How much to get a SR20 det swapped in?

[JDM510]

god damn if people will pay those prices i do need a shop becuz those prices are out of this world!!!!!

[five&dime]

Oh yes. I forget you don't live in the real world. You live in the magical land of candy canes and gumdrops. Since you are such a magnificant car builder, and your reknown reputation in the San Diego area preceeds you, the local shops open their doors and lay down the red carpets for you. Which must give you access to the $10-20 an hour labor charges. These shops must specialize in clean well laid out swaps like the lovely one you have presented us with.

You are such a moron. It makes me laugh. I will review this thread when I need a chuckle.

[okayfine]

but i have soo much lies and bullshit i dont feel the need to get told if the motor is REALLY in the car or did i REALLY do it myself....

This is one of your biggest problems, Chris. You get all ADHD and don't pay attention. Where did I say you DIDN'T do it yourself?

Where? I'd quote what I did say, but you can scroll up just as well as I can. And it'll have the same effect since you'll ignore what's written and spew out your own BS version anyway.

And it still won't have anything to do with shop-installed SR20DETs.

[okayfine]

by JDM510 on Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:57 pm
k im out of here

by JDM510 on Wed Feb 24, 2010 1:05 pm
blahblahblah

The lying never stops, does it?

[chunstone]

Thanks five&dime.

Now how about we all have a BEER!

[goichi1]

I remember talking to you at Golden Gardens a few years ago, back when you had that wagon at Ray's shop, we were talking about how much this stuff can cost us and I remember telling you to figure twice the time and three times the money.....well, if you are gonna have a shop do it, figure four times the money!! I don't think you will ever get your car perfect, I think you are trying to get your wagon to be like a new car, just jump in it and enjoy it, well, it's just not that easy. I put a lot of time and money in mine, it stills has small things that come up, a new rattle from time to time, or some new noise that I have to figure out.....it left me on the side of the road one night at about midnight.....but I figured it out and got it home. So if you really want to enjoy an old classic car, you need to learn how to fix it and keep it on the road. It's just that simple....and the best way to learn that is to do the swap yourself. I think you have changed cars many times, now you are changing motors....it just seems like maybe these cars are not for you. It sounds like you are searching for a trouble free Datsun, which you will never find.

Recommendation One: Read through a few good build threads, like S15's, he has a tight car, very well built, with a lot of miles logged. Do you think it's all been maintenance free?? Get some ideas and see what others are dealing with, this will help you make a decision on either keeping it or getting a newer car.

Recommendation Two: find a good shop, with a good mechanic and put them on the payroll, also get Triple A (AAA) so you can get it towed to the shop every time it breaks, because it will. Even new cars break.....old ones break more.

Recommendation Three: Sell it, don't waste anymore time looking at the car that doesn't run well, or you can't figure out. The last thing you can do is blame the last guy that worked on it, because you have no idea what he did or how he did it....if you did, you could at least know where to start, at least to identify your potential problems.

this is only my opinion, I am sure you really like owning a 510, but there is more to just driving a 510, it's a love affair of sorts. Some times it takes years to get a super reliable 510 on the road, but there will still be issues, only you know how to handle them when they arise.

[johnbureezu]

Amen^^^^ You should see the state my sr swapped wagon is in. I bought it thinkin it was a finished piece...WRONG! I'm doing everything over again.. EVERYTHING! Why, Maybe the same reason you have, cause I want it done my way(cleaner and neater). It would have been fine the way it was but certain thing always bothered me. I'm doing most of the work my self with the exception of the body work and it's costing me small fortune! I can only imagine what a shop will charge. Even if you pay a shop, they wont have the tender lovin care like the owner will. I spent almost $300 and 2 weeks just to get the right bearing combo in my bottom end! Most shops would have just slapped it together and called it good. My point is that nobody will build it with the love the way you can and you will prolly always be dissappointed with someone else's work is some way or the other. It takes time to learn but that's the cool part. And the mechanical(motor/swap/wiring) part is the easy part in my opinion. The hard stuff is already done on your car! DRIVE IT BREAK IT FIX IT DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! DO IT IN A DATSUN!

[chunstone]

Amen^^^^ You should see the state my sr swapped wagon is in. I bought it thinkin it was a finished piece...WRONG! I'm doing everything over again.. EVERYTHING! Why, Maybe the same reason you have, cause I want it done my way(cleaner and neater). It would have been fine the way it was but certain thing always bothered me. I'm doing most of the work my self with the exception of the body work and it's costing me small fortune! I can only imagine what a shop will charge. Even if you pay a shop, they wont have the tender lovin care like the owner will. I spent almost $300 and 2 weeks just to get the right bearing combo in my bottom end! Most shops would have just slapped it together and called it good. My point is that nobody will build it with the love the way you can and you will prolly always be dissappointed with someone else's work is some way or the other. It takes time to learn but that's the cool part. And the mechanical(motor/swap/wiring) part is the easy part in my opinion. The hard stuff is already done on your car! DRIVE IT BREAK IT FIX IT DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! DO IT IN A DATSUN!

