N/A KA!

[~4N~]

I've learned to live with the fact that I won't be able to afford to buy and maintain any kind of a swap or a turbo setup anytime soon. For now, I'm staying with the stock engine, because I'm in school, and keeping the KA will be the most reliable way to go in my opinion. Some may disagree, but in my case it is, since I've never owned any kind of a turbo before. I don't have the money or experience to maintain a turbo'd engine.I am making a list of some useful mods I could do to the KA, just to get a litte more power out of it to help me break the rear end loose. My car has an Apexi intake and a custom 3" exhaust, which I know are more for looks than for power. I know that a lightweight driveshaft and lightweight pulleys help a great deal, that's why I'm planning on getting those two first. After that, maybe a lightweight flywheel whenever it is time for a new clutch, and maybe cams, though I'm not sure if cams are worth it for an N/A engine.All that brings me to my question. What are some good mods one can do to get more power out of the KA?Thanks for any info.

[ss82480]

Get some hotshot headers, should get 5-7 hp. the underdrive pulley is always a good upgrade, real noticeable difference. I've heard gettin a hiflow cat/test pipe wont make much difference, but never tried one. If you are lookin to break the back end loose, maybe some lightweight wheels also? Just my $.02

[S13FASTBACKSR]

from my thread on welded diffs i remember you saying you already have one of those correct? so your good there...3"exhaust could wait yes if you are looking for power on a budget because you are right its not a big difference if any at all..i have heard of people upgrading and losing power from it! nobody flame its what ive heard from some unfortunate people before...same for a header...pulleys yes...the crankshaft/underdrive pulley is the main thing their..thats whats going to make a difference..the others i would upgrade as well as they do help somewhat because they are light weight..a b&m short shifter is a great upgrade and maybe even a bigger TB..i dont know if they make an aftermarket intake manifold for the k.a. but if they do you would feel a nice gain from that..another thing you could do is yes upgrade the camshafts which would make a big difference and also the injectors..but this of course means reflashing your ecu...also electric fan(s) and an aluminum radiator may show a difference but not much..by the way is it a cold air intake or short ram you are running?

EDIT: sorry i didnt read more carefully but i see you already have the 3" exhaust

[JNM240]

If you plan on doing the front crank pulley, do yourself a HUGE favor and remove the stock clutch fan and wire up some electrics (i got 2 12 inchers wired to a DiF controller). Makes it go from barely noticable (just pulley) to "man, its almost as good as when i put in the Fidanza flywheel" (pulley + fans).

Swapping cams is a big difference, but upgrading the injectors on a NA KA is not necessary. The stock KA runs extremely rich as is. Get into some DIY ECU tuning and you can get the MOST from your EFI system.

[blabla]

from my thread on welded diffs i remember you saying you already have one of those correct? so your good there...3"exhaust could wait yes if you are looking for power on a budget because you are right its not a big difference if any at all..i have heard of people upgrading and losing power from it! nobody flame its what ive heard from some unfortunate people before...same for a header...pulleys yes...the crankshaft/underdrive pulley is the main thing their..thats whats going to make a difference..the others i would upgrade as well as they do help somewhat because they are light weight..a b&m short shifter is a great upgrade and maybe even a bigger TB..i dont know if they make an aftermarket intake manifold for the k.a. but if they do you would feel a nice gain from that..another thing you could do is yes upgrade the camshafts which would make a big difference and also the injectors..but this of course means reflashing your ecu...also electric fan(s) and an aluminum radiator may show a difference but not much..by the way is it a cold air intake or short ram you are running?

EDIT: sorry i didnt read more carefully but i see you already have the 3" exhaust

Wos this is a very disinformative post...

There has been countless dyno of before and after showing that the KA will gain using a 3in exhaust as well as a better intake (should I remind any that the stock airbox is the same one as the one use on my roomates sentra 1.6L engine.... cannot be good...).Those dyno graph also showed that a 3in exhaust gained more poser then a 2.5in -- you can find those on freshalloy there was a dedicated topic about them.Injectores would be a waist of money unless you can get over 200hp out of that poor ka (that would cost you an arm and a leg...).You will gain power with a set of good headers ( DC sport or hotshot for example) this again has been proved by dyno...

Never tried cams but if you go to pdm racing they have dyno of beofre and after their cams and it is something that would make the ka a lot more fun.

For the rest -- lower the rotating mass. That is pretty much all the bolt on you can do.

The kA head flows well some p&p would probably not yield any noticeable gains.And get it dyno tuned once ure done with all that.

