Tman7878's Rb26dett 240sx

[tman7878]

Update 1
Okay so I've been creeping around GTRC for a while and figured I might as well make one of these.
First off a little about myself. I'm a born and raised Edmontonian. Right now I'm studying engineering at the U of A. Between school and trying to maintain somewhat of a social life I've found time to attempt an rb26 swap into my 1991 240sx. The build is about a year and a half the making (started Nov 2010). Moving pretty slow, I know but I'm not the most experienced person and I'm trying to not let the car totally absorb my life (it pretty much has anyways). Okay now the good stuff!

About the car (when purchased):
1991 240sx Fastback
sr20det
HKS BOV
Tanabe coils
Megan racing exhaust
Autometer gauges
Rota D II rims
Battery relocated to the trunk
Koyo Radiator
Origin lab body kit
In dash double din DVD player

So when I bought the car it had been Sr swapped by the previous owner. Which I didn't really mind because I knew I would be able to get more for the SR than I would a KA. In hind sight I over paid a little for the car. Overall thought it's not a terrible base for a car that is 20 years old. Here's a few Pictures!.




Video of the car running

http://s447.photobucket.com/albums/qq199/tman7878/?action=view&current=0b8a59d9.mp4

So the original plan was to swap in an rb25 and play around with that. Everything changed when I found a listing for an Rb26 in edmonton. Not only was the engine local but it had been pulled out of a 240 so most of the mods were already done and the seller would include everything needed to install the engine in the new car! Again over paid a little for the engine but I was too happy to find one locally that was in good shape. Engine was pretty stock besides the distasteful green the previous owner decided to paint the valve cover! Here's a few pics of the engine.


Originally the plan was to have to car road worthy for the summer of 2011. That proved to be a bit of an impossible task with the ressources and time to work at my disposal! On top of that we ran into some issues pretty common with working on 20 year old cars. I'm proud to say that the car should be running and ready for inspection by the end of May 2012.

So the final plan was to build a fun summer car that can be street driven but could also make a few track appearances. Not to mention attend the odd car show/meet. My final power goal for the car on the stock turbo's is in the 400's and eventually with some internal upgrades and turbo upgrades try and get into the 500's. It will be hard but I think with an rb26 base it's attainable. Planned to do a full make over on most if not all aspects of the car. But I wont spoil too much! So stay tuned as I try to take you through the 300 ish hours of work i've put in on this car.

[1989blackskylinegtr]

sweet ride man. ya it will b sweet when all done with it.. good luck.. keep it updated.. thanks..

[tman7878]

Update 2
So first thing I did was go through the car and try and figure out what I could do before starting to pull the SR. THe previous owner had spilled copious amounts of battery acid in the spare tire well so that needed to be dealt with!
Here's a few before during and after shots.


All sanded down



Painted with flat black rust paint



I decided that since the car would be on blocks for a while that I would do most of the work in the garage at our lake house. Its bigger than the one at my house and would keep my dad from pestering me too much if I left a bit of a mess. Luckily the car would only be a 40 minute drive away (accessible but still pretty annoying).

SO then we began tear down of the car at the lake. Started with the body kit which was less than pleasant to remove and wasn't in the best shape.




After that we began the dismantling involved with pulling the SR.
Started with the exhaust


It seemed like the Car was running kinda rich and definitely had not been tuned properly. This was confirmed with the condition of the exhaust pipe.


Next we pulled off the intercooler



From there we decided to throw the car up on stands for some better access. At which point we ran into our first major problem. When setting the jackstand on the frame rail it broke through! Soon after we discovered that someone had simply panted over the rust to hide the fact that the frame rails had primarily rusted out. Its a common problem on 240's but it seemed like it was going to be a costly fix. Here's some pics of the frame rails.




They were in pretty rough shape but the rust was decently localized so a solution to this problem would soon be found. For the time being we supported the car from other points and carried on pulling the engine.

so we then pulled off the intake


THen the drive shaft



Then the tranny



Next we pulled the radiator


Finally it was time to pull the engine out!





