more logo goodness

I'm nearly done with the S13 logos on the logo page. Well, actually, I am done with logos that I know exisit. There's only one I'm missing, and I cannot find any English language information on the package, much less if there was a special badge for the car. Added the S13 Silvia script, Diamond Q's and K's, and I think that's it. Updated FAQ section too. I use that to explain myself with hypothetical questions.

I still need to do the S13 guide, and redo the S15 guides..like I've been meaning to do for forever now. I'm such a slacker.

I hate being a dumbass. Since the motor for the '66 is using 351W heads on a 302 block, the stock push rods are slightly too long and preload the valves too much. Easy, and cheap, solution is to shim the rockers up. So I buy the shim kit and install them to check for preload. So I put in a lifter and push rod, tighten the rocker to spec and the damn thing is rattling around like a beast. Shit. Turns out I'm just a dumbass, the exhuast valves take lash caps...caps that I hadn't installed. Yeah, whoops. Those pesky lash caps get rid of that excess lash I had. Go figure.

Hopefully tomorrow the motor and transmission FINALLY get installed. I don't think we'll crank it up, although I guess we could. Since my father has to work on Sunday, we may cram a whole weekend's worth of work into one day. I get to spend all day Sunday working on shaving the passenger side door of the Ranger. Yeah, still never did get that done. I may have it done in one day, but given how late I usually wake up, and how much work actually needs to be done, I doubt it. Be close though.

I just realized how vastly out of date the '66 page is. I need to add that to my To Do list. I'm sure the '01 one is out of date too...I know most of the pics are. The lsit gets longer.

sometimes i wonder how hard it'd be...

Damn. I hate being wrong. I don't mind being wrong some of the time, but I hate being wrong about something I was so sure about.

Work on the '66 has continued, and, hopefully, this weekend the motor will be installed and fired up. I just got back from Summit with the last parts we needed. Something else we needed was rear wheels...I spent a good bit yesterday, and then again last night, measuring the truck to see just what wheels would work. I finally decided that 15x8 with a 4" backspacing would work. I was sure they would work...

They don't.

So now we've got two choices...make these wheels work by removing the inner fender lip and rolling the fender (if needed), or take these wheels back and order ones with 4.5" backspacing. Those wheels are out of stock until October the 24th or something, and are about $11 more per wheel. I've got a feeling we'll just make these wheels work. They are the style of wheel we want, afterall.

new shit, snazzy

If you're observant, you'll notice that if you click on the Silvia link at left, it opens up a whole new page. A jump page if you will. Its simple for now, and may always stay that way, but it allows you to directly access (technically indirectly) the various Silvia related pages. You're welcome. Whatever isn't a link isn't actually done yet. Soon, hopefully. I'm kinda caught up in graphics work. I do enjoy graphic work.

graphics, but not too graphic

I guess the Silvia bug has bit me again...

I'm working on a page where I'll have images of the various S13 and S15 emblems for use in ither projects. Why? I'm not really sure...maybe cause I can't find this stuff, so I made them for myself and want to share them. Or something. It's not live yet, and I've only rendered 6 images (OK, 3...with color inverses, which isn't hard cause they are B&W anyhow...) but I've got the works for several more, just have to tweak them. I'm working on the backend now, may launch it later tonite, who knows.

i must be crazy

OK, so since I'm now interested in the S13 (although my like and passion for the S15 have not wanned), I've been doing a bit of research on it. I'm running into the same problems I did with the S15, a complete lack of English language primary sources. To make things worse, since the S13 was out before the internets was popular, there is very, very little information from Nissan about the S13; I'm having to rely on 3rd party websites for info.

I'm crazy, I just know I am. I thought the S15 guide was a bitch (which, I noticed that I have a complete lack of engine info on the Japanese page...whoops) with as many packages as it had...two trim levels and then maybe 7 packages each, plus three special editions. There must be a total of 30 different base configurations for the S13. OK, so maybe only 15, but in nearly each, you can get some form of HICAS, which effectively doubles the amount of base configurations. What a bitch. Did i mention there are four motors? A trim level that has alot of wrong information on English websites, and one that I can't even FIND on English websites? B. i. t. c. h.

