# Sticky  Project Legal JDM: The Build Thread



## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Ok boys and girls, I decided to start a build thread because the discussion thead on this topic is stupid long.
What I'm starting out with is my 1992 Nissan 240SX SE Super Hicas.
Since Hicas blows I changed out the subframe and put some plugs in the rear distribution block to nix that. At the same time I swapped that I did RSR bushings, 5 lug, S14 FLCA's and uprights as well as Z32 Front brakes
drilled and slotted rotors, braided lines, ABS delete and Z32 M/c upgrade. When I did all of this I got some Motegi Touge's (which are now for sale) to complete the 5 lug swap. I've been rolling on blown KYB's with Eibach Sportlines for some time now and it sucks. But now that I have FN01R-C's with a 235 245 stagger my car still outhandles most. Here are some pics of it from the past few weeks:
















Anyways enough about that. Time for the real meat and potatoes. As most of you know I started a project I dubbed "Legal JDM" about getting SR's completely legit in 240's. Well since it has gained so much interest we finally got our own clip to build as our test engine.
So, here goes the build! This is also on my website for those without the blessing of Zilvia.
*Clip Trip*








Man, what a long day that was. Woke up at 4am, picked up the trailer at the shop and hit the road. I drove into the sunrise and managed to stay awake but the long strait path of Highway 5 was soon getting to me. I managed to make it all the way to Kettleman City, where I absolutely had to stop. I filled up the tank, got a snickers and a sugar free Redbull and got my laptop set up so I could listen to music (since the truck has no face plate on the radio).
From Kettleman City I continued South. Up over the Grapevine and into L.A. I must have timed it just right because the traffic wasn’t bad at all. I saw a couple nice 240’s driving past but couldn’t snap any pictures of them. I made it to R&D Factory at about 10:45 (jeez that was a quick trip) and met Edward. He was really friendly and really nice. He showed me around their shop a little and hooked me up with a beat up looking Kouki 180SX clip. It wasn’t much to look at, but the engine looked pretty nice. I had them do a compression and leakdown test and everything looked pretty good. The oil pan had a hole in it from their forklift so they gave me another and also some other pieces to fix broken ones. I was happy so I told them to load it up.









From there I jumped on the 60 east and headed toward Roland Heights where I met James. (a supporter of LegalJDM since the beginning) We had some awesome Japanese food at Diamond Plaza, and he showed me the SR swap in his S14.








Up next was West Covina Nissan where Justin hooked me up with some Nismo motor and tranny mounts. West Covina Nissan is brand new and has probably the nicest cleanest workbays and awesome showroom and parts department. They have all kinda of Nismo stuff on the walls and their garage was full of super nice 350Z’s and even a R32 Skyline.
From there I was off to Adelanto to pick up some scooters and then home, overall it was a 940 mile, 21 hour trip


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

*Day 1* 
Friday May 11th, 2007
Today I got the 180 clip inside the shop and made myself a little workspace inside our engine dyno room where I could keep everything organized and out of the way. I took a bunch of pictures so I would know where everything goes and started by removing the one remaining fender and front bumper, then the wiring harness, labeling all the connectors as I went so I wouldn’t get confused later on. When I got the harness disconnected I started removing the accessories. First to go was the ABS unit, then the Air Injection Valve (Which I am going to reuse later), power steering, and A/C pump. I called it a day early so I could go hang out with the guys.
























Here you can see the labels I put on all the connectors.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

*Day 2
*Satuday May 12, 2007
I started out today by removing the steering wheels (see popped airbag) and taking the dash out of the clip. The fire wall was pretty messed up from the front end accident the clip was in, but I managed to get everything out I needed without to much of a hassle. The engine harness came out nicely and I took out of all the digital climate control pieces I need to swap those into my hatch.
Next I pulled the motor. It came out really easy, however I forgot to remove the transmission cross member and ended up tearing the bushing completely in half. Oh well I have a Nismo one to go there. While I had the engine up in the air I decided to take off the clutch and transmission. The tranny must have never been removed, because it was ridiculously hard to seperate from the engine. However when I finally got them apart I was disappointed to see a stock clutch and flywheel. Even more disappointed when I pulled off the pressure plate and clutch disk to see a very glazed flywheel. Oh, well I guess something aftermarket is needed. Next I put the engine engine stand taped up the turbo inlets and outlets as well as the throttle body and called it a day.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

