Silvia the Sigma GE build

[13bsigma]

hey guys. its been a long time coming. Silvia was owned by a lady in Armidale and garaged for all her life..

My story starts here.
i had a bright yellow turboed GE with 120 Rwkws on 10 PSI with 87,000kms. i was the third owner, the second owner had just bought her off a neighbour and put the turboed engine in and then sold to me. i loved that car. and one day i got a call at work from mum saying a tree had fallen on her. i was devistated. needless to say, i looked on ebay in search of something close to it and to my pure luck, there was a bright yellow GE with 58,000kms on it in imaculate condition. i placed a $3000 bid and ended up winning the car for $1400 with 5 months rego. i would have bid more than $3000, but i was limited with cash issues. A week later my new dream car was tucked away in my grandmothers garage and there it stayed for 3 years until now.

My plans for the car are to have between 250 to 300 Rwkws, keep it stock looking, quiet exhaust, all engineered and legal but most of all un cut and un damaged so it can be returned to standard if i wish. i have swaped numerous parts with the original GE to save hacking parts in this one. parts such as the center console with heater and radio controles, dash and other parts.

my first round of goals for the car are as follow:

• * A good service to freshen up the engine DONE
  
  * Manual conversion. i have all parts in the boot currently, i just got back form holidays and collectiong the car, just awaiting funds to get the swap completed. DONE
  
  * Fuel injection. i have most of the parts, only a few minor bits need finnishing.
  
  * Re do the brake lines as they are a little rusty
  
  * Lowered springs and shocks
  
  * White rear venitians
  
  * White wheels or my turbo rims DONE
  
  * Extractors with stainless steel exhaust. maby 2.75 inch exhaust. but must be quiet.
  
  * Get my JET 51G plate transfered over
  
  * Install my 80s imobeliser from original GE
  
  * Centeral locking/alarm fitted
  
  * Air conditioning fitted
  
  * Get hood repainted as it has a few chips on it will probably get 'silvia' painted in white down the front on an angle so people know who they are looking at

i am currently trying to complete piecing together the engine in my suzuki so i can have it as a daily, so funds will be slightly limited for now, but i think i can get the manual swap and fuel injection done soon.

here are some standard pics of her outside my grandmothers garage

the outside






Now the interior





and 1 engine shot

[13bsigma]

ok. so the other day before the drive to the gold coast, i fitted the white wheels. here are some pics

[ddt]

There's a quality GE right there.
I like the rims too.
If you are doing the venetians thing and keeping her relatively unmolested I'd consider keeping the current plates -they are the right colour anyway and when you go to sell it, someone looking for a clean original GE would pay more for one still sporting it's original plates.
Just make sure you don't park under any more dodgy looking trees.

[13bsigma]

Thanks for the comment She sleeps in a garage now. i pushed the girlfriends out. hers just got a $8000 respray. but i told her if hers looks this good in 32 years, she can have the garage. i move over a lot so we can kinda squeeze hers in too as we are the only ones lucky enough to have a triange car spot spot. if you drive in far enough, you can get two cars wide

i had to hand in the orignial plates when i re registered it the other day as it had been out of rego for 3 years, so it has new yellow plates on it for now

plus i will never sell it

[13bsigma]

went to pannel beater today to get quote on hood. $400 was the quote, but the guys said the hood would really stick out and make the rest of the car look very old and faded and that i should get the whole car sprayed. i asked how much. the car is dead straight, no rust at all, so would be a very straight forward spray. they told me that they would do it cheap for $2800 cash!
my girlfriend got her car done in a different colour, a metalic pink, inside doors, colour coded molds, mirrors, bars, grill etc, damage on all 4 sides of the car (one which was quoted at $800 to get fixed), guards rolled, new front windshield all for $2600. so why would the sigma be so expensive i wonder!! i called the guy down in sydney who did nats car and he can do it for $1000. proper, in booth job. he has had cars in a few magazines too.

so maby when i go down for the new engine, i will spray it too.

[PROSSER]

sorry for jacking your thread but can you pm me the details of the bloke in sydney. cheers

[13bsigma]

i know him well, so he does special prices for me. . its Hornsby Prestige Smash Repairs. ask for mohamad and say Dane and Nat with the pink baleno told you about him and he should look after you

[PROSSER]

awesome thanks!

[ISKA8]

she is beautifullllllll.....like the wheels mate.

