Well guys, I've been a member on here for a while and I've always been a Honda guy but a few years ago I decided to pick up a 97 S14 off an old buddy and this is it's story.


I bought the car around July of 08 pretty much stock, drove it around for about a month, then decided it wasn't good enough so the tear down began.

This is how she looked when I got her.




This was the initial build plan. Turbo the stock KA24DE and see how that felt...

First came the parts...



Then the tear down and rebuild.
























Well, the KA had 220k on it so I didn't expect it to last long... And it didn't. It got out of the driveway, then it blew up.

Oh well. Time to rebuild... Again.

At this time I was working out of town about 9 months out of the year so I didn't have the time to do any of the work to the car myself. I also had a CBR954RR that kept me pretty occupied and put the 240 on back burner for a while.

Because I was gone so much I decided to do a swap through a local shop. And so, while I was working in Cleveland, this happened.

RB25 FTW



I won't get into specifics but around this time the car was in the hands of a "friend" of mine and to make a long story short, my front end, my blown motor and turbo kit, my seats and other miscellaneous interior parts "disappeared".

So, being that I'm captain positive, I said screw it! New wheels and tires, Bride seats and an S15 front end conversion were in my garage within a week.

























So that's how the car sat for another seven months while I left to work out of state yet again.



Then I quit my job... Finally, I can work on the 240 again!

Well, sorta.

Apparently when you quit your job they stop paying you. Who'd have thought that would happen?

Unfortunately, this led me to the difficult conclusion that I had to sell my 96 Accord DD project. It still bums me out sometimes to think of that car. It had so much potential...













Oh well.

At least I got $1200 for it.


The next day I picked up everything I'd need to do a 5-lug conversion and ordered an S15 core support from Nissan, then got on the horn and riled up some friends to help me weld it in and and fab up a charge pipe for me.

We were done with the core support and piping in two days and then I finally got to drive my beast, after having a running RB25 in the car for nearly a full year I finally got to drive it! I couldn't believe the power. I took it down the road and it was tearin up the tires through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd! --- Oh wait, that's because the vacuum line came off the wastegate and it was peaking at 27psi on the gauge...

Well, 5 minutes later we were back down to the stock and very safe boost level of 6psi. And thankfully, I didn't have another blown motor on my hands after 300ft of road use.

After that frightening episode I decided it was time to grab my trusty Nikon and snap a few quick shots of her. Unfortunately I left my ISO setting on HI so they turned out really grainy.















Then I got home and turned down the ISO and got a couple shots with some decent quality.








I got it running just in time to take it to a local drag/drift event called Midnight Madness @ Gateway Intl. Raceway.

The car was in no condition to drift, mostly because they are really strict on safety and my car didn't have seatbelts or a working e-brake, so I was relegated to the "Hard Parking" area in the pits where I got to let everybody ogle her all night long.

It was on this 120 mile round trip that I discovered my highway fuel mileage was in the single digits. I knew it was running rich but damn! Something was wrong. And thus began the research.

As it turns out, when you put a Wahlbro 255 fuel pump on an RB with a stock FPR you end up pushing 12psi of fuel over the stock rating across the board and your injectors start leaking.

So, adjustable FPR: Check.

As of right now I'm still waiting on a few things to show up. (Adj. FPR fuel rail adapter, passenger seat bracket, HID's, wheel spacers, and other random crap that I need)

Since the car was gonna have some downtime I decided it was time to start the 5-lug conversion.



After I got that one done I started the others and ended up ****ing up the threads on my ball joints when I hammered them out of the old spindles so now I need to either bevel the top edge of the bolt or get a tap and die set and try to re-die the threads.

Well, now I have some more down time so I started thinking about the badass vertical two-tone I had going on and decided it was time to fix it... After discussing the pro's and con's of three stage or single stage paint job with a friend who works at a body shop I decided to take option 3 and wrap the front end in black vinyl!





































Then I said "Hey! I wonder what my rear wheels would look like on the front?"

The answer is: Pretty sick!




















Hmmm... So since I'm still waiting for parts, it's time to add some color to my basically all-black beauty.

