I am almost finished an RB20 swap, I will give my pointers, as every swap seems to be different.
I started with a wrecked skyline, paid $1000cdn for everything.
My swap is a little different, as I started with an automatic sohc 89 coupe.
I'm using R32 x-member. Fits pretty well but my turbo elbow won't clear on the steering. 6 bolt turbo flange seems hard to come by. I'm looking into a custom one, but first I will be taking a grinder to my stock elbow (have 2 spares, not hugely concerned about wrecking one)Motor does sit high, so far my hood won't close but only hits on the PCV outlet hose. once I have that figured I'll know what else I have to notch out.X-member difference for anyone curious
Throttle cable plate people are talking about - My donor skyline had cruise control and I was able to slightly bend the 'other' cable holder so my stock S13 throttle cable fits and works perfectly. Maybe dohc S13s have different throttle cables, or non cruise control Skylines have different cable holders (the one on the manifold)pic
speedo signal- skyline uses a cable for the speedo, S13 uses an electronic signal. I am not entirely sure on the fix for this, I'm assuming the dohc sensor fits the RB20 transmission. What I can guarantee is that the AUTO sohc speed sensor does not fit in the RB20 tranny. I'm picking up a dohc 5 speed sensor this week and will find out!
wiring- I used this guide and it was pretty helpful
http://www.nicoclub.com/articles.php?id=225177
Wasn't perfect though. I had no power to my coilpacks when I was done. I found the main power wire for the coils (fat white wire) and followed it to the cabin, through the firewall. It was on one of the 2 green plugs. This wire needs ignition power and when I unplugged my harness I didn't take whatever was plugged into those green plugs! Found 12v ignition coming from another wire in the 2nd green plug and *temporarily* hooked that up to start the car. I will be running a fused line to it when I'm finished the swap.
auto-5 speed swap. I used this guide
http://www.nicoclub.com/articles.php?id=183606
and it helped me out quite a bit, but still had one little issue. My key wouldn't come out.plugged the auto shifter back in and figured out which wires triggered the park switch and jumpered them. all of a sudden it clicked and my key came out!Wires in question for anyone else in my shoes
yellow/red and blue/black get spliced for the key fix.