Another Caldina swap...

3SDNA

New member
Hey guys,

Just a little history on the car. I bought it from a guy in Phoenix, AZ 3 years ago. I drove it around for a year and the head gasket blew. I refurbished the cylinder head and installed a Cometic MLS HG with ARP studs. I had accumulated many parts while the car was down, so with the refurbished head I installed a 2nd Gen twin entry manifold, an ATS CT27 and a 3in Aussie down-pipe. I had no boost controller, so I was running it off of the wastegate up to 12psi. The car was a lot peppier with this setup and I was enjoying it, until.... Long story short, I tried to race a 350Z on the highway, the old cracked boost reference line popped off the wastegate, and the car boosted up to 20psi. I thought I was cool until I found out the engine was pushing oil out of every gasket it could find. A compression test later revealed 90PSI in 3 cylinders, so I yanked the engine. I was also scheduled to attend a car show in Los Angeles in two weeks....

I ended up finding a local guy, JDM Arizona, who had a few Gen 4 engines in his new warehouse. Come to find out, his main shop is in New Jersey, and he is the guy who supplies PrimeMR2 with all of there Gen 4 engines for their customer swaps. I paid $1100 and he loaded up the engine. Now, smart people would take their time and replace all of the gaskets and sensors before bolting the engine into the car, but by the time I received my new harness back from Doug at Wiregapinc, I only had a few days until the 80's and 90's Neo Classics car show in LA. So I installed the harness, slapped on a Fidanza flywheel with new clutch, and bolted the engine up.
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I had to modify my stock pressure line that runs from the fuel filter to the fuel rail in order to adapt to the Gen 4 rail, but that was about it. So at 11PM on a Friday, I fed her some of that nice Rotella T6 5W-40, and she cranked right up with no issues, and boom, bed time.. The next day(Saturday), I drove around the neighborhood a few times, and up and down the interstate to check for coolant leaks, issues, etc... Did another oil change after a few hundred miles, and drove around more. I had to be in LA by 8AM Sunday morning, so I cleaned all the greasy hand prints off of the car, the girl friend vacuumed the interior up real nice, and we headed out of Phoenix at 2AM Sunday morning for LA. The car ran flawlessly the whole 5 hour trip. I averaged 90mph between most gas stops on the interstate, and the worst gas mileage I calculated was 22mpg when I was beating the shit out of it over 100mph. The best mileage I saw was 26mpg in town at 70mph. We made the car show Sunday morning, met some cool people, saw some cool cars.... and then hauled ass back home to Phoenix. Overall, I think we covered a good 800 miles without issue, and I never had to use any of my 1000lbs of tools that I brought just in case... :D

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3SDNA

New member
The week after the trip, a local shop was having a dyno event, $60 for 3 pulls. I took the car, with the bone stock Gen4, and a heat soaked stock intercooler, and it put down 234hp and 200lb-ft of torque. Ill post up the dyno sheet soon. So I think this engine swap is the best bang for your buck, and provides the most smiles per mile for me :D . The power comes on so much sooner, and pulls so hard and smooth. You need this swap.

I recently mocked up my Frozen Boost Water to Air setup. Don't judge me, its just redneck engineered in there for a short time. I will finish it soon. The car already feels faster now.
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CSAlltrac

New member
This is awesome! I can not wait to get CS back on the road with this swap. Being able to trust the car again is going to be so nice. I dig your 165, good job with it. Are you running stock boost?
 

3SDNA

New member
Thanks for the compliment sir! Still a long way off from being as clean as your ride!
Yes, still stock boost. It put down the 234whp on stock 8psi. I thought it was supposed to be higher, but I heard from Prime that 8psi is stock.
 

Locker

Member
Awesome work. I'm quite impressed with the dyno results. 234 at the wheels on 8psi is pretty impressive
 

UtahSleeper

Active member
Very nice!!! Glad the motor gave you no grief.............and your not the only one who just dropped the motor in with no seal touching lol.
 

3SDNA

New member
Here is the graph from the dyno. This engine is a beast!
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3SDNA

New member
I finalized my intercooler mounting and did my best to clean up the engine bay. I am sure I will regret painting the valve cover white, but for now it is pretty! :D
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3SDNA

New member
Does anyone here have a list of the Gen4 trouble codes? My check engine light is not on, but when you jumper the E-T1 ports together, I get two codes. The car seems to run fine, but it has a nasty idle. I already pulled the IACV and cleaned it, but it may still be faulty. I appreciate any help, thanks!
 

bajallama

New member
Nice man! Just finished a 4th gen swap on my 165 also. Went pretty flawless too however I have an idle problem also. I setup an OBD2 Bluetooth on it and it's showing a fault in the IAC circuit. I can't seem to figure out what it is either. I cleaned it out and it still has issues. It will idle really high or really low and randomly it will work fine. How much boost are you getting out of the stock setup? I'm reading about 9psi however I heard the ECU cuts it if it doesn't get a signal from the trans being its an auto ECU.
 

3SDNA

New member
Right on man, its always nice to hear of some more 165 love. Mine is doing the exact same wonky idle stuff. Low, high, normal, rough blah blah. Its getting annoying. Before installing my boost controller, I was seeing 8psi with the wastegate. I now run 14-16psi with an Apexi AVCR. Its a beast for sure now.
 

bajallama

New member
Hey man, by chance did you change out the timing belt when you did the swap? Kind of random but I found out mine stretched to hell after only 5k and I changed it out before my swap. I wonder if I put in a 2nd gen belt instead and maybe that's causing an idle issue.
 

3SDNA

New member
No, I ended up using the belt it came with. I know PrimeMR2 sells a Gen4 timing belt. I just cross reference the part numbers they list on their site, and get it cheaper from somewhere else. :D
 

GT4times2

Moderator
Update on this!! By any chance, did you go 5x114.3? I saw a car that looks like yours with Supra wheels online somewhere. :shrug:
 
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