KA Bolt-ons and N/A Tuning

Hey everyone, I've got a 93 240SX, and I am thinking of doing some bolt-ons to it. For now I would like to keep the car N/A (Naturally Aspirated), and then maybe later do some ram air etc.

I am just looking for some good ideas on good bolt-ons that do help make a difference, I am willing to put good money into this car. As well as, I was wondering about any ECU Tuning on the car, is there a good program that'd work?

And the last two things, apparently the governer on the 240SX is at 120MPH, how do we crack that. And is there gauges that will fit directly into the 240SX Dash board, that will give a higher MPH reading? I wouldn't mind digital gauges either.

Thanks
- Firewind

I am just looking for some good ideas on good bolt-ons that do help make a difference

none...the KA24DE is a poor example of a N/A motor..

the governer on the 240SX is at 120MPH, how do we crack that.

Why? so u kill your self? let me guess stock supension too!

And is there gauges that will fit directly into the 240SX Dash board, that will give a higher MPH reading? I wouldn't mind digital gauges either.

Yes, look for it at the junk yard (coups onlly) it comes too with a heads up display. its digital so your not limited to your guage reading.

bro, what do u wnat from the car? track? dailly driving? Drag? once u know what u want then mod the car...

Hey everyone, I've got a 93 240SX, and I am thinking of doing some bolt-ons to it. For now I would like to keep the car N/A (Naturally Aspirated), and then maybe later do some ram air etc.

I am just looking for some good ideas on good bolt-ons that do help make a difference, I am willing to put good money into this car. As well as, I was wondering about any ECU Tuning on the car, is there a good program that'd work?

And the last two things, apparently the governer on the 240SX is at 120MPH, how do we crack that. And is there gauges that will fit directly into the 240SX Dash board, that will give a higher MPH reading? I wouldn't mind digital gauges either.

Thanks
- Firewind

Hi Firewind. Welcome to the boards. First of all, the KA24DE is not meant for performance.....at all. Its a truck motor. Unless you turbo charge it, its not going to make decent power. If you want more power later on, save up for the SR swap or save up to turbo that KA motor. IMO, its really not worth spending the money on headers, intake, exhaust only to get rid of the intake/headers if you go turbo.

Thanks for the on the gauges, I'll check that out. As far as everything else.

Well for one, right now, it's my daily driver. I'm looking to do the RB26 swap in the future, after a I get a much better supenion, brakes, etc... but in the mean time, I was just hoping to find some bolts-ons that could help me just add a bit of power to the KA motors.

In the end it'll be most likely a track/show car.

I am just looking for some good ideas on good bolt-ons that do help make a difference, I am willing to put good money into this car. As well as, I was wondering about any ECU Tuning on the car, is there a good program that'd work?

if youre willing to put "good" money into this car, why would you keep the ka24 n/a, if at all? a ka-t (turbo) is a good investment, but n/a? i wouldnt waste my money on that, id go with either an sr or turbo the ka. but then again, it is your money and it also depends on what you expect out of the car. but power out of an n/a ka? i dont think so. good luck with whatever it is you end up doing.

Its a truck motor.

actually not at all. it still sucks for n/a though. you can get decent power from it but you have to spend a shitload, and its waaaaay cheaper to turbocharge.

In the end it'll be most likely a track/show car.

thats what everyone says. in the end, youll be forced to choose one. keeping a track car in nice enough shape to show costs sooooo much money, and keeping a show car fast enough for the track almost never happens. so do yourself a favor and choose one.

actually not at all. it still sucks for n/a though. you can get decent power from it but you have to spend a shitload, and its waaaaay cheaper to turbocharge.



thats what everyone says. in the end, youll be forced to choose one. keeping a track car in nice enough shape to show costs sooooo much money, and keeping a show car fast enough for the track almost never happens. so do yourself a favor and choose one.

