murda-c

Dude I just wanted to say you're a freakin cool guy.

Props for just jumping into fixing your 240 like that man. I went to trade school and sometimes I still don't feel like working on the thing myself.

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corymaloy

Since im a poor kid, I am considering venus auto parts, they seem to be the cheapest- offering a full SR20 engine for only 1,000 bucks! (plus shipping)

do they have a good rep?

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murda-c

I've read alot of bad reviews from venus.

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Monooxide

I would recommend getting an S14 SR20DET, Fuel Pump, clutch, Elbow back exhaust, FMIC, BOV, Manual or Electric Boost Controller and Boost, Oil Press and Water Temp. gauges. That is what I would recommend at minimum if you're going to do the swap. You get away with not doing the boost controller and FMIC but I think you will regret not doing it in the beginning.

murda-c

The best thing to do for power is tuning.

If you aren't gonna go for tuning, you wanna at least to a couple dyno runs to make sure everything is peachy.

But yeah, nistune is cool, do that.

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Monooxide

I bought my engine and front end from JHOT Imports and I had nothing but GREAT service from them. The items I received were of great quality. They don't lie about mileage as my engine had 78k miles on it and one had 103~113k miles.

The engine you get is a VERY big investment on your part because if you cheap out and get a $1000 motorset and it ends up having low compression or a blown turbo or missing stuff and now you have to hassle with the vendor...now you have a headache and more money to be spent on your side.

I would save up and get a motorset from a reputable company for more money.

I wouldn't recommend any sort of fuel management. I would stick with stock fuel management until you decide what you want to do later when you get a bigger turbo.

LongGrain

just lookin out, homie.

its actually "tension/compression rod"

corymaloy

How do you tune? Do you hire an expert or is there software I can use? Whats the norm?

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Monooxide

You definitely need to have a decent background knowledge of tuning to be good and be comfortable doing this.

You need to have some sort of electronics that can control either fuel or fuel and ignition.

There are piggybacks(SAFC, Emanage...) which are the low end and usually conisder band-aids for tuning, these modulate signals that come from factory sensors and send out new signals to change the performance of the engine.

Then there are ROM tunes(Enthalpy, JWT...) these are tunes created by a tuner who has a pretty good idea of what kind of fuel and ignition map you would need for a specified setup. You take your factory ECU and ship it to them and they flash a new 'tune' onto your ECU after giving them information such as MAF, Injectors and Turbo...

There are also stand-alones(AEM, Megasquirt...) these are ECUs that come with software and are 100% fully tunable by you or a tuner. You can change a multitude of settings and control things such as fans and so forth.

Most tuning with any of these three items requires a Wideband Air to Fuel ratio gauge and you go to a shop with a Dyno and you make runs and adjust the fuel and timing maps to a desired Air to Fuel ratio level to achieve more power.

You can also tune on the street, this is not near as reliable, nor does it generally have as good of results. However not all drivability hiccups can be removed from just tuning on a dyno.

You will NOT need a tune when you do a swap. You can keep the factory ECU, Injectors and MAF. The only time you need to get a tune is when you change Injectors, MAF, Turbo or ECU.

corymaloy

It sounds like this is the best option for a newbie on a budget?

So I just found out from previous owner that I have a "Turbo ECU" in a non tubro sohc ka24 car... This would explain the 3 foot flames when I change gears I'm guessing.

What negative effects will this have on my engine? Its running like shit and its just a matter of time before she quits.

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Monooxide

You'll probably go through spark plugs and have a lack of power in comparison to how it should be. I don't know what he would mean by turbo ECU...but...anyhow... If you could find a stock one it would probably help your gas mileage.

Yes, generally these are ok for people on a budget, however some people have great easy success with them, some do not. It may take a few times of sending your ECU back for a re-tune to get it right. Also, unfortunately with this setup if you upgrade turbo, injectors or MAF then you need a re-tune.

I would personally recommend staying with stock ECU, Injectors and MAF. Then later saving up to get a PowerFC or another Stand-Alone. I personally did this on a S14 SR20DET and the potential of that motor stock really lasted me. It is a very solid fun engine, over 250WHP capable and I was able to get the car into the 12s on 13 PSI.