sil02

Its been almost a year since i updated. I've been making progress here and there and I took a few months off, but ive been getting more into the project again in the past few weeks so i thought i'd bring this up to date.

all the pictures will get bigger if you right click/view image.

I ended up using the original axles with the nissan VLSD .The nissan diff is wider and more off center than the original diff:


So I had to cut out sections of the bmw axles and then weld them together to make it fit up just right. I took special care to make sure the axles ended up straight within a few thousands of an inch. using a lathe I put 1/4 inch pin holes exactly on center of each piece to be welded as well as a large chamfer to accept the weld. then I put each axle together on a 1/4 inch pin and gave them to a shop that specializes in welding and straightening . I checked them when they got back and they were off less than ~.005" the whole length. I thought i took pictures of this whole processes but i cant find them anywhere. here's the finished product anyway:


the angle is pretty bad there, but that's because the car is up in the air. I did some math and the operating angle range should theoretically be within limits of the CV joint. (I cant remember any of the numbers, this was 9-10 months ago)

you can also see in the picture above the adapter plate I made to fit the bmw cv joint onto the diff.

It wasnt exactly elegant but i managed to mount the diff to the bmw's rear subframe thing using 2 adapter plates. You can see a little bit of one them in the axle picture above. but here is the subframe and plates without the diff in it.


the original bmw diff mounts on the bottom and with bushings on the back . the above is the bottom mount. Here is a close up of how i did the back mount, also not elegant


There is more weld on the front.


I got lucky and the nissan driveshaft that the junkyard gave me when i bought the diff fit right in with no modification.


I rebuilt the bmw spindles, new bearings and seals. i put on slightly larger 250mm (I think from e21, i bought them new from Ireland engineering) drum brakes. then wheel spacers and wheels. So the drivetrain is complete.




Here's a picture of how I mounted my pedals and steering column.



you can see how i started making the transmission tunnel here.


I welded in sheet metal to remake the floor to a nice flat edge exactly where i want the tunnel to start, then i welded sheet metal 90 degrees to that so that I have a surface to bolt the tunnel onto. Which i have already made out of aluminum and mounted, I just dont have any pictures yet. Ive also built the firewall back in. Parts of it are removable just in case i ever want to access the engine in the back, since its pretty tight there.I dont have any pictures of that yet either. Right now the transmission tunnel is out because i need access through there but soon ill put it all back together and take pictures of the inside of the car.

also in that picture above you can see how i mounted the handbrake. I haven't sorted out the cables yet.

Ive also added wheel flares to fit over my bigger tires and wheels ( 215/45R16 )


I think i ended up cutting more than that off. here's after mounting.

I just used button head bolts, with those nuts that have little grips on the back.

I also bolted up the front air dam.



Then I took out the engine (for the last time?) went throught the engine bay grinding off useless bracketry and basically just cleaning everything up, then i painted it and put the engine back in. then i got carried away and just painted most of the car.









Ive since ran all the brake and clutch lines and bled them. I'm still unsure about the front\rear balance. I have a balance bar on the master cylinders that can change the bias some but i may have to change out master cylinders if things are way off. I wont know until i can actually drive it . As it is the brakes put out enough clamping power that I cant turn a front wheel with a 3 foot bar.

Say i can put 150 lb on the bar. 150lbs x 3ft = 450 ft-lbs . the tire diameter is just over 24 inches so just about 1 foot rotating from spindle. 450ft-lbs / 1ft = 450 lbs . 450 x 2(2 front tires) = 900 lbs . so thats almost half the weight of the car on the front axle. Hopefully they can do more than that, but at least i know It's safe to drive round the block or to an empty lot for testing.
/math


So now Im looking into installing the fuel tank. I bought a polyurethane tank and installed a walbro 255lph pump in it.



next is mounting the tank. then maybe mounting the battery and cleaning up the trunk area from all the sheet metal surgery.

So the past 2 weeks ive done nothing but look for solution to my axle problem. If anyone knows any good custom axle shops let me know. Ive got a couple things that might work out, we'll see.

Before that, I mounted my pedals, Ive got my steering column 90% done, mounted the drivers seat, I gave the rear suspension the same treatment as the front, new bushings, mounts, lowering springs bilstien struts, bead blasted and painted, axles stubs got new bearings and seals, installed the new drum brakes, I havent mounted the nissan LSD yet, I want to make sure i can find some axles to fit it before i go to the trouble.

