It's been a long time, but Project SE Resurrection has begun!

rednucleus · 06:23:10 PM / 14-Feb-17

Start with a gallon of Diesel and slosh that around a couple times a day for a week. Might not need anything else after that.

cls12vg30 · 02:33:41 PM / 27-Feb-17

Removed fuel tank, added a gallon of Evapo-Rust, and let it work for 24 hours, flipping the tank every hour (except while sleeping). Looking at the inside of the tank, I'm comfortable giving it a shot. Now I need a fuel pump and a new O-ring for the fuel pump housing. I see a lot of people have had good luck with Walbro pumps. I'll probably go that route. I see on the Walbro site they don't have an option for 200SX's other than B14's. Am I wrong in assuming the Z31 pump is the same?

Wonderingraven · 03:41:29 PM / 27-Feb-17

Quote from: cls12vg30 on 02:33:41 PM / 27-Feb-17
Removed fuel tank, added a gallon of Evapo-Rust, and let it work for 24 hours, flipping the tank every hour (except while sleeping). Looking at the inside of the tank, I'm comfortable giving it a shot. Now I need a fuel pump and a new O-ring for the fuel pump housing. I see a lot of people have had good luck with Walbro pumps. I'll probably go that route. I see on the Walbro site they don't have an option for 200SX's other than B14's. Am I wrong in assuming the Z31 pump is the same?

I am using one for a 240sx and it wires in just fine just have to secure it into the old pump location as they are bit smaller, but has been solid on my sev6.

cls12vg30 · 02:39:29 PM / 28-Feb-17

Quote from: Wonderingraven on 03:41:29 PM / 27-Feb-17
I am using one for a 240sx and it wires in just fine just have to secure it into the old pump location as they are bit smaller, but has been solid on my sev6.

Thanks for the tip. Walbro shows the same part# for S13 and Z31, so that looks like the one.

cls12vg30 · 02:47:27 PM / 26-Jun-17

Good news and bad news.

The bad news is the only other running V6 S12 that I know of in the area went to the junkyard a couple weeks ago. I'd been talking to the owner on FB and I knew he had spun a bearing but it was a surprise when it popped up on my LKQ alert.

The good news is Henge got the same alert and was out at the yard quickly. He got a bunch of stuff of of it and snagged the fuel pump and the entire housing for me.

I tested the pump this weekend and it's good, so I just need a new O-ring, need to drill out one of the fuel tank mounting bolts that snapped off, go buy new fuel line hose to replace all the rubber lines, and I can start putting it back together!

westside27375 · 01:29:53 PM / 11-Sep-17

Hi, any luck getting that pump reinstalled and the motor turning?

Good to hear from you again!!!

cls12vg30 · 10:45:03 AM / 02-Oct-17

I was under the SE this weekend working on one of the fuel tank mount points where the bolt snapped off when removing the tank. It did not go well. Left-handed drill bits and extractors didn't work, even after heating it with a torch. So I figured I'd tap threads into the body of the bolt itself and just insert a smaller bolt. Snapped off the tap. Gave up. I'm going to have to rig up an alternate mounting point for that end of the strap. Work will continue next weekend.

JonB · 07:25:03 PM / 02-Oct-17

You need a welder brah.

I need to get my ac condenser out. I know I need to start hitting the thing with pb blaster atleast a week ahead.

cls12vg30 · 10:06:32 AM / 05-Apr-18

Well it's been several months, but the fuel system is back together.

I cleaned up the tank and coated it with POR 15 rust protecter. Reinstallation of the tank took a long time due to a broken mounting bolt that I had to drill using a tungsten carbide bit at 30,000 rpm. Finally I got a hole sufficient to tap new threads.

The new fuel pump was sourced from LKQ. It came off the only other SE V6 I knew of in the area. I know the guy that owned it, and I've since bought a bunch of spare parts from him in addition to the fuel pump. I got the whole housing, got it tested and cleaned up, and it is now installed. All rubber fuel lines have been replaced.

