The story of my LS1 V8/Silvia/300zx swapped s13 240sx.

I can tell you that I’ve never written anything quite like this and I’m not sure why I decided to document this build.. But hey, let’s take a chance and get into the madness!

This build started about a year ago when I found the makings of my dream car halfway across the country from my location in Northern Minnesota. My last car purchase(05’ Subaru WRS STI) had been a disappointment due to a myriad of issues and I wanted to return to the kind of cars that really capture my imagination. It was a 1989 Nissan 240sx coupe with an s13 silvia front end swap, 300zx LSD, 300zx upgraded brakes all around, and an s13 blacktop sr20det swapped. It was posted for a solid price on Ebay, and after some negotiations with the seller. He agreed to ship the car north for me and we settled on a price. Now, I know that I’ll get some heat for turning this car from a it’s jdm[-ish] origins into my frankenstein of a build, but I can tell you that no car has ever brought a smile to my face like this ever(well.. maybe my daily driver 94’ mx-5, but that’s a whole different problem that I have).

The 240sx clearly had some nice parts, and I enjoyed it as much as I could last summer, but I knew that I definitely wanted the build to be upgraded. I had been building my own forged sr20det over the past couple years and was dead set on swapping this into my new s13. After the final track event of the year I figured it was time to pull the SR20det that came with it and swap in my forged sr20det. However, it’s important to note the effect that a couple of good friends’ LSX FD RX7 and Turbo LSX 350z can have on a guy..

There’s some strange blend of insanity that rears its head when you swap one these V8’s into properly sorted Japanese sports cars. The weight distribution remains largely unaffected(if you swap correctly) and yet the character of the car is changed forever. It’s akin to taking the heart of tiger and inserting into your average house cat. Sure the house cat was quick, precise, agile, and entertaining before; But now it has somehow managed to retain all of those qualities while also becoming this incredibly powerful animal that tries to bite your head off any chance that it gets. As I’m sure you can guess by my LS fanboy talk, I was starting to doubt my planned route of going with the forged SR20det.

Luck would have it that an LS1/t56 6-speed combo from an 04’ Pontiac GTO (did someone say Holden?) came up for sale the same week that I was pulling the SR20det that came with the car. So what did I do? I debated long and hard about what to do, but at it’s core it was an easy decision for me. I bought the combo, sold the SR20det that came with the car, and sold the SR20det that I had been building. As a result, the path of my project car was forever changed for the crazier.

From this point on I need to make something clear. I would have made it nowhere with this build without the knowledge of my friends. Not just that, but the hours upon hours of installation, fabrication, and troubleshooting work that these friends put in for this me and this car. Beyond building a truly bada@* car, the months that we put into this taught me a lot about myself and how cool of friends that I have. I’m no ace mechanic, not even close. I’m just a hack who wants to learn, and I owe a lot to those around me who were and continue to be great sources of information, advice, skill, and cynical humor when nothing seems to make sense with a project car.

Individually, we all have unique tastes and different ideas. Together we are just a group of guys that want to build fun cars and enjoy the short Minnesota summers. We call ourselves Squirrel Racing and we try not to take our cars or ourselves too seriously. In essence, all we know for sure is that life truly is too short to drive boring cars. With that being said, I’d like to take you with me through a step by step look at my dream build.

Full Build details can be found below.

Complete Build Details.

Build location: Squirrel Racing HQ
Build Dates: 9/1/15- 4/1/16

Shell:
-1989 Nissan 240sx xe coupe
-Full 300zx aluminum brake swap with Hawk HP pads and Circuit Sports drilled/slotted rotors
-300zx LSD
-s13 Silvia front end swap
-17” MB Weapon Wheels. 9”at the rear and 8” up front.

Drivetrain/Swap Parts:
-LS1 V8/T-56 from 04’ GTO w/15k miles
-Brian Tooley Racing stage 3 Cam Kit
-CX Racing Motor/Trans Mounts
-CX Racing Long Tube Headers and y-pipe
-CX Racing Swap Driveshaft
-Single 3” exhaust from y-pipe back mounted just as perfectly as it had off my SR20det downpipe. Impressive.
-Typhoon Intake Manifold
-Siemens Deka 60# injectors
-Aeromotive FPR
-AEM AFR, Oil Pressure, and Coolant sensors/guages
-Wiring Specialties Engine/Trans harness
-Tuned on e85