It’s crazy that a month has gone by since my last update. This February has been one of the coldest on record for much of Michigan with numerous nights in the 0 to -25 degrees F range which has really done a number on my motivation. The car was close enough to completed for me to slow down a bit and only spend time out in the garage when I was really motivated to do so.

Despite the cold, I have managed to make some progress since my last update. The correct Koyo aluminum radiator arrived from Turn 14, so I was able to toss that in the bay and get all of the associated brackets and hoses buttoned up.

I picked up a set of NISMO engine and transmission mounts from a friend of mine, but found that the engine mounts just raised the engine up too much. I decided to sell them and replace them with a set of Cusco solid mounts. I ran these on the car previously and thought they had been discontinued, but was happy to find out that they were still available.

I decided to replace the knock off exhaust that came with the S13 coupe with some higher quality components, the first of those being another Cobra downpipe from Parts Shop Max. The craftsmanship is top notch and the downpipe is tucked as close to the chassis as possible, reducing the amount of scraping and blown turbo gaskets by a huge margin. I also really like the fact that it utilizes the factory downpipe to transmission mount bracket for a stronger overall setup.

Along with the downpipe, I picked up a cheap test pipe from megan. This piece will see the most pavement, so I wasn’t too worried about getting anything nice. This setup worked well for me previously, so I figured there was no sense in changing a good thing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, a friend was able to track down a Kakimoto N1 catback for me and I finally got a hold of it last weekend. I’m really looking forward to getting it on the car and seeing what it sounds like. Finally, I grabbed another set of Circuit Sports exhaust hanger bushings to keep everything mounted up nice and high.

Yury at Wiring Specialties was kind enough to hook me up once again with a brand new wiring harness. This time I am running the Pro edition harness which I am really impressed with so far. Super nice piece- can’t beat the quality of a brand new engine harness!

With the wiring harness and most of the exhaust now mounted up, I turned my attention to the fuel setup. I ran brand new hard lines from the fuel tank to the engine bay. I forgot to snap a photo, but hopefully the fuel setup should be all set. This was not very fun at all and I really hope I never have to tackle a job like that again. Really glad to have that out of the way!

I am very close to being able to try starting the car. I still need to fill all of the fluids, connect a couple more vacuum lines, and install the catback before I can give it a try. Hopefully with the weather warming up next week I’ll be able to complete the finishing touches and try cranking it up.

As for the interior, I received my Bride FG seat rail for the driver’s side and was able to finish installing the interior. I found a pair of rear plastics locally and tossed those in, as well as the hatch carpeting and NeXt Miracle Cross bar. I ended up selling the Safety 21 roll cage I had purchased because it was designed for a non-sunroof chassis. Rather than go through the work of cutting, welding, and powder coating it I decided it was best to make a little cash and address the cage later down the road someday. I still need to install the gauges and Pivot controller, but I’ll worry about that stuff later.

I sourced an OEM kouki 180SX wing from Japan (with cool racing stripe), thus completing the exterior setup. I dropped everything off with my friend Tim to have a buddy of his paint it, so that should probably be done soon. Still waiting on the Hot Road hood to arrive from GTR Garage, but I would imagine that will be here just in time for spring. I am definitely pumped to see the exterior of the car come together and hear it come to life again soon!

Some boxes arrived the other day from Work Wheels. They should contain some pretty nifty doo-dads. Waiting on a set of tires and I will be ready for spring!

I’ll try to keep the updates going, I know I am bad at that. There should also be a lot of new content hitting Speed Academy soon as well, so stay tuned for that! Thanks for reading.

Damon