how much is too much

so i have a ga16 and i noticed when i took the engine apart that it has an engine block already around the cylinders. it looks stock. how much power can a ga16 handle without replacing the internals? how much boost can it handle stock without replacing the internals.

lol?

not sure what you mean...or even if your serious...
(about the car already having an engine block around the cylinders)


i wouldnt boost more than 8 psi on stock internals, and even then id be careful. the GA16 is about average as far as durability goes.

as far as N/A power, youd be hard pressed to make very much power at all with stock internals.

put in pistons/rods/head studs/valvetrain/ect. while your already knee deep in the motor and put the boost up above 10 psi.

ok so let me rephrase. i am serious. the engine is already apart, what are some things that i should do that arent too expensive that i should do to it. is it worth it. or should i hold out and just save the money to drop in an sr20det.

Det

so how hard is it to drop in a sr20det? any engine mount changes or anything else major, besides the comp. and wiring and such

wait man don't listen to all that sr20 engine crap man. Look a Ga16 engine can handle alot of N/A mods. Do this hotshot headers, intake, full exhaust system unorthodox racing pulleys and a JWT ecu. The ECU bring up your rev limiter and it brings up your maximum speed and will make your car run better. Right there for about 1,000 dollars your going to be running faster numbers than any sr20 engine swap. if you really want good numbers run nitrous with it. Don't do an engine swap go to sentra.net this guy gets 240 WHP out of his sentra and didn't have to do any internal work until I think he broke the 200 WHP mark so just keep that engine.

How the hell are you gonna get all those parts for 1g? Just the headers and the ECU alone would cost 1g. Not to mention installation. Even after all that, he'd still be pulling a mid-low 15 second 1/4 mile. If he doesn't wanna do a swap, he should go for the hotshot GA turbo kit. Either that, or settle for a sorta-quick car.

no the JWT ecu is 500 dollars off of the website and you can find hotshot headers for 300 dollars easily. I got my hotshot headers for 250 off of ebay. Well yeah obviusly if he has an extra 2,500 dollars laying around he should get a turbo but most people don't. It's so easy to install headers come on now lol if he can't install headers and an ECU than he needs to read up about his car more. The pulleys are only 150 bucks.

the headers, ecu, and pulleys are all easy to put on. I have a turbo i just need everything else, i am thinking of a homemade turbo. i'm not too hip on nitrous, but maybe a little squeze wouldnt hurt. know anyone that makes turbo manifolds for the ga16?

its always been a dream to drop a sr20det. i think i am going to do that. there are just so much more things you can do with an sr20det. how hard is it to drop one in. any engine mount changes, wiring, etc.?

he isnt talking about an sr20 nissan, hes talking about an sr20det, which cranks out 210hp BONE STOCK......plus it has an all forged bottom end which will handle around 400hp without changes to the engine, there is no reason NOT to drop the det, all it takes to run faster is a new turbo or a boost controller, then you could scream, and for future reference i wouldnt try and battle fugiot when it comes to the sr20-ga16 early model sentra thing, you could end up with a nice flaming.....just a word for the wise

lol. it depends how much $ u ahve laying around. I'd defenetly go the N/A way first w/o changing the internals and header, but get everything else basiclly. if that power settles your craving then you're good. but if you want to eventually pull on Sti's and Evos, go the sr20det, it'll save you a lot in the long run.

i am talking about the sr20det for nissan, it will be going in my 94 sentra. i want to do a little to the ga16 thats in it for now to hold me over till i get the sr20det put in. once the sr20det is in it will be a very dominant machine. those engines are practically bullit proof.

oh yeah well obviusly if he just won the lottery and has a million dollars laying around the sr20det engine is his best bet. I couldnt even imagine how much those cost they're ncie though. As far as the turbo for your car go to hotshot.com I think they have it

hey off topic here but how much is an sr20det engine like a price range???

it would actually cost more to put that turbo kit and hotshot header your all talking about than to drop a sr20det. my friend owns his own internet company. It's called import nights. you can email him at [email protected] or his internet site at importnights.sytes.net he mainly deals with honda but he can get anything, almost literally, and a lot cheaper than most people that i've seen. he can get a hold of sr20det. not sure of price, will ask tomorrow and let you know

definately let us know I'm all ears

yeah, I really don't know how this ended up into a turbo vs DET thing. Bottom line is this....

