Hey Guys, Heres a bit of a spool on my ute, I bought it 3 years ago for $7000 of an older mate of mine. It had the injected L20B turbo, cooler, microtech, etc etc already in it so it was plenty enough power to fry the tyres off it when the boost was wound up, Anyway a couple of months after i bought it I got up & went to head into work & noticed the thing was blowing heaps of smoke & i thought what the ****, turbo seal has gone or some sh*t, anyway after sussing it all out, pulled the spark plugs out & smoke was just pouring out everywhere! the back 2 pistons had gained compression! which ive never heard of in my life, but yer turns out it had cracked the 2 back pistons, ****! pull it down rebuild! I was looking at about $2500 to rebuild the L20, massive oversized pistons, reboring, the list goes on, seemed to be a bit of a hassle so I rang a few mates in the automotive industry & sussed out a few front cuts with SR20s or FJ20, the FJ was a mission to find any that were half decent, if any at all but the SR's were plentiful, so i rang around for at least 2 weeks & then found & engine package from japanautos in QLD, came with everything for a conversion except the box & starter so I wheeled & dealed & he ended up throwing the 5 speed in for $600.
So all up I payed $2700 for the engine & gearbox package.
While waiting for the eng & box I thought nows the time to paint the engine bay to match the rest of the car (My mate painted the car while the motor was in so left the bay) I left the brake booster, clutch, hoses & sh*t in as i didnt know what id be using or what would fit (everyone told me SR into 720 would be an easy fit, **** yeah right!) ANyway it took me about 2 hours just to mask the engine bay out! probably the hardest part of the whole conversion haha. came up pretty good in the end though.
Next the motor & box turned up a couple days before chrissy, Mad present! haha. Soon as it got here i just started ripping sh*t off it, Power steering can go, AC compressor, catch can, emissions bullshit etc etc, Picked it up with the hoist & lowered it down into the bay to see how it fit, clutch resoiver, brake booster, alternator all in the way by miles! Pulled all that out & she was getting futher back into the rough position, had to bash the firewall in al least 2 inches so it would sit back enough so i could use the existing L20 mounts, Now she was in! except the drag link & sway bars were totally in the way of the sump, so got rid of them to deal with at a later date, next was the clutch, gearbox mount & crossmember & brake booster, With a few cuts here & there & a few spacers the gearbox mounted up sweet, then the clutch was another issue! only had 50mm clearance between the manifold & firewall so a call to MadDat was in order, got the smallest possible clutch master & relocatable resoiver kit & that was still 15mm to long, Out with the grinder! Grinded down the end of the clutch master as much as possible & die grinded a scollop out of the manifold & bobs you fuckin uncle! haha redrilling new holes in the firewall for the clutch was a mission though, Next was the brake booster, rang nissan A1 auto wrecking & the sent me down a 180b booster for $80, that mated up to the 720 master sweet just had to turn it on its side & that part was done! theres alot im leaving out from here on like ordering the wrong size radiator, shortening tailshaft etc but it would take 3 days to type it all!
Anyway my mate came over with the loom he had been doing for me, plugged everything in & BROOOOM, Started 2nd go!
Now i was stoked! after a year of doing lits bits & pieces for an hour or 2 after work it was up & running again, well kinda
fuckin sick! took it for a spin up the road with no exhaust, It was pretty loud, but my workshop is in an industrial estate so its all good, it went as i expected, pretty fast although i was just taking it easy to sync everything up.
Had no brakes hardly at all though, the booster from Nissan A1 was ****! Called maddat up again & got a short travel 180b booster. Fit like a demon & away i went.
The motor is pretty much stock with a few little trick bits here & there & is gonna stay that way until I get some more coin together.
Its running around 10PSI atm but is fully adjustable with a little mbc.
Heres a few pics of parts of the build, hope you guys enjoy & gives someone out there a bit of inspiration to steal there oldmans 720 & turn it into their own vision of the perfect datto!
Let me know what you think, any questions etc.
Thanks Jay

Sorry i put the photos in the wrong order

Whats the go no1 keen on the ol 720? haha ahh well

looks cool man would love to do something like that for my son, but no xtra coin for that atm would be much better than the ca20e thats in his s3bb, hey just out of curiosity what did u do with the carbs off the other donk lol and the amazing looking air chamber

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IF IT'S FOOKED FIX IT, IF IT AIN'T MAKE IT FASTER

nice job mate, came up real sweet. You must have a good memory judging by your story! Seems like you had your fair share of hurdles with the conversion but you got there in the end any future plans?

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Thanks lads, The Turbo, throttle bodies, 550cc injectors, custom manifold, microtech mt-8 with handset, basically the whole L20 turbo setup from the photo is for sale, All it needs is reboring, new pistons (which is the wallet killer) & putting back together, the motor was still running when i pulled it down i just didnt want to make it any worse, It was making close to 300 HP, I will upload some pics of what it did to the pistons, Hasnt done any damage to the engine, it only ran like that for a few days. However when the back 2 pistons cracked & gained compression it must have put added strain on the turbo so the seal let go, Its a demon of a setup, i just wanted something a little more reliable so I could use it as my business work ute aswell.
Future plans for the SR next week are a new front main seal as its leaking a bit of oil, also the idle speed motor needs tinkering with cause when it gets hot it doesnt like to go back to idle when I let my foot off the throttle quickly when coming to a stop, Also putting my fuel reg on it cause its getting to much fuel & running a bit rich, its alright when your giving it a boot full but when you just wanna drive it normally it coughs & splatters until you push it past the flatspot kinda thing. After that its larger injectors, wind up the boost to say 12 to 14 PSI & have some fun! It needs a new centre console to cause i cut a bit of a section out of it so the SR 5 speed stick could come through but it looks sh*t so im gonna find something else from the wreckers or custom make one. Also im after a set of simmons fr or something very similar to that 5 spoke style, So hard to find any though cause my wheels are also 6 stud pattern, Juts want a new set so i can chop n change from time to time, Set of 20's would look sick on the thing i reckon, Dont mind them KAOTIK sorta style wheels from Tempe Tyres, Dont know if they are sh*t or not though? WHat do you guys think i should do with it haha?
CHeers Jay, hey how do i put a photo in my profile thing like you guys have?

I think the only way you can pull off a set of 20s is if you airbag it and bodydrop it, otherwise it'll look a bit goofy. But that's just my opinion. Check out the 720 section of the Ratsun forums for some inspiration http://community.ratsun.net/forum/53-72 ... a196c222e4

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