*Day 3*
Sunday May 13, 2007
I know, I know. Today is Mother’s Day, but I took my Mom and Grandma to breakfast early and then my mom had plans, so I got to work. I started off by removing the exhaust manifold and turbo as one piece, I only managed to take one exhaust stud out, which I think is pretty good, and I don’t think I bent up the oil and coolant lines too much getting them out. Next I removed the intake manifold and all of the water lines, stripping the motor to pretty much a bare block.
The exhaust ports were pretty dirty:








My pile of stuff is getting bigger:


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

*Day 4*
Monday May 14, 2007 
Today was my first day of work on the company dime. So I made it count. I started off by setting cylinder 1 to TDC, taking off the valve cover and taking the cams out. I was surprised to see the cams showed little wear and the rockers looked good too.








Then I organized the bearing caps, bolts, rockers and shims so I wouldn’t put anything back in in the wrong place. Next I set the cams aside and got out the biggest breaker bar we have to break the head bolts loose. I loosened them by turning each one a 1/4 turn then another 1/4 turn until they were all loose, man that is a scary task.
The pistons looked a little dirty, but there weren’t any signs of detonation and the quench chambers looked good.
Just a little carbon buildup, nothing a little wire brush won’t fix. Another good note is the head gasket didn’t show any signs of blowing through.
Next, I checked the headbolts to make sure they were within factory spec. The FSM says the must be less then 6.23 inches and I measured all of them around 6.2 inches, so I’m good, although maybe I should do head studs.








Then I took the head down to our favorite engine builder to have the head “freshened up” so it will burn as clean as possible. They said the head looked pretty good and were going to check to see if it needs to be decked. Then were going to clean the ports and valves, then check for seal. A leaky valve makes a dirty engine.
After lunch I turned to engine over to see a bad sight. Turns out when we put the front clip on the piano dollies, one of them was under the oil pan and squashed it up pretty good. (My bad) I already had another oil pan because the one that came on the clip had a hole in in from a forklift.
That didn’t bother me, but now that it was smashed down its time for another pick-up.
So to check the bottom end to make sure everything is in order I took off the steel oil pan and baffle to see a not so happy oil pickup that had left its mark on the inside of the steel oil pan:








Next was the aluminum pan, which Nissan made easier to remove by including two threaded holes to put bolts in and push it away from the block.
I don’t really know what I’m looking for, but the bottom end looked pretty good, no play or metal shavings and only a tiny bit of sludge.
And look, kangaroo cast block! (whatever that means)








Last on my list vas a venture into fairly undocumented and dangerous territory, the elusive front cover. First the pulley had to come off, then the bolts holding it on. A few gentle taps from a rubber hammer and pry bar, and that thing was off!
So, I cleaned all the gasket material off with a putty knife and everything looks pretty good.








Everything looked pretty good, but while we had the engine apart we decided to order some preventative maintenance parts. So we ordered a complete gasket set, new front cover, oil pickup, water pump, thermostat and timing chain. Those parts should be here thursday.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 5
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 
Since I am waiting on some parts today was cleaning day, because a clean engine is a happy engine. I started out by using a special adjustable wrench to turn the crank.








Here you can see pistons 2 & 3 before and after cleaning. All I used was some brake clean and a rag:
















Piston number 3 had a minor nick from the rear intake valve, 
but doesn’t look like anything bad. Next I cleaned the block, a lot of brake clean and some scrubbing with a rag and a wire brush and it looks pretty good, not perfect but not bad.
















It looked like the dipstick leaks from where the dirt was caked on the block. Finally I cleaned the oil pan and painted the motor mounts and some of the pulleys. After 4 cans of brake clean and numerous rags, the engine is starting to come together. I get all the seals and new parts tomorrow.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 6
Friday May 18
Does anyone else see whats wrong with this?