I got a bunch of stuff on the shelf now, the radiator with AC condenser, most of the other major ac components. the nissan LSD and driveshaft. the intercooler is on order.

there's some pictures somewhere, maybe later

Since we've last visited the project Doug has gotten the engine to fit in the car,




this is good since cars tend to need engine's and the whole point of the project was to put this specific engine in this specific car, so now i'm done, except for the tons of work i still have yet to do. meanwhile here's how i mounted it:












so my next project was to patch the nissan pedals/steering column/firewall piece into the car, and a week or so into the project, the project was abandoned, no room for master cylinders , it put the pedals too far back and probably would have looked ugly anyway. so now ive ordered a pedal assembly that mounts the master cylinders inside the car. and ill have to make up my own steering column.

As im waiting on the pedals i started looking at the other things im going to have to get into soon,

im getting a quote on a custom radiator with AC condenser shroud and electric fans, I think ill have a space left over for a decent front mount intercooler and i have a source for custom sizes of those as well but im going to wait until i have the radiator to check for space.

im also getting a quote on an AC system

I ordered an upgrade brake kit for the rear, its still drum, but a little bigger. also a front air dam

ive decided im going to use a stock 240sx Limited slip Diff and found a place that will sell me a used one with a driveshaft for $350 . ill have to modify or remake the drive shaft im sure but at least it'll have the correct shafts/flanges on the end to work with. which of course the axles won't, that's gonna be interesting.

Ive been doing stuff, slowly. i finished up the whole steering rack thing, then i finished making/modifying the wheel spindles to a bmw/nissan hybrid thing, i realise now i didnt get a good picture of its before paint and assembly but you can kind of see it in the 4th picture up there. Thats the original bmw strut with new lowering springs from Bavarian autosport and bilstien sport gas shocks, then bolted to the strut is a nissan spindle with nissan bolt holes for the nissan calipers and the nissan steering arm all attached .

I got new oem bmw ball joints for below the strut, urethane bushings for all the suspension connections, bead blasted and painted it all and bolted it back up.

Around this time a friend patrick pointed out that i might want to weld the "quill tab" on the steering column i agreed and did so (right after i asked what a quill tab was, its the little valve that senses steering torque and sends power steering fluid accordingly. which for me would serve no purpose except to make the steering less responsive), thats what that blurry picture with the metal shaft is trying to show.

Then i made some braces for the new steering rack, welded them to the sub frame welded some u bolts to the rack and the ubolts slip into the brackets and are held in with nuts. then i welded a nut onto a short piece of all thread to make a tie-rod extender thingy (patent pending).

I put on the nissan wheel bearings, rotors, calipers, new wheels/tires and put the thing back on the floor for the first time in more than a month.

then I flame cut (actually my dad did it for me while I put out fires) the section of fire wall in the nissan that holds all the pedal and steering column mounts. I cleaned up the edges with a cutoff wheel. put the pedals and stuff back in it and set that aside for awhile.

Then i cut a big hole in the fire wall of the bmw, basically removing 2/3 of it.
I went to test fit the sr20 with everything attached. didnt fit. the engine technically would sit in the bay but getting in at the angle required because of the tranny wasnt quite possible. so I cut out the front wall of the engine bay which I was assuming i would have to do anyway to get the radiator in.

Test fit again. closer but still not quite. This time it the steering rack is in the way. I think (and hope) its only in the way of the engine on the way in because the bell housing is much larger than the actual engine (at least on the bottom) . so once i get it past i should be ok. im going to remove the little pinion part of the rack and pinion and put it back in once i get the engine past. but while it was in there i saw i was going to have to remove some more firewall (the other 3rd basically).

and thats where i am now. I have a few pictures of the fire wall cuts on the camera ill post later.

i forgot to mention i bought stuff yesterday,

*wheels : 16 inch by 7 inch

*tires: Kumho ECSTA SPT (eh? they were cheap, $50 each) 195/50/16 (the widest thats supposed to fit before you have to flare fenders, but with the 7 inch wheels that is an option later)

*lowering springs from bavarian

*sport bilstien shocks to match.


