wa-chiss' "slowly but surely" build

[wa-chiss]

The basics:
KA24E. Yes a single cam. I have grown quite fond of this engine so please reserve your negative comments for another thread, not mine. Thank you.

I acquired a spare engine while I was still attending college. I have since graduated, in the field, and making money. I'm one of only two Toyota technicians at my dealership so you can only imagine how busy I can get. Busy = $Money$ .

I did some measuring of the block to see if it has been molested yet. Nope, almost exactly 89mm. the biggest reading I got was 89.01mm. I was told the engine had only 90K on it. I believe it now. Very little ridge on the cylinders and very little wear seen on the bearings.

Ledford's machine shop in waco, tx:
The block will be bored to 89.5mm
My complete rotating assembly will be balanced

O&J Performance:
Eagle rods
Arias 10.7CR pistons
SI valves
Outer valve springs
Possibly a cam
and ARP hardware

NISMOparts.com:
bronze timing drive gears

The head will remain untouched besides the mentioned parts. I have sourced a copper HG and will be doing some custom mods to my stock intake manifold that I have yet to see done before. I will incorporate ITB's into the stock manifold and retain the plenum. I'll make a custom plenum later. The throttle valves will be mounted in between the plenum and lower manifold via a spacer. I have measured for hood clearance. The throttle body will be replaced by a Z32 MAFS and the idle air will be plumbed through the EGR ports in the runners. (I'll have to open the holes there a little). Sounds complicated on paper but it's rather easy. It just moves everything closer to the engine. Onto the pics.....

The block:


I only found one thing wrong with the engine. The #2 piston has a broken ring land.


all the journals on the crank are B E A Utiful.


I have spent hours cleaning this manifold. I had a great tip from a coworker. Oven cleaner.


I have done some extra cleaning since this picture was taken. The runners are spotless now.


This is where all the magic will be put together. My workbench in the shop.


All my parts are either in the bottom of my workbench or the back of my Xterra


The engine that currently resides in the car


and just for giggles, my favorite part of my car.





My ultimate goal, high compression plus low boost. Maybe 7-10 PSI. Thats why I'm keeping the plenum. I'll boost it in about a year to 18 months. That's also why I'm going with a copper HG and ARP hardware. The pistons and rods can handle it. All I'm concerned with is the timing. I'll just bridge that gap when I get there.

[idahotuner]

sounds interesting, sometimes i wonder if itbs are worth it

[KAman19]

looking forward for updates!

[breadbox]

woot a SOHC build. Nice mang.

[wa-chiss]

What's up guys. I have a little update for yall. And I mean little.

I started sand blasting all of my accessory brackets and my pulleys. I only had an hour to work on them and didn't get that far. I took a before picture of them all and I'll post it up with an after picture once their all done. I have some matte black engine enamel that will go on.

Yeah, you don't see many SOHC builds. Thats probably because swaps are becoming more affordable and easier to do with all the swap kits and parts available. I know there are other options I can choose from that will be reliable and slightly less expensive, but I'm not ready for them yet. To be honest, I have looked at other options. I have a 2JZGE just sitting at my coworkers house. All it needs is a HG and accessories and it's complete. I personally know people with LSx swaps and I have serious plans to do one farther down the road. For now, though, after stepping back and realizing not every path has been taken with the KA24E, I have chosen to explore them.

I have many ideas that I want to explore. Ideas for an airbox system. It will mount in the stock location and it'll have a removable top that air will enter from the slits I will make in the hood. When it rains, i will replace the top and air will enter through a hole coming from the fender like the stock airbox has. I also have an idea for an intercooler. I will not be using an air-to-air intercooler. I have acquired 2 Prius inverter pumps from vehicles I have worked on. I will use them to pump water/coolant through my water-air intercooler. I haven't decided if I want to run them piggy-back or side-by-side yet as I am sure either orientation will suffice. I'll make that decision when I run some pressure and flow tests to see how much they can pump. I have other ideas but I'm sure I have already bored you so I won't get into it all.

[wa-chiss]

sounds interesting, sometimes i wonder if itbs are worth it

I got my idea from the RB26DE. Seeing as it has ITB's and still retains the plenum. Obviously Nissan saw an advantage to ITB's so I intend to see why.

[wa-chiss]

Well, last weekend and the week up to this day have been a wash. I would strongly advise against getting Wibb internet. (Wireless internet broadband). At least from a newer company. It rained last friday and saturday and somehow that made my internet inop until last night at 10:00pm. I swear, a bird could fart in the signal path and I would loose internet for a week. Also, my boss has some boyish infatuation with old toy tractors. And seeing as how the sand blaster I use is his, when he wants me to sand blast his ghey tractors after work, my stuff gets put on hold.


However, once I realized I had internet last night, I ordered my pistons, rods, and exhaust outter valve springs. I wish O & J Performance would have responded to my PM on NICO before I ordered everything. Oh well, I spent almost $900 on the website and I will be ordering more from them in a short while.

[wa-chiss]

Another update.