The fuel tank now has about 2 gallons of gas in it, and the pump is running. No luck yet getting the engine started. I plan on testing fuel pressure this weekend.

cls12vg30 · 01:25:56 PM / 28-Aug-18

Greetings all! I hope everyone had a great summer. I think the highlight of mine was my trip two weekends ago to the Mopar Nationals in Columbus. My other great automotive love has always been Mopars, especially the older ones. My father recently bought himself a beautiful 1967 Chrysler Newport, so I met him at the Nationals, along with my grandfather ('67 Barracuda) and my uncle ('73 Barracuda restomod). We had a blast.

Anyway, progress report on the SE. Based on some advice I got on the Facebook group I shifted my search for the cause of my no-start condition. Rather than focus on the fuel pressure, I decided to check out the injectors. After removing the intake and injector assemblies from my spare engine (both to check the injector condition and as practice), I pulled the intake plenum from my SE. Can you believe after all these years this is the first time I ever removed the intake?

Anyway last night I was able to inspect the injectors on one side and sure enough, they look to be completely closed off. So I'm going to be putting the spare set of injectors on, replacing all the rubber fuel lines, and we'll see what happens when I get it all back together.

cls12vg30 · 01:41:33 PM / 22-Jun-19

I know it's been a long time, I thought I'd throw you guys an update in case you missed it on FB.
I got my SE started and running recently for the first time in like 8 years. This is after refurbing the fuel tank, replacing the pump, injectors, and fixing the distributor.
Once I got it running I promptly tore it apart again to do the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, and cylinder head temp sensor.
I've done the pump, sensor, belt and tensioner. I just finished locking in the belt tension, so next is the thermostat and then put it all back together.

Then I'll get the idle evened out and go over the brakes, suspension, etc.

I'd really like to get it back on the road before the end of the C&C season, even if it still has ratty-ass paint.

vg30e_x2_200sx · 03:02:55 AM / 02-Jan-20

Looks like you've done a ton of work on this thing. Looks like solid progress.
I haven't been around for a long time and I just thought I'd pop in to see what's what.

I'm still Nissan-less, but that's fine. Where things are right now are ....meh.

Just wanted to poke my head in.

cls12vg30 · 12:15:10 PM / 21-Jan-20

Update:
The S12 runs pretty good now, and I've driven it around the neighborhood several times. In the fall I got the wheels, tires and brakes sorted. All lights are now working.

Once winter set in I decided to go ahead and attack the sunburned paint on the roof and hood, then see about getting it registered in the spring.

Being the originalist that I am where the SE is concerned, I decided to refurb the original wheels. After some experimentation, I settled on Dupli-Color HWP101 High Performance wheel coating as the best match for the original finish:

I also need to replace the old-and-busted steering wheel I had. I wanted to preserve the 4-spoke aesthetic of the original '88 SE wheel, so I went with this Classic-series from Grant:

On to paint. I can't justify dumping a bunch of money into paint for the S12 at the moment, so rattle-can it is, with plenty of dry- and wet-sanding of the roof and hood and some blending into the sides,

I had a clearcoat mishap on the hood which led to me sanding down the passenger side and starting over.

It's not done yet, but it's getting close.

It's definitely rattle-can-in-the-garage quality, but it's a big improvement over what it was before:

I'm confident that, come springtime, I'll be back cruising in the SE.

Max · 04:03:22 PM / 21-Jan-20

Looks good. Post more pictures of the finished paint project when you get some. I'm going to be painting my SE shortly as well... curious to see how yours turns out.

cls12vg30 · 03:15:56 PM / 15-Jan-21

It's been awhile since I posted any updates here, so here goes:
I've really been enjoying the SE since getting it going again over the summer. I've taken it to a bunch of meets where, as expected, no one knows what the hell it is. Here's some pics for you all:

After redoing the fender paint:

At Cars & Coffee:

New custom dash cover from dashdesigns.com:

Current state of the engine bay:

And a couple nice shots to finish off the year:

Next on the list is a thorough going-over of the front suspension and steering.

BOSSMAN · 02:16:59 PM / 20-Jan-21

Happy to see it back on the road again.