The story of my Silvia in my tiny little garage

[kelso840]

I'm definitely interested in your progress as well. You're one of the last active build threads we get to enjoy here!

Also, A+ for trying things like Moog K700526 Stabilizer Bar Link Kit and verifying compatibility. I'll add that to a list of potential upgrades.

Have you looked into remote adjustment cables like these so you don't have to tear the rear apart? Wish I had something like that for my Tokicos.
https://bcracingcoilovers.com/products/bc-racing-coilovers-rear-dampening-adjustment-extenders-br-type

[CzechSilvia]

thanks guys, yeah, I plan to try these extenders but I'll still have to drill a hole next to the speaker for that extender to go through.  Well, I better get used to butchering interior panels because I also plan to have an a-pillar gauge pod and I don't think I'll be able to have that without drilling in the a-pillar trim piece

[CzechSilvia]

Look what I just got, this will be a lot of fun! I even have a spare block, head and intake manifold.



That's how I got it home. Wife's Mazda is surprisingly roomy.

[rednucleus]

lol your tiny garage is filling up fast!

[CzechSilvia]

Ever since I bought the car, I've been having problems with the fuel system so I've decided to replace/upgrade the major components, make it bulletproof and thus prepare it for the engine swap.

I have dropped the fuel tank and I'll have the inside derusted, coated with something to prevent future rust and when that's done I'll put a Deatschwerks fuel pump in there. The engine bay side of the fuel system is done, I have cut off the stock fpr, installed one from Nismo and a Tomei fuel pressure gauge.

[Redneck]

Wow great progress on your build so far. Keep it up! I'd like to upgrade to the BC coils as well down the road one day. Being the s12 is just my daily driver though I hate to give up the cushy stock suspension. Or maybe I'm just getting old and turning into a wimp lol.

Love the ca18det upgrade. Obviously its not nearly as common as the sr20 swap but is a timeless classic nonetheless. Really underrated power plant if your not looking for crazy horsepower numbers. Only major drawback it seems to have is aftermarket support being a lot more limited compared to the sr20 but that is to be expected and not a deal breaker by any means.

[CzechSilvia]

Wow great progress on your build so far. Keep it up! I'd like to upgrade to the BC coils as well down the road one day. Being the s12 is just my daily driver though I hate to give up the cushy stock suspension. Or maybe I'm just getting old and turning into a wimp lol.

Love the ca18det upgrade. Obviously its not nearly as common as the sr20 swap but is a timeless classic nonetheless. Really underrated power plant if your not looking for crazy horsepower numbers. Only major drawback it seems to have is aftermarket support being a lot more limited compared to the sr20 but that is to be expected and not a deal breaker by any means.

Thanks, there's more to come! The stock soft and tired suspension was what was bothering me the most when I was driving it, now I'm finally happy with how the suspension feels. The swap is a longer-term project, rebuilding the CA18DET and the modifications I'm planning to do to it will be expensive and there's nothing wrong with the engine that's in the car now so I can drive the car as is until I save up the money I need.

I didn't even consider the SR although I know a guy who has one in his s12. In my opinion the 16valve CA is at home in the s12, it's the engine the car was supposed to have from the factory, that and the turbo FJ. Funny thing is I wasn't originally planning on swapping the engine because of how expensive it is and it's also generally very sketchy legally because they check the engine with what's in your papers at tech inspection but I saw the ca18det for sale for cheap and just couldn't resist. I think I'll be fine as far as law or tech inspection is concerned, my papers state that the car has an "CA18" engine which will still be technically true after the swap.

[CzechSilvia]

I had a whole day free so I spent most of it in the garage and made some progress. This is what my fuel pump setup will be when I finally have the refurbished fuel tank back in the car. I have three or four old s12 sending units lying on a shelf but I bought a brand new sending unit assembly for 35 USD, that made more sense than trying to repair one of the old rusty ones. It's a bit different than the old units I have, the connectors were different so I switched them with one from the spare ones and the float was a bit higher so I bent the wire that holds it so it measures the same as the old unit. The pump is Deatschwerks DW100.



Another thing I got done today was fitting the extenders for the coilover adjustment knobs. I had to butcher the rear speaker brackets for them to fit and obviously drill holes in the interior panels but it turned out ok, I'm very happy with the result.

[babybrother3294]

I also want to put a ca18det in my car in the future. its the "pure" option imo. at least in the US where we didnt get the fj. i like what youre doing with the car. so satisfying to watch it progress and get cleaann.

[CzechSilvia]

Got the fuel tank sandblasted inside out, painted and the inside coated with epoxy to prevent future rust.