What color could it be?... Hmmm... Methinks PURPLE! HKS Purple to be exact.











BTW, if anyone is interested in the difference between VHT's and DupliColor's anodized purple, here ya go. Both have 4 coats of purple over the same silver base.




So now that I got the purple outta my system I had to come up with something to occupy myself until my parts get here.

I know!

Car cover.

I had a huge bolt of tan microsuede layin around and I know how to sew, so why not, right?

About 30 yds of fabric and 4 hours later...










Well, that's all I have to report for now. Hopefully the rest of my parts will be here by the start of next week and I'll be able to get everything buttoned up and rollin.

First on my agenda is to do a proper photoshoot for the old girl. I've had the car for going on 3 years and I've never done a photoshoot for myself. That's quite odd if you know how nuts I can be about photoshoots.


Here are some samples of my work.
































I've always done photography as a hobby. All the shoots above were done for close friends. If you're ever in the St. Louis area and wanna snap a few shots let me know.

 

Good job.

I like the new S15 front end, had a little mustang happening before ( and I love the s14.5 end ) .

 

i like the s15 front end better on the s15... im surprized that motor and turbo didnt pop when you hit 27psi!!

i have a 98 s14 with rb25... awesome cars

 

Thanks. The old front did look a little intense with that Body Armor hood didn't it.

Sweet deal dude. I also prefer the s15 on an s15 but as I said, when my front end "Disappeared" I looked for another Kouki front end with a good black paint job and the best deal I could find was $2200 for the whole bit. I sourced the s15 panels from my buddy Dewey @ JDMHookup.com and the headlights from an old friend in Japan for a total price of $1450. Add to that the cost of the core support from Nissan (~$225) and it ended up being a deal I just couldn't pass up.

And ya, I got VERY lucky the motor didn't blow. I think it was because the wheels were spinning the whole time so I didn't have a very heavy load on the motor. I was most surprised that the turbo was able to put out 27psi! I thought that little T28 would blow itself out around ~22psi.

 

"It got out of the driveway, then it blew up."

LOL

But nice job. Hoping to get an s14 sometime too.

 

WoW this is super nice. Your fourteen makes my thirteen look like poop... but i'm super inspired by this built.

 

Nice! Thats awesome

 

I'm a sucker for 240's since my DD/Track car is an S13 hatch with a built KA with a 3076R.
I would love to go with an S15 front, but I am paranoid about the cutoff on the stock lights being from a RHD car.
Car looks good my friend. If you ever want a brain to pick, feel free to PM me.

 

gooodd jop

 

looks super cool with the stock s15 front bumper, and i love all the purple ****!

 

definitely looks cool

 

I gotta admit this is one of the best posts I've read so far. You have a very clean set up in the car and it just looks beasty. I would like to see how she looks when youre finished with her.

 

I think the s15 front with s14 rear is my favorite combo. Car looks nice dude.

 

Looks great.... and RB FTW!

 

your old kouki front end looked super aggressive to me. but the new front looks great, and thats saying something as im not usually a fan of 15 front ends. good luck with continuing the build, its already bad ***.

 

Nice 40 yo..

 

Thanks for the props you guys, it feels good to hear from people who appreciate your work. I'm still jobless but I'm lookin hard.

My Accord has a TPS problem and something else that makes it refuse to start again if I turn it off, at least not until the temp goes back down to cold. That makes it a problem for finding work.

For the 240 I need a NISMO or better FPR, new LCA's on all corners, extended studs for the front and then a bad *** alignment and she'll be road-worthy.


I'll be sure to keep you guys posted (with pics) when she's up and going again.

 

nice man!!!!

 

That is 1 mean looking *****!

 

nice work the s14.5 is probably the greatest thing you could do to an s14. the rb25 comes real close though. congrats

 

Nice car!

 

Lookin good!

 

digggin the purple . did u buy lik a pint of it from someone with a hook up to hks lol

 

nice work

 

great work!! I own a S14 with a KA24DER. Yes, I said R.... its Supercharged