I guess one plus note is that for each configuration, I'm not finding nearly the details and breakdown as with the S15. So that's a plus in some way. Maybe.

Will you ever see S14 stuff here? Maybe, I'm not ruling it out by any means, but I don't really like the S14. The looks are...well, not my favorite. It doesn't have the rare exclusivity of 'JDM' like the S15, or the S13's attrition from age. Plus, there are a LOT of variations of the S14. Late, early, packages, HICAS, special editions, etc. etc. Fuck that.

Oh, and I may be starting on a new Flash Silvia related project. I hope it'll turn out like I want, and if it does, will kick ass and be the only one like it around. Hells yeah.

sweeet

This is why I would like to do a 240/S13 conversion. Isn't that a sweet lookin ride? If you say no, then leave...just leave. I even like the wheels, they are like a rare set of stock wheels, JDM only I think, that came on the S13.

I also found a site (Sport Compact Car's I think) that follows an S13 conversion and buildup. They did the initial purchasing of the car and swap, including motor, for under $3000. How f'n sweet is that? Makes me excited. Makes me really want money.

and the answer is....

S13 coupe. If you answered Sil-Eighty to last week's quiz, sadly, you're incorrect. Here's why: the 180/240SX hatchback is more common then the coupe. However, this is a trick question...the Silvia front end conversion is more popular on the coupe. Which is what I would do, a Silvia front end conversion. So, while having the coupe is in and of itself unique, the Silvia nose isn't. Then compound the fact that later years, there isn't even a hatchback, coupe only. In this case, I like the looks of the coupe better, so it wins. Yahoo.

So, I've been downloading lots of workshop manuals for the Silvia, S13-S15. Well, just about all I could find in the S13 type was either full of blank pages or horribly out of order. I took it upon myself to fix this. I'm also gonna go through it and make clickable links from Table of Contents. It takes a bit of time and makes my eyes hurt. Is it worth it? Probably not, but eh... oh wells.

sileighty? s13?

What's cooler, an S13 or a sileighty? Wiki them if need be.

spoilt; spoilt rotten

So for a few months now the hinge on my laptop were loose...but I don't really open and close the lid a whole lot so I didn't worry about it too much. Well, the other day the left hinge broke. Yup, broke it did. Well, yesterday, the other hinge broke. When it did, the lid (and screen) flipped all the way open and turned black. Shit. So I turned the computer off and rebooted. I can see that the FL light was coming on, but nothing was showing up o the screen. Fuck. To top it off, I couldn't find proof that I bought an extended plan on it.

Today mus be my lucky day. I found the proof that I needed and took my laptop in for service. I was afraid that they would deny me service, saying I abused the laptop. That's untrue. Simply untrue. Um, yeah. Anywho, my mother was off looking at laptops whilst I was taking care of business...she shows me one she likes and asks my opinion. Not a bad one, really. Fast forward a lil' bit and we're at Staples, buying a new one. So, my mom bought a new 17" widescreen laptop. She said that she had been wanting one for a while and this was an excuse to get one. So until I get mine back, I get to use another one. Badass.

While this is isn't quite as beefy in the specs as mine, it is still a nice laptop. I'm not complaining in the least bit, mind you. One thing I'm really afraid of it losing all my data from my other computer. I've got lots of music and pictures and stuff on that computer tat I don't want to lose. I really, really don't want to lose my data. Really. But go figure, I mentioned that fact to my mother, and she said she woulda paid the $100 data back-up fee...I shoulda went for it.

test...1...2....test

Am I lax? Very much so. No reason to be so really, other then pure laziness. Sorry 'bout that. I make no promises to be any better in the future either.

