I've heard of these swaps being done before, and im planning on doing it... what all will i need for the swap... motor, tranny, wiring harness, ecu, ???? would i need to get a new cluster to because im rockin the digital in my s12... its the 1984 200sx... and would the ca18's tranny bolt up to the ka24de motor? thanks guys

Answers to your Q's:

- Yes, you need the motor, and the transmission, and the wiring harness w/ ECU. Well, about the transmission... you need at least the KA bellhousing, but an S12 Mark II "C" trans would be better. If you use the KA transmission, you'll be doing some driveshaft trix, either an S13/S12 hybrid setup, or custom one-piece shaft.

- Stock KA24DE motor mounts work fine.

- You can use your cluster, it doesn't have any bearing on the engine's operation, and the cluster still gets signals from the same kinds of inputs and sensors, just located differently (in the case of the speedo). The speed sensor should be the same, the tach wire is off the distributor.

- The CA18ET trans in your car is a "B" transmission. Someone on here said that the KA bellhousing can bolt onto the B trans, but I have to tell you, the S12 C trans and the S13 trans is WAY stronger. Plus the C trans and S13 trans both have the same options for aftermarket shifters.

- Your CA18ET exhaust will NOT mate to the KA24DE exhaust manifold. You'll have to hack off the end by the flange and weld on a 2" extension to bring it up to the exhaust manifold.

On the stock motor mounts, you'll probably have to replace them, as they tend to tear in half when the engine is pulled. Either new OEM KA24 mounts or an aftermarket/Nismo upgrade would work.

You'll want to get anything else connected to the wiring, IE the coil and transistor pack, for example.

I highly recommend using the KA trans, and just slotting your floor back to fit. Saves lots of time and hassle.

thanks guys, i bought a ka motor and tranny last night... ill just have to fabricate a couple things for the tranny... but thanks for the help, prolly saved a little bit of money... so as far as the cluster goes, everything should hook up fine right? just no boost lol

yeah I don't think the stock map sensor shows vacuum, or does it? Theoretically if you T'd in the sensor in the engine bay to somewhere on the vac harness, it would read the vacuum but no, not boost. But really I wouldn't mess with the vac harness unless you understand vacuum stuffs decently.

Of course, if you ever turbocharge your KA, you can plumb in the S12 boost sensor again, and then the boost gauge in the cluster will probably work (assuming it still functions right and hasn't gone bad).

right on thanks man... o i know this isn't the thread for it, i need a whole new set of headlight assemblies, everything included into the headlights, and i also need a new set of tail lights... for anyone that has a pair that there willing to sell... has to work of course lol

But keeping the KA trans means you have to ditch the original drive shaft, right? I would pull off the KA/CA frankentrans before I had to spring for a custom drive shaft just for cost reasons.

u can use the front half shaft of a s13 from what ive read on here.

Can anyone confirm?

Yup, front half of the s13 shaft fits between your ka trans and existing s12 rear shaft.

If your worried about cost, junkyard that shit!

front half S13, rear half S12 (that's how mine is), it's all over the forum if you search for it

Ive been sifting around but hadnt bumped into that yet. So would you say the ka is stronger than the ca or does it have diff/better gearing?

The KA engine or the tranny? BOTH. The KA engine is a tank compared to the single cam CA, and the S13/S14 transmission is solid and beefy. Going from the B trans I had before to the S13 trans was like night and day. Plus it moves the shifter a few inches further back. I was always bothered by the fact that I had to lean forward to put it into 1st, 3rd, and 5th. Now it's right where I want it.

Well I meant how the trannys compared to each other so either way you answered my question. The big thing that turned me off to the ka swap rather than say a 18det was the fact you could keep the stock trans with the 18det but now I find this out its making me reconsider. That extra .6 ltrs are lookin pretty good. Sexy time, very nice

So the "C" transmission came in the 87-88 s12s? Also can anyone confirm the B tranny bolts up to the KA with JUST the bell housing?

theres something about a bearing trick that you have to do if you use a B tranny, search for it