Is there wear marks where the pickup could have been hitting the pan? Can you measure with putty or clay or something?

Might be worth the work to find out. And if it is hitting, you could maybe slot the pickup so oil can get in even if the pan is pushing up hard on it.

Either way, it's good to know the Frontier parts are an easy alternative.

 

why did you mod your wheel wells like that? and I love the wheels!

 

Thanks! It's called tubbing, gives you more clearance in the wheel wells to run more steering angle.

 

Put the new motor in. Found out the hard way a Frontier oil pan won't work, so I modified my old one a bit, primed the **** out of the oil pump, put everything together and dropped the motor in last night.



I've been doing all the little things today, so now I only have to run the harness, put the radiator in, fill with fluids, and hopefully start. I'd do it all tonight, but I just can't get motivated and I'm tired as ****. This Oklahoma heat is getting to me hardcore.

Also using hockey pucks for mounts now, considerably shorter and stiffer than s13 mounts, so it dropped the front of the motor a bit, leveling it out.

Trying to have it completely broken in and ready by the Mineral Wells, TX event in October.

 

are you sure thats necisary? I mean if you extended the balljoints you should have plenty of clearens for crazy steering angle.

 

Yeah, but you still run into issues with bigger wheels/tires. I'm probably not going to have problems with the 16's but I figured I might as well do it while the motor was out and I didn't have any money

 

Soooo ready to drive this! I'm trying to decide whether I should use the KA radiator like I was or try and make the FC rad work. The FC radiator is a little bigger, so I'm leaning toward seeing how it works. Hopefully I can get the clutch fan on the KA to work with the fan shroud of the FC radiator as well.



Actually about to sell the ebrake, getting a PBM instead.

Also, about to tub the front of a RHD FC here in OKC, so I'll have a little extra cash to button this up. And if everything goes well, I'll be picking up a job building a custom tool box for a trailer, so I'll have a lot of extra cash! Haha

 

if the clutch does not fit, do you think an electric fan would be the way to go?

 

Yeah, an electric would work, but I prefer a clutch fan simply because of simplicity. I test fitted it yesterday, an it clears fine, but I'll probably have to make a custom shroud.



Got it to start and run yesterday, now I just need to

a) install the driveshaft
b) build an alternator bracket and wire it up
c) fill the tranny with gear oil
d) shorten the intake tube since the filter hits the tub now

and it should be good to go drive. I'm just gonna daily it to work for the next few weeks so I can test it out before the Mineral Wells event in October.

The Title 42 is being a bitch, they're saying I need to contact the previous owner and **** and I have no clue who that even is.

 

Welded up an alternator tensioner bracket, super easy actually. The bolt hole in the block were stripped out, so I had to weld up a custom bracket. Wired it up and charges the battery just fine.

Also shortened the intake to clear the tub and painted it wrinkle black cause I hated the ricey chrome.

Timed it, runs like a champ. I'm gonna have to bend up some brake lines to clear the tubs and it'll be drivable

 

whats stopping you from putting the filter directly off the intake manifold? i dont see any vacuum tubes coming off the intake tube. Less BS to deal with....

 

Mass air flow sensor. And if you move it too close to the intake it runs super lean for some reason.

 

Just put in new plugs, changed the oil, and timed it. Runs 10x better now but I don't really want to mess with it since it's 1am and I have neighbors and it's running an open header.



Also, here's a drift video I made for the last event we had here in case anyone's interested. No FC's or even rotarys, but it was a decent event.

https://vimeo.com/49205051

Idk how to embed Vimeo, but I refuse to use YouTube so here's the link.

Only things I should NEED now before the event in Texas are:

A) An exhaust ($140)
B) New spacers + lugs for the front ($60)
C) A trailer. No idea where I'm going to get one yet.

It's going to be a free event so regardless of whether you're good or not you should come out.

Also, I'm going to finish painting it this week so it'll all be black. Should have driving pics/vids up soon!

 

Might I suggest a tow bar?

 

I wouldn't want to tow it with all 4 wheels on the ground all the way to Mineral Wells. It's a 4 hour highway drive.

 

Me neither. I have a pair of junk 16s I install on the front for long drives.

 

cliffnotes:

sell a miata
buy a blown FC
install a KA
KA dies
install another KA
have a car that is equally as slow

got it.

 

I know right!

 

Pretty much! Haha. Except the final product has much more potential than a worn out Miata.

 

Yeah, put a VK in it already!

 

Well, my 5 day vacation is over, and I got everything I wanted done. Built the brake lines for the front and bled them, changed the water pump (old one was toast), fixed my cooling issues, took her for a few test drives, and just tightened everything up.

As much as I HATE to do it, I might raise it a little bit. Currently my oil pan is half an inch off the ground, and Mineral Wells is pretty rough. Not even room for a skidplate. So, I'm probably going to raise the front an inch, and either leave the rear where it is or raise it half an inch. I want a bit of reverse rake, and I think once I get some 17x9's with 205/45's it'll look good.

Go back to work tomorrow morning, so the updates will probably be slower. I just want to finish painting it this week, and take it to the exhaust shop when I get paid on Friday.

Getting paid to tub another FC, might start on that this week too.

 

Well, raised the front about an inch. I hate myself now, but it feels awesome.

Also, found out that Nitto NT450's make a lot of smoke. I am impressed. First time sliding with the new motor setup, feels awesome. The solid mounts make quite the difference. Also softened up my spring preload some since last time, feels good as well.

Picking up some 17"s tomorrow, got a smoking deal on a set of Drag DR-31's (Work CR Kai Emotion replicas), so I won't need spacers for the front any more and I'll have plenty of spares for Mineral Wells. They're 17x9, +17 rear and +38 front I believe. Might be cutting it a little close up front, I need to do some offset research to make sure they'll fit. I'll be stretching a 205 on them though, so I should be good for stock fenders.

So all I lack now is exhaust! I'm giving a guy a tattoo tomorrow night, and in return he's bringing me a fender, so I'm planning on doing a shoot soon with the gf's nice camera.

 

I've been slacking on pics, so here's a few.

Me and the roomie's S13 we just finished building:



Taped off for paint today....





Oh ****...

 

About to go pick up some rimmzzz. Here's a pic while you wait.



I'll have test fit shots of the new wheel setup tonight.

 

what kind of rims are those and what are the specs on them?