Which engine for 240sx drifting?

[Gewoon dwars]

Greetings all,

Just subscribed to your forum, and I'll get straight off the line here:

We need help.

We got a 240sx, and we're located in Holland. In Europe they only sold the 180-200sx models. Hence, nobody here really knows the KA24E engine. Nobody has any hands-on experience with these engines here.

We're really into drifting, and after managing some events / teams, we felt it was time to take place behind the steering wheel ourselves. Our choice immediately went to the S13, for both budget & competetive choice. We seen what these cars can do when tuned right. But ofcourse, like many people we wanted to do something different then everybody here and got hold of a 240sx american import.

Here is the status as we are now:
*We have a 240sx, with the KA24E 12valve engine
*We got 2 spare KA24E engines
*Car is entirely stripped down
*TEIN Super drift suspension recently installed

Ok, so now you know what we doing on this side of the world. Here's the real questions.

For drifting, is there ANY potential in the KA24E engine? I had great trouble looking up parts, and if I'm correct the only options are:
1) N/A tune it using the nismo cams & port grinding, coming to about 180-190 bhp
2) Supercharge it. Only option I found was the roots charger, limiting at 220 bhp
3) Turbocharge it. However, we strongly dislike the whole turbo idea... We see the skylines & turbo'd s13's s14's break down too often.
4) Swap Engine

Now, is there anybody here that can help me out on this one? We got a big sponsor, and more coming. but we need to decide what to do under the bonnet 1st. I've also heard there's a 350z engine swap available, is it easy to do, or does it require special knowledge?


Thanks for taking the time, and share your ideas.



Daan,

team "Gewoon Dwars"

Holland

[Torpedo]

KA24E engine single cam... I would suggest to turbo it by planning a rebuild. It is more money and more work. The KA block is very strong, but other components in the car aren’t. Because it was not built to be a turbo car, the pistons and rods will absolutely need to be changed along with some others items. The price would be around a $2000 rebuild, plus the $4000 dollar turbo kit. This would be more costly, but has much more torque. That is why I like it, but it is more money. Good luck, hope I answered the question.

[240240240]

A 350z swap would be sweet. I'm sure it takes a bit of work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a97_TlhN2rI
hehe..

[Gewoon dwars]

Hmmm.... If I'm gona be spending 6k to end up with a semi-reliable engine... I'm not sure that's the way forward at the moment. For that amount of money I can buy a VQ engine and have money leftover.. I really want to keep the turbo option as a plan B.

As for structural integrity of the car, a rollcage coming soon. FIA approved.
Also were planning some extra reinforcement such as polyurethane inside some of the chassis-beams & some extra welds. There is only so much you can do, and let's face it. in 2 years this chassis is more bent then a hoola-hoop hehe :D

So nobody got any knowledge about these VQ engine swaps? Or if its possible to mount anything other then a roots-type of charger?

Cheers

[240sxBD]

ok lets get a few thing in line here what type of events are you planning to do, local, national, etc.
how long have you been drifting because remember drifting started on winding mountain roads driven by locals with basicly stock vehicles! power is not the most important aspect of drifting. ( I have a 91 240sx with a KA24DE N/A with minor bolt-on parts, full suspension and conecting set-up w/ hydralic e-brake, and a OBX-R LSD with stock gears and placed 2nd to only to a better driver with yrs of EXP at a local event.
another thing the KA24E is a verry strong motor if I am not mistaken the SOHC holds the HP record over the DOHC at an est 600hp with Turbo set up
if you need any set-up info please message me and i will help you out as much as possible.

[Gewoon dwars]

Sweet!

Nice to see somebody who drift's this type. But let's answer some of the questions. Drifting in holland isn't all that, we don't have any really suitable locations for events. Hence we aim to go abroad. We don't aim for nr1 position, but we want to smoke at least one big budget skyline.

We know you can drift with relative low power, but we want smoke. Lots of it. A friend of us drifts AE86 with just 160 bhp, another mate uses a stock CAT18 S13. They both pull off real sweet drifts. But like I said, we want smoke. lots of it. The only thing we really dislike are turbo's. They tend to break down a lot, at least over here. Always a turbo-hose that blasts off or something along that line. For us, the turbo is the last possible option.

What we'd really like is a decent supercharger for our KA24 engines, or get details on the VQ-swap. Good tuners are rare over here, they can't help us.
A turbo build seems to be on the edge of what they can achieve, and many times they go faulty, or the setup isnt 100%.

Another question that I have, and this one is actually the most important at the time: We squatted down the 240 on the coilovers, leaving space between fender & wheels. Estimate drop is about 50mm. But, our rear wheels have a load of negative camber that reminds me most of a pyramid. I seen bushings on the market to adjust this, and a whole upper control arm if I'm not misstaken. Which set would you use to correct? The camber is pretty extreme at the moment.


Thanks for all your time and thoughts,



Daan
"Gewoon Dwars"

[240sxBD]

well looks like you have a slight problem hahaha you need to get a fully adjustable drift suspension kit ( i went on ebay and typed in 240sx suspension and i bought a GODSPEED KIT which includes: Rear toe arm kit, rear camber kit, rear traction rods, and pillow tension rods) awsome kit fixed my coilover problem.

For the power problem for your motor i have a solution which i have done on my 02 Camaro SS and had major results, and I am in the works on one for my 240. NITROUS!!! ok don't just over look the post! hear me out I know what you are thinking "Nitrous=Drift car no way how? I am going to post a tread about how to Drift with Nitrous so hater are welcome because I am the guru of N2O.

[Gewoon dwars]

Sounds crazy enough, I'm curious now :D

[.nismoboy.s13]

start slow, then work your way up, some of the best drifters i know have done it that way, so id recomend a KA24DE to start out with then maybe go with a KA24DET, or just go SR20.

[shogun]

Old thread so question is what has happened with you guys in Holland?
If your car is still alive and modificatons ongoing, please have a look in my project thread. You will find lots of information about upgrades.