Darryn's FJ20 180sx and eventual re-kickoff all out s12 build

[darryn.]

Not too sure on the ratio of the s14 rack sorry, but it has more travel than an s13 rack.

As for the ackerman these knuckles have 2deg difference between the inner and outer wheels at full lock. Although I just sold these knuckles to buy a pair of Powered by MAX pro knuckles and as for the rack I have KTS solid bushes and am going to move the rack hard up against the cross member and re weld it.

The seat rails are s13 bride sidemount rails. the two front holes line up with the s12 ones and the rears I drilled holes, made up some spacers out of steel tube and bolted them to the floor

Set the ride height to where I want it to inspect what was fouling, what the clearances were like etc...



Its sitting with a 30mm gap between chassis and ground... proper low lol, just need to get it to handle good down there...

which is why the MAX knuckles are coming into play with the 45mm roll center adjustment, as mine currently sit like this! not doing the handeling any favours like that haha



Today my oil block and cam gear arrived... finally! haha.



Just want to start putting it together already lol, getting anxious to drive the finished product

[darryn.]

So the car still hasn't been touched in a few weeks due to everyone being busy and probably not again this weekend either seeing as how ADGP is in town. I did get a couple more bits for the SR ordered though

Did a bit of this the other weekend, probably could have been working on the car but hay the sun was out for once! haha





Other than that, the last couple of days I've been crunching some numbers... turns out I was pretty naive to think this would be a sub 5 digit build :facepalm: after ending up with a rough estimate of parts cost to get it "finished" my reaction was something along the lines of this....






A little bit more on the tech side of things now... I have pretty much 99% decided on the final product/setup for the engine (given clearances allow what I want to do). I have settled on running 260 degree 12mm lift SOLID procams with solid lifters and upgraded valve springs. This cam profile with the turbo and manifold should provide lots of torque and a really punchy midrange.
Now on the subject of torque I am planning on bumping the compression ratio up to 10:1 to achieve this with my 8.5:1 pistons I will have a 1.2mm head gasket, 0.2mm machined from the deck and 2.0mm machined from the head face to arrive at a compression ratio of 10.04:1. The only concern I am having with taking the 2mm off of the head is how much machining the piston to valve clearances will allow, which I wont know untill I can assemble the motor to measure seeing as how no where on the interweb can I find the piston to valve clearance of a standard sr20.
Another thing I am having trouble finding is a cam card for the tomei cams... they seem to be non existent for SRs? so Im not 100% what I want to do in regards to degreeing in the cams :thumbsdown_anim:
I have also been reading up a bit on porting, what to and what not to do, what areas to concentrate on etc... really cant wait to give it a crack myself :thumbsup_anim:  pretty damn interested to see what kind of numbers my own engine build/setup with my own porting will pull

[D-sport S12]

Why not just get some higher compression pistons/rings from the get go?

[darryn.]

Because I wasnt planning on running higher than standard comp when I bought them. I didnt put as much thought into what I wanted to do with the engine than I should have when I got the pistons

[cam86s12]

keep it up man you are giving me some good ideas for my s12

[cheesemachine]

love all your cars man they all look sick as hell.  keep up the great work, its giving me motivation for this winter's strip down and rebuild of my car!

[8SixS12]

Great build darryn!  Keep up the good work!  I feel your pain with the tomei cams.  There's no way to degree a cam without a card to verify valve timing events.  That was why I went with a USDM cam manufacturer when selecting my cams.(easy access to cam cards)
You should get the specs and start making reproduction bolt in cages! 

[darryn.]

cheers for the props guys it all helps to keep the motivation there with such a big build on a low budget. Waiting and saving for parts in between doing any work is the easiest time to loose it, but I really want to see this done and finished up to competition spec so I can enter some of the local comps down here and hopfuly stick it to some of the newer cars repping the s12.

which is why the s12 has taken the back seat for the time being... It was an argument going on inside my head about having not driven for so long that made the decision. Its been over a year since I last steered a car sideways and it has been killing me, with the s12 close to another year off of completion it was either rush the s12 and run a more basic set up than was originally planned or buy a 180sx shell from a friend and run that as a practice car and slowly get the s12 done piece by piece... the decision to get the 180 ended up getting the go ahead.
So the s12 now sits patiently after having all the seam welding and tubs finished off.

The 180 has been getting some treats after becoming defected (was a daily driver) so far its got...
. S14 steering rack + lock spacers
. solid alloy rack bushes
. alloy steering shaft bush
. Ikeya formula tierods
. Powered by MAX pro knuckles (Huge thanks to Justin Carter for the hook up on the stock knuckles)
. Whiteline adj front swaybar
. Buddy club front coilovers
. cusco half cage
. God speed rear cross bar
. 17x10 +23 mesh for rear
. under rad support cooler set up

prob more that I have forgotten, but its coming along nicely. The engine that was meant for the s12 is going into the 180 with a smaller turbo and less aggressive cams than were planned and another sr20 will be built eventually for the s12 (with 300rwKw in mind)

[burritomannn]

Ahh^

[TDM Racing]

Can you please upload some pics of the seat rail setup? and how it all works?

[darryn]

Hey guys! been for ever since I last posted here! Unfortunately I haven't done any more work on the s12 since the last post, I had got the 180sx running and drove that a bit ripped the ca out with every intention of an SR going in and then kinda just gave up on cars for a year. Recently just purchased an FJ that I am putting into the 180. Got a custom turbo manifold made up for it with a t28 flange and external gate, planning to run a Td05 18g with a 50mm gate. Should make a bit of noise haha

will try and update a bit more often now that I'm getting back into things. the s12 will kick back off once the 180 is all sorted.

the old CA set up



used to run 17x9 up front and 17x10 down the back



running these fancy guys



Did a bit of driving







Shed skids are always good haha



New wheels, 16x9 riverside mesh all round



the FJ and the new manifold




Also picked up this HKS kansai service refresh bar



Its just a matter of gathering some money to finish off the rest of the 180 now, same old story with cars hey, always waiting on money haha, like I said I will try update more frequent. Sorry no s12 action, that will come eventually! I hope some of you guys don't mind a bit of s13 action in the meantime

[Drft-s12]

Is that a custom manifold? I want one lol. What engine management are running?

[burritomannn]

Cool 180!! I always see Aus kickin ass 

[darryn]

Yeah its a one off by a guy down here called Rex Kellway, Steam pipe uneven length runner design

As for engine managment, Ive modded the dizzy to house an SR20 CAS and running an SR20 throttlebody and other sensors etc so the FJ will just plug and play into the 180 with no wiring needed so ECU will either be nistuned stock ecu or a powerfc



shitty phone pic


Cheers burritomannn

[darryn]

Got some work done on the weekend, I took the FJ out so I can re seal the sump and timing cover. Also ground the lugs off of the s13 coilpacks so that they fit into the sparkplug tubes now, all I need to do is make up a couple of brackets to go from the end 2 rocker cover studs to rest ontop of the coilpacks holding them in place.

[IggyEGuana]

this is my FJ EFI guide right here. fucking awesome! keep at it

[Infinimax96]

This company in Texas actually sells a complete coil over pack set up for the FJ

http://www.millersmule.com/blog/new-part-announcement/nissan-fj20-distributorless-kit/

If I had the money I'd jump all over it.

[darryn]

Faaaark, that's a pretty sweet set up! If I was using stock fj wiring and eng managment I would probably go with that.

Also I have been looking into R35 AFM instead of a z32, Pretty keen on the idea and running it on the cold pipe just before TB.