Engine Swap Forum

Hey guys, well after looking at some really sorry examples of rusted out s13s I found this sweetie:

 

 

 

 

She's a VERY clean 93 SE with gray leather interior and all power, I've not seen too many with leather before (I'll probably swap seats out though anyway).  It's an auto but the 5 speed swap is easy enough if I stay with the KA at all.  It's got about 169k.

The best part is how clean the chassis is, I looked in all the usual spots for rust and found none at all, not even a little bit and equally nice is there appears to be no signs of previous collision damage at all, very straight and nice in the quarters and doors and roof.  The dash is crack free and all the power stuff works too.

I'm up in the air as to what I'll do engine wise but for the body I'm planning on a Silvia front clip, some coilovers and some 17x9-10's, whatever I can find for a decent price.  I want some seriously fat meats under there!

 

Anyway, let me know what you think, I'll get some more pics when I go pick up the car in a week or so.

 

Fred

Nice find Fred! I really am liking the white! I'm not the biggest coupe fan but with a silvia conversion they can look awesome!

Fred you know you want to do a VQ3XDE Swap! Heck just do a VQ30 with a stock ECU and a 00VI. That with some crazy grip tires would make an awesome canyon carver and autoxer!

~Alex

Looks very close to my car. Good luck with the project.

You know you want to swap a VQ in it. :)

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93 S13 Coupe SE VQ35 6mt
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2619993
Coming soon

nice project Fred!  Gotta ask, how much and where did you find it?  And by Silvia conversion, we talking S13 or S15?  Can't wait to see what you make of this one.

Hey Red, I picked it up for $1,600. 

 Where I found it is a funny and kinda long story actually. 

 I originally found it on craigslist, the seller was from Kimberling City (by Branson), he was just tired of working out it trying to fix the overheating problem and just wanted to get rid of it, he only wanted $450 for it!  In the listing he only had his email, no phone number so, I tried all that week to get him to call me or give me his phone number to call him.  He apparently sucks at all things email and took like 2 days to reply to me and still didn't give me his number but just told me what it needed and if I was still interested to email him back - so I did, no reply, then I sent another email asking for his address and if I could bring a trailer the next day to see it.  About 2 or 3 days later he FINALLY replied to that email to tell me it has sold the night before, ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGgHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!1

Also during that week I remembered I had seen the website of someone near Springfield that had a lot of Z's and 240s for sale about a year ago.  A few minutes on Google and I had found him again, name is Damon, nice guy.  Come to find out he had 2 coupes for sale and one coming in, he hadn't seen it yet.....hmmmm, interesting. 

 So that weekend me and my brother go to check out what he has and BINGO there's my $450 white coupe from craigslist, Damon hadn't even had a chance to hardly check it out yet.  So, I look around and talk price, Damon says he wants $2,000 for this one as is, I think "crap, I had this thing for $450 if that sucker would have just emailed me back sooner!!!"  then I think "but crap, it's sooo clean and rust free and it's white and it's a coupe and it's a 93 and it has leather and I've always wanted a coupe w/ a silvia front clip!!! I must have this car!!!!!!!!!!!!"  So we settled on $1600 and we were both happy, the end!

 

Fred

 

Oh ya, I'm wanting the S13 silvia front end, not the S15

Freakin sweet Fred.  That thing looks sick nasty clean.

You got a link to this Damon guy.  I'm interested in a sumer daily that doesn't get 11mpg.

Good luck with the project.  Of course don't hesitate to send me some PM's or call if you've got some q's. 

Seriously research the wheel offsets before you go crazy.  Fitting a 17x9 on a stock fendered car is extremely tricky up front especially w/ coilovers.

---

Creator of the first VQ Powered S13 Coupe

Here's his home page http://thezschool.com/ 

 

I had no idea it would be very difficult to fit a 17x9 on the front, I figured that would be cake from some of the things I've seen on zilvia but some of those guys are straight nuts with the wheel/tire setups.   What setup do you run on yours right now?

 

Fred

Thanks for the site man.  Thats sweet.  Maybe I'll give them a ring.

Yeah, the forums can lead to skewed perceptions because they're flooded with drift fanboys.  The drift look with the mad stretched tire will allow you to run a 17x9 no problem but I can't imagine you want to run a 225 on a 9" wheel. 

I cannot stand the rubber band look on anything but beastly 911's(Very VIP styled).  Currently I run 17x8 +38 offset with a 10mm spacer up front.  So really it'd be like a +28.  Tire size is 235/45 up front.  There is less than 1cm of clearance between the tire sidewall and the coil.  Cutting it any closer than this is an uncomfortable idea for me due to variations of true tire sizing from manufacturer to manufacturer.   I have the 20mm overfenders though so I don't have a great idea how this combo would interact with a stock sheet metal fender.

I think the problem area that people often overlook is that a coilover puts the spring down next to the tire rather than on a perch above it.  If you were to just run a nice strut/spring combo clearance issues all but disappear.

