I finished installing the engine on Friday. Of course it ran horrible at first two spark plugs weren't firing, but i got it fixed. So i go for a test drive, oh and by the way this engine made a horrible timing chain rubbing sound, from 2500rpms-3300rpms the timing chain seemed to be quite loose and just skidded over some metal parts anyway, i went for a test drive and the supposed 5hp and 2lb torque are quite noticable so much that i can now drive the car easily from 1500rpms to 2100rpms and get up to spee really nicely around the city. Rather than the previous 1800rpms-2400rpms range. I checked the compression pressure today and it was 210psi all cilinders.Some things i noticed though, to all you bastards (chinabean) that say that a 2001 engine swap is easy, all you have to do is swap out the distributor, and manifolds, i say screw you. It is possible to swap a 2001 or 200 engine nissan altima engine into the 1993-199 altimas, but really the only things that are the same is the block, and cylinder head, everything else you have to take off and install what your previous engine had. For example i had to swap out the 2001 distributor, intake manifold, A/C compressor support bracket, water thermostat/egr housing, alternator bracket and support. The cool thing though is that ALL ka24de blocks and cylinder heads for the 1993-2001 altimas have the same bolt locations so, keep your old engine around,(DO NOT trade it in for the core charge) take the 2001 engine and swap whatever you see is different for example, the 2001 altima engine had a smaller air compressor, and yet a bigger alternator, so you simply take whatever brackets you need from your old engine and that's it. Anyway back to the topic, i notice these cams make the engine backfire more, pretty cool i suppose the cams leave the exhaust valves open a bit more and thus better backfires
. Now we all know that the 2000-2001 have 5 more hp and 2lbs torgue more than the 93-99 altima engines, the block is exactly the same, that's a fact, what did change to get more power was, the intake manifold, exhaust manifold, and cylinder head(softer springs and more agressive cams). All these net a supposed 5hp. Looking at the intake manifold,the intake plenum it looks alot bigger compared to the 93-99 engines it's huge! the intake runners though are the same size, the reasons for the intake plenum being much bigger are for better low end power, also the exhaust manifold is less restrictive, and as far as the cylinder head the springs are softer, therefore the cams don't loose as much energy when smacking down the valves, this translates to more energy you might say but softer springs leaves us more prone to valve float, not with a 6500rpm rev limit it won't that's a fact, that's why nissan decided to go with softer springs. And of course there are the cam profiles, haven't checked exactly how much more different they are but they are different and produce more power more efficiently that's a fact also. And for all you guys that read through all this theres a prize haha. Here we go, it turns out that i took out the engine and left the transmission inside the car, having an ACT ss clutch and Unorthodox Racing Flywheel i of couse swapped them out to the new engine, so to install the flywheel and clutch i had to take out the ring gear. So i did and so i took out the ring gear, now to take it out you have to unscrew it in a circular pattern the hole can be seen here:
http://i28.tinypic.com/s182md.jpg
now, this is a picture of the ring gear being attached with my old ring gear plate (let's call it ring gear plate) around it, goes the flywheel,
http://i30.tinypic.com/5cdtp3.jpg
This is a picture of the ring gear plate, it looks lightweight but it is not made of alluminum it's steel, very heavy i'd say atleast 8 pounds:
http://i31.tinypic.com/330w9xv.jpg
So, of course i was expecting to find a similar thing ring gear plate on the new engine but the new one had a very skinny less than one pound ring gear plate, i didn't take a picture of it but it was this skinny: to the left is the original ring gear plate and to the right is the thickness of the 2001 engine ring gear plate
http://i32.tinypic.com/4lhjz4.jpg
In conclusion the new ring gear plate holder from the 2001 engine is about 7 pounds lighter than the 93-99 engine, it can be installed on automatic, or 5sps transmissions for altimas 93-2001. So what's the big deal with saving 7 pounds well consider that there are people (me) that drop $300-400 for a light weight flywheel, the benefits for which you can research yourself, so drop 300-400 for saving 8pounds on your drive train, or find a 2000-2001 engine at your local junk yard and beg for them to sell you the ring gear and ring gear plate holder. Damn this is a long rambling, confusing, yet hopefully helpfull post if anyone has any questions of what the hell i just said post up.