SR20DET engine swap in my E30

[IPLEZR]

riped out the old 1.8 manuel and replaced it with this.
quick little rundown....

Red top sr20det out of s13 silvia with manual gearbox,
lexus v8 engine mounts holding it,
custom x-member and gearbox mount,
stainless even flow top mount extractors,
38mm external wastegate,
turbonetics T4 ball bearing turbo,
straight thru 2.5" exhaust to powerpro tip,
walbro fuel pump,
braided fuel lines thru to tank,
custom intercooler setup,
blow off valve,
3core v8 radiator,
deloomed,
500hp 5 puck clutch,
in cabin booster and master cyl (where glove box sits),
all in cabin brake lines,
electronic boost controller,
680cc injectors,
G3 link ecu

all i can remember off the top off my head but feel free to ask questions

[Tom944]

That's tucked in nicely there, not sure about the chromed wheels though. Are you going to leave your intercooler like that?

Nice effort .

[E30BeemerLad]

that'll be a bit fruity!

what sort of power is she running?

[Karan]

cool!!!!

i have both cars and i think thats wicked!

[IPLEZR]

thanks, um its only on a run in tune at the moment but with 12psi at a 65% tune its making 270hp at the rear wheels.
the dyno guy (bob homewood) said when i go for retune at 18psi it will have easy 400+hp at the wheels.
that will keep me pretty happy.
oh and for the wheels yea im sick of them so im going for a rim with a bit of dish

[MJG]

400 at the wheels on standard internals and cams? Seems a bit hardcore to me, but good work on the swap anyway.

It makes good sense with sr20dets and gearboxes etc going for £500-600 complete, for 200bhp out of the box and an easy 270bhp at the flywheel. Just a shame they sound like turds and belong to gay nissans

[IPLEZR]

haha, yea mines sounds weird coming out of a bmw but the stainless extracters and turbo make it sounds alot different to a standard sr20. and as for the power iv done a bit of reasearch and with standard internals you can run a safe 18psi and get just over 400 wheel hp out of them safely with standard internals and with the proper tuning and ecu. i have another mate with the same engine swap in his e30 and he is making 260kw at the hubs and its lasted mint

[MJG]

That's cool. I know Phil Morrison of Driftworks ran about 400bhp at the fly on standard internals but the flywheel/hubs difference is quite a lot. It's a lot easier to just change standard engines when it goes pop than fork out for new steel internals and stuff anyway so it's a good mentality in my book.

[IPLEZR]

when and if it goes pop i have forged pistons ready to go in, but will prob do cams and headwork aswell at the same time.

[abelai]

There is a good reason they say the sr20det has chocolate pistons and runing more than 1.5bar of boost will soon show you why even with the large FMI. It has a tendancy to melt the edge off the piston off. I used to have a Pulsar GTi-R running the HKS 87mm Pistons and the biggest FMI avalable for out and out power a truely amazing engine, expensive hobby tho.

[fuzzy]

400bhp @ the wheels? that will have some serious traction issues

[Assault]

Hey another NZ'er seen you on bimmersport.

Lookin good, but I agree with changing the wheels, 400 horse should be some serious fun though!

[m-dtech]

wheels are shit and intercooler looks hideous.

[IPLEZR]

wheels are shit and intercooler looks hideous.

each to there own tho ay mate,

yea traction is already a problem, go from 5th to 3rd with a bit of revs at 120kmh and it lights the wheels. think that might also be to the massive camber also lol need to get offset bushes for lower arms to solve that a bit

[Taz]

nice car mate

not sure about the intercooler

[MickyDojoh]

The intercooler is def a NZ thing.. Lol i lost count of the turbo cars i saw there without a bumper. Car looks awesome bro, how much work was involved?

[Dave_M3]

I reckon 400bhp at the wheels in an SR20 will still only last 10mins given one good blast.
The make mince of the bottom end even on standard boost after a while.

I also think the Front mount looks sh!te.

