My project that I’ve been working on for over a year now between researching about how engine parts work (seen has I’m no mechanic!), finding parts for the build and just reading hundreds of forums inside out trying to get as much information to convert the famous Nissan Pulsar VZR N1 from a 1.6 litre to a 2litre displacement, not to gain a huge amount of hp but more for torque. Looking for information has not been easy as a lot of people have talked about this build but very few have actually done it, so instead of just doing a normal project thread I have included the some research for others who are interested.
My plan is to simply bolt the N1 head onto the sr20ve engine, the engine block for the SR16VE N1 is the same as the SR20VE, it also has the same cylinder bore, but crankshaft has a shorter stroke, which lowers the displacement. The SR16VE N1 was highly tuned by autech in fact every engine was hand built this being one of the reasons for its huge selling price when it was brought to the market. This engine still holds the title for the most powerful 1.6L production car in the world, 200ps(197hp).
Any SR20 block can be used but if you use the non VVL model like the sr20de you would need to do some block work like drilling for an oil feed to head or alternatively you can just use your existing block and use crank and rods from sr20(same as a stroker kit) you will also need to get a piston to suit. I decided to use the sr20ve as it already has vvl so little work is needed to combine an N1 head with the sr20 and the sr20ve has a 4cw crank allowing faster rpms compared to the sr20de having a heavier 8cw crank.
The plan was to keep it simple with block and then add some nice mods (list to follow) to help performance, Ecu upgrade either a piggy back or standalone I haven’t decided yet, suspension and handling upgrades, brake upgrade, wheel upgrade, respray with change of colour and some minor body changes, car diet! (Lose a lot of weight), seat upgrade and maybe more along the way! The car is going to be a road/track car.
RESEARCH
SR16VE
The 1.6 L (1596 cc) SR16VE has Nissan's Neo VVL variable valve timing with lift control. It produces 175 PS (129 kW) @7800 rpm and 119 ft•lbf (161 Nm) @7200 rpm. Compression ratio for this engine is 11:1. This was the used engine in the standard Pulsar VZR, this engine can be used exactly the same for the 2litre conversion.
SR16VE N1
The 1.6 L (1596 cc) SR16VE has Nissan's Neo VVL variable valve timing with lift control, It made 200 PS (147 kW) @ 7800 rpm and 134 ft lb (181 Nm) @ 7600 rpm. Compression ratio for this engine is 11.9:1. It held the highest specific output ever for a naturally aspirated production car, at 123.125hp/litre until the Honda F20C engine was released in the Honda S2000.
The N1 has 2 versions, version 1 1997 to early 1998 sold complete at production of 400 units, 200 lucino and 200 pulsar, version 2 late 98-00 only sold 36 units, main reason being the price of 3.2 million yen at the time was more expensive than a Mitsubishi Evolution. They had planned on a version 3 but after version 2’s poor sales figures this was abandoned.
The SR16VE N1 had a lot of differences over the standard sr16ve engine some include:
• Ported and polished head with 1mm skimmed off,
• Up rated valve springs and retainers ( many ve owners prefer the n1 valve springs to titanium because there is no maintenance required to them),
• Larger profiled cams,
• Larger intake and larger throttle body, ( The throttle body is so large that there is a butterfly valve in the intake system to stop the engine suffocating itself at low RPM),
• Modified exhaust manifold ( Apparently Nissan employed fujitsubo to make the inlet and exhaust manifolds how true anybody’s guess but on examination they are remarkable similar to flow and design)
• Lower comp pistons ( with the head skimmed the comp with the original ve pistons would have been to high)
• 4cw lighter balanced crank,
• Lightened flywheel,
• And of course 2 fuel rails each with 4 injectors so in total 8x333cc injectors,
SR20VE
The SR20VE was not available to the European market. There have been two main versions of this engine. The first version made 187 hp (139 kW) and 145 lb•ft (197 N•m) torque. Compression ratio for this engine is 10.3:1. This engine was used by Nissan from 1997 to 2001. It is found in the Nissan Primera, Nissan Bluebird, and the Nissan Wingroad.
The second variant of the SR20VE is found only in the 2001 and up, P12 Nissan Primera. This version of the SR20VE makes 204 hp (152 kW), and 152 lb/ft torque. This engine is commonly known as the SR20VE '20V'. Although, in automotive terms, '20V' would normally be interpreted as having twenty valves, this is incorrect. The name '20V' is the name of the trim level of the Nissan Primera that it is found in. It is also a shortened version of the name SR20VE. This engine has 16 valves like the rest of the SR20 engines. This newer '20V' engine, is the only SR20 engine to get a restyled valve cover. It also has an upgraded intake manifold, which has longer runners and a larger 70 mm (2.8 in) throttle body (earlier SR20VE has 60mm).
