Low594's S12 Notch

[Low594]

Well, this fell into my lap so to speak.  I needed a car that can handle miles put on it, hold 2 adults and 2 childs and cost as little as possible.  A friend offered me his '85 S12 notchback for $1000.  So I checked it out, drove it a couple days and the deal was done.  It has 130k miles and appearantly got a used Japan motor about 20k miles ago.  It runs well and drives well!

I have a few minor things to remedy and a few major.

Major:
-Alignment
-Smog (probably needs O2 sensor replace and EGR cleaning, maybe CAT; according to the smog tech who pre-checked)
     -SeaFoam cleaner
     -replace O2 sensor
     -replace vacuum lines

Minor:
-sticky lock mechanisms
-parking brake adjustment, seems elsewhere in the rear brakes!?
-C pillar, left exterior trim replace
-remove/replace rear window tint
-shorten shifter
-eliminate exhaust mani. heatshield rattle (done!, well maybe it was the Cat heat shield!l
-repair front turn signal housings
-replace radiator overflow tank

There is also other things I would like to replace or add in the future
-leather shifter boot
-shifter knob
-newer steering wheel (will a newer Nissan one work?)
-poly urethane swaybar bushings
-lower it 1"-1.5"
-aluminum rims
-turbo front lip & side skirts
-exhaust sys


As this is a commuter vehicle and family hauler, I don't want to get too deep into it, but I have an addiction and can't leave a vehicle alone!  Also, I don't have much money to spare and have to remain focused on my motos!  But it is so much fun to drive!
Post Merge: 05:06:57 PM / 28-May-11
I thought I should post some pics, so here they are!

[I_heart_VVL]

WOW! Thats insanely clean man :O! i guess im just used to seeing the usual S12 shitboxes hahaha.

looks like your off to a great start! what are yout plans for it?

[backwoodsbuilder]

^ Agree its really clean  i love it lol more then my notch ,and sounds like you got a good idea what you want to do to it lol

[Deezus]

I feel bad for your childs having to ride in the back haha

Very clean notch!

[VG30_S12]

wow super clean notch win!!!
i has a 5yo, a 3yo and a 6mo... cherokee died and s12 has become the dd....
f my life...lol glad im not the only one using the s12 as a family hauler...
btw small childeren will wreck the interior

[silverton]

Nice and clean!  Would look a million times better on some alloy wheels of some sort.  Good luck with her, and hopefully the children don't trash the interior too much but, like VG30_S12 said, they will.

[Low594]

I'm trying my hardest to leave it alone! Altho, i'm a hotrodder at heart!  Fixing little things first and i'd like to get a set of alloy wheels, the stockers are hideous! Broke for a few months looks like, so it'll be slow.  The kids are 9 & 12, so not bad. Figure seat covers will help quite a bit!need to fix smog issues (new O2 sensor and clean out EGR pathways with SeaFoam). Hoping the cat will not be an issue.  It'll get an all new exhaust sys when I can afford, thi summer?  Swaybar bushings are shot, but cheap and I have at least 1 set of endlinks floating around. Prolly put on a set of fogs and drive lights, wish I could afford another set of the LED spot/floods that I put on my moto!  It came with 205/60r15 that are in decent shape, so I'm good there.  I also went through and fixed bulb sockets and put in new bulbs.  One weird one tho! The dome light had a broken tab, so I cut the wires and spliced in a 12 CREE LED board, awesome! But the "door" setting just turns the light on, doesn't matter if the door is open or closed! Not a big deal really, just nice to have it work right!  The red door collision lights work, most of the time!  The other item that is bugging me is the Cpillar trim on the drive side is broke, PO tried to get dirt and leaves out and broke it during removal.

Its been running rich due to the bad O2 sensor, but I still got an actual 23.9 mpg the other day. This is awesome cause it includes my daily drive, 2500 feet elevation change in 30 miles and my truck only gets 17 on flat freeways with cruise control at 65mph!  Score!
Post Merge: 11:15:40 AM / 31-May-11
2 more things!
-Whats the fuel capacity?
-Is the front mounted pusher elec fan, factory? It has the standard clutch fan as well.