All only my opinion though

It'll be a very interesting car to drive in any case

[MickyDojoh]

I used to have a 200sx with a sr20. If the engine is looked after properly its a good engine. Mine held 280bhp no problems. There are guys on the sxoc running considerably more with a standard bottom end, and have been for years with no problems. Personally though i wouldnt run that much power without forgies

[MickyDojoh]

Also with regards to the front mount. With the amount of boost hes running, the hot weather and the lower grade of fuel hes not really got much of a choice. Personally i think its great to see something original

[kish]

Hi mate.

Well done the the conversion. Looks real good. You should have no problems with running 400HP with stock internals. I am running a modified CT26 turbo on my SR powered E30 with stock pistons and rods, flowed and ported head, JUN 272 degree 11.5 mm lift cams, HKS valve springs, titanium retainers, 550cc/min injectors, large intake, VQ45 throttle body, VG30 AFM,ARK intercooler and greddy Emanage controlling ignition and fueling. Im running 380HP with no problems other than the lack of traction in 1,2,3 and sometimes 4th gears. Very fun to drive but gonna need some wider rear wheels!

[DriftManiac]

Hello mate i'm impressed with the conversion looks really tidy! I'm thinking about doin the same conversion to my Tech 1 325i sport as have blown 3 engines now and it's starting to get silly! I was just wondering what you did or how you managed to sort the nissan wiring to run alongside the bmw wiring or have you replaced with a custom loom and what you did as regards to ecu etc? Oh and did you make a custom prop? Just want my little drift machine back but with more power but the 3.5 wont give the power gain i want and is heavy 4 pot turbo seems to be the way forward just trying to make my mind up between cossie and sr20 power any opinion's or ideas, help would be appreciated cheers jason

[drifty325i]

Go with the SR20 mate or a lexus v8 ;)

[IPLEZR]

hey thanks for all the comments hahah. i havnt been on for a while but heres where im at now.

cars back off the road, doing bottom end plus cams cam wheels, valves, port polish, injecters all the goodies for the engine to make it strong etc. also getting a 8 point cage put in, fuel cell and surge tank in the rear, going 5 stud (stronger rear end) redo the body and tidy up engine bay with false firewall to hide ugly things. new rims going 18x8, new custom steam pipe even flow extractors as iv found the stainless ones are crap no matterwhat grade. so car will be off the road for about a year or so. shouldnt have a problem with getting reliable 400+hp at the wheels i would really like more but see what time brings.

to answer DriftManiac im running G3 link ecu and only have bout 28 wires going to engine/ecu and no standard bmw lume.

[IPLEZR]

kish what did you do for rear end etc??? coz im pissing diffs and cvs out like a hot knife thru butter.
iv had a locked diff in it for 2 months and its been ok but cv joints end up like pentigons and spit the balls out of a hole that isnt ment to be there hahahhah.
im thinkn e28 rear end modified but would like more ides as im going to be doing it all this year

[jaistanley]

The strongest bolt in setup is the ZMCoupé/Roadster. The driveshafts/cv's are slightly bigger and the arms are beefed up.

HTH

[kipper]

aye a nice sr20........... ive one in my workshop just now...... in a million pieces........ choclate engines lol..... this one had the crank bearings melt and a conrod gone to heaven.... quick engines , same there so poorly made

[stormhunt3r]

how about fitting a nissan RB25 into the E30? What kind of power figures should be we looking at and is the transplant tough? What gearbox should we use with that engine?

having a 323 now but the engine isn't producing enough power.

[Karan]

aye a nice sr20........... ive one in my workshop just now...... in a million pieces........ choclate engines lol..... this one had the crank bearings melt and a conrod gone to heaven.... quick engines , same there so poorly made

hmmmmm i disagree... they are very strong engines as long as u upgrade critical components and mapped well they last well for a turbo engine...better than RB engine for sure

obviously not as strong as bmw lumps but what is?