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The SR20DET engine started it's life with an engine orientation many would call uncharacteristic. The first car that had an SR20DET in its engine bay was the 1989 Nissan Bluebird 2000 SSS. Here the SR20 turbo was placed transversely. Next year, more transverse engine placements followed with the Pulsar GTI-R and the Sunny GTI-R. These were special homologation versions with AWD and ITBs on the SR20 from the factory. Truly awesome little cars, but they were produced in pretty limited numbers.
It wasn't until 1991 that the SR20 came in the engine placement and setup that we all know and love. In 1991 it appeared longitudinally mounted in the now legendary Nissan 180SX and the S13 Silvia. It stayed with the S-chassis through it's subsequent generations in the S14 Silvia and the European market 200SX, all until the sad end of the S-chassis in 2002. The year when Nissan was left without an entry level sports car, something that all enthusiasts believe Nissan needs again. Bring back the S-chassis Nissan, it was awesome.
The SR20DET appeared in other less famous, but still pretty fun Nissan cars like the Avenir, the Liberty and the R'nessa. None of which were global models unfortunately.
So what makes the SR20DET engine iconic? Is it the tech? The reliability? The power output? Well it's all of that and none of that. Nissan made a good engine with the SR20DET, but just how good it is was revealed only by the car enthusiast community.
To understand this, we have have to understand something very basic and that's that at its core drifting is abuse. Yes, it's a beautiful motor sport today, that requires immense skills, craftsmanship and talent, but from a purely mechanical perspective it's abuse. An engine in a drifting car gets exposed to a tremendous amount of abuse. It's basically bounced off the rev limiter continuously at relatively low speeds that don't allow the engine to cool off. An engine that can put up with drifting and not complain is amazing any way you look at it. The SR20DET put up with drifting and drifters for decades! And even today, a Nissan S-chassis with and SR20DET in it is still the easiest way to enter the world of drifting. This was especially true in the early days, when the 180SX and Silvia S13 had from the factory something that the AE86 didn't. Power and turbo torque. You didn't need to extensively modify an 180SX to drift with it. It was pretty much ready to go from the factory.
When it comes to the specs the SR20DET is a square design with 86 mm of bore and 86 mm stroke. It's an all aluminum design with a closed deck aluminum alloy block and DOHC cylinder heads. Stock SR20DET pistons are cast, but feature a thermal coating on the top. The cylinder head has pent roof combustion chambers with both cam gears driven by a single roller timing chain. The intake valve diameter is pretty nice at 34.15 mm. The exhaust valve diameter of the SR20DET is 30.15 mm. Earlier engines that did not have variable cam timing on the intake had high angle intake ports cast into the cylinder head. These have some pretty good flow characteristics. Later engines with VTC have a more conventional intake port design. Valves are actuated via y-shaped low friction rocker arms and feature hydraulic maintenance-free hydraulic lifters.
Simple stage 1 budget friendly tuning of the SR20DET usually consists of upgrading the downpipe, the exhaust, maybe a cold air intake and increasing the boost a bit. Most stock SR20DET run at 7 psi of boost. You can increase this to 12 psi until you reach the limits of a mostly stock setup. "Safe" power levels of the SR20DET with stock internals are at around 400 hp. This assumes a good tune and knock monitoring.
To get to 400 hp you will need to invest into more serious items like a front mount inter-cooler, upgrade the fuel pump and the injectors and likely upgrade the turbo. The Garret 2871R is a common and pretty good choice.
If you want to go well above 400 hp you will need to reinforce the SR20DET internals with some forged pistons and rods. Re-sleeving the block might also be a good idea because it enables you to increase the bore to as much as 90 mm, bringing the the SR20DET very close to 2.2 liters, or even more if you invest in a stroker kit. With these upgrades, SR20DET builds of well over 1000 horse power become a reality.
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