180Sx Circuit Car

[boost_bus180]

okay well Ive been lurking round this forum for a fair while but rarely have much to contribute. My 180sx build is getting near the business end and will soon be attending a lot more track days so thought Id make myself known in case I bump into you in the paddock sometime.

Ive had my 180sx for a few years now, bought it in 2006 in pretty stock form and just tinkered with it in the shed while it was my daily. As is often the case, it pretty soon got to the stage where it tipped over the line of being a suitable daily so I bought a C34 aswell which meant I could get a bit more serious with the 180sx. Ive tried a fair few different types of amateur motorsport including dirt rally, motorkhana, drag, drift and sprints and am pretty much hooked on timed circuit work so thats where the 180sx being built for now. I dont really have a class in mind as I dont have the time to commit to a series, just the occassional club day and sprint events.

Up until recently its mostly been built in the back yard, here's a few pics ofthe progress Ive made so far...

ENGINE

S13 SR20DET

ENGINE IMPROVEMENTS

new oil and water pumps

machined timing case

machined crank journals

decked block

shaved head

balanced crank and clutch

KING bearings

JE pistons

TOMEI rods

1.2mm metal head gasket

GREDDY valve springs

ARP rod bolts and head studs

NISSAN nitrided valves and guides

cold start and idle control solanoids removed from under inlet manifold

coolant lines romoved from intake manifold

KOYO 53mm twin core N-flow radiator

FORD mondeo twin 12" thermo fans

TRIDON thermo temp switch

BILLION radiator hoses

Custom alloy coolant resevoir

Custom alloy air seperator

NISMO radiator cap

NISMO thermostat

NISMO oil cap

NISMO engine mounts - modified

GREDDY underdrive pulleys (water pump and alternator)

