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Transmission interchangability


5&dime720

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I was wondering. Will the standard bell housing from most Datsun / Nissan's bolt up to a SR20? These trans' are the 240, 280, 200, 720 trans? I am pretty sure these trannys will hold up to that engine. Just wondering if it will work.

 

Thank you for your responses.

 

I don't know if any of the trannys in your list will bolt to an SR20 motor, but, I can tell you that there is a mixture of L series and Z series transmissions. The L series used in the 280, the 200sx through '79 and the '80 720 will all interchange amongst themselves. The Z series, including all 720 after '80, the 200sx from '80 through '83 will interchange amongst themselves.

 

Now, the L and the Z will bolt up, BUT, because of an 11 degree engine tilt the swapped tranny will be leaning to one side. For example a Z tranny on an L engine will be tilted, and have the shifter over beside the pass seat. Plus the tranny mount will need to be modified. So what I'm saying is that the bell bolt pattern is the same but is clocked to a different angle depending if it's a Z or an L.

 

This leaves the 240sx. I believe that the Z series tranny will fit the KA24E motor only, and not the CA or the KA24DE.

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Now, the L and the Z tranny will bolt up, BUT, because of an 11 degree engine tilt the swapped tranny will be leaning to one side. For example a Z tranny on an L engine will be tilted, and have the shifter over beside the pass seat. Plus the tranny mount will need to be modified. So what I'm saying is that the bell bolt pattern is the same but is clocked to a different angle depending if it's a Z or an L.

 

Any way to tell whether the tranny if from a L or a Z?

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This leaves the 240sx. I believe that the Z series tranny will fit the KA24E motor only, and not the CA or the KA24DE.

 

Z trans will fit ALL KAs, both DOHC and SOHC. All RWD KAs are the same bolt pattern.

 

Only difference between the KA trannies is sensors installed in the side. The trans itself is interchangeable from one KA to the next. The books say they don't interchange because the '89 trans won't have the sensors to go into a '97. But when swapping it into a Datsun, all bets are off.

 

On my last KA24E swap I used a '93 KA24DE trans with zero fuss.

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I was wondering. Will the standard bell housing from most Datsun / Nissan's bolt up to a SR20?

 

FWIW, you can take the front half of the SR case and put it on an L-series trans, but it ain't a swap for rookies. ;)

 

And it's really only worth doing for swapping the SR into stuff with small trans tunnels, i.e. 1200s.

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Put it one way... the L-series transmission looks "straight" (even though it goes on a tilted engine) and the NAPS-Z trans looks "tilted" even though the engine is near-vertical. When looking at the top bolts. If the trans has "waffleing" on the sides (basically, the stock 510-521 trans) it's L-series. Smooth, well, could go either way.

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Okay, for the benefit of those who don't know, a year ago I acquired a '66 WPL411 for free. Someone prior to the seller swapped in an L20b w/ a 4-speed. It's likely that the engine & tranny came from the same vehicle, but I don't know for sure, which is why I'm asking.

 

Maybe all I need to do is shim one motor mount to tilt the engine and level the tranny and maybe it don't make a rat's ass, but I just kinda wondered.

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Well, judging by your pics, the only way that would be a NAPS-Z transmission would be if your engine was installed leaning drastically to the driver's side (dead opposite of the way the L-series is supposed to mount). The tranny has a slight driver's side lean, whereas if it was a NAPS-Z mounted to a properly-aligned L-series is would bias to the passenger side. The bottom pan should be level. It looks really like it it is simply a case of the wrong rear mount (like there exists a right one for this jalopy) and a case of the engine being mounted too close to "upright" (should lean to the passenger side more than it is). L-series engines are more prone to driver's side mount failure than passenger side- I see LOTS of them with "reduced" lean, it's because that side gets stretched more under torque and is right next to the exhaust manifold. Of course, go to a parts store and the driver's side mount is the one that's NLA.

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So no one makes motor mounts for L engines? :eek:

 

Datsunfreak is correct, they are specific to the model. And sometimes year... the 620 used 3 different mounts for each position over the years. For the 411 I assume it's a bastardised setup using remains of the 411s mounts and the L-series from whatever that engine/tranny came from. I suspect '78-79 510 because of the short 4-speed and the W58 head. Does it have 2 dipstick holes, with the rear one crimped off?

 

As for who makes them, I'm not entirely sure ANYONE makes them, only that passenger side ones show up as available on parts searches (at least for 620s, I haven't had need to look for anything else) and driver's side ones don't. Probably because folks replaced a lot of driver's side ones and they ran out of leftover stock. It's been that way for a LOOOOOOONG time; we tried replacing the mounts on my Mom's '73 and the driver's side wasn't even listed as far back as '93. She finally found one at a Carquest a couple years ago, the box is vintage 70s. I ended up making a passenger-side 720 one work in my '78 620 driver's side. Had to drill new holes in the baseplate but it worked.

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As for who makes them, I'm not entirely sure ANYONE makes them, only that passenger side ones show up as available on parts searches (at least for 620s, I haven't had need to look for anything else) and driver's side ones don't.

 

The 510 mounts are readily available and pretty much always have been. But they are the same right an left (if we're talking about isolators, not steel engine brackets).

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Okay, yeah, there's a second dipstick tube crimped off, and yes I realize it's a bastard case and there's no L motor mounts for a 411. Best I can tell is that they torched of the stock J mounts and then cobbled something together.

 

Driver side mount:

motor_mount0002.jpg

 

Passenger side mount:

motor_mount0003.jpg

 

The engine is near upright, which results in a slight port list (driver side) on the tranny and carb.

 

Do you think adding 1/2-inch plates or something under the driver side mount until the carb is level would be a good idea? Will it stress the passenger side mount?

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Geez, those are some awful looking steel mounts. I wouldn't trust those to hold an A12, let alone an L20B. I can see where the J mounts were sawed off (J mounts are on the front of the block, not midblock like the L). You need new brackets to add angle and shorten the passenger side.

 

The best part of that whole pic is the rubber isolators are turned 90 degrees from normal, but it doesn't matter because they're sitting level instead of the proper 45 degree angle.

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Any way to tell whether the tranny if from a L or a Z?

 

With the tranny in the vehicle this will be more difficult than out but here's how I do it. On the L and Z engines there are two bolts at the top of the bell housing more or less on either side of the block about 4" apart that bolt it to the motor. If you look, or have looked at the top of either of these two transmissions, there is a casting seam that runs from back to front starting at the shifter and toward the bulge of the bell housing along the vertical centerline. This vertical centerline becomes a thicker raised web that continued up the bell housing toward these two mounting bolts at the top back of the engine. If this web is closest to the Left bolt (driver's side) it's an L tranny. If it is closer to the right side bolt (pass side) it's a Z tranny. Just remember 'closer to the (L)eft is an (L) transmission'.

 

Just ignore the T5 on the left and look at the imagined centerline of the tranny on the right. Follow it upward to the bell bulge where it becomes a thicker web and on up to the top. If you look just above the yellow wrighting you can see the bolt hole just an inch to the left of the web, the other hole is much further to the right side. This is an L series transmission

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q251/datzenmike/BorgWarner4-1.jpg[/img]"]BorgWarner4-1.jpg

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