Final Bout preparations are in full swing at my house. I’m happy to report that the car is more or less ready to go at this point (or as ready as it will ever be I guess!). I ordered a replacement air filter that should arrive tomorrow as I am still using the banged up junky filter that came on my SR20 from the donor coupe I extracted it from. I had held out hopes of upgrading my intake and turbo and therefore had not replaced it, but I finally decided to set that dream aside and pick up a K&N cone filter. No JDM points, but it will serve its purpose and arrive quickly.

The fittings after being machined.

You can see how much farther the machined fitting (bottom) will thread into the steering rack.

Another issue I set out to solve is my power steering leak. I have had a fairly decent leak for a while now from the fittings in the steering rack that I have not been able to solve. I tried replacing the Chase Bays fittings with Earl’s units, teflon tape, and permatex thread sealant to no avail. Jimmy has been researching power steering lines and sent me a thread on Zilvia that explained the issue stems from the fact that all aftermarket -AN power steering fittings are shorter than the OEM Nissan fittings, causing them to not seat properly in the rack, resulting in a leak. The only solution I found was to have the flanges on the fittings machined down a bit to allow the fittings to seat properly in the rack.

I ordered the correct fittings and had them sent to my friend Camden down in Indiana to machine them for me. They arrived late last week and I believe they have solved the leak which is a relief! Fingers crossed things stay that way and no other leaks pop up any time soon.

While looking over the car, I ended up lowering it a little bit front and rear. The front is about the same, but the rear came down a decent amount. I’m a little self conscious about it as I have never had the car this low before, but I think I am sold on the look. I still need to get an alignment at some point, but that will probably wait until next season.

Everything appears to be in OK shape at this point aside from tossing the new air filter on when it arrives tomorrow. The car is gassed up and my tools are packed- all it needs is a good cleaning before Saturday morning and I should be set to go!

This weekend can’t come soon enough!