Friends are so great...

[KATwo40]

Not really much of a tech post, just wanted to share some happiness.

Friend of mine has an incredible knowledge of machine work. He used to be the chief engineer at a large machine shop here, now he's the head design engineer at a place that makes wakeboard towers. His welding, machining and engineering capabilities are amazing.

Now, the reason for the post. As most of you know, my KA has over 170k miles on it, so it's about to go "plop" pretty soon. She's smokin' pretty healthily now, so I sourced another KA. This one has twin S13 exhaust cams, but it's an S14 engine (higher compression). The engine has 100k miles on it, so I'm gonna refresh it (rings, bearings, valve stem seals).

My buddy learns about the project and instantly says, "How much head work are we doing to it?" As I tried explaining that I really don't want to put any money into the head (need to do some home rennovations...make the wife super happy) and such, he had one simple reply, which was...

"Bull***t! Get that head off and get it to me. You don't need money. How you gonna build a turbo motor, have the head off and not even do any work to it???"

I love friends that know how to do stuff. So, port matching, valve angles and chamber grind, here I come!

I should have the engine together and in the car by the first of April. I'll post some numbers to compare with other similar setups, because I'd like to see what kind of effect this machining will have, in conjunction with the 248/248 cams (which I know is not super aggressive, but should help).

[Poor_S13_Driver]

Keep us updated man im looking forward to see what the gains will be also.

[Structure240sx]

thats good news for you

on a side note why do you think s14 engines have higher compression?

[Edub1]

I hope you will at least buy the man a lap dance.

[KATwo40]

thats good news for you

on a side note why do you think s14 engines have higher compression?

All the literature I've found concerning the KA24DE said that the S13 had 8.9:1 compression with 240/248 cams and the S14 had 9.2:1 compression with 232/232 cams, minus the secondary butterflies in the intake manifold. It's my understanding that the S14 was built this way to make up a little for the increased vehicle weight.

Am I incorrect in this data? I notice that when pricing aftermarket low compression pistons, they discern between 91-94 and 95+, even though both were DOHC engines.

[Nismo_Freak]

KA24E had 8.9:1 and 9.1:1 (numbers might be off), and the KA24DE's had 9.5:1

The Altima KA24DE had 9.2:1 I believe.

[KATwo40]

Whatever the compression is, here's the deal.

I'm boostin' the @#%$ out of mine right now, and I'm gonna further boost the @#% out of the replacement.

Cheers!