[hurddawg]

I have a sickness and its G20s. This is the 3rd G20, there is a 4th and its a P11 (just a heads up)

I keep getting more of them, maybe one day I'll actually finish one car:teeth:. But for now here is this car's story:cheeky:.

I picked up the car about a year ago, April 12th to be exact from a local. He had used it as a parts car and stripped it for the most part, pretty close to a shell. Picked it up for $180 and came with a clean title. Although it did take some time to get the title as it was in the previous owner's name and I had to track her down. Took about 3 months, but I got 'er done.

Only real proof I have that the car was a touring is the VIN, the silver VIN data plate and if you are savvy enough to notice, the rear windshield/window. All other telling features were missing.

Day I picked up the car

It was little dirty.

Soon after picking it up, I did get the outside of the car looking like a car. There was a QN0 at the local pick n pull at the time, so I scooped some of those parts. Installed and then washed.

So since then I just parked it until this last weekend.

It was missing a load more than seen in the pictures.

Fuel pump cage, steering column, brake calipers, engine harness was sawzall'd, radiator fan connectors were cut, one of the brake lines to the ABS was cut, no radiator and most of the A/C components, etc. Its pretty much the closest you could get to a shell without actually being one, but it was a relatively straight car considering but has its cosmetic boo boos.

I really didn't need another G20, but hey it was 1) $180 2) saved it from the scrappers 3) Good car to install my spare/duplicate parts and well its the only car I have that is a official touring model.

 

[hurddawg]

Day 2 - May 27 - May 30 2016

So this past Friday I decide I need to get things rolling on this car. So I rolled it on to the lift Friday night before leaving work.

I gave the front bumper away a while back. There was need for the bumper else where so off it went, but I do have a white one for this car now.

You may notice in the pic there is cable that is hanging down. That is the AT shift cable. Yes this car was an automatic.

Some pictures of the inside before going forward.

1) Auto to Manual swap
First thing to change was the pedal arrangement....2 pedal to 3 pedal...I only have a couple pics, but the firewall on the p10 doesnt have an imprint of where the clutch pedal goes. Only really location indicators was the cut out on the sound deadening and the 1 bolt that holds the top part of the clutch pedal. So what I did was knock out the stud on the clutch pedal. Once I did that, I was able to mount the clutch pedal to the upper bolt. Completing that, I put a punch through the bolt holes on the clutch pedal and marked where to drill. The main hole for the clutch cable, I used a hole saw. IIRC 1" one and then used an air grinder to shape the hole just right.

Another problem that comes up is that the oem MT P10 has a spacer welded to the firewall and it spaces the pedal from the firewall. Luckily I kept all the parts even that spacer when I did my hydro conversion on my KH3 P10. So I went ahead and instead of what the factory did, I welded the spacer to the pedal. If you dont have this part, dont fret, you can use washers or use some nuts to space the pedal. It does need to be done to clear the cable coming from the firewall.

Factory Stud

Stud removed

Spacer welded and the stud rewelded

Then I switched out the brake pedal....

and viola~! 3 pedals

After getting that done, I decided to I should work on the engine harness. I removed the old one and installed another AT harness (FYI you remove the A/C evaporator). Yes an AT harness not an MT one. Life will be much easier with the AT harness back in the car as all you really need to change on it to work on the manual are the trans switches (setup for AT) and the TPS sensor. If you go with the MT harness, you will need to swap plugs on the driver side frame rail too. If not others as well (ie inside the cabin). So I learned that keeping the same harness that went with the originally car is the way to go.

New Harness

The engine that is going in is the 20v that shows up from time to time in my other build threads. So I'm installing a JWT ECU that has a built in rpm switch. Although a bit pricey, JWT can use their N2O module to activate the cams and you run another pin from the ecu to the solenoid. I have no clue what they have it set at and its fixed. Meaning I cannot change the cam change over on my own. Anyway, this part I wasted time on....I had a hell of a time depinning a pin from the cut up harness. I could not get any of the pins to release even with a pin removal tool...I finally got one but I swear I had to pull on it so hard that I thought it would break. Once I got that pin, I ran the switch over wire with the harness.

