# turbo a ka24de(non turbo)



## 90_240ka (Apr 9, 2007)

I have a ka twin cam in my 240 and i was wondering if the stock internals will hold boost well?? What all do I need to do to turbo this car without having to change internals(If i didn't have to).


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

KA-T.org for turboing a KA motor dont waste your motor on an SR20...These used to be the best but now the aftermarket supports the turboing of the motor you have much better cheeper and higher HP levels for 1/3 the price....

<Steps off my KA-T.org Soap box.......Peace all SR20 owners


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## madmax240 (Apr 1, 2007)

The KA engines have more displacement, therefore they are more known for their torque output. Unfortunately the internals are not that of an sr20 just for the mere fact that nissan did not have any intention of slapping a turbo on the KA. So unless you plan on doing some fairly extensive engine modifications, your probably going to have to make due with a 5-6 p.s.i. kit.


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

madmax240 said:


> The KA engines have more displacement, therefore they are more known for their torque output. Unfortunately the internals are not that of an sr20 just for the mere fact that nissan did not have any intention of slapping a turbo on the KA. So unless you plan on doing some fairly extensive engine modifications, your probably going to have to make due with a 5-6 p.s.i. kit.



Ok I am throwing the BULL SHIT flag on that...There is a ton of KA-t's running way way more then 5 PSI on stock internals....Ok first off the KA motor is a cast Iron block...! MAKING IT 10 TIMES AS STRONG THEN AN SR20 will ever hope to be. Since the SR block is Aluminum. True the KA was never meant to be turbo charged but either was the SR20..It started its life as an SR20DE....And low and behold it sucked was slow had no power etc etc...so they had to Turbo it. IF you have ever driven in Japan you will know why..The roads are sometimes very steep and go from sea level to 3000 feet in a 5-15 miles and back to sea level. Hence the turbo was needed. Now back to the differences...The KA has a longer stroke larger pistons and larger crank then an SR this is a Fact not fiction. Hence able to handle more power heat etc etc. Now if your looking for a true cost break down take a look at the post listed below. And above all any one including me that trys to sway you in one direction or another do research and you will find out the answers to all questions. Check out the SR20 sights.

HERE ARE DYNO SHEETS FROM KA-T's making a ton of HP at well more then 5-6psi....Just shows do your research..

www.ka-t.org :: View Forum - Dyno Results

www.ka-t.org :: View topic - SOHC Turbo Build For Dummies

www.ka-t.org :: View topic - Sticky: DOHC Turbo For Dummies


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## madmax240 (Apr 1, 2007)

I don't really believe it is B.S. It goes so much further than what the block is made out of. The construction of the internals also matters, the SR20 comes factory with a balanced and shotpeened crankshaft, the conrods have broader shoulders, the main girdle is also much beefier and much better secured. You can't compare a sr20de to a sr20det, the turbo variation of the sr20det has stronger internals (because its turbo'd), and lower compression pistons to help with detonation. The non-turbo variation has higher compression, even if the non-turbo edition of this engine was sluggish believe me the factory didn't just slap on a turbo and say here ya go. I'm not dawggin' on the ka24, any engine can handle more than 5 p.s.i. (unless its an old school V8). The problem here is in the engine management. Now before I start into this please understand that I am an avid fan of fixing cars up right, and a lot of times, especially with turbocharging, an engine management system is the way to go if you want it done right. However, engine management can be expensive, and if the initial hardware isn't expensive in your opinion how about dyno time? Everywhere I've every been charges between 75-100 dollars an hour to tune on their dyno, and that's if you do it yourself. Let's take the AEM EMS for example, a fine computer indeed, however, it really shouldn't be tuned by anyone other than someone who was trained by AEM. So 75-100 dollars per hour on the dyno plus another 50-65 dollars on top of that to have someone at the shop tune it. Now depending on the engine's tolerance to detonation (which is lower on an internally stock engine, turbo or not) the tune can be tricky. If you do attempt to do it yourself, and make a wrong move, you could grenade the engine, or maybe you'll make it out of the shop and blow it up later, and the real kicker is that you can't blame anyone but yourself. So in terms of talking dollar per dollar a 5-6 p.s.i. kit is the closest way to get sr20 performance with minimal tune, minimal parts, and the most important part is minimal headache. I understand how much an engine, any engine can take, but do realize that you can't just turn up the boost knob on your boost controller to 18 p.s.i. and expect to make the same power as some guy that posted his dyno chart on a website somewhere just because he had his set at 18p.s.i. The engine is capable of holding adequate boost pressure with a nice expensive tune. What about reliability? Just because an engine can put up with higher boost pressures doesn't mean its suppose to. What's more reliable? A 5-6 p.s.i. kit or 18? I wonder how long an internally stock KA engine can hold that amount of boost? Well long enough to print a dyno sheet and have someone try and make a liar out of me, but as it turns out I have done my research, hell I even went to school for this, but you know whatever. I understand your biased opinion toward the KA engine, but many have turned to the turbo sr20 for a reason. Maybe its my fault for being so vague in my post. Should have explained myself better so I don't get someone throwing his B.S. flag at me, go ahead wave your flag. I thought this was a forum where someone could get some help, which you did in your first post, not try to make other members feel like they shouldn't be posting, which is what you did in your second post. It's funny too, because I even liked your tech postings on your suspension setup, awww nevermind guess I should just stop "trippen"


