# Supercharging the KA What do you think



## Sabot (Feb 27, 2003)

What do you all think about supercharging the KA
Read over this stuff first
Procharger distributer 
Price $2888.95 Intercooled supercharger
Procharger Website 

Disadvantages I can think of.
Its a generic system so how much fabrication will be needed?
Not heard of many ppl doing this so your kinda on your own
A lot of unknowns. How much boost can you run, what other modifications, 
Will it make as much horsepower as an equivalently priced turbo kit?
Potential for how much hp can you make?

Advantages
Dare to be different
Cost may be less
no wiring problems that a engine swap entails
may well be emissions legal

I have thought about doing this
Put the system on my 240,000 mile ka24e and do an endurance test increasing the boost starting at 5 psi and keep increasing it until the motor blows. Hopefully not damaging the supercharger so that can put on the KA24DE that I am going to put in anyway.
Which if I drive about a 1000 miles or so between boost increases should give a good indication of just how good the ka engines are. Of course surviving the first 1000 miles on a stock 240,000 mile ka24e is a big if  

Yes I am crazy


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## Joel (Jun 11, 2003)

Looks interesting,
A centrifugal supercharger (turbo charger thats driven by a belt rather than exhaust) are classically very inefficient as the belt cant drive the compressor wheel fast enough. But This one is geared which may make a difference. I cant see it producing the levels of boost possible with a turbo charger but the power is more linear and usually comes on much earlier than a turbo.

You would still need to do the AFM, injectors and remap ecu though.
For the same price a turbo will give you more power but this is different a you might as well research it some more.


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## BlueBOB (Jan 29, 2003)

first off, ProCharger rules!

i've got quite a few domestic buddies, and everyone knows that procharger makes THE best superchargers. a supercharger is less efficient and some cannot push AS much boost, but 1 bar of pressure isn't hard.

no matter how you're boosting the KA, i wouldn't go over 7psi on stock internals. period.

joel is right that you'll still have to remap the ECU and upgrade a few things which is gonna be difficult, but you could be a good test car for JWT if you've got the time.

ProCharger just finished making their FIRST supercharger for the G35 Coupe. There is a dealership here in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex that sent one of their own G35's to ATI to have them use it to test fit the very first supercharger. It took them 3-4 months and it's a beautiful thing. They use a 3 pulley system to reduce the possibility of slipping making the supercharger more efficient. They didn't say how much it could put out pressure wise. They only put it up to 6psi on the G35. I was lucky enough to attend the event they hosted to show it off and boy was that thing so damn gorgeous.

Chris


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## Sabot (Feb 27, 2003)

JWT = Jim Wolf Technology Right

I thought of another advantage. A license plate that read 24KAES or 24KADES

I gathered from Z-Mike that a stad-alone seems to be a key part in making big power from the KA

The advantage of a 90 KA24e 8.6:1 Compression Ratio = more boost.

From Procharger 
"
For Intercooled ProCharger EFI/TPI applications with compression ratios less than 9.5:1, boost levels of 14-17 psi can be safely run with full timing on pump gas, and will produce horsepower gains of 75-100% (depending upon the boost level and the motor specifications). For 9.5:1 EFI/TPI applications running without an intercooler, boost levels above 5 psi will require the use of ignition/timing retard on pump gas, and will produce horsepower gains of 35-45%. Boost levels above 12 psi should generally be avoided even with racing fuel on a 9.5:1 motor. Of course, lower compression motors will be able to run more boost, and higher compression motors should run less boost, everything else being equal. All Intercooled ProCharger systems for street applications are designed to allow the use of pump gas with full timing and will not affect daily drivability"


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## SkaterRacer (Mar 10, 2003)

I'd say that if you wanted to supercharge a KA, a roots type would be best, just cause it gives you the bigger engine feeling. A centrifugal has more peakiness than a turbo and worse response. I just don't like em on anything but V8's, which is what they're best at boosting. But with the KA's crap top end power, it might be a good match.