Unless you have LOTS of cash, forget the DET swap. It would be easier to just sell your sentra and buy an SE-R and turbo that.

If you go N/A, the car will end up kinda quick, like low 15's FULLY bolted, but it will remain just as reliable and probably a bit more gas efficient.

Turbo is the only way to get a GA powered car truly fast. But, it will require more money all at once, instead of small "payments" on parts here and there. So really, it all comes down to the money. If money's no object...Screw the damn GA Sentra. Shit...just go buy a 300ZX and do an HKS turbo upgrade.

PWNED again by the b13-b14 sentra man......lmao

ok so i talked to my friend a little and he said that it will be somewhere from $900 to $1200 plus s/h. not sure with turbo or with tranny will know more later.

could you explain that a little more throughly fugiot? i'd sure like to kno why that would be.

o im sorry, missed a post. and sirry for duoble posting.....

just FYI, my friend is getting an SR20DET isntalled in his 240sx for about $4,000(engine and install cost) But this is by a shop so its all going to be nicely done, but if you have the means to do it yourself I think SR's can be had for around $2,000 at the least. Or anyway I wouldnt really trust anything cheaper than that. Maybe Im wrong about the price but Id rather pay a little more and have a better quality job.

i like that, pay more for a qualty install, than go cheap and go messed up in the long run.

the engines are directly imported in. that is just the cost for the engine, nothing else. it would cost more for the installation of course. but i talked to a few shops around my area and for the engine and installation, i can get it dropped in for under $2000. But that's cause i know the guys in the shops, and they do good work. they rollout some of the best cars i've seen in my area. which may not be too much compared to l.a. or some bigger cities, but they are very nice cars.

I always thought engine swaps cost more than that, thats why I've been against them but if you can get an sr20det engine put in for 4,000, now I definately see the advantage in that brand new engine.

Well, yeah, you can get a DET put into an SE-R or 240 for as low as $1000. But it's gonna cost a lot more to get it put into a GA, because it's not originally designed for an SR20 like the other 2 cars.

By the way, here's a great place for excellent Nissan performance engines. Very highly-respected in the SR20 community.

http://www.jgycustoms.com/motors.htm

ok, thanks, how is the ga and se-r models any diff. though. same body, chassis, engine bay, just diff engines thats all. even the manual book says that this year came with either the ga16 of the sr20 motors. and which sr20 went in, the bluebird or the redtop. cause it was my understanking that the redtop was designed to be a rear wheel drive motor, so would that mean that i would need the blue bird? and as many times as i have asked, no one has told me what is all involved in swapping the motors out. the only thing i can think of would be the ecu and wire harnesses. can someone please tell me.

It's a lot of things, actually. The tranny, axles/half-shafts, ecu, motor mounts, and all wiring needs to be swapped. The 240 is a lot easier(from what I hear), to swap from one engine to the other (2.4 to 2.0). The the DETs you can use with FWD cars are the Bluebird, the Avenir, and the GTi-R. Probably something else. There is a red-top FWD DET motor, I believe. But either way, you're not gonna be able to do anything with a RWD DET for your Sentra. Just saying, the swap is a pain in the ass into a GA car.

What is the diff. between a ga and an se-r? on the engine mounts, are they in diff. places, or they in the same spots just the actual mounts are diff.? Will i have to replace the rotors and brakes?