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## 180SX-X (Sep 21, 2003)

wow, wheres the love? anyway, madmax240 has a point. 90_240ka said he didnt want to do any internal work, so low boost is gonna be his only option. a turbo off of an s14 wold be perfect for that setup. its a small turbo, T28. but on a ka, with that disaplacement, it will just feel like you got a more powerful NA engine in it, since the turbo will spool up so quickly. and since your not touching internals, and its going to be a KA-T, i assume your not gonna be ripping the shit out of it on a daily basis, so top end power isnt going to be your main concern, wich a T28 isnt going to give you much more anyway, but crisp throttle response, some aded midrange power, and torque across the board is a guarentee.
so what you want to do is, DO IT RIGHT! before you turbo your car, a FULL TUNE UP is in order. everyfluid needs to be drained, flushed, drained, and refilled.


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## 180SX-X (Sep 21, 2003)

wow, wheres the love? anyway, madmax240 has a point. 90_240ka said he didnt want to do any internal work, so low boost is gonna be his only option. a turbo off of an s14 wold be perfect for that setup. its a small turbo, T28. but on a ka, with that disaplacement, it will just feel like you got a more powerful NA engine in it, since the turbo will spool up so quickly. and since your not touching internals, and its going to be a KA-T, i assume your not gonna be ripping the shit out of it on a daily basis, so top end power isnt going to be your main concern, wich a T28 isnt going to give you much more anyway, but crisp throttle response, some aded midrange power, and torque across the board is a guarentee.
so what you want to do is, DO IT RIGHT! before you turbo your car, a FULL TUNE UP is in order. everyfluid needs to be drained, flushed, drained, and refilled. spark plugs, good idea to get all new ignition setup, i mean stcok that is, dist. cap and rotor, plug wires, maybe a new coil if its weak. clean your throttle body, your maf(be very careful with that one, if you dont feeel confident, then leave it alone). replace and add your grounds(beleive me, this one will help alot). check your water pump and fan/fan clutch, good idea to replace your belts, and radiator hoses, and vacuum lines, and fuel filter. to think of it, it would be a good idea to take of your oil pan when you drain the oil to check for any debris in it. woulndt want to fuck your new turbo up as soon as you get it. and a good compression test to check your motor is squared away. and if your car is standard, check your trans fluid and clutch. oh, and your brakes should be flushed with new oil. your gonna need to stop when all this is done and you find some new power in your ride, you know? and theres still some other things, but i'm sure you get the picture.
now, this might sound like alot of work, but when you think of it, its just helping the issue at hand, keeping your car more reliable and trust worthy, and if any problems arise, you know the things you did, and can rule them out since they were already covered! (you should drive your car NA after doing all this to make sure you didnt screw it up!)
now, when i said T28 from a s14, i am implying that a custom turbo kit is in order, but there could be kits out there for this car, i'm not sure, havent really tried to look for them. but do as you please, and please, keep the boost below 7psi, and no redlining everyday, you want it to last. when you beef up internally and get some tuning done, than all is yours.
-jose-
p.s. be sure to pick up a boost gauge and A/F R gauge, and a water temp gauge. and, most important i forgot. CLEAN!! clean your engine bay so the virgin mary herself would sleep in it. this is good for teo reasons:1 it will look a hell of alot better, duh! and 2, so you can spot leaks faster before anything happens. happy honda hunting!


