A long wait over.. Another Ka-T on the streets

[Florida240sx]

So the 2 bolts that hold the oil pickup on 1 was missing so therfore it was not a tight seal thus making the pump not picking up oil. Is that what you are saying happened?

[APL]

Lookin' good man. Keep it up.

[xckid]

damn man gl im sure you'll get it up. I one day shall be KAT Right now i just watch and learn from everyone

[WDRacing]

Was a picture of your finger and the head, something about a hole.

[Biggamehit]

you will be back i came back 2 times already for freak reasons

only thing bro is that intake could have led to the spike.... colder air can have bad effects on turbo set ups.. especially doing climate changes...

this time around ill be adding this to the mix for 1700 dollars

[480sx]

FL - No, actually both bolts were tight in there. The gasket that sits between the two though was only being held on by one bolt. When i tightened the first bolt the gasket must have rotated. So the gasket was only being held on by one bolt, and the other bolt hole for the gasket was just sitting out behind the oil pickup.

WD - Thanks, ill try to get that re-sized and put back up here some time.

BGH - I can see that the spike would be made worse by the cold air, but on a properly setup turbo manifold it shouldnt be an issue. I hacked off the dump tube from the collector last night. Theres an extra quarter inch of weld where there shouldnt be. I have been told that this is what causes the BD manifold to spike so bad. Im going to redo that and see how it does.

Thanks for your support guys. I was going to pull the engine today out of my beater 240 but it decided to snow 5 inch's or so and duty calls. I plow snow in the winter, killer money in NOVA man.. Just came in to make some food, then im going back out. Today im making probably a month and a half's worth of normal pay(i go to college, part time job). I bet you guys can guess where its going!

Heres a list off the top of my head... FCW crank, new manifold(i keep pressuring AMS to make another batch.. So frustrating), forged internals, race head, and a 35R. Better keep snowing, lmao.

[2FourTee]

Bummer it blew man, but at least you've got the right mindset about it.

[kpc_0721]

Hey sorry not trying to thread jack but u said you are trying to get ams to make you a manifold? What is going on with all that because im trying to go with their manifold and not getting much luck lol. Maybe if they see we have 2 people interested they might consider making a couple for us? Pm me or something so we can talk a little bit more, or if you have aim hit me up its koreanskittlz89 I live not too far from ams so I could head out to the shop and talk with chris and the rest of the guys if you are serious about going with the manifold. Lemme know watsup though.

[WDRacing]

AMS will make you the manifold, they're just going to charge you a boat load of money. They didn't get enough orders to actually make the mani so...two are not going to constitute enough bussiness for them to spend 5-10k on fab and design.

[480sx]

Theres nothing to design at all man, they already know exactly how to make it. They'v made at least 10 already, the real waist is spending all the time(money) to fabricate something like that then only making 10. Then selling the majority of those at a discounted rate because they didnt want to use 10-15 cubic feet to store them? It makes no sense. They made a bottom mount manifold that can mount a freaken 35r man.. I cant imagine how much time went into doing that.

Making another batch of 5 manifolds just to sell slowly is not going to break AMS, ffs they would be making money! They would be getting money from people that would otherwise spend it on another high end mani. Its just damned frustrating. Sure, the Evo and Subi crowd have more money, but that doesnt mean the 240 crowd has none.

Anyway, ill get your email and talk to you about that KPC. Im using the one listed for nico, so check that one. Anyone else feel free to jump on board.

[kpc_0721]

Yup I know that its already designed, they just sold off what they had. When I was at the shop the last week I talked with chris and he said if I could get some people interested they would make another batch of the mani's. Im just saying that maybe if 480sx and myself would for sure be up for purchasing the manifold then they might make another batch, never know until u ask. Chris said the price would be about $750-$800 by the way.

[kpc_0721]

just emailed u back

[eazye2000]

$750-800 ??Are we talking about the Intake Manifold, or the Exhaust Manifold? I'm assuming Exhaust because of the big issue with the Boost Creep.

Hell, I'd be interested in that manifold myself. Clarify before I go jumping on the bandwagon.. lol

[kpc_0721]

Yea were talking about the exhaust manifold, Im not sure on the prices but last I talked to chris he said around $750 or $800 but he wasnt posotive on the price. I will be going to the shop monday or tuesday to talk with them and I should know all the details then. If you are serious about this then email 480sx(nate) at [email protected] and he will let you know whats going on.

