And i’m sort of a n–b and getting a lot of help as I go, but for performance purposes, what should I buy or replace for internals so that it can hold some power.
Turbo? What are your hp goals?
looking at around 300-400HP?
look at the ka FAQ in tech
Dont worry about building shit. You will blow the first KA-T you do. Swapin a Cheap motor, get it running ,go and work out alll the bugs before you build an engine.
you wouldnt have blown your motor had you just run the rom tune…lol 300 horse out of a ka-t is easy just buy a t28 or bigger turbo and crank the boost…no need to waste your money on building it!
so if I rebuild it i shouldn’t worry about internals?
no you shouldnt worry about a re-build just do head studs and yuo should be set!
do a compression test first, see how well ur engine is running first. I’d swap in some cams and timing sprockets. If you’re going for reliability and plan to use this as a track car, mebbe some new low compression pistons. I’m not sure what the factory head gasket is good for in terms of hp tho. …
some good sites. … :E
Tunning is key! A good few people have run over 400hp on a stock block with a really good tune, infact one guy just did over 500hp on stock block using coil packs, sheet metal intake manifold and a modded sr ecu! The week point is the pistons, so if you wanted piece of mind then swap out the pistons for forged low compression pistons and just check the rods to see if they need to be replaced or shotpeened…the stock rods, while a little skinny are forged from the factory and have been pushed over 500hp, but don’t over rev them as they tend to bend at higher rpm’s (ie. 7500+)…
But tunning is the most important thing, too many people spend all their money on all the turbo parts and then just spend enough on tuning to get it running…there’s lots of options, AEM EMS is #1, i don’t think anyone will argue that, second would be a enthlapy rom, followed by a jwt rom(you will need a safc to lean out this tune because jwt tunes are extremely rich)…other than that there’s all your piggy backs like emanage, etc…enthlapy seems to be the best bang for your buck, and everyone loves them, check out nico, ka-t.org, etc and seem some setups to see what other people are doing to make the same hp goals…you’ll notice some will build the block for a 300hp setup, and some will leave it stock for a 400hp setup…its all about piece of mind, which IS ALL IN THE TUNNING!!! lol…
Adam
Low comp piston…What are we trying to get here?? The response of an SR???LOL
Keep the stock compression but just get Forged pistons…Unless you wanna run 25PSI off a GT35 HEHEHEHE
Here is a good right up on one way to to go about adding a turbo to your KA. Keep in mind this written some time ago before you could buy a complete “bolt-on” kit. Good info with reguards to HP 0-60 and 1/4 times at different boost levels as well as what is the apparent weak point of these motors.
For those looking for an alternative to engine management other than mail order roms or piggy-back systems that fool the stock ecu, this is a good read for you too.