How to do a st165 to st205 swap???

slappyNuts

New member
I'm sure this is explained SOMEWHERE on the forum, but I looked in a few different places and didn't see it posted. I want to basically have an st205 set up in my st165 body. Can someone please direct me to where someone describes in detail what needs to be done, parts that need to be replaced, or if it is even possible? Has anyone ever done this? Any feedback is appreciated.
 

paladek

New member
Hi,



yes it is possible....I've done exactly that to my '88 ST165 roughly a year ago.... replacing the ST165 engine+gearbox with the '94 ST205 engine +gearbox was relative strait forward....The fun begun with the electrical part of the swap.
Obviously I used the ST205 ECU and the wire harness but I adapt it to the old ST165 fuse box....

regards
 

biomedgt4

New member
I am doing this swap but i was wondering what wiring will need to be done to complete the swap. a write up would be nice and yes i did look already but only write up i can find is for an st185. Thanks
 

monkey8oi

New member
another st165 in the bay looking for a st205 swap, eh? lol.. i finished mine a couple years ago and still running strong.. swapping the motor is not the hard part.. like paladek said, it's the electrical and ecu that starts to get a little more complicated.. for my swap, i swapped over the st205 motor, used my st165 harness and got a Nemesis standalone ecu and got it tuned to avoid having to go too deep into the electrical stuff.. If you're interested in taking a look, let me know cause i'm in the bay area and work in cupertino..
 

monkey8oi

New member
@biomedgt4 - how far along are you in the swap? are you using the st205 motor/tranny and st165 harness? what ecu?
 

biomedgt4

New member
Im using st205 engine and tranny, st205 ECU and st205 wiring harness. I did not want to gut my st165 harness because im planning to buy another st165 shell to put it in. Engine is still out because im not sure if my throw out bearing is correct from the kit I bought, seems a little too tight around the sleeve dunno if its normal.
 

**BETSY**

New member
I run a st185 engine with an adapted st165 loom which runs a st205 ecu/Power FC in my st165 ;)
Did this some years ago now and never looked back!
Was an easy swap....
 
Did you finish this swap up? I'm in the process of doing mine and the wiring is KILLING me...can you give me some info on the electrical side of this? any pictures of your plugs etc. ANY info is helpful.
 

Awesome-Trac

New member
Nope he never finished, I bought the car from him and kept the already rebuilt 1st Gen engine and stuck a 2nd gen trans/EXEDY clutch which was all the car needed to run
 

urbandork

New member
Used the 205 fuse box and harness. Reduced down II1 II2 and IJ1 plug on the 6th gen harness down to the 4th gen corrisponding yellow plug and added a brake signal iirc. Also had to add and run two wires from the main fuse box to the ignition switch through the body harness that is fed into the car through the drivers side fender, as the 165 and 185 had these running through the engine wiring harness.

Connecting the corrisponding 165 fuse box wires to the 205 fuse box will require a serious ton of reading the ewd and labeling.

Oh yeah almost forgot... I used the horn relay from the 165 as it's in the car vs the 205 that has it's horn relay in the fuse box. Since I also deleted a/c I modified the fuse box so that the fan relay would allow for a naturally open relay to be used this way I only had one fan relay and I have my fans running all the time. Where the 205 relay use to be I have relocated the tmic pump relay. This deleted two of the 205 relay boxes. The 205 fuel pump relay needs to be wired in somewhere too since it's in the same box on the 205 as the tmic pun relay (the small that mounts to the radiator)

Hope this helps.
 
Also I'm missing the Turbo pressure sensor and VSV....I think. I believe I found the plugs for them...any info on what these look like? where in the wiring harness the are at?
 

urbandork

New member
The turbo pressure sensor is the map sensor ans that's a three pin plug that iirc is black. The turbo vsv is on the back of the block under the intake plem.

The big grey plug with all ur wires is the ea1 plug. I used this plug and hooked the corrisponding 165 wires to it. You might be missing the other side of it and if you are you can use an st204 one but it's missing some of the pins thatvare actually filled in. I guess you could just run a different connector for the missing pins.

Study the ewd until you are super familiar with the wires.
 
hi there,
before i go selling my st165 2.5" midpipe ( B-pipe), can someone please tell me what 3" midpipe will fit the st165, and mate to the st205 downpipe.
Thanks
 
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