These seats 3/4 bolts will line up to the stock mounting points, the rear mount closest to the door wont line up however, it will be approx 2-3cm short, see below pic.

So to fit them there was a couple of options…

1. A suggestion on NS.com was to drill the spot weld on the original s13 seat leg off and on the new gtr seat rail and weld the s13 leg on as its longer.

2. And what i did, make a bracket to ‘extend’ the bracket, i did this way because one day i might want to resell these or sell my original seats. It turned out to be very sturdy and does the job !

So take a look at the pictures below and you can figure out how i did it.

Note i used some left over materials so there is extra holes in it

1. Ok Jack up the car and put it on jack stands as usual, take the wheels off for a bit better access if you like.
There are 4 main sub frame bolts and 4 normal supporting bolts on the front to main bolts.

2. Unbolt the 4 smaller supporting bolts, i unbolted the bottom of the coilovers as well but you probably dont need to do that.
Now evenly undo all 4 bolts so the nut is full of bolt the subframe should drop down a little just wiggle it around a little and it may come down more.

4. Now the C shape collars just slide over the TOP half of the subframe so try slide those in above all 4 they should sit nicely and evenly if its a bit of trouble to get it in your can pry the subframe a little or you can wait for the next step to put it in.

5. If you got all the C collars on yay for you if not then fear not we can put them in one at a time also with the lower collars, So pick one of the main nuts and undo it all the way onces its off put your top C one in if you havnt already then you should have a ‘cap’ from the bottom of the bolt place the bottom collar inside this then put it back on and do up the bolt onto the thread loosely.

6. Rinse and repeat the above and then you can go along and tighten all the main bolts up again, be sure to put the 4 supporting bolts back on and your done.

Here is some pics.

The Goodies

Tie Rod Ends
Tie Rods
New Boots
Rack End Spacers
Sub frame Collars – in another blog post

So at the last Winton i broke a tie rod at the end of the day

Replacing Tie rods / Tie rod ends

1. Take a measurement of how the tie rods are currently adjusted before you takem them off so you can but it back roughly the same before and alignment.
To Remove the existing tie rods and tie rod ends you need to take the wheel off for easy access, now bent the cotter pin straight and take it out.
loosen the bolt off so that its on the thread but undone.

2. Now you can get the tie rod end off a number of ways, i tried a tie rod puller but it didn’t do shit and was very tight and just wouldn’t come out. My dad gave me a tip to use a hammer and ‘shock’ it out so we got a large hammer and hit the outer edge of where the tie rod end goes into and it just dropped loose. Remove the bolt and it should fall through now you can loosen the adjuster nut on the tie rod and you should be able to unwind the tie rod end from the tie rod.

3. Alright so the tie rod end is out and now we need to get the tie rod out of the steering rack, if it has a boot then remove that and if you havnt removed them before there is a locking disc at the end and it is folded over the tie rod to stop it coming loose use a screw driver to bash it back. The tie rod is 30mm so get a 300 mm cresent / shifter or if you have a 30mm spanner even better and undo it.

4. Alright so Tie rod and tie rod ends are off, now get your spacer and put it on the end of the thread like below, now i dont think you can use the locking disc anymore so chuck a bit of locktight on the thread put your boot on and wind it back on and tighten it up real good.

5. Now that the tie rod is in lets put the tie rod end in, just wind it onto the tie rod and use your initial measurements to put it approx right length put it in the hub and do up the nut fairly tight, put the cotter pin in again.

6. Do the other side and then put your wheels back on see if the wheels look aligned straight ahead |           | if they arnt then adjust the tie rods once done tighten the adjustment locking nut.

Got 740cc Nismo Injectors Time to install

Get new O rings for your new injectors, see part numbers in the pictures there are larger ones for top and smaller for bottom see picture for where they need to go on the injector.

A friend lent me his ‘Injector Pullers’ which he made, they are basically some needle nose pliers that have been bent at the ends.

Remove power to the car, unplug the old injectors then unscrew the injector caps.

