Some advice please (Long post)

[gomdevil]

I have about $1400 to spend on my 89 240. I have been wrestling between the KA24Et and the CA for about 6 months.

My ultimate goal is a factory charcoal gray (like it already has)+-250hp Silvia k with the CA, or a rebuilt silver KA-t with same hp, both versions with a full restoration. Both may be hooked up with no2 on top of that.

My situation;

I have 96,000 miles on my car. The previous owner abused the engine, and it is on the verge of blowing up. Loose wrist pin or cylinder slap also. Runs very strong, and starts right up. It blows blue smoke, and leaks oil. I go through 1/2 quart a week on average. The clutch slips when shifting above 3k.

The body was in good shape, but has been dinged and dented by morons. Nothing I can't fix. Had rust under the spoiler, some bad stuff on one of the side skirt. Think I have that under control, which is a battle in the Detroit area. The paint is oxidized.

I have a spare KA engine ($100 ebay) that can be rebuilt

I am a grad student, I teach high school, and I support a family of (soon to be) 5 on my modest income. I have little free time until the summer break, which is when that 5th family member should be arriving.

My brother, who is currently in the army wants to help build the car, fund some of it, add the no2 for drag. He pays damages, of course.

The CA/KA would be my daily driver that needs to be dependable. If it goes down, I borrow my grandma's car. She had a stroke and can't drive, she also gave me the $1000 to go to my Nissan. Did not ask for it.

I have also been invited to 2 racing clubs by a fellow teacher who races a Porche 944 and another friend who races a Mitsubishi Spyder, a restored tR-8, and Austin healy Sprites. Sounds like fun, I have not raced since one of my friends died street racing in a Probe in 1997.

Forum members have told me that the CA is hard to get running correctly, and that they are in bad shape. Also to expect 150hp out of the old engine.

I know what is involved in the KA to KA-t thing, and that it will end up costing me $2600 to do it the way I want it done. I am not 100% against an SR swap either. I like all the choices for the 240, and even considered the RB20. The RB25 and 26 are just too expensive.

So the advice thing... in my situation, would you swap a CA (the 250 hp can wait till later), a $1300 front clip when my engine blows? It would have to be driveable within 20 days of arriving.

Or should I rebuild the spare KA for $500, install it now and buy turbo components piece by piece to assemble a couple years down the line when I will have lots more time?

I realize you will be partisan to the CA, but you are the ones with the experience and not just empty opinions.

Thank in advance for your help.

[redamnavit]

Go with the KA, no question. $100 in buffer cash beyond the price of the clip isn't enough to guarantee you'll be on the road in 20 days, let alone at all. The KA is already sitting in your garage and its N/A so there's less to replace/go wrong. Take some of the remaining money and put it towards suspension, or really whatever you need it for.

Good luck to you.

[boost_boy]

Wow! You sound like a family man like myself (I have 3 kids) and you wanna have some fun on a modest, but designated income. I would go with a CA and take some of the advice that some of the members can offer you. There is a way to boost on your budget, but if you don't pay attention to the advice that will be given to you, everything you do will just be academic. I personally could care less for the SR or KA. They both are good nissan engines that has been proven to perform well, but they both are plagued with some of the main issues that some kids and even grown-ups over-look due to their displacement settings and that's that they are both mechanically designed cheap-@$$ nissan engines.

They both have timing chains, the SR has limits that if you don't take heed, you'll be spending money (inferior valve train). Cost is still expensive for a swap compared to the CA, but regardless of what I say, people still love them. The KA is Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde engine. Boosted, it will give you nice performance down low with good useable torque, great horsepower, and an fairly decent ride. But if and when you move up in power with the KA, they have been know to show you their legs by opening a portal in it's block to play show and tell.

The CA is a relatively small engine, which when compared to the others is lighter, and have been put down by those who have never owned one or those who have failed with their CAs because they didn't pay attention or they knew a little too much and didn't know diddly-squatt. Your goal of 200-250hp is easily obtainable with the CA and a 250whp CA is nothing to sneeze at.

The bottom line is my choice is the CA for your dilemma. And if you are truly serious about reliable low-budget fun, take my advice which is tagged with 9 years experience with this partricular family of engines.

Dee

[float_6969]

I'm up in the air on this one. The CA is a great motor, and CAN be a budget build. BUT I've seen a lot of people come in here with your situation and not leave happy.

Although I hate to say it, I think that in your particular situation, the KA is the way to go under one condition.

Don't exceed 230-250hp with it. KA-T's don't like to keep their rods in their blocks sometimes, and it only happens with the higher horsepower figures.

[lifelicksballs]

i heard turboed ka's never last long because of something about oil squirters not being in there and just wasnt meant for turbos...i think you should go with red and get a ka and squeeze 20 more hp and spend the rest on suspensions its just more fun that way

[rico05]

The KA does in fact have oil squirters due to the other life it lives as a turck motor.

The KA is a fabulous motor in mild turbo tune, but anything more than 7-8lbs on a T3 (lets just say a Super 60 for ease of arguement sake) and the rods will pretzel with boost in low RPMs. The CA is not a hard engine to get to run. I paid about $1500 for a stock running swap that I have yet to crack open, and other than lines, plugs, and hoses, it is the same as it came off the assembly line.

