The Excitement of Modifying a Car: A Journey of Disassembly and Reassembly

As we begin our journey of modifying this car, it's essential to start with the basics. We're going to remove various components to get to the heart of the matter – the engine. Martin starts by saying "don't talk" and that it's a car, which sets the tone for our adventure. He then advises against talking about anything, but we know that's not possible. The excitement is palpable as we start to take things apart.

The first item on the agenda is removing the coilovers, which should be a simple process. However, one of the bolts is completely thrashed, making it a much more challenging task. Martin mentions that this bolt is "completely thrashed" and that it's taking way longer than expected to remove it. The process is not only frustrating but also smoky due to the burnt remains. Despite the challenges, we press on, determined to complete our mission.

Next, we tackle the tiny factory side mount intercooler, which is easily removable. Martin is enthusiastic about this part of the process, stating that "people here's where we're at." We take pride in our work, knowing that each component plays a crucial role in the overall performance of the car. As we continue to disassemble the vehicle, we start to reveal the intricate details within.

The bin – yes, you read that right – becomes a temporary home for various components as we remove them from the car. Martin's "bin" contains everything from the front bar to the rear lights, showcasing our commitment to thoroughness. We take pride in our work, ensuring that every item is accounted for and properly stored.

The Power Steering and Belts: The Unsung Heroes

As we delve deeper into the car's innards, we come across the power steering system and belts. These components often go unnoticed but are essential to the overall performance of the vehicle. Martin notes that these parts are "boring to fix and modify" but also praises their reliability and cleanliness. We agree that these components are crucial to our project, and their smooth operation is a testament to our attention to detail.

The Turbocharger: A Game-Changer

Our attention turns to the turbocharger, which promises to boost our engine's power. Martin expresses excitement about this component, stating that it will make all the difference in the car's performance. We're eager to see the impact of this upgrade and can't wait to put our new turbocharger to the test.

Delivery Day: A Mixed Bag

Our delivery arrives, but not without some surprises. The box contains various components, including a purity box – which Martin reminds us is not actually a bin! As we unpack the contents, we discover an assortment of items, from belts and hoses to injectors and ECUs. These parts are essential to our project, and we're excited to integrate them into our car.

The Bin: A Temporary Home for Our Components

As we continue to receive deliveries, our bin becomes a temporary home for many components. Martin jokes that the bin is where everything goes, from the power steering to the rear lights. We laugh at this, knowing that it's true – every item has its designated spot in our bin.

The Purity Box: A Game-Changer for Our Car

Our focus shifts to the purity box, which promises to enhance our car's performance. Martin mentions that we'll be getting into this later, but we can't wait to see the impact of this upgrade. We're eager to spend some time on the phone trying to obtain OEM parts from Nissan, as they're essential for our project.

The Arrival of Boxes

As we continue to receive deliveries, our bin becomes increasingly crowded. There are multiple boxes arriving, each containing a variety of components. Two boxes have already arrived, and we expect up to 10 more. This influx of parts is both exciting and overwhelming, but we're ready to tackle the challenge.

A Word from Our Sponsors

Before we continue with our project, we'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsors, Mighty Car Mods. They've been supporting us throughout this journey, and we appreciate their enthusiasm for our work. We also have some merchandise that you might find interesting – click the link on our show's page to explore it.

Earmuffs: The Unsung Heroes of Safety

As we wrap up our article, we'd like to take a moment to talk about earmuffs. These simple yet essential pieces of equipment ensure our safety while working with power tools and other loud machinery. We've lost them multiple times, but they're always there when needed. Martin jokingly says that he's forgotten where he put them, but we know they'll turn up again.

Recycling Our Parts

Finally, we want to emphasize the importance of recycling our parts whenever possible. By repurposing and reusing components, we reduce waste and minimize our environmental footprint. We encourage you to do the same – start dumpster diving for the perfect part, and remember that every item has a new life waiting to be discovered.