[WagonWheel]

Looks good mate, love the GE shape

[13bsigma]

found out the other day when i visited stealth that the GE has a jap box from factory and even worse, that the other day with the wrecked GE at home, i removed the diff only to give up and leave 1 or 2 bolts holding it on thinking it was a boargwarner and what am i doing and proceded to send it to the wreckers! DAM IT!!!

[13bsigma]

ok, so i got sick of being so slow. . got stealth to knock me up a part to weld to the firewall so i can out a manual clutch cable through it, filled her up with fuel and drove her 1000kms back down south. tomorrow i will remove jet's engine and put it in silvia and drive her back home in a week probably keeping the turbo off for now as i want to think about intercooler piping and how i can do it with out cutting holes anywhere. might have a water to air cooler inside the engine bay. will take pics tomorrow of the removal and install and put them up when i get back home to the gold coast.

took jet for a spin today to see how she's running drove her hard and forgot how dam fast she is. . did a burnout and lil drive then got home and the gearbox was grumpy. . the input bearing is whining now. .its'pretty bad. i lol'd when i heard it. . i showed it who's boss hahaha so will definatly not use that gearbox for silvia hahaha

[13bsigma]

ok. ran into an epic snag. . jet's engine is apparently a 2.6L and the gearbox behind it is a scorpion manual one that they had to hack up the tunnel to fit it.

so that engine is not going to make it in to silvia now. . the only option i have is to rebuild a narrow block 2.6L with the forged pistons and drop that in with a 2.0L clutch and bolt it to a 2.0L jap box. .

so the plan for now is to leave the engine in there and continue with the manual swap, installing the 2.0L jap box into her. fuel inject and enjoy until i rebuild the 2.6. . have to drive down again to do that swap lol, aso a bit of a waisted journey.

[13bsigma]

ok. time for an update. Silvia is being too dam reliable so time to treat her to some mods in the form of EFI and a T04 turbo

drove silvia down from the gold coast yesterday. 850kms completely fault free.

I will only be running a microtech digi.. simple and extremely easy to install and get running. i will also be using no intercooler as i am saving for a water to air intercooler from america. i will have the money for it in 6 weeks. been getting a little every week put into a savings account for months now. so as i said, i will run a pipe from the turbo to the throttle. i will only be running low boost around 5 or 7 psi and driven softly, so should be safe. I refuse to cut silvia and hack her up, so the decision for a water to air cooler was due to the fact that i can fit it in the engine bay meaning i dont have to hack holes for piping to the front.

I KEEP forgetting to take pics as i do stuff! i really want to, but my memory while working on her is terrible. will try to do better tomorrow. hoping to have her up and running again in a week to 10 days

step one is going to be doing the EFI and getting her running, then do the turbo after i know she runs with the EFI. i have all parts for the turbo conversion off JET.51G so only things i'll need done are the dump pipe welded in and the pipe from turbo to inlet made up, but i want it as simple and cheap as possible as it will only be on there for a few weeks hopefully. this way when i get the water to air cooler, the turbo will already be fitted and it will be much easier and quicker to get the piping made up when i get it installed. i am also thinking of welding in the screamer pipe as i know the fines and problems i will get from the boys in blue if i dont.

[13bsigma]

Finally getting back onto this. its been a long time.

Silvia is intoday getting a new master cylinder put in and all the brake fluid changed. the brakes were always bad, but on the drive to the mechanic a light turned red and i floored the brake pedal and pulled the hand brake as hard as i could to pull up lol... VERY bad.

I'm also getting brand new tie rods, idler arm and pitman arm put in so steering should be mint too.

Now the big part. I purchased a 13b bridgeport a week ago and it is being freighted up from melbourn. so in a week when all the brakes and steering are done i will rego her and drive her to sydney to have the rotary installed.

Its a freshly rebuild series 5 with fuel injection. it was a turbo motor, but i didnt buy the turbo. i'm keeoping it N/A for the time being and installing it that way, then later i will prob turbo it and aim for around 300Rwkws.

up here in QLD its rather easy to engineer stuff. so i'm hoping if i can keep it quietish, i can engineer it. my turbo suzuki passed. the guy looked and said yeah i can pass that. i said how much he said $150 and i said book it in lol. the guys who did all the work on the suzuki are doing the conversion for me, so it will be quality work and hopefully should pass.

i'm giving the camera to the guys doing the work and will tell them to snap everytihng up for me for your viewing pleasure

[BAD-SIG]

Awesome! Please make sure you post photos and videos of it, especially after the 13B is fitted! I still plan to fit a 20B to my GE Sigma, can't wait to do that too!

