1990 Nissan Silvia S13 can of worms – Our Shed

Kian scores himself a cheap Japanese hero car, but things aren't as peachy as they first seem

You know what they say: If it’s too good to be true then it probably is, and unfortunately that basically sums up my 1990 Nissan Silvia S13. My long and painful story with this car first started in early 2020 (just before the world went mad), when I thought I’d got myself a dream JDM icon and three trailer loads worth of parts for a steal at just $3500.

Even back then that was cheap for a complete, manual and factory turbo S13, and by the time I’d sold most of the spare parts I was almost in the black - but that’s about where the winning stopped.

The car had been sitting for so long that dust had collected underneath some of the clear coat peel. Normally peel like this would be a bit scary, but being white a pressure wash and some polish will sort it out

While I got the car in January 2020, I’d actually been trying to buy it for a few years. I’d quietly been wanting a Silvia in these exact colours for some time, and a friend of mine (yes, we’re still friends) had one in his Mum’s shed.

When I first laid eyes on it several years earlier in that same shed he was midway through doing a manual conversion and changing the original 1.8-litre, CA18DET twin cam turbo four-cylinder for another one sporting forged internals.

This S13 is an earlier 1990 model, so came from the factory with the turbocharged 1.8-litre DOHC CA18DET engine you see here. This one had a few upgrades like bigger cams, forged pistons, upgraded head gasket and a bigger turbo from a later model S15 Silvia

I don’t like buying cars in bits, so after a bit of ribbing in late 2019, I told him I’d give him the $3500 he wanted if he got the car running and driving. Fast forward about a month later and the car was somewhat running, so in my impatience, I agreed to pick it up.

Looking back there were a bunch of warning signs on the day of pick-up I should’ve paid more attention to, but the rose-tinted glasses were well and truly on at this point.

It may be covered by a thick layer of dust, but under that brown is actually more brown! This car has the rarer brown interior which I love, and yes I got rid of that horrible gear knob straight away

The engine did blow a bit of blue smoke, but we put that down to residual oil and fuel that needed to be burnt off. We couldn’t get the clutch to bleed so I also never got the chance to test drive it and had to be pushed onto the trailer - lucky these things are light!

My short-term goal for the car was to tidy it up, fix any loose ends over a month or so and get it through a Victorian roadworthy inspection so I could chuck some club plates on it and have it as a fun weekender.

The complicated and non-functional clutch line (right) versus the much simpler braided replacement hose (left)

A week later I replaced the troublesome clutch line, bled it and got the car mobile, which is right when I figured out that the ‘slight’ oil smoke I’d brushed off when I picked up the car was clearly a bigger issue.

Having the car running for barely 30 seconds would completely fill my mate’s decent-sized shed with smoke, so it was clear either the turbo or the engine was burning up far too much oil.

To top that off I also found some rust in one of the sills when I laid under it for the first time, and it wouldn’t stay in fourth gear. I bet you can guess where this is going…

From Unique Cars #470, Sep/Oct 2022