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 7
Monday May 21, 2007
Finally got my parts in today, but since my camera battery was dead first thing, I went ahead and pinned out all of the wires for the digital climate control I want to put in later. Once my battery was charged, I opened the box of gaskets, to take the valve stem seals out and down to the machine shop.








Then I took off the timing chain guide that holds the chain on, the top bolt came loose easily but the bottom one was a huge pain. I started to strip it out with the 6mm allen wrench, so I stepped up to a 1/4” allen, which also started to spin. Luckily however I had an impact remover which spins as you hit it and broke that sucker loose. Then I replaced the timing chain, it had a regular silver link instead of the gold one to line up the crankshaft with, so I took a paint pen and painted it gold. Then I lined it up with the marks on the crank, put the chain guide back in and carefully tightened the bolts back up.








Finally I torqued them down per the FSM. Next I got some Permatex Ultra Grey liquid gasket and added a bead to the timing cover.








At first I put in in the ridge of the cover, then realized I was being an idiot and put in the groove where it is supposed to go. I let it sit for about two minutes then slapped that baby onto the block and torqued it down.








Next I put on the new oil pick-up, put back in the upper baffle and added a bead of Ultra Grey to the oil pan,








then put in on the block and torqued it to spec.








Here you can see the difference between this pick-up and the one that came with the motor.








Next I added the lower baffle.








Then I added the water pump, thermostat housing and water neck, followed by the accessory brackets. Finally I torqued everything down. Now I’m just waiting on the head.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 8
Wednesday May 23, 2007 
I started off today tearing the digital climate contol harness out of the JDM dash harness. Then I took apart the intake manifold and cleaned the plenum, runners and air injection and throttle body. They were all pretty bad.








Then I put in new gaskets and torqued everything back down.








Next I went to the machine shop and picked up my head. He cleaned up all the ports and gave it a 3 angle valve job. He also put in a spacer to help the valve seal and prevent valve float.








Next I put on the head gasket and set the head on top.








Next I went ahead and bled the lifters. I used two cups of motor oil and 1/16th inch diameter piece of filler rod to pump the lifters. I used one cup to bleed them in and another to store them.








It was a little tricky because each one had a sweet spot that would bleed alot out, but if you weren’t right on the spot, it would make you think it was done. However I got all 8 bled out and ready to put in.








Then I torqued down the head bolts per the FSM.








I didn’t actually use the spinner to torque them. Instead I brought out brutus the breaker bar.








Friday I should be able to get the top end back together and be one step closer to being done.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 9
Friday, May 25, 2007

Wow, today was a long day. Some of the other guys in the shop (there is only 5 of us) were testing and tuning a Harley all day, that got really annoying. Anyway I decided to start today off by putting the valve train together, It started off looking like this.








Then I added the valve shims and lifters. 








The I dropped on the rocker arms and added assembly lube to the bearings.








I almost forgot to torque down these sub headbolts in the timing area.








I was trying to do everything without taking the cam gears off, but I couldn’t figure out a way to do it. Anyways I got everything lined up, put on and torqued.








Next I decided to tackle putting on the intake manifold. But first I had to get the heater hoses put on. 








Then I got the manifold on, all the water lines hooked up and bolts torqued. 








Finally I reached the point of no return, the exhaust manifold. I shot it with PB blaster, let it sit and then took it apart.








I got lucky all the turbo studs stayed in. 








Next I took the manifold to the machine shop and had it glass blasted. 








Finally I hung it up in our dyno room, turned the fans on and coated it with Duplicolor High Heat with ceramic 1200 degree engine enamel, looks pretty nice.








Next I took the injectors out of the fuel rail to replace the o-rings. It was a little bit of a pain to figure out, but easy once I figured it out. I used the two screws as fulcrums and two screwdrivers to lift them out. 








Last thing I did before heading home was starting to strip the valve cover. 