4 of everything for a total of $1200

which puts me at ~$7300

ok so here are some pictures:

this gives an idea of how i cut the rack.



here's the rack finished and waiting for brackets to mount it to the subframe, final dimension: 17.5 inches between ball joints. Im going to wait until i have the struts sorted so i make sure i get the placement right for the steering arms.



i forgot to mention here, I weighed the engine's with everything on them transmission manifold a/c etc. i got 650 lb for the incoming sr20 and 575 lb for outgoing m10. i think its the transmissions that make a big difference and here's why:

the bmw's 4 speed ends at about 17 inches from the start of the bell housing then its just the sheet metal bracket to hold the shifter linkage .



its hard to read the tape here but the nissan is all transmission for about 32 inches. and while the sr20 is all aluminum the gears inside the tranny are heavy steel and hopefully much more heavy duty since they have to hold twice the HP.




I put my wife to work;).



this may better explain what i talked about last post, thats the bmw strut on the right, that spindle is getting cut off. the black piece on the left is from the nissan, it has a spindle that the rotor goes on, its getting bolted to the surface that will be left when the spindle get cut off. you can see ive already machined the back here flat to the plane of the rotor.




this picture is after i machine the bmw strut,the spindle is gone and a machined surface parellel to it is left. I made a spacer and ground it perfectly flat. thats what nestled in the back of the nissan spindle piece.




All thats left is to drill and tap some holes to bolt them together. Then I make a bracket that goes on those two bolt holes you can on the top of the black piece and the bracket gets welded onto the bmw strut tube. I need that bracket to feel safe about the strength of my new bastardized struts. But im hesitant on when and how im going to put it on. Without it i can change camber or offset spacing of the wheel really easily by modifying the spacer, but once i weld the top bracket all that is set and unchangeable.
Unless i come up with a way to make the bracket adjustable while still retaining strength... I cant come up with anything though. in the end there's always wheel spacers and camber plates i guess.

Since the last entry I decided to shorten the rack to about 17.5 inches between inner ball joints. I cut it, machined off the piston, machined new flats on the end, drilled and tapped both ends to accept the nissans inner tie rods, they were in perfect shape and one of the toyota's was worn very badly, also this will make it easier when im trying to hook them up to the nissan outer tie rods which i will be using since im using the the shorter nissan steering arm. both nissan and toyota racks had 5" inches travel so the arm should be a good length . My wheels should turn the same degree's as they would on a nissan 180sx, hopefully the bmw needs a similar amount, difference's in wheel base/track width can affect that, as well as the ackerman angle (look it up, its kind of interesting) but i think it would be such a small amount that it shouldnt effect performance.

so im onto the wheel hub. Ive decided to take the entire braking system off the nissan. the rotor is much larger and vented, also the caliper is bigger and the brake booster is smaller, I havent measured but was unsure about getting the new engine to fit around the bmw's booster which sticks out a lot. So ive machined the front of one of my bmw struts flat and parellel to the surface the rotor would be, then i machined the back of the nissan hub the same, after a lot of measuring and taking into account the most commen offset for wheels that fit the nissans bolt pattern i have a dimension for a spacer i need to make between the two. then i can bolt them up. also the nissan hub has an arm that goes up and bolts to its strut. once my spacer is in and the distance double checked i plan to recrate the bracket on the bmw strut to make sure the hub is stronger than it was on either car stock. there's picture's of some of this that would make it more clear, but its on the shop camera and i never feel like taking the time to upload it when im there, ill get to it later.

i got new urithane bushings, new lower ball joints , and new upper strut bearings from bavarian motors today.so now i can put one side of the suspension completly back together and ready to go before I even take the other side apart. Just in case I forget how this all goes back together ;)

after both side's are done im gonna start doing firewall work, first the nissan's gets stripped down, and i cut out a section that has all the pedals and brake/clutch cylinders attached. Then I modify the bmw's firewall to accept it and have a larger trannsmision tunnel at the same time. It's all kinda sketchy in my head right now, I'll come up with a plan once i get into it.