This will be great if we can get 3 people now because im pretty sure with 3 people ams would make another batch of the manifolds. So just get at 480sx and let him know watsup.

[Biggamehit]

OH **** bro... i didn't see that you were from MAN ASSES VA....

im from Baltimore MD... and im currently stationed at Andrews AFB.... im in the area ALLLL the time bro.. we must meet.. i have not met another KA-t guy besides ...............Matt Martin...................

[spooled240]

I guess stuff happens to all of us, I totally effed up my transmission from a seal that didn't need replacing in the first place..just thought it was leaking because I forgot to tighten the cover for the shifter linkage..every time I hear it whine it makes me sorta mad at myself..

I hope you can get this engine back better than ever!

[480sx]

Yea man, id love to meet up with another ka-T guy. Thing is, i dont have one right now . Give me a few weeks tops.

I just found out that i warped my exhaust manifold horribly, like 1/8th inch horribly. Apparently, exhaust manifolds dont like to be heated until they are glowing red, then have the engine shut off(seize..) before they have a chance to cool down. 700 degrees at least to make steel glow like that. 30 degrees outside, no hood. Not good

When i got out of my car after the WOT run that seized it, my manifold was lit up like a christmas tree. At the time i only cared about my turbo, considering its worth more than a running KA(lol). Even gained a little side to side shaft play that wasnt there, realllyyy not to happy about that. However with oil pressure that pretty much goes away, a little shaft play isnt that bad. The fkin turbo is brand new though man. If i hadn't of had water to my turbo it would have been soo much worse. There were two factors in the gain of the shaft play i believe however. The main factor i think was all the metal in my oil. I doubt the oil filter could have gotten it all, and some of it probably ran through my turbo.

Lmao, i took it down to the machine shop and they were like uhh, it would take us all day to fix this. At the time i didnt realize all they used was a freaken belt sander for something like that.. As luck would have it we have a 8 foot belt sander so, gona be doin that myself tonight.

Im also going to probably take a torch cut to the front of my beater 240(95, green obd1), cuz its smashed up good. I just recently saw some stuff on it that made me realize my dream of making it into a track s14 arnt realistic at all. It took a front end collision into the dirt(ditch) at over 90 MPH(its sad that so many idiots own 240's.. Or maybe cars in general?) I was going to take it to a frame shop and have them lazer it to tell me if its twisted, but theres to many tell tale signs of a bent chassie already so im just gona part it out. Its a tan interior SE, no seats. Airbags poped, no dash either. Working lsd, 5 lugs, ect. I dont think im going to be able to sell the 5 lugs though.. I might need them one day. Doors on it are PERFECT!

Ill take some pics and toss them up late tonight of that.

Im starting another thread about the AMS mani.

[Rockwell240sx]

hey question for you man... i'm still not sure the difference in the drive shaft between my s14 and the s13 your trying to part out but i need a carrier bearing for the drive shaft for my 95s14 and figured id ask if it would work, condition it was in, and what type of price you'd let it go for. email me at [email protected] if the bearing will fit and your willing to part with it

[spooled240]

man that's crazy how your mani warped even being bolted to the head. Didn't crack though huh? that's good

(its sad that so many idiots own 240's.. Or maybe cars in general?

i think cars in general, i almost got hit like 3 times in a parking lot cuz some dumbass drivers don't know the concept of "right of way"

you have the se wheels for the green 240?

[480sx]

Yea, two sets of them actually(SE wheels). You want a set? Ill pick the nicest of the 8 if you want them, most are in pretty good shape.

[480sx]

So i pulled the engine out of my beat 240 today. Heres a pic of it that i took this morn.



I figured the easiest way to do it was just to take a torch and blast out the whole wrecked front part of the car. Wasnt to bad, i only started a few fires and blew through a fire extinguisher lol. The worst part was the smell, i just tried not to breath in 60 second torching increments. Had my shop doors and windows WFO, still was pretty rough.

Heres a pic after i finished with the torch. I was pretty happy, i hit the last little bit of the 'frame' and the whole front end just fell off. Kinda scared me actually heh.



So thats two ka's pulled out of two cars this week, fun stuff. I worked pretty much the whole day on the wrecked 240.

Engines are out, ready to have my manifolds and turbo stuff bolted up tomorrow.

[spooled240]

bah, shipping from VA to CA would be a lot

man that car looks like it was nice, se and all. Just a bad crunch..

