Half-Fast Motorsports Blog

After my blow up at the last event, I needed to get the engine replaced.  I had several options including a rebuild, but time and money meant I go with a used one. I was able to secure a junk yard engine with fairly low miles. I know it’s not the greatest thing, but for $500, I couldn’t say no.

Now for the install. I did a lot of research and found the secret to this engine swap is to pull it out from the bottom. A good friend loaned me his garage and help. Luck would have it, the guy next door, Martin, is the parts manager for a Nissan Dealership. He came over to help too, and provided me with my first sponsorship. He created an account at the dealership for me, and I get all Nissan parts at cost plus 10%. Cool deal.

The weekend came and I pulled the car into the garage the weekend before the engine swap and secured the last of the parts. When I got there Saturday morning, Mike my buddy, had already gotten started by pulling the axles, wow!

Not much clearance..

We spend the morning disconnecting everything. Rumor had it, there were no 2 connecters that were alike, so I didn’t mark anything (dumb move, but more on that later). The extraction went well. By noon, we had the engine out and started swapping parts from one engine to the other.   With no snags, we had the engine and trans reinstalled in the engine compartment before the beer started flowing. Sunday we would start hooking everything back up.

Install

Sunday came and Mike again got an early start.  He had lots of the bottom stuff done (exhaust, axles, shifter), I started working on the top stuff.  Martin was there also busily hooking up connectors and lines.  Soon enough we had all the vital fluids filled and we were ready for fire up.  We turned the key, she cranked, but wouldn’t start.  I did some checking and found she would run on carb cleaner, but not on her own, fuel problem…

After wasting half the day trying to get it running, we decided to call in the reserves in the form of one of Martins ace techs from the Nissan store.  It will have to wait till Monday.

Monday arrived, and I followed Mike to his house.  He went on to meet the master tech and Martin, I stopped to get the beer (payment for the labor).  When I arrived at the house, Mike said “watch this” and started the car. It seems the master tech found the ABS connector, and the ECU connector had been switched (oh crap!).  What I couldn’t find in half a day, he found in about 45 seconds.

We toasted our success, and put the car back on the trailer.

With the exception of the tools, all this stuff is trash

I was a great morning.  I signed up for the SCCA PDX following the 12 hour endurance race in early June. 

All my friends from the track were there, so I wanted to make a good showing.  I prepped the car and lined up on grid for my first session.  I was second in line behind a BMW.  Behind me were several more BMW’s a Corvette and a newer Rabbit GTI.  These are fast cars, but it’s just a track day, right?

I was taking it easy since I didn’t know how the car would act, but on the first lap, I blew past the BMW and was pulling away from the field. Here is one lap from that event posted on youtube.com

And a pic of me one the second lap leading all the “faster” cars.

The car was doing well, but I still hadn’t really pushed it yet. I had purchased some new tires at the event, R compound Toyo tires, so this was also new.

As things go for me, there was a problem. On lap 6, just when I was getting going, the engine decided to blow up. A large cloud of smoke exited the tail pipe and I pulled off.

Oh well.. There goes $200 for 6 laps. I still don’t know what the suspension has to offer, but it was fun anyway.

Next up, a new engine….