# Difficulty level of an KA24DE turbo kit install



## Zen_dog (Nov 10, 2003)

Could anyone who has installed a KA24DE turbo kit please comment as to the difficulty level of this upgrade. Is this something I could do at home or should I find someone knowledgeable to do this?

First I should prolly explain my reasons for wanting to do this over an SR swap. Ive been out pricing swaps , something I can deffinatly not do myself , and the lowest price I have found is $4200 for a base swap which uses the stock side mount. My car is almost 10 years old and Im not ready to put almost as much as much as I paid for the whole car into a new motor , I only paid 5k for the darn thing almost 4 years ago.

A shop in my are , XAT racing , sells reasonably priced turbo kits for the KA. For 2,800 I can get a stage II upgrade kit rated for 320RWHP. I relly had no intention of going beyond 300HP with the SR anyway so the KA turbo kit sounds like the best bang for the bux. I was talking with the owner of the shop and he said if I was to ever blow my KA he could sell me one in good shape for like $300 , if I was to blow the SR it would cost and Im guessing here at least $1500 to replace it. 


Thanks for any help!


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## jeong (Jul 22, 2004)

depends how much you know about cars/ka24de/turbos <-- most important info u didnt give us


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

Zen_dog said:


> if I was to ever blow my KA he could sell me one in good shape for like $300 , if I was to blow the SR it would cost and Im guessing here at least $1500 to replace it.


Good reason to experiment on the ka motor first.


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## Zen_dog (Nov 10, 2003)

Im not expert on cars but I do have basic knowledge regarding the workings of them in general , I also know the basic theory behind turbos and there components. 

In my almost 4 years of ownership I have had to little to maintain the car besides oil changes and replacing the air filter , I feel comfortable removing the parts necessary for the kit but Im not sure about how much I should torque down the bolts on the new headers etc... The electical work might be tricky too , the kit comes with the Greddy E-Manage which connects to the ECU I beleive. 


Here's a link to the kit if it will help : http://www.xatracing.com/xatracingparts.html?row2col1=KAT.html


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

They would give you the torque specs for their kit. If not then just ask for them and any other info you might need. I don't think they want you to fuck anything up. 

Putting on a turbo kit is a lot more work then common tune-ups as I'm sure you know. I would start with the stage one just because I would want to see if I want to stay with the ka motor or swap before I spend more than 2G's


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## Zen_dog (Nov 10, 2003)

Thanks for the input. if I start with the stage I how hard would it be and how cost effective would it be to move up to stage II , there's a $900 price diff between the kits. 


Im thinking about asking my grandpa for help with this , he's been working on euro cars for years. Ive seen him rebuild 6 carbs from an old porsche 911 , he also did his own work on a Jag V12. Most complicated looking engine Ive ever seen. 



Thanks again for the help


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## Murph (Aug 8, 2002)

Zen,

Please let us know what is included in each the stage 1 and stage 2 before taking advice on which you should go with. I apologize for not having too much info on the difficulty of such install, but if you give yourself a good amount of time I dont see why anyone wouldnt be able to complete it. With a local shop you can also drop in and ask questions as well.


-Mike Murphy


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