The turbo initially fouled the N/S front suspension turret so Max (awesome fabricator in Reading 07528 688098) cut off the turbo / compressor elbow flanges and welded them together. This gave significant clearance and meant I didn’t have to modify the turret for clearance. Max also made a bracket to move the wastegate actuator forwards and lengthened the wastegate actuator rod.
The original Nissan S13 had belt driven alternator & water pump, air con and power steering units, with drive from a triple stacked pulley. I only needed the alternator & water pump pulley and there was very little clearance between the S13 pulley and radiator. I discovered that Nissan also used the CA18DET engine in the Aussie market Nissan Exa, which only had double stacked pulleys. I found a bloke in Oz who had a spare Exa pulley and thermostat housing (see below). This twin pulley gave me about 12mm additional clearance. Size does sometimes matter !!
Exhaust
James467 made my original custom exhaust, but it was very difficult to disconnect the downpipe from the turbo elbow as the bolts were made inaccessible by the subframe. Max redesigned the downpipe and incorporated a V-band coupling which makes removing the exhaust MUCH easier. The system is 2.5 inch in diameter with a centre silencer and a rear stainless steel twin pipe rear silencer.
Clutch
I used the standard Triumph master cylinder and Nissan slave cylinder with a custom stainless steel braided hose. The clevis pin bolt had slightly ovalled (is that a word ?) the hole in the clutch pedal, so Max welded it up and re-drilled it to minimise play in the pedal.
Gearbox
I split the original Nissan 5W71C gearbox and fitted a TX1 taxi bell housing. This shortened the gearbox enough to fit the Sprint gearbox tunnel. While it was apart, I found that several bearings needed replacing. Max modified the Nissan gearstick by fitting the overdrive switch to retain the standard look. He also made a custom cross member / rear gearbox support using a new TX1 rubber mount.
Rear axle
Mad Mart kindly reconditioned my axle by replacing all bearings and seals. This included the common gearbox seal swap and he fitted an ATB diff. Dave helped me tap an M12 thread into the underside of the axle casing, where I fitted a magnetic sump plug.
Cooling
The original S13 CA18DET radiator top hose inlet and the thermostat housing outlet are both on the O/S and are only a couple of inches apart. This didn’t give me sufficient room to fit a temperature sender in the hose for the twin 9 inch electric cooling fans and to allow for some engine movement.
I noticed that the SR20DET radiator top hose inlet was on N/S of the radiator, which would give me enough hose length to fit the sender.
This presented a new challenge - the thermostat outlet pointed to the O/S and the top hose inlet was on the N/S pointing rearwards. My initial solution was to use the 180 degree bend hose from a Pinto and the question mark shaped hose from a Maestro with the sender fitted as a joiner. I really didn’t like that solution as the water flow was quite convoluted. I also found that the bottom hose outlet hose was almost fouling the subframe !!
My solution started with using the thermostat housing from the Nissan Exa which pointed to the N/S. A local custom radiator manufacturer cut off the top hose radiator inlet at 45 degrees and welded on another inlet cut off at 45 degrees so the top hose radiator inlet pointed towards the thermostat outlet. Coolant now flows out of the thermostat housing straight into the radiator top hose inlet through the temperature sender joiner. He used the same 45 degree trick and modified the bottom hose outlet so that it now points upwards, giving sufficient clearance with the subframe. I found that a Defender hose fitted perfectly as a bottom hose !!
Front subframe
As well as Dan’s original CA18DET mount rails, Max modified further by making the rear cross member removable. This has made it MUCH easier to remove the gearbox.
Electrics
I found a small device that converts the Nissan ECU tacho output signal to the same type of output signal as the standard Lucas coil, meaning that the original rev counter works !! I also commissioned a custom Nissan / Sprint speedo cable that allows me to use the original speedo.
As an additional safety feature, I fitted a brake fluid level sensor. I found a company that made me a small black plastic rectangle with the word BRAKE printed in translucent red. I swapped this with the FASTEN BELTS insert in the dash warning light and wired it up. I figured that I always wear a seatbelt out of habit these days and I don’t know if my brake fluid is low whereas I do know if my seatbelt isn’t on.
A common modification for the CA18DET is to replace the original spark plug coil packs with those installed in many Audis. They are supposed to be MUCH better than the 30 year old Nissan product. They are apparently used in R8s and some Lamborghinis - how could I resist !!