Whats the most anyone has got with the KA going all motor? The car puts out roughly 128whp for the sohc and 140whp for the dohc (the last time I dyno'd 240s with kas here). So far the best gains on the dyno have been from the n1 exhaust at around 8whp which is awesome for a bolt on part na. Headers we dynoed gave 3-5whp, intake was surprisingly good since the stock one was so restrictive at another 7whp. Stock the KA dynoed at an AFR of 14.2. Hardly andy room for significant tuning. I tried MSD ignition on the KA which didnt do anything to improve the power significantly. What else could you do?

bore it out, put on cams, ITBs, port and polish the head, oversized valves, play with the stroke/rod length, ecu tune, windage tray, then you could change the fuel pump and injectors so the A/F could be safely changed either lean or rich, cam gears, play with timing, after all this run an MSD and id bet youd see something.

. What else could you do?

swap the DOHC cams with the SOHC cams...better lift.

ITB (individual throttle Bodies)

electric fan

injectors 350cc or bigger

pistons and rods to increase compression.

metal gasket to keep it all together

MSD ignition

AEM stand alone (density reading, no MAF mass air flow sensor, restrictive)

clutch

LSD

swap the DOHC cams with the SOHC cams...better lift.

ITB (individual throttle Bodies)

electric fan

injectors 350cc or bigger

pistons and rods to increase compression.

metal gasket to keep it all together

MSD ignition

AEM stand alone (density reading, no MAF mass air flow sensor, restrictive)

clutch

LSD

and what would this dish out? 170whp? 180? For all that money? not worth it. Getting the EMS to get rid of the maf is not worth it at all. On the 240 intake the plumbing is probably the more restrictive.

clutch

LSD

what was the point of saying these...we were talking about making power, not putting it to the ground...?

but high comp pistons and a decent port job would probably bring atleast a 25-35whp gain...mostly due to the high comps.

btw..about the guages LSauto makes a 180mph speed for the 240...its already calibrated...just need to put it in...if you go past that...then you do have a death wish

what was the point of saying these...we were talking about making power, not putting it to the ground...?

but high comp pistons and a decent port job would probably bring atleast a 25-35whp gain...mostly due to the high comps.

btw..about the guages LSauto makes a 180mph speed for the 240...its already calibrated...just need to put it in...if you go past that...then you do have a death wish


haha, not to mention, the car doesnt have nearly enough power to reach 180mph.

you say you plan on putting alot of money into this and want to do an rb26 swap. Do you have any car experience? As in can you do the work yourself? If not that rb swap will cost you an easy 10 grand.....and thats on a low end estimate. I think you would be more interested in a rb25 swap. Which is 10x easier and a whole hell of a lot cheaper. Plus there is more people who have done this to get trouble shooting problems solved if you run into them. I think you should research everything a little bit more. Dont waste your time with NA stuff right now. Way back in the day i did header, cat, and exhaust. I didnt really feel any difference lol, besides the sound. That was it. Its cool to have that stuff and all that, but it doesnt make you any faster really. You will still get landed on by 99% of the cars out there. I would focus on suspension stuff right now if i was you. You would be surprised at how different the car handles and how much more fun it is to drive with just a couple thousand into suspension. I know a couple of thousand sounds high, but coil overs are ATLEAST 1 thousand, the rest would just be replacing the multilink parts (rucas, tension rods etc). Which you can get a majority of that covered for another grand. I would browse forums right now and get a good idea of what MOST 240 people have done. Usually coilovers is a definant buy.

Or do it like i do.....replace what needs replacing with an aftermarket piece or go with a stock one if its not a mojor deal. Then when you have an up to spec car, do what you want.

what was the point of saying these...we were talking about making power, not putting it to the ground...?

thats like saying u want ur steak surved with out a plate....

dude, LSD and a clutch are a must... with out them ur just have no control over the car!

A little nitrous never hurt anybody...

But then again I'm not so sure he mentioned what kinda racing and what kinda HP goals he was looking for. That would help.