The Journey Continues

As we conclude this article, we can't help but feel excited about the journey ahead. Modifying a car is not just about taking things apart; it's about understanding the intricacies of each component and reassembling them with precision. We're proud of our work, knowing that every item has been properly installed and maintained. The adventure continues – stay tuned for more updates from our workshop!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni am so glad that you are here joining us for this build series because this car has been 20 years in the making and some cars are just absolute classics absolute bangers absolute best of all time of their specific era in space and time on the continuum i would agree with all of that i used to have one of these cars 20 years ago i didn't i wanted to modify it i wanted to make it mad i neither had the friends skills or money to do it at that stage you get all the information off the internet everybody that was on the phones for these cars that always stoned they didn't even go on car cruises they just smoke a bong and float home but now all these years later we're doing it properly as quickly as we can smoking bongs because we don't do that and we're not floating home just yet we're skidding home we're gonna track float home on a cloud of joy once this build's finished but it's not finished it's just kicking off and to kick off and to celebrate the kicking off of one of my favorite cars of all time because this episode is brought to you by none other than mighty car mods we are very excited to reveal the next yes of the mighty car mods mad uh manga style posters this is a series either add it to your series or begin your collection occasionally we do these it's a very very special thing you can order yours we will individually sign it and then send it to you at your house anywhere in the world we're really really proud of these and once they're gone people they are gone and you may have noticed if you've been following with some of these series which do come out every now and then if they're cars that are particularly special close to us or have been an absolute massive project that we want to celebrate they end up here and so we commissioned the artist jest army to do this he's done an awesome job they are going to be available for a limited time only once they are gone they are gone i did see someone on ebay they sell for like hundreds and hundreds of dollars a thousand dollars that's huge from us grab yours now from us directly and now we really hope you enjoy this build series because we are we are so excited we're so excited so thanks for joining us and enjoy the build of the 180sx if somebody asked you what is the best car in the world you would probably say two-door sti a volkswagen up daihatsu and you might be right k truck except you're wrong it's actually an sr20 powered 180sx it's cool this here is going to be the dream build of creating the ultimate 180sx welcome to another episode of mighty car mods now before we kick off people i just want to have a quick chat about some facts and figures and the madness that has been going on in the used car scene now i bought this car in 2019 and i actually think i paid way too much for it i've got the receipt here i bought this car for nine thousand three hundred dollars which is about one thousand american dollars now even nearly 20 years ago my mates were buying these for 9 000 8 000 10 000 kind of the same so pretty much for the last 20 years the price of these has kind of just kind of been going like this and then in the last two years something happened something crazy happened people that i'm calling car gate is that like an evo leaving a meat it's like a mustang leaving a meat gate is the madness that happened with used car prices now there are two 180s x's for sale right now in australia one of them is a completely mounted non-turbo that's had a different engine put in it it's 35 000 and then there's another one that's like that that does have an sr-20 it is turbo and five-speed um and it's like 500 000 so what is going on i don't know but it would look like this car which is basically stock and super clean yep well well yeah it's filthy but it's super stock clean from the distance don't look too closely we'll we'll fill you in good from a far but far from good um but now because i actually have a history with these cars with s13s non-turbo 180s gtirs s15s it's now time to actually make the ultimate 180sx the car that i always wanted but couldn't do and now i'm going to do and you know what it's actually not going to be that crazy this is my plan a nice clean streetable 180 sx with 180 kilowatts wrong at the wheels wrong what you if you don't make a thousand horsepower you're not really a pro i'm not i'm not making a thousand horsepower now how much would this make right now it hasn't been done i don't need to dyno i can tell you it's going to make 110 kilowatts maybe a hundred so i'm pretty much going to do an exhaust that makes 128 and then with a boost control it makes 135 and then it goes bang so because you put 91 on i'm aiming for 180 but maybe i'll have a little flicky flick switch there that takes it up to 220 which is kind of what makes it awesome but the goal is 180 sx 180 kilowatt we're going 90 style people yeah 90s style so before we jump in let's just show you what we're working with today and then there is a boot full of spare parts and then there is stuff that has been ordered all over the world that is incoming for this car i'm very very excited this is what this is what i'm all about people i mean and i'm in volkswagen and this and this and yeah and falafel is good anyway let's have a quick look around the car and then let's dive into the build welcome it's going to be a magical journey it's going to be great come with us it's going to be awesome magic the mighty nissan 180sx is probably my favorite car out of japan before prices went crazy these were an affordable way to get into modifying cars track days and drifting with a 2-litre turbocharged rear-wheel drive manual package with a design that has actually stood the test of time this one is quite simply the best condition 180sx i have ever seen and i am going to honour that while also making it my own and building the car that i always wanted as a kid but never did there are a few areas that need some attention most notably under the bonnet where it looks like we've got a blown turbo so people 180sx you've got a bit of info about it there were about 300 000 at least jdm ones built possibly more i don't actually know most of them have gone up in bong smoke now they are literally they're either up in bong smoke or around the pole well they're under they don't exist anymore running in a wreck yard or some people are actually holding on to them as collectibles because as years pass and laws change in different countries looking at you america um it's then legal to have them these did go to america in this stage and also these things were built for a whole 10 years even when the next model came out which says a bit about the popularity this is technically a hatchback um but i just want to take you back a bit because i've spent a bit of time in some 180s stock ones modified ones over the years and also back when they weren't cool i mean they were cool because it was a jdm car but they weren't like you know forty thousand dollars plus they were just nuggets that you picked up if you'd upgraded from a corolla or a pulsar um so firstly stock not that fast yes they make turbo noises yes it's got an sr20 in it but they weren't that fast you weren't really gonna beat you know a skyline or a modified thing rexy's would give them a run for their money on the launch back in the day so really it wasn't this fantastical magical driving experience can you drift a stock one yeah particularly if you've got one with an lsd in it they go sideways well which is kind of partly what made them so popular but everyone everyone modified them now why did they modify them because of the reasons i just said they were kind of a little bit slow they were kind of yeah okay at drifting but you could modify them for cheap and get a huge huge result these days maybe that's not as possible if you go and buy a brand new you know golf r you got to spend big money and you know it's a big thing to go and go a bit faster with these it wasn't difficult exhaust boost controller and away you go so that's pretty much what everyone did any 180 that you saw had wheels coilovers suspension springs boost controller front mount that's kind of what it had and then the crazy ones people would put skyline engines in them or they would you know build the engines and go stupid with boost but we didn't have the fuel back in the day to make a thousand horsepower like you can today which is why you see cars doing it martin you are strumming my skin they were modified weren't they no because that's exactly what i had my 180 yeah it's kind of like you got a vertex style kit i say vertex style because most people it's like i've got a vertex kit that they got off