[480sx]

Yea, it was in great shape actually. Doors are perfect on em, im gona try to sell those at a good price. That wreck toasted the unibody, the trunk doesnt line up, theres rippling in the rear quarter panels, ect. Just a really bad hit. I paid 500 for it, plus 150 deisel to go pick it up. Prly shouldnt have paid that much, but at the time i was thinking the frame was in better shape. However the car is worth prly close to 1500 in parts so im still in the green.

Could still use it for drag racing, but im not a drag kinda guy. Time attack, auto-X, ect for me. Drag racing fun but meh.. Rather spend the cash on grip racing. Your engines/clutches seem to last a little longer that way.

[spooled240]

really? I can see a clutch because of all the launching but I think auto-x is hard on the engine, turbo, etc...being a WOT for almost the whole lap. I don't think my air cooled t3/t4 could handle that for over a min straight (oil would probably be carbon powder coming outta the oil drain)

I like drag because anybody could race, autocross usually takes a lot more skill and money and modifications. I do LOVE autox/time attack tho don't get me wrong..Maybe drop in a cheap 350 and a roll bar and make a thrasher track car lol

500 seems like a score to me bro, the four 5-lug hubs go for what 300-350 a set? and the complete ka24de, doors, s14 seats, you name it lol

[480sx]

Yea i know i didnt get a bad deal, i dont regret driving to OH to pick it up, still think i could have talked him down. Dude was in a rough spot. History is just that though.

Your not at WoT for a full run, in fact on most tracks you only see bursts of WoT. Yea it does take a lot more investment to make an auto-x car but i think its worth it. Strait line is fun as hell dont get me wrong, but im a grip kinda guy. Gotta love the twisties! I cant wait to get at VIR.. I know a guy who knows the owners son of VIR.. Can anyone say track day / 240 meet?

[WDRacing]

Could you do me a favor and list all the part numbers from Mcmaster for the oil supply line and fitting you used in the first few pics. HEck even the second ones with the hard lines would rock. So I can add this to to the FAQ. The one we have in there now doesn't have the correct sizes IIRC.

WD

[480sx]

Spent a LOT of time the last few days redoing the BD manifold. I figured out exactly why it spiked so bad, and how BD made the mistake.

There was so much excess weld on the inside of the WG dump tube from the collector, the gas was not pressurizing the WG dump. So even though the WG would open, hardly any gas would flow through it. I cant remember exactly what my friend called the effect that the excess weld had on the gas, but it was something like an air eddy.

So i hacked off the dump tube, and cleaned it back up. Got my friend to tig it back on. He told me halfway through the weld that we really should have purged the whole manifold with Argon. What your supposed to do when welding stainless is cover up all openings in your manifold and have the whole thing filled with pressurized argon. Your supposed to create a special flange that bolts onto the turbo flange, or whatever with a air fitting to connect to your pressure regulator, then to your Argon tank. The idea is to have it so that argon is constantly coming out of the area your trying to weld, and no where else. This is where Boost Designs failed. They did it the same half assed way we did it(we would have blown through many hours, and at least a tank of Argon), and didnt clean up the mess it creates after they finished welding it up.

So really, i didnt need to hack off the dump tube at all, i just needed to spend some time with a dye grinder on that area. I did, and while i was at it i smoothed out the collector and everything i could get my grinder to. Turned out really well. Didnt take to much off, but everything is smooth with a rounded edge. Im pretty sure that this will fix my boost spike issue, but we'll see. Unfortunately i didnt take any pics of the collector before and after, i got in a hurry. I still could take a pic of it now but, it would look like a.. collector..

I also took a 8 foot belt sander to the manifold to try to fix the warped flange. After i got it close to perfect(i was standing there FOREVER) i slotted the 4th and 1st runner, so the tubes would flex enough to ensure a tight seal against a copper gasket that i recently picked up.

The only thing im worried about is it cracking, but its not like i can do anything about it till it happens so.. Fingers crossed, we'll see.

I decided to put new main bearings in my donor KA, so im waiting on them to come in the mail. 50 bucks --> ACL ---> ebay ---> done.

The donor Ka is sitting on my stand waiting for me to work on it. I plan to spend the whole weekend on it. REALLY hope the bearings come tomorrow, but who knows. If they dont, everything else will be ready and the bearings will go in last.