[VG30_S12]

if its the fan im thinking thats the aux fan for the a/c... for ex-tra coo~ling powah!!!
someone here has ya on the cheap an quick for that pillar... if youve got tan ive got ya covered like a condom

[Low594]

Tan?? Not sure I follow!?  Its the removable black painted chrome piece on the exterior Cpillar.

Wheels-  I like some of the newer styled 6-7 spoke ?Rotas?, always liked the Gottis and wondering how a pair of the old school Libres would look, did they make them in 15s?  The safe way, (moving to Oakland) would be factory alloys from another Nissan, for the" sleeper" effect!

[Low594]

Update:
i've done a few things!
-relocated the front license plate to below the bumper on the valance
-hardwire/mount a 3 outlet cig strip, wired to acc pwr
-new wiper blades
-bent out left corner of hood above grill
-replaced dome light with 12 CREE LED board, wow what a difference!
-cleaned reverse light socket (need to polish out the yellowing)
-replaced generic cig lighter with one from my Sonoma, looks stock!
-cleaned and greased the front turnsignal sockets and plugs
-replaced all the bulbs in the frontend, 'cept the headlights (2356s for turns, 194-clear for front running, 194-amber for corner running)

Also, yesterday I stopped by Americas/Discount Tires to have a nail removed. They ended up putting a Falken ZE512 for $47 out the door!  While the tire was off, I checked the rear pads, they are fine, so now i'm baffled.  When I checked the park brake adjustment I found that I could tspin the wheel with the brake petal pushed in. Ok, needs pads, no big deal! Wrong! So now all I can think of is to diassemble and clean both calipers and swap pads out. Could the pads be so old from sitting that they no longer grab, even with what appears to be almost new pads?

I'm also going to do some speaker changes, maybe a newer deck, too. Also, change the rear view mirror, add driving lights (H3-100w) and swap the pwr antennae for a permanent from my Sonoma.
Post Merge: 10:20:29 AM / 02-Jun-11
I'm also considering ditching the center caps and painting the steels black and putting the outer chrome rings back on with the chrome lugnuts. Should look good and anything has got to be better the those fugly wheelcaps!  Altho, the son of a friend from work, is in the drift scene and drives a 240sx, so when I have a lil cash to offer, i'll hit him up and see what spares he has, maybe wheels, steer wheel, lowend performance parts?!

[turbo-s12]

sell me your car!

[Low594]

sell me your car!

Ok! Make it worth my while!

[EightySix200SX]

nice s12 man +1 for notchback as well

[Low594]

nice s12 man +1 for notchback as well

Thank you!
Post Merge: 04:54:36 AM / 08-Jun-11
Well, yesterday during my day off, I finally got a chance to do a lil work on her. I did a SeaFoam treatment and then changed out the old O2 sensor for a new Bosch unit. I also went through and replaced some of the vacuum lines, still more to do.  They looked good, but most of them were cracking and all of the slide off their nipples very easily.

Driving the car to work today (130 miles round trip) she ran better and I got 165 miles to a half tank, which is much better than the 120 I had been getting!  I have been getting an average of 22 mpg over 3 tank fulls. Im looking forward to finding out what it is now!

By the way, how much gas do these things hold?  I've put in 10.7 gallons and the gauge was low, i'm guessing 11.5 - 12 gallons?!
Post Merge: 04:19:01 PM / 08-Jun-11
Well, today was a  day of extra driving, so I ended up fueling up earlier than planned. Filled up at the 1/4 tank with 262 miles on the tripmeter, putting 9.9 gallons in. So that means that I got roughly 26 mpg, but the first 40 miles were before I cleaned the carbon, swapped in the new O2 and changed some of the vacuum lines! So it should be better than the 26.  Still need to finish replacing the rest of the vacuum lines and clean the Egr. Hopefully it doent need a replacement, cheapest I could find was $130 , online.  Also hoping I can delay the replacement of the CAT until I can afford a whole exhaust sys to be built!  Speaking of, what's a proper size pip for CA20e, with stock internals? On my 510s with built L16-L18s  we found that 2" was the best size. Im thinking 2-2.25" would be fine.  What brands of mufflers give a good sound/performance? I always preferred the PaceSetter.  I definitely don't want the look/sound of the average modern ricer. Something quiet at idle and upto 1500 then have it just open up! think sleeper!