nissan sylvia no it wasn't it was a vertex style kit you do a front mount you do an exhaust you do an intake you do some coil overs and off you go i cannot even believe that i'm saying this we are actually cracking out oh we're gonna have a purity i can't even believe it like i can't if you told me 10 15 years ago that you would need a purity box for 186 i would have laughed at you but i know there's some people out there saying stop they should just be stocked the purity they should never change and never mess with them it's beautiful this is a pretty nice one anyway so yeah it's pretty clean but we are going to be completely yes we're not going to throw the stuff in the bin we are going to throw anything we pull off and put in the purity box we're not pulling that much stuff off but we are going to do some tasteful nice modifications just like every 186 in the world has ever had before yes it's going to be good now it's also probably worth saying this car is currently unregistered um my where did my paperwork go you kicked it do you know where i kicked you stomped on it 186 purity box there we go there it is people back to standard if it ever what i don't know why you would but hey it's there at the authorised inspection station 180sx oh fail fail so it failed and then but when you go down to the notes and you go reason for the fail probably not surprising in the best possible result there could be is um the tires were bald on the back and that was probably because this person did a lot of very sensible runs to the shopping center totally that's all you need to buy their dog food so um there is a whole bunch of stuff in the boot that came with the car we're going to pull it out we're going to see what we've got like i said we've got lots of stuff coming i think we just need to start just exploding it yep getting everything done now we also drove this car we took it around the track and it was just blowing more blue smoke than its previous owners so um we need to compression test it and then the big exciting thing that's happening is the turbo there is going in the bin in the purity box oh sorry in the purity box it's not going in the bin it's going in purity box so one of the best things about buying a used car like this that is actually something that's quite nice is it actually came with a couple of boxes of spare parts so we're just gonna have a look through and see what we've got uh what it is that we need to keep and what can go in the bin i mean the purity box so i'm gonna put that one there get the purity box over here and let's just start seeing what we've got so we also need the bin martin can we please put some of this in the bin yeah oh yes in the bin all right so for example we probably can't put a flare in the bin can we probably dispose of that at a boat shop let's see what's going on over here all right so are they coils these are these are like the special yes are they actually alright coils i think they are well yeah they're basically what you find on volkswagens but they're good upgrades for srs awesome that's on the gtr as well great so yeah ngk coils and we have there is four of them which is how many we need so that is good button it's come with one of these what is a 180 sex without one of those hanging off the back even though no one can actually travel japan for years and seen one or used one uh we've also got some stock hoses which is pretty cool so brand new genuine nissan hoses which is cool i believe that's a battery tray which is cool oh a battery support there's that goes over the top of the hoses we have another one of these what's that for i don't know but they're little there's four nuts for something um pit work as well i feel like pit work is jdm well yeah that isn't oil filters yeah you do see them and there's lots of them so either they're planning on lots of oil changes or you've got basically like two years of ownership right there for your sr we also have bam bam box we've done a whole episode on how to install one of those pieces of yeah and yeah more battery tray stuff i don't actually know what that's for someone oh yes look at this one oh new shift boot it legit needs one of those that's unreal it's a good mods i believe that's sump plug pretty sure the cable type plug i don't know what they are oh some plug washers yes someone cares about this car man what's that oh that's for uh let's see i just don't know why the car came with this one what is it no i say still absolutely no it won't hurt you much i don't like it there you go what is it it's a bow tie tie there you go okay fantastic um and little green things i guess they go somewhere and a pit work belt well that's actually good man that's like a full major service right there that's awesome i believe these things are timing chains so we need to do a timing belt over here is a bit more kind of random stuff you've got your bow tie and your tissues there you go um there's a bunch of mounts here uh that's for adjusting coilovers that can probably go i think there's a bin battery terminals ngk spark plugs just kind of random random things but things that are handy to have all right let's compression test it then let's just pull it apart sure and throw all the old stuff in the bin done to the person in the youtube comments that was upset that i got rid of my rubber floor mat from my volkswagen up this is for you and you can get i i was going to use that one and i was going to use the dude no no look what look what is it nissan motor co march that's not 180 mats whoa you chucked my batteries in that is legit worth a lot of money you chucked my floor mats in there they came with this car that is not yours but you can have it that is legit worth money mine what else is in here that's much as well we got march formats with the 180sx that is insane thank you that is insane the comments section now why are you taking my maths back is it possible that these here are for the back of the march uh yeah but look they're pretty like someone's oh it says march it's this march that's worth money did you chop these in huh oh wait on that says march dude there's a rare one what are the chances there you go take those i could have used them in my build um and now oh these ones in the bin they're legit this isn't much no that says listen much that's mine listen march 2. dude the whole boot of floor mats is nissan not much stuff what does that say that says thank you legit that is worth money i'm not even joking yeah it's worth money sick what is this that was in the boot i don't know open it can you open it oh do you know what i think that is what is it i think that is the um that's the sunroof dude you do not come on man that never just delete it edit that bit now that we've seen what kind of extra loot we got in the boot when we bought it the first step is to jack up the car and investigate what's going on under the bonnet the bonnet is what we call the hood in australia and we call the trunk the boot and gas we call that petrol because it's not a gas powers in kilowatts measurements in centimeters and shrimps are called prawns damn it and people over revving their hondas through fart can exhaust we call them we're removing the spark plugs so we can see what kind of condition they're in and then we're going to set up for a compression test so because the car's been sitting the battery's a bit tired we are going to put it on charge it's still in good enough condition to keep but i do have a jumper pack on it just because we're going to be cranking we've got our compression tester on cylinder one we're looking for 150 160 but most importantly is consistency along the whole lot so throttle open fuel pump off all the spark plugs out and give it a crank please sir here we go yep 160 160. yep so this one's 160 and smell old fuel we go ahead and test all four cylinders and they're looking healthy at 160 psi i just want to highlight how good the interior is of this 180sx a lot of the time when you get these cars there's kind of holes in the dash from where people in japan have put gauges and all sorts of random accessories and stuff this is so clean it is i mean i've never seen anything like it the doors the carpets the handles there's no cracking on it there's no stains or marks on it it's just it's amazing so pumped so as part of our mild modifications we are going to do a coil upgrade we're doing that because we are also going to go to an aftermarket ecu to give us a bit more control and also give us the ability to do that now these factory coils are known for cracking and sure enough even that first one has a giant crack the whole way down here and it just it just makes a misbehavior sort of a common fix so back in the day you could just put replacement coils as aftermarket options as well we're going to go for an even more modern coil that does require an aftermarket ecu to run it so all this is going to get disconnected and pulled off we just make a new little sub loom that goes from here into the new coils three out of four yeah that one cylinder four straight down there yeah cylinder three two survived somehow probably