twistex Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Hi, I have got a few PM's on how hard or difficult it was to swap an l-series into my 240sx. Well I have never done a write up of any kind! Well I don't even have any photos of what I'm about to explain. This is for the people who care about this.. for those people that don't want to worry about paint and body work and rust on a 240z.. well you will have to worry about smog in california.. This guide is mainly for putting non fuel injection l-series because you will need to wire in your fuel injection engine harness to the 240sx chassis. This would be no different then wiring it into any other car. Anyways here we go! *NOTE - If you have never done a swap before then this swap may not be a good idea for you. 1. Remove old ka24e or ka24de motor and transmission from s13 chassis. 2. Pressure wash and clean your engine compartment, get rid of any smog crap like your charcoal canister and such. Cruise control stuff can be removed as well. Might as well removed your power steering lines for now and your a/c and all that. We will touch back with the p/s later on in this write up. 3. For easy of mounting replace your stock s13 engine cross member with a r32 gts rb20det cross member. If you don't already know it bolts right into a s13/s14 chassis and the rack will bolt right in. 4. Unbolt your ka24 transmission from the old ka24e/de motor. Don't cut or ruin the lower engine harness that runs from the rear of transmission to the alternator, you will need that later. Put ka24 transmission the the work bench and removed the bell housing. There are plenty of threads on how to remove the bell housing's if you don't understand how I explain it. inside the bell housing there is a bearing cover plate that you need to unbolt and tap with a hammer to knock it loose and slide off. The bigger bearing of the 2 has a snap ring around it that needs to be removed. Then unbolt the bolts on the outside of the transmission that hold the bell housing of the transmission. Give it a few wacks with a hammer and the bell housing should slide off. Put the ka24 transmission to the side we will go back to that later. 5. Take a l-series transmission and do the same things I explained in step 4 and toss the transmission to the side and save the l-series bell housing. 6. Take the ka24 bell housing and the l-series bell housing to the local machine shop. The will need to make the l-series bell housing look like the ka24 one. The smaller of the 2 bearing holes on the l-series transmission will need to be bored out to the size of the ka24 bearing. The first gear shift rod on the l-series bell housing needs to be bored out the same size as the ka24 hole. There are also many threads on how to swap over a l-series bell housing to ka24 transmission. The reason for using the ka24 transmission on this swap is so you can still keep your speedometer working in the car and have a nice smooth shifting box. 7. Once you have your l-series bell housing bolted up to the ka24 transmission you can then use your l-series flywheel, clutch, clutch fork, and bearing and bolt the transmission to the engine. 8. Take the lower ka24 harness and install it back on the ka transmission and when you get to the l-series bell housing you will need to remove the sensor on the side and put the sensor from the ka24 bell housing in the l-series bell housing. When you get to the started you can connect the power wire that come from battery on the lower ka24 harness as well as the start signal wire to the start signal on the l-series starter. Then undo the tape around the harness just a bit to extend the wires out to reach the ka24 oil pressure sending unit you can install on the l-series block. Also you need the lower harness to read to your l-series alternator. The left over plugs go into the 240sx chassis fuse box right next to the battery. So now its like you have never changed anything in the 240sx chassis!! 8. Once motor is dropped in to the r32 cross member and transmission is near getting bolted up. BTW I used stock 240z metal and rubber engine mounts. What you can do is run the stock 240sx ka24 transmission rubber mount and metal cross member. The problem here is only 1 bolt hold on each side of mount will line up because transmission is pushed back about 2 to 3 inches! The l-series is nice and pushed back and I love where it mounts! Bolt it up and you can weld and make it where you can drill some more holes and use the stock transmission cross member or you can get a gm poly trans mount from energy suspension and make your own transmission cross member. This will give you less shifter bouncing and more torque to your wheels obviously! Because the transmission sits back more you do have to cut into the trans tunnel a bit. take a marker and mark around the round part of the ka24 shifter plate cover deal. Then use a hole saw to cut or anything to make where you can install the shifter into the ka24 transmission. Now that the shifter is in what I did is turned it around 180 in the ka24 shifter angles forward. Letting me use the stock leather shift boot and remained looking stock. 9. Get a single piece drive shaft made, what I did is use the jdm 240sx drive shaft because it has u joint on front and rear and i was able to have the drive shaft shop cut the ends off and weld a piece of tubing in for about $100. The usdm spec drive shaft don't have a u joint on the front part of the slip yoke, it uses a rubber bushing deal. It's was 43 inches from diff flange to the seal on the transmission. Tell the drive shaft place that and they should be able to get you one made. 10.For cars going with fuel injection forget about this step! Fuel system involves pulling out your stock fuel pump because its high pressure and replacing it with a rubber hose. Normally there is a pump that goes to bottom of tank with a filter. What you need to do it remove pump and clamp a hose in place of in tank pump so the hose is secure and stays at bottom of tank. When you bolt in tank pump housing back onto tank there are 2 lines up top. One being a feed and the other one being a return line. I then bolt a electric inline low pressure fuel pump in between the rear subframe and fuel tank and run it inline with the stock rubber fuel line that goes to the front of the vehicle. Hook the power and ground up to the stock fuel pump harness next to your feed and return line on top of tank. This will make it where you can use the stock fuel pump fuse and relays for your new installed