Questions and Answers.

The Stumpy Skyline box fits in the manual tunnel, but you might need to remove the old Gearbox mount lugs in the tunnel. This is based on Mikali's install in his coupe. I know that with an Auto tunnel there are no mods required, and you can even use the Automatic gearbox mounts on the body.

With the Stumpy Skyline box, the shifter comes up directly in the middle of the hole.

The CA18DET gearbox is definitely stronger/smoother shifting. But is longer, and involves the fabrication of a box section and moving the shifter back 20 cms (no good for a ute).

My car hasn't bent any chassis rails yet. A roll cage would help. So I may get a roll cage made up eventually.

Chris

Is there a site on the net, or something to that effect, of a step by step conversion for the CA18??? All the one's I've seend just say heres the engine and hers' it in the car and all hooked up.
Cheers
Damo

There's a lot of custom work in the conversion. Writing a conversion article is not worthwhile, given the difficulty in finding parts (in some parts of the world) for some areas of the conversion.

Doing a CA18 conversion isn't cheap, as I said above, and involves a lot of sweat, blood and tears (In that order).

I'd like to see the statistics of people who do a conversion and either don't finish, or sell their car soon after, due to financial difficulties.

I think when someone does a conversion, or something else innovative with their car, that it's a representation of the "real type" of car enthusiast that they are. Bolt-on performance is purely a financial pursuit. I'm not into Datsun's because I want to show how much cash I've got..I'd go buy a Triumph (apparently) if I was into that crap.

People on this website have shown their brilliance through the many great articles and photos on all sorts of conversions. Writing a detailed article on how to do the CA conversion, is selling out their innovation.

I believe there is enough information and resources on this website to do the conversion already. Get the mad-dat fitting kit, download the S13 CA18DET ECU wiring diags from my website, and figure it out. Show us that you want to do it.
If it's handed to you on a platter you probably won't value it, or respect it, and others won't respect you for it.

Chris.

ps. Oh man sorry If I've gone on, having a fast Datto is a statement of "Brains over Braun. Service over Style". If I'm wrong, I'll leave quietly.

i agree with u dattodude. i admire the respect u have for the intelligence of the members of the datsun community.
Modifying your own datto by doing all the work yourself is like creating an unique piece of art. i think its sad seeing people who simply bolt their cars together with no passion at all. i love cars, i want to fix them, race them, enhance them and clean them....all on my own. they are a passion not a passtime.

Hey I'm not trying to be the bad guy and diss people, I aren't as experienced as most of the people on this site, I'm not after an explaination of someone's conversion down to the exact bolt brand. I'm jsut after a procedure, something like.

Make up engine mounts drop in engine, once properly seated in then you need to hook up this or get that, mainly a generalised thing, but not too generalised.

Maddat don't do the engine conversion kits any more, my friend tried gettin one recently and they said they don't do them any more.

I too admire the work and uniquness of these types of conversions, I'm just very curious about what exactly needs to be done.

Thanks for your time
Cheers
Damo

Fair enough, sorry if I sounded like I was having a go at you personally. I wasn't.

Doing the engine conversion is pretty much the same as doing the conversion for any other kind of engine, into any other kind of car. The Crossmember and Clutch conversion is probably the most time consuming part of the job. This depends on what brake booster/master cylinder option you take too. It's a whole lot of interconnected dependancies.

However if you consider that a CA18 transplant will need at least 30 hours of labour to build the custom brackets, you are looking at about $1500 worth of labour in these mods alone. These brackets then have a liability attached to them. How would you feel if you made a bracket that held the engine in. Lets say it broke, making the engine fall down and short out your wiring loom. Who's responsible?..the guy that made/designed the bracket. Unless a legal indemnity form is signed, but even then it can be questioned in court.

I know plenty of people who don't have a solid collection of steel sections, bars, rods square tube etc.. These are the people that shouldn't take on a transplant conversion. Otherwise the project will progress at an excruciatingly slow rate, as you discover what you need, and then have to go out and buy it.

Also, you need to be very resourceful to succeed in the art of maintaining a non-standard car. A transplant car is generally like a human who's had a transplanted heart..they can be higher maintenance and spend more time getting serviced.

Like I said in a previous postings, mechanics and "road service people" won't want anything to do with your car anymore! You have to know how to fix things by yourself.

The best way to learn how to fix things yourself, is to learn how things work, by doing it yourself. This either involves learning from work or friends or from books.

The bottom line is, I modify my car, if something breaks, I only have myself to blame.

Chris.