Hey guys, Im working on starting a swap on my MKII 200sx. The car has the CA20E motor, and its manual, just to get you familiarized with the car. I have a few pre swap checklist questions that I really hope you guys can answer for me. I know most of these but I want to be absolutely sure im going into this knowing the CORRECT information.

First off,

Im using my CA20E tranny with the S13 bellhousing. this works. correct me if im wrong.

The KA24DE Motor mounts bolt right into my 200sx, I just have to get the old ones out. correct me if im wrong.

I WILL NEED the S13 ECU and egi harness. I wont need any other harnesses. Correct me if im wrong.

The PS pump from the KA bolts right up to the 200sx PS lines. correct?

I know there are some wires that need to be spliced, these are covered in the writeup by Philipn126. these are correct for my car right?

Will I need BOTH the S13 coil AND Igniter? Also, the 200sx has dual coils, how will the wireing harness for the 200 splice into the ka's single coil? (or will I be using the ka harness that plugs into the coil?)

thanks for the help guys, is there anything else im missing?

1) Right.
2)Right
3)Right
4)Correct
5)Right
6)The motor harness plugs into the coil

Oh, so your saying the KA24DE's EGI harness (the one that runs from the ecu to the injectors and stuff) plugs into the KA24DE's ignition coil? and let me ask just to make sure im getting this right. I will be taking out BOTH the coils AND igniter that the stock 200sx has, and replacing them with the KA24DE's coil and igniter?

One Other thing I was thinking of. What about the exhaust Manifold? I am guessing i'll be using the KA24DE's manifold. will it bolt to the stock 200sx's exhaust? Or will something else be needed?

What about the starter and other stuff? If im using my ca tranny with a ka bellhousing, will I need a new tranny/flywheel/clutch/starter?

It might line up. If it doesn't just have a new mid-pipe made won't cost to much.

Yeah thats what I was figuring, I'm just trying to plan for what I'd need to get thats all.

What about the Starter/clutch/flywheel/starter?

what about the throttle cable as well? KA24? or S12? I know I mentioned this already but my car is an 87 MKII silvertop.

Anyone? I'd really appreciate the help =)

we used the stock trhottle cable on a customer car

awesome. thanks for the help! Its really appreciated! Hopefully this will turn into one of the most informative KA24DE swap threads on the club.


What about the clutch/starter? Do I use the CA ones or the KA24 ones?

Also, any info on the Igniter/coils? Will I be taking out both of my stock coils and the igniter and replacing them with the KA24DE coil/igniter?

Exhaust: You will use the KA24DE manifold and downpipe. It will be about 4-6 inches shorter than your CA20e one. If you're planning on keeping the stock exhaust then you will need a 4-6" pipe in between to mate it up to your exhaust. The Ca20e pipe cannot be used as it does not bolt up to the KA manifold.

Throttle Cable: The stock CA20e cable is much too short to be used with the KA swap. I was able to use one from an s13 without much trouble.

Ignitor/Coils: When I removed the wiring harness from the donor s13 I never even unplugged the coil or ignitor, just left em hanging. When you install the harness into the S12 just mount them up wherever its convenient. You can toss both of your factory coils.

Bellhousing/Starter/Clutch: General rule of thumb is to use everything associated with the clutch/flywheel you're using. So in this case you'll use the KA flywheel, clutch, throwout bearing and you can use either the s12 or s13 fork since I believe they are the same (I used the s12 fork). Since you're doing the bellhousing swap (I did as well) you will use the KA starter and clutch slave (again I think the slave is the same as the S12)

Misc: I ended up using the stock s13 intake piping that runs across the engine bay since it has the correctly placed vacuum ports, etc. I just picked up a cheap ebay cone filter and adaptor and bolted it to the maf so you dont need the s13 factory airbox assembly. I also ended up using Altima electric fans because I wasnt satisfied with clearances using either the s12 or s13 clutch fan setups.

Hope that helps . . .

We need more experienced people like you on here, garrett, haha. nicely done.

Hope it helps? Man you just made "The Best" KA24DE Swap thread on this board. You pretty much answered any and all questions I had regarding this swap. The motor should be getting here in about a week, and with all this I have enough information to go into this knowing exactly what I need to.

Thanks again for your post, it seriously cleared up pretty much every question I had. I'll update this thread with more information/photos when I do the swap. Hopefully I can create a step by step guide for everyone out here.


I request this be stickied for future swappers, seeing as how it has pretty much ALL the information in one place.

Alright guys, one more question. I was looking into using the stock tach, and I know that using the S13 ECU this is a problem. However, I have come across this


"Re tacho wiring, the sr or ca18det ECU won't run the s12 tacho. Only way its been done for an s12, (the people i know that have done it anyway), is to run 4 diodes, (worth 5 or 10 cents each from an electronics store) off the 4 wires that go from the ignitor to the coil packs, join them together and then run a wire from this to the tacho (guage), signal in wire. Diodes only send power in one direction, so current doesn't flow backwards and stuff up your ignitor etc.
But you must be careful and wire them facing the correct way. Here's a how to from someone whose done it successfully:

".....well used 4x IN4004 diodes connected to the coil side of the ignitor, about 3 inches from the plug is easy enough, then just joined the 4 diodes together on the tacho side and joined that wire straight to the tacho, the stripe on the diodes is towards the tacho (not sure if that is anode or cathode), and there you go....."

would this work for the KA24DE?

You can use the stock tach but I pussed out and just went with an aftermarket one. The signal wire for the tach, if you go that route, is the green/black wire at the coil.

Awesome, Thanks for the info.

I'm still looking into the tach thing myself. To be honest I havent even tried to hook it up and see if it works. I was under the assumption that the CA18det and the SR required the diode mod because they are distributorless ignitions whereas the KA uses a distributor like the CA20/18et and the KA uses a similar ignition coil to the MKII coils. So to be honest I'm not totally sure why it wouldn't work if I just hooked it up to the tach signal in the stock harness.

Thats an interesting point. If you find anything else out on it let us know, that'll definatly shed some light on the situation.

You know, I still have all my wires marked. I will have to tap into the signal wire and see what happens.

awesome man. Keep me posted on what happens.

The ability to use the tach depends on the source of your KA. As I understand it all KA's after 92 use a low voltage signal that will not power a stock tach like ours. There is another fix elswhere on this forum that I have been too lazy to try. Something sold by MSD I think.

YUP!! Hooked up my stock tach and it worked fine!!! I am going to start a thread about it.

Awesome man! Thanks for looking into it for us and letting us know! This is pretty awesome,I was hoping there would be some way to get the 200sx's stock tachometer working.