may be bad as he's had similar issues in the past, so I swapped out the wheels and hopped back on the track and started really ripping it.

The first lap out I chucked it into turn 2 in 4th and went to downshift to 3rd and it wouldn't go in gear. Drifted turn 3-5 in 3rd and dropped to 2nd for turn 6 and tried to upshift to 3rd and it wouldn't budge again. I tried entering turn 10 in 4th and dropping to 3rd and of course it wouldn't go even with me slamming it with the force of Bruce Banner. 3rd gear synchro DED. So I just did everything in 3rd again, dropping to 2nd and revving out at turn 6. Not quite as exhilarating. Then I decided to give turn 1 a go. Ripped it mid-way through 4th gear and initiated the feint crossing the start/finish line at about 95mph and clutch kicked the shit out of it until it wouldn't stay sideways anymore haha I gripped the rest of the lap in an attempt to catch up to Dom, which was fun. Not sure how, but this dumb slammed car handles amazingly well. Super curious about what kind of lap times it'd put down if I really pushed it. Anyways, of course as I caught up to Dom, he pulled into the pits, so I ripped it as hard as I could down the front straight and I noticed the AFR weren't returning to safe levels what so ever so after giving turn 1 another go, I cruised the rest of the way around the track and into the pits. AFR stayed off the gauge the entire time.

When I pulled into the pits I got a big waft of fuel and saw fluid pouring out of the bottom of the car so I jacked the car up with the quickness and grabbed a fire extinguisher just in case. Fortunately it was on the cold side and it was actually just coolant leaking out of one of the swirl pot lines. Sure did get my heart going for a second!

I couldn't identify where the fuel smell was coming from, but my guess is there's something funky going on with the hard lines, whether it be a pinch, pinhole puncture, blockage, or shitty fitting. At this point, I've replaced just about every other component in the fuel system. Also hoping the wideband sensor is just bad otherwise some pistons might not be very happy with me

I forget why, but I popped the hatch and found the battery tie-down had snapped and the battery was just chillin on its side in the spare tire well. Thank fuck it's dry cell and didn't leak acid everywhere. Curious as to just how long it had been flying around. I don't recall hearing anything flying around back there, but I did have a couple hard off-track excursions earlier in the day.

At that point I decided to call it and pack up the car. It was already 2pm and 100?+ out. Gave me a chance to watch they other doods boogie down the front straight and huck it into turn 1, which was very exciting to say the least. I don't care what anyone says, 100+mph entries are always cool regardless of linking it to another turn or not.

In the end, it was a slightly frustrating day, but I still had a ton of fun out there. Thank fuck this car handles as well as it does or else it'd be part-out city with all the head and heart aches this thing has caused me. Julian just announced they're going to do East at the end of the year again so at least I'll have a chance at redemption.

Also, quick side note, Federal Evolution ST-1 feel fucking great. 10/10 bang-for-the-buck tire and they come in 225/35r18, which is what I was running up front with 225/40 ST-1 in the rear. Extremely balanced.

[deolio]

So, I've been meaning to build a splitter for the DLux for forever and finally got around to doing it. My local Tap Plastic store only had 1/4" thin ABS in stock so I decided to just do a simple bumper-mounted splitter for now (it's way too floppy to use the chassis-mount setup I had on the coupe).



Marked it and cut it with a jigsaw. You want a blade that's got 10 teeth per inch. The blade I used was actually for wood and cut just fine.



It melted back together in a few spots, but it was nothing a dremmil couldn't fix. Did a super lazy inner trace just to make sure I didn't cut it out too thin.



Threw a few bolts with some LARGE washers in it and ta-da!




So back to this lean issue. I pulled the plugs the other day and they all looked perfect. Slightly rich if anything. Bought a new sensor and the AFR is on the money. So, I actually drove a car to a meet for the first time in over 2 years last night.





I was surprised how nicely it drove, though the coolant temps started climbing over 200?F when I'd do pulls or come to a stop, which is odd. It never typically gets over 160? even when it's over 100? outside. So that's today's project






I went to a drift event last weekend. Being able to fit all this shit in the car was nice. Used to be such a pain packing everything in the coupe haha




Only decent photo I got because 3 runs in, the clutch decided it didn't want to hold anymore.


ALWAYS fuckin something. 3rd gear synchro is shot so I need to pull the trans anyway. At least the car survived the 3 hour roundtrip with zero issues otherwise.

[deolio]

So, I messed with the clutch engagement adjustment on the pedal and the clutch seemed to have stopped slipping, though I only tested it at night, in the cold, and not for an extended period of time. So that might have been all that was going on?



Anyhow, since I needed to pull the trans for a rebuild anyway, I picked up a very slightly used clutch from a friend to put in just in case.

Oh and we finally installed a lift in our shop after crawling around on the ground for 6 fucking years



When I pulled the clutch, I found it didn't look bad at all. It wasn't glazed and the flywheel and pressure plate didn't look overheated or anything like previous clutches I've fucked up in the past. And then I noticed the clutch disk for the new clutch was and awfullll lot smaller than the current one...



Apparently the White Bunny kit uses a z33 clutch and flywheel or something someone said (I didn't know what brand it was at the time cuz it was already on the car when I bought it)? So my new clutch wouldn't work with the damn flywheel. I ended up just scuffing up the White Bunny and putting it back in.

And then my roommate got Covid and I had to quarantine for a week and a half (I didn't get it), which ate up a ton of time for the transmission rebuild. It did however give me time to research the easiest way to do the rebuild, which was all very confusing because none of the fs5w71 diagrams or youtube rebuild videos show the same fucking shit. Using a combination of like 7 tutorials/diagrams as by guide I began the teardown. I found reverse gear was pretty fucked (because no synchro for reverse in s13 fs5w71c thanks Nissan) and the 3rd gear synchro teeth were nice and worn down, but aside from that it was in pretty good condition.

