Car Spotlight>> Honda-powered Silvia

The Nissan S-chassis is known as one of the most versatile tuning platforms in the world. Whether you are into circuit racing, drifting, drag racing, or anything else – the Silvia can be built to suit. The engine bay of the S-chassis can also accept just about any motor under the sun. We've seen countless V8's, tons of inline sixes, even the occasional rotary swap. This Australian S13 Silvia is sporting one of the most unique powerplants we've seen yet – a turbocharged Honda K20A.

The motor in this car originally came out of a 2002 AUDM DC5 Integra Type R (thus the silver valve cover). Internally, the K20A is completely stock.

The high winding Honda motor has been fitted with a turbocharger though. The Garrett GT3076R turbine that helps the engine put down a solid 340 horsepower at the rear wheels. A K-Pro system helps keep everything in line.

How do you get a front-drive motor to work in a rear-drive car? It's pretty simple really, you use an S2000 transmission. This one feeds into a locked R200 differential with a 4.36 final.

Inside you'll find a pair of Recaro buckets, a Personal steering wheel, and an S2000 gauge cluster.

The S13 sits on Tein Super Drift coilovers. A full selection of adjustable arms and RCAs also help keep the chassis dialed-in.

The body is all business. You'll find a cowl induction style scoop for extra clearance, a B-wave rear wing, and Nismo side skirts. Wheel sizes are 16×9 +8 in the front, 17×9 +13 out back.

As you can see, this S13 puts its unique powerplant to good use at drift events.

In addition to the skid action, the car has also turned in a best ET at the dragstrip of 12.3 @ 118mph on street tires.

While the idea of a Honda engine in an S13 might seem a little strange, this car nicely blends one of the tuning world's favorite chassis with one its favorite engines.

Thanks to Ryan Gillin for the photos and information. For more, you can check out his blog at http://infinitefocusphoto.wordpress.com/ .

-Mike Garrett

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1

insane but kind of brilliant

2

I liked the Idea on the engine but never the body work. overall, it looks aggressive.

3

I don't get it. You could easily get 350HP from a bone stock SR20 with street cams and a slightly larger turbo. Props to the owner for building something unique and functional, but I'm not convinced if putting a Honda engine in this chassis has any point to it.

4

The throttle body faces the firewall, that means that the I/C piping goes all the way back, turn down and route 180 degree forward into the I/C. That's some long piping if you asked me.

Thumbs up for thinking-outside-the-box, but I would have kept it simple (either with a SR or even the KA).

5

the whole point of the aftermarket community is to create something unique and our own, thats why we customize cars in the first place props the guy for making something truly unique

6

@tony240z so ur saying any swap is pointless since u can get the same power out of an sr? hell. in the states u can get the same power out of a KA with even more torque. so the REAL question is why do people swap engines in the first place?

7

not ot mention honda engines run longer and are more reliable than nissan engines. i'm a nissan fan myself, but that's just the truth.

8

JDMized, the intake manifold has been modified with the throttle body at the front so piping is very short, props to Toli for building this thing was great helping him day in and day out

9

It needs to be making a lot more power for this to be even remotely cool

10

Now this is something different and interesting. Props to everyone involved for trying something new. Now.....*inb4zilviafanboysstartRANT*

11

abomination

12

I am with Tony on that one for sue. also i dont like that hood one bit, but its a cool ride

13

Too bad it's ugly.



And holy body roll/tire roll batman!

14

Why?...........seriously people what's with these "step backward" swaps?......."OK,lets remove the stock turbo engine that's takes nothing to make power than we'll swap in a NA engine and turbo it".....bass ackwards logic in my eyes

15

@ Tony240z Honda's are historically more reliable than nissan's, im sure the owner just wanted a more reliable way of getting HP/style points.

16

I like that drink/food airplane style tray on the passenger side, that would be usefull in my 180

17

Unusuall, but that's why it's epic :). Sure you could have the same power with a SR20DET, but at least a K20 Silvia is unique :) I like it

18

....new-age rice at its best. Waste of a perfectly good coupe IMO.