You can really go all-out crazy with an NA. Waste of Money? Last time I checked all mods on any car are a financial loss. What does it matter if wants to mod a KA24DE...? Or an SR20?

First thing is first: Intake, header, exhaust... suspension mods.

Still want more? Tell us what your goals are.

Ive seen a badass ITB setup made from using the ITB's off a GSX-R 750..You have to find a way to modify the TPS which is kinda a bitch, but mostly everything else looks like simple modifying, i really wanna try it but i dont know how to make the TPS system work..

sorry for being offtopic, but sexyness....

http://nissaninfiniticlub.net/photopost/data/500/11553100_0244-med.jpg

nice

A little nitrous never hurt anybody...

But then again I'm not so sure he mentioned what kinda racing and what kinda HP goals he was looking for. That would help.

You can really go all-out crazy with an NA. Waste of Money? Last time I checked all mods on any car are a financial loss. What does it matter if wants to mod a KA24DE...? Or an SR20?

First thing is first: Intake, header, exhaust... suspension mods.

Still want more? Tell us what your goals are.


yea but thats a huge financial loss for what you would put into it for a turbo setup youd make twice the power. And if you want to look at it your way really.....anything you buy in the world ever is a financial loss. So you make no sense anyways.

yea but thats a huge financial loss for what you would put into it for a turbo setup youd make twice the power. And if you want to look at it your way really.....anything you buy in the world ever is a financial loss. So you make no sense anyways.


Now you are seeing it my way! :iceslolan

So what does it matter? Let him do it! Let him mod his NA!

uhhhh no one is stopping him. Just letting him know that a header, intake, and exhaust will not do shit for him. He wants to beat people in races.......anything would destroy that. Iv driven faster minivans. Nitrous would be a definant for NA KA. Just do it right and tune for it.

nitrous is poor mans power, and should be shunned except for when used in cooling of an intercooler..

nitrous is poor mans power, and should be shunned except for when used in cooling of an intercooler..

What???? No offense but that is an ignorant statement!

nitrous is poor mans power, and should be shunned except for when used in cooling of an intercooler..


i do agree, i dont like nitrous at all either except for intercooler spray. But its great for when absolutely needed or spooling a big big turbo lol. Yea cooling off an intercooler, but in a way thats the same thing. You could just as easily use a water sprayer, or co2 sprayer. "spray" something to produce more power.

i absolutely hate when people are fast only because of that . Your like whats done, they reply just nitrous. Im like uhhh yea thats fast, but is it really any fun. Sure its fun to use it, but damn it will make it go boom and you have to get it refilled to play with it all the time. Id rather have some actual mods to make it go fast....and you only pay once. Sure you may spend more on modding everything up, but atleast you have the power all the time not only when your just pushing a button.

So basically i look at it like its using "codes" in nintendo or something. Even though its the real deal. Domestic guys love that stuff lol.

I don't understand... I mean on a stock engine, a small shot nitrous is no big deal... it's mediocre and you can only pray to be "fast".

But alot of the guys running serious shot's of nitrous have their cars tuned and built for nitrous. We aren't talking about a cheap slap on mod here. Reinforced internals are required along with ECU tuning, etc. It's a science and deserves as much respect as any other major power-adder.

Besides we are talking about an NA here of the same size engine etc. if you can't build a Boosted KA24 to beat a Sprayed KA24... haha... that's your problem. Maybe you shouldn't rely on a "huge" turbo and do some tuning? Ey? ;)

Wow I walk away for 2 days, and bam, 2 pages of posts. Crazy. Actuly, this is great, because now I've gotten a lot of different oppinions, and ideas.

Pending a new job, I may be just trying to go for the swap right away. To answer some one's question, I do have mechanic knowlage. mostly eletrical, and supenion, and I've done some tuning before on other cars. This is my first Nissan of course.

