Just alittle something i thought of

[jc6711]

I posted this on a 240sx forum, so the wording is kinda for asking questions on technical stuff. But i wanna see what you guys think. I dont even know if i am gonna do this. I jsut thought of it and was bored. I dont have a 240 but i do have the motor in the van. ha, i still got two years till i get my licsense so im sure i'll think of something else to do.(only 14) And i know i am missing a bunch of little details, but i got the big stuff atleast.

I know basicaly anthing can work with money, but idk have alot of money. I cant really tell you how much because it is always veriaing. So what i want to do is put a Ford E-150 ecoline van 351 Windser motor in a 240sx. We already have the van with the motor in it, but the down side is that it has 230,000 babied miles on it. When/if i pull it i will open it up and see if anything major needs to be replaced. I will replace all the gaskets, as would anybody but hopefully i will only need to hone and put new pistons in. The motor is currently running, so it cant be to bad.

My first question is to the whole ECU match up. I really dont understand this much and being a ford motor and a nissan car its even more confusin. I know poeople put LS1's in there cars so i am wondering how did you do all the wiring. If its not to exspensive i could covert it to a Carberated engine to make things alot easier.

As far as the tranny goes i was thinking the Mustang GT 5 speed. Does anybody know if thise will mate up? Is there any other tranny that wuold work? I would like to keep with a manual 5 speed, but i sapose i could find a older 4 speed out of a older ford car.

I plan on keeping the rear end stock, or untill it blow. People are running there boosted cars with 400whp with stock rear ends so i think i should be ok for a while, although this motor does have alot of torque.

Driveshaft? Does anybody know how exspensive it is to send your drive shaft in to get cut/reweided/and balanced?

Will the steering still work? I know i am probaly gonna have to get rid of the power steering. I guess this is another ? for you LS1 guys out there.

Anything else that will be a problem that i dont know about? lol....oh sense my dad doesnt have a truck yet we still need to use the van for DJing, so the car will sit for a while. So i have time work on the body. I plan on gutting the interier and instaling a roll cage to help with bodyflex.

so...yeah if you know anyof the answeres please help me or if you know anythign else, all is appreciated.

edit: i know i am gonna need custom motor mounts. Does anybody already make them for this motor(probaly not) or can somebody make them to your specs. Because i have a garage buts not like a machineshop.

[JustinE]

For one, your gonna WANT power steering. There's a huge difference, with or without it. You can definately feel it.

Your gonna need custom motor mounts, that's a no brainer.


Not sure if you can couple a 5spd to that 351; depends what that 351 has currently and the position. You will have to research specs.

Driveshaft will have to be custom.



If I were you, I would just get a Rb24, or a sr20; then turbo it. Way better. Spend a little more but in the long run it's worth it.

[dustinEwing]

There's a 99% chance that the engine wouldn't fit in the 240sx chassis and a motor that big would completely throw off the balance of the car.

You're better off just buying a stock 240, and working with the KA24. I've seen some mean 240s running on those engines, especially with they're turboed. The ka series also gives out more torque in the long run than an SR, but it's really a preference. I've already gone through my 240 phase, i would still like to have one but i'd rather have a sedan and look rich as hell haha.


And what do you mean by stock rear ends?

[jc6711]

thats the rear differentail. Its between the driveshaft and the axels.

[Quen]

ok, now this is just completely retarded. why would you put a van engine in there? probably redlines at like 4k rpms. don't over complicate things, especially if you are new to the whole car modifying scene. doing an engine swap is complicated on it's own and then to swap something no one has done before is just dumb. if you want a v8, just get an ls1, which is about 25lbs lighter than the ka24de and won't throw off the cars balance too much. i think thinking small is the best place to start. just throw some simple mods on there and as you find things that you would like to be different, change them.

[hardcore08]

my dad has the 99 4.2L V6 engine in his f-150
the engines gaskets got fkd up, so it started taking in coolant or antifreeze?
and then it got into the piston, and when the piston tried to go to the top, it couldnt because of the coolant inside.
so the result was a bent rod, and a lot of smoke out of the exhaust, with a damaged crankshaft.

if you are going to use this engine, replace all the gaskets, check the rods, piston and everything for damage and wear.
we didnt know about this earlier so we had to buy a new engine, oil pump, water pump, and a lot more stuff.

[dustinEwing]

thats the rear differentail. Its between the driveshaft and the axels.

Wel it would have helped if you said that and not rear end :P

If that engine was in an f-150, definitely not fitting in an s-chassis

[jc6711]

the engine is the 351 windser, not nessercy a van engine. The Windser is a downgrade of the Cleaveland. The diffrence is the Cleaved has better heads for more performance. Also the chances of me doing this is probaly less the 2%, but i was just thinking about, and decided to stir up a little conversation.

