KA24det can kick Azz Too!

[habsfan]

the KA is a very stout engine from the factory, BUT although it does have piston cooling oil squirters, forged internals and nice think mains, the 11.5:1 (i believe) compression ratio limits safe operation to about 6-8psi of boost. plus i think KA's have a pretty long stroke, but i'm not positive...

[DeathBy240]

Heres another awesome KA-T

[510wagon]

Originally posted by heavyD
Why do people go through the hassle of turbocharging the KA engine when you can just drop in a SR20? Not that there is anything wrong with a turbocharged truck engine.

son of a monkey lover, why do people always post ignorant crap like this? i've got a better question than "why would any one turbo a KA when they could just swap in an SR?". how about why would anyone swap in an SR when they could just turbo the KA. sure, a turbo kit will run you close to $4K, but an SR swap will come out to more than that when you figure that you have to buy the clip, have said clip shipped, pull the KA, pull the SR from its clip, and then install the SR into your car. not only that, but for the $5K+ that you just spent on the SR swap you now have 200-220hp to the crank, or about 170-190hp to the wheels (assuming you used an S13 or S14 SR, since the 250hp S15 SR will probably cost over $5K to begin with). for the $4K you could have spent turbocharging your KA you will end up with about 200-215hp to the wheels, or ~250hp to the crank and the hardware to support much more (T04E capable of 450+hp, FMIC, 2.5-3" piping, etc.). on top of that, with minor tuning (ECU, injectors, exh., etc.) the wheel hp can easily top the 250hp mark. to get 250 wheel hp with your SR you'll need a big FMIC w/ piping, down pipe, exhaust, ECU tuning, a boost controller, and if you want this power to last more than a few thousand miles, a new turbo. with these mods you're approaching the $10K mark real quick, and that's just to catch up to the $4K KA-T with $1-2K in mods. i don't want to hear any whining about "waahh, the KA's not meant to be turbo'd so its internals are too weak". it has forged pistons and rods and a forged steel counterweighted crank. i've heard of KA's with stock internals hold upwards of 350hp. if that's not enough, you can have it rebuilt with nearly indestructible internals with the thousands of dollars you saved by not jumping on the SR/JDM bandwagon. besides, with the KA-T you will have 400cc more displacement, so not only will you have a lot more torque than an SR, but any given turbo will spool up considerably quicker, meaning you can also use a bigger turbo and have similar spool-up with more hp. the only (minor) drawback to the KA setup is the ~50lb extra weight, which you won't feel, i assure you. ever heard anyone gripe about how there 240 now handles like crap since putting in an RB25? yeah, didn't think so. and those weight about 85lb more than even a KA-T. and if you are paranoid and must lose that weight, a silvia front end or carbon fiber hood will shed those pound easily. so if you have any good reason why someone should swap to an SR (besides lacking the ability to think for themselves and just following the stupid "JDM" craze like a lemming to the sea) please post with that reason and explanation thereof.

p.s.- KA24E's have 8.9:1 compression. KA24DE's have 9.6:1 compression. no stock KA has ever had 11.5:1 compression. even integra type R's only have 11.1:1. and the KA24 was designed as a workhorse, not a factory race engine like the type R.

[DonJuan]

Easy 510 easy.... your preachin' to the choir on this one HeavyD is one of those people on here who has an opinion about everything thankfully we havnt been hearing much out of him because he in his infinite itellect and wisdom overboosted his DSM. So all you have to do is buy a bus pass and your faster than him.
On a different note I agree that the KAT swap is better for Street 240's on a budget. Lots of people have turned their KA's into 300hp cars with 8psi. But for pure track use the SR is the better option SR with is slightly lighter weight, HUGE aftermarket support means that it has greater potential, as long as you have great potential in your wallet.

[Zephyr]

plus if you live in california like me, a KAT is not only smart, it's legal (if you go with greddy). SR20 no matter if you get them smogged here and registered, it's still illegal which is more of a hassel since cops here pull anything slightly modified over for a check up.

[Ben]

I love it when people surf in off google just to write a rant about something they disagree with in a thread that is ancient.

[1badPT]

^^LOL Spend some time at the nissanforums and you'll understand the mindset that drives a person to do that - wow I've never seen such a collection of assholes as I did there. (I dunno about the rest of the forum but the 240SX section at least).

I'm looking at doing a 240 up as a project and I'm leaning more towards a KA-T than an SR swap. But then I again, I'm more of a fan of low end torque over sick high revs. I hear the Greddy kit gives you a nice flat torque curve too. The SR in stock form is alright but the cooling system can't keep up when you turn up the boost apparently.

[habsfan]

^ tis true, SR20's need cooling help if you intend to run em hard(how else would you run it )

[ex1z7]

*ponders* Wonder how much it would cost to ship a KA24 240sx over to australia? I always liked the KA.. plus silvia / 180sx's here are 10k + >_< hardly in my budget at this point

You could get a turbo kit for under 4k . . . theres alot of hope for KA's - iron all the way