pump. 11. Near the battery tray there is a brown and gray plug that your stock ka24 engine harness plugs into for its power source and so forth. There is a pink/black wire on the brown plug that is the fuel pump ground. This wire was normally grounded by the ecu when you turn your ignition key on. The ecu would keep it grounded for 5 seconds then turn off. Unless the car is started then the ecu keeps this wire grounded. What you do it constantly ground this wire to chassis or battery. You can even run a switch inline to a ground as a anti theft device. So when you turn your ignition key fuel pump then turns on. 12. On the gray plug there is a thick black.red wire. This wire is the stock switch ignition source wire. Use this wire to deliver switched 12 volts to your positive of your coil. I used a matchbox dizzy distributor with my setup. There is a letter B and C on the distributor. The B means battery so run a wire from the B on distributor to the positive of your coil. Run a wire from the C on distributor to the negative side of the coil. 13. Use a ka24e radiator or sr20 radiator it don't matter. I used a stock ka24 lower hose I believe that you need to cut a bit shorter. For the upper you need to fine a hose that 90 to straight to 90. Part number for upper hose I used is good year 61396 with ka24 radiator. Also use stock overflow tank and all that. Stock clutch fans will not work so use a low profile electric fan on engine side or other side depending on what you can fit. 14. The stock 240sx clutch slave cyl bolts right up to the l-series bell housing on your ka24 transmission. 15. For exhaust manifold you can use 280zx, 240z whatever, I used a old 75 280z exhaust mani with a 1982 datsun maxima down pipe. Really restrictive if you ask me but I was anxious to get it running. I tried my 240z 6 2 to 1 header but it hit the steering rack badly!! You will have to build a custom header if you want to get some good flow. 16. linkage/throttle .. well I used the stock 240sx cable and made a throttle cable bracket.. this all depends on what type of induction you will be running. When running fuel injection people run ka24 60mm tb so I' sure it would be easy to get it working. 17. wow almost forgot about p/s for all you people that aren't buff like me lol. Trust me a 240sx without power steering is a pain in the A$$. With a 240z is a bit easier considering that the motor isn't directly over the front wheels. I used 240sx 89 to 90 power steering lines. ka24e had p/s pump on passenger side of vehicle! woot woot so did the l-series. Basically you hook up the feed into rack to the l-series reservoir, and the high pressure I modified and had the l-series line welded to the 240sx hard line going to the rack. 18. As far as all the info on heater hoses and brake booster hose. You will need to figure all that out because your setup most likely will differ from mine. Basic motor swap knowledge and this little guide should help you on your way to happiness 19. To get water temp gauge on 240sx dash working run a wire from the blue/black wire behind glove box on dash plug, into your engine bay. Once you get it in the engine bay hook it up to the stock ka24 sensor from the front of your ka24 intake manifold. its the single wire 12mm head sensor. You will need to tap the front of your l-series water neck to get the sensor to thread in. It's 12mm x 1.25 thread. 20. I keep adding things as I think of them.. maybe not a good way to do it but whatever. The oil pan issues I been reading about! Well yes you can space down your tension rod braces and sway bar. You can cut and notch oil pan, you can raise up the motor but yes that will cause more hood clearance issues. You can mark pan and beat a nice small dent in a line across the front sump oil pan. An Early 80s datsun maxima with a 2.4 l-series. The sway bar clears fine now. 21. Tach will not work with carb'd vehicles. I noticed the stock 240sx and rb gauges use a square wave signal from ecu, compared to a pulse signal from - side of tach. What I ended up doing is going to summitracing.com and buying a $35 shift light. You wire it up just like a tach but you can set your shift light to come on from 3k to 12k. I could careless what my rpm is around the streets but when i get on it to race at least I will have an idea of where my engines rpm's are at. I don't want to mount a aftermarket tach. I think that looks gay in a car that has a factory tach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazterDizazter Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Has this swap actually been done before, and if so.....why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CArFAn Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Is this eric or rich? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4xwellmurd3r Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Has this swap actually been done before, and if so.....why? I say, Why not! Most likely to be unique. Not every day you see a 240SX sportin an old L series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayG1988 Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Nice write up...however why would you even do this? It's bad enough we kill s130's to power our s30's. Should have just stuck with the 280zx and welded the diff. You can get em pretty light and they're not that hard to drift with, I've done it myself with an NA and it's not so different than drifting with my friend's SR powered s13. But good job on doing something different, you have the hybrid z mentality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamH Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 I'm not really interested in 240SX's at all but I think the swap sounds really neat. Do you have any pictures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistex Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 Has this swap actually been done before, and if so.....why? Yes it has been done before, I believe they were all fuel injected l28et. Is this eric or rich? This is Rich who are you ? Nice write up...however why would you even do this? It's bad enough we kill s130's to power our s30's. Should have just stuck with the 280zx and welded the diff. You can get em pretty light and they're not that hard to drift with, I've done it myself with an NA and it's not so different than drifting with my friend's SR powered s13. But good job on doing something different, you have the hybrid z mentality. Well I don't like 280zx! Yes you can make them light and all but nothing