[neverlift]

the porting will help but the polish will not from what I gather. No injectors needed even if you get close to 200hp. If you think you need them bigger get an adjustable fpr FTW. I estimate my python rebuilds at about 416cc min at 60 psi base prssure. I get a number that high with my geuss that the injectors flow 10% more than stock 270cc min. People spend alot on fancy injectors for the na ka for no reason, people push them with boost to 9x% duty cycle. As for making power with na ka if your looking for 150whp its possible but still not cheap. A cheap home sourced turbo setup should only cost a few hundred more than a good na build,which you still more than likely will not be happy with. I would skip alot and get cam(s) and ecu tuned for the cams.

[pregmantis]

lower diff gears will give you some good accerlertion(at the cost of some top speed). and the gears really complement a flywheel,header,cams combo.

[s14sleepyeyez]

yes hotshot header and crankshaft/underdrive pulley FTW. its a good and easy mod for the KA's.

[DjPantsSpecR]

i should be at about 180whp is the coming months, and its all going to be for under 1G. dont believe me?

cam gears: free. see my new article.Cams: i use 248/248 with the gearsPistons: 90 SOHCs, with new rings you shouldnt spend mroe than 300 dollars.Intake Manifold: if you odnt know the deal on this one already look around. i built the first one for 30 dollars, ad my next one will be under 50.header: dc sports 100 dollarscat: i gave it a coat hanger abortionexhaust: SSAC n1 dual 3in 183.82 shippedECU: me and live edit are about to get down. should cost about 100 dollars.Intake: cut honda pipe and ****ty APC Greddy knockoff with cold air box and headlight scoop 60 bones.No AC: freeSR 370s: 100 bones ( you will max out your stocks at 180wheel)

thats about exactly 1000 dollars. i have the most weight reduction i can live with. rims, tires, clutch, blah blah woof woof. the moral of the story is this:

if you dont think my 1000 dollar in mods will outrun a stock SR swap, youre soarly mistaken. I'm not willing to throw down the 150 on a flywheel, or the 100 in pulleys, or the 300+ in driveshaft. Thats obviously what i want, but i just cant afford it yet.

i'm just doing my best to see what we can do to this beast for cheap. i'm doing my best to bring all of this info to you. Top End Engineering (or is it performance?) sells a 210hp (probably crank) KA24DE. Look at all that thing has, and its not much. the only thing im going to be missing is headwork, and im going to do it for 3000 dollars less.

so just from the list i stated earlier, its a good place to begin research.

[neverlift]

I agree with all Dj says but the injectors maxing at 180. Stock tune only uses 80~85% duty cycle of the injectors that leaves room inside the ecu for more than 270cc. Also with an adjustable fpr you could further increase your current injectors ability. I can easily go and flood my engine to the point of stalling with fuel just by turning up the pressure. A slight jump from 43(stock)psi to 45psi will start to flow more than a stock motor will use. I have some python rebuilt injector that should flow about 10% more than stock up that with 40% base pressure increase and I estimate them to be about 416cc min, dont take what I say light, I run 60psi base all day but my ecu tune lets me adjust the injector value and compensate the rest of the extra fuel I dont need. I have much better atomization at 60psi then at 43psi, makes fuel burn better due to the misting instead of dripping. I could be way off but I'm sure that there are other posts/forums that back up my statements.

Dj you get your manifold done yet? hurry up damnit j/k And you are going to be mad as f*** when I'm done with the turbo build, I'm already looking to come out cheaper than your build(thats including the custom manifold). I'll be looking for no more than 200whp with the turbo at 5~10psi(I know thats alot of diff but no intercooler might make me choose the lower. I already have most of the parts, except the turbo. Anyone have a cheap t25, hell I could even use an rhb5 even cheaper. I will not post the details until its done. I dont want everyone to do it before me

[831_salinas240sx]

this is regarding:DjPantsSpecR)

I am wondering if you are able to customize these parts for me. you mentioned its about 1ooo.oo borth in total right and still be able to beat an sr20? well, i would like to know if you would be able to customize me these parts that you mentioned, and obviously i'll pay for the shipping and i'll pay you for the labor and all. just give me a rough estimate on how much it would be for all including the labor and shiping.