Next up to bat was removing the shifter. 4 nuts hold the shifter assy on, 2 10mm on the top and 2 12mm underneath. The ones underneath require the removal of the heatshields above the cat. The shifter cable is also bolted the body. 2 10mm are located on the top of the "trans" tunnel roughly around the ECU. Take the bolts out and pry off the cable plate and pull the cable through the hole. I ended up cutting up the cable so I could install just the plate back to cover up the hole. I went ahead and installed P11 linkages from my other/original white car. I did this because the trans I intend to use will be a B15 trans that I had in the other white car. I thought for a while to go ahead and install the other 6 spd trans I have, but for all intensive purposes (money & time) I decided to go with what I had.

So with the shifter in, manual swap was for the most part complete.

I turned my attention to the brakes. The car didnt have any calipers so I went and installed a set of calipers I got from Charles a while back. I also switched out the rotors as they were about the rustiest ones I have seen in a long time. I used the rotors and pads I removed from the KH3 car when I upgraded its brakes last year. After a few pumps of the emergency brake, the rear calipers were ready to go.

I dragged out the 20v and finished up what I needed to do to get it installed....I made a bracket so I could remote mount a VE IACV.

I mounted it close to the "front" of the engine so I could have easy access to the adjustment screw. To mount the IACV I had to modify it slightly....I removed the part with the brown plug and flipped it around. This done so it would be easy to plug in. The other solenoid was already modded for me but it was replaced with a stock DE one. The IACV "intake" or draw portion was rotated so it was pointing towards the TB, but so it wasn't in the way of the brown plug. As seen in the photos, I use a brass 1/4"x 3/8" NPT 90* angle tapped in to the aluminum angle that Charles gave me (thanks Charles). Its important to note that the nipples needs to line up with the correct portion of the IACV. Charles also welded a piece of aluminum on the back side of the plenum so I could tap and the same fitting into the intake. This is the feed to the engine from the IACV. The plenum was also modified by Charles so a N1 TB could be mounted.

If you were following my other threads, this 20v was modified with P11 VE water pipes. This was done so I could use the mechanical FICD (Fast Idle Control Device) on the TB since the standard electric element FICD one from the DE is not installed (and would be a pain to). Hopefully it'll work as I think it will.

I swapped the accessories as they are the ones which are destined for the other white car (ie 20v AC compressor, 20v alternator and '99 G20 P/S pump). I used the Alternator and P/S pump I removed from the KH3 car as I knew they worked. The A/C compressor I ended up picking up from the wrecking yard as the white car's original unit was hopelessly disassembled lol and noisy.

So with the accessories set, I turned to the header. I have a couple headers I could have used, but this one was handy and worked with the VE ports.

I have an ASP, but was saving it for the KH3 car. Impul header is on the black car, I have a 3rd gen hotshot, but needs porting to work on the 20v and it was in shitty shape. There is another header that I have, but the downpipe was hacked up and it was still on that JDM engine. So for now I used this SS auto crap one. It was handy and it fit the VE gasket without work.

Removed the engine from the stand and installed the other white car's flywheel which IIRC is a clutchnet aluminum 11lbs flywheel. I decided I would go with the oem exedy clutch I had on the black car as it was hardly used. For some reason I always forget to install that metal gasket thing that sandwiches between the block and trans... so I removed and installed that stuff twice. Kinda pissed me off as I had the trans on when I noticed I forgot it...

Then in the engine went...

Whatever reason it was a real tight fit. I should have just removed the tps, but I notched the lip a bit instead.

After mounting the engine up, it clears with plenty of space. I stopped taking pics, but I got the rest of the A/C hooked up, radiator installed, clutch cable hooked up, most of the wiring on the engine set up. Still have an ass load of stuff to do.

Maybe next update I'll have it running!

 

[johnsmithson]

Nice documentation on how you are doing everthing. I am looking forward to future threads on the rebuild.

Thx,
Jackson

 

[LerkZone]

Quit buying g20's and get one ready for wcc2016 please

 

[hurddawg]

I do have a car that can go to WCC, I just can't get the time off this year. I tried last year, but I had to cancel my time off due an untimely quitting of an employee

Maybe next year....

 

[hurddawg]

Knocked out a couple things today....