I think the brakes will have to change anyway when you change the axles. But yeah, it's not just the motor mounts themselves. It's the mounting brackets that are in different places. I dunno, it's possible, and has been done many times before, but personally I just wouldn't like the feeling of having this completely custom engine set-up under the hood. It would feel too "weak" to me. Can't argue with factory work.

so than should i just get the ga up and running, add on a few things to make it quicker, sell it and get an se-r, since what your saying is an se-r is setup for the sr20det. Right? that there is less things to do to swap out the engines in an se-r.

se-r has an sr20 stock so the only diff would be the compression and turbo components, unless you find a VTC(sp?) model

back to your original question though.... Unless you want to get around 300 WHP than I think you should stick with the ga16 engine. Go to Nissanperformancemag.com and look under project cars and I think its called the ga16 project and read up on there thats everything you'll ever want to know its a pretty good engine man it has potential but I understand why you might want to swap it

every engine has some potential but i agree the GA is a 16 valve DOHC engine so it has some good things about it. dont try to do too much to it because it isnt nearly as strong as the SR, but it should respond almost as well to bolt ons

the thing is, i loved my GA, it was as bulletproof as ive seen on an engine, but if for nothing else you should go SR because of the extra half litre of displacement. Displacement is the very base factor in determining the amount of gains you get from adding parts. Its like the difference in the b15 SE and the b15 SeR. The spec has an extra half litre of displacement so it produces more power, and it will benefit more from aftermarket parts. And we all know the spec owns all.....lol j/k SR guys.....The GA is a great engine in my opinion, just not a great PERFORMANCE engine. (think honda here)

...The GA is a great engine in my opinion, just not a great PERFORMANCE engine. (think honda here)

Think Honda D-Series engines. The B-series and K-Series are more comparable to the SR-series engines. While the QR is kinda a thing of it's own. Quite an incredible engine to be making 180lb-ft from a N/A 4 cyl. though!

The GA is a good engine, but for different reasons than you're looking for. It will not show as dramatic performance increases as the SR or QR. But, a GA Sentra weighs significantly less than an SE-R. A GA16DET Sentra will give an SR20DET SE-R a REAL hard time at a stop light. Especially when mated with a 4-speed Sentra E.

Also, the SR seems so powerful because it revs so high and is mated to a super-short gear box. If you compare the B13 SR20 to a P11 G20(99-02) SR20DE, they feel like completely different engines. The P11 has a lower revving SR and much taller gears, a double-whammy rendering the SR's power curve nearly useless. I mean, come on, a 17 sec+ 1/4 mile time?

actually in mechanicals, the honda D series is quite similar to the qr25. small bore long stroke with a cylinder head that flows very well. the SR head doesnt flow as well as most hondas. i guess the most comparable to it is the H series nonvtec motors.
i have started to think of the qr25 as a high technology replacement for the KA24DE motor.

guys what i meant was it is a low displacement engine just like hondas meaning it doesnt respond as well to NA mods, i wasnt really discussing mechanical similarities

Yeah, but most smaller Honda engines that are used for performance are using some form of VTEC. VTEC engines respond extremely well to N/A mods, especially in the higher RPMs where there's a lot of valve overlap.

not sure how this turned into a nissan vs. honda, but i have a quick question. where can i pick up a head for a ga16 and how much do they normally run.

I dunno but your best bet would probably be a junk yard

or Ebay

can a headgasket be blown even though it doesnt look like it?

yeap from what I've been told the best way is to do a compression test and if you pick up a haynes manual it will tell you what your compression should be

well see my problem is not compression. i had water in my cylinders. i took the head off, looked at the head gasket and it didnt look like anything is wrong. and the head isnt warped. and nothing is cracked or broken on the block or head. now the water pump is gone, could that cause water in the cylinders? or could it just be the head gasket even though it doesnt look like anything was wrong with it?

You know what? It would probably just be cheaper and less of a pain to find a used GA16(complete) and swap it in. I'm sure you could find one for about $300 somewhere online, and have it swapped in for less than $1000. Then, bam, new engine, and that good feeling of knowing that everything is fixed.

can you really find a used ga16 engine somewhere for that cheap where, ebay?

yeah, or find a JDM engine supplier. If you can find an SR20 for $300-500, I'm sure it wouldn't be much different for a GA.

that didnt answer my question. i can put the engine in myself. i have all the tools that i'll need. but the engine thats in there is a new engine. just wasnt properly taken care of. so thats what im here for. i just need it up and running for now

so back to my question. can a headgasket be blown even though it doesnt look like it

possible but for the amount you say its leaking, id bet you could see it