Knocking the pins out to remove the striking rod and shift forks was a nightmare using screwdrivers and allen wrenches instead of waiting until stores were open to buy some punches hahaha it took forever and I broke 3-4 screwdrivers. Then it came time to start pulling bearings and gears. I modified a crank pulley puller (as suggested in one video) and applied a healthy dose of heat (as shown in another video) and it wouldn't budge. Applied more heat and more tension and the puller slipped. More heat and vicegrips holding the puller jaws and it bent one of the makeshift puller arms. Event MORE heat, vicegrips, stronger arm, and more ugga-duggas and nothing. Didn't move a hair. I repeated this method, rewatched videos to make sure I didn't miss anything, tried wedging shit between the gear and bearing, tried whacking it with a hammer (that usually works) and nothing seemed to do the trick. Rented some bearing separator tool thing, which did jack diddily as well.

I want to learn how to do this shit, but I was running out of time so I put out a WTB for a transmission and after a few days I finally got a bite. It had been sitting outside for a couple years with no control housing and looked kinda grimey/rusty, but the price was right so I said fuck it. I brought it to the shop and poured out some nice oil/water/dirt/rust sludge and decided to pull it apart to clean it out and found...



... The main bearing was completely fucked with the cage broken and missing balls. Pulling the rest of the trans apart, I found the missing pieces and a lot of sludge, but everything else (besides that pesky reverse gear) was in great condition. I couldn't spot any damage from any bearing shrapnel.

I remove the remains of the bearing cage and the rest of the balls fell right out so I decide to just cut the inner race and whack it with a chisel until it loosened up, which was surprisingly easy. Putting the replacement bearing on, however, was another battle of heat and brute force. This time I set the bearing on the griddle of my propane heater for like 15 minutes before sliding it onto the shaft and wailing on it with a piece of scrap tubing at a deadblow hammer. It took about 7 cycles of heating and hammering to get that motherfucker seated, but it worked.

Cleaned up all the mating surfaces and prepped them for some gasket-maker. I ended up using the rear extension from the old trans because the new one just had soooo much damn debris packed in to all the damn nooks and crannies.



So... we don't have a high-lift transmission jack yet and I got impatient waiting for a friend to come help me hoist this shit up in the car so I he-man'd it myself. 0/10 - do not recommend. At one point I was using my head to hold it in place while I threaded a bolt in. Somehow managed to filet my left hand in several spots throughout the process as well. Still prefer this over doing it on the fucking floor like a heathen though hahaha



While the car was in the air, I also managed to clean up the undercarriage pretty well, did a thorough nut and bolt check, and stuffed any open holes into the cabin either with bolts or a heathy glob of RTV in hopes of waterproofing it.



All that's left now is to solder some wires back onto the transmission sensors that got fucked up on installation (maybe that's how I cut myself?) and bleed the slave cyl and hopefully it's ready for Super D NYE!

[deolio]

I forgot to note that when I fist got the car on the lift I noticed there was oil leaking out of the intercooler couplers. I changed my catch can setup from going into the intake tube to just venting to the atmosphere in hopes that it was just an issue with the arrangement, but after 2 laps on track, the oil pressure started to drop. I pulled in and found that nearly all of the oil had poured out of the catch can. Checked compression and cylinder 4 was only holding 75psi... Only break this car is giving me is broken shit. I'm not even mad tbh. I needed an excuse to paint the engine bay lol

Anyway, here are some nice photos someone took of some hardparking

[deolio]

So last month kinda sucked. Searched for a ka for a while, but they were all over priced and/or in sketchy condition. Then I kinda came to the conclusion I'd just end up in the same place if I didn't build the bottom end, which is just fucking stupid when the ENTIRE PURPOSE of me buying the hatch was to have a fun car to drive while doing the k swap on the coupe. So far it has been the exact opposite, so I decided to partially part it out (keeping all the suspension and some other shit).

Last Saturday I started pulling the motor, swapped the suspension from the coupe to the hatch and the hatch to the coupe, pillaged whatever interior stuff I still wanted, and had the shell loaded up in the new owner's trailer by Thursday. Apologies for the shitty photos, I didn't bother to take a minute to snap any decent ones, not like it matters anyway...



And then I got to work on the coupe. The old sr is going back in for now, while I NA k swap my other coupe. I figure this will be the best route to take so I can fiddle around, take my time, and figure things out like the best PS setup and if AC is doable before diving into the turbo k build on the green car.

Still a lot of work to be done before it's ready to drive, but it's getting there quickly considering this thing was just a rolling shell a week ago lol

[durtyharry]

OBVI all dis da bidness^^😎

That said, "(because no synchro for reverse in s13 fs5w71c thanks Nissan)"

I thought most (all???) production car reverse gear did *not* have a synchro..........

Plz help.

[deolio]

OBVI all dis da bidness^^😎

That said, "(because no synchro for reverse in s13 fs5w71c thanks Nissan)"

I thought most (all???) production car reverse gear did *not* have a synchro..........

Plz help.

Idk tbh. All I know is from what I was reading s14 and up had reverse synchro.

[durtyharry]

OBVI all dis da bidness^^😎

That said, "(because no synchro for reverse in s13 fs5w71c thanks Nissan)"

I thought most (all???) production car reverse gear did *not* have a synchro..........

Plz help.

Idk tbh. All I know is from what I was reading s14 and up had reverse synchro.

ya fa sho it was shit my friends in high school would say so beats me! Hah