1st car build thread for our youngest

[djetok]

Well the car purchased and we have a plan. We picked it up yesterday and have already made some progress. We have the engine bay torn down and prepped, and the interior gutted. Now its on the lift, we were going to clean the underside really well. Guess what got it on the lift and it is clean and rust free.

I would post the pile of parts removed but I forgot and they are piled up in my parts room.


Today we will finish scraping the floor and paint the engine bay a nice ford blue, that will match nicely with this cobra swap in the 1996 240 sx.

I know a ls swap is easier but being a ford guy and having a guy (pro fabricator) that has put a ford crate in one of these before. Plus my son wanted unique and the engine will match the other cobras in the collection. I would love to do a 2.3 or 2.7 crate motor and that is not off the table yet. I like the 2.3 the best as we can have a motor that is upgradeable to 350 hp (focus rs) fairly easy and it would be way lighter than a aluminum 4.6.
Engine bay sanded and primed.

 

[djetok]

He wanted the engine bay , ford blue. To match the ford power plant going in it.

 

[14SX190]

Wow, what a great dad.

Is it staying manual?
I watch a lot of car shows and theres one where they did the ecoboost 2.3 or 2.5L Turbo. Is that what's going in it?
How do you wire new to old. It always seem to have ECU problems.

That will be a fun car to drive when it's done.

I would love to do what you are doing but I think I would have to move near you and use your facility. Is that attached to your house even better.
honey I'm going to garage

 

[djetok]

Wow, what a great dad.

Is it staying manual?
I watch a lot of car shows and theres one where they did the ecoboost 2.3 or 2.5L Turbo. Is that what's going in it?
How do you wire new to old. It always seem to have ECU problems.

That will be a fun car to drive when it's done.

I would love to do what you are doing but I think I would have to move near you and use your facility. Is that attached to your house even better.
honey I'm going to garage

Yes it is staying manual, if we stay with the cobra or 2.3 turbo (mustang motor) . I am trying to steer him to a auto as I understand life at this point better. It will be easier on him. The shop is at my business. It makes it easy to work on my cars at the office, i just wish my insurance company did not audit me like they do. I would put a hydraulic lift in. I can't justify the insurance increase for the business to do it when the quick lift works.

 

[Diybrad]

I used to have a 1997 240 that had a small oil leak. I had several full lsx engines and trans combos laying around so did a swap. It was a a fun ride. Getting the back end to get loose was so easy. Also had a 1993 rx7 with a turbo charged LS6. I bought a Honda Crx with delusions of grandeur to swap an LSx in but I didn’t have the time or patience for that level of fabrication. I was addicted to doing LS swaps.

one of my friends had a fox body With an LSx as well. Mustang guys always thought it was an abomination.

 

[djetok]

Little update. We have all but decided on the 2.3 ecoboost. I contacted a buddy of mine, who is a former drag racer and is world renowned with muscle car restoration. He moved to AZ a couple years ago to work at Barrett Jackson. He suggested me to call B & R performance and talk to Billy and Ryan Martin and also another speed freak. They are both racing no prep at the moment. Needless to say I want to get it right for him.

I want to get the balance as close to 50/50 as we can. Without swap a mid engine chassis that is not attainable. Like @Diybrad stated about the ls swap. I will not put a 600 lb drive train and make it a drift monster.

The eco is lighter than the ka24 that came in it and has twice the power and almost 3 times the torque.

 

[djetok]

Pretty excited, we got the guy we wanted to do the install. He has some pretty good credentials. Gt series national champ, a guy that works directly with Ford performance and he's local.

He has already completed a swap using the eco and he is doing one on his factory five car. He's coming to the shop tomorrow to look at the car.

 

[djetok]

My son and I just left the race shop and the guy then came to ours. He has accepted the build. It will go to him in November. Since is a ford performance guy and we are building this for my son. He also has a son at 11. He threw out an idea, which was something that I was going to ask about. He wants me to buy a full wrecked mustang. That way we can use the full ecu, while taking the abs system, trac control and stability. He is also going to try to make the my key system to work as well. If it doesn't he is just going to dyno tune a detuned tune for driving around.

