SR20 Swap help

Allright so i just pulled me engine out tonight getting ready to drop in the SR, its going to be a task to get it up and running but should be fun. Just acouple questions for those who have done the swap and who can help out.

First off the engine mounts on the SR look entirely different then those on the CA20E. This is kinda scaring me.... thought it was a bolt on but it might not be i guess? Anyone have any experience/suggestions?

2nd does the powering steering hook directrly up? looks close?

3rdly i know im going to need some drive shaft work it will have to be shortend the drive shaft is in three peices i believe which one will get shortened?

Thanks in advance for the help! Im sure there will be more questions in the future, i will try to get some pics up of the progress.

Craig

I just used the standard s13 sr20det engine mounts with no mods, I know of 3 others who have done the same. Good idea though before you mount the engine is to file out the engine mount holes in the ca20 crossmember so they are 6mm-1cm lower, i.e. so the engine sits 6mm-1cm lower, as it makes the sr a better fit in the s12 engine bay.

I used the sr20det power steering pump with the s12 lines.

I use an auto s12 drive shaft, (the auto drive shafts are shorter as the auto box is more or less the same length as the sr s13 manual box). But the front spline that goes into the the auto box is different, so I had that cut off and a manual one put on. The s12 uses a 2 piece tail shaft by the way. If you have a manual tailshaft you will need to get the front section shortened and then they balance the front and rear sections as one unit.

Thanks for the help, i will have to take a closer look tonight i will get some pictures aswell.

It seems the SR engine mounts have one hole while the engine bay has 2 verticle holes.... i will get pics tonight.
:roll:

lets see some pix...and more info on the install....

Not sure what your saying about 2 holes, I presume you mean that the ca20 crossmember has 2 holes, one on each side and they are long ovals as opposed to just round holes. Not sure if you just got an sr engine as opposed to a s13 full front cut. I had a full front cut, (i.e. the full front half of a 180sx rps13), and the s13 crossmember engine mounting holes are also long oval holes. When you mount the engine the engine mount bolts just slide down to the bottom of these long oval holes no problem. But as i said it is best to lenghten theses holes downwards a further 6mm to make your sr engine sit a little lower in the s12 engine bay.

k craig
you can either do 2 things
A)just keep your motor mounts and swap the ca20 motor bracket into the sr
b)use sr mounts with sr brackets

2)use the sr power steering unit with ca20 lines(a bit of fantasy work there but you can pull it off
the ca power steering will not fit

3)drive shaft is going to be 10mm shortened from everywhere i have seen it has either been 10mm or 11mm shortening

anything else just ask

Thanks Euroboy always a help! So im in for some major drive shaft $$$ then if i have to shorten all the individual peices!!!

Heres some pics of what im talking about engine mount wise.

First picture is an overview on the left there is just the motor mount with the bracket removed, and the right it is the engine mount with bracket.

The second picture is the the upclose of the left side engine mount with bracket removed.

Third picture is the upclose of the right side engine mount with CA bracket still attached.

The fourth picture is the SR mount hard to tell from the pics but it doesnt look like shit will lin up.

yeah i saw the pics.
it's the same ****ed up design that we all have on our cars. The mounts is a PITA to take off so i say just stick with it
the bolts are underneath there and man you gotta be lucky to take them out.

anyhows just swap the engine brackets and stick the engine in otherwise unless you have some really good tools then you will need to take off the crossmember.

drive shaft
NO only the front piece will need shortening, the one from the midle to the output shaft. About 10-11mm otherwise is fine
you will need though costum mount, and cut the body for the shifter

Thanks for the clarification Euroboy

Anytime man
let me know what you are going to do
if you will remove the stock mounts then buy a wratchet from canadian tire or whatever than has a rotation head and body and 17 socket and be really carefull and a ton of luck
otherwise you will need to take the crossmember off
and that's a pain in the but too

Allright Euroboy i am going to use the stock brackets the only problem is they dont bolt onto the SR20? That is why i am so confused????

SALPS and NEB where are you guys?? What did you do??

I am so stuck i have resorted to cleaning my engine bay! :cry:

Thanks in advance
Craig

they should bolt on bro
i got a buddy of mine in t.o he has done the sr20 swap and used stock engine brackets and it did bolt on.
better check again
he has a red top with ca mounts

Have double and triple checked man, everone is telling me it will fit but i cant see it. i had 3 buddies over and we were running through every way possible and we couldnt figure it out?

The passanger side mount will bolt on perfect as for the drivers side we are going to fab up a bracket and that should do the trick. Just needed a couple more minds to think it over, that always helps.

Im not sure how your buddy did it Euroboy but the only way i can see it working makes the engine sit croked (sp)????