1) Throttle cable bracket
2) CAI mocked up
3) Heater hoses attached
4) return fuel line attached

Started working on the MAF connector, but didnt finish as there was a meet.

More detailed post later on.

 

[daveracer]

If you need parts LMK. I am parting out a 94 Touring 5speed.

 

[j-tek]

Quit buying g20's and get one ready for wcc2016 please

true true

If you need parts LMK. I am parting out a 94 Touring 5speed.

hes trying to save all them p10s; yet here u are parting them out.. the irony!!!!!

 

[daveracer]

I know lol. This one is quite the project it looks like @hurddawg .

But hey, the cars I part out are sacrifices for the better ones to live on

 

[manjuice]

the 3rd one is always the best one

 

[hurddawg]

May 31 - June 12

So, things have progressed.

Weekend of 4th & 5th I did get a few things done as I mentioned, but ended up catching a cold, so progress was limited...

Anyway, most of my time was devoted to chopping up 3" aluminum tube for the CAI. I had 2 90* bends that I made work for the function. Everyone should try making stuff like this, you'll find it takes a lot more time than you think. But it is gratifying!

So I went ahead and made a simple throttle bracket using the available holes on the 20v manifold. In comparison to the other parts that were made for this to happen, the TB bracket was by far the easiest.

The heater hoses are a bit of a bitch to work. The openings on the motor themselves are slightly larger than the hose. Which is also the case on the heater core itself. With some persuasion the hoses will fit. For me, the coolant hose out the back of the head went to the lower heater core outlet with a piece of cut up heater hose. The upper one I used the factory hose without any modifications.

Return fuel line is easy, just connect up the P10 hose to the 20v fuel rail.

This past weekend, things got a little more serious although progress was relatively slow (I don't like wiring so I kind of dilly dally).

I studied and swapped the p10 MAF connector to a e60 one (95-99 maxima). The TPS sensor wire was cut off so I could put a MT P10 connector instead. Colors match up so that is easy. A tip here is that if you are doing a P10 AT - MT swap with a N1 TB you should make sure that you cut a good length off the TPS from the manual car as extending the wires are necessary. I thought I got a extra length, but it barely made it. 6" is recommended, imo. If you are doing just a AT - MT swap, you really do not need to do this as you can use the AT TPS sensor. I needed to do this pig tail swap as I needed to use a N1 Tb compatible TPS sensor. In case of a AT P11, you should be okay as well as the connectors should be the same.

Inhibitor switch/PnP switch wiring, is actually pretty simple. If you have MT P10 neutral position switch & reverse switch pigtails, it is a case of finding the wire colors from the inhibitor switch connectors. Should be a total of 4 wires. If done correctly, you do not need to do any jumping of any relays and the car will start.

Next up was repairs to the main harness on the car. The fan pig tails were cut off and awhile ago I picked up pigtails to fix this. 8 wires in total, took a little bit of time because of the location of the cut (near the AC receiver), but I gotter done. AC clutch activation wire was also cut, so I stitched that up too. Body's main power lead off the positive battery terminal was cut so I added a ring terminal and since the positive cable terminal was in rough shape I swapped that out to one that had a post on it. That way made it easier to connect/disconnect the body's main lead. Only thing I have not done was connect the VVL solenoid.

Inside the car....
I hooked up the all the electrical connections on the steering column. Then I connected the JWT ECU.

I went and then added the fuel pump. Word of caution...91-94 (up to 1/94) and from 1/94-96 cars have a different fuel pump cage. This car is a 95 and I had one from a early 94. It doesnt fit. So for the time being I removed the cage and the pump is just laying in the tank. Luckily Anthony helped out here and gave me a '95+ pump cage so I can install it properly.

Axles went in and then installed the front brakes. Filled the fluids including gas.

Actually fired up on the 1st try. Only problem is that #2 cylinder does not seem to be firing. I know there is spark, but I need to check fuel and compression. I ran out of time so I couldn't look into it too closely. Maybe this coming weekend.

Somewhere in between all the electrical stuff...

CAI being test fitted.