[reddeth]

Even if it's not a 'van' motor it's still designed to be put into an application geared for hauling people around. Not really performance at all. I highly recomend you look into doing something else as far as an engine swap. I'm a Chevy guy, so I'll say that if you want some American muscle put a 350 small block into it, you can pump some decent power out of those with little money.

As far as the van engine, with that many miles (even if it WAS taken care of) you're going to want to rebuild the motor. This means new gaskets, oil pump, fuel pump, pistons (possibly the connecting rods as well, given how much wear and tear is on them), new cam shaft (for performance), rebuild if not replace the heads (All in all, about $400-600 in parts, not including the machine work needed, also depends if you do the rebuild or pay someone to). If you just drop the motor into the car it's going to be a pain in the ass for very little return on your investment. Just buy another motor from a junkyard and rebuild it (a 240 motor) or something of that nature.

[jc6711]

Even if it's not a 'van' motor it's still designed to be put into an application geared for hauling people around. Not really performance at all. I highly recomend you look into doing something else as far as an engine swap. I'm a Chevy guy, so I'll say that if you want some American muscle put a 350 small block into it, you can pump some decent power out of those with little money.

As far as the van engine, with that many miles (even if it WAS taken care of) you're going to want to rebuild the motor. This means new gaskets, oil pump, fuel pump, pistons (possibly the connecting rods as well, given how much wear and tear is on them), new cam shaft (for performance), rebuild if not replace the heads (All in all, about $400-600 in parts, not including the machine work needed, also depends if you do the rebuild or pay someone to). If you just drop the motor into the car it's going to be a pain in the ass for very little return on your investment. Just buy another motor from a junkyard and rebuild it (a 240 motor) or something of that nature.

First off, the motor has nothing to do with the gearing, thats all in the transmision, rear differential, tires, ect. Im assuming your talking about the torquey power band. lol whats bad about that? And the 351 windser is basicaly the Ford small block 350. It still doesnt have as much support as chevy does, but its basicaly like the same thing. The connecting rods is what i would least be worried about. As long as none of them are bent there fine. The things you have worry about is all the bearings, gaskets, the condition of the piston and cylender walls. For the fuel pump i would just buy a walboro 255lph. The heads dont NEED honing, the only thing i could see it needing is a valve job so the valves sit nice.

[reddeth]

First off, the motor has nothing to do with the gearing, thats all in the transmision, rear differential, tires, ect. Im assuming your talking about the torquey power band. lol whats bad about that? And the 351 windser is basicaly the Ford small block 350. It still doesnt have as much support as chevy does, but its basicaly like the same thing. The connecting rods is what i would least be worried about. As long as none of them are bent there fine. The things you have worry about is all the bearings, gaskets, the condition of the piston and cylender walls. For the fuel pump i would just buy a walboro 255lph. The heads dont NEED honing, the only thing i could see it needing is a valve job so the valves sit nice.

By 'geared' I mean "meant for" not the physical gearing of the rear end or transmission, my apologies for the misunderstanding. The cam, pistons, internal parts, they are all setup to be in a large heavy vehicle designed for hauling stuff with more torque as opposed to speed, a 240sx is a relatively TINY car compared to the van and I don't think it will give you the output you want. I'm not saying don't do it, I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just saying that in my opinion you'd be better off trying to find a different motor to drop in there, one more properly setup from the factory for a higher RPM lighter car application, thats all.

As for the machining, it's all preventative mantinence, bearings should always be replaced along with gaskets, pistons should be replaced in a higher mileage engine, when replacing pistons you need to have the cylinder walls honed. Now, depending on the condition of the cylinder walls at the time of rebuilt, you may or may not need the engine physically bored out. As for the fuel and oil pump, it's more preventative mantinence than anything. All in all though rebuilding the motor shouldn't cost to much, but again in my opinion your money would be better spent finding another newer motor made for the application you want

[Quen]

in my opinion your money would be better spent finding another newer motor made for the application you want

x47,000 i can't even imagine trying to wire that whole set-up together. you're talking like 1k in wiring alone unless you're some sort of wiring genius. just throw an sr in there or just leave the ka. i don't know why everyone hates on the ka. yeah, it's a truck engine, but that just means its torquey. just build up a ka and turbo it out and it'll be way easier and way less expensive than throwing the 351 in there.

[jc6711]

x47,000 i can't even imagine trying to wire that whole set-up together. you're talking like 1k in wiring alone unless you're some sort of wiring genius. just throw an sr in there or just leave the ka. i don't know why everyone hates on the ka. yeah, it's a truck engine, but that just means its torquey. just build up a ka and turbo it out and it'll be way easier and way less expensive than throwing the 351 in there.

thats why i was thinking going carberated. Alot less wires to deal with.

[Quen]

thats why i was thinking going carberated. Alot less wires to deal with.

still not less than building up a ka and throwing a turbo on. plus then you'll be able to get a sexy sounding bov

[jc6711]

still not less than building up a ka and throwing a turbo on. plus then you'll be able to get a sexy sounding bov

pff, i could just get a PA and make it myself...