The rears are a different story.  There is lots more clearance back there and I have been able to cram more tire under there than most people said I could without rolling fenders(hate that look as well).  Since the wheelset I have now was originally from my Maxima they are matching offsets.  +38 all around.  In the rear this allows me to run no spacer and a 255/45 tire with -1 degree cambe1 and trimmed fender lips.  They look meaty as hell and I absolutely love it.  Plus the rim forces the tire to pinch inward and this restricts the sidewall squirm that normally accompanies a sidewall this tall.

---

Creator of the first VQ Powered S13 Coupe

its all about knowing your offset

to fit a 17x9 in the front of an s13 and to clear the fender and coilover without a pull you would need a +20~25(no more than +25 though) off set or a +15 if your not scared to run 225/40/17 and that will be zilvia approved flushness

but who gives a ***



and if your going to vq this one fred, use a RWD block will ya?

and use a stock k member, no sense in spending money on something you can get from zparts heaven or w/e

Project is moving forward.  Got it licensed and have been driving it for a few days, tranny is acting up a bit, drops out of overdrive for no reason and doesn't go back in at all, did that once.  I like the automatic...did I say that out loud? 

Ordered a Silvia front clip from BJ at Panda Garage, GREAT customer service from those guys, I highly recommend them if you need JDM parts and their shipping is way cheap.  They quoted me 215$ to ship the whole front end conversion from Cali to Missouri, believe me, that's cheap.  I shopped all the JDM importers that I could find online and these guys were the best, he even picked me out a white clip when I asked. 

PasswordJDM told me to "call back in a week" after I politely asked him to take down my email and let me know when some new clips got in, lame.

JRautoparts.com was cool, way cheaper on the front clip ($650 vs. $900) but his shipping was $450 and he wouldn't pick me out a white clip (I understand his position on this though, too many specific request to be able to cherry pick stuff for people) but, for the same money I had to go with Panda.

Jhot was okay but their clips in Denton, TX were rough, no go for me.

After I ordered the clip from Panda I surfed their wheel selection and found a sweet set of 3 piece wheels that I feel in love with.

http://www.pandagarage.com/wheels%20page/ProGT.htm

Got those suckers for $480 shipped.  17x7 fronts and 17x8 rears, they are Hasemi ProtGT's, never seen them before but I love them.  And, dual lug pattern is nice.  One day I'll want to run the 17x8's in the front and have 17x7's widened to 9 or 10's (depending on the cost of that, I have no idea the cost, might do better to just buy some different brand wider ones for the rear later.)

Here's a pic of the clips sans lights.

Here's a pic of the wheels:

 

I couldn't believe I found white wheels in this size for this price and they are true 3 piece wheels, love it!

I actually might repaint them or powdercoat them a different color but I'm not sure yet.

 

And, I got a SR t25 for $88 shipped so I'm planning on a KA-T setup with front mount and low boost for now.  No pics of that yet.

 

 

Fred

Get tension rods with heim joints. See my post on Zilvia.

17x9 will fit on the front without much of a problem if you have coilovers with camber adjusters. 17x9+20 is pretty flush. and 225 is really hardly stretched on a 9inch rim.

Mcoy, who has extended shock mounts(Koni/GC coils), can get away with a 17x9+35 with a 275 width tire, no spacers. It's super flush with a roll and a very small pull.

---

S13 Fastback...putting the chassis together.

Suspension before power!

very nice Fred!  Very nice, I'm going to have to come by and see you some time and check out the new car and parts!

Red Lion:

very nice Fred!  Very nice, I'm going to have to come by and see you some time and check out the new car and parts!

 

Ya, come by anytime, not much to see yet until I get some stuff painted and installed though.  How's the Altima coming along?

 

BTW, this car is so much fun to drive!  The handling on this old worn out suspension is so good, can't wait for coilovers.  Don't remember my last 2 S13's being this much fun at all, maybe because they were hatch's (shouldn't really matter)??  Anyway, I love this thing and look forward to a summer full of working on this rig!

 

Up next:  I have 2 2007 350z black seats ready to go in as well as a J30 LSD with axles and just put in an S14 LH manual seatbelt (nice!) hate those auto belts.. oh ya, have some Q45 front calipers and rotors redrilled for 4 lug and ready to bolt on, can't wait for the braking powaaaa!  

One of my goals for this project is to brake better then my buddies Sentra SE-R SpecV that I drove last year.  That thing braked (broke?) soooo good, loved it ,must equal that atleast.   If the Q brakes don't do it I have some 300z brakes that might be available soon....

 

Fred

If you upgrade to Z32 front brakes, get the back ones too, along with a Z32 master cylinder. Brake bias is key to good braking.

---

S13 Fastback...putting the chassis together.

Suspension before power!

Update:  Got the Silvia front clip painted and installed, LOVE the way it looks, so nice and clean now!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm doing the roll on paint you've probably read about online.  I did my 96 Tacoma this way and liked it and since this car was already white I won't have to do the engine bay or door jambs like I did on the Taco.  Only the front end has been rolled, the rest of the car will stay stock white for a while until lots of other things get done on the car like...5 speed install, 350z seats, carpet power wash and maybe dye black, suspension install, wheel/tire install, etc.  a million things to do still. 

Need to find an OEM s13 fog light switch so I can properly wire up the fogs on this clip, anybody know where to get one, they did have them on the dash right? (or on the turn signal?).

 

Fred