Anyone have a wrecked s550 mustang 2.3l with a 10 speed

 

[TimW451]

That is exciting to see you go with the 2.3. I had a 2017 Ecoboost Mustang that became my boat. Did you say what year this car is? I didn’t see it. I look forward to following the build.

 

[djetok]

That is exciting to see you go with the 2.3. I had a 2017 Ecoboost Mustang that became my boat. Did you say what year this car is? I didn’t see it. I look forward to following the build.

It is 1996 nissan 240 sx. Its curb weight is 2700 lbs and we are putting in a 80 lb lighter engine. We will be moving the battery to the back, dropping the fuel tank, and putting in a 15 gallon fuel cell.

The guy is doing the running gear has done this to a previous car (65 mustang ), he is doing it on his factory 5 car, and now this nissan. He's pretty stoked to help too. He wants to see it run at Hallet next year to tune it, for auto x and road course.
This is the guy doing it.

First Ford Wins the OSUSC GT Class Championship

www.optimabatteries.com

 

[rkluck]

Wow you are going all out for a first car! You sure this is for your son! HA!

 

[djetok]

Wow you are going all out for a first car! You sure this is for your son! HA!

Well, yes you are correct. Its one of those things growing up though. I was 13 and I was always with my dad. I also always worked on the farm, with room and board as my salary. I grew up with a great family. I was with my dad when he went to look at some aircraft equipment at some guys house. He had a 1939 ford truck on the field. I begged my dad to build it for my first car. That didn't work. When my son was bugging me about his 1st car years ago, I had already decided thats what we would do if he wanted too. I love to tinker with cars while at the office. Its a stress relief for me.

Plus this is a opportunity for my son to turn wrenches, which he does not do on his race equipment. It will teach him about the car and how to set it up. The guy that's putting the motor in, he is willing to help in his race program as well. So there's that. This is also why I sold the boat, the wife gets the pool and we get to work on the car on the weekends and nights.

 

[PEARCE]

This project sounds amazing! It's like it's right off the Motor Trend network or YouTube. Looking forward to watching the progress. I'm very happy to see ya'll going with a Ford power plant. So many people are doing LS swaps when they repower something I'm guessing because it's easier or cheaper. When I go to car shows and see an old Ford and see a Chevy motor under the hood it almost breaks my heart.

 

[ripler]

I had a 93 240SX I loved that car, I only kept it one year because it sucked driving a rear wheel drive car in the winter around the hills of SW PA.

 

[djetok]

This project sounds amazing! It's like it's right off the Motor Trend network or YouTube. Looking forward to watching the progress. I'm very happy to see ya'll going with a Ford power plant. So many people are doing LS swaps when they repower something I'm guessing because it's easier or cheaper. When I go to car shows and see an old Ford and see a Chevy motor under the hood it almost breaks my heart.

Yeah the whole ls swap deal is cheaper. It will throw the balance way off. Which I suppose works well for the drifters. From my research, noone has done a 2.3 swap yet.

 

[Chris D]

Nooo. Put a Nissan engine in the Nissan lol. A RB25det would look nice in that bay, it’s easy to mod to 300whp.

 

[djetok]

Nooo. Put a Nissan engine in the Nissan lol. A RB25det would look nice in that bay, it’s easy to mod to 300whp.
View attachment 131451View attachment 131452

Reliability is really key for him. Being able to goto a autoparts store is a good thing. I know they are bringing more jdm parts here, but its still a crap shoot.

We can put the rs tune in it and have 350 at the crank.

Love the car though. I would not do that to a skyline though

 

[Chris D]

yeah that’s true on parts. Following the build. Good luck!

Reliability is really key for him. Being able to goto a autoparts store is a good thing. I know they are bringing more jdm parts here, but its still a crap shoot.

We can put the rs tune in it and have 350 at the crank.

Love the car though. I would not do that to a skyline though