NEO VVL
Nissan Ecology Oriented Variable Valve Lift and Timing (commonly known as VVL) is an automobile variable valve timing technology developed by Nissan. It was Nissans answer to VTEC! VVL varies the timing, duration, and lift of valves by using hydraulic pressure switch between two different sets of camshaft lobes. It functions similarly to Honda's VTEC system.
THE CAR
Some pictures of the car when I first got it....
EXPECTED SPEC LIST
ENGINE
SR20VE N1
JWT 9lb lightweight flywheel
Quickshift
JWT stage3 clutch
Freak manifold
3” collector
De-cat
Nismo cat back
Lightweight Under drive GSpec Crank pulley
Lightweight Overdrive GSpec water pulley
New Valve cover
Performance Leads
NGK performance Iridium Plugs
Oil cooler
Earthing system
Engine torque damper
Nismo 1.3kg rad cap
JWT pop charger induction kit
Cold air feed
TUNING
Still unsure which ecu to go with and i don’t have alot of options as not many people know much about the N1.
SUSPENSION AND HANDLING
Tein coilovers
Tein pillow ball top mounts
Cusco front alum strut brace
Cusco Rear alum strut brace
Whiteline rear adjustable sway bar
Brakes
Front Fastbrakes 280mm drilled and grooved discs
Front Willwood 4 pot callipers
Rear Drilled and grooved discs
Stainless steel braided hoses
EBC yellow stuff pads
Dot 5.1 Fluid
Wheels
16” Lightweight Alloys
Toyo R888
Interior
2*Bride Seats
Stripped rear interior
Half bolt in roll cage
Oil temp gauge
Oil Pressure gauge
Water temp gauge
Shift Light
Body
Resprayed Nissan silvia S15 gunmetal Grey
VZR Side skirts
VZR Rear caps
Nismo front splitter
Deglobed indicators
Suteki air intake vent on pass indicator
Side strips removed
Rear wiper removed
BUILD
ENGINE BUILD.....
Finally I get to start work on the engine!!
A picture of some of the parts that I had building up in the spare room!!
Here is pic of sr20ve engine when it arrived
The N1 engine
Now to start stripping.....!
First was to strip down sr20ve engine so head could be taken off.
SR20VE pistons
S20ve cams
Sr20 block with head off and old gasket cleaned off
Then to do exact same to N1
N1 cams
N1 Pistons
N1 head
Then to start bolting it all back together...
New steel head gasket
Lightweight flywheel weights just over 9lbs
New clutch to handle extra power
New Gspec pullies, lightweight underdrive crank pulley and lightweight overdrive water pulley
My plan is to simply bolt the N1 head onto the sr20ve engine, the engine block for the SR16VE N1 is the same as the SR20VE, it also has the same cylinder bore, but crankshaft has a shorter stroke, which lowers the displacement. The SR16VE N1 was highly tuned by autech in fact every engine was hand built this being one of the reasons for its huge selling price when it was brought to the market. This engine still holds the title for the most powerful 1.6L production car in the world, 200ps(197hp).
Any SR20 block can be used but if you use the non VVL model like the sr20de you would need to do some block work like drilling for an oil feed to head or alternatively you can just use your existing block and use crank and rods from sr20(same as a stroker kit) you will also need to get a piston to suit. I decided to use the sr20ve as it already has vvl so little work is needed to combine an N1 head with the sr20 and the sr20ve has a 4cw crank allowing faster rpms compared to the sr20de having a heavier 8cw crank.
The plan was to keep it simple with block and then add some nice mods (list to follow) to help performance, Ecu upgrade either a piggy back or standalone I haven’t decided yet, suspension and handling upgrades, brake upgrade, wheel upgrade, respray with change of colour and some minor body changes, car diet! (Lose a lot of weight), seat upgrade and maybe more along the way! The car is going to be a road/track car.
RESEARCH
SR16VE
The 1.6 L (1596 cc) SR16VE has Nissan's Neo VVL variable valve timing with lift control. It produces 175 PS (129 kW) @7800 rpm and 119 ft•lbf (161 Nm) @7200 rpm. Compression ratio for this engine is 11:1. This was the used engine in the standard Pulsar VZR, this engine can be used exactly the same for the 2litre conversion.
SR16VE N1
The 1.6 L (1596 cc) SR16VE has Nissan's Neo VVL variable valve timing with lift control, It made 200 PS (147 kW) @ 7800 rpm and 134 ft lb (181 Nm) @ 7600 rpm. Compression ratio for this engine is 11.9:1. It held the highest specific output ever for a naturally aspirated production car, at 123.125hp/litre until the Honda F20C engine was released in the Honda S2000.
