Nissan 240sx
Infiniti G35
Mazdaspeed 3
Wiring day! Dr. Hutchingson & Dr. SileightyMania were the attending doctors. We got a late start, around lunchtime. What a pretty beauty, the SR looked like my car came with it in there.
I dug through the box of goodies I salvaged off my clip and found some airhorns and threw them on my car. Now people better get the hell out of my way!
We changed my coolant reservoir, and finally the doctors were both there, ready to wire. While they wired, I changed my gauge cluster, yes again! I put in the one from my clip…so now I can actually keep track of the total kilometers that are on my engine. Also, I busted a scavenger hunt to find this really cute fog light switch that 180SX’s come with. Also, I had blow off valve drama, I forgot that I needed to weld the flange onto the pipe for my Greddy Type-S, so I borrowed some old ass HKS one from the shop. Also, during the wiring, Jason (the sweety mechanic) finished changing my brake pedal. Hours and hours went by. I swear it was like waiting in a waiting room for someone to get out of surgery.
10 1/2 hours later at 10:30pm, the wires were connected, the pedals were in, the fluids were in, and and all the lines were secured, the moment of truth (as Reggie said) came to. “Who wants to start it?” No one raised their hand, hahahha. I made Jason start it. 5,4,3,2,1 it started on the first crank. I was so happy! IT’s ALIVE! We made sure there was enough coolant, the thermostat opened and we added more and more coolant. It was time to test drive. Jason test drove it around the parking lot first. Then it was my turn…the 180SXxy sounded like a monster, OMG, it felt so foreign to me. The clutch pedal was odd and so were the brakes. The clutch caught at the top and the brakes were hard as a rock. I was not happy about that. The shitty old HKS BOV was non-adjustable, it was making my car konk the hell out.
I drove around the parking lot, scared as hell. I didn’t want to bone out, I just drove nice . I got up to 30-40mph and shift to second, I felt and clutch grab, very nice ;). The motor only has 30,000 miles, so the clutch shoud be good! I didn’t try to boost it, I want to drive it easy for a week. When I got back I told the boys about the pedals and we examined everything again. Some vac hoses weren’t connected and some brake lines weren’t on good. The oil pan started to leak too, just a little bit. The gasket got messed up during shipping my clip (this is to be expected).
We adjusted my TPS sensor, advanced my timing, tightened clamps, secured hoses and tried to drive her again, but she kept conkin out. Oh my gut…it was 12pm and I just wanted to go home and sleep. You can’t expect everything to be A-OK on your 1st test drive after a swap. I was concerned, but not worried. Our diagnosis of the situation: bleed the master slave cylinder, bleed the brake system, check all vac lines and clamps, change the oil pan gasket, put my BOV on, and check it out then. I went home lonely, I really missed my car. But, I better not rush things, or they won’t get done right. I just want to bring her home soon.
