124 replies to this topic

[Grubby]

I got bored and have been pulling the CA out this weekend and putting the SR in, so far the CA is out and I have pictures of it so far, anybody have any questions about pulling a CA out or does anybody want me to compile a walk through around monday when its all done?

[Umai Naa!!]

Do a walk-through

I can clean it up and pin it for everyone

[Grubby]

Do a walk-through

I can clean it up and pin it for everyone

I'll do what I can

Unfortunatly I didnt have batteries for my camera before I started, but the only real bit that will be missing is stripping everything off the CA which is easy as piss

[Umai Naa!!]

No worries, dude. Update it as often as you can

[Grubby]

Ok I decided I would just update this thread here and mabey it will get pinned/archived once I'm done, It's gonna be long and boring with lots of blah blah but I'll do my best to explain some things along the way. This also may take a few weekends worth of updates to actually be complete

***Day 1***



Nothing interesting to see here unfortunatly because these were taken at the end of the day, farted around for roughly 5 hours taking off all the plastics, leads, radiator and loosening everything off like engine mounts gearbox mounts, unplugging all the wires and clips etc etc, its all pretty straight forward. I also cut the exaust off right where it goes level with the underbody of the car, I will be making my own dump pipe and then using the old exaust as a template for the new 3"





If you have done it right you should have a pile of parts something like this, dont forget to drain the engine oil and radiator fluid, all over the ground works sometimes


I also pulled the console out and auto shifter out as shown. I thought I should explain that there are a few screws hidden in the console under the carpet, also you will need to take the plastic part out underneath the handbreak and get a few too ***IMPORTANT*** Make sure you put it in neutral if its an auto so you can push the car around, sounds like a no brainer but I almost forgot Its not hard to put the shifter back in and change it, merely a pain in the ass


So that's friday down, it was getting dark so I called it a day!

Day 2

Got straight into it today, nothing interesting to report..... nissan use strange engine mounts, one nut is part of the mount and the bolt screws into it from the underside (left side of the motor if you were sitting in the car, right bolt closest to the firewall) and the other side of the mount has the bolt welded to the mount with the nut the part that comes off. This is the opposite on the other mount, you will be able to see in a later pic.







Nothing to report here other than that the gearbox crossmember HAS to come off the engine, its connected by 2 14mm bolts on either side, if you dont take it off it will grab on the body, there is a little recess that there was no way the crossmember would get past unless it wasnt on the box. Once the crossmember is off it will take a bit of playing around with a pry bar, sledge and alot of wiggling to finally get it out, dont forget to have a pan ready for the gearbox oil. Had a really late start and early finish + lots of beers and shenanigans so we didnt get much done Saturday


Day 3

I woke up to an empty dirty engine bay........ what better to do first than clean it right?





I also cleaned the cement since I spilt a bit of oil and coolant there yesterday....... and by a bit I mean alot





Amazing what a bit of degreeser can do even though the left side wasnt gonna play ball and still looks craptastic.

Oh hello there



Working by yourself sucks, hence the jack and pieces of wood etc etc





Took me a little while to find the bolts for the gearbox and other stuff that just floats around hehe.....

Righto its go time ladies







Nothing interesting there, just a slightly modified sump that was going to go in another project (My mazda 1000 ute, you can see a bit of it in the pic with all the parts on the ground) I couldnt be assed forking out another 220 for a standard sump so its gonna do the job I hope.....



While the motor was dangling in limbo the steering rack/sway bar caught my eye..... is this standard?



After scratching my head for a while the SR ended up where its meant to be finally



Engine mounts are going to line up nicely by the looks of it



Even the gearbox seems to fit perfectly!





Well thats all for today folks, tomorrow I'm going to get the engine mounts and gearbox mounts sorted out hopefully. Feel free to ask me any questions at all about the job so far

[Grubby]

Oh and here is that pic of the engine mounts, if you look closely you can see the setup I was trying to explain earlier, I'll have better pics tomorrow once I do the mounts anyway

[Pistonfreak]

I've done a few SR's into gazelle's now
Even done one for customer at work and member of the clubS12 forum under username nismo1
The standard SR20 mounts bolt straight in
You'll just need to make a gearbox crossmember up and trim out the shifter hole.
But if you put the front half of the SR gear box "bell houseing" onto the rear half of the CA box you don't need to trim anything and can use the standard tail shaft too
Good luck with it all
Brian

[Umai Naa!!]

Not exactly. This car was an auto, so using the later C SR/CA18 box is actually easier to line the crossmember up for modification.

As for the tailshaft, using the front half of a CA18 tailshaft should get that part sorted.

[Pistonfreak]

Ahh true Dean
I still have that gear box cross member that came with the white auto coupe that had the CA18det manual in it before you and I bought it.
I could make one up the same as that if needed.

[Umai Naa!!]

That was a B to C crossmember, as the car had a manual tunnel, from memory.