Use the modded pliers put a cloth on the ends to not damage the old injectors, then use them as below, there are two notches that the bent tips will go into. Then pull like a mofo, even with those you really have to yank them out.

Once the old injectors are out i put a little grease on the o rings then push them straight in square and they just ‘pop’ in, put the caps back on and screw them up then plug the injectors back in and thats it they are installed !

Now obviously you cant run these without a tune and an aftermarket ECU of some kind.

I am yet to run the car with them yet as i havnt had tune, i will be settings the injectors up in my power fc so the car can ‘limp’ i will post settings once this has been done.

The radiator is made to be bolted straight in with no mods. The thermos on the other hand are from an EF Ford Falcon which are pretty much the same as the BA, AU, and EL they required modifications.

The Parts

Radiator from FLYN.COM.AU
Thermos from wreckers
Tridon TFS139 Thermo Switch Rated to kick in at 85c and turn off at 80
Pipe Frabricated to hold the thermo switch on upper radiator hose
(The Thermo switch above uses a thread which can be found in magna radiators.)
Cable 6mm 25amp
Cable 5mm 15amp
Male & Female Electrical Connectors
Solder Iron
Trusty Cable Ties

1. Fit Thermos to the Radiator

See the below picture, this shows where you must trim / modify to make it fit the Flynn Radiator.

a) On the left and right edges there are 4 protruding mounting points, cut those off with a hack saw or a hot solder iron.

b) Cut a hole in the top of the thermo where the top pipe goes.

c) Cut a hole in the bottom for the bottom pipe

d) On the flynn radiator there are two tabs with holes that come out, this made mounting easy all i did was solder iron out some slits for the tabs to go through, which once fitted allowed me to just put some peices of rubber through the tab holes to hold it in place

Note be careful to measure and test fit as you go, and make sure you dont cut the wrong side like i did for the bottom pipe, doh.

2. Mounting

With the flynn radiator you can use your stock mounting points, noticed that mine sat alot higher than it should, i fixed this by taking the rubber grommit things from the bottom of the radiator and cutting one ring off them then i drilled out the grommits to make them fit over the thicker part of the spike they go onto this lowered it enough, other than that make sure you just put the stock brackets back on the top of the radiator to secure it.

3. Wiring

The most fun part, NOT…

Don’t be dodgey use a solder iron, last thing you want is a wire coming loose and shorting somthing out or worse causing a fire. I also used some heat shrink sheathing.

There are many different ways you can wire these up, this is how i did it.

Please also see this diagram which shows another way to wire it up with Aircon

Click to Enlarge

Above diagram provided by FYJOSH from nissansilvia.com

4. Thermo Switch

I spent alot of time on how and where i was going to put this, eventually it was decided i would cut up my new silicone top hose and get a pipe made up to put in it with the switch in it. I got this done by a radiator shop in Airport West he used a magna thermo switch radiator thread and copper welded it onto a peice of pipe.

The problem with this is that the switch needs to be grounded to complete the circut when it reaches temperature and with two peices of silicone on each end its not going to work to well, i stripped the ends off a peice of wire and ran it through the pipe on the engine side.

This caused another problem, it was leaking due to the wire in the pipe just drips though, i tried using T bolt clamps on it instead this helped but when it heated up it still started to drip a little so i am going to have to reassess that part of it, other than that it was a great success!

5. Finished

I am not very technical when it comes to cars so this took me all weekend to get right, and i still need to fix the leak on the thermo switch join.

I took this opportunity to also clean up my vacum lines going everywhere, thanks go to Dazza for showing a noob what i need to do hah
http://dazzas13.blogspot.com

All in all there is a crap load more room in the engine bay and im pretty happy with it apart from the leak which i need to fix.

Click to enlarge

Coburg Mag Wheel Polishing & Repair Centre
27 Audrey Ave Coburg 3058
(03) 9354 4641

Now that i have my rims back i got some steel wool and rags and cleaned them up and there all nice and shiny again!

So first things first, this isnt the quick and easy guide its the lets not do things the hard way guide.