19

nice, very cool s13, very original

20

this car is defenatly rad, but........ ITS UGLY AS SIN!

21

cant comment on engine as never had one, seems an odd choice



bodywork is fucking crap! gay fan boy stickers, stupid wing that would look good on an equally lairy car, but looks turd on stock body, interior a complety mess, mismatched shitty wheels.



in short it look rubbish!

22

I love open minded people. An SR20 in a Ae86, An RB in a mustang, a 2JZ in a camaro, and now a K20 in a Silvia. People's originality never ceases to amaze me

23

cowl induction for a honda motor? that makes sense...

24

I remember ben schwarz did an f20 powered s13 a few years ago.

25

what about the 5 liter mustang dont forget the fox body : (

26

@Tony240Z

That's the reason why he's on Speedhunters and you're not. Point of it is to be different.

27

i agree that its unique,i just dont understand the logic....if this is a Ks than it came stock with an SR(no swap needed)...with cams,a couple of bolt ons and a good tune hitting 350hp is no prob...maybe a grand or two total.....with all the money you spent on the K series engine,turbo,engine management,ect ect you could have a fully built bulletproof SR that would hit 450+ no problem....logics just a tad backwards.....

28

Guys u built this car for many rasons. This list would be endless.

If use had ne idea. The hood scoope is a needed item at the race track as the motor protrudes the bonnet and does not pass scrutinering. The wing is 90's spec and the down force is actually real, b wave wing. The engine makes full boost at 3500rpm and makes power all the way to 8500rpm. No stock sr or rb or ka will eva do that. Even in some cases a modified nissan engine. Its on a mear 8psi aswell. No nissan engine would make the torque or power the k20 does.

Its a project i tried and took the risk with and it works. Better than any nissan engine.

Also bout the power. A built motor is on progress. Power n torque will spiral out of control.



Cheers toli

29

I think if he went the CT Engineering S/C route than maybe I would have found this more interesting.. you rarely if ever see a blown s-chassis car; And it would the potential to be a cleaner install... But to each there own right?

30

car looks sweet, love the picnic 'table' on the pass side LOL, but seriously i'm kind of surprised there wasn't a desire/push for more power tho? i mean the figures aren't too shabby by any means.

32

To everyone saying go stick with SR or KA or anything else, the owner/builder of the the car has had all that, he wanted to do something different for a change. Personally I think what he's done is nothing short of amazing

33

@Fg2_FrAn - Just in time buddy. here they come!

and

@FGkouki - wtf are you on about bro? Are you saying 340hp in a featherweight S chassis is not enough? Keep in mind its a stock engine. The K has much more power potential when built compared to the SFart20.



Good work fellas. I saw this build in its early stages and was wondering if it was gonna come through with the goods. Pity the bonnet doesn't have the room for the better engine. Yes i said BETTER because as all those in the know understand the K20 is the better lump.

Deal with it fanboys.



Just a few more tweaks there boys and she will be prepped.

34

Yip sadly Im doin this conversion myself at work at the moment haha, Albeit in a s6 rx7 racecar. The class does not favour rotaries. Im a big rotary fan but it makes sense tho, 300hp standard, with a turbo easily and safely over the 400hp mark. You would be spendin mental money to build a non grenade sr to make that sort of reliable power compared to a near stock turbo k20. At the end of the day, any body that cant understand outside of the box thinking needs to go back to loveitstock.com, this is SPEEDHUNTERS not SHEEPHUNTERS!!!

35

The stickers are on the door as StanceWorks here in Aus sponsor Toli for his event entry fee's etc, not a fanboy, and the car is still to be painted, plus its built for the track, no show car.



if you can make 340hp out of an SR on just 8psi of boost than hats off to you!



thanks to speedhunters for putting this feature up, unique build, owner and his brother are both awesome guys and I can't wait to see them drive the wheels off this thing in the near future.

