Project KA FC
 

So, I had a Miata for a while since it was given to me and hated it, so I sold it and got an FC. Two of them actually.

I actually started a build thread a while back in a different section, but everyone was like wtf would you put a KA in an FC. Hopefully it'll get a little better review over here.

What I got rid of for the FC:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/81d956df.jpg

Basically here's the FC when I got it:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/002ac68e.jpg

And heres what it looks like now:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/1406d955.jpg

And here's what's in it:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/5c3bbc81.jpg

I built a rear sump oil pan, rear pickup tube, tranny mount, engine mounts, and had a driveshaft built. It took about a solid month to get it all done, in and running.

Also got PBM coils:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/8ebbd3f7.jpg

A K-Sport hydro:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/c39c85a8.jpg

And it's just pretty much chilling until I get it insured and tagged right now. I put a welded diff in it, I've driven it maybe 30 minutes since its been running, slid it a little and done some donuts, but I don't want to drive it too extensively until its street legal. It feels awesome though, handles amazingly sideways.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/aeb513f8.jpg

And here's a pic of my daily for shits and giggles

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/805e8b9f.jpg

Damn thats a lot of work for a KA, lol. I hate those damn motors, what made you want one anyway?

It generally gets a lot of hate lol.

In my opinion, a naturally aspirated KA is one of Nissan's most underrated motors. It's cheap, has tons of aftermarket support, and has an excellent powerband to do what we do.

Most of the time (and don't think I'm pointing this at you), drivers who dislike KA's dont have the experience or the skill to fully utilize the KA's potential. Most people write it off as an underpowered piece of garbage, and go SR, RB, or LS. However, in doing so they lose their opportunity to make themselves better drivers.

I'm not saying you should stay with a 160hp KA forever, I just believe you should exhaust all your limitations until power is your last limit.

Also, the 13b was blown when I got the car, and I had a KA in my garage. Lol. I also fabricated all the parts myself, so the only real cost was the cost of the driveshaft.

A local az dude fucked with NA KA's a few years ago.

He did pretty much everything he could to it. high comp, crazy porting, crazy intake/exhaust manifolds, fuel, etc. It made 200whp and that was after spending millions on it.

If you want any sort of power stick a turbo on it.

I'm not planning on anything but stock power out of this KA. When I'm ready for more power, it'll either get an SR or a 1j.

Yeah, I started out drifting KA's and while you can have fun at first I feel you outgrow the power real fast. I just find it funny you put in that much effort for that thing lol, too bad you didn't have a vq sitting in your garage instead. At least you don't have a 4ag or na rotary tho!

We did this exact setup at a shop i worked with here. The car was surprisingly decent. Had more torque but still wasnt much different from the NA motor. Ka-t missile setup would be pretty easy (obviously you know this) would be pretty stout too.

I like seeing different things. If you do ditch this for a JZ later you will love life.

Got my oil pressure and temp gauges hooked up. A tach is going in the middle in case anyone was wondering.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/30104bdc.jpg

If you're keeping that wood in the dash area... That's awesome! Varnish the shit out of it.

A local az dude fucked with NA KA's a few years ago.

He did pretty much everything he could to it. high comp, crazy porting, crazy intake/exhaust manifolds, fuel, etc. It made 200whp and that was after spending millions on it.

If you want any sort of power stick a turbo on it.

Strange, we had a local racer build a NAP-Z bottom end with flowed KA head and it made 300+hp on the dyno NA.

Now that was a motor begging for a turbo, but he was running it in under 2.5L NA class.

Either way, building NA KA's isn't worth it. For the money, you could have something way better. Honestly I'm not a fan of KA-t's either. I think they should be left stock, they can serve their purpose and take a beating.

Gonna try different oil today, I'm running 10w30 and getting a lot of head noise. May post up some donut vids later

Oil change didn't help. I thought it might be because the motor is tilted back a little bit, but I jacked up the tranny to correct it and it didn't make a difference.

Basically its getting a lot of head noise, rattling and clacking. It's kind of intermittent though, and it doesn't sound like its coming from the block. It's either something in the valvetrain or a really really broken lower timing chain guide. I guess I'll be pulling the cover off to check em

I know my on my old ka the upper chain guide was snapped right off and just smacking around, kinda scary, I just pulled it out and changed the valve cover and yeah it stopped.