Now this is the kind of response that I dig. Positive all the way.

I like that this site is here and Datsun enthusiast give free advice to help others out. Where else in this world can you get some free help!

Now, I could have bought this car and taken it home and did it over the next 20 years but I was smarter than that. I can tell you, you can make a paint brush by finding a piece of wood and saving the hair that is in your tub at the end of the shower, but for convience sake I and you will choose to get one at the hardware store.

The thing that I am astonsished at is the pedestal you all put the gentleman on, that did the work on my car.

My wife and I entrusted our car to him, believed what he said and took his advise. He did not produce the product that he is so famed for. My wife who has been a supporter of this purchase absolutly will not let me take the car back him even though I would have. Let me tell you, she gets real mad every time I find another problem. Now, I did give him an ultimatum and I am paying for it, but my wife was so disgusted when we would show up to check progress on the car and see him working on someone else's rust heap in the rain and seeing nothing done on our car. We paid him handsomely and have decided to move on. He would not be in business if others who have had all sorts of work done by this gentleman took the advise of the above naysayers. The above naysayers have even posted here that they have stopped by his shop and admirered his work. Why even stop by, if you do all your own work and believe that shops will only produce crap work. You even go to shops in Japan.

Now, I still admire all the work that you have done on your own. I only wish that I had that time knowledge and dedication that you have. If I ever get into your neck of the woods I hope to see you and have pleasant conversations with you. Hopefully you will be as nice when you see this car. I had no desire to do all the work thats why I sought out the gentleman that did the work.

Now I did tell this gentleman to do a leakdown test twice and on the third conversation he said the engine is fine. I admit that I did not press him why he did not do the leakdown test, so its my fault.

I can still produce emails that will verify what I am talking about, but why? Our main goal is to enjoy this car asap, not when I get around to retiring in 20 years.

So the next time you bad mouth me for for asking about an SR20 det swap, just remember that I did my homework and I cannot change what happened.

Believe me, I no longer will ever trust anyone to work on this car without me right there, just ask my wife, we no longer leave this car at anyones shop unattended.

Now I will tell you that right after I got this car back from the gentleman that did the majority of work in the Seattle area, I took it to an exhaust shop here and had a similar experience with a lack of enthusium to quickly finish the job, but he and I are on very good terms, at one point I told him to keep the car while I finished my garage and he did an amazing amount of advising me and even let me use his shop and lift for free!!!!!!! Many good conversations and honest pricing, NO EGO INVOLVED. That is what I am seeking at this point, a hands on, working with others who are well versed in automotive technology.

Now, I have done lots of fixes that I feel should have been done differently, some dangerous and some things that more time at his shop would have resolved, but like I stated above, I never was advised by the gentleman that he would need a year to finish it. If so I would not have even considered him, he just said to bring it in. I did not ask how long it would take, I just knew that there was a lot to be done. I am a contractor and getting projects done is what I do. I just believed what I was told, yes there were parts problems and delays. I made a decision about the using the VG engine that came with the car and finally when to pickup the car. If he would have said that he had 12 projects ahead of me I would have gone else where. When I finally questioned him about when he would have it done he told me that if I did not like it to take it to someone else. If it was not all torn apart I would have. I felt beaten so I relented. What could we do. We decided that the best thing to do was to give him some liberties and hope. That did not work, so we decided with winter coming on that we would take the car the 2nd weekend in October and he would have an opportunity to finish all he could by that date if he choose. We sweetened the money pot considerably, YOU ALL WOULD CRAP YOUR PANTS TO KNOW WHAT WE OFFERED!!! We just wanted to move on.

I do not hate the gentleman, just feel intimidated and disappointed that I cannot brag...

So there you have it,

Please, if you do not like the questions that I ask, please feel free to move on, or have the moderator banish me from such ridiculous questions.

Thank you for listening,

[okayfine]

Okay....fine....

Have you called any of the shops I mentioned on Page 1?

[510-Trevor]

Just curious, but is there a Nissan dealership in Wenatchee?

Have you considered talking to the service manager about your car (I would talk to him to see if one of his techs is a Nissan enthusiast - an enthusiest will try harder and care more about your car). Talking to the manager about your plight might also provide some sympathy to your situation (read discount).
I ask because perhaps part of the problem is that the last 'guy' you used is a Datsun guy with limited knowlege of the newer Nissan motors. A current Nissan tech will have access to the equipment and TSB's that may be needed to make a proper diagnosis.

