Matt's S12

When I first bought it (02-27-2005):



Running on 3 cylinders, no air filter, blown out muffler, badly leaking power steering lines, and a CA20E. Probably 70BHP at the time (before the tune-up, of course).

Now, a few used/knock-off items from eBay:




What else...

Oh, this isn't really new, but this is all my dashboard is:


And, I went from this, which is actually the weather boot that's under the interior's boot, but it didn't last too long and the rubber tore:

Now I have it set up like this:

Looks really good man, and HOLY thats a short shifter. Doesn't it take quite a bit of force to shift it being that short?

Nah, actually it's pretty easy to shift. 1-4 is no problem, 5th is a little bit of a stretch, otherwise it's pretty comfortable.

Maybe my trans is just a little worn out with 140k+ miles on the clock, but I can still blast through the gears no problem!

so how much do u think u invested in the car so far?

Wow.  Ok wow.  Your ingenuity is blowing my away.  I love stuff like that.  You get a big big thumbs up from me.  This reminds me A LOT of my honda days.  CRX with a custom laid back radi out of a ford ranger, lol.  Anyway, great job on your car and I'm sure you've only just begun.

Oh yea.  

Well, my list there is up to $6500, but it's really probably closer to $8000. LOL

wow you made all that look easy.

damn thats preety bad ass.
do u have any videos of ur car running on youtube or anything?

Sure do!

Before the turbo:
https://youtu.be/OSVZ64gi7H4

After the turbo:
https://youtu.be/LQdiDI4wnsc

Running around:
https://youtu.be/COBw5N0yUA0

nice dood, i cant wait until i get my sr20de. it has like what 140 hp? or more? do u also know how much hp a stock s12 has?

140BHP for the S13 (9.0 or 9.5:1 compression, no VTC), and 160BHP for S14 (10:1 compression, and VTC).

The stock CA20E has about 100BHP, CA18ET is 125BHP, VG30E is 160BHP.

The power will be right along with the SE S12, only the SE will have a little more lower end torque (it's a V6, duh!  ).
Otherwise, the SR20DE has a pretty awesome powerband, I was pretty happy with my S14 DE. Even more now that it's turbocharged, same low end, but a ton more high end.

Nice!

It looks like you haven't cut the trans tunnel back for the shifter so you are running your old ca20e transmission. Did you swap an sr gbox front cover onto it to match the engine??

Nice work by the way.

Are you going to trim up your guage surround to fit into your dash in place of the original instrument cluster?

It looks like you haven't cut the trans tunnel back for the shifter so you are running your old ca20e transmission. Did you swap an sr gbox front cover onto it to match the engine??

Are you going to trim up your guage surround to fit into your dash in place of the original instrument cluster?

very impressive work mate. I love the home style job, but also done with a do it once do it right attitude.

I'm sure ur stoked with it. i'd love to have a ride in it, but the flight over is too much

my mate has a CA18de+t in his sil and that thing pulls hard! I can only imagine that it would be better again.

Paint work looks like a decent job too.

Everyone that had rode in it has been pretty impressed, though they were mostly our local "ricer brigade" that I only really know two that hang out with the rest.  Mostly Honduh, Caviler, Neon, some gutless fox-bodies, and a ford probe.

The paint will get some more work done, probably will get some clear coat too... Now that we have a garage I can work in... Just need to run some power out to it.  Then I can get some more work done on the new rear suspension too.

Finally got the house all situated then huh? I wonder if we are closer or farther now... Should probably do a small Fall meet just to shoot the shit and drink beer.

Which reminds me, I should get some pics of the Bug and post them up. Hopefully I can get tires, brakes and some misc. other stuff to get it running by spring.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm beeeeeeeeeeeeer  I have ridden in this car, and i'd say it is a *bit* quick for sure      We should get together sometime that would be cool

200sxkitcar
Mmmmmmmmmmmm beeeeeeeeeeeeer  I have ridden in this car, and i'd say it is a *bit* quick for sure      We should get together sometime that would be cool

Yea, yea.

You just posted up about your mystery project car yet it says 'Bug' right above

SHUT UP!

YOU SEE NOTHING!

But some people aren't as observant

Why is it 5 lug in the top two pics, but its a 4 lug?

Ghey wheel covers man.

Damn I guess. lol My question is... why.

O well not like that now...

200sxkitcarYea, yea.

You just posted up about your mystery project car yet it says 'Bug' right above

I like

The reason for the wheelcovers, the car had them on when I sold it to him.  I bought the car from a guy who had brought it up from Arizona, and he had done some appearance-type things to it so it didn't look real bad.  Then it sat, and got kinda beat-up a bit, thats when I ended up with it....

NemisisFinally got the house all situated then huh? I wonder if we are closer or farther now... Should probably do a small Fall meet just to shoot the shit and drink beer.

Which reminds me, I should get some pics of the Bug and post them up. Hopefully I can get tires, brakes and some misc. other stuff to get it running by spring.

PM me you're # and I'll make sure you're in the loop if you don't have net.

P.S.- Roadrunner. I know, you've heard good, and bad, but if you cant get AT&T, might as well get something else.

You've got... PM?

I'll check them out, though our local cable co is Charter, and they want to charge me $110 to send out a tech for "self install" plus they want $60 after 6 months. Heartless.

Alright, still nothing much new, added a boost controller, upped it to around 8 or 9 PSI with maybe a 10PSI spike. Makes a HUGE difference from 7PSI, must have had too much fuel for 7PSI.
AFR's still peeked at 9:1 according to my datalogger, but I saw a steady 11.8:1 while holding full boost.
With the controller, it reaches full boost much faster as well, I have full boost by about 2800RPM, and that's on my tired and used T25.
The controller is just a bleeder type, made with a few hose barbs, a tee, and a needle valve for an Oxy torch.