Yeah, the infamous KA timing chain guide rattle of death. fix that if you want the engine to last you very long. But once you do, it will last a LONG time.

Interesting swap, but why didn't you just trade the Miata for an S13?

Why did you hate the Miata so much anyway? I loved mine.

Fixed! LOL! Good job doing it in a month. Most turbo swaps take longer than that. Nice Daily, too!

I've never been crazy about S13's, I've driven/slid quite a few and don't really like how they handle. Granted, I'd never driven an FC, but I figured I'd give it a chance and if I didn't really like it I could go another route.

Turns out I really like the FC.

The Miata was fun as shit to drive, but a pain in the ass to slide. With enough mods and shit it would've been all right, but never competitive.

Finishing up my tubs today, starting on engine bay paint tonight. Then hopefully picking up another KA this weekend for another shot at this.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/5127f174.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/d3a65e8e.jpg

For all the work to do a custom swap, WHY NOT DO AN SR20??. Sorry, I don't mean to yell, but you dont understand how much cooler that'd be.

SR20s are overhyped and overpriced simply because they're newer. A KA-t can work very well and if you want a factory turbo nissan, get a ca18, which was only replaced by the sr20 because the ca18 was too expensive and needed the emissions to be improved.

Eh, I don't want to overpower it until I master handling it. And cost is an issue. I don't want to drop 2k on a motor, build a bunch of custom shit for it only to have it blow because it didn't work. KA's are a lot cheaper to replace than SR's.

And by the time I want to go with more power, I'll probably just go with a JZ instead.

do you have a build thread or pics of what it took to get the motor in there?

Only extensive thread I have is on Nismokc.com. Mounting brackets are pretty simple to build though, basically you just position the motor/trans where it needs to be inside the car, sitting it on blocks/whatev, and then just build the mounts around that. I positioned the whole thing around shifter location, getting the shifter where I needed it and building the trans mount, then bolted that up and positioned the front of the motor where it needed to be and built the mounts for the block. I have about an inch and a half between the back of the head and the firewall, so it all worked out great!

What happened to the KA? You said it had a rattle noise then it's out. haha

I actually have an SR20 with an S15 T28 and a KA24 with an S14 T28 right now. Honestly, it's a really tough choice which one is 'better'. The SR makes more power above 6200 rpm and pulls harder all the way to redline. The KA starts pulling hard around 3000rpm (SR @ 4-4.5k) but fkinda flattens out at 6200 or so. Basically, the KA powerband is about 1k rpm lower, but pulls pretty much the same.

I'll just continue rambling. Once, i was on the way home from a drift event, drivign my SR car, while my buddy was driving my KA car. ~80mph, we did a 5th gear pull. Almost instantly, the KA pulled 3 car lengths on the SR and the SR could not catch up. That's the only time
I've 'raced' them.

Also, KA ran 8psi and had STOCK exhaust, SR ran 10psi with 3" exhaust. Just an unbiased opinion..

True. The displacement of the KA gives it an immediate advantage over the SR, but the manufacturing is the problem. Still, once I get a little power hungry I may throw an SR turbo setup on it for a little more juice.

Pulled the ka to check the timing chain, it was fine so I'm assuming its in the bottom end. Plus it started getting worse. Picking up another ka in a week or so.

Manufacturing? Care to expand on that?

Is there drift events in OK right now?

Manufacturing problems being based around the engine not designed for forced induction, excessive blow by issues, cylinder head pressure, crank case pressure, etc. Mild Ka-t's are fine for the most part, but for a serious build it wouldn't be my choice.

We're putting on events in Stroud every six weeks or so now, I'll be driving at those and some Mineral Wells events this fall hopefully.

Sounds like a bunch of anti-KA propaganda. I agree that a V8 would be much better for any sort of serious power. :p:

Hope to see some videos of this car soon.

oh please...


KA-T.org - The Home of 1000+ whp/7 sec Turbo KA's

Stick with the KA, if only to prove yourself wrong.