compares to the suspension options on a 240sx compared to classic z cars. I don't care for drifting this car, I have a ls1 240sx for that. Basically I gave up on 240z's mainly because you cant find a clean one for less then giving them your leg or arm. I figured I may as well use a motor I have had sitting around waiting for some abusing! I'm not really interested in 240SX's at all but I think the swap sounds really neat. Do you have any pictures? I have some youtube video's go to youtube and search "daftdrifting" it will show all my videos of different things. I will get a nice walk around of the car or some pic's of how it all turned out. I mainly did this swap because I knew I could do it. I know it may not be the smartest thing, but its so funny to see the looks on peoples faces when they hear those 45mm open up. I swear I can suck in a few birds or new born children in strollers as I WOT past them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Nice writeup, thanks! Do you know how the weight distribution is affected in the S13 after the swap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CArFAn Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 This is Rich who are you ? I talked to you or someone that works with you about the wiring for my 240z w/ ls1 that im planning on doing. Is your A.I.M something like datsunk24? Thats the person i was talking to. Did you show them this already? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazterDizazter Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 I guess it would be good for a track-only car, since you'd never pass smog, and it's kinda illegal (at least in my state) to put an engine that's older than it's chassis in, but why not just turbo a KA? The heads flow so much better and the displacement wouldn't make that much difference Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4xwellmurd3r Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 wow, that's more impressive than i thought. not only is it an L series it's an LD28 built to 3.2L modified to run gas. that's AWESOME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistex Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 I guess it would be good for a track-only car, since you'd never pass smog, and it's kinda illegal (at least in my state) to put an engine that's older than it's chassis in, but why not just turbo a KA? The heads flow so much better and the displacement wouldn't make that much difference Thats the whole point! who can't turbo a twin cam ka24de ? I have been there done that! I have done sr20det made over 400 to wheels, I have done rb20 25, ls1, 45mm and 50mm on both 12v and 16v ka24de, put them in datsun's, yota's, it don't matter. I did this because I built this motor for my 1982 datsun maxima. Car got side impacted and like destroyed. If was fuel injected and only would run a 14.0 with stock tiny tb, and stock crap exhaust. The motor has been sitting for 8 years, I thought it was about time its seen some miles. I didn't do anything crazy to my 240sx chassis that i cant put back or swap something else in. Truthfully I'm already bored of this swap lol. Ls1 is much more exciting to drive truthfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.INSANE Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Twisted: I noticed you live in Modesto I live in Turlock very close maybe we should meet up so I can see this beast in person. Also this car is track only huh because that motor sure as hell wont be legal considering California's laws Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistex Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 Twisted: I noticed you live in Modesto I live in Turlock very close maybe we should meet up so I can see this beast in person. Also this car is track only huh because that motor sure as hell wont be legal considering California's laws names twistex Anyways I do have a shop in modesto, and yes you can see car in person. I need to rejet the carb's but yeh. This car is not a track car!! Yes california smog laws are crazy, but I just passed smog so I don't have to worry about it for 2 years. Like I said again, this was something I did for myself , strictly for my own enjoyment. I do daily drive this car I got all the gauges working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerAce Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Wow, there are a bunch of us in the central valley it looks like. I might have to stop by as well some time twistex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildky Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 pallnet built one and a local kid also buiilt one, but after a cam oiling issue the local one is now being parted out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratsun Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Awesome write-up, Twistex! After getting your PM reply (ggod stuff) about the swap, I started planning mine. Having this guide gives me a better idea of how it's done. I've been thinking about this swap since my 240Z body needed more TLC than I could afford, and S13 shells are plentiful around here:) --rat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistex Posted February 28, 2008 Author Share Posted February 28, 2008 Awesome write-up, Twistex! After getting your PM reply (ggod stuff) about the swap, I started planning mine. Having this guide gives me a better idea of how it's done. I've been thinking about this swap since my 240Z body needed more TLC than I could afford, and S13 shells are plentiful around here:) --rat no problem! anyways this write up isn't in any great order or have any pictures. I also suggest people if they are going to do this swap to do fuel injection. Carb's are a pain, and most n/a motor aren't going to make you happy in a 240sx. The car will never be as light as a 240z. truthfully i would rather have a rb25, 26 or 30 with itb's. still illegal ! heh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerAce Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 thats the reason why in Cali especially there is a premium on the pre '75 S30s. (and why I got my greedy hands on a '73) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twistex Posted February 29, 2008 Author Share Posted February 29, 2008 thats the reason why in Cali especially there is a premium on the pre '75 S30s. (and why I got my greedy hands on a '73) I gave my 73 away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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