Well, after managing to post here every Friday for several months in a row, I finally missed one at the end of 2018. Things were very hectic celebrating the holidays with various members of our family, and to top it off we all took turns coming down with the stomach flu sporadically throughout our time off. Seeing one of your kids getting sick on Christmas morning is heartbreaking, but thankfully it was a quick moving bug and everyone made it out on the other side. I am happy to report that we are all back into the routine of school and work and everyone is more or less healthy at this point which is really nice.

I haven’t spent a ton of time in the garage since my last update so this post will likely be pretty brief today. I did manage to spend some time thoroughly cleaning the engine a few nights ago and I am fairly happy with where it sits currently. I could probably spend a couple more hours to really fine-tune it and could probably even paint it, but I always prefer to leave the raw factory finish if I can. I’ll likely do just a little more touch up work after I remove the crank pulley (I realized my pulley removal tool is bent so I need to replace that this weekend) and then I can begin to reassemble everything with fresh gaskets and a few replacement components. I’m looking forward to getting it back together!

Prior to cleaning- pretty messy, but could probably be worse.

Progress so far. Not perfect but a whole lot better!

I can’t wait to replace that unsightly FRAM filter.

A few more maintenance items arrived this week from NissanParts.cc including an oil filter, stock oil pan, water pump, S14 oil strainer, and an S15 seven layer exhaust manifold gasket. Another order from Nissan should be here this weekend with small hardware items needed to reinstall both manifolds properly.

I also received my OEM Nissan clutch fan coupling and shroud. Say what you will about the factory clutch fan setup, but I have never had an issue with overheating while running this setup in my other S13 over the years. It’s so simple and hassle free! Can’t beat it for a street setup in my opinion.

I’ve had to delay my trip to Tim’s house several times in the past couple of weeks due to conflicts, but I should finally be heading out to see him tomorrow. I am planning to grab the stock suspension and steel wheels from my champagne coupe so that I can get the red coupe chassis in rolling condition to finally be able to sell it. I am really anxious to get that car out of my garage and put Alicia’s van back where it belongs. I’ll also be grabbing a stock exhaust manifold from Tim to use on my SR20 in place of the Megan tubular manifold that came with the engine.

I can’t wait to have this stuff out of my garage…

That’s about all I have to report for now! I hope to make good progress putting the engine back together next week. It’s not really a rush in any way, but I have been enjoying getting a chance to work on it. Thanks as always for stopping by and Happy New Year!

Damon