I finally got my Eagle rods in. I'm hoping the pistons arrive soon, I still need to have my block done to fit the pistons and I'll need everything to get the rotating assembly balanced.

The rods:


I also got most of my pulley's sprayed with low-gloss black engine enamel:

The before:


The after:


The photos do the pulley's and brackets no justice. They look fantastic in person. I have blasted the A/C mount but haven't sprayed it yet. They idler pulley's won't get blasted until I get new bearings for them and press the old ones out.

[wa-chiss]

NIce little update here. It's been a while since I last had any good news. I ordered a fidanza flywheel. Actually, I ordered a nissan motorsports flywheel and they sent a fidanza. It works, so I'm happy.

I got my pistons in today.......finally. It's been almost a month since I placed my order, but they had to be specially made so they were worth the wait.

The box says it all.




WOW! These things have a LOT of dome on them. 9.1:1 pistons are flat, these obviously aren't flat.


My ARP Head & Main Studs with my performance outer valve springs



I also ordered a Nismo bronze oil pump/dizzy drive gear with a new spindle



My new flywheel.



I think I might go with a stock clutch for now. I still haven't made the final decision on that, but I'll need to soon. I'll be ordering a Cometic MLS HG for a KA24DE from O&J Performance while my engine is at the machine shop. I'll just cut off the area where the timing cover goes. I also need some ideas for bearings. I'm waiting to get the final specs on my journals before I go out and buy some, so I have a little while.

I'm getting kinda antsy about this now that everything is coming in.

[costa_rican13]

i'm not sure if the stock clutch will over 6 psi. just change it too.

[badbob2121]

just change it too.

Honestly it is going to be much simpler to change it now then later

otherwise the current parts list looks great

[wa-chiss]

thanks guys.

It took me a few minutes to figure out why there are 4 valve reliefs in the pistons on a 3 valve engine. I figured out it's because the exhaust valve can either be on the front or back side of the chamber depending on cylinder. So, to make things easier they just make the pistons fit any cylinder in the engine. I thought they had sent me DE pistons at first.

[wa-chiss]

Lol. I left this hanging. Sadly, I did not take any pictures of my progress after the last post. The engine went together quite easily. I got it installed and hooked up in 2013. It didn't start up right away. I had to adjust the distributor spindle 1 tooth to get the timing in range. After that, she fired up and it took a little finagling to get her to idle. It's on the stock ecu and tune, for the moment. I'm currently looking into Nistune, bigger injectors, z32 MAFS, an adjustable FPR, aluminum radiator, and electric fans.

Any advice on Nistune or possible other alternatives would be great! I've never messed with the actual tune of a vehicle, just observed the data list. I've heard of people getting chips, burners, and tuning software, but I can't seem to locate that info again or find the program for download. All topics or posts I find are outdated with broken links. Like Rom Editor; can't seem to find a working link.

[Hijacker]

Glad to see you're still at it! Since you posted last. Since you updated last, http://www.nismotronic.com/ became a thing, and I've heard some pretty good feedback from them and it's a solid alternative to Nistune. I don't have any experience with either setups, but I can say I'm planning on Nismotronic after some research and reviews.

[wa-chiss]

Yeah, I found nismotronic earlier, but I don't see any support for the single cam.

[Hijacker]

Taken off their FAQ

Yes, NismoTronicSA will work on your KA24E (SOHC) engine BUT you will need to run a KA24DE (DOHC) ECU. The KA24DE ECU will plug directly into your KA24E engine harness and does not require any additional rewiring or modification to the engine or harness

I'm just tossing this out there as an option, not trying to push it on you.

[wa-chiss]

That's new, I guess I never thought about using the DE ecu. It's a good thing you knew that and told me. I was planning on contacting them about it today. I was planning on getting a separate ECU to use anyway. Thank you. I wonder what the benefits are to using the DE ECU with nismotronic vs. SOHC ECU with Nistune?

[wa-chiss]

I stopped looking at the website when I thought there wasn't any SOHC support. WOW, I think I'm going Nismotronic now. They've got start-up calibrations for the SOHC, bluetooth capability, they offer a DE ECU with purchase at a reasonable price with install, etc. I'd just need a cheap laptop looks like. I don't think I'll get the bluetooth though. I don't really see the benefits of having it.

[Hijacker]

That's new, I guess I never thought about using the DE ecu. It's a good thing you knew that and told me. I was planning on contacting them about it today. I was planning on getting a separate ECU to use anyway. Thank you. I wonder what the benefits are to using the DE ECU with nismotronic vs. SOHC ECU with Nistune?

There are some comparison reviews out there on google. I wouldn't worry so much with comparing the exact application (DOHC ECU on Nismotronic vs SOHC ECU on Nistune), but focus on reviews that compare the features and benefits of each package against each other. I know the Nismotronic guys are still actively developing their suite, but I don't know about Nistune to be honest. Active developers are worth a ton IMO.

[wa-chiss]

Yeah, I googled the comparison. It seems the general consensus is Nismotronic would be best, is easy to use (just as easy if not easier than Nistune), and has more features than Nistune.