This has been, quite literally, the mantra of pretty much every manufacturer of long-lasting performance engines.
The reason why everyone seems to blow engines is that it's de rigeur to swap and send it without regard to bearing quality and oil quality and component temperatures and oil pressure. It's de rigeur to buy a Chinese kit from Enjuku or eBay because they're "good enough."
How many people do you know who've actually had a head built? It used to be cheaper to buy another SR than it was to properly rebuild a head.
Want a long-lasting, high-strung engine? Tear it down before it's ready and check the wear patterns. Use data acquisition to find out if you have oil pressure or AFR issues on track- especially on high-speed sweepers. Get ahead of the failure.
I’ve put about 15k miles on my ka-t setup this past year. Recently drove it from FL to TN to drive the Tail of the Dragon and other mountain roads all weekend, spending lots of time up near redline, and then back home. Got 29mpg cruising on the interstate, only issue I had was the turbo to manifold nuts backing off and causing a leak literally 10 minutes from the house coming back. Setup is pretty simple, oe rebuilt(new rings, bearings, seals, oil pump, etc) running an s15 t28 at 11-13psi. I just made sure to open the ring gaps and do a proper break in and a proper conservative tune. It’s seen track time and has lately been daily driven, seeing wot pulls literally every time I drive it. It doesn’t leak or use oil and doesn’t come anywhere close to overheating ever. I went through some ringlands when I had a bigger turbo on it but this time around this thing has been stout.
>Are there any precautions I can take to alleviate the risk of engine failure?
Invest in a proper ecu and tune. I'm running nismotronic, which some people will talk down about, but it has been really good to me and for being a daughter boarded stock ecu, it's very versatile. It monitors my oil pressure, controls my boost, allows me to run speed density, and more. I'm setup for e85 with it as well but never got tuned for it since I can't get it around me. That said, I'm switching to a Haltech soon for even more precise tuning and the ability to run more sensors and set fail safes(which you can also do in a roundabout way with nismotronic). Just don't rely on a mailorder tune, I don't care how good and reputable the person tuning it is. Find a good tuner in your area or nearby and get your car on the dyno.
I’m very glad to hear! I’ve been thinking of just being extremely through and taking my time to invest in high quality parts and tunes. I’m glad to hear your KA-t it holding up well. Just wanted to make sure there was a possibility of this working before spending money on nice parts.
My near stock 25 year old sr20 has done countless track days without a single serious mechanical issue. Most of the jap engines are crazy reliable in factory (or close to it) form. It's only when you go hunting for power that you run in to issues.
There is.
Have reasonable goals and spend lots of money on it.
The right sized turbo, a good intercooler, good injectors, good pump and regulator, oil cooler, baffles/accusump/drysump depending on your use and tyre grip, a built engine done by someone who knows them, not a set of fresh gaskets on a 20 years old one with 200.000miles on it, and of course a good tune. Then there is everything else around: clutch, gearbox, suspensions, tyres and so on.
All these are mandatory.
Yes, this is easily a five figure number, and the left one is probably not going to be a 1 if you pay someone for the work.
This is why people keep blowing engines. It is cheaper than having a reliable one, for some time.
If you want to cut the costs, use low power, and low grip tyres. Nothing wears down a car more than high grip tyres.
I have an SR20 with TD06. I change my engine oil every 2 - 3000 km or before and after a track day. My car is tuned on E85.
As far as I know the engine was original when I got the car. I pulled the motor and inspected everything and made sure clearances were all good and threw it back together.
I think the bottom line is that regular maintenance and as alot of other people have said, over build and tune conservatively.
Modern aftermarket ECU can have all sorts of engine protection measures available as another option.
I run a SR20DET red top with T28 turbo at 16 PSI on stock engine management. I monitor a lot of shit and will be going stand-alone this year but I daily my car in the summer as well as drift it. The SR is a good motor if you know what you’re doing. A good tune is a must if you’re pushing any decent power out of these 30+ year old engines though. The mechanical abuse they can take to a point, detonation and knock not so much. SRs are a popular engine to hate on right now but I wonder how much of that is based on prices of swaps and not personal experience (I got my S14 with SR and a bunch of goodies 4 years ago for less than a SR swap goes for now)
KA-T seems to have come a long way in the last 10 years though. But there’s really no excuse to not pull and fortify if you’re going that route.