because they've got probably because that one got replaced yeah back when i had my 180 when i was young every few months or something it felt like you had to change these because i could never afford to change all four of them at once so your cards start running terribly you replace one of them basically you know unplugging them plugging them in again to try and work out which one it was and then you replace that one and then a few months later you're doing another one and it's just it's just heat and age these are like right down in the top of the rocker cover and they get hot and they get old and brittle um technology has advanced though so the new ones that are in there should last forever do you know where these ones can go martin absolutely they can so i'm moving the intercooler piping so we can access the turbo i'm going to remove that because that one there is going in the bin and the security box what in the purity box sorry it's going into the purity box uh and we have got a jdm s15 t28 brand new uh on its way which hopefully will be here soon so nothing too unexpected under here it does have air con but there's no belt on it and there's a lot of grease and crud on the wheel which makes me think it hasn't been on there for a while a lot of oil on the sump but generally that's coming from somewhere else some people look at the sump and go oh i've got an oil leak down low usually it's up top and it's running down to the sump and just covering everything i've got a rear main steel leak as well that can end up with a slipping clutch so i think we will replace a clutch in this did you say there's some leaks under this one adsx one um and the other thing that's good to replace as well if you don't know how long it's been done is rocker cover because a lot of the time just the smallest rocker cover leak can drip down and just cause an absolute mess so i don't know where else sylvia's leaked from but rear main certainly and rocker cover certainly and there's quite a few over on the this side where the alt motor is so we're going to fix all that because we should because it's a mad car needs to be fixed next up i'm going to spray all the old nuts and bolts with some wd-40 specialist penetrant it's a good idea to do this first get under here spray it all do other stuff that we've got to do give it time to get in there and then you can release it the dump pipe bolts and the ones on the back of the turbo and the exhaust are notorious for being rusty and gross on pretty much all cars so i'm gonna just spray every bolt in that whole setup and then come back later with some long spanners and attempt to crack them without breaking stuff we need to access the turbo so the next thing that come off the car is the exhaust this is made easier by spraying some of the rubber exhaust hangers with wd-40 silicon spray and then removing each section while this car may still have decent levels of purity it doesn't mean it's all in good condition so you can see also from up here that some of these hoses are starting to crack as well so we're obviously going to be replacing all of this with a new piping kit but these are kind of some of the things that you wouldn't normally see particularly a crack like this which is going to be hidden underneath these hose clamps so all of that stuff is going in the purity bin box the next thing to come off is the front bar so we've got better access and so we can remove the factory side mounted intercooler we are keeping these ssr wheels for now so that it's easy to move the car around but eventually we will replace them with something else so we took our spark plugs out to do our contest we are going to throw a new set of ngk bkr 6e plugs in that is the one that is uh usually recommended on the factory listing for an sr20 a lot of people go to sevens if you're chasing a lot more power when not chasing a lot more power these will be totally fine for our purpose so we're going to put them in just so nothing falls in there we are probably going to read a rocker cover gasket but that doesn't affect the spark plug so it's going to wind them straight back in standard spark plugs like these ones have a useful service life of somewhere between 20 and 40 000 k's that's going to be less than an engine that's tuned for more power or being tracked and thrashed more modern cars often use iridium or platinum tips in the center and ground electrode which can go upwards of a hundred thousand k's before needing replacement the front bar is ready to come off and go straight into the bin except it doesn't fit i've got another front bar to go on which is an upgrade that i'll be showing you as the build progresses but for now we've finally got access to the turbo so it's time to get it gone all right this has been released from its prison oh there it is please take it mate it's all yours should be disconnected hopefully there's still something down there trick is to take the manifold off with all the lines still attached all right there you go let's have a look at what we got here martin so this here is the factory turbo off the 180sx uh which is around 30 years old yeah the 90s was that long ago the car's also done around 110 000 k's according to the dash but it is an import and it's possible that there was some sneaky shaming going on somewhere so maybe it's done 150 160 180 000 k's so that there is going to be replaced with a new turbo that is going to be due here soon which i'm going to go through with you which is very very exciting but for now this one here which we intuitively think there's something wrong with because it was blowing a lot of smoke uh this one here can just go in the bin so the factory turbo is now gone uh the front bar is off which is going to give us access to the side mount intercooler which is literally about this big now i know there are going to be some purity police out there but we are increasing the boost and i want to put a front mount on there and i've already bought it and already paid for it plus they look mad they do they do look good so that is coming so i'll get rid of the piping and the actual core of that uh what about you martin so we also noticed when we drove at the track that the suspension was a bit sort of clunky and thrashed it does have aftermarket coilovers in it but these are meant to be rebuilt um occasionally when they wear them out especially give them a hard time doing skids so we think these are a bit we're out but we've actually got some others that we want to put in that should make the ride bellissimo so we're probably going to swap them out these ones are going in the bin the other thing as well is this has the s13 turbo brakes which is i understand it are single pot calipers um very typical of what you'd see on a base model subaru impreza or a pulsar like they're just a bit bigger but there's nothing particularly flash about them um so there are a number of break up trades you can do on these including 300 zx calipers and calipers from other nissens gtr brakes gtst brakes stuff like that you have to dial it in with how many studs you got and we're staying four-star so we're gonna try and find ourselves a little break nice factory sweet upgrade it was a very common thing to do back in the day to do a five-star conversion because then you've got way more options for wheels and things like that but i'm i'm straddling the purity fence it's like part of me wants to make the car way better which we're going to do the other part of me wants to kind of relive my youth of having a 180 so there's certain things that i want to do that may not make sense to everyone but they make sense to me you know what i mean i just want to keep it four stud until i realize there aren't enough wheels available and then i'll be back here telling you why it's a really got a good idea to change the fight if you can find four stud wheels and you can fit your brakes you don't actually there's no other huge benefit for something making 200 kilowatts anyway um yeah anyway so look this suspension's coming out which is easy on this car yeah uh we'll take the brakes off and then i'm going to start dismantling the rear of the car because we've got some changes happening back there as well i'm refreshing my memory of pulling apart the rear of a 180sx by watching a video of me pulling apart the rear of a 180sx on youtube that we made many years ago all of this stuff is going in the bin i mean the purity box and we're going to be upgrading the back with a type x kooky rear conversion all the factory boost controllers coming out along with the aftermarket boost control system which is in there um so we're just going to replace it with a new mac valve you can recycle that kind of stuff but it's often a good idea for the money just to play it safe with one that you know works so that's going to come out we might reuse that mounting system we'll get some new hoses on there as well and throw this all in the purity box martin these are also going in the bin what are they the lights you're in the purity box i mean yeah they're standing in the pirouettes is that a khaki rear end and