Ka / Sr / Vg30dett/ Vg30det

[SLDWYSJDM]

im thinking od buying an 89' 240sx with a stock KA, I am going to want to buy a turbo down the road so is it worth it to just get the sr and then turbo that? Or the other option is to just get a vg30dett. or... not get the twin turbo and just settle for the vg30det? sugestions please.

[turbo4g63]

the cheapest route is probably just turboing the ka motor, but don't do it without beefing up some internal stuff....arp hardware, new headgasket....possibly pistons and rods if it is in the budget. turboing the ka motor seems to be a pretty big trend lately from what i can see. You can get good power out of it if you do it right

an sr swap will cost you a good buck, although it is not all that much work b/c it is basically a straight swap for that chassis. but you would have to worry about wiring/engine management/finding jdm parts to go with the motor. and so on.

[highmilehatch]

How much power do you want and what are you planning on doing with the car?

[sleepinsilvia23]

^^^ answer that question and how much money you are willing to spend??

[SLDWYSJDM]

im really not sure how much power i want with the car 250 mabe 300 would be ideal. I plan to street race drift and it would be my daily driver.

[SLDWYSJDM]

to buy the car get the new KA the turbo and body parts I would want to spend around $8,500

[teh DIRT]

Just so you know, this is Nissan specific technical information....and WHOA! We have a forum JUST for that. Ill move this there for you now.

[Im2Slow]

to buy the car get the new KA the turbo and body parts I would want to spend around $8,500

Looking to spend $8,500, Your best bet would be to contact r/t tuning . there selling a very very nice and powerfull 240sx. sr20det motor, manual trans, fresh paint, gold wheels etc etc,

[twastheglow]

This is really just some general information...

This is really a matter of opinion as to what motor you should go with. The 2 simplest, most taken routes are the KA and SR.

GENERALLY speaking, the stock KA can handle 350+ whp. That is certinaly not to say others haven't put down much more power and been fine for a long time. Other people also have put down much less power and shot a rod or burned up a piston. The major weak point of the KA are the pistons and rods. You have to remember that putting A LOT of stress on an old motor that's probably seem at least 150K miles. Most people who take the KA route on a budget will boost the stock block moderately while having a second, spare motor built then swapping the the fresh fully built motor in and turboing that to get much more, safer, reliable power. More and more companies are making parts for the KA because as earlier stated, it's becoming much more popular. But with any motor that you're altering, TUNING IS KEY!!!

The SR is just as common if not more commonly found in the S chasis still. It's a factory turbo motor so getting more power out of it is much easier. It has beefier internals right from Nissan. These can again GENERALLY handle more whp in stock form than the KA ever could. Parts for these are much easier to get your hands on than the KA. All the swap parts you really need is the wiring and that hs already been worked out and offered by several different companies. As long as your SR comes with everything you need, motor, tranny, turbo parts, ignitor, ecu etc. you're good to go. It utilizes the same mounts. All you need is the wiring. This obviously costs more than the KA because you're purchasing a whole new motor/transmission. But again, dependent on tuning, it is more reliable with higher hp goals than say a stock KA.

The VG in any form, NA or TT is the most costly by far to swap into an S chasis. It's a larger motor giving much less room in the engine bay to work in. MANY custom parts need to be made to get the actual motor and tranny installed correctly (motor, transmission mounts, drive shaft, wiring, exhaust etc.). This swap, although still a little unique and potentially powerful would NOT be a costly swap if you have a $$ amount in mind that you want to spend. Not only that, but if you're going to do the swap, there would no reason to put in an NA motor if you planned on boosting it, and making the TT motor a single turbo will cost you even more.

It's your money so have fun and do what YOU want. But again, if you're working on a budget, follow a tried and true method. No matter what route you take...SAVE MONEY FOR TUNING!!! It doesn't matter what motor you have, if you don't tune it properly, all that hard earned money will be gone in a puff of smoke.
*mike*

[Im2Slow]

I still think it would be best to buy a already built car exspecially if you plan on drifting, suspension is a huge part.