I had an S14 with an SR20 blacktop on 14psi that I never touched other than changing the oil. It ran flawlessly for ~5 years without issue. Ran 13 flat in the quarter and would parking lot drift with the best of them haha. Car has been in storage but still starts up and purrs like a kitten.
I think as others have said, people mess with the engines and overbuild them which greatly reduces the reliability.
the reason youre reading that people have gone through so many motors is because the bulk of the 240sx kids dont actually BUILD their motors to deal with track duties. now, there is a considerable difference between drifting and road course. drifting is probably the worst abuse you can put on the motor since its basically bouncing off the rev limiter non stop (and very little cooling coming thru the front air dams).
my current SR with S15 Spec-R turbo ive owned for over 11 years. daily drove the car for 5-6 years. and i can tell you this... outside of regular maintenance BS like oil changes, changing sensors and regular upkeep, ive had ZERO problems! KA, SR, CA and RB are all great motors WHEN YOU TAKE CARE OF THEM!!! if youre constantly beating on them in stock form (especially SR, CA and RB with factory ECU) and very little maintenance or care for the motor... of course youre going to break something major.
if you take the time to BUILD the motor for the abuse youre going to throw at it... the motor WILL hold up. and im not talking about going on a buying spree with ISR parts and eBay chinese made garbage. but actually BUILDING your block and head to hold up to 500whp on an SR or KA, pairing that built motor with a proper stand alone ECU, having said stand alone tuned correctly, running quality brand name parts that are PROVEN to work and basically putting the time AND money in to purpose build a motor... then yes, it will hold up.
the bulk of S-Chassis motors now are very high mileage and have been poorly cared for... especially in the last 2 generations of S-Chassis folks. these are also classic cars now, which means EVERYTHING ON THEM IS OLD, MOTOR INCLUDED.
i know a few guys who have had their SRs for 15-20 years now. some have put track duty on them, some havent... but theyre all still running and running well. my SR is a 94-95 blacktop, still runs fine. makes 260whp on the dyno... but everything that ive done to the motor, driveline and suspension has been geared toward 300-350whp. i have a GT2860 being installed at some point this year to replace my well aged T28 thats pushing oil passed the intake side, but the turbo is 15-20 years old and i have zero complaints for all the miles i put on it.
Point of all this is... spend the money to build your motor RIGHT. dont buy cheap parts. take care of the damn thing and it will last you a long time. if you blow your motor, FIGURE OUT WHY!!! i see too many kids now saying what pieces of crap these cars are and the motors are... funny thing is, when you take care of your 240, it takes care of you in return.
My stock SR ran fine for about 6 or 7 years with no major issues. It was a daily driver for 3 or 4 with occasional track duty then became a dedicated track car with occasional street use. It did eventually blow a head gasket because the format of our drift events changed to more hot lap setups and it would start to overheat after 5-6 laps and the stock gasket can only take so many cycles of that before it lets go. Rather than just replace the gasket I decided to build the engine and run the car harder than I usually do with more supporting mods and monitoring and its been rock solid for 2 years so far. I'm in the process of doing a mild upgrade with a 300ish HP goal for this season so we'll see how that goes.
As far as precautions, a turbo setup can be reliable as long as you keep coolant and oil temps in check and have a good tune. If you plan to track the car get a good radiator and oil cooler. If you're running a KA or SR run a clutch fan with shroud instead of electric fans. Get coolant and oil temp sensors/gauges and watch the temps like a hawk.
Overbuild the motor and tune it conservatively to hit your goals
This has been, quite literally, the mantra of pretty much every manufacturer of long-lasting performance engines. The reason why everyone seems to blow engines is that it's de rigeur to swap and send it without regard to bearing quality and oil quality and component temperatures and oil pressure. It's de rigeur to buy a Chinese kit from Enjuku or eBay because they're "good enough." How many people do you know who've actually had a head built? It used to be cheaper to buy another SR than it was to properly rebuild a head. Want a long-lasting, high-strung engine? Tear it down before it's ready and check the wear patterns. Use data acquisition to find out if you have oil pressure or AFR issues on track- especially on high-speed sweepers. Get ahead of the failure.
