Post up your KA-T experiences!

[Ezzo]

Like the topic says. I've been reading a lot of "It blew up" threads lately. So add your experience in the poll and then try to list your setup, tune, compressor, psi, year, engine, the condition when you bought it / installed. The history of your engine would be paramount. But I won't ask everyone for a biography. Every detail possible to give people a little more piece of mind before jumping in.

I've been in the slow process of bringing my car as close to running perfectly stock for the past 6 months or so before I go ahead with my ka-t. So I want to hear about the KA-T's people beat on for years on end, the ones that blow up on start ect.....

[Ligouri Rd]

Too bad you cannot vote twice cause after the initial rebuild I let the engine get low on oil and killed it, hence the "Blew up (My own fault)" vote. Since then I have had the lower end and head rebuilt and for the past year my experience has been "Takes as much of a beating as I can throw at it."

'97 Ka w/'91 head, 9:1 cp pistons, crower rods, cometic hd head gasket, arp oversize head studs. Long block machined and assembled by a local shop who does a lot of work for AMS. Fidanza lightweight flywheel and ACT Xtreme clutch. SAFC + ITC, tuned with Innovate LM-1. T3/T04E 57trim, boost designs manifold, tial wastegate (6# spring), dual stage manual boost control 7psi daily/11psi optional. Stock maf is maxed out so no more boost for now.::edit: Since Brandon mentioned the investment, I put ~3.5k into the first build, the second bumped that to $4.5k total investment in engine and tuning.

My advice: tuning is the key to survival (have access to a wideband) and the minute you see a problem stop: shut that engine off. Improper grounding of an oil pressure sender caused it to read inconsistent and let me to not trust its readings. Then a crappy fitting pissed the oil out of the engine and I drove on it till it was almost out of oil. Then later the oil pressure regulator got stuck and I still didn't trust the gage and continued to drive on it till it siezed.

Modified by Ligouri Rd at 9:19 AM 5/24/2007

Modified by Ligouri Rd at 10:23 AM 5/25/2007
Modified by Ligouri Rd at 10:28 AM 5/25/2007

[Florida240sx]

My faultFaulty partMechanic's faultJunk motor that lasted 60 miles.

And here is my friends experience

[Ezzo]

Nice thanks for the replies guys. This is more or less for everyone thinking about a KA-T. If theres a nice organized thread covering a lot of others experiences and outcomes. I think it will give people new to KA-T a better grasp of the variables involved. IE: The importance of GOOD tuning, patients and well designed parts.

[Carl H]

turbo ka has the connotation of being a cheap way to make power, but its not the case...gotta pay to play in any speed game.

[SeanC]

mine ran perfect and took everything i could throw at it. then i changed the isf because i thought the problem was in the tune (it was the BOV) then it detonated under boost and the #2 ring land let go.

[Brandon93240]

I've put about 15-18k on my s14, no problems what so ever. It makes good power, pulls hard at the track, everything works the way it should and I still get about 22-25 mpg. I had the engine built, bought all quality parts, and a good tune.

[S13FX]

Il let this go for a bit longer. Then when the thread looks dead, or complete I shall compile it and add it to the Sticky above ...

Keep up the great job guys.

Thanks,Mike

[Florida240sx]

Get heat-wrap or a Heat shield. It's a must so your car doesn't burn to the ground like floyds13. Always have a fire extinguisher.

[sstomek]

the third cylinder in my motor refused to work and it still doesn't. Might be ignition system though, not sure but i might be getting another motor

[Ezzo]

These are all great replys guys, but If you can try to post up what your setups were at the time, what manifold, compresor, bov, what management you were using. If you had internals, who's did you put in? was it your own work or did you have a reputable shop do it?

[Brandon93240]

My setup was installed and setup by me, final tuning was with safc at Conley's.

JGS manifold kitstarted with a precision gt32 then a gt35tial 38 mm wgtial bovprecision intercoolerss intercooler pipingz32 mafwalbro740cc injectorsnismo fp reg.jwt tunesafclm1real greddy dd exhaustnew factory block and crankPauter rodsSupertech pistonsCalico bearingsArp studs(everywhere)Griggs p&p and cc reshape5 angletoga vavle sealssupertech ss and iconel valvessupertech springs and retainerscometic hgnissan tc kittoga hv oil pump(same as factory, just pre shimmed)rebaffled and enlarged oil panrps clutchmueller flywheel(if you remember those you super oldskool)

All the machine work was performed by Griggs Racing. I probably left a few things out but thats the basics.

[red ka-t]

my car runs great, Iv been driving it turboed for about two years the only bad part is I always have boost leaks.

[nissanfanatic]

"Takes as much of a beating as I can throw at it,"

Stock engineTubular/ T04E 50trim/T3 setupEnthalpy tuneEngine/car was in good condition when I bought itoriginal engine20psi, been to 31psiowned the car since August 03', turbo'd since Sept 04'.First instance of 400whp was March 06' over 326whp since somewhere around the beginning of Dec 05'

[Ezzo]

Awesome replys everyone. This is looks like a good bit of really good info is surfacing.

Nissanfanatic: Did you compression test your engine before you went Ka-T do you remember what came up or the milage? anything that gave you the impression it was a good motor in the first place?

