B14 GA16DE - SR20DET swap info

[JasonHDuty@aol.com]

Pardon the lengthy post guys, I'm sure there's plenty of info in the
archives about this, but I received an e-mail from Chris S. regarding
the aforementioned swap & once I got started there was no apparent
end to it.  Rather than relying on memory in the future I decided to
post this info for the archives, in hopes it will help someone maybe
myself in the future.  It wasn't intended to be a technical article,
it was an e-mail from one person to another that got too lengthy to
ever repeat.

In a message dated 12/20/01 5:43:25 PM Eastern Standard Time,
chrisstorer@home.com writes:

> Hey - I saw you did a '96 200sx GA to DET swap - I have like 90% of the
parts
> in my garage to do the same to a '97 any hints suggestions?

Heh heh, you *think* you have 90%.  Run, run as far as you can as
fast as you can in the opposite direction.  <VBG>  =)

>  Also what parts did you have to swap?

>  so far I've gotten:
>  Motor
>  Tranny
>  Axles
>  ecu
>  harness
>  all motor mounts
>  radiator

I'll be happy to help in any way I can.  The car we did was intended to
be a daily driver, with no accessories compromised.  As it turns out,
we even retained the factory cat, windshield washer reservoir, A/C,
cruise control, fog lights, P/S, etc.  It had a FMax FMIC, Cobra MAF
(run through the frame rail apron, CAI style) custom mandrel bent I/C
piping, save for the upper pipe from FMax also, 50lb MSD injectors, JWT
fuel rail, 2 1/2" custom mandrel bent stainless downpipe w/flex pipe,
yet we retained the T25 & had it rebuilt with a 'Perfect Circle' thrust
bearing/bushing/washer (whatever).  I know we could have upgraded to a
T100 super mega flow Space Shuttle unit, but that wasn't what he wanted
it & the way it turned out, it looks like how a 200SX SR20DET with an
injector, MAF & intercooler upgrade would have looked.  It wasn't &
isn't intended to be a street thumper no-holds-barred kind of car.
It's really stealthy & a pleasure to drive anywhere.

> I noticed the wiring for my 96 se-r harness won't plug into all
> the plugs under the dash in the '97 SE - did you have the same
> trouble?

I know a lot of people swap out the engine harness like you're
talking about. I think there were two design teams that worked on
the GA16 & SR20DE equipped cars & they were not allowed to talk to
each other.  *At all*.

We used a 96 200SX GA16 49 state 5 spd car, engine harness, and had
JWT reprogram the ECU.

Buy, beg, bum, borrow, or steal an FSM for your 97.

At minimum, remove the valve cover & inspect the head for damage
or sludge.  As instructed on SE-R.net & advised by SR20DET brethren
world wide, replace your rod bearings & try to bang out the nice dent
in the bottom of your oil pan.  =)

To the best of my knowledge you're going to need: (Although can
substitute or improvise as parts become available.)

SR20 starter (USDM)

SR20 starter bolts.  Good luck on this one, you'll probably wind
up at LOWE's at the stainless bolt aisle.  When we needed them,
our Nissan parts guy *could not* source them.

SR20 Power steering pump (you need a DE *only* return line that
you can't buy by itself) I believe the pumps are the same GA-SR.
The SR20 return line is necessary to clear one of the runners on the
intake manifold on the DET, IIRC.

SR20 High pressure P/S line.

Flex-A-Lite fan to replace the factory unit in front of the turbo.
No part number handy, but I can get it.  Wire it to accept the factory
wires, so it can be turned on by the ECU the way it should be.

Radiator (you mentioned)

SR20 radiator hoses (the GA's are smaller diameter)

SR20 equipped B14 heater core hoses (heater lines) & try to get the
bleeder port that goes inline on the heater hoses to bleed the air
out of the coolant lines.  Look at a diagram at your Nissan dealer,
it's inline on the heater hoses and runs along the firewall in the
area of these plastic hose retainers that clip onto the firewall to
route the heater hoses.  BTW, get those pieces, too.

New: front & rear main seals, valve cover gasket w/ spark plug hole
seals, wires, cap, rotor, fuel filter.

