Rebuild Ka24De or buy Sr20det?

[slc240sxse]

Although I have pretty much decided with putting in an SR20DET, would there be any benefit to rebuilding my KA24DE? If I were to go with the KA option, I would want to build it up just right, so that I could get around 300+ HP, but stay within the budget of replacing it with an SR20 (around 4 Grand). Of course this would be turing the KA into a KA-T. What are some of your feelings on this? My 240 is currently an Automatic, and I am tossing around the idea of buying my SR20DET clip with an Automatic, or doing the 5 Speed swap. What it basically comes down to, are there benefits to keeping the KA, or just saying "Screw it" and go with my original plan of putting in an SR20DET?

Thanks!

[TheOne]

if you get a good tune and the engine is in good condition, you can get 300-350hp on stock internals......and with $4g thats more than enough to do it. you will most likely get more torque through the ka, tho the sr revs higher.(or at least as far as i remember)

go the way you really want......

[spider_slayer]

man, wish i had 4k to blow..........

but the sr swap often can cost alot more then 4g's man.....i have an sr and love it...but if i had to do it over again i think i minght go with the ka set up because you have .4 more liters of displacement, if you kill your engine a new block can be sourced from a junkyard, and best of all no worrying about having an engine that has been shipped thousands of miles out of a totaled car and could turn out to be a lemon

[sean8564]

what about a rb20 swap i know a shop that dose rb swaps for around 3700 for the 20 and 5700 for the 25 email me if you want the [email protected] then you can have a skyline motor + silvia body=one fast mofo

[dft24ds]

I say rebuild ka b/c a front clip will cost around 3k+, then you have to install it. Did you plan on putting it in yourself or is a shop going to do it for you? Keep in mind a lot of shops want an arm and a leg for a sr install at least around here, 2500 to be exact!. I was in the same situation a while back but I decided to go Ka-t because everything seemed so much cheaper...and people will argue with you till they are blue in the face about which motor is better, but the truth of the matter is its your decision. If I were you find someone with a sr and someone with a ka-t and get to know them, ride in their car, hell drive their car if they let you and just find your preference as to which on you like better.

[slc240sxse]

Well I have made up my mind. I'm going to go for the KA-T. Toss a better assend in her, such as the J30 or other, and go for it that route. I assume that there are plenty of sticky topics on here about build up on 240s for the KA-T. Now that I have decided to go with the KA-T. I have rebuilt quite a few other Mopar Big Block Motors in my past, 383 and 440 engines, so I'm quite familiar with what I need to do...

Time to start the plan for this project.

The only major question I have now is.. Do i swap out the auto or keep it?

Pro's and cons on that guys?

Thx!

[Ender_Zero]

get rid of it....auto=no fun

[skylinedreams]

good choice on turbo'ing the ka but why would you even consider keeping it autotragic. unless all you plan on doing is drag racing with it that is proably the only gain of auto transmission. most people might argue with me on that one.

[slc240sxse]

Agreed. After hitting up the KA-T forum, its only wise to get rid of the automatic. So, that's what I'm going to do.

[Neejay]

Agreed. After hitting up the KA-T forum, its only wise to get rid of the automatic. So, that's what I'm going to do.

I guess it also depends on what you want to do with your car. If all I could get on a clip was auto, I'd stick with it because I only daily drive (and Ive never owned a manual, nor do I know how to drive it decently enough on the main roads).

autox, drifting, etc. = manual (I would assume). Man I wish I had the skills/money to do a ka-t or ca18det

[slc240sxse]

Well, the only dilemma that I am faced with at this time is to do a ton of research on the proper internals. As I mentioned before, I've had no problem rebuilding engines in the past for my Mopar projects. With those though, it has been fairly simple. I'm hoping that it will also be the case here. This will however be my first turbo project. About all I know is that I should have a lower compression ratio, such as 8:1, to run a higher boost level. As far as what cam, and pistons I should go with, I really have no clue. My last project was my 71' GTX 440 Six Pack. It was bored 60 over, with 10.5:1 pistons, a purple cam (longer duration) timing gears, as well as a complete rebuild of the 3 2 barrel carbs, each of which had about 250cfm if I'm not mistaken. That was easy enough to have done. I also had some great lifters tossed in the head.

Does anyone know of a great shop that I can buy all of the above items, or are there any specific hardware suggestions (brands) that I should go with? Will I need stronger rods to run more boost? I know that when I rebuilt my 440, I had stronger rods due to the six pack. That car dyno'd out at about 400hp with about 425+ torque NA.

Also, once I build up the engine, and all is done such as big injectors, a larger MAF, and what not, I hear that JWT can do custom ECU programming for these engines?

Thanks!

[fabio420]

I'm on the same boat right now. I am rebuilding the ka myself with.020 over in the cylinders. Now the engine stock can hold from 350-400 hp, now you have to ask how much power you want to have. If you want to keep it under 500hp the rods just need to be pinione, not replaced.The automatic transmission will give before any of you engine components, so build it up, or swap it out.( I'm going to experiment with a torque converter). I happen to know that with 4k, you can rebuild the whole block and head to hold 700hp, and add a turbo including an SAFC II, turbo timer, intercooler and the such(as long as you do the labor yourself) For most of the parts for the engine rebuild, check out ka24de.com. For the turbo and accessories, I got most of it from ebay.

[jab11185]

I'm on the same boat right now. I am rebuilding the ka myself with.020 over in the cylinders. Now the engine stock can hold from 350-400 hp, now you have to ask how much power you want to have. If you want to keep it under 500hp the rods just need to be pinione, not replaced.The automatic transmission will give before any of you engine components, so build it up, or swap it out.( I'm going to experiment with a torque converter). I happen to know that with 4k, you can rebuild the whole block and head to hold 700hp, and add a turbo including an SAFC II, turbo timer, intercooler and the such(as long as you do the labor yourself) For most of the parts for the engine rebuild, check out ka24de.com. For the turbo and accessories, I got most of it from ebay.

you can def get rods....and with 4k at ur disposal you should...(do it right the first time...)

and 700 HP?? where'd you get that? i was under the impression that Ivan made 638.....and SAFC and 700 Hp should not be in the same sentence without greddy e-manage, AEM ems, or a tuned ECU using the SAFC as a correction piece....as for engine build pieces, ka24de.com is a great place to go....but eBay for turbo stuff?? with 4 grand laying around?? no no no....240sxmotoring.com has some good t3/t4 turbos (i personally am ordering the sc50 69 trim .63 a/r within the next two weeks) cheapturbo.com has some BIG ones kickin around, if you need manifolds theres a sticky in the KA-t section with links to a bunch of em