Skyline Gts4 Knock, Knock.. Who's There?

[Dezr]

Hello everyone My name is Ashcon. I live in Vancouver, Canada and own a 1991 GTS4. I love the car to death!, when it's running properly.. >_>

Tonight I was driving up a hill sitting at about 5lb's of boost when KAPOW, rod bearing went. I'm fairly certain it's Cyl #2 as when I unplug the coilpack the knock gets so quite it's almost gone. Anywho, I have another complete RB20DET sitting at my family's auto scrap yard with about 90,000 Km on it. To my knowledge, the GTS4 and GTST RB20's have different bottom ends? I was wondering if I would be able to just drop in the GTST RB, and not put in any of the front wheel drive components (ie. Just unhooking the links and whatever else may lead to that front diff). if not, am I able to bolt the GTS4 oilpan to the GTST RB with minor modification and be on my way?

Some insight and help would be greatly appriciated as everywhere I have looked people only seem to do writeups on GTR / GTS4 -> RWD swaps. Where as I'd like to keep my AWD if possible, if not if the GTST engine would just bolt up to my existing bellhousing and I have it work.

Attached are some photos of my car and what it's come to be. These are all photos of it after I rebuilt it in my garage. I repaired all of the rear wheel well rust (What a nightmare), and had the roof, windshield, A-pillar, rear quarters and fender fixed after having a garbage truck hit the side of the car with a dumpster bin... which btw wasn't as much body work as I had first thought!

Thanks! Hope someone can help!

Edited February 5, 2014 by Dezr

[Dezr]

bump..

[GTRsean]

Use the original block and swap the crank and rods etc over.

That way you can keep the AWD setup

[Dezr]

I think that'll be my last resort as I'm not sure how much its gonna cost to have the block remachined

[Dezr]

I almost have the motor out, I will post updates as I go in case anyone else has this issue.

[Dezr]

Ok so I have the motor and tranny out. and my new motor has arrived. It looks like the bell housing mounts are different between the GTS4 and GTST blocks. is their a way around this? or will I be needing to source a tranny, drive shaft, and new tranny brace? help much appreciated!!

[sydking]

just use your AWD sump on the new block.

[Dezr]

You cant unless you modify the pan, the AWD blocks have holes for either the RWD pan, or the AWD pan. Where as the RWD blocks only have the holes for the RWD pan. Also the oil pickups are in different spots between the two blocks, and I didn't feel like tampering that much, and my front CV's were broken anyway.

The motor bolted right up to the tranny, dispite half the people on the internet saying it wouldn't. Aside from that, I had to switch the motor mounts from the AWD block to the RWD block, took the front prop shaft out, removed the CV's, but I had to hack up the CV's afterwards to keep the splines just attached to my hubs, had an issue with the bearing coming a bit loose.

At the end of the day, it was a cheap and easy fix to my problem, and ended up with a motor with 90,000k on it that runs beautifully! Hopefully if anyone else encounters a similar issue, this will help them!

Edited March 5, 2014 by Dezr

[KiwiRS4T]

Well done! Pity about the AWD though. Maybe repair your dead motor at your leisure and stick it back in later with some new half shafts etc.

[Dezr]

I was thinking about that. but I don't really think the AWD is even worth it with the RB20. they already dont have that much power to begin with. and splitting it just made the car feel slower.

[Adriano]

Does it snow there?

[Dezr]

Yeah randomly a few times a year.