Just out of curiosity...

Started by cheesemachine · Jun 29, 2012 · 18postsSMF 2010–26

cheesemachineJun 29, 2012, 8:59 pm · #1

I know this is a shot in the dark, but I have an 87 hatch with a ca20 that's been pissing me off for months now, and I have an 89 Jeep cherokee with a 4.0 liter ready to go to the scrapyard sitting in my driveway.....just wondering if any of you have ever even thought about doing a 4 liter swap before? I think the main issue is going to be size (length), and probably oil pan as well, but hey parts would be dirt cheap for the thing.

rednucleusJun 29, 2012, 10:47 pm · #2

Wow 4 liter - would that lift the rear wheels off the ground or pop the front tires lol

WonderingravenJun 29, 2012, 10:53 pm · #3

inline 6 i am assuming?

cheesemachineJun 30, 2012, 1:54 am · #4

Yes its an inline 6. It's just an idea right now, I know I would have to stiffen up the front. Or weigh down the rear haha. Do you guys think it's a good/bad/horrible idea? It would require flipping the oil pan around back to front, chopping the rad support and building a firewall/ trans tunnel at least. As for mounting and wiring that's somewhat pretty straight forward, the jeep harnesses aren't too bad to work with, and I would just buy all aftermarket gauges and shit. Either this or wait for another few months till I have the dough to buy an sr20 swap or something else stupidly powerful :)

StephenGJun 30, 2012, 3:00 am · #5

Sounds like weeks of work for a weird, and not great swap.

I'm all for doing weird things just for the sake of it, but there are much easier swaps.

WonderingravenJun 30, 2012, 3:15 am · #6

Might be too tall, and alot of custom work or might not be any different from the RB25, it is a 4.0L truck / jeep motor. If you do it, post it up.

I want to stuff my v6 turbo buick engine in the s12... but I need money to do the conversion and someone willing to help as I have the donor car already with it lol...

VG30_S12Jun 30, 2012, 7:27 am · #7

omfg dooo eeeet... youlll be my hero ;)

been thinking of attempting this in the past... but no balls to go through with it

cutter67Jun 30, 2012, 8:44 am · #8

I wouldn't do it or attempt it. Just wait till your sr swap.

cheesemachineJun 30, 2012, 10:42 pm · #9

VG30_S12 on 07:27:47 AM / 30-Jun-12omfg dooo eeeet... youlll be my hero ;)

been thinking of attempting this in the past... but no balls to go through with it

Do you have any research or information on what's involved?

cheesemachineJul 3, 2012, 4:31 am · #10

Well I have decided to stick with the sr20 swap instead, a buddy of mine is going to buy the jeep engine. I have read a bit about that jdm tiger japanese website, they look pretty legit, any opinions on their stuff? S13 sr20 swap looks like the perfect engine for me.

VG30_S12Jul 3, 2012, 9:00 am · #11

alll i can say is be prepaired for a rebuild, you may not need it but be prepaired... tbh i havent seen too much good stuff come from those japanese tiger whatever sites... things like broken unrebuildable motors and then wont return calls and ect... but i could be wrong. at any rate just be careful...

afa the jeep thing, noones attempted it afaik... probably better to go with an easier swap anyway...
did you consider ka24de? i recomend it ;)

cheesemachineJul 3, 2012, 7:40 pm · #12

yup been searching for a ka24 for a while now, all these damn kids with s13's snatched em all up already. I figure I would rather just wait it out and spend the money to do the sr20. I have not heard one bad thing about those motors yet.

RedneckJul 3, 2012, 9:16 pm · #13

cheesemachine on 07:40:16 PM / 03-Jul-12I figure I would rather just wait it out and spend the money to do the sr20. I have not heard one bad thing about those motors yet.

That is because the sr20 is arguably the most over glorified and over hyped Nissan engine out there. The sr20 is a good engine but it has disadvantages, namely the fact that it sports inferior rocker arms and the aluminum block is much more vulnerable to damage if overheated compared to iron blocks. Its predecessor, the ca18det, was overall a better engine in my opinion. The ca18det was a light weight engine despite the fact it had an iron block and it featured a superior cam on bucket head design versus the cheaper rocker arm set up Nissan gave the sr20 to save money. The ca18det was a fairly expensive motor to produce so Nissan tried to make the sr20det as cheaply as possible and it especially shows in the head department. The ka24de also features the superior cam on bucket head design and an iron block like the ca18det however its main disadvantage is that it is a heavy engine for its size.

seishukuJul 3, 2012, 9:26 pm · #14

Nissan went with rockers to reduce valve train frictional losses... Just FYI.
Also, the aluminum block is no weaker than an iron block, it's call structural engineering. :P

RedneckJul 3, 2012, 10:26 pm · #15

seishuku on 09:26:31 PM / 03-Jul-12Nissan went with rockers to reduce valve train frictional losses... Just FYI. Also, the aluminum block is no weaker than an iron block, it's call structural engineering. :P

Even if some valve train friction is reduced rocker arms are still an inferior design reliability wise compared to cam over bucket. How many guys with sr20's have complained about popping off rocker arms? I've personally had it happen to me in my old '70 510 though with the L20B. I'd much rather have the proven reliability of cam over bucket even if it costs me a bit in the frictional losses department. The aluminum vs iron block debate I'd rather not get into though I will say it is much less of a concern to me then the sr20's head design.

Again, I never said the sr20 was a bad engine. I just said its not a perfect engine which a lot of people seem to portray to be.

seishukuJul 3, 2012, 10:38 pm · #16

There isn't anything wrong with the rocker design, just idiots that abuse it.
The guys that bitch and whine about popping rocker arms, either over revved the engine (missed shift or otherwise) or mixed up shims and caused the rocker to be off balance.

Its like someone jacking up the boost with out installing any other supporting mods, bad shit will happen.

cheesemachineJul 4, 2012, 3:08 am · #17

Hmm well you all have good points, thanks for the information. I will definitely be doing some more research before making a decision. I plan on daily driving it, and taking it to the track a couple times a month, so it won't have the piss beaten out of it too often. I have seen a few sr's run at the local track, one guy even has an sr20 swapped corolla, and I think he's actually the fastest guy there. So far, my reasons for judgment by what I have seen and heard are that the sr20 is a lightweight, easily upgradeable engine that fits easily into most applications, has lots of factory/aftermarket support, and puts a very decent amount of power to the ground when it's needed.

ArroJul 4, 2012, 2:16 pm · #18

I also am not a fan of the CA18DET's over-complicated ignition, although it is a great engine overall. SR20 does have its flaws, flaws the KA does not have... but then the KA is too tall and the port geometry isn't conducive for high flow.... more for low grunt.