Hi,
I already posted in a few threads but I think it's time to introduce myself and my car, it's a long story and not particularly interesting so don't expect anyone to read all of it, parts of this are already written in other threads here on forum.
I'm happily married guy with a job that's average paying at best but my expenses like rent and things like that are really low so I can afford to have a project car and still get by. I was born and raised in Prague and I always liked japanese 80s and 90s cars. Since I was 14 I have always wanted a small light-weight RWD car - something like an S13, AE86, MR2, MX5,... stuff like that. I had never even heard of an S12 until I have seen the ad for the Silvia I now own.
My first car was 80s Citroen AX with a 1.0liter engine which I got from my mother. Everything you touched in the car broke but the car still somehow managed to run for years. At the end of its life the little AX was all rusty, the driver's side and trunk lock rusted off, it had almost no brakes, terrible head gasket leak - the engine ate almost as much oil as petrol, almost nothing electrical worked and the only thing on the dash that still worked was the clock. But the car was such a blast to drive with its 760kg it handled like a go-kart. The engine eventually died for good and the car got scrapped. I was looking at ads for another car and saw an ad with another AX for sale but it was a super rare model that had 1.4 liter engine and it was 4x4! It was really cheap so I could probably afford it but the ad disappeared before I made my mind, that was in 2012. I have always regretted not buying that car.
In November 2015 my wife wanted to buy herself a car so I was checking some ads for her and out of boredom I started looking at cars I was interested in. And there she was, a white '85 Silvia hatchback with ca18et in it. Suddenly I remembered the rare Citroen AX, I wouldn't make make the same mistake again so I decided to buy it. I crashed my bike so I wanted some toy to replace it. I'm not a mechanic by any means - before I got the S12, the only job I did on a car was that I once changed a flat tire on the AX but cars always fascinated me so I was willing to start learning some of the car stuff. I thought that I'll do just the basic stuff like change some filters, change the oil and other basic stuff like that. My plan was that if something important breaks, I'll just bring it to a pro because I though that it's too dangerous to do stuff like brakes by your own if you're not a mechanic. It has turned out very differently than I had planned...
They say not to buy a car when it's raining and they're right. It was raining real hard the day I went to check the Silvia and it was already night time when I finally got there and it was friday the 13th, not kidding. The Silvia was originally owned by a guy from Switzerland and from there it was imported to Czech Republic in 1997. Some old man bought it here and he was driving the car until 1999 and then, probably because of a broken turbo, put the car in a garage where it sat until 2015. That year the owner of the car died and the ownership went to his son who immediately sold the car to the guy I was dealing with. He told me that he replaced the turbo and the exhaust and that the only thing the car needs is a new battery and that there's a tiny little oil leak somewhere near the turbo, also the fuel pump didn't work and according to him that was the reason he was selling it. He told me he lost all motivation to mess with it and that he wants it away. I was like ALRIGHT! and bought it and had it towed to a tiny little garage I rented to fix the car. They also say not to buy a car that don't start, that's also a very good advice.
And there she is in my garage after I bought her
I had very limited knowledge about engines and cars, I still do but the situation is getting better
. First I took a shot at the fuel system, for 2 days I was searching for a fuel pump relay because I just knew that that must be the cause of the problems. I thought it's weird that I can't find it because according to the manual it was supposed to be there. That's when I learned that Mk1 and Mk2 are a thing. Turned out there is no fuel pump relay in Mk1. I had a friend to help me with this problem, he doesn't know much about cars but he's very good with the electric stuff, what we did was this - I was turning the key in different positions and he was testing the fuel pump voltage with a multimeter at the back of the car. The readings he got didn't make any sense at first. During this my friend touched a wire he should have and got electric shock at that same second the engine fired up! A little bit of panic ensued
. After a while my friend figured it out, by getting the electrical shock, he grounded the fuel pump which started working for a moment and that was enough for the motor to fire up, so it turned out the part of ECU that controls the fuel pump is fried so we bypassed the ECU and now the fuel pump is always on when I turn the key. It's a sketchy way of fixing it but it works...
