tommo1200

Ignore those leave springs in the photo they where before I made up a leaf pack it has around 5 now I think. With those 2 it used to roll around like a boat now it corners flat and has no axle tramp on hard launches.

Hi everyone. I have been on here for a few years now so i finally figured i would get around to starting a build (mainly because a few people wanted to know about some details about my ute) the photos i have are just of my phones from the years so pleas excuse lack of images and poor quality. I originally bought the ute at the end of 2009 it was all original and i was the third owner of it, it came with all the factory manuals and even the original quotes for the car and was in really good condition it was a 1978 manual column shift, bench seat, long try with the j15 and around 80000 original kms. i dove it around for about a 6 months before deciding to do a brake upgrade and to change the front to 5 stud. To do this i used r32 skyline 4 spot callipers with toyota hi-ace discs, for the spindles i used belltech 2inch drop spindles for the nissan navara d21 then used toyota hilux front hubs as the bearings are the same, though they had to have a sleeve pressed into them as the spacing is a little different, all the parts bolt together easily the callipers only required a 1mm spacer off the hubs i also need custom braided brake lines as the fittings where different. Fitting this to car was actually a little harder as with the new spindles fitted there was massive positive camber so to fix this i got new high tensile bolts and spaced the upper arms in more. Ignore the steering rack in the photo i will get to that later I drove around with the brakes for a another 3 months or so before deciding i just wana go fast. This lead me to massive question as to what engine to use i was going to use a lexus v8 or a ford windsor 302 but they needed to much cutting to the car, so this made my choice easier and buy now i decided it had to be a nissan motor. Originally i wanted to use a vq35de out of a 350z but i didn t have the skills needed at the time to do it (if i where to do the conversion now i would use the vq as i have now have a better skillset to do it) next i thought about the ka24de+t but decided against it only for the fact that in Australia they arnt supper common and most of the parts come from the states, next choice was the ca18det but due to its age and lack of aftermarket support these days so this made my mind easier and i went with the sr20det due to availabilty in parts and ease of install, which was harder than i first thought. Next was gear box choice and because i wanted to go fast i decided to use the sr20 auto and before any one wants to tell me a manual is faster on a turbo car dont it just isnt (ask my gearbox builder as to why we are born with 2 legs). So to get the gearbox up to speed it had a full manual reverse pattern valve body put into so i could remove all the electronics from it and enabling me to shift when i wanted and also allowing engine braking. so with the choices made i needed a few other parts luckily i had an old datsun 1000 coupe project i hadn't finished so form this i grab the Haltech e11v2 ecu and the 40 litre fuel cell. sooo now that i have a little bit of the story out of the way im going to just point out what i did and what was needed to make it all work so i will just brake it down into a few section i.e Engine, cooling, drivetrain etc etc Engine and gearbox: The sr20 will fit onto original mounts (Aus spec dont know about US) and the gearbox will fit in the tunnel if you use the manual box, but beacuse i went auto i needed to drop the motor down and move it forward as to fit the gearbox. (which is massive compared to the manual) So to do this i welded on 2, 100mmx10mm plates to the original mounting spots, then i need engine mounts and after spending what seemed to be around month searching i gave up and decided to solid mount the engine and gearbox. this turned out to be a horrible idea and after driving it around for a couple of months i finally made engine mounts using the standard sr mount with nolathane leaf shackle bushes. For the first 6 months of driving the sr was standard with around 13psi and made 131kw if i can remember so i needed more power. Because im not made of money and cant justify 5k on a turbo upgrade i went about a differnet way, i have alot of friends with evos which are all twin scroll so this lead me to the idea of using a evo twinscroll turbo in my sr so i picked up an evo 8 mr turbo of a friend for $150 and went about making a manifold out of stainless 316 sc40 tube with mild steel flanges dues to heat distortion. so for the grand sum of about $500 i had a twin scroll,equall length equall bend turbo set up. next i needed a head to make all this work so i sent it out to get it ported and flowed with chamber work done plus decked it a little for comp and installed a some jwt c1 cams with springs. i then used a cosworth head gasket and arp head studs to seal it all back up. also installed a shiny water pump pulley and some gold heat shield for that bling factor you might also be able to see the engine mounts. Cooling: With the Aus spec 620s our radiator support is a little different is ours protrudes into the engine bay, so what i did was cut it back and have a customs radiator made buy pwr and a spal slim line 16inch fan with a nismo thermostat. The water outlet is a billet item from datsport for the s14 sr and it allows me to run the turbo water lines from it and not around the back of the block. The upper hose is 2 90* bend silicone hoses and the lower is a 510 lower rad hose. All the heater hoses are connected with silicone hose and barb connectors. and because i got all ocd about the heater