[natosig]

That's in amazing condition keep up the good work mate

[1979GE]

Thats mint!! just love Ge's in this condition!! Cant wait to see more

[13bsigma]

figured id throw up some of the EFI pics too while i wait for the steering and brakes to be done

I used an M4 head and microtech DIGI ECU. so very simple. my inlet manifold suits both head stud paterns as it has had little bits welded onto the bottom of the manifold as you can see in one of the pictures.

[13bsigma]

got silvia back the other day. all fixed steering and master cylinder. also got a pipe made up for an air filter to pass road worthy. all up it came to $789. and all i went in for was a $50 pipe made up for the pod filter lol.

i currently have the top half of the inlet manifold off too as i am taking it in tomorrow to have a air vacume nipple put in for the breather hoses from the rocker cover. then its just clamp in battery and go hopefully pass road worthy. my shocks are very spongy too, but i want to get brand new pedders shocks and springs after the rotary goes in.

[BAD-SIG]

Very nice, keep it up!

[13bsigma]

so i didnt keep it up i moved back from the gold coast to Sydney. i tried fittingthe 13b bridgeport i had, but it was going to cost around 10 grand and the entire floor was going to have to be cut out. so that idea quickly stopped.

since then, i have re fitted the standard 2.0L, re fitted the EFI and also wacked on a To4 turbo. got it running last week end and drove it a little bit. im getting it put in to get a 3 inch mandrel bent stainless steel exhaust next wednesday

than its a matter of probably a winde band air fuel ratio gauge so i can turn this fuel only computer and have it running again half way decent.

im soon going to be grabbing a button clutch and a 2.6L automatic block and thrwing all my goodies into that and having some fun

she needs a massive day of detailing done. a whole lot of polish and elbow grease.

i was workign an hour or so every weekend on her for the last 2 months. so its good to finally have her running so i can take her to the place im living and can get some stuff happening

The brakes have failed again too. im thinking the master cylinder crapped itself again. the guy rebuilt it apparently. im thinking of just getting a brnad new one off ebay. does anyone know whats the differnce between the master cylinders with one fluid cup and the ones with two? will they both work/bolt on?

[13bsigma]

so i got the brakes fixed and the exhaust fitted and the timing sorted.

i have bodgied up some intercooler piping now and she is boosting running 7PSI and feeling quite nice to drive

next on the list is a wideband air to fuel ratio gauge so i can get the microtech running more efficiently.

i'm also looking for lowered springs and tyres. im thinking of getting some tyres for my sigma turbo wheels and fitting them.

i need to fix a few things over the next few weekends too.

the power wire for the fuel pump runs into the car and out the passengers side door and undr the car. i want to run this through the car and out through a rubber gromet under the back seat proably.

i have a water leak from the thermoastat now as well as a leak from the turbo oil drain hose. i also need to seal up the rocker cover.

might try to get proper intercooler piping made too, but considering i will eventually be going a water to air one, i dont know if i will waste money on seomthing im going to change later.

im half way through a major detail too. the difference is enormous!

[stealth]

What is the go , are you in Sydney full time ?
Because I reckon we could fit the 13 b if your keen it couldn't be that much work really a few custom parts and time dude
Cheers stealth

[13bsigma]

yeah mate. i moved back to sydney. sold the rotary and decided to go in a turbo direction.

i was pretty upset i had to scrap it.

THANKS HEAPS for the the offer, but as ive sold the motor.... maybe in the future (im focusing on clearing debts at the moment) i might try it again if you think it might still work

[Scorpma82]

The fact is that it is a classic car with classic lines

If you leave it alone and just keep it nice and clean (helps if its orginal looking with the std wheels/exhaust pipeetc) then people will pay attention to it

And u still can concetrate on eliminating debts

[13bsigma]

yeah thats why i didnt want to hack the car up to fit the rotary.

i love the 'neat old persons car' look of the car. as ive done half the stainles steel exhaust, im changing the standard pipes out the back, but i still want it to be quiet. so im going to get a triflow muffler at the back.

[Scorpma82]

A nice straight chrome tip will suit it......none of this massive 3" plus dump pipe and so on, it will remove the 'classic/unrestored' look to the car