[neverlift]

umm what do you want him to do? Custom make the parts he bought? Most of the stuff he listed was bought or easily done at home. Hell if you got cash like that I'll make everything with cash up front

Also hes making me a manifold first j/k I'm sure he would rather get paid for his efforts. I dont even have one and would back it for a good 8~13whp all depending on what mods the engine has. Maybe more with the almost double plenum size he has come up with. KA needs that plenum volume IMHO. Stock is small like a honda manifold but with an engine almost twice as big you would think nissan would have made it somewhat bigger than they did. Good ol uncle sam really stuck it to us ion the 240sx. This engine has more potential than nissan cared to get from it. They wanted a torque engine that would work in anything from a truck,sportscar,sedan,even friggin suv. Point is they wanted an easy reliable engine that would take years of abuse, and pass smog. They did it! We have ka's with over 300xxx miles running strong. Got to love the approach they took.

[DjPantsSpecR]

okay, i cant make you any parts except the cam gears (which is show how to make for FREE). eventually ill be selling my intake manifold, that'll run at least 250 dollars.. ANd the ECU tune will only come with time.

i think you can handle the catalytic-coat hanger abortion yourself.

neverlift is right, everything else is bought, i ujst got a HELL of a deal on most of my parts. i was providing a list of a good place to start on an N/A build.

neverlift: my plenum volume isnt larger than the stock one. infact, im pretty sure its smaller than the stock one. as soon as i get you a grasp on computational fluid dynamics (that'll probably be never) you'll see that a smaller plenum makes peak torque at a higher RPM. and we're looking for top end power here. thats why Hondas are such great top end breathers, tiny plenums. if you dont beleive me, pick upa copy of "how to build Honda horsepower" and they dyno like 10 different plenums back to back. you see how too short a runner can be useless, and too big a plenum will lose top end.

im not sure about those injectors though. i'm fairly certain i'll be maxing those injectors out at 200 crank horseies. i wouldnt know for sure until i get into the **** though. dig it

[BIGT94z]

All that brings me to my question. What are some good mods one can do to get more power out of the KA?Thanks for any info.

i did all my mods (w/o 5 speed swap) for roughly 400 (see sig.) and my dyno numbers where more than i expected...light weight pulleys only gain u roughly 2-2.5 for 100...so that would be one of the last mods i would do...just my .02

[neverlift]

Dj your plenum just looks bigger then. I do agree that honda makes power up top and not down low. I'm going to check out fluid dynamics thing. I'm a drop out so bare with me. I believe you man, just misunderstood some of the stuff I read. I can tell you with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator you can get over 200whp. Its not the best way,but look at all the people running just 6:1~12:1 fuel management systems with no upgraded injectors. Thats what I get my theory of uping the pressure to increase the flow(cc min) from, The fmu only raises pressure with boost, in the 6:1's case it will raise base pressure 6psi for every 1psi of boost. So if you ran 43psi base and installed an fmu of 6:1 and ran a max boost of 6psi the fmu will add about 36psi at said 6psi of boost. Make any sense? Its just a cheap out way of fuel upgrade,well not really at over 200 dollars and we wont have boost for some time in my case and not at all in most cases. But then again who all plans to get over 200whp or chp for that matter? I do thats why I have 370cc min injectors at 43psi, waiting to get dropped in. They were freebies. woot woot! I wont even lie I will be attemting to use the stockers for my first stage of turbo build.

Big t you dont gain hp from any pulley setup, you only get back some of the power it takes to drive that part. Even when a light crankshaft is installed you only free up what is there,not gain extra like say an intake or exhaust. Kinda like when people get the lightweight flywheel, they think the car has more power when in reality it maybe gained 1-3whp and alot easier acceleration. They didnt even gain power just gave it back. Most engine manufacturers rate the power before they add any kind of weight or accessory like alternator or ac or even the goddamn fan. So they say 140hp but you really only get like 120 if your lucky which I am not and have a wopping 100 whp. With that all said I think I'm about to go f*** my car up.

[BIGT94z]

Big t you dont gain hp from any pulley setup, you only get back some of the power it takes to drive that part. Even when a light crankshaft is installed you only free up what is there,not gain extra like say an intake or exhaust. Kinda like when people get the lightweight flywheel, they think the car has more power when in reality it maybe gained 1-3whp and alot easier acceleration. They didnt even gain power just gave it back. Most engine manufacturers rate the power before they add any kind of weight or accessory like alternator or ac or even the goddamn fan. So they say 140hp but you really only get like 120 if your lucky which I am not and have a wopping 100 whp. With that all said I think I'm about to go f*** my car up.

i totally agree with u and know this...its just like doing a tune up...of course ur going to gain alittle...

[neverlift]

Kinda the tune up stuff is wearable loss in performance. The lightening of parts free's up power the engine already has.