[CzechSilvia]

The plan for today was to get the differential off the car, disassemble it and properly measure it to make sure that the Quaife ATB, I plan to buy, will fit because I'm not completely sure what differential I have. Well, that was the plan but after getting to the garage and jacking up the car, the hungover me couldn't muster any more strength to undo a single bolt. As I was laying under the car staring at the drivetrain I devised a different plan, I'll ask you guys, trust you and my luck, and then I'll buy the Quaife without comparing the old diff with the Quaife spec sheet. Well then guys, is that an R200 differential?





Sadly, I didn't do much work on the car, apart from fitting this sick Gatorade sweatband on the brake fluid reservoir but I did do quite a lot of driving and I must say the car handles incredible, the suspension work I did on it really paid off and the engine runs sweet and strong as well!



However, I didn't just goof around, I've been negotiating deals on some really cool parts for the old s12, there's a lot more to come!

[CzechSilvia]

I asked around and now I'm pretty sure it's r200 which is good news

[weitrhino]

I saw your Facebook posts and had always believed only the R200 had cooling fins.

[CzechSilvia]

After saving up for a couple of months, I got the Quaife QDF7L and it fits the stock r200 carrier and stock s12 halshafts. Now the LSD is installed in its new home and is ready to go on the car but unfortunately it won't be until the end of the next week until I have time to actually fit on the car and try it out.
I also replaced all the seals in the diff but kept the old bearings, there was nothing wrong with them.



Taking off the diff carrier from the subframe was harder than I expected, but it always is... Someone on the forum mentioned that you have enough space to pop the halfshafts  from the diff without unbolting them from the hubs if you remove the rear springs and disconnect the shocks. That's impossible, you have to completely remove at least one halfshaft but that's ok, I needed to rebuild that halfshaft anyway as it has started to leak

The install of the LSD to the carrier is something I thought I could do by myself but I quickly gave up and had a friend with a proper workshop do it, because to fit the diff properly you have to adjust the diff position in the carrier using shims. New shims needed to be made on a lathe to fit the LSD properly. That's probably because the manufacturing tolerances of the oem diff were much bigger back in the 80s than they are now in Quaife. Also, the old bearings were impossible to take off the old diff with the tools I had and to get them on the new diff we needed to use a hydraulic press. Long story short - take the carrier off the car by yourself and have the lsd fitted by someone you trust and has the proper equipment.

[kelso840]

So it sounds like the average garage mechanic should NOT buy this unit expecting it to be a direct replacement?

[CzechSilvia]

it is as direct replacement as it possibly can be, I'm sure that the shims would need adjusting even if I were to put in a factory open diff from another s12. Take a look in the fsm, the section about adjusting differential is pretty extensive.

[CzechSilvia]

Today I put the car back together and took it for a short spin. The car behaves exactly the same when driving like a regular person but when you give it some gas in the corner it's a totally different car. It goes faster and it can slide properly as well, also there's this little metal step at the entrance of my garage and when I tried to go over it really slowly with the open diff the car would get stuck and spin one tyre on the edge of the metal step but now the car goes over the step smoothly no matter how slow I drive over it so that's pretty neat, I was wondering if the new diff would take care of this little annoyance and it really did.

[CzechSilvia]

First update of the 2019 season!









Sourced and fitted a fj20 bonnet, It was originally red and it was also crashed but it doesn't look too bad after a few smacks with hammer, some bondo, some sanding, some more bondo, some more sanding and so on... (sadly can't find the pictures of how it looked when I bought it) Well, instead of trying to match the white colour of the car I just plastidipped it black, it's temporary - the car will get a full proffessional respray eventually. I also had a reproduction of the bonnet decal printed and I think it looks great! getting the shape of the sticker right wasn't easy but my wife is a graphics designer so it turned out alright on the first try, sticking it on was also easier than I thought, I had an extra decal made if I messed up but in the end didn't need to use it. I'll upload all the different versions of the bonnet decal here on the forum soon so anyone can have them made - just as I did with the rear decals.





Also fitted a Depo Racing boost gauge, and deleted the factory pop-off valve because my plan is to up the boost a bit. Anyway, now I know for sure that my stock turbo settup is making 0.5 Bar. I also converted the engine to use the later style serpentine belts becuase something was wrong with the original pulleys and the alternator v-belt kept getting destroyed. What I used was s13 ca18det, water pump pulley, ca18det alternator (10 more amps yaaay!), s13 ca18det power steering pump (had to use the return line fitting from the s12 pump) and mk2 s12 ca18 crank pulley. I originally wanted to use the s13 pulleys on the s12 alternator and ps pump but the pulleys wouldn't  just bolt on, seems to work alright so far. I forgot to take a picture of that but it's not that interesting, it just looks like a mk2 setup now...

[JonB]

Thats a fine example of an s12 you have there. It'll be nice to see the ca18de in there

[CzechSilvia]

Thats a fine example of an s12 you have there. It'll be nice to see the ca18de in there

Thank you, the ca18det swap is definitely going to happen!