KPower Industries K24 swap

[jacobe38]

Last year at Gridlife, they were joking over the paddock main speaker. And announced a PSA "For all Kswap owners to check their oil drain plugs before each session in case it rattles itself out on track"

seems to be only half joking, heh. I also witnessed that white brz test car's trans lock itself up and spin out right in front of another driver. sketchy. owner said it was clutch related? could intense vibration cause something to go wrong?

Also consider he was wrongly blaming the car. But it was his personal brz and Kpowereds test car, and ive seen the guy at gridlife for years. so i'd expect him to be adept.

[RedReplicant]

Kinda curious what this dude on facebook is talking about saying that the stock TSX thermostat and thermostat housings aren't all dual poppet.

Captain Awesome was right that the other line needs to be connected for proper coolant flow, but the stock TSX housing has the two ports and the TSX thermostat is designed to control the flow to these two ports. I also think that the KPower route of blocking off the other line is incorrect.

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Kinda curious what this dude on facebook is talking about saying that the stock TSX thermostat and thermostat housings aren't all dual poppet.

Captain Awesome was right that the other line needs to be connected for proper coolant flow, but the stock TSX housing has the two ports and the TSX thermostat is designed to control the flow to these two ports. I also think that the KPower route of blocking off the other line is incorrect.

Curious about the dual poppet talk as well. Never seen one different and if that was the case there would be different part numbers. Also the way it was described doesn't match what I've seen. The thermostat opening doesn't close any port, just allows coolant to escape the housing through the temp regulated opening.

[Irace86.2.0]

As is, the two ports on the thermostat housing bring water from the block and from the heater back into the rear of the water pump to be recirculated. When the thermostat opens, that internal circuit is still intact, but then the external circuit opens flow to the radiator.

Following the install guide, removing one hose and putting the heat exchanger in series means there may be less flow and more heat extraction, both of which could delay opening. Like pinching a hose increases pressure, but doesn’t change the volume-rate/flow-rate (L/min), eliminating one hose may increase the speed/pressure of the water to the water pump, but not decrease the flow rate. Then again, it could act as a bottleneck. I don’t know.

As far as I can tell, there isn’t an internal circuit to the internal circuit, meaning there appears to not be anything that can feed the water pump inside the water pump housing from the block if the two hose ports are plugged on the thermostat housing. I don’t have the parts in front of me to check. The odd thing is the K-tuned V1 and V2 swivel thermostat housings are designed to go in the normal position, or it can bolt directly to the water pump housing. In such a configuration, flow would stop unless the housing or thermostat allowed some passthrough. It seems like this would be particularly bad, but apparently this works. It seems like the pressure would build on the water pump and be a problem.


https://k-tuned.3dcartstores.com/Swi...at-_p_985.html

[funkjaw]

I have the motoeast flex fuel kit left over from when I was FA20
https://86speed.com/moto-east-flex-fuel-kit-frs-brz-86

Deciding if I should...
1. Try to make it work with the Kpower Haltech engine harness (would need to make a custom harness from the ECA-2 module signal output to the E85 Haltech connector)
2. Sell it and just buy the Kpower E85 kit but I would lose the nifty in-cabin E85 guage (https://kpower.industries/collection...cid=ba801f46ad)
3. Sell it and forget about E85 all together..

Any thoughts guys?

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

I have the motoeast flex fuel kit left over from when I was FA20
https://86speed.com/moto-east-flex-fuel-kit-frs-brz-86

Deciding if I should...
1. Try to make it work with the Kpower Haltech engine harness (would need to make a custom harness from the ECA-2 module signal output to the E85 Haltech connector)
2. Sell it and just buy the Kpower E85 kit but I would lose the nifty in-cabin E85 guage (https://kpower.industries/collection...cid=ba801f46ad)
3. Sell it and forget about E85 all together..

Any thoughts guys?

I would adapt what you have if you want to keep the gauge. Even if you only use e85 a few times a year the sensor does the work so it's kind of set it and forget it. Might as well have the option. However if you rarely ran e85 with the fa20 then it may not be worth the hassle.

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

I would adapt what you have if you want to keep the gauge. Even if you only use e85 a few times a year the sensor does the work so it's kind of set it and forget it. Might as well have the option. However if you rarely ran e85 with the fa20 then it may not be worth the hassle.

Yeah that's a good point, think I'll keep it. Thanks!

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

I have the motoeast flex fuel kit left over from when I was FA20
https://86speed.com/moto-east-flex-fuel-kit-frs-brz-86

Deciding if I should...
1. Try to make it work with the Kpower Haltech engine harness (would need to make a custom harness from the ECA-2 module signal output to the E85 Haltech connector)
2. Sell it and just buy the Kpower E85 kit but I would lose the nifty in-cabin E85 guage (https://kpower.industries/collection...cid=ba801f46ad)
3. Sell it and forget about E85 all together..

Any thoughts guys?

Kpower will probably just sell the harness. You can make it work if it isn’t plug n play.

[captain awesome]

Someone on the FB group noticed the addition of a flex pipe requirement in the installation instructions. Just another thing I gotta add in. Sheesh.

It’s very important that a mesh flex pipe is installed in your 3” exhaust system, ideally as close to the midpipe as possible. Many aftermarket exhausts already include this, but all custom exhausts need to have one as well. Running without a flex may cause your header to crack. We like Vibrant part #61006.

[Irace86.2.0]

I have one one my downpipe and one on my recirculating dump tube from the wastegate. That’s one of the reasons why I changed my first design because they both didn’t have flex pipes.

[Ebush]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

Someone on the FB group noticed the addition of a flex pipe requirement in the installation instructions. Just another thing I gotta add in. Sheesh.

Instead of a giant 3 bolt flange in a horrible location on the header, maybe they should have added two vbands and a flex pipe. Rather than saying we need to modify our catback. I honestly can’t think of any catbacks for these cars that has a flex pipe, and I’ve had probably 15 different catbacks on this car.

[RedReplicant]

How loud is this Perrin 3" they are talking about? I like my CSG Touring since it met the local DB requirements with e85/sc/ace a350/ace front pipe with no cat, but if I need to cut the thing up anyway I may as well sell it.

The choice to 3 bolt vs vband the header to the midpipe also confuses me.

Also, re: lead time. I talked to someone earlier this week that ordered in November and hasn't received their kit yet. We both received similar emails on the 11th saying we'd be getting a partial shipment, and another email saying the same thing yesterday.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by Ebush

Instead of a giant 3 bolt flange in a horrible location on the header, maybe they should have added two vbands and a flex pipe. Rather than saying we need to modify our catback. I honestly can’t think of any catbacks for these cars that has a flex pipe, and I’ve had probably 15 different catbacks on this car.

The stock headers have the flex bellows, and the frontpipe is hard mounted to the transmission, which moves with the flex and vibrations of the transmission. The catback is suspended by the rubber mounts. This seems to be enough.




It is odd Kpower is adding this notation after the fact unless it became an issue. I’m sure their future frontpipes will include a flex pipe section because it is odd and unacceptable to suggest people add a flex section to a catback when they could provide that feature from the beginning to their components.

[RedReplicant]

Someone from KPower replied to the FB thread and basically said there was no room to fit the flex pipe further forward due to clearance.

The K header is longer so you've got more leverage on the thing when it vibrates / moves / expands from heat, as well as it being a thin wall stainless connected to an engine with a ton of vibration. The S2000 has a bracket that connects the header at the first merge but they still eventually cracked. Aftermarket manifolds were absolutely notorious for cracking.