Im also taking this time to paint my engine bay. I got stage one of the 3 stage paint from Mattos, they matched the paint code for me. Didnt bother spending another 50 bucks on a half pint of paint for the second stage of the Pearl White color, its just a freaken engine bay. I figure it will look like a mil bucks just with fresh paint that matches the exterior. The problem on that has been that its so damn cold here recently, i cant get a good day to paint. My idea was to wait for a 50 degree day, paint it, then move it into my shop where it can bake for an hour, then spray it again, bake, ect. Hopefully sunday will be a warm day and i will be able to do it then.

Im also trying to pick up a AMS manifold for Ka # 3 which will be built to the hills. For now though, i dont wana redo everything that iv already done, i want to have a drivable 240!

[480sx]

Today i started working on swapping parts off my blown engine to my donor ka. Motor mounts, intake manifold, oil pan, and my powder coated front timing cover/valve cover.

Then i wanted to make sure this engine was in good shape, and to do all the things that you should do when pulling an engine. Took off the belts, main pulley, and the upper and lower timing cover. What i found really made my day. The guy who owned this car before me took great care of his engine. New timing chain kit, and a new oil pump. Also, when i drained the oil out of the car it was dirty(old) but gave off no bad smells(fuel, blowby gases). The coolant passages look really clean too, another plus.This leads me to believe that this engine, even though its getting on in its years with 150k on it, is in better shape than my orig motor. I can only hope i guess. Couldnt do a compression check or anything to it so im just crossing my fingers really.

Could also tell that the rear main seal had been replaced, and was not leaking oil. However the front seal was, so i replaced that. Also replaced the transmission's output shaft seal for the hell of it.

Then after that i just spent time on the odds and ends. Painted the engine block low gloss black, and the lower timing cover the same. Painted the alt and the PS brackets the same black. Then painted all the bolts that go on my timing covers, and valve cover with the high temp silicone stuff(DEI, awsome product, withstands the heat from an exhaust housing). I figured that the silicone paint would hold up better to the abuse from sockets than normal paint would.

Went up to the local Nissan dealership to get 6 new flywheel bolts. I read somewhere on Nico, or ka-t i cant remember, that you were supposed to replace them each time(eh?). So he rings me up with a redic price tag and i told him theres no way im doing that, can i get the part number. So we go back and forth and hes like, 'tell you what, whats your name'? So i tell him, and he gives me wholesale prices under a made up company name. Then hes like so what else you want? Oh man my mind went everywhere lol. However sadly i only picked up a few small things. Im going to try to go back and talk to the same guy and get a rack of crap, OEM bearings, oil pumps/relief valves, seals, and some oil filters to name a few.

[480sx]

So, its been a little while. Today i got the engine into the freshly painted engine bay(with minimal gouges to the paint! ). Tomorrow im going to start mounting the transmission to the car, driveshaft, PS/alt, then do all the wiring. I HOPE to have it running by tomorrow night we will see though. I was able to put the engine in the car with the downpipe and wastegate already hooked up so that saved me a ton of time.

While i had the engine apart i replaced the main and rod bearings. It looks like the engine has had a rebuild, it didnt need to be done at all. The bearings at 150 showed virtually no sign on wear which makes me think its been rebuilt. Whatever, i get piece of mind replacing them.

Also sprayed my engine bay white, i did a half assed job but it looks nice so meh. Ill have some pics tomorrow hopefully.

I also hooked up what i hope will be a good PCV system. I put on one of those valve cover breather filters to my 'Breather/seperator' that sits next to the water pickup for the motor. Then i have two PCV fitting on my valve cover, so that should work pretty well dealing with blowby gases. My cars got a PCV intake and two vac sources.

[480sx]

KA # 2 runs!

I was hoping it would run on the first try but it had to fk with me. Cranked on it and it spudderd a bit, sounded good but wouldnt catch.

So my first thought is to check the plugs because i hadnt done that yet.. Pull them and find that the iridium tip was almost completely gone. I cant even see how the car would run with those spark plugs at all to be able to drive into a ditch at 100 MPH lol. There must have been 60-100k miles on these freaken plugs. So swapped in a fresh set of plugs and it fired right up.

This weekend im going to try and finish it up and take it for a test drive, but its soo good to have a running engine. No boosting yet, fresh bearings and a fresh lightened flywheel and clutch. Ohh and DAMN do i like the pedal feel on my spec stage 3+. Wow did that make me happy, i thought they were supposed to feel like stock.