Now, for the real question: What kind of long term goals do you have? Someone at home going to need braces? Everyone have health insurance? Not to be nosy, but I am a 22 year old college student, and if I get somewhere financially that I can't get out of (like blowing a clutch, or taking out my HG) my mom or Uncle Sam (aka Student Loans) can come to my rescue. This will be a project car, and as such, things will break, pop, fall apart, and need replacing almost monthly. It is all about where you want to go. On spray, the KA can hit ~220rwhp N/A with all the bolt ons you can get. But all in all, if you are wanting boost, the CA is really the best option for long term tuning. I have acquantences that have done KA-Ts for under $1000, but almost none of them have lived long before a tear down and rebuild.

And this crap about 150hp and old engine: When I first did my swap, right after I bolted on my 3" exhaust and HiPower catback, I raced a buddy on the highway in his SR. I got lucky, and my motorset came with a SR20 T25G .80a/r so we had the same exact setup, at 7psi we were dead even. I can shift faster than him, so by the time we hit 5th, I was actually a little ahead. He has a 96 blacktop, and my little old 88 CA showed him who is boss

[gomdevil]

Yeah, everyone is making good points. Democratic decisions point to the KA, not what I expected.

I thought the KA24DE had squirters, and my KA24E did not.

I am only looking for a <100hp gain on the KA, 5-7psi boost. I just want to go as far as stock injectors and MAF will take me.

People have gone 14psi on stock ka24e internals.

I am a public school (art) teacher, so unless the republicans have their way I have insurance. My boys re leeetle so no braces (just preschool). If my car blows I have my gramma's car for backup. In 4-5 years from now I see myself in much stronger financial position. I get a raise from having a masters degree, on top of yearly raises, and my wife can get back to work.

Another reason I was thinking CA is that I took the wife to a few classic car shows. Had a lot of old Vettes, Mustangs, Camaros, a few Panteras, Triumphs,etc. The single Japanese car there was a riced integra. If I had more beers in me I woulda pissed on it. Sensing my outrage, my wife suggested that I restore the 240sx, give it a classic turbo engine and display it as a classic car years down the line. Maybe sell it for a profit.

So that is where I got the Silvia k idea from, the CA is a classic and an alternative to the SR (which we all know has too much aluminum). And if the wife is in on it, there is a lot less arguement.

I would rather have fun with it, tinker around and be all go and no show...which is the KA-t side. With the suspension stuff too.

Maybe I should KA-t now and have my fun(er) car, get more experience, and get an ebay "I wuz half way threw my SR swap when..." 2nd car to CA. Preferably an 89 coupe.

[Veen]

I bought my CA18DET almost a year ago. Had a mechanic friend of mine stick it in who said, "OH YEAH IT'LL BE A WEEKEND JOB!" Eight months later I tell him to tow that sucker to my house and drop it off in front of my garage, because I was tired of waiting on him to do crap and asking ME questions about the swap. I figured at the point he gave it to me I could get it running in like five days, since I was already researching the issues he was running into and telling him what needed to be done. That was.... eh.... 15 days ago? And I still need to get the following done:

1) Find CA18DET HICAS Pump2) Install Intercooler in place of old KA Resonator3) Find stock hotpipe/coldpipe to SMIC4) Fix broken clutch solenoid bleeder valve (oops) 5) Find stock CA AC Pump6) Fix knock sensor7) Actually fire the thing up and hope I got everything right and it actually works first try ( yeah right )

Edit: Not saying the CA is a horrid engine, just the opposite. It's a great engine and that's why I bought one. As far as engine swaps, it's actually pretty painless. However, even the simplest engine swap is a bit time consuming, and you might not have the time to do it, especially with other stuff going on and especially if this is your first engine swap.

[gomdevil]

That is exactly the type of situation I do not want to be in. I have lots of people around that work on cars, have all the tools, great garages, none of them are knowledgeable on Nissan, or turbos for that matter.

[Veen]

I knew it was time to take the car back when he said, "I think you might need some sparkplug wires and a new distributor though, looks like they didn't ship that."

And yeah, it sucks. You just want it done, but you know the work is a huge PITA, and it keeps getting delayed, and finally you just take it back yourself and go, "I could have done this myself. WTF."

[Sil40sK]

Hey man, sounds like you're in roughly the same situation I am. You need a 240 that'll be a good daily driver yet still be able to have fun with it on the weekends. Good luck on the project. I noticed you live in detroit. I live up in Lansing, if you need any help with wiring, swapping, or whatever, just get at me on aim. OppositeLockTSF.

[boost_boy]

The CA really isn't that hard to install nor wire, but when you get stuck you have to ask people that done it and try and deal with them one on one instead of publicly in our forum. I personally like the forum discussion idea, but it's hard to get things exactly pin-pointed the way you'd like them to be.

Dee

[Veen]

It's that and try to muscle through quite possibly the most archaic and painful factory service manual in existence. Also one that has no index at the back, despite being like 750+ pages. I can find out how to strip my interior to the bone no problem, but I can't just go to the back and look up the term, "Knock Sensor" and see where it's referenced, causing me to go on a two day manhunt for the thing. Thanks Nissan!

It's especially painful when I have this quite obviously near-perfect CA sitting here, that I've had sitting here for like nine months, and can do NOTHING about it but hack at it until I run into the next stop, and then get delayed another day or two due to stores being closed/information not being readily available in the FSM.

Still, I know that when this DOES get done, it'll totally be worth it. Almost there.... almost there...

[gomdevil]

Thanks, really seems that the CA people are very supportive and objective.

I may still go CA, I guess I will be forced into a decision sooner or later.

May end up bugging you guys with questions then.