Nissan 240SX LS V8 Engine Swap Guide Part 1: The Essentials

To mount the engine and transmission into the S-chassis will require a Sikky mount kit. It includes engine and trans mounts, modified and baffled oil pan, oil filter relocation kit, and a drive shaft. I don’t have any experience with other mount kits but the built quality and fitment of the Sikky kit is superb. I’ve had zero issues with it so I definitely recommend it for this swap. They also sell headers but since I was building a California smog legal car I was using the GM supplied manifolds.

You’ll also need to order up a set of their power steering lines which mate the S13 PS rack to the LS PS pump.

Since the S13’s master clutch cylinder isn’t designed to work with an LS clutch system, Sikky offers a conversion kit that alleviates all the headache.

To power the LS3 e-Rod engine, GM offers a complete wiring harness, drive by wire pedal, o2 sensors, and ECU. This is by far the simplest and least stressful method of mating the engine electronics to the S13 chassis. The filter and charcoal actually come with the e-Rod engine and again are only required if you want to make it smog-legal in California.

You’re also going to need an accessories package for the LS3. It comes with all the belts, pulleys, alternator, power steering pump, and AC compressor.

There are several configurations available but the Cadillac CTS-V setup is what you want as it’s the most compact and fits in the S13 with zero clearance issues.

In the fuel department, first and foremost an upgraded fuel pump should be a no brainer. Deatschwerks DW300 fuel pump with DW301 fitment kit is a drop-in solution.

There are several ways to plumb the fuel lines and regulator for the LS but I’ll get into that later. At the very least you’ll need to get yourself an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator and filter like the Fuelab units in the photo.

Earls fittings and plumbing will provide fuel supply from the regulator to the engine. You can technically get away with using rubber fuel hose for this but if you’ve got the budget spend the money on AN fittings and adequately sized diameter fuel line.

An upgraded radiator is a no brainer, there’s no way the stock KA rad is going to be able the handle the cooling demands of the big LS engine. Mishimoto offers a thicker, all aluminum race radiator and fan shrouds. I stuck with the KA application so that both the inlet and outlet were on the passenger side of the engine. This was the best configuration to mate hoses to the LS.

Finally, there’s the exhaust system. There are no bolt-on options so a custom one will need to be fabricated. Vibrant Performance has you covered for pretty much anything and everything you need to build an exhaust system. I’ll cover off what diameter piping and other parts I used exactly in the actual install story of this series.

So those are essentially the main critical parts and pieces you’ll need for the 240SX to LS swap conversion. There’s still a lot of small items that I’ll get to but I hope you know have a better idea of the parts needed and roughly the cost associated with them.

For Part 2 click here: Nissan LS V8 Swap Guide Part 2: Let’s Get Started

Here’s a quick teaser video of what you can expect from a completed V8 swap.