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Calling all Ratsuns, Performance on z24 or S14 ka24de?


Madbmx

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Waz up ratsun community,

This is my second post and I'm wondering what I should do to my 720 performance wise? It's a z24 auto(completely stock). Drives amazing no issues, but unfortunately I'm young and stupid and want a little bit more power to have fun kinda want it to be stick too. Anyways I have about $1100 and want to use it on the truck. What do you guys think I should do to it?

Also, recently I found this post https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/pts/d/ka24de/6347577037.htmland it got me thinking about a swap using the ka24de from the s14. Now my question is do you guys think this is a good buy for my truck and also if there is a difference compared to the ka24de from the hardbody when it comes to bolting it on, would it fit just as smooth? Or is this just a waste lol

 

I love these trucks and still learning as I go, Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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#1 one thing you can do to a Z24 is a nice, proper Weber install. And tune it right.

#2 Is a nice 2.25 inch exhaust with no Cat and a free flowing muffler (I am young and stupid too, I love my magnaflow).

 Other than that yeah you aren't getting a whole lot more out performance wise from a Z24, they are not screamers. :(

Just get some good tires, make her run good and have fun, thats all its really about.

 

 

A Ka24de will light up the proverbial tires and people will tell you they "bolt right in" and you can do em easy. I would say you will want to have some engine swap experience or a really good friend and a garage/shop. Plus some money. The motor mounts you buy from rats may have to be "adjusted", you will have to make everything fit if it gives you trouble, mount sensors and deal with wiring nastiness. I don't want to see you "partial Ka swap" add on craigslist.  Bottom line, people say its easy, just read through some of the 20+ page Ka swap threads on here.

 

 

 

Honestly it is just about having fun and using what you have. I found that you can have just as much fun in a deathrap doing just over the speed limit holding on for dear life as you can in one of those fancy all wheel drive rigs going, um well, way to fast..

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I can't speak to the 720 platform, but as engine swaps go it'd be one of the easier ones. I can tell you that you'll need more than $1100. If you payed asking price for that engine/harness/trans that would only leave you $200 to get a drive shaft and several hundred dollars worth of little crap you'll find you need when you get into it.

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]2eDeYe sells the engine mount brackets for 620 but maybe someone tried them on the 720. 

 

Get just the $600 engine and a D21 Hardbody intake and an L20B distributor and drive spindle. Make an aluminum adapter plate and run a 2 bbl carb. This eliminates all the EFI wiring and buying the high pressure fuel pump plumbing. 

 

All your automatic parts should swap onto the KA and this eliminates modifying the drive shaft length and finding clutch/brake pedals/clutch master/slave and plumbing it.

 

Look up Farmer Joe's KA into a 620.

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Trust me. I know what it's like to have money in your pocket and a truck or motorcycle to spend it on. You're going to do what you're going to do, but at my ripe old age of 33, I've been through a lot of vehicles and learned a lot of things. Spend what you need to on maintenance (new gasket set perhaps for the motor? plugs/wires/cap/rotor? set timing? valve adjustment or replacement? change all fluids in vehicle? new tires?) and save or invest the rest. Whatever you do to the truck, you'll be happy with for a few months, get used to it, then be itching to do something else to it and spend more money, but you never get the money back. The novelty almost always wears off.

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Yea, I would also leave it alone, drive it the way it is with a smile on your face, find another cheap one to play with.

Right there with you. My 720 made me realize it is a lot more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. 

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As Bottomwatcher mentioned I have done the KA swap myself, S13 mind you. The S14 uses OBDII wiring and is harder to wire compared to the S13. 

My swap itself was pricier as I rebuilt the engine from the ground up but if you just had the KA and swapped it you'd still be looking at around $800+ not including if you don't have a shop and you need to pay for one.

I've broken this pricing down as follows: Engine mounts: $120-150, Wiring box: $120-150, Fuel pump: $120, Wiring accessories: $50, Hoses: $150, clutch master cyl: $50-100, fluids: $100
etc etc.

It all does add up and even with a full shop and about 4-5 people on a given weekend it still took 6 weeks (not incl. when I couldn't be there any family worked on it during the week).

 

My personal recommendation, unless you have the facilities necessary with experienced helpers (Welder is a must) I'd just do a weber conversion or do the KA24E from the D21 so you don't have to worry about the oil pan modification.

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Trust me. I know what it's like to have money in your pocket and a truck or motorcycle to spend it on. You're going to do what you're going to do, but at my ripe old age of 33, I've been through a lot of vehicles and learned a lot of things. Spend what you need to on maintenance (new gasket set perhaps for the motor? plugs/wires/cap/rotor? set timing? valve adjustment or replacement? change all fluids in vehicle? new tires?) and save or invest the rest. Whatever you do to the truck, you'll be happy with for a few months, get used to it, then be itching to do something else to it and spend more money, but you never get the money back. The novelty almost always wears off.

Haha, well said. I've already found an RB20 turbo for my KA and planning on a forged build in a year or so for boost.

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Sorry I haven't replied been focusing on school, and also thx for all your replies and knowledge.

I ended up finding this hard to resist 1968 Datsun 510 wagon and buying it for $550 lol, in pretty decent shape. So my plan is just to drive my 720 around for a while and enjoy it and build/restore my Datsun 510. A nice little project to do with my dad and little bros.

If you guys wanna see pics it will be on the other side, in the 510 sections.

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