Cleb's Street Style SR20 S14

TL:DR - Bought an S14 for $400 from an old man, yoinked the KA, installed an SR20, Cylinder 4 left the chat, We will rebuild!

The goal has always been a street style SR20 powered car, so that's the direction I'm headed, hoping to drive much more in 2024.

1995 240sx

s14 SR20DET

Tomei ECU

550cc Injectors

Splitfire Ignition Coils

Fortune Auto Prime Coilovers

GKtech arms

Rear Subframe Risers/solid bushings

Villains Angle Kit

Bimarco Halo Seat

Cheap Wheel

Random Gauges

5Zigen FN01RC 4x114.3 17x9 +20

Project MU rear pads

Alright here goes, Im going to keep it succint.

Around 2016 I decided I was done owning 240s, I never had one I was proud of...

In 2018 a front-end-wrecked s14 popped up for $400, that's a sign right?

It sat in my driveway for a few months until I finally decided to piece it together and ended up dailying it totally stock for about 6 months,

This car was great in stock form and I hate the way I went about building this car, no ragrets though I guess.

I did some maintenance and started stacking parts, and saving for a swap (regret)

So I had a very lucrative snow plowing season in Maryland and purchased an SR20 for $2600 in 2019, took over a year to get it into the car, and then I sold my house and moved to a house with no garage, didnt get the car road worthy until sometime around 2021, and this is what I regret, If I had left the KA in it I could have been enjoying the car for those two years that it basically sat.

I did finally get the car running and driving, cruised it to some meets, final bout special stage east, it was so enjoyable to drive, My first turbo car, my first swapped car, a lot of firsts.

Always knew I would leave the interior complete, Just threw in a wheel, Bimarco halo seat, some gauges etc

Anyway, long story long, I did a few drift events and a ton of smoke was coming out of the exhaust especially after boosting it, did a compression test and found cylinder 4 only at 30psi. So currently working on pulling the SR for rebuild.

Here are some photos along the way:

The s14 and my former Technoviolet E36 M3

12/9/23

Between winter daylight hours, a full time job, no garage and having a one year old, my only time to work on the car is during nap time, or here and there on the weekends if the weather is ok. I'm motivated to get the engine pulled to rebuild, however I know it's going to be quite a process and may not even be out until Jan 2024.

Today I got the intercooler piping off, coolant drained, radiator out, heater core hoses disconnected and some electrical connections disconnected.

You can see the baby monitor on the passenger strut tower, dad life really affects car life lol

11/18/24

Went almost an entire year without an update, but i got a lot (for me) done in that time.

End of February/Early April I got the SR20 pulled and moved to my shop (MINI dealer) and put on a stand, basically used my lunch breaks and arriving 30-45 minutes early to tear it down and start on the rebuild.

I just want to drive the car, not looking for any crazy power. So i decided to go as simple as possible. I measured the cylinders which were all still round, the 4th cylinder had some scoring but no gouging so i was able to paddle home it and take off as little material as possible. Well within oem specs.

I installed CP pistons rods and Rings

Regasketed the engine obviously

New oil pump

New water pump

New tstat

I had a spare head from a buddy with BC springs in it that looked to be much cleaner than my current one so threw that on

Mazworx mechanical tensioner

550cc Injectors rebuilt

Tomei Expreme Manifold

Brand new s15 T28

Faction Motorsports coolant and oil lines

During my wife’s baby shower over July 4 weekend the homie and I spent the day getting the motor back in the car, but not before fixing up a little bit of my crusty chassis issue.

Spent a couple months getting it all tidied up and fired it up for the first time Aug 18

Drove it for the first time September 22

Also Finally reinstalled a radio and some more trims

That pretty much brings us up to date 11/24

I still don’t trust the ECU in the car so I ordered a LINK from Faction during the Black Friday sales, was hoping to drift in 2024, but it looks like that’s going to be a 2025 venture. Life goes on.

Current status: maybe I’ll finally finish the fiberglass repair work and get my exhaust sorted out this year 🫶🏼

12/1/24

Winter is coming, probably going to be paired up until spring but did spend a little time installing a billet throttle cable bracket to get rid of the awful half cut washers on the stock bracket.

Bracket from Jason Frank at Distinct Auto Boutique.

Also reattached my power steering adjuster while i was in there it came loose for some unknown reason.