one's a kooky one's a bookie and a shmookie isn't that what you call it all those words make me feel a bit weird people call them i've got a shmookie cook mr2 do you yeah good for you man right in the bin purity box people because i'm gonna sell all this and i'm gonna buy an mr2 with it and then tell him i did that later what stop it don't put it in the bin dude it's a what is it don't talk it's a car martin don't talk you're wasting them i'm not putting looking 180 using those lights i'm destroying them in there until the bin gets taken just put them there don't worry about next up it's time to remove the coilovers which should be a simple and quick process but due to one of these bolts being completely thrashed it's taking way longer and is way smokier than it should be oh that's not going again next up i can remove the tiny factory side mount intercooler all righty people here's where we're at front bar in the bin intercooler bin intercooler piping in the bin turbocharger bin exhaust in the bin wheels and tires spin brakes in the bin suspension bin rear lights in the bin center garnish bin oh make it stop did i forget anything martin i don't know but by bin we mean purity box we don't actually mean the bin for most of the items that he just rattled off no purity box you know what i love about this things like the power steering and the belts and all the other stuff that are really boring to fix and modify they all work really well and everything's really clean we slap some injectors in this we slap an ecu in this we slap an exhaust and a mad turbo on it yeah and we're good man it's going to be great excellent now we did just have an exciting delivery there are lots of deliveries coming but today's one was particularly exciting because it is i love boxes um and your turbo charger so we were going to get into that today but we've run out of time so that one's not going in the bin um we will get to that next time so i'm just going to give this a little tidy up uh and then we'll be ready uh next time will be turbo front now i mean next time's going to be the main course yep absolutely and i'm going to spend some time on the phone trying to get oem parts out of nissan yeah nice wish me luck yeah awesome we have had some boxes starting to arrive because you know we've ordered lots and lots of different things for this car some boxes have started to arrive but there was a really big order that i did that's i expect to be probably up to 10 boxes of stuff and two boxes have arrived so this is just this is the environment that we're working on but before we go on stuff we just want to uh get us a quick word to the sponsor of this episode which is mighty carmods yes it is we uh we have some merchandise that you might like you can click a thing you can get that shirt this shirt you can get some fender covers which are pretty awesome have we got vendor covers right there oh martin i know i've forgotten looked at it even i've just i've finished all the dirty pen oh god so can you please put one on that yeah i know i need to okay but i should probably wipe off the dirty mark i left on that side i'm not using my fender cover all right yeah and the other thing that would be most excellent for you to be using in your home garage or diy space is the mighty car mods earmuffs which i have lost can you because we are very very professional and i can tell you right now that our earmuffs are most excellent and i've just found them maybe you put it there in the beer they're definitely not in the bin um these are our mighty car mods earmuffs they meet the safety standards of the standards of the standardization of your safety standard so thanks for watching and in case you can't tell um this is so fun we're excited i love ripping this stuff apart it's gonna be it's gonna be so so good and i'm saying that about a dirty oldness and that says yeah it's great now if you want any of those parts for your car um start dumpster diving is what i'm gonna say um no we we put him on we will put him up on on facebook or something somewhere yeah recycle them back into the world for sure all right thank you very much everybody you can support the show of course by going to mightycarmos.com we've got an email list there as well we do blog posts lots of really interesting stuff happening all the time um so you can follow us there there's also some so social media hit the bell follow things to follow on the socials cool get some updates all right thank you very much everybody see you next time hungry i am hungry i'm having one of these honey macadamia no i want rice right now look at that remember to grab yourself a 180sx poster available for a limited time only we'll sign it and ship it to your door anywhere in the world once they're gone they're gone forever so grab yours nowi am so glad that you are here joining us for this build series because this car has been 20 years in the making and some cars are just absolute classics absolute bangers absolute best of all time of their specific era in space and time on the continuum i would agree with all of that i used to have one of these cars 20 years ago i didn't i wanted to modify it i wanted to make it mad i neither had the friends skills or money to do it at that stage you get all the information off the internet everybody that was on the phones for these cars that always stoned they didn't even go on car cruises they just smoke a bong and float home but now all these years later we're doing it properly as quickly as we can smoking bongs because we don't do that and we're not floating home just yet we're skidding home we're gonna track float home on a cloud of joy once this build's finished but it's not finished it's just kicking off and to kick off and to celebrate the kicking off of one of my favorite cars of all time because this episode is brought to you by none other than mighty car mods we are very excited to reveal the next yes of the mighty car mods mad uh manga style posters this is a series either add it to your series or begin your collection occasionally we do these it's a very very special thing you can order yours we will individually sign it and then send it to you at your house anywhere in the world we're really really proud of these and once they're gone people they are gone and you may have noticed if you've been following with some of these series which do come out every now and then if they're cars that are particularly special close to us or have been an absolute massive project that we want to celebrate they end up here and so we commissioned the artist jest army to do this he's done an awesome job they are going to be available for a limited time only once they are gone they are gone i did see someone on ebay they sell for like hundreds and hundreds of dollars a thousand dollars that's huge from us grab yours now from us directly and now we really hope you enjoy this build series because we are we are so excited we're so excited so thanks for joining us and enjoy the build of the 180sx if somebody asked you what is the best car in the world you would probably say two-door sti a volkswagen up daihatsu and you might be right k truck except you're wrong it's actually an sr20 powered 180sx it's cool this here is going to be the dream build of creating the ultimate 180sx welcome to another episode of mighty car mods now before we kick off people i just want to have a quick chat about some facts and figures and the madness that has been going on in the used car scene now i bought this car in 2019 and i actually think i paid way too much for it i've got the receipt here i bought this car for nine thousand three hundred dollars which is about one thousand american dollars now even nearly 20 years ago my mates were buying these for 9 000 8 000 10 000 kind of the same so pretty much for the last 20 years the price of these has kind of just kind of been going like this and then in the last two years something happened something crazy happened people that i'm calling car gate is that like an evo leaving a meat it's like a mustang leaving a meat gate is the madness that happened with used car prices now there are two 180s x's for sale right now in australia one of them is a completely mounted non-turbo that's had a different engine put in it it's 35 000 and then there's another one that's like that that does have an sr-20 it is turbo and five-speed um and it's like 500 000 so what is going on i don't know but it would look like this car which is basically stock and super clean yep well well yeah it's filthy but it's super stock clean from the distance don't look too closely we'll we'll fill you in good from a far but far from good um but now because i actually have a history with these cars with s13s non-turbo 180s gtirs s15s it's now time to actually make the ultimate 180sx the car that i always wanted but couldn't do and now i'm going to do and you know what it's actually not going to be that crazy this is my plan a nice clean streetable 180 sx with 180 kilowatts wrong at the wheels wrong what you if you don't make a thousand horsepower you're not really a pro i'm not i'm not