The story of my Ka-T.

[Toahk]

I was bored today and I usually never write, but I felt like putting together a lil story of my project ka-t. Here it is, hope you enjoy.

Well I put together the kit over the summer and fall months of '04, had it all planned to do the turbo kit over thanksgiving break. That didn’t work out, so I had 5 weeks off in december/january so I planned on doing it then. Come that time, I have all my parts ready, should be straight bolt up installation. Well my kit was a pieced together kit for my single cam, including used unknown condition 460cc injectors from the junkyard, z31 t3 turbo from the junkyard unknown condition, safc2, plx wbo2, stock sr side mount with stock bypass valve, spec stage 3, and all the other little fittings and misc. So come time I start tearing off all the old **** of my motor, many told me I couldn’t turbo the motor as it had 270k miles on it. Had decent compression, and I almost assumed it was a rebuild. I was curious, because I bought the car at the auction with 240k some miles on it. Anyways get down to pulling the pan and I find many chunks of the timing guide in the pan, so I figured “hmm prob not a rebuild”. Anyways so im up at my uncles shop all alone, I skipped the xmas thing with the relatives this year to get my ka-t install done, so I woke up to an empty house on xmas day just to install my kit! So it all goes on, hardest part is dropping the transmission and installing a clutch by yourself. I throw some base settings on the safc and what do you know, it starts right up. Open down pipe and it roars like a mother! It’s shaking like crazy so I check the injector clips I modified to fit and one was loose, plug it in and it starts purring! So come time I finish up making it all pretty and hiding all the wiring, throw all the wheels and susp back on. And now im ready to take it for its first drive. Before all this I set the timing to 17btdc because I was misinformed and thought the stock timing was 20btdc. Anyways its quick, I go up and down the road out there doing some butt tuning with my wideband and safc (first time ive ever touched one). I get my a/f's in the mid 11's under boost and around 14.6-14.8 under cruise. So all is well. So a few days later its time for me to head home (220 miles over a bunch of mountain passes (hwy 299 from eureka to Redding then down to Chico for your norcal'rs). So I make it fine, cars running great and I put about 1200 miles on it before I figure out that stock timing is 15btdc and go . So ive been running advance-timing doing like 4-5 lbs for 1200 miles. I get the timing gun out and throw it down to 12 btdc to be safe. Runs great, do a comp test and its still great, so I didn’t detonate or anything. Well a few weeks later I got the 3" exhaust on, and my manual boost controller.(joe P MBC is great btw, holds boost with no spiking at all) Well you know how it goes, after a lil while its not fast enough anymore. So I do 7lbs and figure that’s as high as I will go. Great feels quick, the 3" exhaust made a world of diff! ......Lets see what 8psi feels like....lil bit quicker. So then why the hell not, 10psi on a bone stock internal 270k-mile motor! Wow its fast! So that’s where im at now, driving around on about 10psi with about 4k miles since turbo and no problems so far **knock on wood** I just got finished with a drift event in Stockton last weekend, beating on the car all day long, and its still holding up....just goes to show you that the ka is a Beast. I hope to see more ka-t’s up here in the future, I helped install a greddy kit on a friends s14, and helped another friend piece together a kit for his single cam. Total my kit was about 1500 bucks, and is one of my best mod’s to date. Anyways I don’t know how long I will keep the car, I don’t really have anything else to do to it.. Project complete.

[PalmerWMD]

AWESOME!!!!

Fred..

[crzycav86]

Why not buy a spare motor, and build it up for more boost? That sounds like a good second project.... unless you want to try something completely different..

Anyway, I'm currently living out the story of my ka-t. We'll see how it ends.

[Jookmasta]

another story to the ka-t book. we should start a sticky with all these stories as each one is always different. Altho ur install showed no signs of frustration............lucky u

[jacob360]

Sounds like the boost gods are smiling down upon you. I've been thinking about saying f*** it, and just tossing something together like you. Somehow, I don't think I'd be as lucky.

[AkademikONE]

Great story. I'm planning on sending out my block to be rebuilt.

[S13 Charlie]

Righteous story man!

up until a few days ago, I was sure that when I had the funds, I was going to swap (SR or RB). Then I saw someones sig that said "I'd rather boost a 130k engine, than buy a used 40k JDM engine" and it made a lot of sense. Then I saw how much torque the KA makes even with moderate boost levels and that is making me extremely interested in sticking with the KA.

Good work getting your kit together, and getting it up and running with (seemingly) no hitches.