My bracket should be ready tmrw then i will do the tranny X member and so on. Should be good.

Im thinking the drive shaft will need to be shortend more like 2-3 inches we will see with the final measurement in couple days.

Thanks Again

Craig

remember one has 3 bolts the other has 2
but it should bolt on
i just called my friend who HAS the sr in and he said that "yes there are the holes in the block.
I dunno what to say bud, i am saying try again

the sr should lean to the side a little. it's a tall motor so it needs to lean for space

remember one has 3 bolts the other has 2
but it should bolt on
i just called my friend who HAS the sr in and he said that "yes there are the holes in the block.
I dunno what to say bud, i am saying try again

Well i will take another look.... there is a place that it will bolt onto but from my measurements it will be a little unequal from passenger side to driver side.

Either way i have some good pics coming so i will show you what i have done.

the sr should lean to the side a little. it's a tall motor so it needs to lean for space
Its ok if it leans but if its twisted then the tranny isnt going to line up properly.

it will line up bro
the force is with you
don't bother checking man has been done before everything will line up
i can't stress it enough
i mean i have seen the sr in a s12 on my friend's garage and he has it with s12 mounts.....so i am sure it will be a good fit
about the wiring if you have the red top
wait until next week and i will tell you exatly what connects to what
i have gotten it to crank but no fuel, there is spark
wait a tad and everyone will have a
red connects to yellow type of thing

Allright sounds good, i dropped the engine in the car today and im kinda eye balling things up.(Still on hoist and floor jack)

Do me a favour man ask your buddy if he is using the two holes on the CA mount of just one? And if he did use the two holes did he have to redrill the CA mount at all?

Either way sunday im going to spend the night working on getting it in! I will take some pics everything then with my buddies camera.

ok then man
i was talking to my friend here for a while since last night he was putting the traany and shit together
well bad news for you my friend
first he said that the tranny wouldn't line up with the drive shaft and he had to put stress on it to line it up(costum made drive shaft)
so he pulled it out, took the crossmember out and just changed to sr mounts/240sx mounts
now you can or cannot take the crossmember depending how lucky you get trying to take off those mounts.
shit man sorry i thought you would be as lucky as the ca18det guys but he tried last night and failed so he worked until the early hours in the morning ro do it.
the ca18det mounts are the same as sr and 240 but the block is still ca....
**** i hate to make you do more work
really sorry if i got your hopes up but apperently better now than later right?!
the engine he said was croocked to the right a bit so he didn't want to put stress on it.
hope it helps a bit

ok then man
i was talking to my friend here for a while since last night he was putting the traany and shit together
well bad news for you my friend
first he said that the tranny wouldn't line up with the drive shaft and he had to put stress on it to line it up(costum made drive shaft)
so he pulled it out, took the crossmember out and just changed to sr mounts/240sx mounts
now you can or cannot take the crossmember depending how lucky you get trying to take off those mounts.
shit man sorry i thought you would be as lucky as the ca18det guys but he tried last night and failed so he worked until the early hours in the morning ro do it.
the ca18det mounts are the same as sr and 240 but the block is still ca....
**** i hate to make you do more work
really sorry if i got your hopes up but apperently better now than later right?!
the engine he said was croocked to the right a bit so he didn't want to put stress on it.
hope it helps a bit

Not a big deal, see what i mean hahahaa not as easy as it seems. Made me look twice a couple times but thats about it. My buddy works in a fag shop so im not to worried. Might be a bitch we will see.

About the tranny im going to need a custom drive shaft anyway? Does your buddy not have one? What do you mean by stress?

I will post some pics of the engine mounts when i get it all in gonna be hard as hell i have allready modified my one SR mount so it is no longer an option to go S13 mounts with SR brackets. Also getting the mounts will be a hassle or expensive. There is a 240 in the wreckers but im not planning to pull an entire engine just for the mounts, so we will attempt this first.

Thanks for all the help Euroboy no biggie.

Later
Craig

well since it wasn't lined up properly was putting stress on the out put shaft by jamming it in

and to answer your question he has a costum made one piece drive shaft
and i asked him about the length
will get back at that

Sounds good.

Just wondering would a KA24E "engine bracket be the same as an SR bracket?

that is a good question
i am assuming NO since the blocks are different but the end part/motor mounts are the same

I've been off snowboarding for a week so i've only just skimmed through this post. Basically what i did was drop in the SR20DET with it's original mounts onto the CA20E crossmember, it wasn't easy to get it in but it does fit. I have a custom single piece 3" tailshaft on my car which cost $280au or so, it uses the old spline part of the shaft with Falcon GTHO unis. My gearbox crossmember is scratch built to. What i would do if i did this again is to slot the CA20E crossmember forward slightly, the SR sits very close to the firewall which isn't an issue but it will be easier to get in and out if it sits forward a few mm. Also the gearbox x-member might fit with just slotting if you do this.