I think im at about 70 hours work now


bmw:..........................$3000
nissan front clip:.......$2750
toyota steering rack:..$60
Bushing Kit:............$109.95
Ball Joints:..............$59.90
Upper Strut Bearings:.$99.90

$6079

Ive got some big $ to spend yet, Wheels/tires, lowering springs/shocks, driveshaft? rear diff? axles? intercooler? I also want to buy some racing seats/harnesses. but i guess the car would be drivable with stock seats and belts for awhile. plus a whole lot of small items . If i get under $10k ill be happy.

bought a steering rack from a 1990 toyota camry, (I can hear the bmw2002faq guys groaning... ) It was the smallest i could find, they had an e21 (bmw 3 series 75-83) rack but it was 23" from each inner tie rod joint, the toyota's was 21", the original 2002's was 16"! im afraid of changing it so much as that can affect the handeling of the car quite a bit and im not well expierenced in engineering suspension geometry.

the distance between the top joints on the two big steering arms is 19" and im pretty sure if i make the steering 19" and put it very close to the arm everything should work fine, since it will move right along with it. so now im torn about whether or not to cut the toyota steering rack to make it 19" , I could do it but it'll be a at least a couple hours work and the gain is hard to determine. also 2 guys have done the e21 racks and said they worked perfectly fine, and those are even wider than mine. but i think bump steer would be something subtle and maybe they havent noticed because they are on a good flat race track more often than a bumpy street like im going to be.

I should read up more on steering arm geometry.

nissan steering rack is no go, i repeat, NO GO.
the teeth on the rack have an angle to them so i cant flip the pinion onto the other side meaning if i put in how it is now and turned the wheel left the wheel would go right.

oh well it was worth a shot, i still have hope for the brakes.

sr20 is OUT.

i got the steering rack out from the nissan as well. things are gonna get complicated now..

Ive done alot and just been lazy about posting it.

since the last post i finished the dash and cleaned up inside some more. Saturday the 12th i picked up a front clip, its from a 180sx but its the same sr20 i wanted, black top, s13 type. Weds the 16th I started under the hood and thursday the engine and transmission came out together. friday went camping. This week I cleaned up more under the hood trying to get everythiung down to sheet metal. i removed the steering column, steering box, tie rods, the brake booster, cut off some motor mounts that were welded to the frame . Its prety much just sheet metal in there now. one big mounting bracket for motor and steering box ive yet to cut off.

today i started on the SR20. i removed the airbox and all the intake/intercooler piping, then i removed the radiator and cowl (sp?) then i went around the engine marking and disconnecting all wires, vac lines, coolant hoses a/c hoses, power steering hoses. I got everything i could see from the top.

tommarrow I have to go underneath and get a few more things i know must be there. Then i have to find a good way to rig the engine with the cherry picker, remove the motor mounts and transmision mounts and try to slowly pull the whole thing out.

as far as brakes go , both cars have macpherson struts with rear stearing. im beggening to think it really might be possible to just take the whole braking system wheel hub and all from the 180sx. the 180sx wheel base looks bigger but i havent measured yet, Ill probably have to shorten the rack and pinon peice some how. the A/C "radiator" (whatever you call it) is HUGE its just as big as the regular radiator. its gonna be hard to fit it in. also the Intercooler is TINY. It might be kind of ridiculous fabricating pipes for it when I know im gonna have to upgrade right away if i want to start tuning this engine at all.

so far ive got about 32 hours work into the project. I thought it might be interesting to keep a rough tally.





getting acquinted a bit before the breeding begins


i am dirty mechanic


Since this pick ive taken out all the the steering and cut off those 2 bracket at the top of the pic



this is the big steering box that caused all this trouble by being in the way

i havent posted because i have no pictures because i cant find the shop camera. So not only can i not take pictures, i cant upload the few that i did take off of it. I'll try to get my picture crazy wife to come with me saturday and then i'll definetly have some pics to post from her camera.

Actually i may be picking up the silvia front clip on saturday. I think ive decided to get the s13, so it'll only be 200 hp to start. With a little bitty t25. eventually ill upgrade the turbo and apparently the s13 heads are supposed to be better for tuning in the long run anyway.

so the past 2 days ive still been doing interior stuff. weds i got the door panels out and the headliner, which crushed my heart. It was so pretty and i damaged it trying to take it out, not cosmetically but the seams that hold it to the bars ripped in some places. hopefully ill find it a good home. today i mostly did the dash and still didnt get it all. it seemed like it wasnt really built to come out.Also some of the screws that did hold certain things were rusted past the point of being removable, i had to use a grinder in a few places, in some places i just tore off chunks of foam. the dash wasnt in good condition at all so i dont feel as guilty completely fucking it up on the way out, it went straight to the trash in a few hundred pieces.