BLITZ LM filter

Custom alloy inlet pipe

GREDDY T518Z 8cm turbo kit

BLITZ LM intercooler flipped with custom alloy piping and T Bolt clamps

TOMEI 256deg/11.5mm poncams

TOMEI rocker arm stoppers

SPLITFIRE coil packs

GREDDY winged and baffled sump

shaved rocker cover with -12 breathers

custom oil catch can

setrab 25 row oil cooler with remote mounted filter and billet oil block

Tuned legth steampipe exhaust manifold with ceramic coating

XFORCE dump pipe

RSR 3" front pipe

KAKIMOTO 3" cat back

METALCAT cat - gutted

Magnafuel quickstar EFI regulator boost

Fuel Cell RCI 45L

Bosch Fuel pump 200 l/h

Carter lift Pump

surge tank

custom MoTeC engine loom with plug into fire wall

aircon removed

power steering removed

INTERIER

MoTeC M84 ECU

Race Technologies DASH2 stack dash

Race Technologies DL1 Data logger

BLITZ spec R SBC

BRIDE ZETA III driver and passenger seats

custom fixed seat rails with modified floor pan

TAKATA 4pt Harness

Fire extinguisher hand held

MQ 4L mechanical fire bomb

complete strip except for dash shell

100% custom wiring loom using MoTeC wires, Deutch plugs and water proof switches

dry cell battery relocated to back seat

NARDI sports type rally suede steering wheel

WORKS BELL rapfix II quick release

WORKS BELL short boss kit

body

stock type x kit

SUPERMADE headlight moulds

bonnet held with aero catches

poly carbonate side windows

poly carbonate rear windscreen

front bar dzus clipped on

boot floor cut out and replaced with sheet metal

aluminium rear undertray

custom front tubs

custom tube frame front end - everything forward of the struts

full weld in cage

DRIVELINE

Z32 5 speed

Machined bell housing with adapter plate

semi solid gearbox mount

custom cross member

Short shifter

OS GIKEN STR twin plate clutch with light weight flywheel

custom single piece tail shaft

custom tail shaft loop

CUSCO 1.5way diff

BRAKES AND SUSPENSION

5 stud conversion

ABS removed

Willwood pedal box

Willwood master cylinders

Willwood rear bias adjuster

PROJECT MU braided lines - F

PROJECT MU 6 piston calipers - F

PROJECT MU 355mm 2 piece rotors - F

PROJECT MU HC+ pads - F

Skyline 2 piston calipers - R

310mm slotted rotors - R

PROJECT MU HC+ pads - R

WHITELINE adjustable 27mm front sway bar

WHITELINE adjustable 22mm rear sway bar

GREDDY type S coilovers

ZENITH TUNING steering column spacer

ZENITH TUNING solid rear cradle bushes

D PROJECT tie rods

D PROJECT rose jointed tie rod ends

D PROJECT rose jointed caster rods

D PROJECT lower arm brace

D PROJECT semi solid steering rack bushes

D PROJECT rose jointed rear camber arms

WHEELS

ADVAN RS (silver) 17x9.5 +15 front and 18x10+25 rear

RAYS Gramlights 57d luminous orange 17x9+12 front & Rear

RAYS blue lock nuts

this is what it looked like when I picked it up in 2006. After 6 months of searching it was the cleanest one I could find. It was in immaculate condition with 60,000km so I drove from melbourne to sydney to pick it up.

Had it for 2 days before I started pulling it apart and the modding began. started off with the just basic stuff like R32 front brakes, few suspension parts, intercoolet, boost controller, turbo, power fc ect

So kept it like that for a little while, was using an old nismo clutch at the time which I had left over from a previous project but it got a bit tired so in went a twin plate from OS Giken

With that worn in and a freshly tuned 219kw, I went to heathcoat drags for a bit of fun and mananged a few 12.6 sec @119mph before all the teeth off 3rd gear sheared off. Using this as an excuse to upgrade, I bought a conversion kit for a Z32 box and bolted it up.

[SRS13]

Top stuff mate. Have some very good gear in it. Should perform really well.

Have you done any track days in it yet?

[boost_bus180]

after a handful of drift days at winton and calder park, the motor dropped compression so it was out with the old and in with a new one.

Almost immediately after it was run in and retuned, I drove it to brisbane where I now live. car pretty much stayed in one piece for the better part of a year which was cool because previously I think the longest it stayed in one piece was 2 weeks. a few little things changed here and there but nothing major. This really allowed me to get used to driving it hard and I racked up about 20000km of hills and track driving. At this stage I was still very much into drift so only ever hit up QR.

After a fair bit of drifting I got a bit over it and bought a stagea so I could make the car a bit more track focused. first up was an interier and air con strip. the more trim I pulled out the more wires I found for useless things like interier lights and such as I went I stripped back the looms and tidied it all up.

after that the next big change was a swap to five stud to get some wider wheels and bigger brakes. Went with CSC 343mm rotors, big 4 piston calipers and ADVAN RS wheels. with this came flared gaurds and a few height adjustments to get it right.

After this things started to get a bit more serious again so I drove thecar back to melbourne and dropped it off at Meridian Motorsport to get a full cage and a few other bits and pieces. I could have got it done in brisbane for cheaper but after a lot of research I decided Meridian did excellent work so went with them. After taken a fair chunk out of my wallet I had it back in my shed ready to get cracking with some more work.

Was the first time I had tried painting anything and with a borrowed paint gun it came out alright. Its not perfect by any means but hey it only cost me $150 in materials and was worth it for the experience. I didnt paint the engine bay at this stage because I was planning on doing a bit more work in the engine bay.

Edited July 22, 2011 by boost_bus180

[boost_bus180]

so after the paint dried I thought Id tidy up the looms a bit more but I got confused by it all and thought itd just be simpler to rip it all out and start again. before this the most complicated wirign job Id done was a tow bar plug so kinda jumped in the deep end. learnt a lot though

About this time I changed a few other things like a nardi steering wheel with WB boss and quick release. Wasnt at all looking for a new brake setup but a new set of Project Mu gear came up cheap so I impulse bought it. took the CSCs off and put them on my stagea. Stagea already had 32GTR brakes so now Ive gotta find something to put them on. was amazed the 17s fitted over the brakes but glad they did because I wasnt ready to buy new wheels.

I tried a few different gauge setups with the stock cluster, defi gauges and then apexi gauges. I was never very happy with the wiring in it as the more I learnt themore I wanted to start over and make it better. I persisted with it though cos it was taking me forever and I just wanted to drive it. Once I was finished wiring it up I went to start it up but managed to wire up the ECU wrong and set fire to the power fc. not cool!