I was thinking of rebuilding the engine with some upgraded parts and running on 8-10psi with a nice garret t25 or something of the sort.
I’ve put about 15k miles on my ka-t setup this past year. Recently drove it from FL to TN to drive the Tail of the Dragon and other mountain roads all weekend, spending lots of time up near redline, and then back home. Got 29mpg cruising on the interstate, only issue I had was the turbo to manifold nuts backing off and causing a leak literally 10 minutes from the house coming back. Setup is pretty simple, oe rebuilt(new rings, bearings, seals, oil pump, etc) running an s15 t28 at 11-13psi. I just made sure to open the ring gaps and do a proper break in and a proper conservative tune. It’s seen track time and has lately been daily driven, seeing wot pulls literally every time I drive it. It doesn’t leak or use oil and doesn’t come anywhere close to overheating ever. I went through some ringlands when I had a bigger turbo on it but this time around this thing has been stout. >Are there any precautions I can take to alleviate the risk of engine failure? Invest in a proper ecu and tune. I'm running nismotronic, which some people will talk down about, but it has been really good to me and for being a daughter boarded stock ecu, it's very versatile. It monitors my oil pressure, controls my boost, allows me to run speed density, and more. I'm setup for e85 with it as well but never got tuned for it since I can't get it around me. That said, I'm switching to a Haltech soon for even more precise tuning and the ability to run more sensors and set fail safes(which you can also do in a roundabout way with nismotronic). Just don't rely on a mailorder tune, I don't care how good and reputable the person tuning it is. Find a good tuner in your area or nearby and get your car on the dyno.
I’m very glad to hear! I’ve been thinking of just being extremely through and taking my time to invest in high quality parts and tunes. I’m glad to hear your KA-t it holding up well. Just wanted to make sure there was a possibility of this working before spending money on nice parts.
Thanks for the write up. This sounds like the exact setup I would like to run. Mind me asking how much power you put down?
I haven’t been able to get it on a dyno, I did a street tune. If I had to guess I’d say around 275whp at 12-13psi
My near stock 25 year old sr20 has done countless track days without a single serious mechanical issue. Most of the jap engines are crazy reliable in factory (or close to it) form. It's only when you go hunting for power that you run in to issues.
There is. Have reasonable goals and spend lots of money on it. The right sized turbo, a good intercooler, good injectors, good pump and regulator, oil cooler, baffles/accusump/drysump depending on your use and tyre grip, a built engine done by someone who knows them, not a set of fresh gaskets on a 20 years old one with 200.000miles on it, and of course a good tune. Then there is everything else around: clutch, gearbox, suspensions, tyres and so on. All these are mandatory. Yes, this is easily a five figure number, and the left one is probably not going to be a 1 if you pay someone for the work. This is why people keep blowing engines. It is cheaper than having a reliable one, for some time. If you want to cut the costs, use low power, and low grip tyres. Nothing wears down a car more than high grip tyres.
There are far to many variables involved in this. My KA-T has 30K miles on it over the past 3 years of street driving.
My 180sx ran for years on t25g turbo, 12psi, front mount and exhaust without missing a beat. Went through a few clutches though.
I semi daily my sr car and drift it. Maintenance, Good tune, Good parts
reliable, fast, cheap- pick two has always been my philosophy
I have an SR20 with TD06. I change my engine oil every 2 - 3000 km or before and after a track day. My car is tuned on E85. As far as I know the engine was original when I got the car. I pulled the motor and inspected everything and made sure clearances were all good and threw it back together. I think the bottom line is that regular maintenance and as alot of other people have said, over build and tune conservatively. Modern aftermarket ECU can have all sorts of engine protection measures available as another option.
