I noticed myself getting sidetracked from the ultimate goal the last couple months, so I finally refocused my efforts, and made a definite achievement towards my Sr20 powered 1200 coupe project. About two hours ago I won an auction on a 180SX that is going to be the parts donor for my 1200.

As some of you may know, I already have a 180SX that was orignally supposed to be the donor car, but it has instead turned into my daily driver car. Now that I have the engine and tranny and all the other parts needed for the swap, I'll have a lot more motivation to get it started and finished.

The first order of business is going to be test fitting and seeing if in fact the stock turbo location will hit the steering box on a LHD car. If it does, I already have a top mount T3/T4 manifold ready to go on...if it doesn't, that saves a lot of money and I'll stick with the stock location and sell the T3 manifold.

Once that's figured out it will be onto actually fitting the engine/tranny in the proper spot and taking measurements front/back so I can find out how much room there is for the radiator, fans, intercooler, and pulleys. Keep in mind I WILL be keeping it all behind the grill, so this stuff's going to have to be as wide, tall, and thin as I can possibly fit. I'm thinking already the stock main pulley is going to be machined down to only one groove as it protrudes out pretty far into the precious clogged area in front of the engine, and I'll only need one belt anyway.

So yeah, I would write all this stuff on a webpage dedicated to the whole swap, but I think it would be more resourceful if I just kept it posted here on the website, plus it's easier than making a webpage. At some point I will have to buy a new computer to upload digital pics of the process, so you will all have to be patient with me until then as far as pictures go. I sure wish I could get a few of you fellow members to give me a hand, but Japan is a long way from everywhere. So the project will be kinda slow since it's pretty much just me and I work a lot. Wish me luck!

-Andy

Good luck, Andy! And I think it's great you're going to document the process as it will be most interesting. I plan on doing the same now that I have a digital camera, woo-hoo.

cool Andy! You are undertaking an awsome conversion mate. good luck!

The Project is moving slowly, I'm trying to shuffle cars around to make my daily driver the new 180SX I picked up last week. I was going to use this one as a parts donor for my 1200, but once I actually went and picked it up I realized how much better shape the new one is in, which is why I'm swapping cars and parting out the other one for the Datsun. The new 180SX has to get inspected and registered which is a pain in the butt in Japan, but I checked it out today and can only find 2 things they might try to fail me on, a torn tie rod end boot and the downpipe being less than 9cm from the ground. I'm just going to throw the stock downpipe on and it should clear.

The new 180SX only cost $1400 US, and it has a 5 speed whereas the other one is auto. It is twice as fast as the auto 180SX, I can't believe how much difference the tranny makes! Anyway, it's a beautiful red color and the body is pretty nice. I will try to post pictures as soon as I can of all my cars. I can see this project taking a while because of work mostly...I'll be gone 4 days out of the week on average so it's not easy! Well just wanted to update everyone.

Oh yeah I'm still waiting for the exhaust manifold to get here, the dude finally sent it out this week. Later!!

-Andy

One more step closer to the project getting underway today. Finally switched out daily driver cars today, one is now in storage at the auto shop waiting for me to start pulling the SR out of it to go in the 1200. The new 180SX is only hours from being fully registered and insured (finally!). All I have to do is take it back to the inspection facility tomorrow morning, they said the only thing I needed to do was get the exhaust raised up 2 cm which I did today.

After it's registered, all the goodies start going on it; the Apexi Hybrid Intercooler, Blitz BOV, Walbro 255 lph Fuel Pump, 17" Ray's wheels, 1998 Type X rear lights, S15 roller turbo, and GT-R style spoiler and light covers that I recently all bought used/new for about $900 on Yahoo Japan. It's going to look awesome! Finally I'll have a newer daily driver car that's in great shape! Can't wait to get pics on here of it!

-Andy

Man, you gotta love the A series! My poor 1200 (A15) has been sitting with a dead battery since the beginning of December. Yesterday I went out, sprayed some oil in the cylinders, hooked up the jumper cables and it started right up within about 3 seconds, I mean the starter made like only 2 revolutions and it fired right up...I was quite surprised!

I took it out for a little 30 minute spin and it ran great! Heated up the tires a little bit too a couple times! Man even my 180SX takes longer to start if it's only been sitting for 2 days!

Anyway, I made a little more progress this weekend I started tearing into the donor car yesterday. I must admit it didn't feel right to start yanking apart a perfectly fine car that I had been driving around every day for the last 4 months, but I just kept reassuring myself and the poor 180 that it was going for a better cause....to make a truly awesome 1200. Just about all the wiring and external parts are disconnected from the engine except any lines holding fluids besides that and the tranny, the engine is ready to come out. Since there's nowhere to store the engine, I think I will pull the engine out totally, then place it back in only by the two mounts until I have the 1200 ready and gutted to start test fitting. If we get some nice weather this week I'll finish pulling the SR20 and draining the fluids, then maybe this weekend pull the running gear out of the 1200.

Once I start stripping the Datsun out though I will be totally committed to this project as I don't have the luxury of my own garage/storage, the car HAS to be stored and worked on at the Auto Hobby Shop here on base, which charges $35/month storage, and I think there's a time limit of like 90 days to have it there. Plus people can steal stuff there and nobody is responsible for it except me...you know the typical crap deal. Good thing is not too many people in Japan are into stealing things, so it should be okay I hope!

I've also got a new exhaust to put on my 180SX this weekend, should sound a lot better! Got the new spoiler on it, MAN what a difference! Later!

-Andy

lovin it man...lovin it...

great news dude, pity 180sx's aren't that cheap over here otherwise i'd probably already have one

sounds awesome!!!

still cant believe u can get a 180 for that price

it's plain not fair i tells ya
they are aus$15,000 here

Even for a 1992 model they are that much?!!! My brother is about to buy a pristine '93 180SX w/86,000 km for only $2600 US. And I'm talking it is flawless! It's weird up here with pricing on them, usually the later style 180's with the round "Kouki" tail lights (1996 +?) will go for $5000-10,000 US but the earlier SR20 powered ones (1992 - 1995) you can find anywhere from $1000 - 10000 I don't know why there's such a large price range for these ones. The CA18 powered early ones are never more than about $3000, nobody wants those ones anymore up here, although I've actually seen quite a few CA's running around on base here but they're no contest w/SR powered ones unless they got a good amount of work done to 'em.

I was actually a little undecided before I bought the 2nd 180SX because you can get R32 GT-R's for about the same price (~$3000), and even a R33 GT-R for not much more (~$7000). It just seemed to make more sense to buy a car that I can swap the parts to a US spec car when I return to the States, so I stuck with the 180SX. Plus if I was spending a lot of money, it would've been on something way cooler like a 1972 "Hakosuka" Skyline...which I could actually bring back w/me. Those are my ultimate dream car now, at least the ones with 600 hp RB26DETT's swapped in them....