SOHC to DOHC swap

[Camel]

Motor is a 92 DOHC KA / 5SPD transmission

Car is a 90 SOHC KA / Automatic

Here are my questions, any help is appreciated:

Do i need the ecu from the 92 to make this work?Is this a straight swap with no serious potential problems?Is there any addtional wiring that will need to be done?Is the 5SPD swap going to be a pain?

Thanks for any help guys.

Camel

[240doc]

Hello,

you will need the ECU from the 92 w/5spd. Also you will need the engine harness to run the DOHC. I am not sure if you can rewire the SOHC harness for the DOHC distributor & ECU, I just took the entire harness from the DOHC. The drive shafts might be different lengths, I KNOW they are different if one car has ABS and VLSD whereas the other doesn't. You will need the pedal assembly to add the clutch; plus all related clutch hydraulics. Also the throttle cable is shorter on a SOHC. I had some pictures of all of this when I did my swap--but my computer crashed and I lost most of it. If you have any specific questions, email and I may be able to help.

[Camel]

hey man, thanks for the info, bigtime.

so the list goes:

motorengine harnessclutch pedal and hydraulic assembliesnew throttle cable assembly

And that is about it.

Awesome. Thanks 240doc.

Anyone else have advice on the subject?

[SilviaBoston]

Motor is a 92 DOHC KA / 5SPD transmission

Car is a 90 SOHC KA / Automatic

Here are my questions, any help is appreciated:

Do i need the ecu from the 92 to make this work?Is this a straight swap with no serious potential problems?Is there any addtional wiring that will need to be done?Is the 5SPD swap going to be a pain?

Thanks for any help guys.

Camel

Yeah your going to need a ECU from a DOHC motor and there isnt any serious problems but you may need to find alt routes for the radiator pipes and you need a DOHC wiring harness. Also the 5spd swap might be a pain cuz i think you have to rebalance your drive shaft or is it the crank shaft???

[240doc]

"Also the 5spd swap might be a pain cuz i think you have to rebalance your drive shaft or is it the crank shaft???"

when swaping the engine & trans together, the only thing to consider is driveshaft length and/or crossmember for trans (auto to manual) might be different--but probably not. the crank shaft is the same in both motors. I assume by "radiator pipes" that you are refering to Automatic trans fluid lines that circulate through the radiator. Since you are going to manual trans you can get a plug to cap off these lines on the radiator. if putting an engine from an automatic into a car with manual trans, then you must remove the flexplate collar and flexplate. then replace the flexplate with a flywheel AND use the Manual Transmission Flywheel bolts. They are labeled on the head of the bolt "AT=AUTO, MT=MANUAL" The drive shaft, if it is correct length, will not need to be balanced, unless it is seperated into two pieces and not marked before it was disassembled. Overall the swap is fairly straightforward, just pay attention to details!

[Camel]

Great input guys...

[240doc]

camel,

guess I must have replied after your question. Again, the drive shaft is fine and will not need balancing as long as you don't seperate it into two pieces without marking the driveshaft first.

[flyfishz]

Camel

how did your swap go? easy as these guys said?

did you see much power difference?

glad you did it?

[Camel]

Decided not to do it, the car that i was going to buy is now going to be parted out due to some unseen front end damage. I think that i will stick to 91 and above from here on out. It seems like there would be a little too much involved in the sohc to dohc swap. But thank you for all the great advice, this thread definately goes on file.

[flyfishz]

I am going to do it with a auto to 5 speed swap and vlsd swap at the same time. I will take a ton of pics and try and write some tips on how I got it all done... I have a pro shop that will be helping out so it should be ok.

If anyone has any tips let me know. This project is going to start next week

[574-240sx]

5 speed swap took me and a friend a full day to complete. VLSD took about an hour to put in. Took an extra week to get clutch to finally engage properly. I would buy new clutch master and slave cylinder. Nick

[90fastback]

Hey .. I just wrapped up my E to DE swap, took me about a day and a half.... the only thing to worry about really is the power steering needs to be switched to the driver's side to accomodate that the powersteering pump on the KA24DE is on the other side than the 90 stock KA24E... All you have to do is unclip the hardlines and the main bracket and bend them 90 degrees to the other side... also yea you need the 92 harness and ECU. And the dash harness from your 89-90 will not match the 92 engine harness. you need to cut and wire on a plug from a 91+ dash harness, you need to match 5 wires, 6 if you have AC, black, yellow with red stripe, blue with black stripe, orange, and yellow with green stripe i believe, also the tach signal from a 89-90 cluster differes from 91+ so you need to get a new cluster to make your tach work.... Hope this helps !!

[90fastback]

up up

[574-240sx]

Hey .. I just wrapped up my E to DE swap, took me about a day and a half.... the only thing to worry about really is the power steering needs to be switched to the driver's side to accomodate that the powersteering pump on the KA24DE is on the other side than the 90 stock KA24E... All you have to do is unclip the hardlines and the main bracket and bend them 90 degrees to the other side... also yea you need the 92 harness and ECU. And the dash harness from your 89-90 will not match the 92 engine harness. you need to cut and wire on a plug from a 91+ dash harness, you need to match 5 wires, 6 if you have AC, black, yellow with red stripe, blue with black stripe, orange, and yellow with green stripe i believe, also the tach signal from a 89-90 cluster differes from 91+ so you need to get a new cluster to make your tach work.... Hope this helps !!

Very useful information I will be doing this soon. Hopefully in the spring. Nick