Anthony/Charles/DMS is helping here and they tacked the pieces together for me

Anyway the car "runs" but does not drive. I through a seat in the car just so I could drive it out. Needs a lot more work still, for instance brake bleeding. I need to check the fluids as I just filled them, interior, wheel bearings, etc.

 

[hurddawg]

true true

hes trying to save all them p10s; yet here u are parting them out.. the irony!!!!!

LOL. I'm a lil different.

I know lol. This one is quite the project it looks like @hurddawg .

But hey, the cars I part out are sacrifices for the better ones to live on

Thanks for the offer Dave, I'll keep in touch if I need anything. The car will look much better when I'm done.

the 3rd one is always the best one

Thanks, but I doubt it though. This one is a bunch of spare parts thrown on a car.

 

[hurddawg]

June 13 - June 19

Started off by topping off the fluids. Then I hooked up a gauge cluster so I can see what the car is doing.

Started the engine up and magically No.2 cylinder is working now. Dunno what happened in the mean time, but apparently a week long time out made that cylinder start working again lol. High idle is an issue at this point, but I fix that later on. After warming up a bit, noticed it is leaking coolant from the upper radiator hose, a pin hole leak. Sucks but I had another spare to use.

Also started changing lock sets...sort of. Prior to this, the car required 3 different keys...1 for the trunk, 1 for the ignition and another for the doors. I had the ignition key and the trunk key but didnt have the door one (which are the original locks), last weekend I found myself climbing through the trunk to unlock the car, so I thought I should probably get this sorted out. I had a complete lockset with oem infiniti key, so I changed out the ignition and driver door. The trunk one was done sometime last year when I installed the deck lid. I got lazy and didnt finish the passenger side one, but I'll get to it soon.Next up was the wheel bearings. I had a set of knuckles that had the bearings done but had 5 lug hubs in it for the other white car. I also had a spare set of 4 lug hubs so I swapped those. The wheel bearing on the passenger side was completely gone, while the driver side was marginal.

Next round, I'll need to change the swaybar end links are they are completely gone. The rear sway bar moves quite a bit so I'll need to fix the bushings there too.

Buttoned the front suspension up and started to finish up the brakes. I didnt have the brake booster vacuum line connected yet, so I worked on that. I removed the line from the firewall and straigthened out the slight knik in the end of the hardline. This way would give the hose a slightly less u-turn to make so it does collapse on itself. Then cut a piece of hose to length and viola power brakes.

Today, didnt get make time in, but did find time to bleed the brakes. So the car finally has 100% functional brakes.
Changed the upper rad hose and installed the welded up CAI. Finished the wiring on the VVL solenoid. Ran the engine for a bit until it warmed up fully and found that the fan were working. The high idle was getting pretty annoying, so I thought it was the FICD on the TB causing issues, but it actually wasn't, The cam wasn't even touching the throttle drum....so I pulled out my back up TB (which is new) and noticed the throttle plate stopper was set incorrectly on the one installed on the engine. Once that was adjusted all was happy.

So decided it was time to do a quick road test. Which ended up pretty dangerous.

Excited to see what the 20v would be like, I neglected to double check a couple things....the driver seat was just in there with no bolts. yeah that was bad, The seat has a tendency to flip back under acceleration.....The hose clamp for the CAI was just slightly in the way of the throttle drum causing the drum not able to return to closed position....yeah 1st outing found the 20v bouncing off the rev limiter of 7950.

Anyway after fixing those "minor" issues, I am quite impressed with the 20v. I had been buzzing around in my 92 with the RR thinking it was pretty quick, but the 20v was quite a bit quicker on 1st impression. The engine still needs dialing in a bit as I neglected to bring my consult equipment with me...So I need to set the TPS, timing and IACV appropriately, those parameters are eyeballed right now.

ANyway there will be a bit more progress next weekend, probably interior related mostly and swapping the fuel pumps.

 

[Snickers]

Get it running then strap it down....errrr.... Bolt it up. To the dyno.

 

[hurddawg]

Get it running then strap it down....errrr.... Bolt it up. To the dyno.

Definitely.

I think I have a couple more weekends to go on this car before its really oad ready, but its getting closer.

 

[Sev]

This g looks very nice.. Good luck with it!