I'm still researching for the suspension, still trying to get enough power out in the garage to run the welder. I only have a 50' extension cord, so I pretty much only have lights.
After looking at the wiring out there, I might have to rewire everything, and the welder needs a good circuit. I won't be finish welding it with, since it's only a 120volt portable, but it's more than enough to tack it together and take to work and finish it with a MIG or TIG (if I can get some time on the TIG, we only have one, unless I can slap one together).

I *might* be able to tig for you, I have a portable Lincoln Invertec 205 that runs on 120v-440v, auto-sensing, with all the gear.  Do you have a electrical panel near your garage?  Its not hard to run a 220V line

The garage isn't far from the house, so running a 220 line wouldn't be bad, just dig a trench and drop the line, hook up a few wires, done.
Just need to figure out a pair of breakers in the box for it (the previous owner kinda fucked the electrical), so I donno about that one, other than maybe an aux breaker box, but I don't have the money for more copper right now.

But you say it'll run on 120? What's the current draw on that beast? Phase?

It's no big deal, since we have all the equipment at work for doing it, but it would be cool to have some good stuff at home too!

I was gonna say, if ya want, I got 2 welding machines in my garage, nice bench area to work, so if you wanted to make a Saturday all day, I could even provide beer.

Eh, whatever.

Fall meet sometime? Maybe once it starts feeling like fall- rofl!

Hell yea we should.  Nemisis is alot closer to you, his welders might be easier to use... mine runs around 15 amps input at the highest it can go on 120V which is 150 amps output, more power than you really need for most stuff.  The phasing, it can also auto-sense, I have only single phase, and it works fine.  If you had thought about picking up your own, figure on having a solid $3500 worth of dime, mine came secondhand  but it is portable and I can take it and use it up there at any time   The whole machine is about 40 lbs.

I like the non-fall weather   And I like beer even more   What welders do you have?

My personal welder is a Lincoln "Handy MIG" (cheap, but gets the job done for a 120v suit case), at work we have mostly 450AMP Miller machines, though some of the ones we use for finish welding were made in the 60's, Miller and AirCo.

We do have some more modern Miller Maxtron 450's, two are being used now, after I resurrected them.

Our TIG setup is Miller too I think, I don't remember what cooler it has on it.

We use to have a REALLY old Lincoln welder supply that was all set up to do TIG in my work area, but then they moved it to the other shop.

It's not a big deal to have to take the stuff to work really, I can use any of the equipment there when everyone is off on break or lunch.

I'm always up for another meet, just name the time and place!

I have personally rode in this beast.

I gotta say, its a hella fun ride, even at only 8 lbs of boost instead of the 10 he started running later.

although you have to watch out for the damn ecu in the passenger floor boards.

good ride man, hope to see you again in the spring.

Yea, but you didn't experience the speed and power I did- and I nearly shit myself when I saw the speedo still rocketing up. We're not sure how fast, but it was over 100 and the motor just kept pulling like no tomorrow. I mean I was still slammed back in the seat from the acceleration Gs... And the minivas we passed looked like huge blurs standing still. That was at 8psi, after we had to pull over and wait for Garrett cuz he was running on 3 cyl. Then he turned it up to 10. Fun fun fun!

A little update...

The current engine bay:

Coolest s12 ever, sr20de is super fly.

edit: I just remembered that you turbo'd it, HAHAHAHA. I'd LOVE an s14 sr20de someday, you know, without the turbo.

Is that NOS energy drink your coolant overflow? That is funny as hell.

Yuppers!

It's pretty nice with just the DE, it's got awesome power, but I wanted a turbo too... So this has the best of both worlds! The turbo kinda needs a rebuild, but I think I might go with a smaller GT28and use the old T25 for a gas turbine engine or something.

Is that NOS energy drink your coolant overflow? That is funny as hell.

Yuppers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Hahahaha!!! I was trying to get my dad to use one of my NOS drink bottle as an overflow for his project truck.

I however really don't have much of an update, just that its now at my place and I can actually work on it whenever I want.

(https://i.imgur.com/BpATaU1.jpg)
Here's a pic of water tank and pump, including the nifty hammer arrestor that keeps the pump's pulses to a steady flow and also acts as a kind of pressure tank, so the pump only actually pumps every once and awhile.

The power to the pump is controlled by the relay for the fuel pump, so the water pump can only pressurize when the fuel pump is also on.

(IMG:http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/seishuku/WaterTanknPump.jpg)
Here's a pic of water tank and pump, including the nifty hammer arrestor that keeps the pump's pulses to a steady flow and also acts as a kind of pressure tank, so the pump only actually pumps every once and awhile.

The power to the pump is controlled by the relay for the fuel pump, so the water pump can only pressurize when the fuel pump is also on.

Hey Matt, what kind/size of battery is in this thing? Do you have a pic?

I'm trying to show Arro what its like, and how it mounts.

awesome project, looks like a lot of hard work. What did you use for intercooler piping? is it an s13 kit?

The intercooler piping was an eBay S13 kit, but it's pretty much universal.

Sterling, I don't have an actual picture of it, but I'll get one and post it up. However, the battery is 7x3x6, 680 max cranking amps (warm, don't know about CCA, probably in the 200 range, really needs a tender for winter use). About 15 LBS, and can't explode! (drycell)
The mount for it is just a piece of aluminum flat stock (1.25"x0.125") that I bent into the shape of the battery with some mounting flanges.