How I will be swapping my s13 KA for a s14 KA

[mr_wizard]

This is what I got out of reading through the dozens of threads with scattered info on swapping a motor. Also a bit from the FSM. I'm swapping a 97 s14 KA24DE into my 91 s13 because I recently blew my motor. This is how I will go about doing it, I kinda threw it together the best way I could. Please correct me if I am wrong. I'm not a pro by any means when it comes to working on cars, so bear with me, I'm doing the engine swap by myself.

Engine Check List:

1. Remove Hood

2. Drain Coolant

3. Drain Oil

4. Drain Clutch Fluid (do I need to? If so, where?)

5. Drain transmission Fluid (again, do I need to do this too? I know where to drain it if so.)

6. Release Fuel Pressure (errr where do I do that?)

7. Disconnect Hoses / Wires / Harnesses (sounds easy enough I guess, more details where to d/c them would be nice, so I don't f anything up)

8. Remove Exhaust Tubes

9. Remove Driveshaft

10. Take Radiator and shroud out

11. Remove Power Steering oil pump (Where is this? I didn't know it was attached to the motor.)

12. Attach Engine Lift

13. Remove the 2 Motor Bolts

14. Remove Motor with transmission attached (Since I will need to swap this manual transmission onto the new one.)

NEED TO SWAP WITH NEW MOTOR (since it's a 97 going into a 91)

Intake ManifoldRotor (under the distributor cap right?)Sensor under neath Intake Manifold (which sensor?)Distributor cap

That's it right? Thanks.

[DjPantsSpecR]

I'm just gonna do this really quickly, because its covered everywhere everyday, all the time.

Clutch, or "Brake" fluid doesnt need to be drained. You dont wanna mess with this at all unless you are replaceing the slave cylinder. Just unbolt the slave from the transmission and set it aside.

The transmission fluid will spill all over the ground when you pull the driveshaft. I can be drained at the bottom of the transmission using a 1/2in ratchet and extension.

fuel pressure donest necessarily gotta be released. I always leave the injectors in the fuel rail still connected in the car. Then i just set them aside for the whole swap. But to release this pressure, you pull the fuel pump fuse then run the car til it dies. dont forget to put the fuse back...

Label everything you take off. Masking tape is nice... hoses and vacuum lines too, then you can remove everything. If youve missed something youll see it when you try to lift the motor, so dont let that happen.

with the rad and shroud, pull the fan too, and do this first, it will make all the working easier

Power steering pump, and AC are belt driven on the motor, just unbolt them and put them aside in the engine bay, you dont wanna disconnect either of these things unless you want a big mess

The two motor bolts, are actually four. you can unbolt either set, but its nice to have one almost netirely unbolted and the bolts under the car's mounts entirely unbolted

I never pulled a motor and transmission, i always take em in halfs, but thats cuz i dont have a lift, i use a wooden beam across some scaffolding witha come-a-long and apiece of metal shelving that bolts to the motor.... ghetto, free, and quick

Us ethe 91 lower intake manifold, and the 97 upper with swapped sensors. plug additional vac lines

not the rotor, jsut swap the entire distributor

[mr_wizard]

Hey man, what happens if I don't swap intake manifolds and the sensor? A friend of mine has stripped several bolts on the intake manifold trying to take it apart and then he just gave up because there's so much crap on there. I attempted and gave up for the same reason. As long as the motor runs I don't give a ****. I just want to get this damn thing done. I'm getting ready to put the new motor in with it's original intake mani.

[DjPantsSpecR]

Well, i dont think the TPS sensor will work, and i know the coolant temp sensor wont work. the computer then just switches to a preset value,a nd power come on in gobs at about 5500 rpm. however, you'll still be losing 10 peak horspower here and as much as 30 wheel horse everywhere else

you cant give up, because you WILL need to remove the intake manifold at some point in your motors life, and you cant just pretend it isnt there. working on things like the starters or getting any of those transmission bolts off are nearly impossible with the intake manifold in place

so you can use whatever intake manifold you use, but you need to use the right TPS and the right coolant temp sensor, as well as the gauge coolant temp sensor, so you can just swap those

[mr_wizard]

Well, i dont think the TPS sensor will work, and i know the coolant temp sensor wont work. the computer then just switches to a preset value,a nd power come on in gobs at about 5500 rpm. however, you'll still be losing 10 peak horspower here and as much as 30 wheel horse everywhere else

you cant give up, because you WILL need to remove the intake manifold at some point in your motors life, and you cant just pretend it isnt there. working on things like the starters or getting any of those transmission bolts off are nearly impossible with the intake manifold in place

so you can use whatever intake manifold you use, but you need to use the right TPS and the right coolant temp sensor, as well as the gauge coolant temp sensor, so you can just swap those

Ok, I can deal with swapping the coolant temperature sensor (which is same thing as the gauge coolant temperature sensor right?) and TPS sensor. I do NOT however want to lose 10-20 horsepower. So swapping these sensors will fix that right? It's not the intake mani that will cause that?

[DjPantsSpecR]

yes sir. you'll be more than fine just swap the TPS, and the big red sensor and the little black spade sensor on the upper intake mani, you should be kool and the gang

i really cantthink of anything else right now, but just od that and get it running, but like i said youll need that intake manifold off SOMEDAY

[mr_wizard]

Hey, I just noticed that you also said "gauge coolant sensor". Damnit! I already swapped the motor over and have most of the connections made. I thought it was just the knock sensor and coolant temp sensor. Where is this gauge coolant sensor you are talking about? Thanks alot!!!

[DjPantsSpecR]

the black spade connector right next to the red coolant temp sesnor

the knock sensors are actually the exact same

[mr_wizard]

Ok so what I need is just the whole wire piece from the knock sensor? On one end is the knock sensor and other is that spade connection right? I got that whole wire if so. Thanks DJPants! My swap should be done my next day off I get, woohoo.

[Bigvinnie]

I don't understand why you guys do these newer engine swaps and ALWAYS forget to swap out the newer cams to the older ones. With the way the timing is set up on the 91-93 ecus you would think that you would want those 240/248 cams instead of 232/232.The older ecu's aren't as aggressive as the 95-98 ecu's that could utilize the cams better. Just doesn't make sence to me.Sounds like a drop in power and torque, to bad no one has dyno tested my theory yet.....

[evilone]

hey on your swap did you use the 97 ecu or the 91

[evilone]

where did you get all this info from

[mr_wizard]

91.... i got it from all over man haha... there isn't exactly 1 place to look

[DjPantsSpecR]

the **** there aint, its only been covered by a million people

i know me and at least three other people have full writeups

[mr_wizard]

I looked all over NICO man. I never seen timing and what parts you need to swap (including some auto bushing in the auto transmission) in one thread. You also don't need to relieve fuel pressure by a fuse; just take off the gas cap, connecting all the ground wires are EXTREMELY important, auto ka24de's don't have pilot bushing but some other bushing MUST be taken out first, you don't need the s14 wiring harness (that question was never answered, found out the hard way), and the swap is NOT "pretty" straight forward.

I ran into many different problems and If I didn't have friends to call on the phone I would have been SOL. You need ALOT of different kinds of tools. ALOT. Luckily my uncle had pretty much every tool known to man and he was willing to let me use them all as long as I returned them every night. It was NOT an easy task and you learn alot on your own too. Of course NICO is always here to help you too, but just make sure your prepared for an extremely daunting and tedious task if you are sorta new to "real" car work.