[Im2Slow]

http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/showthread.php?p=607008#post607008


check out this thread, this the 240sx you should buy.

[twastheglow]

...or...you could just buy one already done.
*mike*

[highmilehatch]

For what you plan on doing, and to keep things simple I would recommend the following:

S14 SR, all the bolt ons (fmic, turboback exhaust), A'pexi Power FC, larger injectors, fuel pump. Right around 16-18 psi you'll make roughly 300whp, 300ft lbs. I've been personally running this exact setup for 3.5 years now. Not one single problem.

OR

Get a redtop SR with a S14 turbo (can be had for 3-400) with all of the above mentioned mods. If you stick with a T25 that the S13 red and blacktop come with, you'll be limited to 250-260ish whp.

OR

Either engine, with a .64 2871R. Make about 330whp with all of the above mentioned mods (bolt ons, Power FC, etc. The most expensive route would be the S14 SR with the .64 2871R. I like the S14 motors because of the added driveability the VTC gives you. The 71R is perfect for for drift, street, and daily driving. If you have any questions, feel freet to PM me.

[nissan4life]

cheapest would obviously be turboing the ka
sr although being a common swap it's still gonna cost u a pretty good amount b/c not only do u have to buy the motor but u have to pay to have it put in (unless u do it urself)
either one of the vg's would be extremely expensive b/c they do not bolt up with the 240, although they have the most power of any of these and it would be cool b/c u never see 240's with vq but it just wouldn't be practical for a daily driver when u can make the same power out of a ka-t or sr20det and i dont think u could do a vg swap with that budget, i think ur best bet is the ka-t unless u could find a cheap sr

[zerioustt]

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=187589&page=1

[Wiisass]

The VG is such a pain in the ass though, it's really not worth it. If you're going to put something big and clunky in there just do an LSX swap and you'll have all the power you need plus the driveability.

SR or KA is kind of a toss up. An SR is going to be easier and probably cheaper in the long run. Yes I said SR, not KA. There's just too many pitfalls when it comes to turboing the KA right. I mean you could do a budget KA turbo setup for around $1k and be making mid 200 whp, but there's a lot of limiting factors that just get more expensive when you try and get the right parts. If you want to push power or in my opinion turbo it at all, you're going to need to refresh the block, arp hardware everywhere, stronger pistons at least, head gasket, etc. And after you do this and get even just stock SR parts to use for the turbo setup, you're already at the price of getting a good SR.

I used to want to turbo a KA, I thought it would be fun, but it seems like it's more of a hassle than it's worth. Engine management was one of my biggest concerns. With an SR, there's a lot of options throughout the price range depending on what you wanted to do. And you could get away with a stock ecu and some piggy back when you aren't pushing it too much. But with the KA, you either need to run a couple piggybacks on the ecu to control fuel and timing or you need a real ecu. I'm sure there are other options, but I wouldn't run them because it's not worth it or they suck.

Also, there's probably more parts available for the SR anyway and it's just easier.

Highmilehatch, are your dyno numbers on a dynapack? I just didn't think an S14 sr with stock turbo would put down 300whp on a real dyno? I thought like 260-270 was the limit with those. An S15 turbo will get you around 300. And the 2871, could get you anywhere from a little over 300 to almost 400 depending on tune and other mods.

Oh and also, the original poster would have the single cam KA, so he would have to get a DOHC KA and a bunch of other random stuff if he wanted to turbo it anyway. I mean you could turbo the single cam, but why would you.

[moorefire]

Highmilehatch, are your dyno numbers on a dynapack? I just didn't think an S14 sr with stock turbo would put down 300whp on a real dyno? I thought like 260-270 was the limit with those. An S15 turbo will get you around 300. And the 2871, could get you anywhere from a little over 300 to almost 400 depending on tune and other mods.

I think he does have a lot ov experience with dynapacks but...

s14 t28s usually dont do more than 260 cus most people run out of injectors cus they still have stock 370s.

w/ 550s and 1.2 bar a s14 turbo should do 300 (just wont have the response of an s15 turbo.)

