Mounting the Engine

Mounting the Engine

Installation is the reverse of removal. No, really. At this point, the SR20 should simply bolt in. The SR20 and KA24 use the same engine mounts, so use whichever are in the best shape. Remove the shifter (you'll need snap ring pliers), bolt the transmission crossmember to the transmission mount and lower the whole thing into place. Once you have the engine mounts in place and bolted down, simply raise the transmission into place and bolt the crossmember to the car. The U.S. driveshaft should slide right in.

Now is a good time for new fuel hoses and a new fuel filter. You should also consider upgrading the fuel pump. The stock fuel pump, if it's in good shape, will support the stock SR20DET, but a tired pump or an increase in boost could be trouble. We're saving the pump upgrade for our first round of upgrades.

The JDM radiator, fan shroud and hoses should be used if possible. If you have to use the U.S. radiator, the radiator outlets will be in the wrong place. A few 90-degree radiator hoses and a length of aluminum pipe make an easy crossover pipe. With a U.S. radiator, you'll need to switch to electric fans, since the stock fan shroud won't fit. If, like us, you have the JDM parts and you plan to keep air conditioning, you'll have to trim the fan shroud to clear the A/C receiver/drier.

If you plan to use the stock intercooler, you'll need to enlarge the small hole in the inner fender below the stock air filter box. The intercooler inlet, outlet, and compressor bypass valve hoses need to pass through this hole. 1991 and later cars have the correct shape embossed in the panel already, otherwise refer to the front clip we keep telling you to buy.

The intercooler should bolt into place in the inner fender. Our car was missing one bolt hole, since it was built before the SR20DET was used in this chassis, but the remaining mounting bolts were enough.

The exhaust should bolt to the 240SX exhaust, (though you won't want to use it) as long as the downpipe came with the engine. In many cases the downpipe is missing, which gives you a good excuse to upgrade to a larger, 3-inch replacement. The missing downpipe problem is common enough that GReddy actually stocks 3-inch Silvia downpipes in the United States. We bolted the 3-inch GReddy pipe to our restrictive stock cat and exhaust just to get home. The GReddy downpipe came complete with the necessary gaskets and a mounting bracket to hold the pipe to the transmission, just like the stock one.

Hooking up the heater hoses will require two 5/8- to 3/4-inch adapters to mate the U.S. and Japanese hoses. A little finesse and a good supply of pre-bent heater hose fragments will go a long way here.

Neither the U.S. nor the Japanese throttle cable is long enough to follow the stock routing, but the Japanese cable will stretch straight across the engine compartment. We also used the Japanese gaspedal, since it has a stiffer return spring and mounts a little closer to the brake for easier heel/toe downshifts.