So i started by taking off the front bumper and the intercooler and the intercooler pipes.

Once you have the FMIC intercooler and bumper off you will see the silver cylinder which i think is a Dryer of some kind from what i googled. There should be a valve on the front where you can get it professionally degassed.

After the gas is out there are two aircon pipes that go into the top of the silver canister, unbolt those and you can just pull them off.

Next thing is to take the radiator out, drain the coolant from the plastic bung and then undo the bottom radiator hose and catch the rest of the water with a bucket or something. after that unbolt the radiator there is two bolts on brackets holding the radiator down. Next your radiator shroud unbolt this from radiator once done you should be able to just pull the radiator out straight up. After that is out take the shroud out as well.

Wow starting to look roomy isn’t it take a look at the picture you can see there are two bolts holding the aircon condenser in on each side at the top, unbolt those and just tilt it back toward the engine, this will reveal another pipe connection that you have to undo, once that is undone you can lift it straight out!

Now that this is done we can focus on the compressor and coolant lines. unbolt the 2 coolant lines from the firewall the small one should be free now the larger one goes to the compressor.

Take a look at this picture see the rear of the compresser there will be two coolant lines there, unbolt those from the compressor, you should be able to get the larger line out now the smaller line has a join half way through it you can unbolt this and remove it as two peices.

OH dont forget there is a eletrical switch on the side of the compressor dont forget to unplug this one as well

So now you should have all the lines out the only thing left should be the compressor.

Kind of shitty picture but if you look carefully you can see the compresser at bottom and just above it the power steering pump, i didn’t want to cut my belt for air con as it was pretty much new so i loosened off the power steering pump belt and then i was able to loosen the compressor belt by loosening the free wheeling pully. Do either and take off the belt.

Right so with the belt off look at the side of the compressor there is two bolts on top and two underneath. Easiest way is to unbolt the top two from on top of the car and then get underneath and unbolt the other two while holding compressor, it will come off fairly easily then you will be left with a chunky mount with the free wheeling pully. There is around 4 bolts holding that on unbolt them all and it will fall off as well.

Wow so much more room so clean ! i used a can of degreaser to spray all over the block and surrounding areas to clean off all the oil and grime so this is what the side should look like without the compressor on.

If you are happy to just do the engine bay air con components then you can put everything back together. I am going to take the evaporator out to from the firewall i will post pictures and further info on how to do this.

So i did a bit of reading around and tried to find a open diff to lock, without really researching much i bought a R180 6 bolt open diff from another s13 for $50 when i looked at my car more closely later i found that my car has in it a R200 5 bolt lsd doh.

So i started researching a bit more found that R180 is alot smaller than R200 diffs see picture below for a size comparision.

R180 6 bolt open diff on left
R200 5 bolt lsd on right

The above  image for a list of diffs that come stock with S13 taken from http://www.nissansilvia.com
Like it says the shafts ( the bits sticking out of the diff ) can be either 5 or 6 bolt, but its easy to change them over you can knock them out with the hammer reasonably easy.

So i saw an R32 Skyline R200 5 bolt lsd for sale for $100, i snapped this one up and the fun begins, we opened the diff up and was a little confused as to where to weld a LSD as all the research i had done was about how to do this with an open diff, if you are after a good guide on how to weld an open diff check ‘The Guides’

So anyway back to more research, i had heard all sorts of things about locking diffs by welding an open one or by shimming an lsd alot of people said dont bother shimming it will just wear out and lots of people were saying a welded open will just break. Well i had the R32 lsd and i started to research shimming how to shim etc.

