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Well, this is it. My main squeeze. The primary money dump and it’s honestly not that expensive of a car, I just spend a lot to keep it running, replacing aero, and continue to run out of state events all over the West. Already in the short two years of owning this car I have done more in it than any other vehicle I have owned and it continues to be my favorite vehicle I have ever had the pleasure of sharing these kinds of adventures with.
Day 1. I had a yellow S13 hatch with a 302. That was great and all but I really loved the look of coupes. The option of buying a coupe shell and swapping all that stuff into it was there, but this deal came up. It was a coupe with an S14 SR20DET and with the kind of driver I am, I actually loved the idea of using a simpler more traditional motor and not making ludicrous amounts of power, but just having a modest reliable vehicle I could throw down with consistently.
A friend wanted my car because it ran and was ready to go, I wanted his because it was a coupe with wiring problems he couldn’t figure out and a more valuable SR that I saw potential in. (mistake)
A few nights into it and we had the car running thanks to my good friend Brandon who is much more of a wizard at wiring than I. There were a lot of issues. This motor was reportedly fresh from Japan but the days of having fresh engines from japan that are a direct drop in and run are long gone. It had a stuck lifter, it had a seized and rusty water pump. It had what seemed to be a ROM tuned ecu but stock injectors? And it didn’t smooth out until installing an SAFC and running STI 565cc injectors and retarding them with the SAFC. But finally, we had it going and ready for it’s first event.
The first event was a long drive down to Albuquerque New Mexico. Not my first choice for breaking in a fresh car but with the timeframe it was the only option. We got there, the car did alright, but I fought problems all day. Old corroded hoses that sat in a japanaese salvage yard, that damn injector issue kept flooding cylinders after the car was warmed up. Many things. Still, the car was balanced and ran great when it let me drive.
At some point the alternator failed as well. We didn’t have a replacement so our option was literally ratchet strapping a generator in the trunk plugged into a shop style battery charger, attached to my battery. It worked, I was able to hot lap but other issues like overheating kept rearing their heads. I was getting kind of bummed about making the switch to an SR20 at this point. Before this my 302 never gave me problems, simply hop in and drive.
Back home and we only had a short month or two to hammer out the issues and make it to a very high profile event. It was an honor to be invited to the first Super D Matsuri at Grange Motor Circuit but I was also stressing on having a working car. This is also an event you want to show off your car’s best style, so paint work was in order.
Many long nights later grinding away and the car was (hopefully) ready for Super D.
Sort of. The car was fine for 1-2 laps but Grange is a LONG track. You’re pushing your vehicle and banging rev limiter for a solid minute, maybe minute and a half to get through the entire course. It takes its toll and unfortunately my cooling system still wasn’t up to par. This along with the same injector issues I kept having meant the car would do weird things once warmed up. Sometimes bog, sometimes not start, sometimes pull fine like it had all the power I needed.
Despite all this, the car made it through and we got a few cool shots and good seat time. It just wasn’t to the extent I wanted.
Back home I continued to grind on the car through the fall and winter and was getting better and better. It still gave me issues. Little gremlins usually related to being an older motor sitting in a japanese salvage yard for 5+ years, but others related with wiring and the tune. But it was getting better.
Spring rolled around. I tinkered on the car here and there, cleaned up wiring, tried to chase those gremlins, and of course styled up with fresh fiberglass. Bought a GKTech hiflow clutch fan for cooling issues. Things were starting to look up and this car seemed like it might actually be reliable soon.
In the spring some canadian friends of ours invited us to a private day down at Grange Motor Circuit again. I wanted redemption for the car’s poor performance at Super D and it was everything I could have asked for. I finally didn’t have to open the hood once the entire weekend save for checking fluid levels. Switching to the GKTech clutch fan and OE radiator shroud helped my cooling troubles IMMENSELY and the car ran flawlessly all weekend hot lapping with no issues. I learned backwards entries this event, a pivotal moment and at a very difficult track to do it on. I was finally in love with this car.
I was stoked with the car at this point. It was running great and looking good, but I did need wider fenders to fit the rubber options I wanted in the rear as well as complete the actual look I was going for. Spring is also car show season for us in Utah, the big shows all happen within a month or two of each other so we took a bit of a break from driving, prettied them up and displayed them. This was when the car was absolutely beautiful and ran flawlessly finally.
And then, disaster struck. Part of one of our sponsorship deals that spring had us doing a “drift demo” at a local movie theater for the release of The Fate Of The Furious. The car looked beautiful, seemed to be running perfectly, I had no reason to worry. But simply doing a donut in a parking lot and the motor decided to rodknock itself. The SR finally did what all SRs are known for doing. I was crushed, especially since we had a big out of state event in only a few weeks and I definitely didn’t have the budget for that and rebuilding an SR or buying a new one, and at that point with the uphill struggle the motor has been, I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to. That evening while getting burgers with the crew I had an idea. I already ran short 4.6 gearing, another cheap motor option was the VVTI 2JZ out of common lexuses like the IS300 or GS300. It was good for about 220hp, which is comparable to the SR20 on stock boost which is all I ran. Brandon was a JZ expert and was convinced we could toss it in within a few days, so work began. Out with the knocked SR20 and in with the NA2J.
There were a lot of what ifs with this swap. The entire drivetrain came from an IS300 and that means the key has an RFID style chip, and if the ignition module doesn’t sense this chip and send that to the ECU, it will not start. There are rumors of bypasses online but from everything we could find, it wasn’t possible. The car needs the exact ECU, ignition, and key to be able to start. This meant I did have to go with an ECUMasters Standalone which sucked for my tight budget at the time, but in the long run was very worthwhile.
