Long story short: I live in the Netherlands A friend gave me a 200sx shell for my birthday 5 years ago. {} Yesterday I bought a crashed Nissan Stagea 1997 gen 1 housing a RB25DET engine. The Stagea has an automatic transmission but i will get a RB25 stick transmission. As a job I am a car body metalworker and construction welder. Now I found a few ways to fuse the 2 cars into the machine I want to end up with: Either get a R33 cross member and engine mounts, buy the Syko mounts and pay a ton on import duties. Or get a 240sx cross member and some cheap eBay mounts using 240sx motor mounts. Get the Wiring Specialties loom and use their beautiful installation guide or figure out how to diy the ca18 and Stagea loom into a working loom. My questions I could not find a clear answer to on the internet. Are there drawings (cad or something) of motor mount brackets for the swap? I saw some crappy welds looking at the mounts on offer and would rather get some steel plates laser cut and weld them myself. Will the brackets designed for the 240sx cross member fit a ca18det cross member + ca18 motor mounts? Off the Stagea I'm thinking about also keeping the differential, fuel pump, rear hubs and brakes. Are there more parts I should consider keeping for my s13 200sx? Is there a good address in the EU (still including the UK) for getting swap parts like the wiring loom, exhaust part and necessary mounts? Which route would you choose and why?
First up, is the Stagea four wheel drive? If so you're in for some welding. The four wheel drive RB25 blocks are different to the rear wheel drive blocks so you simply can't swap sumps. If it's rwd then off we go: Any RB25 conversion mounts designed for a 240sx will fit your CA18 front subframe, and tbh will be the cheapest option as R33 front subframes aren't common in your part of the world / shipping would be killer. Watch out for conversion mounts that let the sump hang under the subframe, you don't want this and you will have enough clearance on the top of the engine to clear the hood if you cut out some small sections of the bonnet's steel webbing Easiest option if you don't like the quality of the mounts on offer is to still buy a set, use them to install the motor, then use them as a template to replicate them, then sell them. They're cheap to ship so you'll have the whole EU as a market, and the difference between buying new and selling secondhand is a small price to pay to have a good starting point As for bits to retain, don't bother with the fuel pump. Get a Walbro 255 or similar. When doing this, run a thicker gauge power wire. Google "S13 hard wire fuel pump" for tutorials. Remove the entire rear subframe and, using S14-to-S13 conversion subframe bushes, bolt the whole thing into the S13. You may need some conversion brake hoses to mate the rear calipers to the S13 body hardlines but a lot of the time the factory lines will bolt up. Note: the Stagea rear subframe is wider than the S13 & S14 one, so your track width will increase ~15mm per side Poly bushes: https://au.gktech.com/products/diff.../polyurethane-rear-subframe-conversion-bushes Solid bushes: https://au.gktech.com/products/diff...frame-bushes/solid-subframe-conversion-bushes Keep the front brake calipers as well, and the brake master cylinder and booster. Swap these onto your S13, and with 5-stud S15 front hubs and discs and you're now 5 stud with big brakes. Don't muck around with doing the wiring yourself, get a Wiring Specialties kit and be done with it. I've spent so many hours chasing shorts on old wiring I'd happily have paid their price