[chunstone]

I have checked at the dealer, but only the parts guy and he said there is a tech that has seen the swap, and liked it. I have not approched the service manager, I'm a bit leary of doing this as the car disappears and I want a hands on with any further help I get.

Have not checked any SR20 places. That would be a much bigger thing than I can do right now, still working in a down economy

[goichi1]

I would appreciate it if you just come out and be more specific on who you are referring to in some of your posting. If it's me, which I believe is the case, I can be very forward and tell it like it is most of the time. I have been here for some time now, reading most of the posts that you post.....from day one of you buying this car, even then it wasn't long before you were complaining about the PO and the work he did to the car before you bought it.

You even go to shops in Japan.

Yeap, Japan is very different from the states, however finding a good shop is about the same. I took my car in to a body shop to have the fender repaired and repainted, mainly because I don't have the tools/place to do it at my house here in Japan, if you have never been to japan it would be hard to understand, but here the houses are much smaller, people live much closer together and things cost a whole lot more. Leaving my car at that body shop was the first time in a long time I have left if anywhere.....you just can't go outside and start spraying paint.....unless you want to be the only american in your hood that everyone hates.....not cool.

The above naysayers have even posted here that they have stopped by his shop and admirered his work. Why even stop by, if you do all your own work and believe that shops will only produce crap work.

It's kind of stupid to make this type statement, don't you think? It's always good to stop by and see what others are doing, how they are doing it and who knows, you might even learn something new....good or bad, might even make a new friend, that you could even become friends with, possibly help each other out later in life. Comparing ideas with others within your hobby realm is a good thing, regardless of how you feel about the quality of work a shop produces.

I thought I gave some good advice in my previous post, but I guess it just falls on deaf ears, if you just spent a little more time on you car and not driving the "gentelmans" name in the ground you might be out enjoying your wagon.

If I ever get into your neck of the woods I hope to see you and have pleasant conversations with you. Hopefully you will be as nice when you see this car. I had no desire to do all the work thats why I sought out the gentleman that did the work.

I actually looked at your car when I stopped by his shop to admire his work. It was still in the early days of being there, but looked like a very good project with tons of potential. I still think you sought out the right guy, but that's just a guess as I don't know all the details of your dealings (not that I want to know). Also, I'm not going to be in Japan the rest of my life.....still own a home in Washington, so there's a good chance I will be back there. I sure do miss the wolfman.....and all the rest of the gang.

I can also understand why you would take your car to a shop and not do you own work, I saw the white KA swapped wagon you sold to the young Navy guy a few years ago , I only wish I could have caught him sooner!

[okayfine]

I'm a bit leary of doing this as the car disappears and I want a hands on with any further help I get.

Why? You seem to indicate you want to babysit your car during any future work. Which is fine as far as it goes. The problem is you don't have the knowledge to know whether the person working on your car is doing so with any more knowledge than you. And the bottom line is that you don't have any desire to attain said knowledge, by your own wrenching or your own research and observation of any future mechanic who lays hands on your auto.

So what's the point?

It would be as if some homeowner contacted with you to add a room to their house, only they wanted to be there during all the construction. However, said homeowner has never driven nail one into a 2x4, has no idea about constuction methods, permits, materials, and no desire to learn. They're just going to get in your way for no gain of their own.

Have not checked any SR20 places. That would be a much bigger thing than I can do right now, still working in a down economy

Then why this thread? If you're not even going to call to get answers to your own question, regardless of whether you're going to write a check for it today, what's the point?

I'm not being a hardass, I'm curious. You want a swapped 510 but don't want to work on your car, at all. You want to know about the costs involved in having a shop swap in an SR20DET but you won't bother calling any.

[Baz]

You could always get complete SR conversion in a box from Australia.
That would take care of a lot of work.
You would still need the fiddly stuff done by some one.
Just need a good body shop to do the engine bay IC cut outs & fill redundant holes.
As long as you can find a good reliable work shop ( they dont need to know 510S)
they could just fit it all up for you.
Beaware that shipping from Aus is not cheap.
Nor is a complete conversion in a box.
I would recomend an S14 series 2 complete engine package. best bang for buck.
We have been sourcing these with between 25K & 60k on the clock.
http://www.datsport.com/engine-packages.html

[goatee]

Haven't been on the realm for awhile but I love to come to the engine swap forum. I just knew a thread named
How much to get a SR20 det swapped in?
was going to be awesome and sure enough the first pages are great!

Ok back to your regularly scheduled program.