Synergy Tuning's Project S12

[synergy tuning]

so a few weeks ago i joined club s12 after the purchasing an 86 notch for $500 that barely ran and had no clutch pressure.  this is actually my second s12 - the first was actually my first car - an 86 turbo hatch.  i unfortunately do not have that one anymore, but its spirit will live on in this one.  myself and a few close friends will be building this car as a way to promote our skills in hope of perhaps opening our own shop one day.  my goal for this project is to have an RB20DET-powered notch that looks almost like it came with that drivetrain from the factory and that is reliable enough to drive on a regular basis.  so, read along and enjoy.

here are a few photos from the day it arrived:





the first order of business was figuring out why it was running on two cylinders and had no clutch pedal.  the shop it was purchased from had fixed it for the previous owner, but he could not afford the bill so he signed the car over to them.  they claimed a head gasket problem was the culprit, but after seeing no antifreeze in the oil and no bubbles in the totally full radiator i was curious.  i really needed to have it drivable up until the motor swap because i do not have a garage where i live and the shop we are working out of for now belongs to my friend's boss.  we can use it, but we can't keep the car there for extended periods, other than the amount of time it takes to pull the CA20E and get the RB20DET installed and running.

the battery was almost dead and could only crank the car for a few seconds, so i pulled the battery and topped off the cells with distilled water and trickle charged it around 12+ hours inside my place.  i put the battery back in the next day and the car fired up almost immediately, but would only idle on two cylinders and die, and when revved it belched smoke.  i held the RPMs up around 1500 for a minute or two until the car would stay running at idle.  i let it sit a good hour just idling in my driveway.  it pretty much created a smokescreen sitting there, but it was now idling at a solid 1000RPM on all four cylinders.  that was good enough for now, but i needed to figure out the clutch issue too.  

i quickly found out the reason the pedal was sitting on the floor was because the rod that comes out of the clutch master cylinder had snapped under the dash, which is indicative of something being frozen or rusted in the clutch's hydraulic system.  i ordered myself new clutch master and slave cylinders, managing to snag both parts with shipping for a whopping $27 from rock auto.  i love clearance parts!  when the parts came in, we went out in the snow and replaced both in the driveway.  the culprit?  the stupid slave cylinder was 100% frozen solid from rust.  we had both parts in and the clutch bled in under an hour.  the car now would start and run, but would it move?  yes, with almost no noise whatsoever from the clutch.  we took it out for a brief spin and at some point it stopped smoking!  it still has some issues at startup with smoking, and i think it has bad plug wires cause it does sputter and miss sometimes, but it is now drivable.

here's a pic of the slave cylinder:



the next order of business was getting the car legal since it is going to be driven a few miles between my place and the shop.  also, my friend pete and i decided we wanted to give it a quick detailing to see if the paint was OK or if we would need to repaint it while the swap is happening.  the pics below speak for themselves i think.

before the detail:




in progress (that is my friend pete in the pics):






pete decided we should do a quick and dirty spray bomb job in the wheels, and since he's a body & paint guy by trade who am i to say no?:






while he was buffing i cleaned the interior.  the inside is in remarkably good condition, with the exception of one big hole in the driver's front carpet.  that's why i love floormats!





after the detail:



so, that's the first installment of this build - please let me know what you think!

[Draconis]

Yup.  This has been done.  The premise of the first successful RB20 swap was to make it appear stock and as a factory option, my swap.  I did and the original swap did look like it was stock and impressed the local shops, fellow car owners and made it to a couple of mags.

If you want information on this as far as specifics, hit me up.  My build thread should also give you some ideas of what needs to be done.  I can tell you right now, you need to mod/fabricate your front cross member, fabricate a trans mount and get a custom driveline.

[RB25sx - SLPR]

That is one very clean notch you have there. Join the club on RB powered notches my good man. Reliable though? I think that will be your most difficult challenge. The RB (of any displacement) is finicky and recalcitrant like you would not BELIEVE! Got much experience working with them prior to tackling this?

-Dan

[synergy tuning]

Yup.  This has been done.  The premise of the first successful RB20 swap was to make it appear stock and as a factory option, my swap.  I did and the original swap did look like it was stock and impressed the local shops, fellow car owners and made it to a couple of mags.