I’m going to Duplicolor it with high heat gloss black and then polish off the letters and then clear coat the whole thing, hopefully it will turn out really shiny. However I was thinking about just clear coating the valve cover, it looks really cool with the brushed aluminum look.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 10
Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Well over the weekend I had a catastrophe painting the valve cover. It started out being gloss black, which I couldn’t lay down a coat without getting a run. So I had my friend David paint it and he had a hard time too. So we decided to throw in a little bass boat silver metal flake in. Well, a little turned into a lot and made then entire area around the dyno room look like a disco and the valve cover look like a fishing lure. I was so disgusted I didn’t take any pictures. Anyway the motor is so close to being done. I’m waiting on UPS for my Circuit Sports oil block, and today I got the exhaust side of the motor on.
First I put the stud that came out back into the block, then attached the turbo to the manifold with a new gasket.








Next I torqued the nuts (somehow) and bent back up the locking plates.








Then I slapped the whole thing along with the exhaust gasket and the oil and water lines onto the block.








Next I torqued the manifold bolts down and added the compressor inlet pipe and the water neck.








Finally I added the o2 elbow and o2 sensor.








Tomorrow I should have the oil block and I will make some lines for the remote oil filter mount.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 11
May 30, 2007

I don’t know if it is every gear head’s dream, but its certainly been one of mine to have some sweet AN hardware and braided stainless lines in my engine bay. Yesterday my Circuit Sports oil block came in, its quite a nice piece.








It has 2 -8AN lines, a -6AN adapter and plug incase you need an oil supply, and a also a port for your stock oil pressure switch. Next I went to the local race supply store and picked up some hardware.








I got four -8AN hose ends, two 1/2” pipe to -8AN adapters, 3’ of -8AN braided stainless hose and an oil filter block.
First I cut the 3 feet of stainless hose in half by taping it with electrical tape and cutting it with the cutoff wheel.








Then I stripped off the electrical tape and slid the hose into the red part of the hose end, putting the end of the hose flush with the threads.








Then I lubricated the blue part of the hose end with some white lithium grease.








Next I clamped the red part into the vice using an AN assembly clamp and pushed the blue part of the AN fitting into the red.








I twisted it with my palm until the threads engaged then used a 7/8” AN wrench to tighten them.








I tightened the fitting until the red and blue parts were just about 1mm apart.








Next I got out the stock SR oil plate and compared it to the Circuit Sports piece.








Then I took the two o rings off of the stock plate and put them on the new one.








Next, I wrapped the stock oil pressure switch with teflon tape and put it in the block.








Then I installed the oil block onto the motor and torqued it down.








Then added the oil lines I made earlier.








And finally connected them to the oil filter mount.


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## Nismo240 (Jul 24, 2004)

i must say, you're freakin awesome. keep up the good work.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Finally, I thought I was talking to a wall here!


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## Nismo240 (Jul 24, 2004)

no problem man, i guess some people don't realize the time and knowledge needed to do this type of work. i probably couldn't build a motor if my life depended on it, mad props to you.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

It was alot easier then I thought. just gotta haver the confidence to do it.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 12
June 5, 2007

Not too many updates, I’ve been working on paperwork and getting stuff handled with my boss, and getting the clip out of the shop. I started working on the DCC wiring harness some more however soon realized that without seeing this thing in the car I couldn’t really tidy it up much more.








I did however manage to add some shrink wrap to a few leads.








Finally today I got the oil filter that fits my oil block.








P.S. HKS Hi-power comes tomorrow.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 13
June 13, 2007

Well its been a while since I last updated, I was waiting on some parts. Got the HKS Hi-Power exhaust in a while ago. Man, this thing is HUGE! It looks like diesel truck exhaust, and that shiny muffler is going to be police bait for sure, so I ordered a muffler silencer to put in it.








Also, today the Greddy oil pan came in, dang this thing is beefy! Here are the two trap doors, they are different sizes because on side of the oil pan is higher then the other, because the SR engine sits in the engine bay at an angle. These trap doors help to keep the oil from sloshing around and keep it in the center, around the all important pickup.








Since the pan came unassembled the first thing I had to was secure the trap doors to the pan. I used this locktite, it says its oil tolerant, probably overkill since there is also lock washers, but i don’t want those little screws coming loose.








I tightened them down good and snug with a phillips screw driver, I dont know if they had torque values, I cant read Japanese.








Next, I used some liquid teflon tape to seal up the plug for the oil temperature sensor hole since I don’t have one yet.








Then I threaded it in until it was about flush with the outside of the oil pan.