Oh yeah the power steering can easily be adapted to fit using a combo of S12 and S13 power steering line parts, to bad it seems to leak alot :(. My first power line lasted about a week or two before the crimped ends of the flexable S12 line started leaking. My replacement line did the same after about 2 months. Both being second hand 20 year old parts probably doesn't help but the pressure could be to much for them as well as they didn't appear perished or anything, anyways now i'm about to use an S13 line cut up and joined together with the S12 stuff, i'll let you know if it works better.

Sorry Neb just trying to grasp exactly what you have done. So You used the SR mounts and bolted them to what??

I didn't touch the SR20 mounts, just left them happily on the engine where they were, then dropped the whole shebang into the vacant CA20E space and bolted the lump to the untouched CA20E crossmember. Slotting the CA20E crossmember beforehand IS a good idea though, just somthing i never thought of at the time. Slot it either down or forward or both, maybe at an angle 6mm down and 10mm forward will be ok, i suspect that will sit it nicely. Shouldn't have to touch your bonnet or anything then (some ppl have to cut the bracing under the bonnet off, I didnt as mine is raised at the rear.

i think i see the confusion here. I beleive craig is attempting to use the s12 (ca20) mounts and brakets because he does not see how to unbolt them because it can be very tricky. We unbolt the bracket then cut the rubber mount in half with a sawzall to make working space, now under the metal crossmember is the bolt that holds this POS mount in place. It is a 17mm nut. We used our craftsman custom box wrench (ok i just cut it in half with the bansaw) to slowly un thread this nut. Both mount take about half an hour, and it's a bitch. but, now you should be looking right at the naked crossmember, with a hump and a slot on each side. Now take the sr20, with the sr brackets and sr/s13/ka/whatever mounts and drop them on to the slots, left first, set the motor down adjust the chain, the have one freind push on the motor to the left while the other pushes on the rubber right mount with a small jack handle to fit the bolt into the slot, both in!! your'e done. Now use you're custom craftsman 14mm boxrench to tighten these down and you can go home, or stay there if you're doing it at home.

Slot the crossmember.

Tow you're pimped g ride to a custom drifshaft shop have them fab a driveshaft out of s12/s13 manual parts. and have them balance and reinforce the halfshafts while you're at it.

Go drift, just not into curbs ect.

[email removed]

www.rpsport.net

Ah i see what the problem might be, although i didn't find it that hard to take the mounts out really, just had to get the right shaped spanner (bent the handle with an oxy) and took it all out intact on the motor, the entire engine removal took me 1/2 hour. I got my tailshaft made from measurements i took and gave to the tailshaft guy, also you can use the S12 stock rear shaft section and bolt it to a 2L S13 silvia Qs front section, the Qs front section is the right length and has the same bolt pattern to mate up with the S12 rear section, the Ks is bigger and don't bolt up :(. Yeah then go drift as per my avatar, i havn't hit to many things yet and only got off the ground hitting a ripple strip once.....sand trap 1 my exhaust nil. hehe

Allright thanks guys, so im off to the wreckers on Monday do get S13 mounts....

So your new engine came sans mounts?

Craigcd, just remember he is talking about sr20det s13 mounts not KA24 mounts. The KA24 mounts may be different.

they are not
i am 99.999999% sure on this

I am pretty sure the KA24 Mounts are the same as SRmounts but they do have different brackets thatsd for sure.

Got one mount done today,im going to stick with Modded CA mounts should work... im gonna find out tmrw. Took 5 hours to get one bracket perfect and that was the easy side we sill see. Starting on the passenger side tmrw the starter is kinda in the way so it gives more to work around. I will take pics of the brackets and post them.

Hey Neb what was your clearance like off of the cross member?

Craig

About 10mm or so

So i am more than safe with a inch.

Yes but the SR comes very close to the bonnet as is, you may have to trim the re-enforcing off the underside of the bonnet or raise it slightly to clear the motor.

There may be some hood scoop action needed to remedy that problem super gay but whatever. May use some washers to bring it up a couple mm to.

Mine doesn't touch on unmodded mounts but i have raised the rear of the bonnet 12mm, my mates SR gazelle has a re-enforcing bar cut out and it clears now to.

I am about an inch off... we will see if i can get it to fit with some trimming off the hood.

Got the mounts 100% done tonight, should be awesome yet to see the engine sit in the car on them yet.