36

Man I love SR's and most Nissan stuff, and I hate Honda's, BUT, I have to say the specs on a k20 are pretty sick compared to the SR20DET, broken rocker arms, at least 10 years old, and here in Canada, a turbo next to your brake reservoir. I'd take the lighter, higher reving, newer motor any day, who cares if you need some extra fabrication on the Xmember and drive shaft.

Looks great man, MORE DRIFT FOOTAGE PLEASE.

37

Rode in a turbo RSX once, I'm sold. That engine is ridiculous on boost. Props for doing what you wanted to do. Not my cup of tea, but it's not my car. Anyone know what's gonna happen to this thing or is it (finished)?

38

Cars finished for the moment. In the near future goin full forged engine with alot more boost. And hofefully a respray. Cars are a never ending story. So there will always be things to modify or change.

39

holy ugly fucking shit... I've seen riced beat to shit mexican'd civics that look better than this haggard fuck... and for the love of all things holy, put bigger swaybars on this thing so it doesnt look like a 83 Coupe D'Ville around a corner.

40

oh, and sweet shifter mount extension... or lack of there of...

41

Cool, now I'm gonna put an SR20 in a Honda

42

^and pull a premium at race wars?

43

To one of those involved in the build,



What bellhousing was used? I've been looking at K20 in RWD applications for a little while and AFAIK, it doesn't quite bolt up to the S2000 tranny but needs a new bellhousing or at least an adapter. Did you go custom or is there a good off-the-shelf one that I've been missing?



If its on the blog, sorry, I'm starting to read that now.

44

Don't understand the hate, chances are this car started off as something like a non-turbo auto CA18 which would be a pig of a car. I wouldn't personally do this swap but hey, it isn't my car. Always good to see something unique! Nice work.

45

K series motors are no joke, but I might be biased since I'm into hondas, at the very least they sound better than SR's do imo, but I think a KA-T sounds better than an SR.

46

a unique,one-of-a-kind yet a bit of too much complex built.i'd agree to most people sticking with SR saves much effort on producing equivalent produced power.styling is not really my cup of tea..but wth..have fun!

47

No nothing off the shelf is made to suit the s2000 box. Only a ford or hewland box. Clockwise motion in the uk make that adaptor. Mine is a custom adaptor plate made as a once off.

48

To all the people with a negative comment I reckon use keep your comments to your self. Id like to see use pull a crazy conversion like this. Its not some noob stickerd up rice burner that most of use drive. This car is prob the best conversion done. As for the paint job its perfect for what it is its a drift car not a show car. The wing and wing is crazy like that makes it stand out sik on the track. It took alot of time and effort for these boys to come up with this conversion so have some respect for it. Great work to the tnt boys

49

Why all the hate?



It's something different, it was never intended to be a better alternative to an sr20.



Why do people spend $40k on a crate engine from mazworx for an sr23vet when they could spend half the money on an rb26/2jz and make easy reliable power?



Because people have a love for being extraordinary.



BTW S13's in aus don't come with ka24, they come with either the ca18 or sr20 in turbo/non turbo. The most popular swap would be an rb20 being that they are cheap and plentiful in aus.

51

To all the negative comments I reckon u keep them to your self. This is no stickerd up rice burner this is what u call STANCE. This is one of the best conversions done took alot of time and effort. Id like to see u guys pull of a crazy conversion like this. A sr20 is a clagger compare to the k20 specialy with the nice 600 roler. And as for the scoop and wing in white is spastik stiks outs crazyyy on the track you have to see this car in person and hear the 60mm gate screaming and then we'll see if you say something negative. As for the paint its perfect for what its used for its a drift car not a show car, its goys looks and power not like the other rice burners that u people drive that are all looks no gooo!!!

52

To all who dont understand K vs. S swaps. think about a couple other things besides current peak hp.

ivtec does wonders and you can bet there is more broad powerband to be made that a sr cannot make. furthermore K20 tech is advancing at a rate that is going to blow the SR out very soon. say for instance he has a built k24 bottom end on the back-burner that gonna drop into this setup very soon? expect alot more tq to compete with all the v8s getting into the game along with a better bottom end. and more peak hp. this car has alot of potential nd its a good idea.