Next, I finally cracked open the tube of OEM liquid gasket that came with the gasket kit from Nissan.








And added a ring to the oil pan, making sure it was thick enough all the way around.








Then I let it sit for about two and a half minutes and then put it on the engine.








Then, I flipped the engine over and admired how beefy that honkin’ oil pan looks, and incase anyone didn’t know what motor this is, it says SR20 on the front.








Next, I added some anti-seize to the o2 sensor and torqued it down with one of our fancy o2 sensor sockets.








Next I had to do what’s been breaking my heart for a while now, re-bleed the lifters. I did them once, but because I flipped the motor over to put on the oil pan and some other things, they had to be re-bled, good thing I did too, they had a lot of air in them. So to do it, I first loosed the cam caps, then took the rockers off the lifters.








The I picked it up with my fingers and wiggled it out of the little hole and dropped it into a dixie cup filled with motor oil, then stuck a 1/16th inch welding rod and bled the little buggers of air.








By taking out the timing chain tensioner and turning the cams a little bit back and forth I finally got them all out, re-bled and put back in, without losing a single shim. Then I tightened all of the cam caps back up to spec, I better not forget and flip this motor over again.


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## UkeeJay (Jun 26, 2007)

very awesome job on the engine and the pics and the explaintion! i hope that i never have to do that to my motor until it's an actual Project Car and not my mode of transpotation


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Well luckily my KA in my car is holding out... for now.


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## tknbkthrsdy4anfg (Apr 11, 2007)

Day 14
July 10, 2007
Blown suspension stinks. I’ve been riding on blown KYB AGX’s and Eibach Sportlines for far too long. But today I changed all of that, and got a set of Stance GR+ Pro’s. But first since I have S14 knuckles and drilled out the mounting bolts in my AGX’s to fit S14 bolts and I dont want to drill the Stances out, I made bushings.
I started out with some thick wall steel rod.








Then machined it down some to get a nice smooth surface.








Then I drilled it out.








The made more passes until it was down to the correct outer diameter, cut it out and made three more.








Next I took of my 17x10 rear wheels to see the ugly sight I was expecting.








Eew, blown shocks with all of the fluid on the outside. So, out those had to go, and in go the Stances.








Jeez, these things are beefy.
Next the fronts went on, with my little spacers fitting oh so perfectly.








I didn’t know if this was the right way to do this, I didn’t read the manual, so I set my camber plates as far positive as they would go, that way if I set my wheel camber to zero, I would have that whole angle of adjustment to go negative. Seems like it made sense to me, since I will never use positive camber.








Next we got out the scale pads, which aren’t really supposed to go on the floor, but I was to lazy to get the set up pad.








The wheels had to come off and on a few times to adjust the ride hight, camber and corner weights. And finally I got it close enough for now, since it was getting close to midnight.








So I got out the torque wrench and started torquing things back down. You can tell here how hard I had been working.








The next day I tweaked the right heights a little more and decided it was time to pull the fenders off and relocate the front harnesses that will get rubbed through on a lowered car.








First I took off the fender.








Then took all the thick wire loom off the harness and rewrapped it with electrical tape. pounded part of the seam flat to get the harness above it, and the rest of it at a right angle to hold the harness up. Then I cut out a section of the wire loom and put it around the harness where it crosses the seam.








Next I strategically stuck on some ziptie holders.








And finally I ziptied it on.








The fenders were a huge pain to put back on, exacerbated by the fact I didn’t take the front bumper off. But all in all, it wasn’t too bad and the peace of mind is worth it all.


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## big-murph (Aug 18, 2007)

bad asss that is rediculously awsome


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## Nismo14-180 (Mar 31, 2004)

Awsome build man. Are their any plans to upgrading the rest of the suspension to full competition spec, or keep it simple for DD use?


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## tech4america (Dec 5, 2008)

Great! Keep up the good work


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## bikhargaya (5 mo ago)

I’m going to Duplicolor it with high heat gloss black and then polish off the letters and then clear coat the whole thing, hopefully it will turn out really shiny. However I was thinking about just clear coating the valve cover, it looks really cool with the brushed aluminum look. 
vidmate mobdro


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