A few questions for anyone who has done a SR20 swap...

[Grendel]

Hey all,

In the next few months, I'm planning on buying an S13 fastback 240sx...

I was planning on buying it, and using it as my daily driver while I save enough for the swap...

Here are my questions:

1) I heard stories of people not passing smog with these motors... I live in Cali, so this is important... there is a way to pass smog with an SR20 right?

2)I see the motor going for about 1500... how much would a *good* shop charge to install it, and can anyone recomend any good ones in souther Cali?

Thats all for now, I'm sure I will think of more...

-Grendel

[J SPEC SilEighty]

Hey,

1. Yes you can pass smog tests, even in california. Try and get your 240 inspected right before you get your SR20 that way you have a year (or however often you have to get it inspected out there) to drive around with the SR20 without worrying if it's producing to much smog or not. But when you do go to get the SR inspected, do this before you go..... Replace the spark plugs with new ones, replace the catalytic converter with a GOOD one, and try to run the car a little lean (meaning a greater proportion of air then fuel). With that, you should have no problem passing. And if all else fails, ask around at streetraces for shops that can do "illegal inspections".

2. Don't buy a motor just because it is cheap, remember "you get what you pay for". Make sure that the motor is complete including everything needed for the swap, including tranny, ecu, and make sure that you get an UNCUT harness because a cut harness can lead to many nightmares. I used to think that www.jspecauto.com had very good deals on their motors (1599 complete), but I recently read a story from someone on freshalloy.com who ordered from them. He said that when he recieved his motor, he did not get the ignitor chip, the MAF, and his exact words were "it looks like my ecu was hit by a sledgehammer." So he called jspecauto back and they said that they do not include the ignitor chip or the MAF with their motorsets and that they would replace the ecy. So he sent back the ecu and has been waiting about 3 weeks to recieve a new one and he said there is still no sign of it. Also the harnesses that come from jspecauto are all cut, meaning the plugs at the ends are gone. If your motor doesn't include the ignitor chip or the MAF then that's not that big of a deal because the ignitor chip can be used from a 96+ Q45 and the 240SX MAF can be wired to work.

A GOOD shop would probably charge about 1600-2000 for the install. Check out VSPEC Performance (I think you have to call them because I've never seen a website for them) for your swap needs because I hear about them all the time in magazines and they are all saying how good of a shop it is.

[Grendel]

Thanks for the detailed reply...

I was reading the issue of sport compact car (build a turbo silvia for $3000) and they mentioned a guy in northern cali who would re-do the stock wiring harness so it reaches the correct places (I think it was the stock one, maybe it was the sr20 one and im horribly mistaken...) for a fee... do you need the sr20 harness, or does the 240 one have the correct plugs? I'm guessing it doesn't...

Another thing, I'm wondering if I need a shop to do it at all... I would prefer a nice clean installation without getting my hands dirty, but I know I would learn a lot more, and enjoy the car more if I could say "I put the engine in..."

I think my dad and I could do the swap... looking at the SCC article, the swap looks fairly simple... and my dad is a god at making things fit... He stuffed a Pontiac 350 into a Datsun mini truck back in the day, and when that blew up, he replaced it with a Ford 351 Cleveland

Thanks again,

-Grendel

[J SPEC SilEighty]

It sounds like you and your dad are perfectly capable of doing this swap on your own. I haven't done the swap in my car but I have helped a couple friends perform the swap into their car and to tell you the truth it actually isn't that hard at all, it just takes patience and some time.

Yes, you are going to need the SR20 harness to complete the swap along with the SR20 ecu. You can rewire the harness yourself, but it is WAY easier to get somebody else who is experienced to do it for you. There is that guy that was mentioned in the SCC article like you said, and also srswap (http://www.srswap.com/wiringsvc.htm) will do this for a small fee of $100. My friend who did the swap about a month ago used srswap for the wiring service and when the harness came back, it plugged right in to everything without a problem.

I think that it would benefit you more (plus it would save you at least 1500) to complete the swap yourself because it's not that hard and like you said, you'll learn a lot more and you will enjoy it more knowing that you completed it yourself and it works. My friend and I who did the swap in his car just had a basic knowledge about engines and we completed the swap in about a week and a half on and off working. Also, www.freshalloy.com helped out a bunch during the swap. We also used the Factory Service Manual for the S14 Silvia. It was almost exactly the same as the S13 Silvia so the S14 manual worked fine. you can download a copy of it if you want, but don't plan on printing it out because it's about a thousand pages.

There's 5 parts to the manual and you will need WINRAR to open them
If you don't have winrar then you can download that
here.
Here's the 5 files for the manaul and after you have them all, click on S14.rar to extract them all.

File 1
File 2
File 3
File 4
File 5

Enjoy

[Grendel]

Wow, thanks man, I'm sure those will be a lot of help... They are going to take forever to download over my 56k tho... about an hour and a half for the first one...

Thanks again

-Grendel