So the car could finally be started! It idled quite well and when given less throttle the RPM went up as expected but with more throttle the RPM actually went down and if I had kept it at more than 1/2 throttle the engine would have stopped. In my case it was the MAF sensor, I carefully pulled it out of the aluminium housing and gave it a good clean with a spraycan of MAF sensor cleaner and that did the trick! Really cheap fix. I also did some other minor fixes.
After that, when I jacked up the car I found out that the brakes are busted, they were all rusty and seized. bleh
And then I had them refurbished
Soon after that I found out the real reason the guy I bought the Silvia from wanted to get rid of the car. The oil and coolant were mixing and like A LOT. The usual cause of that is the failed headgasket, the guy who sold it to me must have known, all the signs were there and he fixes cars for a living. Well it turned out it wasn't the head gasket, the cylinderhead was cracked. After 2 months of searching, I sourced a different head, got it pressure tested and found out that it's cracked in the same spot as the original head. So I had to find yet another head, this one was finally alright. I put the engine back together. While doing that I accidentally stripped a exhaust mani bolt hole. I managed to fix that too with a helicoil set.
Finally, I managed to start her up with the new head. It was a very proud moment for me, I managed to do all of this by myself (almost) in that tiny little garage with limited tools and budget. I stood there proudly as the engine was spitting oil on the ground and on the exhaust where it was burning off and making clouds of smoke. This probably was the tiny oil leak the guy I bought the Silvia from warned me about. Also she had bad overheating issues at the time she still had the cracked head, turned out someone installed the thermostat the opposite way. During the cylinder head replacement I also fitted new the water and bought a new thermostat, I also did the timing belt with the tensioner, all new gaskets and other stuff while I was at it.
The oil leak turned out to be interesting problem. The oil feed hard line for turbo was cut in two parts and these were connected by a rubber hose and a pair of hose clamps, this rubber ruptured. I think someone was removing the turbo and cut the metal line in two because he couldn't get to the bolt at the end of it. Probably previous owner. I replaced the hard line with a braided line.
Ok so after 10 months the car is finally able to drive! I tested it out and found out that I have a boost leak, minor fix, I just tightened a clamp I forgot about.
Here she is!
During the second drive I found out that the clutch is slipping, oh boy, here we go again
. I knew the clutch is near the end of its life but I hoped it will last some more. Unfortunately I don't have money to fix that right now, I have to wait until the payday
Right now, I am also in the process of flushing the cooling system to deal with the aftermath of the cracked cylinder head. So far I have flushed it twice with distilled water with a coolant flush additive and once with only distilled water. The water I get out of it still looks like instant coffee with milk
At least it looks like the oil is mostly out of the system. Well, I'll just continue until it's clean.
My Silvia is exactly what they call a
lemon, there are a lot of issues with her I had no idea about. At least the shell is relatively rust-free so I got that goin for me...
BUT I still love my Silvia and I have a lot of plans with her!
THE LIST:fix fuel system (turned out the part of ECU that controls the fuel pump is fried so I bypassed the ECU and now the fuel pump is always on when I turn the key)
fix alternator (got it refurbished) (the refurbished one didn't work so I got a new one)
fix brakes (refurbished calipers, new pads, new front rotors, braided brake lines)
get and install new cylinder head (that was huge pain in the ass)
fix the turbo oil leak (replaced damaged oil feed hardline with a braided line with banjo bolts on both ends)
new water pump (had to modify the lower timing belt cover because the new pump wasn't
exactly the same shape as the old one)
new thermostatnew clutch XTD stage 1
new tyres, although the ones that are on the car aren't cracked and the tread depth is good, they are almost 20 years old Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE002 195/60 R15
new bonnet - this one is bent and it just looks ugly as it's not flush with the other panels
fix the front lip - I'll probably just use rivets. I think it will look cool and it's cheap
new tail lightsfix sagged doors
upgrade the suspension -
in process - BC Racing BR series coilovers + other stuff
front mount intercooler
boost controller
aftermarket air filter
blow-off valve
boost gauge, air/fuel ratio gauge
electric fan conversion new paint job
paint the stock wheels just refurbish the stock wheels, the original colour is starting to grow on me
also wash the car