Help a nublet with his delusions of grandeur (cliffnotes included)

[sommmatt]

So instead of studying for finals, I find myself reading Nico again. Big surprise. Anyway, lately I've been popping a huge boner over turbo ka's. Not literally. So I've been considering bolting one on to my 89 KAE with approx 80,000 miles with a goal of 200 horsepower... well around that area.

I've never, ever done this before, but I bought this 240SX as a project car and one for me to learn on anyway (definitely not my DD). I think I'm fairly competent, re-doing all of the brakes myself, getting the engine to start again after 4 years of sitting, replacing the rusted hatch (and redoing the wiring harness for the new one) and going to town on the frame rot (still waiting on my welder though).

So one day I want to turbo this car, as I said. I've been doing a lot of reading here and there but it is hard to filter out the nonsense and opinions from the hard facts. I want to achieve my 200HP goal with only a few things in mind, it has to be as cheap as possible yet very safe at the same time (meaning the engine can't blow up, or the turbo won't explode... you get the idea). Note that the 200HP goal is very flexible. Anything more than the 140HP it has will make me happy with this experiment.

I have these parts in mind to get the ball rolling...

T25/T28 Turbo maniEbay FMIC (someone said I can get away with a straight pipe from the turbo to the throttle body as long as the power is low, like 180HP, dunno if i like that though)2.5in downpipebov360cc injectors (may try and get away with stock, wasn't planning on running more than maybe 8psi... no idea what kind of power that would give me tho)

Fuel management is where I lose it completely, no idea wtf is going on there.

If I can get away without getting a new fuel pump, I want to, because when I was buying the car from the original owner he replaced it with a brand new one (I have the receipt for it) in an attempt to get the engine running before I took it. But aside from probably having to get a high flow fuel pump or w/e, I'm really not sure where to start on fuel management.

So what do the pros think? Nothing here is set in stone, of course, I don't have my mind set on anything in particular except it costing as little as possible because I have to pay tuition twice a year.

Cliffnotes: I have no idea how to turbo a car and want to for cheapy cheap and make 200HP. Flame on.

[spooled240]

dude since cheap is your way to go, I'd go all ebay. I mean 200 hp is nothing really, any ebay turbo can handle that then the rest is just fueling, oil feed/drain, then piping and more piping! As far as the stock fuel pump, it can definitley handle 200hp, mine's stock and I'm at 9~10psi(def over 200hp) check out Florida240sx's thread on the school project ka. He got a pretty damn good increase in power just using the stock fueling components.

BTW, I'm supposed to be studying for finals as I type, but here I am on nico again haha...

[boznuttz]

Use an Ebay turbo and you'll regret it.

[Zippy69]

Use an Ebay turbo and you'll regret it.

Take a look at my thread about ebay turbo's. I personally don't recomend gooing that route.If I had it to do all over, I would get a t-25 and a FMU, and not worry about any type of management. You could buy a quality used t-25 off an sr for a couple hundred bucks and a new FMU off egay for $100, and then get a turbo mani from someone here and an fmic from either egay or here, and your set.You could run without an intercooler, but the gains of an inter cooler are so much better than without.If you went this route, you would easily make your hp goals.Good luck.

[jt15833]

So instead of studying for finals, I find myself reading Nico again.

laughed hard here i couldnt relate better. if there was a nico final id own it.

an sr t25 will give you a very enjoyable power band and if it can make 200hp on a 2.0l it can do it for you.

[spooled240]

I have an ebay t3/t4 and no problems so far, and it's really fast. I don't know about those new chinese t25's tho, zippy's broke pretty fast. there's mixed results when dealing with this overseas stuff so it's kind of a gamble, if you can find a low-mileage sr t25/t28 I would recommend that over an ebay t25 since i don't know about these chinese t25's.

[sommmatt]

Cool, thanks for the replies guys. Btw just wrote that final, and it was apparent where I spent my time beforehand.

I'm going to start putting this project together after Christmas and my goal is to have it done by September (when a dragstrip about an hour or so out has their "Windsor Weekend" ). The car isn't going to be a drag car but I'm curious as to what it will do.

When it comes to FMUs (which seems like the way to go according to you guys) what should I be looking for?

[Zippy69]

Just get a 8:1 FMU. Search egay fro 8:1 FMU and you'll find a ton of them.Basically it increases your fuel pressure as boost increases. You can run 7-8 psi safely this way. Trust me, When I first drove mine, I was at 7psi and my injectors were going crazy with the fuel, but it pulled so hard I almost couldn't believe the huge difference the turbo made.I feel confident in saying you could make close to 220-230 hp like this, and ina car as small as ours' are, that is a lot.

[sommmatt]

Cool. Where exactly would you mount the FMU? A quick search of ebay shows the same FMU for a thousand different cars. Is it the same deal all around? Sigh, I guess I really need a step by step walkthrough full of pictures of a turbo install. Time to search.

[Florida240sx]

Get a mani. get used turbo t3 off like a 300zx or even a t25 whatever you find a deal on. Get your mani first and find out if your looking for a t2 or t3 flange turbo. Get an safc and get osme bigger injectors form deastchwerks. They give you credit for factory, so if you can deal with downtime send in your stockies and they will send back with them bigger.Ebay FMIC is the way to go, $200 with couplers and piping your good.

[bruinbear714]

That's going to decide whether your engine will run reliably over the long term or blow up within the first two miles.

Fuel management is where I lose it completely, no idea wtf is going on there.

Cliffnotes: I have no idea how to turbo a car and want to for cheapy cheap and make 200HP. Flame on.

[Zippy69]

I still say FMU and t25 and mani. If you have access to a dyno go with a safc and it will be easy to upgrade later.The FMU will mount in your fuel line with a vac hose to control it's rising rate.

[sommmatt]

Alright, plenty of stuff to think about. Btw, KAE and KADE manifolds are different right? It's a lot harder to find stuff that's E specific.

[spooled240]

true, since you are on a budget just compression test your current engine then turbo it. KA-T's have been successful sohc and dohc, esp. with you hp goals, you'll be fine. fmu, and a reliable turbo on low boost ftw!

[nelson8708]

SR T25-120$SR side mount and stock piping-70$8:1 FMU-80-100$1G DSM bov-30$Oil line kit from JGS-96$Custom Manifold-?Custom downpipe-?Putting together a cheap turbo kit and beating up on the local honda's....priceless

Pull 5 degrees of timing out and you be fine.

[sommmatt]

Hey nelson, got any pics of your E-T setup? (no one post any ET on a bike pics or ban). And pics of your log mani for the E?