So fed up with it all, I ripped it all out again and cleaned it up ready to give to someone else. At this point I was pretty much addicted to taking weightout of the car so I ditched the powersteering, converted therack to manual and bought some supermade headlight moulds. Also got a thing made up to replace the water hoses that run under the inlet manifold as its just a mess under there with cold start and turbo lines and heater box crap so it all got binned. much nicer now Also got my rocker cover shaved, sand blasted and powder coated with some -12 fittings on top for the new catch can setup

After that I loaded it up and dropped it back off to meridian so they could start giving it a fair birthday. Im not a fan of letting other people work on my cars but they're great to deal with and do excellent work so I dont mind.

[boost_bus180]

I was never planning on getting all of this done at once but I was in a position where I couldnt touch the car for a good 8 months so figured Id get a few years worth of mods done in one hit, that way I can finally get it out of the shed and just enjoy it without devoted all my holidays for the next 2 years to swinging spanners in the shed.

so once there, the guys got stuck into rewiring it completely with all new engine loom, all new sensors. theres a lot of little bits and pieces throughout that theyve done but that list could go forever so I wont bother trying to list them all. boot floor got cut out so a new fuel setup could go in. standard tank was 60ltrs and this one is about 45ltrs but I think that'll do me fine, its just a little 4 cyl after all

As I fried my old ECU, it gave me the opportunity to upgrade to a MoTeC and a new dash setup. On previous track days Ive seen a few cars catch fire and even had a close call myself when my first motor popped and spewed all all over the turbo so felt it would be a wise idea to get a fire bomb for that piece of mind.

things in the engine bay started to get a bit of attention too, the front end got cut off to make way for some tubs and a new radiator support. Although the last one wasnt damaged, I hate wheel scrub and wanted the front end beefed up a bit so it wont cave in if I bump into something.

got a bunch of fidly things done that were needed too. new catch can, oil cooler, pedal box, intercooler piping, new gearbox cross member and a swag of other stuff that needed to be sorted.

thats about where Im up to at the moment, will keep the pics coming when there's more to show

Edited July 23, 2011 by boost_bus180

[boost_bus180]

Top stuff mate. Have some very good gear in it. Should perform really well.

Have you done any track days in it yet?

hey mate, thanks. I've done 2 drag days, a handful of drift days and only 1 circuit day at winton which wasnt timed. that was way back in the day when I first got it though. should hopefully be hitting up the victorian tracks a bit more toward the end of this year

[levinboy]

awesome build mate!!

Those project Mus are porn!!!

Saving for a set myself!!!

[jonesl]

wow 12.6 with 219kw is a great effort. love this car.

[DCIEVE]

Awesome build mate, going all out! Particularly like the fuel system set-up - have drawn up something similar for my old rig.

[Beer Baron]

absolutely BEAUTIFUL car mate. lovely work gone into it both by yourself and meridian too. it's cool learning as you go. and you do learn bloody heaps. it's going to be so much fun when you finally get it on a track.

[boost_bus180]

awesome build mate!!

Those project Mus are porn!!!

Saving for a set myself!!!

yeah they're massive overkill for my application but they were so cheap that I felt I would be ripping myself off if I didnt buy them. Can you believe they were only $3K? RRP is close to $6K!!!

wow 12.6 with 219kw is a great effort. love this car.

thanks mate, my fastest was 126mph but was a tad slower at 12.7. will definately go back for another go once the car is back in one piece and see what difference it's made, if any.

Awesome build mate, going all out! Particularly like the fuel system set-up - have drawn up something similar for my old rig.

thanks mate, yeah Im pretty happy with it.

absolutely BEAUTIFUL car mate. lovely work gone into it both by yourself and meridian too. it's cool learning as you go. and you do learn bloody heaps. it's going to be so much fun when you finally get it on a track.

Thanks I really appreciate that Baron. Its worth it just for the experience for sure, at the start I knew stuff all so its good to see how far its come. And your right about the track time, has been over 2 years since it last got driven in anger.

Edited August 17, 2011 by boost_bus180

[timmy_89]

I know I'm a few years late to the party, but whats the current situation with this car? Looked like an awesome build!

[boost_bus180]

Holy shit its been a long time since I updated this thread!! Car has come a long way since mid-2011, thats for sure!

I continued building the car up until early-2013. It managed to see a bit of track time - just enough to iron out most of the bugs that are associated with an overhaul of this scale. 

 

 

At a shakedown testing day at Winton Raceway, the car was just starting to feel good and then the gearbox decided it'd had enough. A few laps later and the motor followed suit.

