I don’t have a ton to report this week now that neither of my S13s are currently on the road, but I did manage to make a decent amount of progress on the coupe’s SR20 swap last week. Summer is in full swing which means we spend most evenings hanging out in our driveway with a few families in our neighborhood that we have grown close to over the years. The kids all play together and the adults typically bring camping chairs and a beverage to hang out together and enjoy the weather.

While we were hanging out one night last week, I decided to pull my intake manifold off of the shelf and tear it down for a refresh. My youngest daughter Alexi was interested in the tools and gave me some help with taking everything apart.

My wife was out at a girl’s night later in the week, so once I got my daughters to bed I braced the mosquitos and got the intake side of the engine together. I cleaned everything up and reinstalled the manifold with fresh gaskets and hoses.

This SR20 had a GK Tech throttle pulley installed when I pulled it from the donor car. I have heard good things about them, but prefer the OEM look- so I sourced a stock S13 SR throttle pulley from Japan and finally had a chance to install it.

Replacing the IACV hose under the intake manifold with a new unit from Japan.

I had planned to modify the coolant piping routing like I did on my other SR to avoid the bottle neck of hoses behind the valve cover near the firewall, but ultimately decided to leave it all alone in the factory configuration this time around. I could get sucked into making the engine a ton cleaner and painting everything, but I prefer to just give it a light cleaning and leave all of the finishes original. I want it to look decent and be clean for working on it, but it doesn’t need to be show car level by any means. I have gotten sucked down that path before and try to avoid it now whenever possible.

Fresh OEM PCV valve, hoses, and clamps from Japan.

It felt great to bolt everything in place with fresh OEM hoses and clamps. I have never had actual Nissan replacements for items like this and didn’t think it was possible to get them, so it’s really satisfying to see it all come together.

So this is where the engine currently sits. There’s not much left to do at all before it can come off of the stand and be mated to the transmission. I removed the fuel injectors and sent them out to be cleaned and flow tested, so once those are returned with fresh o-rings and pintle caps I can install the fuel rail and injectors. I need to decide if I want to spend the money to replace the alternator or not and then I can install that along with the fresh belts I purchased a while back.

A couple small things like the dipstick still need to be replaced, but for the most part I am very close to taking it off of the stand to install a fresh rear main seal. I’ll try to take the flywheel to the machine shop to be resurfaced prior to installing that. I plan to reuse the Competition Stage 2 clutch that came with the swap since it is nearly brand new and the same clutch I have in my other S13. I would of course prefer a NISMO clutch and flywheel setup, but it’s just too expensive- so this will have to do! I’ll then move on to cleaning and refreshing the transmission a bit before bolting it all up.

I’m working on lining up a pair of stock S13 SE wheels to use to transport the coupe chassis to have the rust repaired in the engine bay before eventually bringing it to my house. I’ve created a list of things I can then begin to install and work on once this is completed utilizing all of the items I’ve already collected which I think will be pretty rewarding if it pans out. I just need to find the time to get out to my friend Tim’s place where the coupe chassis is stored to help take it to the painter’s place for repairs. Hopefully I can do that sometime in the next month.

I must admit that not being able to drive my car during the beautiful early summer weather here in Michigan has been really difficult. I think having the coupe around to work on and drop the engine into will definitely bring some satisfaction that makes up for that void, but I have been heavily debating if I am making the right call lately. Things change by the day, so I can’t really say what the future holds at this point, but I am trying just to take life as it comes and enjoy it along the way. I would love to be able to get some wheels for the car, but the coupe build currently feels like a more exciting endeavor to pursue. There aren’t really any wheels that excite me right now, so it probably makes sense to wait on that.

Anyway, thanks as always for stopping by. We’ll be busy celebrating my oldest daughter Kinsey’s 7th birthday tomorrow which should be a great time. Have a great weekend!

Damon