Russell's 521 ka24de swap

[Russell]

So i pick this 521 up last year in July for $300 in gooding Idaho. it was sitting at a towing yard and the guy wanted it gone other wise he was going to scrap it. The pics looked a hole lot better than it did in person, but the engine wasn't sized and it had a lot of newer parts that were replaced quit a few years ago. It is pretty rusty the bed is shot and there is a hole in the passengers side floor he cut out to keep the rust from spreading. He said he drove it from Mexico to Canada then back to Idaho so its been around the block a few times.

 

 

the day i brought it back a put it on the fork lift to drain all of the fluids and gas. after a full fluid change and fresh gas and new battery it fired right up on the first crank, i was really suprised that all it needed was fresh gas over 5 years of sitting.

 

 

 

after putting air in the tires olny two of the held so i went and got two new tires. They worked great for a wile.

 

 

then collage started and i brought all of my car down to Sacramento to finish working on them while i attended UTI. this is my pool at the house i stay in. sweet right but any ways back on topic 

 

 

 

so remember those two old tires i left on the truck yeah one of them blew out driving back from school. 

 

 

the headlight relay stopped working and because its an old relay that i can't find i just wired up two bosh relays and run both high and low beams for added light. the tape is over the high beams to get rid of the glare for the other drivers i pass.

 

 

the gas pedal started to bend and get caught on the brake pedal any time i went WOT and the first time it got caught it scared the shit out of me a bit. so i just tacked it back in place. the weld are shitty because i had no gas to weld with, they will get better next time.

 

 

here's the bay before i took the motor out and no i did not paint the valve cover.

 

 

my ka24de bock i picked up with trans and almost evething need to put it back together for $400

 

 

long block assembled freshly rebuild I'm into this motor and trans for $900 total including rebuild and I'm really happy. 

 

 

more pics

 

 

motor going in as test fit i guess i can't get away from red thing as i bought that intake mani off craiglist for $35. 

 

so here I'm am, this covers about 11 months of the datsun i started the ka24de build 1 1/2 months ago and have very limited time to work on it. I go to school Monday thew Friday 12:00pm-8:30pm and work on the weekends 8:00-6:00. but i am taking two weeks off to try to finish this project but I'm running into a ton of problems  

 

 

 

 

so i read for motor mounts you can use the bottom half of the 521 mount and the top half of the 240sx mount well i did that and the mounts are about 1'' to narrow so i got these plates made and they work great except the motor sits to high or the trans doesn't go high enough. because the motor and trans wont bolt together. so...

 

 

 

I started to cut the trans tunnel and it still wont fit, after looking though a couple other swaps like this i haven't seen any one having to cut up the trans tunnel. I'm using the 240sx s13 transmission and a s14 block. This is my first motor swap like this so i am no expert but somthing doesnt seem right. ideas, comments, tips are appreciated. 

 

[mrbigtanker]

Right on, sounds like your making it happen, keep up the good work. :thumbup:

[]2eDeYe]

There has been a couple of KA's into 521s, but everyone seems to do it a little differently. Not sure if it's due to differences in the trucks over the years or what, but you seem to be getting it done regardless. Keep up the good work :)

[Russell]

so i got the motor and trans bolted together and got it in the truck sitting on the engine mounts i had to do a little work to the 521 mounts. 

 

 

 

so i welded 2 little beads on the mounts so it will sit at an angle. the first time i had just the spacer plates and the rubber look like it was being warped way to much. 

 

 

also my dumbass cut the trans tunnel thinking it wouldn't fit but it would have. im so pissed at my self, F@$K  me

 

 

heres the motor mounts in place

 

 

 

more picssssssssssss

 

 

Oh and since I'm a one man army here's my great idea on how to run the fork lift while i guide the engine in.

 

 

 

 

 

[dime'n daily]

already love this build...and the strings to the fork lift just make it so much better :rofl:

[mrbigtanker]

Just so you know you dont need to cut the trans tunnel to mount the trans and KA.lol

 

Live and learn.

 

Cuming along pretty damm good though.

[TENDRIL]

sweet tail lights

[]2eDeYe]

Mazda tailights, blech :lol: 

[Russell]

Mazda tailights, blech :lol:

 

no blech 95 Isuzu rodeo taillights, they look so muther f@#ken flush though.......  :rofl:  

 

 

 

 

...no but i picked up a new bed and 521 tail lights that will be going on later.

[BarajasDatsun]

How did the finishing work on your swap go . I myself am in the process of doing the same swap . Did you stay with the same steering colum or do you figure out a power steering for the vehicle ?

[DanielC]

Do not know if you need this, but here it is anyway.

Lights only.

 

Headlight relay wiring is really simple.  Power is applied to the headlight relay on a thick red with a  yellow stripe wire.  internally, inside the relay, that power goes to the relay coil, and the switch contacts, normally closed contact goes to the low beams on red with a black stripe wire.

A green with a white stripe wire connects to the grounded side of the relay coil.  This wire goes to the turn signal switch, on the steering column, and when pushed forward, the turn signal switch grounds this wire.

this causes the relay to switch to the normally open contact, and that is connected to a red with a white stripe wire, that goes to all four high beams.

 

So, for a Bosch cube relay to work, connect the red with a yellow stripe wire to pin 30, and jumper that to pin 86.  Connect the green with a white stripe wire to pin 85.  Connect the red with a black stripe wire to pin 87A.  Connect the red with a white stripe wire to pin 87

[banzai510(hainz)]

this ever get done