Former SR owner calling all KA-Ters

[nzmoman]

Hey guys...

I have been an SR guy for a while, so I dont understand much about KA'ts. I just made a vehicle purchase, #4 s13, and I will be getting 5 soon. My last three have been SR's and I like them so one is going to be SR, but the other, I am thinking about keepin the KA and boostin.

My question is what are most of you guys using these cars for? I am seeing pretty damn good hp claims. I have been to maybe 6 or 7 drift practice events and I didnt run across any KA-t's. I know they are out there, but where? The weekend streetracers dont have KA'ts. I may have only seen one, but I know they're out there. How well does the KA-t handle bouncing off the rev limiter in race situations such namely driftin and autox?

I also have two other posted questions please check those out.

[AZhitman]

Longer stroke and larger bore conspires against super-high revving, but there's no reason to shy away from the boosted KA.

More torque is always nice - why should your motor work so hard it bounces off the rev limiter?

A properly built KA-T can be bulletproof.

[nzmoman]

is it any harder trying to modify the iron block? aluminum cleans and is honed very easy. but Ive never done anything with the iron block except pull it and sell it.

thanks for your answer.

also what do you use your car for. did you build it for dd, drifting, autox, street racing?

[WDRacing]

Greg uses his car for daily driving and some spirited racing on the weekends on a rare occasion. I used mine for drag.

To answer your question, the 240SX is one of the best handling cars on the road today. It can be made to do anything. You just have to choose the suspension setup accordingly. We have a suspension forum for such questions though.

The KAT will handle very similar to the SR. SO you should have a pretty good idea already.

WD

[nzmoman]

so power deliver is not more aggressive because of the extra torque? If I understand correctly the KA of course has better dispacement and is going to be by nature more torquey. I didnt have a 320hp sr. I want to have the higher number on the KA because the bottom end and the iron block. how it will effect the drivetrain, and how the KA handles boosting is really my worry. I am trying to understand as best I can what the car will be like with the extra power.

Thanks for the responses.

Greg, what is your setup, (complete drivetrain)? and how is it as a daily?

[S13FX]

Well my friend, boost on a KA-T is not your biggest worry. The biggest problems people usually have or should I say had is picking a tuning device. Not many can afford a EMS, and SAFC and BTM will take you only so far. Recently if you notice MS has become the big talk for the KA and there is even a write up on here on how to install it.

But if you look around you will see people running some insane numbers on the stock block but they also have some bad *** tunes. Take nissanfanatic for instance, I think he has one of the highest powered stock internal KA's around right now.

But after you boost the KA you will be like wtf it's like the turbo belonges in that car. Il for one will tell you when I turboed my KA, it ran a lot smoother then it did when it was N/A.

[nzmoman]

thanks...you guys are selling me on this pretty well. I felt the same way about the NA SR an the turbo one. It is much better with boost. Thanks...Im already searchin for parts.

[KATwo40]

Having driven an SR powered S13 and owning a slightly upgraded KA-T *grin*, you'll notice one thing immediately: Handling.

Not because of the boost, but just because the nose is a little heavier with the KA + Turbo goodies than it is with the SR + Turbo goodies. It's about 100lbs difference, so the car is a little bit nose heavy.

However, the torque increase is significant. You'll enjoy not fearing getting smashed when merging into traffic OFF boost. It's that much more fun ON boost.

Keep us posted and we'll try to steer you in the right direction as you go along.

[nzmoman]

thanks.

chances are good that I may actually pull some weight from the front of the car before it gets the snail. there are a couple of ideas i want to try, like stripping the hood skeleton, and of course removing all ac components, and trying to remove little things that may help, but im a simple person.

[boznuttz]

Resize that signature picture!!!!. Other than that, yeah, prepare for a decent amount of understeer. As for getting rid of excess metal under the hood, I wouldn't do that. Some snow or your buddy leanign on the car will REALLY do nice things to your hood.

[WDRacing]

Yes, you need to resize the sig pic, see how tall mine is, thats the limit.

[SHIFTrl240]

hmm... at our local events, ka-t/ka outnumber the SR :P

[nzmoman]

The number of KA-t's may have something to do with where I live. In the suburbs of atlanta...lets see, we got bobby brown, used to have whitney, usher, angie aparo, 50 cent, ludacris....numerous pro athletes, so the area is fairly weathy. the kids are driving bmws and audis.They perform SR swaps because momma and daddy got the money and will give it to little johnny to keep him happy. Also because there are quite a few people who are pretty good drifters around here and most of them chose the SR.

as for the weight reduction. my buddies dont lean on cars, they all stand about 10 feet back and stare at them. I am just a motorsport lover in general. also I have driven stock KA's quite a bit so I am also used to the handling. I imagine that no ac and the addition of the turob will keep the car weight relatively close to stock. I expect to only pic up 50-80lbs including the turbo and intercooler. And even the stock car has very little oversteer compared to most cars.

Im also upgrading to energy suspension bushings to kind of restore the handling. But still my worries and troubles are all related to getting the bottom end prepped to be reliable under enough boost for my power goals.

Sorry bout that sig WD. I wanted that pic sooo bad cause it is funny

thanks again guys. I am seeing other threads emerging that are answering all my other questions

Later...

