95 HK111.3l imported to US, Any US parts interchangeable?

[NissanMarchUS]

Hi, new here, will soon be receiving my Nissan March 95' imported from Japan. I have experience with Nissan's and have previously owned a 97' 200sx SE-R (2 door Sentra) GTiR swapped. Sold it before having a family and now I'm looking to get back into my car passion

My question is, what parts are interchangeable locally for me? I've made sure to do my due diligence and research GA16DE swaps and SR20 swaps (this one being far more difficult) but I'm curious if any US market Nissan's had bits and goodies I could use or if I will have to source everything internationally.

My HK11 is coming auto with the CVT, I'd like to make it a manual eventually. Does the GA16DE gearbox that came in US vehicles work?

As you can imagine with this vehicle never releasing in America it's been difficult for me to have success with my research.

Thanks in advance! Cheers!

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

Coming from Australia where all the model names are different as well I'd suggest trying to navigate all the different changes to what these cars were in the UK. A sentra in the US is a Pulsar in Australia which seems to be either an almera or primera in the UK but some of our pulsars came from other Japanese or UK models so it gets confusing.
The GA gearbox bolts up to the CG but is larger and generally use the GA flywheel and clutch but that's probably because most people looking at this want to hold more torque. The diff offset within the vehicle is probably different which would probably require custom driveshafts, or moving the motor over with custom engine mounts.
Other bits some GA injectors fit and are an upgrade like ga15, likewise some throttle bodies again ga15, ga16 can be made work I believe but depends on which type etc. The clutch cables and speedo cables tend to be similar as are the gearshift mechanism, most short shifter kits are Pulsar / Almera based. Alot of seals and bearings and the like get shared between models.
I've spent some time scrolling through online nissan parts catalogues to try and interpret compatible and common parts from other models.

 

[.Maarten]

A us ga16 will fit a micra with some work. Ive done it (Im not in the US but did manage to get a us engine) but im not sure if the ga16 gearbox will bolt straight in as ive used the micra gearbox. I would think that a ga16 gearbox will work fine but you might need custom drive shafts. A cg flywheel should work with a ga16 box. But you can also swap the 1.6 flywheel in if you make a adapter because the hole in the ga16 flywheel is bigger. It will bolt up fine but it doesnt center on the crank. you need a adapter for that.

To be fair id just swap in a ga16 as you guys had the proper ga16 with vct and not the lame ass one we had here.

 

[NissanMarchUS]

Coming from Australia where all the model names are different as well I'd suggest trying to navigate all the different changes to what these cars were in the UK. A sentra in the US is a Pulsar in Australia which seems to be either an almera or primera in the UK but some of our pulsars came from other Japanese or UK models so it gets confusing.
The GA gearbox bolts up to the CG but is larger and generally use the GA flywheel and clutch but that's probably because most people looking at this want to hold more torque. The diff offset within the vehicle is probably different which would probably require custom driveshafts, or moving the motor over with custom engine mounts.
Other bits some GA injectors fit and are an upgrade like ga15, likewise some throttle bodies again ga15, ga16 can be made work I believe but depends on which type etc. The clutch cables and speedo cables tend to be similar as are the gearshift mechanism, most short shifter kits are Pulsar / Almera based. Alot of seals and bearings and the like get shared between models.
I've spent some time scrolling through online nissan parts catalogues to try and interpret compatible and common parts from other models.

Thank you so much for taking the time out to reply! This is fantastic information and greatly appreciated.

 

[NissanMarchUS]

A us ga16 will fit a micra with some work. Ive done it (Im not in the US but did manage to get a us engine) but im not sure if the ga16 gearbox will bolt straight in as ive used the micra gearbox. I would think that a ga16 gearbox will work fine but you might need custom drive shafts. A cg flywheel should work with a ga16 box. But you can also swap the 1.6 flywheel in if you make a adapter because the hole in the ga16 flywheel is bigger. It will bolt up fine but it doesnt center on the crank. you need a adapter for that.

To be fair id just swap in a ga16 as you guys had the proper ga16 with vct and not the lame ass one we had here.

