Engine setup questions

[turtl631]

Hey all. i'm looking to get a kouki 5 speed in the next month or so, and i plan to have the car for quite a while. it will be my daily driver (although since i am at school, i probably wont find need to drive it every day) and my transportation back home every once in a while (my school is about 900 miles from my home), so it needs to be quite reliable. I plan to keep it stock for a while but mod it eventually. Since it will be a kouki s14 and im gonna have a decent amount of audio gear in it, its gonna be kind of heavy as far as 240s go. The point of all this is that I'm tring to figure out what would be the best engine route for me. I think an RB25 would be sweet, but not very practical, plus expensive. SR20s seem way too expensive now; at $1500 i'd consider it, for what they go for, probably not. CA18s appeal to me, but not in a heavy s14. Thus, I'm thinking a turbo KA might be the best bet. Even if the stock engine has too many miles, I could get a low mileage KA for pretty cheap due to everyone swapping them out. Torque is nice for daily driving too and I know KATs have it in spades. So would about 250-275 WHP on a KAT be a good daily driver setup in terms of reliability, drivability, and fun factor? I know there are lots of opinions out there on this; however, i really don't want to blow an engine. if i do this, im gonna do it right, and hopefully just once thats why i gotta do the research now. thanks!

[Onizuka]

So you want 250-275hp for $1500 or less? Never going to happen. Go brows all the engine forums, look at everyones setups, ask them how much they paid. Good luck on your quest for power.

oh yeah and welcome to nico

[xyster]

You'll never see 250-275 whp on a CA for $1500...you can't even get a clean motor shipped to you for that. You might be able to get it out of a junkyard KA-T setup, but I highly doubt it, and I don't think it would run for very long. Like I always say:

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.

Pick two of the above.

[turtl631]

Thanks guys. I think you misunderstood me-I said the I'd consider an SR20 if the engine was around $1500 and not the inflated prices they're at now. I know that I'd still have to spend quite a bit more on it to get what I'm looking for. I think I'm leaning towards the turbo KA to simplify things and not worry about having an engine without commonly available maintenance parts. I would guess around 3 or 4 thousand dollars for a good KA T setup with that much power? I'll keep looking, thanks again!

[xyster]

No commonly available maintenance parts? I rebuilt my entire CA, minus rings, with parts I got at Advance. All new bearings, seals, gaskets, hoses, water pump, thermostat, etc etc.