[Low594]

Well, I did another fill up today. And actually ended up pushing the distance futher than I was comfortable traveling, but I didn't have much choice and I had a fuel jug with a gallon in it just in case.  I ended up doing 333 miles (about 35 miles past the first time the girl with the pretty voice started telling I was an idiot and was going to be stranded!)  I ended up topping it with 12.19 gallons and got 27.3mpg!

So I guess that answers one of my question! An '85 200sx notch has a tank capacity of just a little more than 12.2 gallons!

[Wolf Dilworth]

87-88 SE's are 14 US Gallons, unless you lower the tank onto a five gallon paint bucket...  Don't ask.

[Low594]

Hmmm! Makes me wonder if it'll fit in there!

Hey, so you have a 200sx and a 510, how many parts are interchangable or are parts just very similar?  If I recall the 510s used the R180 diff and you could drop an R190 in easy and with a lil work an R200 would fit. What else is there?
Post Merge: 06:32:56 AM / 13-Jun-11
Well over the weekend I managed to get a few hours to tinker with the car.  I repainted the grill, Satin Black, cause it had broken at one point and repaired with 2part epoxy, which could be seen. Looks better now! I tried to remove the headlights to clean the threds on the adjuster screws only to find one missing screw and 2 rusted ones, i'll have to use channel locks.  So i've added headlight trim screws to the junk yard list and adjuster screws to the auto parts store list!.

I also removed the reverse lights and put aluminum reflective tape inside and replace the bulbs with 50watt halogens!

Then I continued replacing the old rotted vacuum lines, only 3 left. 2 are a larger size than I bought and 1 will require more time than I had daylight for.  Along with all of the lines I could see looking good until I pushed or pulled on them, I found that the EGR vacuum line was split on both ends!  So there was no way the EGR was working!  Now the idle has dropped back down to 900 from the 1100-1200 its been at.  Also the idle has been smoother and it winds up and drops down from high rpm, much faster!

[Wolf Dilworth]

Several folks have used the front suspension on their Dimes for a brake upgrade.  Several Diffs have been swapped with a little massaging...  I know one car on the east coast that has a complete rear end from a 200SX but IIRC it was an 80-84 type but could be wrong.  VG swaps are becoming very popular too.

I have a Goon and plan to fit a 240SX rear end, along with several other changes, see my Cardomain page in my sig. 

[Low594]

Damn dude! I love your panel wagon!
Post Merge: 10:40:07 PM / 14-Jun-11
Well, I did the bushing flip trick to the shifter and turned the shifter 180* so its angled at me instead of away!  Big help but needs a different angle and needs to be cut down!  Once that done, i'll see about a better knob and leather boots for the shifter and Pbrake!
Post Merge: 07:24:40 AM / 15-Jun-11
Yeasterday on my way home from work it was in the mid 90*s and the temp guage got just a lil over 1/2, which i'm wondering about cause it rarely climbs above the break in the bar near the "C", so I stopped and picked up a new radiator cap, a Prestone RC27. Its one of the ones with the magnet on a chain to stabilize the water and collect the floating crap, which has always seemed to help.  So that got changed out this morn. This eve I hope to be home early enough to drain the coolant and refill with distilled water, run that for a week as a cleaning process and the refill with distilled and Water Wetter, that should help!

Anyone found silicone radiator hoses or heater hoses that fit for a decent price?

[Wolf Dilworth]

The Panel Delivery , will live again someday.

Just curious, how does the magnet stabilize the water?

Water alone will not help to clean just helps to corrode things.  Does Water Wetter alone have the anti-corrosion properties? 

I would recommend running some anti-freeze with it...

Sorry, no known sources for the hoses...  Summit? Jeg's?