Upgrading the KA?

[soleprime]

hey i jus bought a 97 240 and i wanted to know what mods can i do to the car to give it a little more power without having to boost it or swap out the engine? Also how much more power would i gain with each mod? thank you. Oh and please dont bash me, im new to the mod, tuning and racing scene so im trying to learn as much as possible.

[shiftdrift]

search. cai, exhaust, header for your basics. not much power gain.

[nissanfreak317]

Do stuff that you can keep when you do your motor swap.

It's only a matter of time...

[Rag]

Maintenance and complete tune up. Save your money, i dont see the ~10whp gain after large amounts of effort being worthwhile.

[endlessboost]

^^^ Pretty much.

Fix any known problems with the car and then modify to your liking. Research is key to anything you do before initail modifications. Your not going to gain much power when adding simple bolt on.

[soleprime]

from what y'all saying, looks like im going to have to go turbo in order to notice any change in hp since simple minor mods cant do much in hp gains

[projectRDM]

Bolt on mods do allow for some power, but the cost negates the majority of them.

[iamtheyi]

if you build the block.. you can get up to 180-200 whp on the KA. but if you're gonna do that... might as well boost it. KA's get minimal power with simple bolt-ons.

[lazysk8er2]

you dont need to build the block to get only 200hp. A simple t25 turbo kit can yield that much on 10lbs of boost. stock motor. however yes the rods are weak as hell.

[iamtheyi]

^ uh... no. The rods aren't weak. The piston/piston rings are. he stated no boost or swap.

[soleprime]

ok so from what im hearing if i want any noticeable power i might as well turbo the ka or go sr

[BoostSlideWayz]

mhm....if your looking to make any type of good power n-a its gonna be with itb's, higher compression etc. the money you would spend on a set up like that would be enough to get you a nice turbo kit. n-a has its power limits, but boost has none.

[soleprime]

basically i should go turbo is what im hearing

[nissanfreak317]

Decide what it is you are really looking to do with your car.
You say that you are new to the scene, so at this point research is your best friend.
If you just wanna go a little faster then do simple things and realize that the gains you will see are nominal.
But you will find that the more time you spend around your car, the more you want to do to it. Get a ride in a well put together, swapped 240 and there won't be anything stopping you from wanting to do it to yours.

Unless you have lots of self control or extremely limited funds, the latter of which would prevent you from doing any mods at all really.

Compare the costs between modding your current engine to the point where you would be happy with it and doing a swap.

[Dirty Habit]

Theres a shit ton of information on this forum and others. A quick search will start you on the path to knowledge.

[enkei2k]

if anything, shouldn't this be in ENGINE TECH, since it's about the KA specifically?

oh shit... a thread that might actually answer the questions of an NA KA:

http://zilvia.net/f/engine-tech/91288-na-ka-faq.html

[SochBAT]

Cheap bang for buck = crank pulley. Aluminum. Awesome!