The other what ifs of course were power, would it be enough? Would this car be fun? Luckily the event in oregon we were scrambling for proved the theory behind this combination right. HELL. YES.
The car was so lively again. On top of that, it was way better than the SR ever felt. The torque curve is smooth, gradual, not like a turbo car but not like the torquey gnarly V8 I used to have either. It’s very similar to an E36 if you’ve ever driven a properly prepped race one. It isn’t brutally powerful, but it has enough get up and go to be very enjoyable and put you exactly where you need on track. And on top of that the car ran cool! JZs will have troubles heating up after a few laps with turbos but NA it was not breaking a sweat at all! I could go 10, 20, 30 laps straight out there shredding in the rain bouncing off rev limiter and the JZ does nothing but ask for more. It was absolutely the best decision I could have made.But then, what about competitively? That was another concern, especially for some of the tracks we drive at like New Mexico with larger radius oval layouts and typically high horsepower vehicles. Well, that event was making it’s way back around and the car handled the top 16 tandem battles effortlessly. It is so unbelievably balanced and receives input so well, I have never felt more in tune with a vehicle than I have for this competition. I took down pros, guys I had looked up to for years, even as a kid, in this theoretical car setup that most people think didn’t have enough power. My final battle in the finals was against my teammate Brandon who ran a very similar S13, but with more than twice the horsepower I had as he was a Turbo JZ. And I won!
That event also happened just a week away from another big milestone in this car and my driving’s career. We had been working with a new lifestyle clothing brand for a few months discussing the possibility of a shoot at an abandoned airport in southern Utah. This shoot came around and to be honest, we didn’t think it would be that big of a production but when we arrived realized we were mistaken. This was absolutely one of the best times of my life. For years I had grown up watching skating, snowboard, ski videos wishing I would have the ability to bring the same cinematography and editing into a drift video and this was just that. The entire crew had worked on big name snowboard and skate productions, they had experience with the kinds of shots I was interested in. But most important of all, the crew had a very loose script, they wanted a few specific shots staging the “storyline” of the film. Meeting the lone trucker, being let into his complex, and from there on they simply gave us 4 days and this abandoned airport and said “show us what would be cool, tell us where to shoot it from, and we’ll make it happen.” This was the result.
After all this I was very happy with the vehicle. It continued to perform beyond expectations and I hadn’t even dug into developing the engine and dyno tuning, getting things like a cam or porting and polishing, there is still so much to do. But as is it is performing wonderfully. We ended that season with a beat of a thrash session at our local proving grounds and I beat on my oil pan a bit too harshly.
https://i.imgur.com/7qMgALHg.jpgNo worries, a simply pan swap and it was good to go.
Winter meant cleaning up the car a bit. Wiring was still a hackjob mixed up mess of OEM KA24 harness, SR20 harness, and now the JZ harness. I finally bit the bullet and took time to reduce a lot of the wiring mess, but it could still use some help.
I also wanted to simplify my gauge setup. I had been using a tablet with ECU Masters and their bluetooth feature before this but unfortunately it was too buggy. I was over the complexity of such a setup. It’s an NA motor, I just wanted a tach and a coolant gauge. It’s all I have found I realistically need for this vehicle.
Along with that it was time to try and pretty up the car. Unfortunately a lot of the plans I wanted to do with the car were stalled when I ended up owing taxes that year, and quite a bit. So I nickel and dimed and bought a few aero pieces here and there, but for the most part this car didn’t see any improvement. Considering how it had run though, I was not concerned.
The car continued to perform all of the 2018 season with little to no issues. I can’t praise the NA2J enough at how fun of an engine it is and how easy it is to work on. The upcoming plans this year are going to be building the current motor I have and putting a decent amount of money into the head via some aggressive cams and a port and polish, as well as higher compression bottom end. ITBs are on the list and I have a set of RB26 units, but I still need to figure out building an adapter plate.
This is essentially the car’s current state. Although it is torn apart and those fenders, lip, rear valances will be replaced with new ones along with paint. There’s a potential for a film gig in March and depending on that, it sounds like they may wrap our vehicles so we’ll see if that is worth keeping. If not it’ll go back to yellow.
Now, the details.
The car is a 1990 Nissan S13 Coupe.
Engine: 2JZGE with VVTI out of an IS300. The engine is currently bone junkyard stock.
ECU: ECU Masters standalone with a custom street tune done by Brandon.
Suspension: Parts Shop Max coilovers with custom 8k/5k rates.
Suspension Arms:
Front:
Voodoo13 tension arms
Custom 1.5″ extended and boxed front control arms
Custom cut and welded knuckles
Subframe and steering rack has been modified and moved forward for better angle and steering geometry
Rear:
Godspeed toe, traction, and camber arms.
Rear end: 4.6 final drive ring and pinion out of a Nissan Xterra 4×4 diff inside the factory R200 Nissan differential and stock axles.
Handbrake: Factory cable brake with HP+ pads front and rear.Aero:
S13 Chuki front end
East Bear copy lip
Chuki silvia sideskirts
Dorki Dori rear valances/spats
Origin Type III fenders front and rear
Rocket Bunny R32 GTR Wing
Dmax extraction vent FRP hood
Flashy Take Luck Yellow paint.
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