hoses i made this to delete the throttle body bypass and take all the water sensors all 316 stainless. for the intercooler i used a pwr off the shelf item as seen in the above images and just made mild steel tubing to connect it (will be addressed later as now im good on ac welding). to cool the auto i used a B&M cooler with built in thermo fan and all braided lines. Fuel: For the fuel system i used parts left over from my old project which includes a bosch 044 pump, surge tank, fuel cell, turbosmart 800 reg i used mostly braided line for the system. I made a cradle for the fuel cell and a bracket for the surge, i run 2 -10 lines into the surge which is gravity fed then run the return to the surge tank with the overflow going back to the cell. i also have 2 in line filters one pre pump and one just before the fuel rail. Brakes and suspension: As covered above the front brakes a r32 front callipers with the rear being r31 calipers with mercedes b200 turbo discs. The brake booster is from a 180b and the master cylinder is form a r34 GT-T skyline which is wired up to tell me if the level gets to low. I can say this thing pulls up fast now. All the suspension bushes have been replaced with nolthane ones and have put new shocks in all 4 corners. The rear leaf is a custom pack a frined and i made using springs from his Ford XY Falcon and the fornt has just been lowered on the torsion bars with drop spindles. Drivetrain: The gearbox it the factory sr20 box though has been played with and has a B&M sequential shifter. The rear diff is out of an early Hilux so i could get 5 stud all round and has a factory lsd (now fucked) i also converted it to disks as it was originally drums. The tail shaft is a custom 2 piece with f-150 carrier bearing and yokes. Electronics: I used a Haltech ecu for the engine management as i had one lying around. For the speedo i used an BMW e30 electric one with speed calibrator as the auto box has a electric speedo output. For the gauges i went with the plx devices unit as it has afr sensor and allows me to only use one gauge to monitor engine vitals, i was going to use a racepack dash but didn't want to ruin the stock looking interior to much. I made up a carbon inlay for the plx gauge and installed led shift lights and an ecu warning light. Steering: Now to the part which made me post this in the first place. so to clear the alternator on sr i needed to get rid of the steering box and to that was to install a steering rack. This does bring the wheel closer to you but not buy much maybe an inch> so to start ill break it down into a list of items i used to do the conversion. Ford steering rack out of a mark 2 escort with the long uni joint(i bought a new quaife quick ratio one plus solid rack mounts and billet uni joints) Ford capri collapsable steering column with uni (the convertible one with turbo motor) mazda or ford steering wheel (ie rx3-7 mx5 ford capri) Holden commodore rod ends ( i cant remember exactly which ones ill check my part number though i know its early model) The reason i choose the escort rack was because of the inner tie rod widths, plus availability of new and old ones and sits in front of the crossmember allowing for front steering of the hubs which is better for positve and negative bump steer set up. The way bump steer works is to do with the positioning of your suspension pivot points. So with that in mind i made a mount to hold the rack as high as i could go to the sump, which pulls it close to the theoretical line between the top and lower arms (remember my upper arms have been moved in around 20mm) and mounted it in place. The subframe needs to notched where the uni goes from the rack as it just touches it. now onto the column i got given this to just see how it fitted as a joke, wells turns out it didn't need much work. All i had to was remove the upper height adjustor and used the 620 original upper bracket with a spacer plate and new rubber mount. For the bottom bracket just spun it around till the angle was right and welded it in place i also had to slot one hole out for it to bolt up. The shaft between the 2 uni joints i had to get machined up out of 4140 which ended up being around 250 mm longs and 20mm thick. With the rod ends i bought a 7*taper ream (which was the standard Navara one) and had to enlarge it fit the Commodore taper as it was larger in diameter. As for the wheel i bought a stock Ford one but looked shit, so while the car was getting wired up at a mates workshop i tried on one of there rx3 race car wheels and what do you know it fitted. As to adapt the Datsun indicator stalk i made a ring with 3 bolts that clamps to the column and the Datsun stalk bots to this. As of now the car well its been sitting for a year due to blowing the gearbox while racing, also seeing i just bought a house with my partner a year ago i had to let it stand buy while life intervened. So this is where is am staring my ute 2.0 I am going to do a full cab off chassis resto with some other crazy stuff. plans include 3 link suspension with watts link and adjustable coilovers plus do front, full carbon tray, bonnet and guards (all painted and wider buy about 2 inches) Rewire it using a racepack smartwire. Half cage rear welded in with removable front half. Bucket seats as the beech seat is not supportive enough. Install the new turbo and manifold plus make a carbon composite intake manifold and tune on e85. Add Brembos to the front and rear (i have fronts already). Big wheels and tyres 18x10 with 295 tyres. Plus alot of other little stuff i cant think of. BUT none of this can start till after june as i have another car to finish for a customer first which ill post a pick of and im also going to the states for a wedding and to watch pikes peak.