Tmrw i will be working on my throttle body(kinda sticking), get the heater hoses conected and checking to see the condition of the clutch then it will be in and ready for drive shaft, wiring, exhaust, loose ends>>> im sure some kinda of major problem somwhere in the mix.

BUT THEN
it will be drift time :banger:

drifting in a one wheel wonder !!! yay

drifting in a one wheel wonder !!! yay

That is correct, for the time being ;-)

Just wondering what some people have done for there throttle cable i think this would be an issue even with a CA18DET? Mine is way to short i grabbed one out of a Stanza it was way to long, KA24E's are to small aswell and suggestions?

Thanks

Just to clarify ......I have done so many SR swaps into shitty US spec KA24E/DE 240sx's that I am 100000000000% sure that the KA and SR and CA mounts are exactly the same......The CA, KA, and SR use the same mounts...Its the block that may be different but I have no problem putting SR's or CA18DET's in 240sx's over here on my side of the water.....

About this custom drive shaft......How much needs to be taken off of the front side? Anyone know if I can use the front side of a 240sx driveshaft jointed with My current S12 drive shaft? (2 piece?)

#2 is there some kind of signifigant wirring difference from CA20 to SR20? I have an SR harness (redtop) But I need to know what to rewire to make the dash and engine plug work.......

Just to clarify ......I have done so many SR swaps into shitty US spec KA24E/DE 240sx's that I am 100000000000% sure that the KA and SR and CA mounts are exactly the same......The CA, KA, and SR use the same mounts...Its the block that may be different but I have no problem putting SR's or CA18DET's in 240sx's over here on my side of the water.....

About this custom drive shaft......How much needs to be taken off of the front side? Anyone know if I can use the front side of a 240sx driveshaft jointed with My current S12 drive shaft? (2 piece?)

#2 is there some kind of signifigant wirring difference from CA20 to SR20? I have an SR harness (redtop) But I need to know what to rewire to make the dash and engine plug work.......

Seeing how i just spent a week making custom brackets for my SR so they would bolt to my CA mounts i can tell you for sure its not a direct bolt on. Save yourself the trouble of making custom brackets and try getting 240SX mounts to fit the 200, they will still need some modification but noy alot.

There is some difference obviously between the engines with a uncut harness u should be allright. From what i counted tonight there is only 9 wires that need to be hooked up on my engine not including the alternator and starter. I cant really say much more becasue im lazy and im getting it done for me early this week.

As for the driveshaft just use your stock CA shaft depending on how you do your motor mounts will decide how much needs to be taken off and you need to leave a bit of play aswell. In my cas i took off over an inch i think. You could also instead of doing a 2 peice drive shaft get a custom one peice whcih is done alot for 240SX sr swaps.

You should up date you profile so we know where u are from.

Craig

Seeing how i just spent a week making custom brackets for my SR so they would bolt to my CA mounts i can tell you for sure its not a direct bolt on. Save yourself the trouble of making custom brackets and try getting 240SX mounts to fit the 200, they will still need some modification but noy alot.

There is some difference obviously between the engines with a uncut harness u should be allright. From what i counted tonight there is only 9 wires that need to be hooked up on my engine not including the alternator and starter. I cant really say much more becasue im lazy and im getting it done for me early this week.

As for the driveshaft just use your stock CA shaft depending on how you do your motor mounts will decide how much needs to be taken off and you need to leave a bit of play aswell. In my cas i took off over an inch i think. You could also instead of doing a 2 peice drive shaft get a custom one peice whcih is done alot for 240SX sr swaps.

You should up date you profile so we know where u are from.

Craig

I honestly believe that you made custom mounts for no reason.....I dropped my engine today with no problems.....And once again I am 1 billion percent sure that all CA/SR/KA mounts are the same.......I really only need help with the wirring and driveshaft....But I will see tonight.....

Im from the US (hence the US spec 240's comment) and custom is my name....Im not sure how many other ppl other than me and greaser that have dropped an SR20DET into a 1990 BMW 325......Thanks for the info on the drive shaft position though......I got a Fleet truck place making me a drive shaft for 80 US dollars (ballanced).....

-Jeff

hey guys, im a 17 year old kid who wants to drop an sr20det into my 200, so go easy on me when you bash me for asking this stuff...ive got the people to help do it, but this is a REALLY stupid question...is there welding involved? because if there is, that might pose a small problem, im kinda short the welding equipment. the owner before me beat the livin hell out of my poor motor and i wanted to boost the horsepower, but with an engine in as bad a shape its in, its cheaper to put in a new one. i just need to know if i need welding stuff, and if i was to pull this off, about how long it would take, craig, how long have you been on the project? neb, how long was yours?