93 JDM ST185 Project

transneptunian

New member
Finally getting around to a build thread on my ST185 ive had for almost 2 years now. My journey to this point started years ago when I bought my first car, a 90 gt-s. I always loved that thing and wished to one day have the famed alltrac of my own. Heres a much younger me in that thing. Man, wish I would've kept this hood though.
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Anyways, spent some time out of the car scene and decided to get back into it and go for the car Id always wanted. Looked around and saw a few rough examples and even drove to NH from TN to look at one that turned out be a lost cause. Ended up finding an imported 93 in California with near pristine mileage and flew out there to buy it. Here she sits in the previous owners driveway when I first saw it.
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Overall, the car was in good shape aside from a few minor defects. Busted dash, missing hood emblem, torn shift boot etc, but i would gladly fix all that for a mechanically sound example. So I bought it and had it shipped back.
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Almost 2 agonizing weeks later it finally arrives in need of a bath.
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transneptunian

New member
So, first things first, fixing the small stuff like hood emblem, and sorting out the interior. The biggest pain here was sourcing a dash for a RHD car. Ended up getting one from ireland, not in perfect shape but much better than than what I started with.
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New dash, shift boot, replace aftermarket with factory shift knob, dome light, ect.
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Next step was new wheels. I loved the whit OZ chronos it came with but they had developed a decent warp on two of the wheels so I replaced them with some cheap ns 17s. Nothing special but I like the look.
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After that I tackled the nasty rear wheel gap with som H&R 25mm spacers.
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transneptunian

New member
Next step was exhaust with a BRD downpipe into a 3" exhaust I had a shop make me ending in a cheap ebay muffler. Gave it pretty good sound, a little loud but nice and throaty. Better high end power as well allowing me to better utilize RPMs past about 5500.
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After this, it was time to replace the wore out clutch as well as having some servicing done. So I took it to a shop and had
Exedy OEM replacement clutch
Lightweight competition flywheel
Timing belt
Seals
Water Pump
New driveshafts on each side.

Loved the new feel of the flywheel. Launches strong and revs very fast. Plus the piece of mind of having everything in order. I drove it for a while before having to replace a wheel bearing. A couple hours a work and almost 300 bucks later I had that sorted out. At this point Im realizing parts for this car are going to cost me big time. Oh well, thats what I signed up for.

Another minor addition but I think its super neat: a custom license plate by some dudes in the UK called veist. I had a white one made as well but like this black one better on my car.
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Now with good mechanical confidence, I decide its time to install the manual boost controller ive been sitting on for a few months. Got that installed and dialed in the boost to right under 1 Bar. The car really comes to life after this. So much more top end and the ability for full boost in 1st and 2nd is a game changer on these.

Most recently, I was faced with more woes as i started having clutch issues. After bleeding and replacing the slave and putting the car back together, I discovered it was actually the master cylinder. It was quite a cramp and tedious job to change all this out so i decided to replace the line with braided steel so Id hopefully never have to do this job again.
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HEL braided line. Took slight modification of the clips to fit but I was satisfied overall. Think they gave me enough stickers?
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Only thing available for the master was a refurbished one from....once again the UK, courtesy of gt4play. Found out the hard way that LHD masters are not the same.

Luckily, I made use of the down time from playing rotating master cylinders to do a little freshening in the engine bay. I had alot off so did some painting on the valve cover and exhaust heat shield and some polishing on the intercooler. Needless to say, I got pretty proficient at removing the intercooler and air intake system at this time. A little engine bay before and after:
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SO thats where Im at now. Not sure where I want to go from here. I know my next step will be paint as ive got some severely faded spots. Id like to do a little suspension work but wont be able to lower it much due to my driveway. Maybe a set of coilovers in the future and a little brake upgrading.

My end goal is going to be a 300-400whp street build that I drive pretty regularly. Once I get to that point, Id like to freshen up the internals and head gasket and go bigger turbo and stand alone ECU. This will be a long process as building these isnt cheap, and neither is having 3 kids. :rofl:

Anyways, just wanted to finally share my journey so far and see where the road takes me. Cheers!
 
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