And I am going to do a lot more research on what I'm going to put into the car, before I put it in there, so I know exactly what I am going to get from it, and if it really is what I want.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Good Luck

let us know how it turns out

shouldnt rely on a huge turbo and do some tuning???? You would have to tune either way.....seriously wth are you talking about?? If you have a huge turbo and need nitrous to spool it....major tuning would be needed both for turbo and the nitrous shot.


how small are you talking to make it "no big deal" on a STOCK ka. That shit will cause wonders. If its that small why bother in the first place. Iv seen plenty stock motors go boom on small shots. Maybe not on a brand new car(usually takes a little longer), but were talking about a 100,000+ mi STOCK KA here. And people tend to abuse the nitrous, they get hooked and shoot it more than barry bonds with steroids.

and wtf are you talking about making a turbo ka beat a nitrous ka???????

^ I dunno I was just ranting ^

:)

If you need nitrous to spool a big turbo, you no longer have a street car...you no longer have a circuit car....you no longer have a drift car....you only have a drag strip car....

^sounds like the mans got a point^

my post isnt ignorant, its just the way i look at it. Nitrous is just dumb in my opinion. How long can you safely spray a stock ka? How long can you safely spray any car? How many times do you have to fill the bottle? I dont like it because its stupid for any use, i mean if you are just driving along and some dick pulls up can you drop gear and mash on the nitrous button to just blow away? no, but a turbo is always going to be there for needed power, or even a built N/A engine. But, a progressive nitrous controller used to spool a large turbo is a good mehod, it just seems like alot of an engine (nitrous and FI)

Nitrous for DD/streetcar---dumb and useless

Nitrous for drag/strip car-----has its ups if you can do it safely

But i dont think he is going to be building a stip car so i drop the nitrous idea

ummm... nobody said anything about the eaisiest ten dollar mod... Get a z32 fuel filter and slap it on... not really for hp but man it makes the egins run super smooth and you can get to the power band much faster... seriously... the best ten bucks ever spent and you notice a huge difference!

Nitrous for DD/streetcar---dumb and useless

Nitrous for drag/strip car-----has its ups if you can do it safely

But i dont think he is going to be building a stip car so i drop the nitrous idea

I should have clarified... but YES I totally agree with this statement!

I asked the orginal poster for what purpose he was using the car/his goals... but I never got an answer... but...


I mean yeah... it's very stupid if you are spraying on every Honda you see on the road. Nitrous in the hands of any idiot can be dangerous to an engine and to oneself (just like a turbo). Really if you think about it... nitrous (in the hands of an intelligent/mature person) is really practical if your car is used for DD and the Strip/Track like my car. While DD'ing your car has the practicality of a street car... when you need the power for drag racing all it takes is a twist of a knob and a flip of a switch. Have you ever had the pleasure of turning off your turbo? How pratical is a turbo? I think the answer is: That is the reason why they make NA cars!

Nitrous is one of the OG mods of our times and it has come along way IMO. I guess if you look down on nitrous that is just your preference I guess and I respect that. Myself? Well I love turbo's too... don't get me wrong. I hope to own a boosted Z someday along with my NA/Nitrous track Z. But I'll stick by nitrous anyday as a nice power-adder on an NA car.

First off, don't listen to anyone that says the KA is a truck motor and horrible for tuning and using for racing. That is just a bunch of crap people that only have eyes for the candy red of an SR vavle cover with a snail on the side.

Well, there is a little known easy and very cheap mod to pop a little more kick into a DOHC KA motor. Try to find a 1991~1993 240sx in a jy and buy an exhaust cam from it. Put it in your motor as the intake cam and skip the chain 3 links (or 4 teeth) counter clockwise (see picture). You are retarding the cam 16 degrees (I think, I don't have my S13 notes, havn't owned a KA S13 for a LONG time), this puts the cam where it needs to be for use as an intake cam. If you don't own a 1991~1993 buy 2 exhaust cams and use one for exhaust as well, that will give you 248/248 cams and they only cost a couple of bucks at the jy.