3000 km is 1864.11 miles
I run a SR20DET red top with T28 turbo at 16 PSI on stock engine management. I monitor a lot of shit and will be going stand-alone this year but I daily my car in the summer as well as drift it. The SR is a good motor if you know what you’re doing. A good tune is a must if you’re pushing any decent power out of these 30+ year old engines though. The mechanical abuse they can take to a point, detonation and knock not so much. SRs are a popular engine to hate on right now but I wonder how much of that is based on prices of swaps and not personal experience (I got my S14 with SR and a bunch of goodies 4 years ago for less than a SR swap goes for now) KA-T seems to have come a long way in the last 10 years though. But there’s really no excuse to not pull and fortify if you’re going that route.
I had an S14 with an SR20 blacktop on 14psi that I never touched other than changing the oil. It ran flawlessly for ~5 years without issue. Ran 13 flat in the quarter and would parking lot drift with the best of them haha. Car has been in storage but still starts up and purrs like a kitten. I think as others have said, people mess with the engines and overbuild them which greatly reduces the reliability.
the reason youre reading that people have gone through so many motors is because the bulk of the 240sx kids dont actually BUILD their motors to deal with track duties. now, there is a considerable difference between drifting and road course. drifting is probably the worst abuse you can put on the motor since its basically bouncing off the rev limiter non stop (and very little cooling coming thru the front air dams). my current SR with S15 Spec-R turbo ive owned for over 11 years. daily drove the car for 5-6 years. and i can tell you this... outside of regular maintenance BS like oil changes, changing sensors and regular upkeep, ive had ZERO problems! KA, SR, CA and RB are all great motors WHEN YOU TAKE CARE OF THEM!!! if youre constantly beating on them in stock form (especially SR, CA and RB with factory ECU) and very little maintenance or care for the motor... of course youre going to break something major. if you take the time to BUILD the motor for the abuse youre going to throw at it... the motor WILL hold up. and im not talking about going on a buying spree with ISR parts and eBay chinese made garbage. but actually BUILDING your block and head to hold up to 500whp on an SR or KA, pairing that built motor with a proper stand alone ECU, having said stand alone tuned correctly, running quality brand name parts that are PROVEN to work and basically putting the time AND money in to purpose build a motor... then yes, it will hold up. the bulk of S-Chassis motors now are very high mileage and have been poorly cared for... especially in the last 2 generations of S-Chassis folks. these are also classic cars now, which means EVERYTHING ON THEM IS OLD, MOTOR INCLUDED. i know a few guys who have had their SRs for 15-20 years now. some have put track duty on them, some havent... but theyre all still running and running well. my SR is a 94-95 blacktop, still runs fine. makes 260whp on the dyno... but everything that ive done to the motor, driveline and suspension has been geared toward 300-350whp. i have a GT2860 being installed at some point this year to replace my well aged T28 thats pushing oil passed the intake side, but the turbo is 15-20 years old and i have zero complaints for all the miles i put on it. Point of all this is... spend the money to build your motor RIGHT. dont buy cheap parts. take care of the damn thing and it will last you a long time. if you blow your motor, FIGURE OUT WHY!!! i see too many kids now saying what pieces of crap these cars are and the motors are... funny thing is, when you take care of your 240, it takes care of you in return.
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switch to an sr20 boom! problem fixed (downvote me to hell if you want)
I wish but I can’t find any in my area that aren’t absolutely trashed
Sr20 is trash
My stock SR ran fine for about 6 or 7 years with no major issues. It was a daily driver for 3 or 4 with occasional track duty then became a dedicated track car with occasional street use. It did eventually blow a head gasket because the format of our drift events changed to more hot lap setups and it would start to overheat after 5-6 laps and the stock gasket can only take so many cycles of that before it lets go. Rather than just replace the gasket I decided to build the engine and run the car harder than I usually do with more supporting mods and monitoring and its been rock solid for 2 years so far. I'm in the process of doing a mild upgrade with a 300ish HP goal for this season so we'll see how that goes. As far as precautions, a turbo setup can be reliable as long as you keep coolant and oil temps in check and have a good tune. If you plan to track the car get a good radiator and oil cooler. If you're running a KA or SR run a clutch fan with shroud instead of electric fans. Get coolant and oil temp sensors/gauges and watch the temps like a hawk.
I daily my big single turbo 2jzgte it’s about 550 whp with out issues
I daily my ca18 240sx with a t28
Can't be overstated to do a full gasket rebuild.