53

i agree wif u on dat 1 costa like wise!! Dis car is offtap... Ive been 4 a drive in it & boys wat u want a car 2 do dis does it all!! Great conversion & great power it makes & more 2 cum!! good work boys & keep it up!! Im frofin hard hard!! lol (kavlono)

55

Noooooooo!! sin, have managed to ruin a s13

56

I'm getting such a Mad Max vibe! Costa, dude, put the pipe down...

57

With how many SR20s I seen grenade in various cars, I'm not surprised he went with a K20 in it.

58

yeah... thats f'n cool. what a wild way to go. i like watchin all the different swaps happenin and now to see honda motors being swapped into other cars rather than every other honda is just ridiculous... in a good way. MAD PROPS to the owners/builders... enjoy the hell out of it and oh yeah,

drive it like you stole it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

59

Blasphemy. The wing and scoop are hideous.

60

I dont know what u guys are talking about my boy has been driving his sr swaped 240 for the past 4 years with my gt3076r he is around the 400hp range with a tuned ecu and afc. Also stock head studs and gasket. With roker stopers he revs it to 8000 with ease. Sr's for the price are one of the strongest 4bangers out. By the way have you guys seen the price of a type r k20.

61

Yeah 400hp on an american dyno. All dynos in the usa read 100hp more than ausdie dynos. In the states this car would read 450hp no worries. Priven that american dynos are happy as f***!!! i noe wat this car does with the power it makes it turns tiers in 4th with nearly full soft on the rear dampers.

Also i hav no doubt the sr can rev to 8000. But seriously, check the graph see were the power drops off. I bet no more than 6500-7000. And prob makes bost at 4500-5000. The k in on full noise at 3000-3500 and sings all the way to 8500 still makin power. On only 8psi. No sr. Well no 4/6 banger will manage that.

Cheers

62

Mdeezy your froffin buddy theres no pipes here I no the owner of this car and its the best so I sujest you ut the pipe down or maybe u need to pik up the pipe and wake up to your self hands down to these boys for building it!

63

please die

64

When do someone put the 5 cyl Audi engine in an S body :D ????

Rally Group B sound... FTW :D!

65

pq carojo isiste eso pendejo mataste el carro mereces morir pendejooooooooooooo

66

This a thread for the sylvia with a k20 conversion! Not to argue about bull s**t this artice has been flooded with crap. Obviously american to australia dynos are different so I dont see wat the fuss is all about. A k20 in a sylvia just the motor in the shell is crazy then to top it off the 600 roler turbs I love this car. Great idea must of taken alot of research to pull this together! If only they came out factory with a k20!!!! Congrats to the guys that built this.

Cheers.

67

very unique i love the swap

68

I'm happy for you Toli :)

Great to see it finally complete!

Those haters can keep sipin' on their Haterade

You have achieved something and reached the goal you were telling me about for months!

x

69

remove the scoop paint the wing get rid of teh gay stanceworks sticker on the door and thsi would be a really oldschool new school cool! :)

70

May i know why using Integra K series engine instead of S2000 F series engine for the swaps?

71

If u resr above the wing is on thete to pass dcritinering at the track. In sayin it. It is old skl. Slr 5000 torana scoope from the earlh holden days. N stanceworks sponsors my car

72

@ LoveCars, the K series engine has more support than the F series, parts are cheaper, and K engines have been proven to respond better to bolt on mods, check out the K series s2000.



@ Dazza, the scoop is needed, I bet they would've wanted to keep the bonnet stock, but the K series protrudes out of the engine bay, it doesn't sit flush, therefore they have to use that bonnet scoop. The StanceWorks sticker is because StanceWorks in Australia sponsors this car for events, this is a drift car, not a show car.

73

More user friendly the k series and more knowledge here in australia.

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