Found some rust on the floor plan right below the gas pedal. Im not letting it bother me. Ill try to clean it up with a surface grinder and if i see the ground before i see good metal then ill just put a patch in, i dont think there is anything structural there and i certainly dont mind it looking a litle different than stock floor.

If i end up NOT buying the front clip on saturday then that will be the day i start gutting under the hood.

so much for the nice interior. all the seats came out today, the carpet the rear side panels and some of the dash . I didnt take pictures. i have to rememeber to take pictures.

spent 2 hours today removing everything in the trunk; fuel tank, all taillights , rear bumper, license plate, etc. used a pad grinder inside to start removing rust/paint/crap. that's gonna be labor intensive, im not doing a full restore or anything i just want everything to be clean and smooth before i paint.

i took couple pictures, ill have to post them later though

OK that $2500 one was crap. rust on every body panel, smashed front grill, dings everywhere, etc

but i found one yesterday for $3000. it has 2 rust spots that i can see, one on the trunk lid and one on the passenger side rocker panel. The body is straight, no bad dents. the trim is half off, he gave me the pieces but i plan on removing all of it anyway . It has a cheap red paint job , i plan on painting it flat black at some point. Suspension seems fine, not performance great but not bad and definitely safe, interior is much nicer than expected, a lot of original pieces refurbished to new, too bad its all going to go, maybe i can get some $ for some of it. Engine runs but overheats. As far as i can tell the brakes are working correctly they just really suck and that's how the car was made. i definitely need to completely replace rotors, calipers, everything. that's number one priority.

So basically i need to buy an engine, or more accurately, a Silvia front clip. to get the engine to fit I'm going to have to do something with the steering box. It's very large and tall and i think its about where the turbo will be on the sr20. ill either have to try and relocate/modify it or do a complete rack and pinion conversion. the rear axles probably wont stand up to the extra power and I'm going to want an LSD but I'm going to ask around the 2002 message boards about that, there are some guys making 200+ hp ill see what they did. and worst case just link it up to the stock diff and axles and wait for it to break till i figure something out.ill have to make a custom drive shaft though. Then i need brakes, to get bigger brakes I'll need bigger wheels.

After buying the car i have about $4000 left, the front clip is $3000. and $1000 wont be enough for both bigger brakes and bigger wheels and possibly parts for a rack and pinion conversion. Its possible i may be able to get some of this from the clip itself. Ive seen them with brakes still attached and maybe i can even find a way to adapt the right hand drive steering mechanism. I can't count on any of this though, just as often the clips are stripped of all parts non drive train related. and even if they aren't it may be impossible to modify the totally foreign parts to fit. So i may be down a few months while I save up more cash to complete the project.

Actually the place Ive decided i want to buy the clip from says they don't have any in stock right now, so i may be forced to wait a few months anyway. I'm calling them Monday to get more details.

I'm also considering an s13 (89-93) clip which would cost $2100 instead of $3000 for an s14(93-98). basically the benefit of the s14 is its likely to have less miles on the engine and it comes with a slightly bigger turbo so i could get 20-30 more hp (up to about 275 whp) before i had to get a bigger one. the s14 also has a variable valve timing system that doesn't really add performance, its more of a fuel economy thing, which is almost a downside to me, since its just more complication. i was pretty set on the s14 but now I'm not sure. What if there is an s13 in stock? maybe i should just go for it...

here she is:




you can see the rust spot on the right corner of the trunk here. It doesn't really bother me, trunks can be replaced, the one below the door is a bit more troubling. i didn't get any pictures of it.



I weighed the car so i have something to compare my end results to. about 55/45 distribution not bad, pretty much as expected. this is with a full tank , spare tire , pretty much stock everything plus an after market a/c system that isn't working. I'm hoping i can take a lot of weight out of this car.

So first step, buying a an '02 ;

The first one i looked at was cheap ($1k) but was basicly a frame and body in decent shape, everything else was there but in a questionable state. It hadnt run in awhile. I decided against it. I dont have enough money to totally rebuild a whole car in one fell swoop.

Im looking at another one tonight, they are asking $2500 but they say it runs and is in good mechanical condition, new brake pads, tires . "Some small dents and rust spots", im concerned about that, but im not afraid to spend a few hundred dollars on new body panels if neccessary (Fiberglass?!). if it looks like i can fix the body with my mediocre body shop skills, and the car's suspension and brakes feel safe, Ill probably go for it.