what would you do

[danm3286]

i recently bought a 91 240sx se with the ka24de in it. im looking into turbo charging it and have read around a lil bit on the forum and im kinda getting that the ka may not be able to handle turbo? correct me if im wrong. i currently have 120k miles and to me that seems like a lot to add a turbo. so im kinda stuck here. add the turbo or do an engine swap. if i go for the engine swap... which engine? i want to put down some good numbers and save money. im a teenager with a short budget. so yeah the sr20det would be nice but its about $2500 and then id have to get it shipped and installed. so what would you do in my situation. whats a good engine putting down good numbers that i can get at a fairly low cost with low mileage. ive noticed a lot of the sr20dets come with under or around 40k miles which would be nice since this car will need to last me for another 9 years and i dont think my current engine would be able to

[SingleCamSam]

Do a compression test. If the motor is good, turbo it. There's a couple 100k plus KAT's last i saw.

[240marcuSX]

the KA is capable, you might have to rebuild it, but it can handle boost. It depends on how fast you want to be, i bet you could even go N/A KA and hit 14s with some moderate work. but youll probably never see lower than that or hp higher than 200 rwhp or so. do like sam said. find a nice kit, and dont waste money, since you have a short budget.

[danm3286]

where can i do a compression test at... i may have a bigger budget now. 3 jobs as a sr in high school. that should be enouhg to get somethin on that engine

[WAbernethy]

Bring it over to my house and I'll test the compression for you.

[WDRacing]

The key is learning about the engine itself before dropping a turbo on or wanting to do a swap.

Are you doing the work yourself? If so then do the CR check as suggested, if the CR is within tolerance, then install the turbo and tune the fuel. Or simply use a kit which should come with everything you need. Going SR is no longer the only option for getting good power out of your 240.

WD

[danm3286]

a friend of mine is gonna help me with it. he does all the work on his car and i feel confident that hell be able to do a good job. if he cant do somethin my mechanic will do some of it maybe. im hoping to get it all done between me and my friend though.