frontier ka24de to 240sx 248/232 or 248/248 cam swap

Information on the naturally-aspirated KA24E and KA24DE engines.
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katillidie
Posts: 112
Joined: Mon May 07, 2007 7:48 pm
Car: 1990 infinity m30
93 s13 coupe vq35hr swapped
96 s14
2003 m45
2000 frontier

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so with the demise of my head gasket on my 2000 frontier ka24de i decided to look into swapping the current frontier head for a s14 head.. not necessary i just wanted to see if it could be done since i had it laying around.. along with the install of two s-chassis exhaust cams. (poor mans cam swap) usually i do 248/248 but since i only had a set of 92 cams 240/248 and a set of s14 232/232 i opted to try out the 248/232 swap... now the issue i had and what other people have had is nissan decided to change the chain from double row to single row along with re positioning the intake cam dowel to sit at 12 o'clock to match the exhaust cam which screws everything up... so if u are installing a stock intake cam from another ka24de 91-97 then u follow JWT diagram but if u are installing an exhaust cam on the intake side u need to follow my edited diagram to move the timing marks a total of 8 teeth.. if u did it correctly the first cam lobe will look exactly opposite the exhaust cam... they will be facing away from each other... now u can use a intake cam ie the stock frontier intake cam on the exhaust side instead of getting a s14 exhaust cam but my brain was hurting enough and i didn't want to think about it anymore..
you want to get the engine cyl #1 TDC compression stroke.. if ur stock chain is still painted yellow like mine was this is great u can use those marks.. you don't need to bother marking the chain and gears current location because the engine is at tdc, so u can use the original marked links... what i did was remove both cams and install the s14 232 exhaust cam exactly how u would install a stock exhaust cam... then take the chain and match up the exhaust cam gear and timing mark to the 2 o'clock position. Then the idler gear timing mark 6 o'clock position.. install the 248 ex cam on intake side.. on the single row gear there is a mark on the left of the dowel and a mark on the right of the dowel. The mark to the right of the dowel will be the timing mark u will use. this will be positioned on the 10th link from the exhaust cam colored link, being #1.. The tenth link is the one directly after the painted link on on the intake side. #10 on edited pic.. if u have done this correctly the new intake cam lobe should be facing 9 o'clock and the exhaust cam lobe should be facing 3 o'clock.
now the fun time i had of figuring out which cam was what. lol nissan again being weird changed the cam colors around..
91-94 green intake orange exhaust
95-98 orange intake green exhaust
both intake cams the dowel is aligned with the first cam lobe at 12 o'clock.
now if ur like me who had a few sets of s-chassis cams laying around but had no idea which was which. get out ur digital micrometer start measuring the lobes and follow this link for specs... actually pretty easy
ka24de-cams-specifications-t169323.html

original JWT frontier diagram for intake cam install on intake side
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edited JWT diagram for 91-97 exhaust cam on intake side
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i only took a few pics since i was in a time crunch but here are a few..

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stock cams and colorod links
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head removed
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arp head studs installed
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s14 cylinder head installed
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91-94 s13 248 exhaust cam (intake side). 95-98 s14 232 exhaust cam (exhaust side)
disregard white paint marks and colored links not lined up.. i rotated the engine by hand after install to make sure there was no binding
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short clicp running open throttle body
http://vid144.photobucket.com/albums/r1 ... kqeado.mp4
Last edited by Rogue One on Sun Nov 30, 2014 7:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Deleted duplicate thread


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PapaSmurf2k3
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Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

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Great stuff!


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