making a thousand horsepower now how much would this make right now it hasn't been done i don't need to dyno i can tell you it's going to make 110 kilowatts maybe a hundred so i'm pretty much going to do an exhaust that makes 128 and then with a boost control it makes 135 and then it goes bang so because you put 91 on i'm aiming for 180 but maybe i'll have a little flicky flick switch there that takes it up to 220 which is kind of what makes it awesome but the goal is 180 sx 180 kilowatt we're going 90 style people yeah 90s style so before we jump in let's just show you what we're working with today and then there is a boot full of spare parts and then there is stuff that has been ordered all over the world that is incoming for this car i'm very very excited this is what this is what i'm all about people i mean and i'm in volkswagen and this and this and yeah and falafel is good anyway let's have a quick look around the car and then let's dive into the build welcome it's going to be a magical journey it's going to be great come with us it's going to be awesome magic the mighty nissan 180sx is probably my favorite car out of japan before prices went crazy these were an affordable way to get into modifying cars track days and drifting with a 2-litre turbocharged rear-wheel drive manual package with a design that has actually stood the test of time this one is quite simply the best condition 180sx i have ever seen and i am going to honour that while also making it my own and building the car that i always wanted as a kid but never did there are a few areas that need some attention most notably under the bonnet where it looks like we've got a blown turbo so people 180sx you've got a bit of info about it there were about 300 000 at least jdm ones built possibly more i don't actually know most of them have gone up in bong smoke now they are literally they're either up in bong smoke or around the pole well they're under they don't exist anymore running in a wreck yard or some people are actually holding on to them as collectibles because as years pass and laws change in different countries looking at you america um it's then legal to have them these did go to america in this stage and also these things were built for a whole 10 years even when the next model came out which says a bit about the popularity this is technically a hatchback um but i just want to take you back a bit because i've spent a bit of time in some 180s stock ones modified ones over the years and also back when they weren't cool i mean they were cool because it was a jdm car but they weren't like you know forty thousand dollars plus they were just nuggets that you picked up if you'd upgraded from a corolla or a pulsar um so firstly stock not that fast yes they make turbo noises yes it's got an sr20 in it but they weren't that fast you weren't really gonna beat you know a skyline or a modified thing rexy's would give them a run for their money on the launch back in the day so really it wasn't this fantastical magical driving experience can you drift a stock one yeah particularly if you've got one with an lsd in it they go sideways well which is kind of partly what made them so popular but everyone everyone modified them now why did they modify them because of the reasons i just said they were kind of a little bit slow they were kind of yeah okay at drifting but you could modify them for cheap and get a huge huge result these days maybe that's not as possible if you go and buy a brand new you know golf r you got to spend big money and you know it's a big thing to go and go a bit faster with these it wasn't difficult exhaust boost controller and away you go so that's pretty much what everyone did any 180 that you saw had wheels coilovers suspension springs boost controller front mount that's kind of what it had and then the crazy ones people would put skyline engines in them or they would you know build the engines and go stupid with boost but we didn't have the fuel back in the day to make a thousand horsepower like you can today which is why you see cars doing it martin you are strumming my skin they were modified weren't they no because that's exactly what i had my 180 yeah it's kind of like you got a vertex style kit i say vertex style because most people it's like i've got a vertex kit that they got off nissan sylvia no it wasn't it was a vertex style kit you do a front mount you do an exhaust you do an intake you do some coil overs and off you go i cannot even believe that i'm saying this we are actually cracking out oh we're gonna have a purity i can't even believe it like i can't if you told me 10 15 years ago that you would need a purity box for 186 i would have laughed at you but i know there's some people out there saying stop they should just be stocked the purity they should never change and never mess with them it's beautiful this is a pretty nice one anyway so yeah it's pretty clean but we are going to be completely yes we're not going to throw the stuff in the bin we are going to throw anything we pull off and put in the purity box we're not pulling that much stuff off but we are going to do some tasteful nice modifications just like every 186 in the world has ever had before yes it's going to be good now it's also probably worth saying this car is currently unregistered um my where did my paperwork go you kicked it do you know where i kicked you stomped on it 186 purity box there we go there it is people back to standard if it ever what i don't know why you would but hey it's there at the authorised inspection station 180sx oh fail fail so it failed and then but when you go down to the notes and you go reason for the fail probably not surprising in the best possible result there could be is um the tires were bald on the back and that was probably because this person did a lot of very sensible runs to the shopping center totally that's all you need to buy their dog food so um there is a whole bunch of stuff in the boot that came with the car we're going to pull it out we're going to see what we've got like i said we've got lots of stuff coming i think we just need to start just exploding it yep getting everything done now we also drove this car we took it around the track and it was just blowing more blue smoke than its previous owners so um we need to compression test it and then the big exciting thing that's happening is the turbo there is going in the bin in the purity box oh sorry in the purity box it's not going in the bin it's going in purity box so one of the best things about buying a used car like this that is actually something that's quite nice is it actually came with a couple of boxes of spare parts so we're just gonna have a look through and see what we've got uh what it is that we need to keep and what can go in the bin i mean the purity box so i'm gonna put that one there get the purity box over here and let's just start seeing what we've got so we also need the bin martin can we please put some of this in the bin yeah oh yes in the bin all right so for example we probably can't put a flare in the bin can we probably dispose of that at a boat shop let's see what's going on over here all right so are they coils these are these are like the special yes are they actually alright coils i think they are well yeah they're basically what you find on volkswagens but they're good upgrades for srs awesome that's on the gtr as well great so yeah ngk coils and we have there is four of them which is how many we need so that is good button it's come with one of these what is a 180 sex without one of those hanging off the back even though no one can actually travel japan for years and seen one or used one uh we've also got some stock hoses which is pretty cool so brand new genuine nissan hoses which is cool i believe that's a battery tray which is cool oh a battery support there's that goes over the top of the hoses we have another one of these what's that for i don't know but they're little there's four nuts for something um pit work as well i feel like pit work is jdm well yeah that isn't oil filters yeah you do see them and there's lots of them so either they're planning on lots of oil changes or you've got basically like two years of ownership right there for your sr we also have bam bam box we've done a whole episode on how to install one of those pieces of yeah and yeah more battery tray stuff i don't actually know what that's for someone oh yes look at this one oh new shift boot it legit needs one of those that's unreal it's a good mods i believe that's sump plug pretty sure the cable type plug i don't know what they are oh some plug washers yes someone cares about this car man what's that oh that's for uh let's see i just don't know why the car came with this one what is it no i say still absolutely no it won't hurt you much i don't like it there you go what is it it's a bow tie tie there you go okay fantastic um and little green things i guess they go somewhere and a pit work belt well that's actually good man that's like a full major service right there that's awesome i believe these things are timing chains so we