I had been through a fair bit of heartache getting the car to that point and was so depressed with it that I took it home and locked it away in storage till I could be bothered with it again. Figured it wouldn't be too long before I got over it and had it going again.

Fast forward nearly 4 years to now....motivation has finally returned and the car is about to come of hiding for a full overhaul. In case there are some folks here interested in seeing what happened in the last few years of development before it was tucked away, I'll fill in the last few years with a few catchup posts. Once caught up, I'll endeavor to keep this thread updated with the new bits.

[boost_bus180]

So, rewind to 2011....

I had been shopping around for a rear wing for a long time but couldn't find anything local at the time. Im a big fan of supporting local brands when I can, but back in 2011 there wasn't much around. This 1580mm wing is molded from a V8 Supercar wing, and is rock solid - can push/pull the car from it and not have to worry about it breaking. A sub-frame was made beneath the hatch which meant I didn't have to worry about downforce not making it to the chassis. A lexan rear windscreen was made up and screwed into place too. The mounting holes for the stock spoiler were all welded up and painted over. to look like new.

 

My aim with the wiring was always to make it as simplified as possible, so a full new loom was made using only top quality components. The cold start idle and every other electrical nice-to-have was deleted from the engine bay. A bulkhead plug was used at the firewall to make engine removal an easy affair. Once the wiring was complete, the engine bay was stripped to get busy on the remaining fabrication.

 

Still needed to finish off a tonne of fabrication on the new front end. The new tubs were welded into place and finished off and I was really happy with the outcome. No more scrubbing big tyres  I always wanted a removable radiator support bar to assist in engine removals, so some tube was bent up and located by slotting into two sleeves welded to the chassis rail ends. The tube is then secured by a bolt screwed up from the bottom of each sleeve into a captive nut, which makes it very solid. Tabs were welded on to mount the headlight molds, front bar, radiator and intercooler. 

A decision was made to extend the strut brace to the front bumper to add some much needed strength and rigidity to the front end so that i could hang a splitter off it and also so the front end could take a light shunt without caving in completely. After that was done, the engine bay was ready for a lick of paint and final assembly could get underway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[boost_bus180]

With the engine back in place, it was easy to start bolting all of the other components back into their spot. Radiator along with my trusty old thermo fan setup from a Ford Mondeo was bolted into place. I have often thought about upgrading these fans as they're not a perfect fit and there are better options out there, but they work well enough for now. Some new Billion radiator hoses and clamps too. The radiator is a Koyo N-flow design which makes the coolant flow three times through the air stream. Im still not convinced this is a great design but I've got it and it works. In my previous setup, the thermos were controlled by a temp switch fitted next to the top hose; however, that is now redundant as the MoTeC will take control of those duties now. A new hose fitting was also welded to the top hose to help bleed the system.

 

Whilst the engine bay was getting put back together, few loose ends were being tidied up on the inside too. The fire bomb mounted on the floor behind the passenger seat was plumbed in. One nozzle is under the back of the car pointed at the fuel pumps, 1 under the dash pointing up at the driver and then one on each of the front strut towers pointing at the fuel rail and the turbo.  Firebomb can be activated by pulling the red lever next to the drivers seat or there is a second one fitted at the base of the windscreen. Hopefully never have to use this system, but if that worst case scenario eventuates then I can hopefully save it from burning to the ground.

 

Pedal box was next to on the list. Decided to go with the simple design of the Wilwood hanging style as it didn't require cutting into the floor or firewall to fit. Note after these photos a few more clamps were used under the dash to tidy the hoses up. Came up so neat that it would have been a shame to retain the old standard brake lines that were looking well used and out of place in the new engine bay, so some new braided lines were plumbed in. Also had a new clutch line made up which fits much better than the old junk standard setup which actually made the clutch line the lowest part of the car just begging to be ripped off by a ripple strip. Fluid reservoirs were positioned in the engine bay in front of the driver and as far away from heat as possible. 

 

While new brake master cylinders were being decided on, I opted to upgrade the rear brakes from the standard S13 calipers and S14 rotors, to a set off an R32.
I didn't worry about rebuilding these or getting new rotors and better pads as I figured that can come later. R32 isn't a huge upgrade, but they should be a much 
better match for the big fronts and it should be pretty evident at the next track day whether or not they need to be bigger. At $100 the price was right anyhow.

 

Edited December 5, 2016 by boost_bus180