hey I heard that if you turbo a ka, that it is not as good as getting a sr20DET, because the sr20DET is made specifically to withstand the turbo, and if you turbo a KA it will blow gaskets and whatnot easier because it is not an actual turbo engine (until you turbo it yourself). Is this true? I guess what im asking is, Which is more reliable the sr20DET or just to turbo the KA? I just want to know about reliablity. I already know the other pros and cons between the two.

sorry if this is a stupid noob question.

if a KA-T is tuned properly, and treated good, it can be just as reliable as a SR20

believe it or not, i've never heard of a KA-T blowing a headgasket. usually the engine goes before the headgasket goes. lol, its the SR that has headgasket problems, not the KA.

the only time that you would need to change the headgasket on the KA-T is when your running such a high amount of boost, that it would actually start to stretch the head bolts ( atleast 25 psi on a big turbo ).

so yeah, if your turbo a KA, i'd worry about more then just the headgasket. if you know what your doing, then the KA will be very good to you and should run for a very very very long time on boost on stock internals.

the only time i heard of a ka blowing a headgasket was on an old truck with 400,000k on it, not sure if it was the origonal gasket, probably not...

thanks for the help

and its nothing a metal one cant take care of.......you know the sr20 has a paper headgasket right. Either way, they both will have to upgrade.


i blew a hg on my old ka.

yeah i was going to say that. if your running with the temp needle pegged on H for a long time on the KA, the headgasket should be done. you do that with the SR, the block is done.

yeah i was going to say that. if your running with the temp needle pegged on H for a long time on the KA, the headgasket should be done. you do that with the SR, the block is done.

I was riding with a friend and noticed his temp gauge was pegged on a 250 degree gauge.


apparently his fan switch had shorted. but the SR is still going strong.

I was riding with a friend and noticed his temp gauge was pegged on a 250 degree gauge.


apparently his fan switch had shorted. but the SR is still going strong.

that sucks, but lucky him. how hard is it to wire up a fan to turn on automatically with the ecu on the SR? seems like a better mod then manually turning it on with a switch.