[okinawa drift]

wow, this is a GREAT thread..yeah i've been readin "ahh mann my KA-T just blew up" and all that.. alot lately.. but this thread makes me change my mind KA>SR..alot cheaper too

good idea for a thread man!

[nissanfanatic]

Nissanfanatic: Did you compression test your engine before you went Ka-T do you remember what came up or the milage? anything that gave you the impression it was a good motor in the first place?

Yes. I tested my engine with an old POS compression tester that gave me a reading of around 150psi. I thought my engine was garbage. I boosted it anyways and ended up with a new compression tester. This time when I tested it, I had 180psi on all four.

My indication that it was a good engine was that it ran very well, no smoke under hard acceleration, and its year of good service thus far.. I also made sure to change the oil on time and ran Mobil 1 the whole time.

[spooled240]

Runs like stock:'97 ka w/ 115,000mi had it since dec '05: ran like new!stock internalsjwt ecutubular exhaust headertop mount t3/t04e 57 trimz32 maf555cc nismo injectors11.5 x 28 fmicgreddy bov open atmosphericblow-through maf setup (thanks to nico )

i like the t3/t4 cuz it's balanced imo: spools quick enough and has plenty up top end power. At 12psi it pulls hard!

my ka runs like stock and purrs like a cat w/ a steady idlea great route to go: get a burned ecu (jwt, enthalpy) and a blow-through setup and the ka will run happy

[Ezzo]

Thanks for replying. Glad you've had good luck with your KA-T so far. Thats crazy a compression tester can be 30 off. Thats a huge gap.

This thread is getting a good ammount of views... I think it needs more posts! sp of you have a KA-T s13, s14 anything KA powered. please post up your results. ^.^ it's developing pretty well.

[steve s14]

Runs like stock but not when it comes to power. It's pushing about 300whp.The car is an s14 that is quiet and has a v-mount setup so it fools a lot of people.I blew up the original motor from beating on it when i knew it was running a bit lean on the top end, my fault completely.Second motor is an s13 ka that has at least 150k miles on it with a bad crank. I replaced the crank with a spare one i had lying around and i threw it in the car completely stock with no rebuild on 12psi.

peak boost manifoldgt35r turbotial 44mm wgtial bovcustom iccustom radiatorenlarged oilpan, almost 6qt capacity810cc injectorsaem ems with uego3.5 bar map sensor

The s13 motor is only temporary until i have enough money to rebuild the original motor with forged internals. Then i plan on raising the boost to about 25psi.

[WI_S14_Goldie]

awesome thread! I personally don't have a KA-T just yet, but from what i've heard, one of the cons is overheating? Do u guys have problems with that? Lack of small oilpan??

[spooled240]

I was wondering that myself when I installed my nismo cold thermostat. My engine still warms up to the same temp. as it did when I had the stock thermo! With a huge fmic, and an air-cooled turbo, that could be a big issue. But a koyo alum. radiator and maybe an oil cooler should do the trick.

[S13FX]

awesome thread! I personally don't have a KA-T just yet, but from what i've heard, one of the cons is overheating? Do u guys have problems with that? Lack of small oilpan??

The oil pan on the KA is perfectly fine, and as for the over heating. The problem with the KA is, it's very very picky about it's cooling system being flushed and air free.

You can look at this as a good and bad thing. I never had problems with my KA-T over heating or not warming up. That is after I flushed it about 3 times heh.

[nissanfanatic]

Using the Lisle funnel is also a very good tool for bleeding the cooling system.

I personally am thankful for my kick-*** cooling system. I run only the stock AC fan running constant and a Griffin radiator. My temps never go above 181 degrees.

[Ezzo]

To add to this, I changed to a Koyo aluminum and Altima fans recently, I'm running a 40/60 coolant/water mix and watter wetter. OEM Thermostat (I've also owned the Nismo thermostat and I haven't seen a big difference to warrant the extra 30$) I stay around the 180/200* mark all the time, Half of my problem is using a cheap 20$ thermoswitch from Autozone. I'm too broke for the DIF controller ATM and I like DIY alternatives. I'm a cheep *** sometimes lol.

[Jookmasta]

been running like stock............boosted since feb' 2005, no issues except the occasional blown off coupler which has been solved via t bolt clamps. no dyno numbers for this boost level but 17 psi daily with enthalpy tune and SAFC. that's with a str8 t3 60 trim .63 a/r exhaust and 480cc injectors. If i ever upgrade the turbo, the injectors will also be upgraded. cooling is still thru the stock clutch fan and stock radiator.

[GEO]

Lost my dump tube today while driving.. lol.. I thought it was my pistons and ****.. lol.. oh well, thast my first thing so far. Runs liek stock otherwise.

[Bwana]

Experience well detailed here.

[Ezzo]

Experience well detailed here.

I was waiting for you to post that! for anyone living under a rock and hasn't seen this. It's amazing what you can do if you do it rite!

[Drift Machine]

Been KA-T since April 2004, consistently running between 5 and 9 psi.

I don't drive it as hard as I use to, only because my driving habits have changed. But I definitely use to beat on her and after 10k boosted miles, the thing still runs strong.
Modified by Drift Machine at 4:26 PM 6/7/2007