Jonowong's CA18DE to CA18DET S13 Swap Diary
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:50 am
Story
The story is that my friend Eric lent his car to another friend of mine, long story short, the car was returned to Eric with a blown engine. Eric shows up at my door in tears. We spent 1 week finding a new engine and decided to go from a CA18DE Auto S13 to a Manual CA18DET we sourced from a wrecked 180sx for $2325.
Day 1
We get the half cut delivered to my house. $100
We get the blown engine s13 towed back to my house. $50
Sorry no pics!
Day 2
I began preparing the half cut for dismantling.
I stripped off all the panels, bonnet and headlights.
Anything electrical i marked with a label (electrical tape and wrote what it connects to on the tape). Since i took the headlights and indicators off, I marked these first. As you can see from the pic below, the half cut preped to be dismantled. You can see bits of red on the loom. This is my labeling at work. If you look in the right hand corner you can see my friend JayK labeling the loom.
The nightmare ahead...
I decided to start with the air box first. It seemed logical because when you start work on an FTO for some reason you always need to remove the air intake to get to sh*t.
It just a few hoses and bolts in awkward and hard to get places. Air box electrical connectors were labeled "air box" So we know where to plug them when we do the wiring.
Once the air box was out. We put it back together so we don't forget how it all comes together.
We then proceeded to do the intercooler and the intercooler piping. The stock cooler is located in the passenger side fender. This was easy just a few bolts and hose clamps. Just had to pull really hard on the piping to remove it, after the i loosened the hose clamps. Pieced together the intercooler once it was out of the half cut so we remember how all the pipes join up. Labeled the airpipes that come off the intercooler charge pipes to where they go as well. Just in case, better safe than sorry.
After Intercooler Piping was removed.
The Turbo.
I then removed the radiator and the radiator fan surrounding plastic. First i drained the radiator with the little knob at the bottom of the radiator. It turns and lets all the coolant out. I then took out that fan shroud. It was held in by 4 screws. I then disconnected the lower and upper coolant pipes that go into the radiator from the engine and radiator. I labeled these upper and lower radiator hose. Even though its obvious which is which i was just being pedantic. Sorry forgot to take photos, but i have a photo of after it was done.
I then removed all other bullshit that we didnt need, like the washer bottle, labeled the mini pump electrical connectors. The window wiper motor was removed and labeled its plug and other misc electrical plugs. Took out the coolant overflow bottle and hose, which wasn't really necessary for the swap but i wanted to sell some stuff.
Whilst i was doing all this i got my friend to clean anything i removed as this would be the best time to clean anything before you put it all back together again.
We then called it a day and i this is when i realised the kind of sh*t i got myself in.
The story is that my friend Eric lent his car to another friend of mine, long story short, the car was returned to Eric with a blown engine. Eric shows up at my door in tears. We spent 1 week finding a new engine and decided to go from a CA18DE Auto S13 to a Manual CA18DET we sourced from a wrecked 180sx for $2325.
Day 1
We get the half cut delivered to my house. $100
We get the blown engine s13 towed back to my house. $50
Sorry no pics!
Day 2
I began preparing the half cut for dismantling.
I stripped off all the panels, bonnet and headlights.
Anything electrical i marked with a label (electrical tape and wrote what it connects to on the tape). Since i took the headlights and indicators off, I marked these first. As you can see from the pic below, the half cut preped to be dismantled. You can see bits of red on the loom. This is my labeling at work. If you look in the right hand corner you can see my friend JayK labeling the loom.
The nightmare ahead...
I decided to start with the air box first. It seemed logical because when you start work on an FTO for some reason you always need to remove the air intake to get to sh*t.
It just a few hoses and bolts in awkward and hard to get places. Air box electrical connectors were labeled "air box" So we know where to plug them when we do the wiring.
Once the air box was out. We put it back together so we don't forget how it all comes together.
We then proceeded to do the intercooler and the intercooler piping. The stock cooler is located in the passenger side fender. This was easy just a few bolts and hose clamps. Just had to pull really hard on the piping to remove it, after the i loosened the hose clamps. Pieced together the intercooler once it was out of the half cut so we remember how all the pipes join up. Labeled the airpipes that come off the intercooler charge pipes to where they go as well. Just in case, better safe than sorry.
After Intercooler Piping was removed.
The Turbo.
I then removed the radiator and the radiator fan surrounding plastic. First i drained the radiator with the little knob at the bottom of the radiator. It turns and lets all the coolant out. I then took out that fan shroud. It was held in by 4 screws. I then disconnected the lower and upper coolant pipes that go into the radiator from the engine and radiator. I labeled these upper and lower radiator hose. Even though its obvious which is which i was just being pedantic. Sorry forgot to take photos, but i have a photo of after it was done.
I then removed all other bullshit that we didnt need, like the washer bottle, labeled the mini pump electrical connectors. The window wiper motor was removed and labeled its plug and other misc electrical plugs. Took out the coolant overflow bottle and hose, which wasn't really necessary for the swap but i wanted to sell some stuff.
Whilst i was doing all this i got my friend to clean anything i removed as this would be the best time to clean anything before you put it all back together again.
We then called it a day and i this is when i realised the kind of sh*t i got myself in.