If you want information on this as far as specifics, hit me up.  My build thread should also give you some ideas of what needs to be done.  I can tell you right now, you need to mod/fabricate your front cross member, fabricate a trans mount and get a custom driveline.

the first thing i did when i found this site was read your build thread and came away thoroughly impressed.  that's probably the only reason i am embarking down this road.  everyone i know that knows cars is telling me to do an SR or CA18DET swap, but i want an RB.  my friend nick's 240SX has an RB and it is a missile.  

i knew about the crossmember issue and the trans mount, but have been searching fruitlessly for info regarding driveshaft options.  i'm hoping to piece something together using my friend's stock two piece 240SX shaft along with mine, but we'll see.  if that doesn't work i guess it's off to shaftmasters we go.

anyway, i'm sure i'll be hitting you up at some point again, so thanks for the offer of help - i will not turn that down ever!

That is one very clean notch you have there. Join the club on RB powered notches my good man. Reliable though? I think that will be your most difficult challenge. The RB (of any displacement) is finicky and recalcitrant like you would not BELIEVE! Got much experience working with them prior to tackling this?

-Dan

well, i'm super-pleased my first two responses are from the first two people's build threads that i read!!    

my friend's RB20 powered 240SX is daily driven and gives him very little grief.  i'm putting a lot into his hands with this swap, but i trust him and i will be there as well.  i've spent much of the last year and a half helping him with his car when necessary and have even assisted with a few other RB swaps into the 240 chassis, so i have some idea.  i know this one will be more of a challenge, but i am confident.

this isn't my first car i've owned with a swap either.  from 2003-2005 i owned an 84 VW GTI that i built and swapped a 2.0L 16v out of well, partially a VW Scirocco, Golf, and Passat.  that car had 15K miles put on it a year and i even drove to Miami and back for the WMC one year without issues.  i would still be driving it now, except some motherfucker stole it when i was DJing in atlantic city.  never saw it again.  

[SprockCapn]

I think you have a nice clean candidate for your swap. I need to Buff my car one of these days when the weather gets nice for more than a week.  I don't know much about the RB series but as RB25sx - SLPR says it is not a very reliable daily driver..... Keep this in mind, if you are doing this swap to show your tuning skills then this can be one of the feats to prove your worth in the tuning of the RB. Good luck on your swap.

[Draconis]

Well, I agree and disagree with Dan about the reliability of the RB.  It can be very reliable, but you cannot in anyway make it do anything but stock.  If you want to play with it, get a piggy back like a Neo, which allows you to tinker with or or two things but stays fairly within stock parameters.  BUT, once you try to play with the engine in any form of tuning, whether it be just timing or bolt-ons in any form, then it becomes tricky.  They are hard to be considered reliable unless you do everything just right.  Their tune ability are in abundance but due to their ability to be played with also brings out the instability of the engine.

[Julie]

haha... the Windows of engines eh?

[Draconis]

haha... the Windows of engines eh?

In a way yeah.  And it likes to throw the BSoD in your face quite easily.

[Julie]

you pushed your rb20 too hard and had to reinstall it :-p

[Draconis]

you pushed your rb20 too hard and had to reinstall it :-p

Actually the first year was flawless and fun.  It was completely stock with only a Neo and minimal tuning.  Just played with the boost and the fuel and made sure it was stoich.

When I ran into trouble with my rb was due to crappy install of upgrades and poor tuning.  Technically there should have no problem if it was done right since I know heaps of mates in Australia who had the exact setup as I did and had no issue.

[Julie]

they say the same thing right before you fuck with the windows registry

"this will be fine, just dont delete both" *BSOD*

[Leegamer]

The car looks clean.  I'm impressed. Can't wait to follow your progress.

[synergy tuning]

Actually the first year was flawless and fun.  It was completely stock with only a Neo and minimal tuning.  Just played with the boost and the fuel and made sure it was stoich.

When I ran into trouble with my rb was due to crappy install of upgrades and poor tuning.  Technically there should have no problem if it was done right since I know heaps of mates in Australia who had the exact setup as I did and had no issue.

what will probably happen for me after the swap will be to run it almost stock, except for a small front mount and i'll probably dump the stock coilpacks (they suck - always seem to fail) and get a 6 cyl MSD coilpack designed for a Buick GN.  that's what we are running on my boy's 240 and it has vastly improved drivability.  if i decide to do a bunch of upgrades, i'll probably dump the factory ECU and jump straight into standalone.  my friend hasn't gone that route yet - he's got a Blitz ECU, Apexi SAFC, 300zx MAF, and a GReddy Profec B  - and it still runs very solid.  i'm gonna have to post a YouTube vid of it running - it's honestly one of the quietest and smoothest running swap cars i've seen.