The Guides

http://forums.d1nz.com/viewtopic.php?t=9610&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=3fb5f35f7da2ea93ad6c0a5e3afb93c8

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Diydiff-Shimming-R33-Gt-t164288.html&pid=4817589&st=80

http://zilvia.net/f/archive-faqs/148126-how-weld-open-differential-approved.html

PDF Versions
D1NZ How to Shim Diff ( 13.8mb )
Skyline Australia How to Shim Diff ( 18.43mb )
Zilvia How to Weld Diff ( 10.45mb )PDF Version

The Shims

0.80mm = 3842440f60 price = $10.12
0.85mm = 3842440f62 price = $14.67
0.90mm = 3842440f63 price = $9.97
1.01mm = 3842440f67 price = $9.79
1.05mm = 3842440f68 price = $14.40
1.10mm = 3842440f70 price = $6.37
1.20mm = 3842440f73 price = $6.37
1.30mm = 3842440f76 price = $10.89
1.40mm = 3842440f80 price = $6.37
1.49mm = 3842440f83 price = $6.37

If you follow the above guides they have good instructions.

My diff shimming was a little different as the diff i had was from an r32 and i needed to put it into my s13.

R32 Diff into S13

1. So to start with we followed the guides above i ordered 4 shims 1.01mm, when we had the diff open we found that the shim already in there was a large one most likely around 1.4mm. The idea of shimming for me was to lock the diff completely so we put 2 extra shims in there which should have brought the total to around 3.4mm.

Tips

a) Brute force normally works
b) Getting Diff center out is a bitch try to lever it out
c) Getting the crown wheel bolts undone was a bitch, try a vice and a breaker bar or take it to a workshop with a decent rattle gun.
d) Getting the Diff center in again is what we had most problems with, using a hammer doesnt work that well here and it is very awkward as you have to put it back in evenly while hold the spacers and bearing caps in place. The method we used was to put it down evenly and give it a little tap to get it started and then we dropped the diff on its end to ‘shock’ it in, this worked well and once it was down enough we put the flanges that whole the diff center in place and did them up evenly to pull it down the rest of the way.

e) For the love of god make sure you read the instructions and line up the splines on the LONG axle side, we did this but we lined the the Long axle on the short side by mistake and had to take the whole thing apart again cause we couldnt get the axle in. Just to be sure before you try to put the diff center back in put both axles in diff center and make sure they will go in, if they are hard to get out see tip a)

2. Ok so we have our diff all shimmed up and center back in the housing, now with the R32 diff the back alloy cover is not going to fit onto a S13′s mount points on the back as it has 2 big bolts on the back and s13 has 4 smaller bolts. What we did was take the alloy cover off my original s13 r200 5 bolt lsd and use a gasket and goo and put it on the r32 diff and put the r32 one back on my s13 diff to keep dust out.

R32 Back Cover
I dont have a photo of the s13 rear cover but its got 4 bolts which are smaller.

3. The last thing you need to do is hope that your r32 diff comes with the bushings for the two front mount points because if you look at the s13 diff it has small mounting holes not big ones like the r32 diff. Even with the bushing you will need to get bigger bolts, the bolt needs to have 35mm of thread poking from the end of the bushing the stock s13 diff bolts wont be long enough!

4. As the guides said if you dont want it to be locked them maybe just put one more shim in.

Result

Once it was all bolted up i took it for a little test drive and the desired result was achieved it was locked to the shit house, i noticed that normal driving was more difficult when turning but that’s ok cause i don’t drive this car daily anymore, but for someone who is driving daily i wouldn’t recommend locking it, maybe just add one shim to make it more tight.

I also checked the ratio when we had the center out it has a 4.36:1 ratio.

I have attached PDF versions of the guides in case the links go dead.

It was a great day stayed in the beginners section for the day and only left for lunch got as much time on track as i could, the guys in the beginners section Shane and Tom gave me some good tips and i improved a hell of alot from in the morning trying to feint drift to hand brake entries after lunch.

I had a couple of mishaps dropped a wheel into a pot hole before the ripple strip while sideways and damaged one of the rims a little nothing major and bend the edge of one of the front most brace that the end of the castor rod bolts onto which can also be bent back with no problems.

Since the day i have looked over the car and noticed one of my coilovers front left was loose and had burred the spacer on it, i had to turn over the spacer and tighten the nut and it appears to be fine now.

Pictures & Video

There was a photographer at the day who got some good pictures see link below

JRM Photography

You Tube Videos