So, 30 or so bucks for 2 exhaust cams, an hour or so of easy work. Then you have a cool lumpy idle and a little more power, hahaha. Sorry, I don't remember where I got the picture or I'd give credit... not my picture.

http://users.adelphia.net/%7Eprojectd/kacam.jpg

^ Haven't heard of that ^

But I would like to know what the HP outcome would be if any....

And to add to the KA tuning/modding... NISSAN Motorsports catalog has many items to mod a KA such as Hi-Compression pistons and such. If people would take the time the KA could be a formidable engine for the track and such.

Haha, never really dyno ghetto tuned cars, costs too much. It is noticable though.

Another little known fact is that the KA24E in the 95ish year pick-ups runs off of a MAP set up. Running that set up on a 240 with a KA24E, an AFC or some other sort of piggy back one could rig up some motorcycle ITB's, throw in a cam and you're looking at a fun little motor.

In SCCA GT racing there were a few 240sxes that ran the SOHC motor and did pretty well.

the S13 cam trick works good and is cheap. As for turning off a turbo you can either try and stay out of boost or just keep the boost low for DD and have a second setting used for racing..

actually in 1991 and 1992 the DOHC model 240sx that just came out then won the IMSA GTU class outright. the best the SOHC did was it got 2nd place once, IIRC.

I was under the impression that one of the newer (built to look like an S14) cars that got third or something was running the SOHC motor... Third for an SOHC motor that is that old is pretty damn good considering what it was up against.

im pretty sure that all model years 91 and on were running the ka24de not the ka24e

Wow, now this is what I'm talking about, 3 pages, plus more mods are coming out of the wood work now.

I really like the exhaust cam idea, but explane to me why the exhaust cam is better for the 240SX on the intake. What is the psyical difference in the cam.

Also if you could explane to me what a motorcycle ITB is.

Thanks
- Adam

im pretty sure that all model years 91 and on were running the ka24de not the ka24e

Yep, all 91+ were the DOHC ka24de

Ivan sprayed a 150 shot for quite some time on a bone stock KA... This was clearly before most of us were into 240s tho... Nitrous is a great route if its what you want....


Its kinda hard to cheat in racing because everyone has the same internet to buy stuff off of. And the only thing more lame than using nitrous is condemning someone for winning using it. How lame is that to get out of your car after you lose and say "Oh, well your gay because you beat me using nitrous!!"

"

YOOOO! LTNC! good to have u back my man, how is the NAVY?

How lame is that to get out of your car after you lose and say "Oh, well your gay because you beat me using nitrous!!"


eh, i wouldnt give someone credit if they could only beat me on spray, unless the car alone was set up for spray. Like, if a civic owner just put nitrous on his car that was bone stock and won a race, id say hey thats cool, but i wouldnt be all like "blah your a hardass racer yo"...


And yes, its great to have you back, hope to hear from more of you soon.

If someone beats you, regardless of what they used, the bottom line is that their car is faster. end of story.

yeah a win is a win, but using spray because your car cant keep up is lousy IMO. But, everyone has there own opinion.

Different strokes for different folks...

If someone beats you, regardless of what they used, the bottom line is that their car is faster. end of story.

Exactly!

Not counting a win because of nitrous is just the same as domesitcs saying the only reason imports win is because of turbo...

Nitrous is avaliable to everyone... your fault if you don't buy it.

i see a lot of people dogging on the KA..yea historically the SR20 has been favored but lets look at them both as N/A motors.. the KA has more torque doesnt use pushrods making it rev quicker and more reliable at high rpm's and yes they did use KA's in trucks.. why because they have good torque. I have a '94 altima which is KA powered, i am running a set of SR20 underdrive aluminum pulleys, a DNA motoring stainless header, cold air intake, also using a 240sx maf sensor and a set of 10.2mm plug wires from vision works and have an aftermarket chip for my ecu from E-mance and while its no racecar it has hurt more than its share of feelings on the street against many v-8 cars... so as far as it being junk i dont agree, when your ride breaks down call me and ill tow you home with my KA...lmao