[synergy tuning]

couple quick but worthwhile updates:

1)  as i mentioned before, i wanted to get the car in running order so it can be moved under its own power right up until we do the swap. my first post spoke to getting it running on all four cylinders, but it actually was running better than that, a little smoky at startup, and it would sputter here and there, but it was drivable.  well, last week i drove it about 15 miles to my parents house, and when i went to leave it would not start...  GRRR - it had air, spark at the plug end of the wires, and fuel, but just cranked and cranked.  i was mystified since it drove there with no problems, so i pulled a plug and found that basically all eight plugs were worn to .061 versus the recommended .044!  they had gotten wet with fuel and the spark couldn't overcome the gap.  i put new NGK V-power plugs in - $16 for all of them (the correct ones!) - and repaired a few plug wire ends that had separated, and VOILA! - it started as soon as i turned the key.  it still needs all the sensors and connectors on the engine harness sprayed with electrical contact cleaner and lubed with some dielectric grease cause if i mess with the harness at the TPS, it will sputter, but it absolutely runs and drives excellent considering it's 23 years old!  i've put about 300 miles on it since replacing the plugs with no problems at all!

2)  i managed to find the 7 digit fixed code for the digital entry system and was able to reprogram it using the FSM, so now i have a working keypad.  love that 80's tech!

3)  the trim that goes at the rear edge of the front windows that guides the window in the track was missing from the driver's side causing a lot of wind noise, plus some moisture in the car.  i happened to stop by the local dealer to ask if they were still available - expecting to hear NO - and was surprised to hear that there were four of them left in the entire country.  so i bought a left and a right.  no more leaky window!

4)  when i was replacing the trim on the driver's windows i discovered that the reason the digital entry keypad did not illuminate was because the window had pinched and cut the wiring going to the LEDs while it was off track.  i spliced it back together and now i have a working keypad that also lights up again  

5) i discovered that the CA20E will actually pull to redline without falling on its face if the air filter is actually CLEAN.  the filter i replaced was one of the worst one i've ever seen.

6) here is a piece of advice if you are going to put in an aftermarket radio:  the dash install kit that Pep Boys sells for the S12 - made by Metra (PN# AW-709NI) - actually will not work.  it used to, but somewhere along the line some genius at Metra went over the kit and made the faceplate to the kit shorter, rendering it unsuitable for our cars.  however, the packaging still lists the 84-88 200SX as one of the applications.  it took me going to 2 different Pep Boys stores - about 25 miles round trip, and over 2 1/2 hours to reach the conclusion above.  don't worry, i already let Metra know too!  


anyway, that's it for now - i hope the next update will involve me ordering some RB love.  

[Leegamer]

couple quick but worthwhile updates:

3)  the trim that goes at the rear edge of the front windows that guides the window in the track was missing from the driver's side causing a lot of wind noise, plus some moisture in the car.  i happened to stop by the local dealer to ask if they were still available - expecting to hear NO - and was surprised to hear that there were four of them left in the entire country.  so i bought a left and a right.  no more leaky window!

How much were those?  I would have bought all 4 and then let out an evil laugh.

[synergy tuning]

How much were those?  I would have bought all 4 and then let out an evil laugh.

the two came to around $40 - i would have done what you said, but money is super-tight right now, not to mention my karma does not need that, LOL  

[synergy tuning]

in order to make this thread more manageable for those with slower internet connections and so (mainly) i don't have to keep uploading to Photobucket as well as MobileMe (used to be .Mac), my future posts will keep the pics to a minimum.  The nice thing is you'll be able to see all my photos from the project on my MobileMe gallery, so they'll all be in one accessible place and will be easily downloadable.  the link is below but will also be in my signature for easy reference.  the next installment of my build is going to focus mainly on some interior improvements including a new stereo (the car is now my DD because my S2000 is not fond of the snow), plus a few other goodies.  see you soon.

 

My S12 Photo Gallery:
http://gallery.me.com/synergykyd/100289

[zastaba]

Great start man! Nice to see another possible junker will be saved and restored!