tarunhari

Hey SAU, I'm Tarun, a Nissan freak based in country VIC. I'm also the web developer behind the scenes at Joel's Garage Gear. When I'm not busy helping Joel sell workshop equipment I am usually found playing with rear wheel drive Japanese cars. One of my goals for 2018 is to get back in to club racing again. The Albury Wodonga Car Club hosts the Rapid Lap Dash series each year of which I've previously had great fun driving at a few of their events. At the time my Nissan Silvia was simply a street car with budget tyres and a welded differential. So this year it's time to get a little bit more serious about it all. In the past I've had to find the fine balance between making the car competitive as well as making sure it remained roadworthy. But while it's convenient to be able to drive to and from the track, there is nothing like having a dedicated track car with no limitations. Sticking with the same s-chassis platform that I've had experience with in the past the latest 180SX should be a lot more fun once it's properly set up. And by 'properly set up' I really mean built at home by an enthusiast with no formal mechanical knowledge. I do have a 2 post hoist from Joel which makes most jobs a lot easier. It will play a vital role in this build and I couldn't imagine doing it without it. Underneath the dust and cobwebs is a fairly straight shell that has already had a cage welded in and the interior stripped out of it. The previous owner gave up on it and let it sit for the best part of 2 years. So it will require a good service and a tune before it will be ready for track duties. Under the bonnet is a mildly worked SR20DET that came in this chassis from the factory. I didn't get much history with the car but from a quick visual inspection I can see that it has been treated to an upgraded T28 turbo and an aftermarket exhaust manifold. The restrictive AFM has been removed in favour of a MAP sensor and it has bigger injectors installed along with new coil packs. In addition it also has an ECU managed boost control solenoid which should make things fun! The real star of the show however is the standalone Vi-Pec ECU installed to control the updated setup. This will allow me to have the car professionally dyno tuned to get the best performance out of it whilst keeping the engine safe. Before we begin to worry about all of that though, first we need to be able to stop. Luckily I have a couple of R33 Skylines laying around that I can borrow the brakes from. The thing I love about 90's Nissan's is the interchangeability of parts between models. The larger brakes from the Skyline will literally bolt on to the Silvia with not much effort at all. What it will also do is convert my wheel stud pattern from 4x114.3 to 5x114.3 which is exactly what I need as I plan on running 17x9 wheels from an R33 GTR Skyline in order to fit some meaty 255/40/R17 semi slick tyres. The wheels are currently away being powder coated. So I need to get the 5 stud swap done before they get back. I managed to shuffle a few cars around to get the 180SX on the hoist ready to begin race prep. The shell already has a welded in roll cage which is a great start! The first thing I decided to do was to strip out the factory air conditioning system to lose a few kilos - 15.8kg to be exact. I then borrowed the suspension from another S13 project that I had laying around. These BC Racing coilovers are in excellent condition and should do their job nicely. A common problem with lowering a Silvia is that the tyres manage to eat through the wiring loom. I've had this happen to me once and I don't plan on going through that ordeal again. So I tucked them up out of harms way. The next step was addressing the brake and suspension upgrades that I had planned. Lucky, because the factory hubs and brakes had seen better days. A quick lick of paint had these calipers that I took from the R33 looking new again. A few deliveries then turned up which meant I could finally make a start on the suspension overhaul. The tub of my Datsun 1200 ute makes for great storage space. I began by removing the stock front arms and suspension components. I then removed the inner tie rods and added some lock spacers to give the car a little more steering angle. I then installed some 5 stud conversion hubs so that I could keep the stock S13 knuckle rather than having to upgrade it to an S14 item due to the difference in the size of the spindle. I then added the front brakes from the R33 Skyline and hooked up the new braided brake lines from GK Tech. I'm also running a 15mm hub centric bolt on spacer so that the R33 GTR wheels won't rub on the springs of the coilover suspension. It didn't take long to have the front suspension and 5 stud conversion completed. The car now has adjustable lower control arms, brand new drop links for the anti-roll bar, adjustable coilovers, adjustable tension rods and adjustable tie rod ends. It has lock spacers in the steering rack and larger 4 pot brake calipers. Quite an upgrade! With all this new found adjustability one thing is for certain - I need someone who knows what they're doing to adjust it. I may have slightly over estimated how wide I needed the front track to be. Soon it was time to tackle the rears. A bit more effort was required to convert these to being 5 stud and using the Skylines rear handbrake setup. Once again I began by removing the stock arms and whilst I had good access I decided to install the slip on collars for the rear sub frame. These will stiffen up the old factory rubber bushes somewhat without the need to remove the entire rear sub frame assembly. Very handy as I'm pushed for time! The next step was to remove the rear hubs and handbrake assemblies from the R33 rear knuckles and transfer them on to the S13 rear knuckles as they are slightly different due to the Skyline having rear wheel steering. This wasn't the most fun task as they were fairly well bonded together over the years - But I got there in the end. By now the rear arms were also taking shape so I took the time out to install a very light weight exhaust to replace the old rusted out mild steel one that it came with. It is now 3 inch all the way from the turbo back. Did I mention that the wheels came back from being powder coated? Or that the Type X replica body kit was delivered? All these parts came just in time as the car had to be at the body shop by the weekend. So with a few more hours put in on Saturday bleeding the brakes and setting up the handbrake cables the conversion was complete and it was ready to go! The 180SX is now headed over to the body shop to be resprayed. We can't wait to see how the car looks with a fresh coat of paint and the new race livery. It has been a busy couple of weeks getting the suspension done in my spare time but I'm very happy with the new setup. The car should now handle like it's on rails after the alignment is tweaked. Without the 2 Post Hoist these suspension jobs would have taken a lot longer to complete. In my opinion it is by far the best investment any hands on car enthusiast can make! Well after a good few weeks since the suspension got done the car is now painted and looks fantastic! Unfortunately I have now missed out on driving it at the first two rounds of the AWDCC Rapid Lap Dash series due to a few set backs that prevented me from getting it ready on time for those races. Still, we're aiming to have it out of the shed and onto the race track very soon! This was how it looked being stripped down ready for paint a few weeks ago: The body kit for the 180SX is a mix of both KMAK Aero & ORIGIN Labo parts. Both of which are fantastic quality as far as fiberglass kits go. Making use of our Sheet Metal Guillotine and Pan Brake Folder I decided to have a go at making some replacement door cards for the now stripped out interior. They came out looking great! The body was then cut and welded to accommodate the wider rear track. Both the front and rear are running 30mm wider guards. The body was painted 'Aurora Blue' and the interior was painted 'Ice White' which gives it a really neat and clean look. It also matches our logo colors well which will allow the graphics to tie into the paint job nicely once the paint has cured. Once it returned home it was time to fit the rest of the type X body kit and connect the body loom back in place. I will also be installing my race seat and 6 point harness shortly as well. Once that's done I just need to service the engine with fresh oil and spark plugs plus a new waterpump, thermostat, radiator and coolant and it will be ready to be sent off for a dyno tune and a wheel alignment. Thats all for now, I will try to be active on here from now on so stay tuned for the next update where we will hopefully see what kind of power it makes!