Not really, I've built ka-t's before and run into all the above problems. I wouldn't have a problem running a mild setup, but for anything largely expensive and time consuming it wouldn't be worth it. And I'm not a v8 guy lol. I don't hate them, I just think they have their place.

I'll be sure to post up some event videos soon!

Just went to the salvage yard, found a couple manual steering racks, I think I'm gonna pick one up for the FC. Hopefully I can get it dropped in before the engine is in. You can use the power shaft with the manual rack right?

Car looks good man keep it up!

Ive been in the middle of this swap for a few months now. Mainly b/c i work 7 days a week. Anyway its good to see that it can be done. Personally im going ka-t, maily b/c i have all the parts to do so lying around. Any pix of your steering rack? I had to do some serious moding to it to fit the oilpan.

I actually built a rear sump pan instead. Easier than moving the rack.

I did both, still only a cunt hair of clearance.

Did you do a dual cam engine harness to fc body harness? Or a custome one? Im personally doing a custom one but its taking longer then expected.

I completely discarded the FC engine harness, and used the dual cam harness to build a custom one. It was actually a lot simpler than I thought, I just used diagrams from Ratsun.net to find which wires to power. There's only like 6 wires that need power for the engine to run, I built a relay box and powered the whole engine off 4 relays. And everything else on the FC uses the chassis harness, so lights, brakes, turn signals, wipers, etc still work without the ecu and stuff.

Sick ass swap man! Different for sure. Keep it up! Car looks sweet as fuck.

Thanks man! Can't wait to get wheels and aero haha. Picking up some stuff this weekend to get me closer to have it driving again! Only about 300 bucks away from having it drivable, it's driving me nuts.

Just realized this page doesn't have any pics! Haha

Tubs are done, engine bay is painted, about to start putting shit back in it.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/d5fc8f27.jpg

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...t/c8304619.jpg

Video of when it ran a few weeks ago haha

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...h_9bde3e1d.jpg

I'm pretty sure you've already mentioned it but I'm lazy haha are you running spacers with the crown Vic's? I'm about to pick up a set and was trying to get an idea of how much I need to space them out to sit super flush. Provably gonna buy em by them up and take measurements. Oh and what offset are they?

your welcome
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generati...equest-970891/

i started with a stock ka in a s13 coupe. though me alot. then i went KA-T/CA/SR.....now rotary...

for as much money i dumped into my ka-t swap..Not even a built motor. i could have built and lsx s13. you live and learn.

I cant wait to b on ur level..

http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/v...e/5fa8dd79.jpg

The crown Vic wheels require a 10mm spacer up front to clear the brakes. I'm running a 205/45 on them and not worried about being super flush since theyre only 7"s. can't even stretch a tire on them.

Looking good! Are your mounts done or is it just mocked up?

im running a 5mm spacer in front. with a very light filing of the
calipers.

All the mounts are ready to go. Just gonna finish the emmissions delete on the i/m, get bearings for turbo, make downpipe, and wire that bish up. I have no timeto do any of this stuff tho so i missed this whole season :(

Well, ordered an oil pan and pickup tube from a 99 Nissan Frontier, since their KA24DE's are stock rear sump.

HOWEVER, the bastard sent me the oil pan and pickup tube from a single cam Hardbody, which won't do me any good. I was really hoping to make the event on Sept. 1st, but it looks like I won't be doing that anytime soon.

In the meantime, I've been putting together an S14 KA for the FC, it's pretty much done except for the oil pan. Which SHOULD be done, but this has set me back a bit.

You can't use the oil pan and pickup you already modified?

I think the clearance between the filter and the bottom of the pan may have something to do with the knocking issue. I don't know why it would have anything to do with it, but it's really the only thing I changed to the engine. Unless by some freak chance the motor just decided to poop out 20 miles after I got it, that would have to be it.

Frontier pans are fairly cheap, I'll just try and get another one and hope it works. Won't be making the event though.

Getting the thing tagged and titled is kinda buttfucking me. I hate doing 42's.

By the way, if anyone wants to come get the spare shell out of my driveway, feel free to come get it. I'll take a case of Bud Light for it.