Here we are – I am already slipping on my goal of one post per month in 2026. But it’s too early to give up just yet! I’ll hang in there and see what I can accomplish. Here’s a recap of what went down in February and early March.

At the start of the month, I was fortunate enough to fly down to Houston to spend some time with my best friend Jimmy and his family. I like to do this at least once a year if I can, and though it has gotten a bit more difficult now that we both have families, I always cherish my time down there. Though it was unseasonably cold down South, we still had a great time hanging out.

Jimmy had just gotten his JZX110 from the port a week or two prior. He bought the car over three years ago and had been waiting for it to be legal for export to the USA. We picked it up from having some maintenance work done and tinkered with it throughout the weekend, installing a Works Bell Hub and Nardi wheel, along with a GReddy front mount intercooler kit. We also had the fenders rolled, installed Stance coilovers, and a set of refreshed 350Z wheels that I hate to admit look pretty darn cool on the car.

Kevin made the trek out from across the state to hang out and it was great to see him as well. That weekend just happened to be when Frankie was in town to record some podcasts, so I got to see him and the Faction crew again as well. All in all it was a great weekend and sparked some motivation for me to work on projects of my own back home.

One part that I really wanted to purchase new for my 180SX was a Do-Luck Floor Bar. I had owned a few of them over the years and nearly bought a new one before my 180 even arrived in the states. As fate would have it, I went to order one the other day and found that it had been discontinued. This has happened with several items recently – I finally get the real deal and all of the cool parts are no longer available. A bit bummed out, I posted a WTB on Instagram not expecting much. To my surprise (and thanks to tips from a couple people on the internet) I found one for sale for a good price in California a couple hours later.

The bar does need some love, but I am confident I can find a way to get it looking good again. I was excited to find that this one has the badge in place, which was only available on the older versions. It’s not in the best shape, but still – a really cool find and a piece I am stoked about having in the car at some point.

An order arrived from Amayama with a few OEM pieces I needed for the car, including intake manifold and throttle body gaskets, clamps for the turbo drain, new exhaust manifold washers and nuts, and some various studs and bolts for installing the new turbo and downpipe. It’s brutal to pay the tariffs on little pieces like this right now, but it’s so much easier and efficient to get items from Japan vs. US retailers that don’t know what they are doing and rarely ever have anything in stock. If it needs to come over from Japan anyway, I feel it’s best to just bite the bullet and order directly from overseas.

I bought a new set of 4 fuel injector caps and planned to purchase a brand new fuel rail as well, but sadly found that it has been discontinued. It looks like I may still be able to get one from Japan, but the cost is much higher. Since it was essentially for cosmetic reasons, I’ll probably just hold off on that for now.

After a couple month wait, my order from Jesse Streeter finally arrived the next day. The first item this included was a DMAX turbo manifold. I have never had what I would consider to be a cool or rowdy sounding SR, and I think this style of manifold is likely the missing link. I am really looking forward to getting this on the car. If only it would stay this clean and shiny…

In order to make life easier with the larger turbo manifold, I decided to pick up a set of Non-ABS 180SX brake lines to delete the ABS from the car. Since swapping to Z32 brakes, the ABS seems to do some funky things. I had intended to keep it in place, but I think getting rid of it completely is the move. I need to spend some time learning about how to swap the lines and remove the large ABS module sometime in the near future.

The other item I was waiting on from Streeter that caused the delay was the GReddy suction kit. This is the same intake setup I had many years ago on my 240, and allows you to run an OEM S15 turbo with a Z32 MAF on an S13 SR. It’s a bit overkill vs a reclocking kit, but it looks so cool in the bay.

I found when I started mocking things up that the outlet pipe was contacting the turbo manifold. Thanks to a tip from my buddy Kev, I was able to clock the turbo just slightly to achieve some more clearance. I still need to finish bolting everything up after realizing I ordered the wrong gasket for the S15 oil drain, but I hope to get back to it soon. I should now (theoretically) have everything I need to bolt up the hot side. I can’t wait to see it.

One thing I am taking care of this offseason is replacing all of the coolant hoses on the car. I have a full set of OEM heater hoses that will go on before the turbo goes back in, as well as what should be every coolant hose on the cold side of the engine. I have started removing the intake manifold to clean everything up and take care of that – so this is on my list as well. It was so nice to get actual factory heater hoses vs the conversion kits needed to install an SR20 into a 240SX. One of the many perks of owning an actual 180SX.

Last weekend, my wife and I took a less than 48 hour road trip down to South Carolina to pick up my new hood. After working out all of the details with work and child care, we were finally able to cruise down there in our van on Friday morning and arrived about 12 hours later. I finally got to meet Thomas from Garage Abstract and his wife, as well as see his incredible GP Sports 180SX build. This has to be the craziest 180 stateside, and I am really stoked for him that it’s finally coming together after a ton of hard work.

With the hood secured, we drove 3 hours back up to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and spent the night and a bit of the next day hanging out there. What a wild place! I had not been there since Alicia and I went to Import Alliance 15 years ago. We really enjoyed being able to get away, even if our time there was short. Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly – and I was pleasantly surprised that the 22+ hours of driving didn’t feel nearly that bad.

After returning home, I began working to test fit the hood and get an idea of what work would be needed to utilize it. We had an abnormally warm night, so I swapped my recently installed NISMO engine mounts out for a set of Cusco solid mounts. These are my engine mounts of choice when installing a vented hood as they drop the engine down considerably and provide good clearance. They do vibrate the interior a bit at idle, but it’s not too bad if memory serves. Granted I am a bit older now, but fingers crossed it won’t be too bad.

I had installed washers under my Cusco strut tower bar to allow it to clear the valve cover with the NISMO mounts in place, and it probably cleared by 1-2MM at most. After the engine mount swap, I could easily fit my fingers under the strut bar. Hopefully this will be enough clearance for the new hood.

Though the hood is just sitting in place at the moment, the fitment seems pretty solid compared to my Koguchi Power hood. I do not think I will need to slot the hood hinges like I did with the KP, but I’ll know for sure once I tinker with it a bit more. It does look like I will need to remove my hood prop rod for clearance. Further fitting of the hood is my top priority for the car right now so that I can get it dropped off to Mikey in Illinois sometime in April (if everything goes according to plan) to have repairs made and paint it. I’ll have to be patient, but I think the end result will be more than worth it.

Finally, I picked up a Z32 MAF sensor for the new turbo setup. I want to utilize this as it matches the setup I had years ago, but I know many people now run a MAP sensor or a Z33 MAF. I am still undecided and need to purchase a Power FC, but that’s something I am going to figure out down the road.

I am diving into an interesting side quest this Saturday that will likely derail my S13 progress – but I am going to do my best to prevent that. I’ll share more details later in the month, but I am really excited. Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan! I am feeling really motivated to work on cars lately, and the weather’s slow and eventual improvement will certainly help feed that ambition. It’s always an exciting time of year.

Thanks as always for stopping by to check out my progress! I am excited to make progress on the cr when spring finally arrives for good. Have a great weekend!

Damon