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

MadMAx no hardfeelings I wasnt trying to Flame you. I am sorry if you took it wrong. My only point with the BS flag was that a blanket statement of 5-6psi of boost is all the KA can handle. It all depends on the compression tests of the motor and fuel management basicly doing it right. Boost doesnt come cheap. The links if anyone had bothered to look at them would show many cars with STOCK internals running 13psi on average many for over 2 years now. This also goes true with the SR20 you cant just turn up the boost. As MadMax said its all about tuning. If you want to tune it yourself there are a ton of forums. dealing with tuning. Tuning is a whole other ball game with or without a dyno. A good wideband and a good emulator you can tune your own ecu's if you understand it. It isnt easy as I am finding out. WIth proper management you can do this safely. I have no real issue with the SR20. My only issue is paying 2k for a used motor. Currently I am a little over 1500 in my Turbo setup including chip programers(Moates Ostritch, Innovative wideband) extra turbo and head. That does not include the suspension mods. And over all to me it isnt my daily driver but a project for me and my kids so if we toast it we arnt really stressed. We are having fun.

After you do what 180SX-X suggested do these to decide if you car can accept a turbo-



1. Leak down check
2. Compression check
3. Before doing the boost do suspension and brakes...No need to have lots of power that you cant handle or stop. 
4. Check your wallet because if you go turbo either SR20 or KA24-t its gonna be empty


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## 180hero (Apr 23, 2007)

no offence u trippen, but i agree with madmax on this one... if he doesn't want to touch the internals then i say just get the SR... although the KA does have more displacement, it doesn't have the internals for a turbo and i don't think it could handle any more than 8 p.s.i on stocks... it has a higher compression rate than the SR and i think it might blow if u use the stock internals... i think what 180SX-X said about putting a smaller turbo is actually a good idea although ur not gonna get the same power that a T3 would get... and its wouldn't be like ur gonna abuse it VERY often cuz.. u'd still be running stock internals... but my opinion is get an SR... sorry trippen....


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## madmax240 (Apr 1, 2007)

I'm really just giving some info so 90-240_ka can make an educated decision. I don't know on what he plans on doing to the car. If he just wants to drift then maybe a cheap turbo upgrade is in order and the money should be left for the suspension, l.s.d., and stuff like that. If he wants to drag race, well if he wants to drag race he's not going to get away without new internals for too long. On the other hand, once a person goes from N/A to turbo. . . let's just say its hard to stay off of the accelerator! Oh one last thing, if the car is a daily driver maybe the sr20det is the way to go. It's hard to get much more reliable than OEM.


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## Trippen (Feb 21, 2006)

180Hero no need to be sorry an opinion is an opinion. Many of the people that come and ask these questions only hear about one thing and thats the SR20 swap. And now the RB swaps. As for me I like a project. For 5-6k I can buy a 240 with an sr20 already swapped in if I wanted a turboed car that I knew nothing about. Which about the cost of everything after the swap. Especially if you have an Auto trani and converting to a manual the extra parts for that conversion 50-150 depends on where you get them(different brake and clutch peddle slave and master cyl). Its all a matter of prefrances. Just remember you will need with an SR20 a full uncut wire harness and ignitor chip without these you will be screwed. Just FYI

Another Link 
Import Auto performance .com - the 240sx & WRX Performance Specialists!


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## madmax240 (Apr 1, 2007)

The one thing that has not been discussed is the available parts, you know, in case something breaks. Its not impossible to find things for the SR20DET however parts for the KA are probably easier to get a hold of. If you modify a vehicle, and drive it hard than break it will! A part too expensive for the SR? Same part too expensive for the KA? Guess which engine you're most likely to find in the junkyard. . . I'm fairly sure that's my last two cents on the subject. . . we'll see! Peace.


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