Officer Mikeys Clean Twin Turbo LS1 FD Build
#1
Officer Mikeys Clean Twin Turbo LS1 FD Build
The time has come for me to do what I truly have been dying to build. A Twin Turbo LS1 FD.
If anyone else hasn't caught it you can see my last build thread of my S13 here:
http://zilvia.net/f/builds-builds-on...-rb-build.html
Heres a link to this builds album:
http://s841.photobucket.com/user/dow...ibrary/fdbuild
This FD will be the same quality as my S13. I'm a very nit picky guy on how clean I want things. I plan to take what I learned with my s13 and build something far better. I've got my hands on Ls1+Tranny set already. And just yesterday I picked up a straight 1993 Roller. The roller was purchased from a friend so I know its history. It was a bare FD that was put together with stuff from a wrecked FD among spare parts lying around. He had the engine bay painted and I believe was hoping to do an LS swap himself. Its multiple colors on the outside but that doesn't matter because I'm stripping her down and painting the whole car. As of right now my schedule in my head is put the engine and tranny in and fit it exactly where I want it then pull it out and begin body work. My s13 I painted the engine bay, put the engine in, tuned it, and then painted the outside. With this car I'm going to mach up the engine, pull it out, and do the engine bay and outside paint all at once. My goal is to have the car ready by next summer. Feel free to sit back and subscribe. The build starts now. Heres some pics of the goodies I have so far.
If anyone else hasn't caught it you can see my last build thread of my S13 here:
http://zilvia.net/f/builds-builds-on...-rb-build.html
Heres a link to this builds album:
http://s841.photobucket.com/user/dow...ibrary/fdbuild
This FD will be the same quality as my S13. I'm a very nit picky guy on how clean I want things. I plan to take what I learned with my s13 and build something far better. I've got my hands on Ls1+Tranny set already. And just yesterday I picked up a straight 1993 Roller. The roller was purchased from a friend so I know its history. It was a bare FD that was put together with stuff from a wrecked FD among spare parts lying around. He had the engine bay painted and I believe was hoping to do an LS swap himself. Its multiple colors on the outside but that doesn't matter because I'm stripping her down and painting the whole car. As of right now my schedule in my head is put the engine and tranny in and fit it exactly where I want it then pull it out and begin body work. My s13 I painted the engine bay, put the engine in, tuned it, and then painted the outside. With this car I'm going to mach up the engine, pull it out, and do the engine bay and outside paint all at once. My goal is to have the car ready by next summer. Feel free to sit back and subscribe. The build starts now. Heres some pics of the goodies I have so far.
#2
I've had the week off so I've been puttin in work. The upper tie bar replacement the body shop did on this car was poop. It was all rusted so I've been drilling spot welds, pull panels apart, removing rust, spraying with weld through primer, and welding parts back up. I did however make the most awesome modification ever. The two pieces directly in the front that hold the hood latch I drilled through the spot welds and tacked nuts on the back and make it removable via bolts. The pictures will show its awesome ness. I've been welding up holes burning time tell my mounts got here. Today I got the engine on stands in the bay. Tomorrow I will start to build the new cross member and mounts. For those of you who don't know I am a fabricator, a do it yourself, a picky sob. I don't like how far forward most mount kits put the engines and I don't like spending the extra mula on something I enjoy making myself.
#4
Its all 6061 T6. With 4043 filler. And yes my concerns are the welds cracking down the line but I was aware of this and knew I'd just have to keep an eye on things should be fine. The isolators should absorb most the engine motion and prevent fatigue. All the Aluminum mounts I've seen from auto manufacturers are cast, which get rid of the weak points aka the welds. However I do not own a kiln nor molds. Engine is all mounted up now. Gonna keep chugging along with the mock up until my body pieces arrive. I took time on the engine mounts making them look presentable but the transmission mount thats another story lol.. I just wanted to get it off the ground today. The previous owner of the vehicle was attempting a V8 swap as well and had already put bolts through for a tranny cross member. I did weld in thicker bracing above as thin body sheet metal tends to tear. lol
#6
So... The engine is back out and I've been working on the engine bay. Trying to get it ready for primer. Been welding up everything and shaving stuff. Lots of parts are beginning to show up. My kouki bumper is here. All of my shine auto stuff is here..
Just wanted to take a moment and throw a huge thanks to Ken over at Shine Auto Project. Hes been a lot of help. I've bought a lot of fiberglass stuff before for my s13 and its always been a pain in the *** getting the crap to fit right but I pulled out all the Shine Auto stuff and test fit it on the car and it fits so amazingly well! Its such a thrill to get a fiberglass part and its almost ready to paint. With some of the s13 stuff I had to cut and reglass over and over. Both Shines carbon parts and fiberglass parts fit like factory. Completely amazed and blown away. I highly recommend Shine's quality.
Shine Auto Project
Later down the line I will show you guys all of the parts from shine I went with. I also have been staring at so many cars trying to figure out a color for this car and I think I've got it. I sprayed out a test piece today to see if I like it. Right now my mind is on it but you'll have to wait and see.
Woopsies..
My room is beginning to get to full of build stuff :-/
Just wanted to take a moment and throw a huge thanks to Ken over at Shine Auto Project. Hes been a lot of help. I've bought a lot of fiberglass stuff before for my s13 and its always been a pain in the *** getting the crap to fit right but I pulled out all the Shine Auto stuff and test fit it on the car and it fits so amazingly well! Its such a thrill to get a fiberglass part and its almost ready to paint. With some of the s13 stuff I had to cut and reglass over and over. Both Shines carbon parts and fiberglass parts fit like factory. Completely amazed and blown away. I highly recommend Shine's quality.
Shine Auto Project
Later down the line I will show you guys all of the parts from shine I went with. I also have been staring at so many cars trying to figure out a color for this car and I think I've got it. I sprayed out a test piece today to see if I like it. Right now my mind is on it but you'll have to wait and see.
Woopsies..
My room is beginning to get to full of build stuff :-/
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#11
nice , looking good so far , and why in the hell do they mold that nose with the plate there, what the hell do you do when you dont want to run a plate , do they make those with that part deleted?
#14
There are some aftermarket replicas that have the plates deleted. The fitment isn't great. They are urethane bumpers like OEM but from what I've see don't line up very well. The other option is shaving it, but I'm a front license plate guy. I've always tried to include the few things in my builds to keep the cops off my ***. Run a front license plate. Don't have a horribly loud exhaust. Stuff like that.
#16
Dude I am excited like a fat kid in a candy store! I loved your S13 it was literally one of my top 5 s13's ever and thats an accomplishment for an old school 240sx guy. Amazing progress already DG....Sub'ed
#17
Ive always wanted to do this build. FDs when done right are soooo sexy. Had to settle for a LS1/T56 300zx instead bc they are easier and cheaper to find. Good luck with the build. Im jealous!
#19
Time for an update.. Been working endless nights after work getting the engine bay done. Lots of welding. Lots of grinding. Lots of sanding. Took a long time. Took a long time to strip most of the shitty white paint job off. Their effort on prep work was pretty poor. Running a screw driver across the paint just chipped it right off. No adhesion. Definitely a lot harder then my s13 engine bay. Outside should go a lot smoother. Getting ready to fit the outside widebody stuff. Finally got the engine bay into primer a couple days ago. Got a bunch of crap coming from Japan too. Now that its primed I've still got to redo all the seam sealer in the engine bay then reprime those areas. It should really look good after that. I plan to make panels to cover the open areas by the headlights then paint them. I would like to incorporate them into being airboxes.