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## nx2000 (Jan 24, 2003)

I am personally NOT abig fan of superchargers. They cost the same as a turbo kit but are inferior...at least in my opinion. Besides steady boost, what advantages does a supercharger have over a turbo kit??? Raising the boost would be as simple as turning a knob or spring (in the case of a manual BC). Witha supercharger you have to buy new pullies. To me the advantages of a supercharger dont outweigh the advantages of a turbo. I dont see why everyone wants to be so different. Im sure someone else has thought of this and the reason we dont see many supercharged KA's is because it isnt cost beneficial or worth the custom fabrication. Sometimes it is better to follow the beaten path...just my .02 cents


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## megaseth (May 18, 2003)

That and its hella difficult to fit one in the engine bay. the KA has a nice low end, and the SC would add to it, but thats all you would have. the top end would still be low. SC are great for 1/4 cars where you want a lot of power as fast as you can to get down that stretch, thats why funny cars are SC'd. The best thing is to SC and turbo an engine. you'd have a constant amount of HP throughout the power band. the only draw back is mounting and tuning them to work with each other instead of against. Lancia was one of the few who did this and had really good results.


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## HondaHater (Aug 27, 2003)

does anyone have a sr20der


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## Sabot (Feb 27, 2003)

nx2000 said:


> *I am personally NOT abig fan of superchargers. They cost the same as a turbo kit but are inferior...at least in my opinion. Besides steady boost, what advantages does a supercharger have over a turbo kit??? Raising the boost would be as simple as turning a knob or spring (in the case of a manual BC). Witha supercharger you have to buy new pullies. To me the advantages of a supercharger dont outweigh the advantages of a turbo. I dont see why everyone wants to be so different. Im sure someone else has thought of this and the reason we dont see many supercharged KA's is because it isnt cost beneficial or worth the custom fabrication. Sometimes it is better to follow the beaten path...just my .02 cents *


Well I'm still researching it. But what so terrible about a hole shot car. I don't where you drive but where I'm at there to many places were you can wind out top end of a turbo'd car anyway. The ka is strong on the bottom of the rpm range why not play on its strengths? There are plenty of places were acceleration off the line or out of a corner are better. 
Maybe just maybe supercharging is not the beaten path because no-one has really explored it. Maybe the people that did do it did it before Procharger came out with a supercharger that's intercooled and designed for use in compact imports and can produce up to 1 bar boost which should double the hp over stock.
Remember at one point in time people thought it wasn't cost beneficial to turbo the ka. Its still hard to find a complete kit for the SOHC KA. And only customized turbo applications for the KA weren't that long ago.
Thanks for 2 cents though. Its what this place is all about. Intellegent discussions about Nissans


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## nx2000 (Jan 24, 2003)

Good points. Maybe no one has documented it or no one has gone down that path. Most thought it was heavy fabrication for the RB until recently (1 or two years I guess). So go for it. I have heard few discussions about ti, but most people ended up giving up since it was too cost prohibitive and didnt really give a hugge advantage over gettign a turbo kit. I would like to see it done just to shut peopel up...


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## Sabot (Feb 27, 2003)

Well I did some research
Seems a properly sized turbo is probably makes makes more power and torque across the rpm. Here is a dyno comparison of a supercharged BMW M3 vs a turbo M3 both at 8 psi. So the only advantage of a supercharger is probably easier installation if there was a complete kit which there isn't. Modern turbo's don't really seem to have much lag which negates the advantage of a SC building boost at low rpm. The inherent power drain of an SC working off the crank seems to have more effect at even low boost and rpm than I thought. Although I think the intercooled Procharger may be more effecient than most other SC its still not close to a Turbo. Of course I still think its a worthy experiment because thats the only way to know for sure and since I'm not looking to make more than 300hp I think I may go ahead with the project anyway. BMW turbo vs supercharger dyno chart


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