Picking the Engine

Picking the Engine

You'll need an engine and transmission for this swap. Ideally, you should also have a wiring harness, ECU and countless little brackets and doodads. If you're putting off the inevitable front-mount intercooler, you'll also want the stock side-mounted intercooler and piping. The easiest way to get all the parts you need is to buy a front clip, which includes the whole car from the A-pillar forward. We bought a 180SX front clip with 66,000 km on it for $1,500 from Venus Auto Parts in Sacramento, Calif. Venus sells the clips without bodywork. We also bought the Silvia fenders, hood, bumper and headlights for $500.

If you buy the engine separately, check the lower oil pan for dents. The SR20's oil pickup is mounted very close to the oil pan, and a dented pan can pinch off oil flow, usually resulting in immediate rod bearing failure. The pan only has to be very slightly dented for this to happen, so if you have any doubts, remove the lower pan (that's the stamped steel part, not the aluminum part) and check for score marks from the pickup. You can either hammer the pan back out, replace it (you have to get one from Japan) or upgrade to a GReddy or ARC high-volume pan. (The GReddy pan is baffled, the ARC is not.) With a stock capacity of only 3.5 quarts, the high-volume pan is a good idea.

There were several different versions of the SR20DET, which we've detailed in the table below. If you plan to upgrade the turbo, there's little advantage to the more powerful newer versions. A turbo upgrade on the earliest S13 engine will see it pumping out far more than the S15 engine in no time. If you simply plan to max out the stock turbo, the later turbos do have more potential.