need to do a timing belt over here is a bit more kind of random stuff you've got your bow tie and your tissues there you go um there's a bunch of mounts here uh that's for adjusting coilovers that can probably go i think there's a bin battery terminals ngk spark plugs just kind of random random things but things that are handy to have all right let's compression test it then let's just pull it apart sure and throw all the old stuff in the bin done to the person in the youtube comments that was upset that i got rid of my rubber floor mat from my volkswagen up this is for you and you can get i i was going to use that one and i was going to use the dude no no look what look what is it nissan motor co march that's not 180 mats whoa you chucked my batteries in that is legit worth a lot of money you chucked my floor mats in there they came with this car that is not yours but you can have it that is legit worth money mine what else is in here that's much as well we got march formats with the 180sx that is insane thank you that is insane the comments section now why are you taking my maths back is it possible that these here are for the back of the march uh yeah but look they're pretty like someone's oh it says march it's this march that's worth money did you chop these in huh oh wait on that says march dude there's a rare one what are the chances there you go take those i could have used them in my build um and now oh these ones in the bin they're legit this isn't much no that says listen much that's mine listen march 2. dude the whole boot of floor mats is nissan not much stuff what does that say that says thank you legit that is worth money i'm not even joking yeah it's worth money sick what is this that was in the boot i don't know open it can you open it oh do you know what i think that is what is it i think that is the um that's the sunroof dude you do not come on man that never just delete it edit that bit now that we've seen what kind of extra loot we got in the boot when we bought it the first step is to jack up the car and investigate what's going on under the bonnet the bonnet is what we call the hood in australia and we call the trunk the boot and gas we call that petrol because it's not a gas powers in kilowatts measurements in centimeters and shrimps are called prawns damn it and people over revving their hondas through fart can exhaust we call them we're removing the spark plugs so we can see what kind of condition they're in and then we're going to set up for a compression test so because the car's been sitting the battery's a bit tired we are going to put it on charge it's still in good enough condition to keep but i do have a jumper pack on it just because we're going to be cranking we've got our compression tester on cylinder one we're looking for 150 160 but most importantly is consistency along the whole lot so throttle open fuel pump off all the spark plugs out and give it a crank please sir here we go yep 160 160. yep so this one's 160 and smell old fuel we go ahead and test all four cylinders and they're looking healthy at 160 psi i just want to highlight how good the interior is of this 180sx a lot of the time when you get these cars there's kind of holes in the dash from where people in japan have put gauges and all sorts of random accessories and stuff this is so clean it is i mean i've never seen anything like it the doors the carpets the handles there's no cracking on it there's no stains or marks on it it's just it's amazing so pumped so as part of our mild modifications we are going to do a coil upgrade we're doing that because we are also going to go to an aftermarket ecu to give us a bit more control and also give us the ability to do that now these factory coils are known for cracking and sure enough even that first one has a giant crack the whole way down here and it just it just makes a misbehavior sort of a common fix so back in the day you could just put replacement coils as aftermarket options as well we're going to go for an even more modern coil that does require an aftermarket ecu to run it so all this is going to get disconnected and pulled off we just make a new little sub loom that goes from here into the new coils three out of four yeah that one cylinder four straight down there yeah cylinder three two survived somehow probably because they've got probably because that one got replaced yeah back when i had my 180 when i was young every few months or something it felt like you had to change these because i could never afford to change all four of them at once so your cards start running terribly you replace one of them basically you know unplugging them plugging them in again to try and work out which one it was and then you replace that one and then a few months later you're doing another one and it's just it's just heat and age these are like right down in the top of the rocker cover and they get hot and they get old and brittle um technology has advanced though so the new ones that are in there should last forever do you know where these ones can go martin absolutely they can so i'm moving the intercooler piping so we can access the turbo i'm going to remove that because that one there is going in the bin and the security box what in the purity box sorry it's going into the purity box uh and we have got a jdm s15 t28 brand new uh on its way which hopefully will be here soon so nothing too unexpected under here it does have air con but there's no belt on it and there's a lot of grease and crud on the wheel which makes me think it hasn't been on there for a while a lot of oil on the sump but generally that's coming from somewhere else some people look at the sump and go oh i've got an oil leak down low usually it's up top and it's running down to the sump and just covering everything i've got a rear main steel leak as well that can end up with a slipping clutch so i think we will replace a clutch in this did you say there's some leaks under this one adsx one um and the other thing that's good to replace as well if you don't know how long it's been done is rocker cover because a lot of the time just the smallest rocker cover leak can drip down and just cause an absolute mess so i don't know where else sylvia's leaked from but rear main certainly and rocker cover certainly and there's quite a few over on the this side where the alt motor is so we're going to fix all that because we should because it's a mad car needs to be fixed next up i'm going to spray all the old nuts and bolts with some wd-40 specialist penetrant it's a good idea to do this first get under here spray it all do other stuff that we've got to do give it time to get in there and then you can release it the dump pipe bolts and the ones on the back of the turbo and the exhaust are notorious for being rusty and gross on pretty much all cars so i'm gonna just spray every bolt in that whole setup and then come back later with some long spanners and attempt to crack them without breaking stuff we need to access the turbo so the next thing that come off the car is the exhaust this is made easier by spraying some of the rubber exhaust hangers with wd-40 silicon spray and then removing each section while this car may still have decent levels of purity it doesn't mean it's all in good condition so you can see also from up here that some of these hoses are starting to crack as well so we're obviously going to be replacing all of this with a new piping kit but these are kind of some of the things that you wouldn't normally see particularly a crack like this which is going to be hidden underneath these hose clamps so all of that stuff is going in the purity bin box the next thing to come off is the front bar so we've got better access and so we can remove the factory side mounted intercooler we are keeping these ssr wheels for now so that it's easy to move the car around but eventually we will replace them with something else so we took our spark plugs out to do our contest we are going to throw a new set of ngk bkr 6e plugs in that is the one that is uh usually recommended on the factory listing for an sr20 a lot of people go to sevens if you're chasing a lot more power when not chasing a lot more power these will be totally fine for our purpose so we're going to put them in just so nothing falls in there we are probably going to read a rocker cover gasket but that doesn't affect the spark plug so it's going to wind them straight back in standard spark plugs like these ones have a useful service life of somewhere between 20 and 40 000 k's that's going to be less than an engine that's tuned for more power or being tracked and thrashed more modern cars often use iridium or platinum tips in the center and ground electrode which can go upwards of a hundred thousand k's before needing replacement the front bar is ready to come off and go straight into the bin except it doesn't fit i've got another front bar to go on which is an upgrade that i'll be showing you as the build progresses but for now we've finally got access to the turbo so it's time to get it gone all right this has been released from its prison