ka24det into 2001 xterra SE

[RoninSwanson]

I'm halfway through a head gasket repair. heads are back from machine shop, i'm still cleaning everything that came off, before i start to put it back together.

After getting this far, I'm pretty unimpressed with the difficulty of working on this engine. There's a lot of appeal to the ka24de's, lots of aftermarket, I know that they fit in the Xterra frame, because of the rwd version. If it needs new mounts, I'm a welder, I can fab some up. My only question is if it will mate to the transmission. from what I've googled so far, I have the RE4R01A, the 4spd automatic, 4wd. The 240sx also has the RE4R01A.

This should be as close to plug and play as its gonna get, and comes with a little less HP and torque, but with so much aftermarket support, more room in the engine bay to mess around, no squeezing in a VQ somewhere.

I'm just wondering, how come i haven't seen this swap discussed anywhere else?

 

[Prime]

Will it work? Yes. As you said, the KA24 came in the RWD trucks. I'm assuming the transmission will bolt up with no issues. But I don't think there is anyone here who can confirm that.

Why has no one done it? Because as much of a pig that the vg33e is, it's reliable as ufck. There's usually no need to pull the engine unless you're doing something crazy or a previous owner neglected it. 98 times out of 100, you put timing belts on every 100k and they'll just keep going.

It's an interesting idea to do the swap through. I bet you could get more HP and torque from a tuned KA24.

 

[RoninSwanson]

I mean... Is it reliable? Read lots of posts about issues I've been lucky to not even encounter. I know no engine is perfect, and the feeling that it is gutless is pretty common. It's no ripper. Who knows... I have an intake and headers going on when I finish the head gasket. Maybe it will feel like a new truck.