Either way, there'd be a market for them

[Pistonfreak]

I still have the car
It's also getting the NA SR from my S15 type S
It's going to be my streeter in 2 1/2 months when I get my licence back w00t
So I'll get Darrel to check the tags for me as I thought it was a auto
If not Nero's was a auto and the GB mount wasn't very hard to knock up

Grubby
take out the CA20 rubber mounts and use the SR mounts and brackets and it will bolt straight in
I wish I had a cable to take the pics from my phone you would be able to see the shape of the gearbox crossmember I made for Nero.

[Grubby]

Grubby
take out the CA20 rubber mounts and use the SR mounts and brackets and it will bolt straight in
I wish I had a cable to take the pics from my phone you would be able to see the shape of the gearbox crossmember I made for Nero.

I'm a boilermaker by trade so I'm not shy about nocking up some custom mounts and a crossmember

I was going to use the top half of the standard SR20 ones (mine are actually butchered from that previous project they got modified to fit) and weld the top half to the bottom half of the CA ones so it bolts straight in.

I dont feel like farting around with the CA/SR gearbox trick, I'm just going to snip a tiny bit out (Looks like it will be barely 30-50mm towards the handbrake) and make either a single piece tailshaft to suit, or correct me if I'm wrong, but on the standard 2 piece if I replace the front smaller piece with a CA18 part (from an s13 CA18 equipped silvia/180 I assume) It should bolt straight up, correct?


Thanks for the help so far guys, hope it has been helpfull to somebody so far also.

[Pistonfreak]

Don't do the 1 piece shaft as it will only cause oil leaks, the output shaft doesn't like 1 piece and flogs out
stick with the 2 piece way
I'm only a tradesman mechanic and fabricator with 20 years experience up my sleeve.
Just trying to help with some advice to make it easy

[Umai Naa!!]

The front half of a CA18 tailshaft should work. I'm waiting on a few others to confirm this.

I'm also told there is a difference between turbo and non-turbo tailshafts, so I'm not entirely sure which one works.

I'm in the process of acquiring a CA18 tailshaft, and I have a complete auto tailshaft sitting on the floor in the garage. I'll strip the auto one down, and make it happen with the CA18 one, and measure it all up.

Theoretically, it should all work, as the S12 and S13 autos are the same length as the S13-on manual box. So, in theory, it's just a matter of making sure the splines match, and the centre bearing off either shaft is compatible.

[gerryb]

Yeah Dean my front half is an s12 auto one. I had to get the auto spline cut off and a manual one put one as they are different, but the length is correct.

[Grubby]

Ok so if I am understanding this correctly, using the standard S13 SR engine mounts and box, all I should need to do is cut a bit out of the box tunnel and aquire the front half of a CA18/CA18DET powered 180/silvia tailshaft. and it all should line up and fit.

If so I'll be buying the following this week

2 x SR20 engine mounts (mine got butchered up..)
CA18 front tailshaft, possibly full tailshaft if they wont sell me one part
SR20 sump possibly (because I dont like my custom one)

[Grubby]

Hmmm I found this

http://www.nissansil...p;#entry1634108

its the back half you need to watch.

manual with ABS 585mm
manual without ABS 600mm

auto with ABS 585mm
auto without ABS 600mm

the front half are the same for manual with or without ABS
and auto with or without ABS is the same but different from the manual front half.

But this is talking about SR20 tailshafts...... Will an SR20 front shaft fit? or does it have to be a CA18 front shaft? I assume the CA18 ones are shorter, since I got under the car today and had a look and at the moment the standard CA20 front shaft is overlapping the gearbox at the moment.

Any information would be really handy before I go scouring wreckers and spending money, thanks guys!

[Grubby]

I like drift - There are 4 different tailshafts for S13
- Manual No ABS
- Manual with ABS
- Auto no ABS
- Auto with ABS
Tailshafts are the same for both CA and SR.

I think I answered my own question, but I'd still love any feedback people who have done this using the SR box. I should be able to get one easy if I just ask for the front half of a manual 180sx/silvia tailshaft since according to this they are all the same

Edited by Grubby, 24 March 2008 - 05:02 PM.

[Umai Naa!!]

Hmm...

I better re-new my sources! I swear to god the front half of an S13 tailshaft is supposed to work

Grubby, do some measurements, and have that dummy yoke grafted onto a shorter version of the original tailshaft. You may also find that once you get your mounts on the engine, it may sit in the correct spot, allowing you to get a better idea of the actual tailshaft length.

[Grubby]

Hmm...

I better re-new my sources! I swear to god the front half of an S13 tailshaft is supposed to work

Grubby, do some measurements, and have that dummy yoke grafted onto a shorter version of the original tailshaft. You may also find that once you get your mounts on the engine, it may sit in the correct spot, allowing you to get a better idea of the actual tailshaft length.

Yeah I think I'll get the engine mounted in place first before I even go near the tailshaft, I may be able to use the CA one and just get it shortened.