 

[hurddawg]

Past couple of weeks saw some significant headway, almost to roadworthy status. Official update sometime this week.
Most of the interior including the dash is in, but I have to remove the dash again. I'm guessing it won't be next week, but the following weekend and it'll be drivable.

 

[hurddawg]

June 20 - July 9

The car is for the most part put together. I have most of the interior installed. Later on I would like to go through and clean up a bit more, I've been pressed for time getting it together, I've been doing minimal cleaning.

I did run into a couple bumps, so it is not completely done...I have to remove the dash as I forgot to install the ducting for the driver side vent and I need to change the airbag out. The air bag I had I thought was good to go, but I never looked at it closely...I was missing 1 of the brackets that affix it to the dash and the top was broken, so it wobbles. It is hard to explain. Right now I am waiting on a pair of 6.5" speakers for the rear and need to remove the front 4x6 speakers from the other white car. I didnt have a black driver side inner door handle so I had a tan one installed temporarily and was missing one of the door welts (passenger rear). I haven't touched the trunk area yet, but I need to throw the carpet in and add the side carpeting in as well along with the spare and wood spare tire cover.

Otherwise the interior is pretty much done...

Outside wise, I need to reinstall the bumper and swap out the passenger side fender. I met up with Colin this morning and picked up a QN0 t trunk so that'll complete the car to its former glory...

The sway bar endlinks are completely shot so I ordered all 4 along with ES bushings for the front swaybar. The rear sway bar will be swapped out with the KH3 car's rear sway bar which is larger and has the ES bushings on it already. The rear struts are completely dead, so once I get the FA500s installed on the black car, I'll transfer the AGX's from that car to this one and it'll fix most of the suspension problems. The UCAs are starting to show wear, so I'll have to eventually do something about those. Surprising the LCAs and tie rod parts are in serviceable shape...I'm so used to seeing torn boots, etc that the ball joints are dead but these are still serviceable. I'm sure later down the road I'll replace them though.

Lastly I want to go through the engine/drive train parts to make sure I tightened down everything properly...usually I spend quite a bit of time using torque wrenches, etc but I had powered through a lot of the engine install this time so I want to double check. Anthony/DMS finished up the welding for me a while back and I had it powder coated and installed. I did swap the fuel pumps and found out the pump was dead, luckily the pumps between the years are the same just the cage is different so I swapped that around. Eventually I'll probably pick up a 190L walbro or something. I was able to recharge the A/C last weekend and noticed it was having some idling problems. I think the solenoid on the IACV that bumps up the idle has failed, so I need to look into that. I also found all my old conzult equipment and set the TPS, base idle, timing so on that front its all ready to go.

Getting closer everyday, but man I finish I had more time. Once I get this sorted so I'm driving it, it'll probably be the last of an major car project for a little bit as I decided I'll sell my current home and find another with better car facilities

Anyway next weekend I hope to knock out a few more items on the list...

 

[hurddawg]

yay!

 

[hurddawg]

July 10 - July 25

So, quite a bit has progressed in the past couple of weeks.

On the 16/17, I disassembled the rear deck area so I could install some speakers. I ended up with JBL Club 6520s, not sure how they will perform as I couldnt find any reviews. I also went ahead and ran new speaker wire for said speakers. I also patched in an oem plugs for the radio. That wraps up the audio portion.

I met up with Colin and got the touring trunk/spoiler and afterwards, I headed to the PnP....I did not like the passenger airbag I had, so I went to the PnP where I found the p10 Colin had for a few days. I picked up its airbag and the driver side inner door handle. So once I made it back, I removed the dash I just had installed the previous weekend and installed this better condition air bag. Then remembered to install the air duct for the driver side vent and then installed the dash.

I finished up rest of the interior, now it just needs a cleaning. Instead of the stock touring floor mats, I put some B15 Nismo ones. For the price, it fits pretty well. I think I saw someone here do it and thought what the hell. The Nismo ones are med/dark gray and actually looks pretty good. Unfortunately the little hooks the hold the mats in place do not work however.