Example I stole from Baby's for sale thread on FA:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f79/babypinkgodzira/SRs14s.jpg
Stock internals (besides HG) zenki s14SR @ 1.05 bar = 283hp

and to the orignal poster, take Tim's advice, don't turbo a useless SOHC, and VG's don't belong in s-chassis. A 300hp SR will be cheaper than a 300hp KAT

another word to the wise: dont copy anything form NICO haha

[Wiisass]

Good point will, wasn't thinking about that. I was just thinking about Vosko's old setup and I thought he was pushing like 265rwhp out of that S14 SR and it was maxxing out everything.

And good call on the don't trust NICO advice.

[highmilehatch]

Willass, yes those numbers were on a dynopack. I didn't know they weren't considered "real" dynos. :lol: I don't really care where its measured, as long as it's safe reliable power. And my tuner of choice just happens to use a dynopack. Here is the graph:

http://www.street-solutions.com/_images/s14_dyno.JPG

S14 and S15 turbos are EXACTLY the same spec wise. The only difference is the exh. wheel is made from inconel, and there is a cast divider wall between the wastegate and exh. discharge on the exh. housing. Otherwise, completely identical. I've never been in an S15 powered car, but I can't imagine spool being any different than a S14 turbo with the exh. same specs.

Jason from Hybridynamics did 327 whp on an S14 turbo with cams and intake manifold. Granted it was 100% outside of its efficiency.

BoostedVR4 on FA did 306 whp, 343 tq. @ 20 psi.

http://forums.freshalloy.com/showthread.php?t=145888

You can definitely get more than 330whp out of a .64 2871r, but not without cams, since they become the bottleneck.

[Wiisass]

The only reason I bring up the dynapak is because of the difference in power numbers when comparing to a dynojet or a dyno dynamics dyno. So what is it like 15% difference from a dynapak to a dynojet and another 10% between a dynojet and a dyno dynamics or something like that? With the DD reading the lowest. It just helps to know how things were measured to get a gauge on what the numbers actually mean. I mean 300 on one dyno could mean 250 on another dyno, but how much usuable horsepower do you actually have on the street? That's the real question. Dyno numbers don't mean anything without knowing more. Unless people just want to brag about power numbers then, but who cares about that kind of person.

I forgot that the s14 and s15 turbos were so much alike. For some reason, I was thinking the s15 was a decent bit better than the s14. Oh well, who cares, engines are gay anyway.

[zerioustt]

Willass, yes those numbers were on a dynopack. I didn't know they weren't considered "real" dynos. :lol: I don't really care where its measured, as long as it's safe reliable power. And my tuner of choice just happens to use a dynopack. Here is the graph:

http://www.street-solutions.com/_images/s14_dyno.JPG

S14 and S15 turbos are EXACTLY the same spec wise. The only difference is the exh. wheel is made from inconel, and there is a cast divider wall between the wastegate and exh. discharge on the exh. housing. Otherwise, completely identical. I've never been in an S15 powered car, but I can't imagine spool being any different than a S14 turbo with the exh. same specs.

Jason from Hybridynamics did 327 whp on an S14 turbo with cams and intake manifold. Granted it was 100% outside of its efficiency.

BoostedVR4 on FA did 306 whp, 343 tq. @ 20 psi.

http://forums.freshalloy.com/showthread.php?t=145888

You can definitely get more than 330whp out of a .64 2871r, but not without cams, since they become the bottleneck.

how much was that setup to make 343hp?

[Wiisass]

how much was that setup to make 343hp?

It made 343ft-lbs, not hp. And it looks like an expensive setup, or at least a more expensive setup for a stock s14 turbo. Considering he's running an AEM and an AVCR and upgraded injectors and probably other stuff that you wouldn't need if you weren't trying to totally max out a stock turbo.

[Im2Slow]

r/t tuning is still selling there full bult 240sx with sr20 turbo motor!