She is getting close!!:-)

[Orlando Roadster]

So she starts, needs to be tuned and finish up a laundry list of things but she is close to completion. ( until I start with the next thing that is...)

[Gregs672000]

I can only see the first three, but holy cow! Is that an industrial vacuum cleaner attached to that engine!?!?

[Alvin]

whoa! Did I miss the build thread for this?!
more details!

[Orlando Roadster]

I guess its never too late to start a build thread...

Lets start from the begining:

My first experience with Datsun roadsters was around '96 I was working at a repair shop as an entry level tech and my boss had a red 1500 that he and his wife took to the beach when I was back in Sarasota. He had offered it to me for $1500 on several occasions but at the time being a teen chasing girls I didn't think the car was cool enough to have girls give me a second look.

Many, many years later in 2013 and a few months before my wife and I were expecting our first born I decided that is was time to start a project car. (yeah I know great timing) My wife's main concern was that her car would fit in the garage with the project car in our very undersized 2-car garage. I looked at early mustangs, camaros, austin healeys and a few others before coming across a roadster on craigslist. I looked at the pictures and thought this car is cool and at a fraction of the cost of some that I looked at but needed extensive work. The ad mentioned that the project came with a s14 sr20de motor which started my online search and led me to spriso motorsports website. People have done this swap before and then some. Now I was hooked, a cool car with plenty of power and good brakes that fits in the garage with my wife's car and room to spare!

$1300 and she was mine!!!

[Orlando Roadster]

Shortly after purchase I rented a Uhaul trailer and hauled my gem to a shop that I thought was going to make her shine but many, many months later I realized this shop was a part time endeavor that was surpassed by a very busy full-time job and family issues. Fortunately it gave me some time to realize I wanted more power than the s14 sr20de motor the project came with, I wanted turbo power!

After trying to locate a clean s14 sr20det for months I came across a s15 sr20det power train and I figured if 5 speeds were good 6 were better not to mention I hear the S15 feels like a 6 cylinder turbo!

[Orlando Roadster]

Fast forward many more months and a collection of parts purchased from spriso and other places I was almost ready to part-out what I had and buy something that I was able to drive at purchase.

Fortunately, I came across Dennis Wagner's build thread and realized he was local. I met up with Dennis and he showed me his project, at the time a rolling frame with body on a lift, and told me he about the shop that was doing the fab work which happened to be less than a mile from my house. I stopped by the shop and met with "MT" and a short time thereafter I dropped off my pieces. The thing about MT is that he is used to much higher horsepower cars so he will always try to steer you to more power. So first my heavy walled 3" OD square pipe to run my exhaust through wasn't gonna cut it. So we cut that out and did a 4" round to run a 3" exhaust. Around the same time my shortened rx7 rear was ready. I decided to run 1985 300zx rear brakes.

[Orlando Roadster]

With the body at the body shop I found out that it was much worse than I was hoping and was going to cost more that it was worth to fix. I don't want a show car I wanted something that looked decent and was a blast to drive. So that week on craigslist I came across this...

[SPL311-27018]

and then......

[Orlando Roadster]

Current update....
Just had the tune updated and idle figured out. At 18 psi in the high 300s to the crank. Way more than needed for this car! It's a little scary! 225 sticky tires won't hook up even with the double trailing arms. Had my Miata double loop bar modified to work on my car. Next I will do the harnesses hopefully I can make them work for the Miata seats.

[spriso]

Congrats-- glad to see that you are so close! Always love seeing SR projects get done!

Michael

[Gregs672000]

Wow, sounds like a monster! Have fun and hang on!

[SABLT194]

Did you run that on a chassis dyno? 18# of boost is pretty stout, from what I've read the stock bottom end should still live happily with that. I'm seeing about 12-13# on a stock turbo and it's pretty darned "spirited". Once I get the car back together, I am taking a trip to the dyno for giggles. I'm expecting 225 at the wheels. Still crazy power for a replacement of a 96HP 1600 motor.

Good Luck with your project.

Regards,
Steve

[RCMike]

I'm expecting 225 at the wheels. Still crazy power for a replacement of a 96HP 1600 motor.

Remember that 96 means like 75-80 at the wheels..
lol

[SABLT194]

Yep Indeed

[SABLT194]

I really like the Miata double loop roll bar. I put a regular bar in my low windshield car and hate it. Almost impossible to get the top up and down without scratching something. Can you post some more pics of the roll bar install. I really only need the roll bar for shoulder belt mount. I'm sure not planning on getting the wheels facing up any time soon.