[Florida240sx]

I removed my A/C system s weight isn't really an issue. Car loves to boost... And there is a 180sx at the tune shop I work at..... KA-T>SR he was a bit upset when I acted like he was winning... I love the torque

[WDRacing]

Sorry bout that sig WD. I wanted that pic sooo bad cause it is funny

No worries buddy. You fixed it quick. I usually have to email people 2-3 times, then I change it to somthing I want...

[nzmoman]

I removed my A/C system s weight isn't really an issue. Car loves to boost... And there is a 180sx at the tune shop I work at..... KA-T>SR he was a bit upset when I acted like he was winning... I love the torque

Dont compare motors here! this is not what I am looking for...and that has been done way too much. Both powerplants are great in any form Turbo or NA. Enjoy your ride the way you built it.

WD. If you got a good sig pic for me, Id love to have it. But I want to keep the quote. Ive been trying to get those cartoon cars, but I dont know where they come from.

[WDRacing]

Google animated gifs, then brows away. Unfortunatly, your quote is huge. So you'd be limited to somthing the size of one of mine.

[babowc]

Where in ATL are ya??

I'd love to come by and check it out when ya start installing the ka-t parts.. as i'll be installing mine as well.

Hopefully, I can boost by this spring. I was planning this winter then got into an accident

Anyways, let me know where you're at and how you're going to tune it..

btw, are you on IA?

[nzmoman]

I am in Alpharetta, I want to take care of cosmetics first because I hate working on really nasty cars. that will take a while as i am planning to be AWOL for several weeks withing the next couple of months. we can still get together and get some stuff goin'. Ill be doin' bushings and painting on Sunday and maybe tomorrow. I have a ton of cleaning to do first. 678.468.4015

[babowc]

Awesome..you do your own painting/bodywork?

I need my rad support pulled/raised.. lol, nevertheless, I could use help..

[nzmoman]

nope, i dont really do the body work thing. the most ive done in that area is pulling of fenders and bumpers. I knowed a big huge ding in the front of my first s13. but that was easy, i just hit a tree with it.

[ahmonrah]

The number of KA-t's may have something to do with where I live. In the suburbs of atlanta...lets see, we got bobby brown, used to have whitney, usher, angie aparo, 50 cent, ludacris....numerous pro athletes, so the area is fairly weathy. the kids are driving bmws and audis.They perform SR swaps because momma and daddy got the money and will give it to little johnny to keep him happy. Also because there are quite a few people who are pretty good drifters around here and most of them chose the SR.

as for the weight reduction. my buddies dont lean on cars, they all stand about 10 feet back and stare at them. I am just a motorsport lover in general. also I have driven stock KA's quite a bit so I am also used to the handling. I imagine that no ac and the addition of the turob will keep the car weight relatively close to stock. I expect to only pic up 50-80lbs including the turbo and intercooler. And even the stock car has very little oversteer compared to most cars.

Im also upgrading to energy suspension bushings to kind of restore the handling. But still my worries and troubles are all related to getting the bottom end prepped to be reliable under enough boost for my power goals.

Sorry bout that sig WD. I wanted that pic sooo bad cause it is funny

thanks again guys. I am seeing other threads emerging that are answering all my other questions

Later...

we gonna have to collab on this one. because i own an s13 and i'm sticking with the KA, but i'm gonna buy a spare ka24de and i'm planning to build that engine around the Garrett-perrin gt35r turbo. i also live in the ATLANTA area and yeah.....9.5/10 people with 240 go sr and the parents buy them for lil jonny.

[babowc]

^ahahdoes the name "johnny" come up because that is an actual kid that has the porsche cayman and the bmw 7series? :P

anyways..ill be picking up the ams rebuild kit tonight

we should have some kind of ka-t meet when we get ours done.. i bet there will be less than 10 folks.. haha

[nzmoman]

i want to have a meet before these cars are done. Id like to just hang out and not have to drive to the Varsity to do it. traffic is a mutha around here and it gets even worse down there

[babowc]

yep.. varsity is a bit far.i NEVER go to any meets.. mainly b/c my car isnt in any condition to show, lol.

now that i picked up the rebuild parts.. time to get busyy..shooting for this spring for a basic turbo setup then rebuild and everything by summer time.hopefully!

[nzmoman]

doesnt need to be show worthy. just because its a nissan. I have about 7 people that want to just get together and go for a drive through our area. Cruising with fellow enthusiasts and stopping to eat somewhere and hang out. We need to go for it when it gets warmer.

[babowc]

sounds goood.it was warm today.. got my rear z32 done but no ebrake for now

[ahmonrah]

i need to check here on the regular. on ia they advertised for an all nissan meet, but in failing to pay attention, i missed it totally. either way. a ka to ka-t meet sounds cool with me. i mean my car isnt show worthy, but it's mine and i wuv her! i tell her every mornin..."in time girl, you'll be a sexy *****". then the dream ends and i spend 15min waiting for her to warm up.

[eazye2000]

.....i tell her every mornin..."in time girl, you'll be a sexy *****". then the dream ends and i spend 15min waiting for her to warm up.

You can speed that warm-up time by giving long, seducing rubs across the dash, and then down the center console. All the way back till you...... Oh sorry, I was getting carried away again. I dream sometimes too.

[dft24ds]

DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Boost is sooooo much fun in the ka. I drive mine everyday (in the snow even, Utah sucks) and have had no problems except for exhaust leaks but hey it still hauls balls!