The N1 has 2 versions, version 1 1997 to early 1998 sold complete at production of 400 units, 200 lucino and 200 pulsar, version 2 late 98-00 only sold 36 units, main reason being the price of 3.2 million yen at the time was more expensive than a Mitsubishi Evolution. They had planned on a version 3 but after version 2’s poor sales figures this was abandoned.
The SR16VE N1 had a lot of differences over the standard sr16ve engine some include:
• Ported and polished head with 1mm skimmed off,
• Up rated valve springs and retainers ( many ve owners prefer the n1 valve springs to titanium because there is no maintenance required to them),
• Larger profiled cams,
• Larger intake and larger throttle body, ( The throttle body is so large that there is a butterfly valve in the intake system to stop the engine suffocating itself at low RPM),
• Modified exhaust manifold ( Apparently Nissan employed fujitsubo to make the inlet and exhaust manifolds how true anybody’s guess but on examination they are remarkable similar to flow and design)
• Lower comp pistons ( with the head skimmed the comp with the original ve pistons would have been to high)
• 4cw lighter balanced crank,
• Lightened flywheel,
• And of course 2 fuel rails each with 4 injectors so in total 8x333cc injectors,
SR20VE
The SR20VE was not available to the European market. There have been two main versions of this engine. The first version made 187 hp (139 kW) and 145 lb•ft (197 N•m) torque. Compression ratio for this engine is 10.3:1. This engine was used by Nissan from 1997 to 2001. It is found in the Nissan Primera, Nissan Bluebird, and the Nissan Wingroad.
The second variant of the SR20VE is found only in the 2001 and up, P12 Nissan Primera. This version of the SR20VE makes 204 hp (152 kW), and 152 lb/ft torque. This engine is commonly known as the SR20VE '20V'. Although, in automotive terms, '20V' would normally be interpreted as having twenty valves, this is incorrect. The name '20V' is the name of the trim level of the Nissan Primera that it is found in. It is also a shortened version of the name SR20VE. This engine has 16 valves like the rest of the SR20 engines. This newer '20V' engine, is the only SR20 engine to get a restyled valve cover. It also has an upgraded intake manifold, which has longer runners and a larger 70 mm (2.8 in) throttle body (earlier SR20VE has 60mm).
NEO VVL
Nissan Ecology Oriented Variable Valve Lift and Timing (commonly known as VVL) is an automobile variable valve timing technology developed by Nissan. It was Nissans answer to VTEC! VVL varies the timing, duration, and lift of valves by using hydraulic pressure switch between two different sets of camshaft lobes. It functions similarly to Honda's VTEC system.
THE CAR
Some pictures of the car when I first got it....
EXPECTED SPEC LIST
ENGINE
SR20VE N1
JWT 9lb lightweight flywheel
Quickshift
JWT stage3 clutch
Freak manifold
3” collector
De-cat
Nismo cat back
Lightweight Under drive GSpec Crank pulley
Lightweight Overdrive GSpec water pulley
New Valve cover
Performance Leads
NGK performance Iridium Plugs
Oil cooler
Earthing system
Engine torque damper
Nismo 1.3kg rad cap
JWT pop charger induction kit
Cold air feed
TUNING
Still unsure which ecu to go with and i don’t have alot of options as not many people know much about the N1.
SUSPENSION AND HANDLING
Tein coilovers
Tein pillow ball top mounts
Cusco front alum strut brace
Cusco Rear alum strut brace
Whiteline rear adjustable sway bar
Brakes
Front Fastbrakes 280mm drilled and grooved discs
Front Willwood 4 pot callipers
Rear Drilled and grooved discs
Stainless steel braided hoses
EBC yellow stuff pads
Dot 5.1 Fluid
Wheels
16” Lightweight Alloys
Toyo R888
Interior
2*Bride Seats
Stripped rear interior
Half bolt in roll cage
Oil temp gauge
Oil Pressure gauge
Water temp gauge
Shift Light
Body
Resprayed Nissan silvia S15 gunmetal Grey
VZR Side skirts
VZR Rear caps
Nismo front splitter
Deglobed indicators
Suteki air intake vent on pass indicator
Side strips removed
Rear wiper removed
BUILD
ENGINE BUILD.....
Finally I get to start work on the engine!!
A picture of some of the parts that I had building up in the spare room!!
Here is pic of sr20ve engine when it arrived
The N1 engine
Now to start stripping.....!
First was to strip down sr20ve engine so head could be taken off.
SR20VE pistons
S20ve cams
Sr20 block with head off and old gasket cleaned off
Then to do exact same to N1
N1 cams
N1 Pistons
N1 head
Then to start bolting it all back together...
New steel head gasket
Lightweight flywheel weights just over 9lbs
New clutch to handle extra power
New Gspec pullies, lightweight underdrive crank pulley and lightweight overdrive water pulley