oh there it is please take it mate it's all yours should be disconnected hopefully there's still something down there trick is to take the manifold off with all the lines still attached all right there you go let's have a look at what we got here martin so this here is the factory turbo off the 180sx uh which is around 30 years old yeah the 90s was that long ago the car's also done around 110 000 k's according to the dash but it is an import and it's possible that there was some sneaky shaming going on somewhere so maybe it's done 150 160 180 000 k's so that there is going to be replaced with a new turbo that is going to be due here soon which i'm going to go through with you which is very very exciting but for now this one here which we intuitively think there's something wrong with because it was blowing a lot of smoke uh this one here can just go in the bin so the factory turbo is now gone uh the front bar is off which is going to give us access to the side mount intercooler which is literally about this big now i know there are going to be some purity police out there but we are increasing the boost and i want to put a front mount on there and i've already bought it and already paid for it plus they look mad they do they do look good so that is coming so i'll get rid of the piping and the actual core of that uh what about you martin so we also noticed when we drove at the track that the suspension was a bit sort of clunky and thrashed it does have aftermarket coilovers in it but these are meant to be rebuilt um occasionally when they wear them out especially give them a hard time doing skids so we think these are a bit we're out but we've actually got some others that we want to put in that should make the ride bellissimo so we're probably going to swap them out these ones are going in the bin the other thing as well is this has the s13 turbo brakes which is i understand it are single pot calipers um very typical of what you'd see on a base model subaru impreza or a pulsar like they're just a bit bigger but there's nothing particularly flash about them um so there are a number of break up trades you can do on these including 300 zx calipers and calipers from other nissens gtr brakes gtst brakes stuff like that you have to dial it in with how many studs you got and we're staying four-star so we're gonna try and find ourselves a little break nice factory sweet upgrade it was a very common thing to do back in the day to do a five-star conversion because then you've got way more options for wheels and things like that but i'm i'm straddling the purity fence it's like part of me wants to make the car way better which we're going to do the other part of me wants to kind of relive my youth of having a 180 so there's certain things that i want to do that may not make sense to everyone but they make sense to me you know what i mean i just want to keep it four stud until i realize there aren't enough wheels available and then i'll be back here telling you why it's a really got a good idea to change the fight if you can find four stud wheels and you can fit your brakes you don't actually there's no other huge benefit for something making 200 kilowatts anyway um yeah anyway so look this suspension's coming out which is easy on this car yeah uh we'll take the brakes off and then i'm going to start dismantling the rear of the car because we've got some changes happening back there as well i'm refreshing my memory of pulling apart the rear of a 180sx by watching a video of me pulling apart the rear of a 180sx on youtube that we made many years ago all of this stuff is going in the bin i mean the purity box and we're going to be upgrading the back with a type x kooky rear conversion all the factory boost controllers coming out along with the aftermarket boost control system which is in there um so we're just going to replace it with a new mac valve you can recycle that kind of stuff but it's often a good idea for the money just to play it safe with one that you know works so that's going to come out we might reuse that mounting system we'll get some new hoses on there as well and throw this all in the purity box martin these are also going in the bin what are they the lights you're in the purity box i mean yeah they're standing in the pirouettes is that a khaki rear end and one's a kooky one's a bookie and a shmookie isn't that what you call it all those words make me feel a bit weird people call them i've got a shmookie cook mr2 do you yeah good for you man right in the bin purity box people because i'm gonna sell all this and i'm gonna buy an mr2 with it and then tell him i did that later what stop it don't put it in the bin dude it's a what is it don't talk it's a car martin don't talk you're wasting them i'm not putting looking 180 using those lights i'm destroying them in there until the bin gets taken just put them there don't worry about next up it's time to remove the coilovers which should be a simple and quick process but due to one of these bolts being completely thrashed it's taking way longer and is way smokier than it should be oh that's not going again next up i can remove the tiny factory side mount intercooler all righty people here's where we're at front bar in the bin intercooler bin intercooler piping in the bin turbocharger bin exhaust in the bin wheels and tires spin brakes in the bin suspension bin rear lights in the bin center garnish bin oh make it stop did i forget anything martin i don't know but by bin we mean purity box we don't actually mean the bin for most of the items that he just rattled off no purity box you know what i love about this things like the power steering and the belts and all the other stuff that are really boring to fix and modify they all work really well and everything's really clean we slap some injectors in this we slap an ecu in this we slap an exhaust and a mad turbo on it yeah and we're good man it's going to be great excellent now we did just have an exciting delivery there are lots of deliveries coming but today's one was particularly exciting because it is i love boxes um and your turbo charger so we were going to get into that today but we've run out of time so that one's not going in the bin um we will get to that next time so i'm just going to give this a little tidy up uh and then we'll be ready uh next time will be turbo front now i mean next time's going to be the main course yep absolutely and i'm going to spend some time on the phone trying to get oem parts out of nissan yeah nice wish me luck yeah awesome we have had some boxes starting to arrive because you know we've ordered lots and lots of different things for this car some boxes have started to arrive but there was a really big order that i did that's i expect to be probably up to 10 boxes of stuff and two boxes have arrived so this is just this is the environment that we're working on but before we go on stuff we just want to uh get us a quick word to the sponsor of this episode which is mighty carmods yes it is we uh we have some merchandise that you might like you can click a thing you can get that shirt this shirt you can get some fender covers which are pretty awesome have we got vendor covers right there oh martin i know i've forgotten looked at it even i've just i've finished all the dirty pen oh god so can you please put one on that yeah i know i need to okay but i should probably wipe off the dirty mark i left on that side i'm not using my fender cover all right yeah and the other thing that would be most excellent for you to be using in your home garage or diy space is the mighty car mods earmuffs which i have lost can you because we are very very professional and i can tell you right now that our earmuffs are most excellent and i've just found them maybe you put it there in the beer they're definitely not in the bin um these are our mighty car mods earmuffs they meet the safety standards of the standards of the standardization of your safety standard so thanks for watching and in case you can't tell um this is so fun we're excited i love ripping this stuff apart it's gonna be it's gonna be so so good and i'm saying that about a dirty oldness and that says yeah it's great now if you want any of those parts for your car um start dumpster diving is what i'm gonna say um no we we put him on we will put him up on on facebook or something somewhere yeah recycle them back into the world for sure all right thank you very much everybody you can support the show of course by going to mightycarmos.com we've got an email list there as well we do blog posts lots of really interesting stuff happening all the time um so you can follow us there there's also some so social media hit the bell follow things to follow on the socials cool get some updates all right thank you very much everybody see you next time hungry i am hungry i'm having one of these honey macadamia no i want rice right now look at that remember to grab yourself a 180sx poster available for a limited time only we'll sign it and ship it to your door anywhere in the world once they're gone they're gone forever so grab yours now\n"