I also changed the passenger side fender as the color was waaaay off and my other white car's original bumper...which is in really rough shape, but white. I went through the suspension, motor mount, trans bolts to make sure everything was tightened down. Found a couple that needed attention, so I was happy I did that. I found a good solution for wiring the VVL solenoid without much fuss. The engine harness I used was for an automatic, as the car was originally automatic, and that left some plugs unused that were for the auto trans. There is 1 plug that is brown with about 6-8 wires, 2 or 3 happen to be switched 12v. Luckily I had the male side pig tail so i just spliced the VVL power lead in to the pig tail and plugged it up I still need to tidy up a bit of the wiring, but it otherwise I do think it is working.

Checked the lights and all but maybe a couple of light bulbs were burnt out on the car...lol I think I had 1 turn signal that was working lol. So I replaced those. Once getting everything together I let the car idle for about 30 mins or so while I cleaned up. Without a/c on the car ran ok, idle would dip every once in a while. Since I had problems with cyl #2 early on I thought the injector maybe on the way out. But otherwise ok, needs some fine tuning but ok. Plugged in the Egr temp sensor and solenoid valve to get rid of the CELs.

Look ma, no CELs.

I decide its probably safe to head on its maiden long voyage and head home. 3-4 blocks down the road, decide to floor it to see what its got and head up to 6500rpm and let off. Was unimpressed as it was gutless....coasted down the street in gear into the intersection and was attempting to make a right turn, gave it gas...it had none.....fuel pump died. I don't remember if I wrote about it here, but this is the 3rd fuel pump for this car and at that point, I barely drove it 1-2miles. Granted all old oem fuel pumps, so not too surprising i guess. I walked back to the shop and pulled out the pump from my other white car (sorry white car, I promise to put you back together lol) which is a Walbro 190L, luckily that car shared the same fuel pump cage so it saved me a bit of time. I walked back installed the pump on the side of the road, left the rear seats removed and drove it back to the shop and called it a day.

This past weekend, I didnt have a whole lot of time to work on the car as I'm preparing to sell my home and I'm doing preliminary packing & moving. But I decided that maybe it was wiring that was killing the said pumps, but I didnt want to change any more fuel pumps....cause you know its a lot of fun getting that black ring off and hoses. I ran 12awg from the battery to a hella relay with integrated fuse, and used the original fuel pump wiring as a trigger for the relay. I also ran a new ground for the pump as well to the car's main body ground for the negative battery cable. That should cure any possible problems as far as wiring goes. I'm getting 14v now, so its working good. I did not test before hand, but in my other white car which I did a similar wiring 'upgrade' the stock wiring was giving 10v, but I can't remember if that is running or not. Probably not running. Since I had my reservations about the injectors, I picked up a set of VQ rev-up injectors. Anthony mentioned that they had a superior spray pattern compared to the stock 20v ones so I picked up a set from a manual trans G35 for $70. Identifying the injectors are pretty easy if you are looking for a set, the rev up injectors are 12 hole vs 4 hole and are a lighter green color. VQ35s with VTCs on both intake and exhaust cams is also another way to identify a rev-up motor. I cannot remember the year range, but later manual g35s and 350z have them. After the engine stuff, I reinstalled the back seat and left for the day.

Today I did a little bit. I installed the driver side airbag and air'd up the tires. Test drove it a bit around the block and drove the car home. Somewhere in there I replaced the solenoid on the IACV, which helped the idle for the power steering, but not a/c. On a hot day like today, having a/c in traffic was nice

Yes, she made it home

This car and the black car are really different experiences and it was a reality check on how different the black car has become. The white car feels like a boat as all absorbers appear to be dead. Something is up with the passenger side wheel area, when you go over bumps the steering wheel jiggles a lot. Feels really springy. The P/S makes the car feel really numb compared to the black one. The seating position is very obviously higher in the touring car and in the black one you feel like you are sitting really low. Because of the gear box on the white car, 1st & 2nd feel like it has a lot of power compared to the black car. The top end of the cars feel somewhat comparable, but it is hard to judge really as the suspension on the white one is like riding a bowl of jello. The top end should be more impressive on the VE (compared to a stock cammed RR), so I need to look in to whats going on there.

So with engines a side. Here are the impressions in a short phrase

This car - 1980s cadillac
Black car - battle hardened spartan

Currently the black car is more satifying to drive. So it is clear what work needs to be done to this car and that is suspension.