Next Update will come soon.

[tman7878]

Thanks man, ill do some major updating tomorrow. Stay tuned.

[bellis_GTR]

Nice engine choice! I really like the body and dash! Looks real clean.

[GTRADDICT]

Nice project! Before doing anything I would fix the frame rails ASAP. And if you dont mind could you write about how it's done. My subaru has the same problem and wanna fix it.

Good luck!

[ColinR33]

Nice project! Hope to see you out at some meets/events later this year when she is all done. Makes me miss my old S13 that I sold 15 years ago.

[tman7878]

Nice engine choice! I really like the body and dash! Looks real clean.

That was part of the attraction for me to this particular 240. It doesn't need too much body work and the interior is in decent shape!

[tman7878]

Nice project! Hope to see you out at some meets/events later this year when she is all done. Makes me miss my old S13 that I sold 15 years ago.

Hopefully I can make it out to a couple!

[tman7878]

Nice project! Before doing anything I would fix the frame rails ASAP. And if you dont mind could you write about how it's done. My subaru has the same problem and wanna fix it.

Good luck!

Frame rails are already fixed and I'll be sure to go into extra detail when explaining how we fixed them!

[leeaspin]

Cool project man! I've always wanted to put a rb26 into a 240 or an older 280z...Good luck with the project!

[tman7878]

Update 3

So with the engine out it was time for some work on aspects other than the engine and such. The bottom of the car was pretty rusted and needed some tlc! Along with the rust a couple of the coilovers were leaking and the suspension was in desperate need of some work. Here's a couple random pictures to give you an idea of what the bottom of the car looked like.


The previous owner had done the conversion wiring himself. I had a bit of a rat's nest worth of wiring to deal with. I really don't enjoy wiring so this would be taken care of by the guys at autodream in Calgary.
I decided that the old coilovers needed to go and ordered some Tein Flex coilovers and some other goodies. Here's what got ordered!


Flex coilovers



EDFC


Koyo rad (turned out to be the wrong one so it will be for sale as soon as i'm done the build)


And finally some poly urethane bushings! (still haven't had a chance to install them)


Okay so I pulled the wheels off and saw what shape the old coils were in and also got a good look at the brakes. The pads were still decent but the rotors were pretty rusted and either needed to be machined or scrapped. I would take care of the brakes in the near future. For now it was time to pull of the coilovers



Next update will be about frame rail rust control! Stay tuned.

[tman7878]

Update 5
So I decided it was time to do a little damage control on the rust situation. Started by taking a screw driver and a grinder down with me to get rid of all the undercoat and cover the previous owner had done. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and hoping this was not out of ignorance to pass inspection and not in order to trick me into thinking it was in good shape. So after a good hour or so under the car I ended up with the following results. It was worse than I though! By the way that is a 17mm socket.

Driver's side





Passenger Side



As you can see the driver's side was far worse than passengers side. Because its is such an important part of the car I decided to go get a professional quote from "just cuz customs" in edmonton. I was quoted upwards of 2500 for welding the up the frame rail. Not wanting to pay this much I decided to look for another solution. I found a company named xcessive manufaturing who have made custom frame rail sleeves out of steel in order to reinforce the damaged area. This would add about 30lbs to the car but would solve the strength problem. On top of that the sleeves were about 300 shipped! here are some pictures.


I'm not a very experienced welder, so I got help from a cousin who does some pretty good welding. First we slid the sleeves over the rails. They were a snug fit and looked like a decently simple weld. We ground away all the undercoating around where the sleeves would sit.


To help remove the undercoating and bondo the previous owner had used we used a heat gun and a scraper.


All Cleaned up


The holes were pretty big! But as you can see the rust did not continue down the frame rail!


Then we used rust converter and black rust paint to cover as much of the metal as we could. This was to endure that the rails would not continue to rust after words.


Update To be continued!

[JDMotion]

great job man! looking forward to see your progress!

[Imation]

Nice job, thats a pretty extensive build you have their. Looking forward to see what's to come.