That's great that the US GA16 would work just fine. I've absolutely considered it and there's a great write up on here recently posted touching on the electric water pump and welding a motor mount. My first car had a GA16DE with the VTC so I'm well versed around that motor.

I was thinking that getting the 1.3 March would be the way to go and just go boost with a Gizfab kit but are you suggesting it would still be worth pulling out the 1.3 and putting in the GA16? The pro's for me would definitely be the ability to source local parts readily where I assume sourcing CG13 parts would be an international affair and going turbo would probably also be easier to achieve locally with the aftermarket love for the GA16 we have here in the US.

Hmmm

 

[.Maarten]

The 1.3 isnt a really strong engine and doesnt handle boost very well in stock form. a ga16 does alot better.
For me the availability of parts would be a big plus because i hate it if i have to wait a few weeks to continue. Not only for exotic parts but also for quite common stuff that fails alot like the distributor or throttlebody (maf). Here in europe we can find them plenty in scrapyards. In the US that would be quite a pain.

Also a boosted cg13 will do around 130-150HP. A US ga16 did 115 if i remember correctly. Boosted they do alot more. And the us ga16 has the better fuel rail so it takes sr20 injectors. (Europe ga16's uses other injectors and sr20 ones dont fit)

A ga16 swap can be done in a few days if you know how to fab stuff.

 

[NissanMarchUS]

The 1.3 isnt a really strong engine and doesnt handle boost very well in stock form. a ga16 does alot better.
For me the availability of parts would be a big plus because i hate it if i have to wait a few weeks to continue. Not only for exotic parts but also for quite common stuff that fails alot like the distributor or throttlebody (maf). Here in europe we can find them plenty in scrapyards. In the US that would be quite a pain.

Also a boosted cg13 will do around 130-150HP. A US ga16 did 115 if i remember correctly. Boosted they do alot more. And the us ga16 has the better fuel rail so it takes sr20 injectors. (Europe ga16's uses other injectors and sr20 ones dont fit)

A ga16 swap can be done in a few days if you know how to fab stuff.

Fortunately it will not be my daily driver so that definitely frees up the option of time. Ideally I would piece together everything in advance, including the custom driveshafts so when I'm ready it can be pretty straight forward.

I'm assuming I would also need the GA16 wiring loom/ecu and have the ECU reflashed/tuned (JGY Customs can do the ECU tuning)

This sounds like a hefty project for sure. I would imagine at least 4k but man would I love a little peppy Micra/March

150whp should be fun on the little 840kg car.

 

[NissanMarchUS]

Hoping it feels similar to my B14 250whp GTiR Sentra/200sx I had

 

[.Maarten]

Yes you need the ga16 ecu and loom. The loom is easily adapted to the Micra loom. Or complete stand alone ecu offcourse.

Ive read somewhere that people also used a sr20 ecu but im not sure about that.

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

As a manual car guy I understand the reasons to want a manual but when I drove a CVT micra I was very impressed, it easily beat most things off the lights and just seemed effortless. Reliability ended up being it's undoing, but I just couldn't justify spending what it needed to get it back to working properly for a car I didn't need and had a pretty small resale value, your case is very different as you're clearly wanting to keep it.

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

Fortunately it will not be my daily driver so that definitely frees up the option of time. Ideally I would piece together everything in advance, including the custom driveshafts so when I'm ready it can be pretty straight forward.

Having done a conversion unless ordering a kit to do it (which gizfab may be doing) this approach can be very difficult as you're essentially guessing the engine positioning for your driveshaft lengths, I'd expect your car to be apart for quite some time depending on complexity and how much time you can devote to it as well as times to build driveshafts, parts etc.

 

[NissanMarchUS]

Having done a conversion unless ordering a kit to do it (which gizfab may be doing) this approach can be very difficult as you're essentially guessing the engine positioning for your driveshaft lengths, I'd expect your car to be apart for quite some time depending on complexity and how much time you can devote to it as well as times to build driveshafts, parts etc.

Excellent point, I find myself going back and forth on simply keeping the CG13 and just swapping from CVT to Manual eventually. The limitations (from my understanding) of the CG really has me at odds, I would love 180-200whp but from what I gather that's easier said then done.