180sx In Bay Cooler and other upgrades

I recently acquired a 180sx Type X which came with a GKTECH returnflow cooler kit. It probably worked fine, but me being me (with a welder) meant that I wanted to make a new cooler setup anyways.

Also the cooler had dodgy diy brackets by one of the previous owners which made it sit a little funny. 

First job was to pull out the old cooler and rad which was pretty straightforward. 

Roughly mocked up the positioning of the cooler and rad.

Then I marked where the back of the rad sits on the castor rod brackets which gave me an idea for the lower rad support.

Which was to make a bolt in lower rad support using the existing holes out of some 3mm bar.

Next job was the top brackets which were pretty straightforward.

I also swapped in a t28bb that was donated by Evan to replace the t25g for a little extra power. 

The cooler that I used was an Aeroflow 600x300x70 core. They're quite cheap with a decent design.

The outlets however had to be cut to accomodate the 90 degree cast elbows that I bought to weld on. 

I cut the cold side on a 45 degree angle and the hot side was cut straight. It was a bit challenging with the angle grinder to cut it all straight(maybe I just suck).

With that done, the next task was to make the hot side. 

It’s running a 2-2.5” 90 degree bend -> 2.5” aluminium pipe -> 2.5-3” joiner. 

Using my angle finder, I worked out that the pipe needed a 15 degree pie on the end to fit into the joiner.

So I quickly made one and tacked it to the piping after beading the end.

Quick test fit to make sure the angle and length was right. Looks good.

I quickly beaded the other end of the pipe too.

A weld on nipple was also used for a boost reference source. I prefer to have it on the hot side so the lines can be shorter which looks a bit neater (IMO).

Dab dab dab.

And more dabbing.

I had a hybrid rocker cover made by Primal Garage. Essentially it allows you to use the better baffling of a s14 rocker cover (or s15 if you didn’t double check like me and ended up having to convert to s15 coilpacks) on a s13 motor. 

I mainly did this so I wouldn’t have to run a catch can and it looks neat. 

For the s15 coilpack conversion, I repinned the Factory coilpack loom to suit and used an igniter bypass as s15 coilpacks have it inbuilt.

I welded up the inlet elbow. Was my first time trying to weld cast aluminium so it was a little interesting.
 
With the hot side done, the next job was the cold side. 

I had a spare 90 degree stainless bend laying around which helped me mock up the majority of it. I used the angle finder to work out that I needed a tight radius 45 degree bend on the end which I made out of pie.

At this point I decided to order a 2.75” 90 degree aluminium bend to complete the cold pipe and a 2.5” 90 degree bend for the intake off sparesbox, but after two weeks of them not being able to give me an ETA I decided to make it myself with pie cuts again and get a refund. Annoying but I suppose I saved some monies. 

Pie cuts themselves are pretty simple to make but it’s quite a time consuming process. 

Also my bandsaw blade snapped so I replaced it. Only cost me about $35 for a new blade shipped and it cuts so nice with a fresh blade again. 

The cuts were made with a 7.5 degree cut on each face so the starting and finishing pieces will be 7.5 degree and the pies will be 15 degrees. 7.5 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 7.5 = 90 degrees, a lot of cuts and clean up/prep.

Mocked the 90 and 45 together. Seems to work.

Beaded the ends then taped it all together.

The inside looks pretty smooth transition wise. 

Tacked it all up.

Welded it all up then went out for dinner while the pipe cooled off.

Gave it a quick polish to get rid of the frosting once it had cooled down.

Popped it in and it still fit which is always good.

I still had to make pipe for the IACV hose which was pretty easy.



With all the cooler piping done, I pulled the cooler back out to weld the other elbow and to flush out any metal shavings I didn’t manage to stop with the cloths during cutting. 

Then I hung it out to dry for a bit. Luckily it was a warm day.

Popped the cooler back in then proceeded to tackle the intake which was pretty easy. 

I decided to use a Greddy/Trust Airinx filter for something a little different.

I ordered a mandrel for the intake because I was pretty over making pie cuts at this point.

Quickly made and welded on a fitting for the rocker cover to intake hose. I had to taper in the end a bit to make the hose fit over it a bit easier as the hose was slightly too small.

I shortened the bend on one end which then went into a 90 degree joiner off the turbo inlet snout. 

Finally all finished. I just had to change the oil, fill up and bleed the coolant. Both tasks ended up being a headache.

Whoever had serviced the car last must’ve hired the hulk to fit the oil filter. I couldn’t get it off with just my hands so I resorted to stabbing a screwdriver tool which just ended up tearing the casing lol.

Luckily John had an oil filter tool that works on these. Make sure to pick one up to make your life easier if you haven’t relocated your filter (one of the best mods I’ve done on the s14). 

With the oil and filter changed, I filled up the coolant then went out to get dinner. I came back to a giant puddle of coolant under the car which was great. I wanted to boot the car at this point but I persevered and investigated the source of the leak. 

It ended up being the turbo waterline which connects to the hardline at the back of the motor. The line sat really close to the turbo and I could see rubber melting through the braid so I assume it would’ve hardened up over time then split the rubber hose when I pulled the turbo off. 

Luckily Dorifuto Henry had a new Aeroflow turbo line kit sitting on his shelf so I hopped in my car and made the one hour journey to pick it up.

Unfortunately I had to pull the manifold off the block to access the line to replace it but you gotta do what you gotta do. I went back inside and looked under the car to find another puddle of coolant... 

Luckily it turned out I didn’t tighten the hose clamp enough for the line that connected to the hard line. Nipped it up a bit more and there were no more leaks. 

Coolant was then finally bled and I checked again for any leaks but there were none. 

That’s a wrap!