Newbie in the USA

[master240sx]

Hey all

I just purchased a S1 Rs Four V from Japan and have a lot of questions as these cars are beyond scarce on this side of the pond. 
 

thanks in advance for the help I’m going to get!

cheers

[Murray_Calavera]

Welcome! 

Looking very tidy, good find

[Duncan]

Nice, you probably won't come across too many others at the local Woolies.

Unfortunately the first thing you should know, is that while they have pretty much the same potential as any r chassis skyline, they are a real slug standard.

[zoomzoom]

They seem to be getting scarce on this side of the pond too!

Mine is modded to what I would consider "Stock Plus", basically sharpened suspension, shift kit in the auto trans, slightly larger turbo and an ECU resulting in 200awkw. Gives it more pep without being too laggy, and also not on the brink of snapping something. Ive owned it for 15 years now, myself among others here can give you a fair few pointers on what should be done, and what shouldn't be done.

[GTSBoy]

5 hours ago, Duncan said:

Nice, you probably won't come across too many others at the local Wall-Mart.

Fixed that for you. But yeah. Nice Volvo wagon, either way.

[master240sx]

7 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

Welcome! 

Looking very tidy, good find

Cheers mate. 
a bit of paint repair and she will look better!

 

6 hours ago, Duncan said:

Nice, you probably won't come across too many others at the local Woolies.

Unfortunately the first thing you should know, is that while they have pretty much the same potential as any r chassis skyline, they are a real slug standard.

I’m okay with slugs when they look this cool. I grew up in NZ so I remember these cars when I was growing up. I have yet to see one on the road in the US. 
 

I ordered blitz ZzR coil overs from Japan yesterday, and now the search is on for a set of 17 or 18 inch wheels (the 15s that are on it look like lawn mower wheels)

5 hours ago, zoomzoom said:

They seem to be getting scarce on this side of the pond too!

Mine is modded to what I would consider "Stock Plus", basically sharpened suspension, shift kit in the auto trans, slightly larger turbo and an ECU resulting in 200awkw. Gives it more pep without being too laggy, and also not on the brink of snapping something. Ive owned it for 15 years now, myself among others here can give you a fair few pointers on what should be done, and what shouldn't be done.

thank you for that! I will take all the advice I can get. I do need help with wheel fitment. I rear on here that several rear cradles were used. I was looking at 17x9 + 30 but I rear that the rears stick out too far so my search is starting over again with maybe an 8 or 8.5 instead. 

 

1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

Fixed that for you. But yeah. Nice Volvo wagon, either way.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Duncan]

Re fitment, I have R34 gtr wheels on mine all round, they are perfect at the front and stick out approx 1.27cm at the rear (which I just live with, the wheels tuck in under compression).

Funnily enough though, if they are factory wheels they are probably worth keeping in the shed so you can put them back on when these are billion dollar classic cars

[master240sx]

7 minutes ago, Duncan said:

Re fitment, I have R34 gtr wheels on mine all round, they are perfect at the front and stick out approx 1.27cm at the rear (which I just live with, the wheels tuck in under compression).

Funnily enough though, if they are factory wheels they are probably worth keeping in the shed so you can put them back on when these are billion dollar classic cars

I’m not sure if they are factory or not. The look like BBS with the spin off center cap. They also dual lug pattern. 
 

I would love to have r34 wheels but they get rather pricy over here and most are scuffed. 
I was hoping to find the a good offset for a square setup. 
many offset advice would be appreciated. Looking for a 17 or 18 and lowering the car enough to make it not look weird. I don’t want it slammed on the ground. This will be my daily driver more than likely

[zoomzoom]

Give some thought to doing a big suspension and brake overhaul. I did that about 11 years ago and it totally changed the feel of the car. The steering was much sharper and the car tracked straight over bumps in the road, whereas before it was a wandering mess. It might take you a couple of months with the car on stands, but it's given me a decade of rewarding results.

Given the age of the car, you could probably assume the following are stuffed:

All suspension, subframe and steering rack bushes. I used Superpro polyurethane replacements.

Inner tie rods and outer tie rod ends on the steering rack.

All ball joints, 2x for each front wheel (on the lower control arm). Same as skyline GTR. Rear suspension has 1x ball joint.

Certain suspension arms can be replaced with adjustable units, like the caster arm, and upper control arms for the front suspension. This allows the alignment to be set more accurately than those crappy eccentric bolts that are standard.

Having everything stripped down is a good time to get to things like the driveshafts. While they are very good quality and long lasting, the boots inevitably crack and lead to the contamination and destruction of the inner joints. Over the past year and a bit I've replaced all 4x driveshaft boots (ie all 8x boots).

This gives you a really solid base to then start piling on the mods.

[master240sx]

1 minute ago, zoomzoom said:

Give some thought to doing a big suspension and brake overhaul. I did that about 11 years ago and it totally changed the feel of the car. The steering was much sharper and the car tracked straight over bumps in the road, whereas before it was a wandering mess. It might take you a couple of months with the car on stands, but it's given me a decade of rewarding results.

Given the age of the car, you could probably assume the following are stuffed:

All suspension, subframe and steering rack bushes. I used Superpro polyurethane replacements.

Inner tie rods and outer tie rod ends on the steering rack.

All ball joints, 2x for each front wheel (on the lower control arm). Same as skyline GTR. Rear suspension has 1x ball joint.

Certain suspension arms can be replaced with adjustable units, like the caster arm, and upper control arms for the front suspension. This allows the alignment to be set more accurately than those crappy eccentric bolts that are standard.

Having everything stripped down is a good time to get to things like the driveshafts. While they are very good quality and long lasting, the boots inevitably crack and lead to the contamination and destruction of the inner joints. Over the past year and a bit I've replaced all 4x driveshaft boots (ie all 8x boots).

This gives you a really solid base to then start piling on the mods.

Thanks for that!

im already trying to source a lot of those suspension parts but not much luck. 
 

3 out of 4 rear suspension control arms are the same as a S14 so that makes things just a bit easier. 
 

I’m a Nissan mechanic by trade so I do not mind doing the labor and actually enjoy it. 
I will keep looking for all the bits. I have the coil overs, inner and outer tie rods coming from Japan. Brake caliper rebuild kits coming from the United Arab Emirates. Slowly I’ll have everything I need hopefully before the baby comes (in 2 months) or it will go on the back burner