The day is nigh where the '66 will once again have a beating heart, the first time in who knows how many years, 2 at least. I picked up the motor from the machine shop today, and just now, I laid the crank and installed the cam. Tomorrow may come the pistons, but I really need to do some more clean-up work on the heads.

Did I mention the heads? No, I haven't, actually. They are now 351 heads. For those non-Ford guys or those who just don't know, the 351 head is a (almost) direct bolt-on to the 302 block. Why would we want to run 351 heads you say? Simple, they feature bigger valves (more airflow) and a bigger combustion chamer. The larger CC will reduce our compression ratio some, but not really enough to reduce power. We're also using some double-wound Edelbrock springs. The cylinder head is where alot of your power comes from, in naturally aspirated motors of course, so I'm hoping this simple swap will garner some more ponies. The springs will allow us to run higher RPMs, but I don't see, need, or want, a super high RPM motor, but at the same time I don't want the motor to fall flat on its face at 4000 RPM either. May go to roller rockers too. Probably not though. Probably.

So, I know you're dying to know, why was the motor in the machine shop? To punch it out of course. The idea was to have it overbored 30 thousands (0.030), although that wasn't possible. Turned out one of the cyclinders was worn past 30 already. Go figure. So, the only solution, of course, is to bore bigger. In this case, 60 over. Sounds like alot, and it kinda is, but its still in the safe zone (sorta), and as long as we keep her cooled down, we'll be alright.

Interesting note on this whole thing...we originally bought the 30 over pistons at Advance Auto (don't look at me like that...). Since our rods and pistons have pressed wrist pins, the machine shop needed to press the old pistons off the rods and press the new ones on. Well, after we found out we couldn't use the 30 over pistons, I took them back to Advance. The guy at the machine shop told me to buy my new pistons in one box, as they will all be much close in weight. The individually boxed ones can be off from each other as much as 10 grams. So, the other day I go to Summit Racing and get my new pistons. I ordered 8 individual pistons, but lo and behold, I get them in one box with a nice "Matched Set" sticker sealing them. Awesome. I weigh them, and sure enough, each and every single piston weighs the same amount, with one being about a tenth of a gram different then the rest. So, I get my new 60 over pistons back from the machine shop mounted to my rods, and just for curiosities sake, I weigh them all....they all weigh the same. I took a ball point pen and laid it on the scale to make sure the scale was reading right....the scale increased its reading by 2 tenths of a gram. Somewhere along the way, someone weight matched the rods. How awesome is that? We've now got a complete set of weigh matched rods and pistons because we had to bore the block twice as much as intended?

Long story, sorry. Got alot to say I guess.

There are still some important parts that need to be bought in order to make the engine go, like a distributor, thermostat and housing, oil filter relocation kit, valve seals...I think that's all. But the day is very close to when we'll fire that quite possibly bad ass'd motor up and let her pur.

Here's an engine spec sheet as I see it being built right now, just to whet your appetite:
302 bored .060 (311 CID)
351W Heads
Edelbrock double wound springs
Summit Cam- .520I/.544X lift, 292I/302X duration
Holley 750cfm double-pumper carb
Holman Moody aluminum Intake
Moroso high rise valve covers
Malory distributor with GM guts
Remote oil filter

I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff.

On, and get this, today we picked up a motor for our next project (which as of now is undecided, but I'm hoping/wanting a '29ish Ford Tudor Sedan), it's a 289 bored 60 over, port and polished heads, double wound springs, possibly titanium retainers (which may make them 10° retainers...), possible fully balanced, domed pistons, who knows what else. It's supposed to be a strong runner, it also supposedly had the cheater juice (nitrous) on it, which lead to a burnt piston (probably a dry set-up with too big of a shot). It's basically a short block, fully loaded block, full heads, no cam, timing, or anything else. No worries though, still aways out until we'll need any of that stuff. The plan for it is to eventually rebuild it as a full roller, make it stout and strong. Hells yeah.