A 300TT fuel pump or Walbro pump from FTF Motorsports would be a
good idea.  It's much better to have it & not need it than the other
way around.  Kinda like a handgun or parachute.  It's a PITA to fit
the 300TT into the fuel pump reservior box on a GA16 car.  The SR20
box readily accepts the 300 pump, the GA pump is much smaller.
Just get a Walbro.

Get a new cold start idle air bypass valve thing, I think it's p/n
22660-53J00.  It's the thing that bolts on the bottom of the intake
manifold & lets metered air bypass the throttle body & enter the intake
manifold when the engine is cold.  It's just a pass through valve that
gets constant 12v power when the ignition is on, it's open when the
car is cold & closes incrementally as the car warms up.  I can verify
the p/n as the time approaches.  Or, someone can bust my chops &
tell us the correct term & part number for it.  Either way you win.
=)  The GA16 has no provisions on it's harness to power it, though,
so we wired up a relay to switched power & it worked like a charm.

Be prepared to buy a new AAC/IACV valve, located on the passenger
side of the intake manifold rearward from the oil filter.  Most of the
ones I've seen are old & don't function properly.  The SR20 IACV has
two wires, (Brown & Sky Blue, I think) your GA16 harness has three,
Brown, Sky Blue & Purple.  Disregard the purple wire & cap it off.
The JWT ECU will operate the two wire SR20 piece & won't care about
the Purple.  The GA16 AAC/IACV apparently pulses where the SR20 is
either on or off.  This is our speculation & I have no FSM reference
to back it up, but the differences in how they're wired must be for
a reason & this is what we deducted.

SR20 Flywheel

SR20 Flywheel bolts (different from BB AWD auto, at least)

SR20 Bellhousing (tranny) bolts (different from GA16)

SR20 pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing (bushing?)

SR20 clutch cable bracket (bolts to the trans & holds the cable) Perhaps a
SR20 clutch cable, too.  Can't remember.

Probably a magnetic crank sensor for the front of the bellhousing (assuming
yours was broken off by the junkyard)  =)

Intermediate shaft *with bracket* SR20, only two of the holes will
line up correctly.  That's OK.

Relocate/extend the starter cable to the passenger side of the car
(GA16's are on the driver's side)

You'll have to modify the large A/C bracket (on the bottom front,
passenger side of the motor) to accommodate your GA16 compressor.
Or, buy a SR20 A/C bracket.

If you have cruise control, you'll have to fabricate a bracket for
throttle cable & cruise.  I tried every conceivable bracket from
Nissan (93 Classic w/cruise, 91-93 G20, etc & the yahoo's at the
Nissan dealer kept sending me the wrong thing, so we made one.)

As far as the sensors go, water temp, oil press, etc, swap over your
GA16 sensors to the DET where you can.  I'm sure there's some cases
where you may interchange them, but the values on the sensors aren't
necessarily the same.  There were a couple of sensors that had the same
color wires but different connector types.  We swapped the connectors &
plugged them in.

Make sure your trans has an electric output for your 95-up speedo. (the
Classic trans's use a mechanical sender, I don't know which trans
you obtained)

JWT reprogrammed ECU for 97 GA16 to accommodate the 370cc injectors &
an SR20DE MAF.  This may not be necessary, we used a Ford Cobra MAF
on ours w/ 50lb injectors, but that wasn't necessary.  Hell, for all I
know you may be able to use yours.  Depends on how you want to do it,
JWT can program it *any way you wish*.  I am *assuming* JWT does do
the 97 ECU's also, ours was a 96 & was ok.

HotShot has an intercooler / intake pipe / downpipe kit now available
(Featured by George Roffe in SCC).  It's got to be worth it's weight
in man hours.  I have only seen it in SCC in Geo's article, but I
can tell you it's a thankless job to fab up all that stuff yourself.

You'll have to (slightly) clearance the bottom of the tranny to clear
the crossmember that runs from the radiator support to the firewall.
You'll see where it needs to be done.

If anything's been omitted, misrepresented, glossed over, or is
incorrect, please advise either myself or the list.  As I mentioned
before, people have their own preferred methods of doing this & may
conflict with what we did.  We took it step by step & made decisions
based on how we wanted to do it.  It doesn't necessarily make anyone
right or wrong, but it worked for us & worked out well.

IMHO, YMMV, AFAIK, FWIW

JD