KPower Industries K24 swap

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Agreed. I'd give their entire installation FAQ a solid 2.5/5 stars. Took a number of head scratches to figure things out following their guide.

Yeah, everything seems to be alright but it could have used a few extra pictures.

Trip replied to my post about the terminal thing and suggested changing the stack order, which worked quite a bit better. It still isn't perfect but I'll deal with that later.

For what it is worth, this chunk of wires can be unwrapped and be summarized as:



1. Bottom white plug to top black plug comes completely unwrapped and is a single wire that plugs into the main engine harness. White plug to harness, black plug gets the cover removed and goes to the alternator.
2. Bare ring gets unwrapped from this and is the ground that goes to the transmission
3. Remaining single wire is the main positive terminal wire, follows the main harness and connects to the alternator

Anyway, motor is ready to go in, I'm just being lazy at this point.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

I wish their main harness wiring was somewhat more descriptive, also this alternator extension idea is not safe as they show it given the boots can't actually cover the exposed terminal.

I removed the red cover and cut a slit in the grey.

[RedReplicant]

Before I toss this thing in tomorrow... couple of questions.



Obviously difficult to tell from a picture, but is this hammered enough?

On the Captain Awesome coolant route front, I got the Miata right exit KPower water outlet with the barb. Connects to the TracTuff port on the thermostat housing with two Dayco 80401 and a 5/8 union, other thermostat port goes to the intake manifold outlet. Little worried about the right exit on the water outlet being what I estimate to be an inch shorter, but I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. (let me confirm this all works before anyone follows)

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Before I toss this thing in tomorrow... couple of questions.



Obviously difficult to tell from a picture, but is this hammered enough?

I’m assuming the trans bracket still fits and the bolts go all the way in? I’m assuming you don’t have a welder. If I had to do it over I would have welded. That hammer job might be enough to get it in. There could still be some rub or clearance issues. If you ever want to pull the transmission without removing the engine then you will need to do more. Specifically, the distance between the two brackets is too small to allow the transmission to be removed with the engine in place.

On the driver’s side, I cut the bracket to the edge of the bolt ring/bracket inside the outer bracket. I cut a horizontal line just high enough on the vertical margin to be able to hammer it back. Same on the passenger side, but also cut per the instructions and hammered it back with 1-2 cm of thickness of the bracket. This can be done after, but it is easier beforehand.

[RedReplicant]

Thank you

Yeah, I used a jack as a portapower with the trans bracket and stock bolts in it. Everything still goes in. I was worried about hacking the mounts up since I don't really want to weaken them significantly.

I do have a welder but I wouldn't consider myself good enough to attempt this properly. Sounds like it is something I'll take the car to the local fab shop for after I get it together.

[Irace86.2.0]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Thank you

Yeah, I used a jack as a portapower with the trans bracket and stock bolts in it. Everything still goes in. I was worried about hacking the mounts up since I don't really want to weaken them significantly.

I do have a welder but I wouldn't consider myself good enough to attempt this properly. Sounds like it is something I'll take the car to the local fab shop for after I get it together.

Really, you wouldn't need to be a good welder. You would just need to angle grind the paint off and use a MIG welder on the seam. This is really, really rough, and not perfect, so you would want to really think about things, but basically the idea is to cut vertical lines on each bracket near the medial side of the bottom of the brackets, but not too far lateral so to avoid the inner bolt bracket in grey. Then make horizontal cuts on each bracket on the inferior section of the medial part of the brackets. Just don't cut too much because you want to hammer the piece down, so it joins with the bottom. Then MIG weld an ugly, fat seam along the edge. Then on the driver's side only, but you can do both, hammer the remaining top section of the track back within 1-2cm of clearance.

Your concern about movement with cutting it up a little is logical, but likely unwarranted. Try bolting up the trans mount and pull and yank as hard as you can to get movement. I'll wager there won't be any movement. The transmission itself is mostly held in position by the engine. There is very little weight on the transmission mount.

The first picture is the driver's side with the Kpower instructions to hammer and my cut instructions. The second is the driver's side. The red is cut and the grey is the bolt bracket that is welded inside the main bracket.

[RedReplicant]

Ah, the diagrams helped explain a lot. I'll take a look at the car and see how it lines up. Thank you

[funkjaw]

Hey guys first off just wanna say thanks for all the help answering my dumb questions both here and on Facebook!

Ok so I finally got the swap completed after having the kit for 6 months. I might still have air in my coolant system as driving around for 15 minutes the engine is too warm for my liking (200f-220f both fans running, lower rad hose hot), BUT, I was able to snag an acceleration video none the less and meshed it side by side with an acceleration video of my BRZ when it was FA20 on E85.

Few observations:

- NVH is tolerable but could be better. I think my hotchkis swaybar might be touching the bell housing adapter so I might go smaller diameter. It's not the worst tho by any means, I daily a 500hp 13b Rx7 and you basically have to wear ear plugs to drive anywhere.

- Acceleration, even untuned on just the Kpower base map, is quite a bit faster AND smoother than any FBO N/A twin I've driven, zero doubt in my mind (and video proves this). Absolutely love it.

- The swap itself was a gigantic PITA, maybe cuz I did nearly everything on my own but I don't think I would do a swap like this again, I'm too old for this shit lmao

Will post an update at the 500 mile mark which won't take long as I plan on dailying the car once I get the cooling system dialed in.

[RedReplicant]

Very nice

I think another NVH source is the oil pan if you follow their directions to push the motor as far left as possible. Mine has maybe 1/16" of an inch clearance to the subframe doing this, I'm moving it back right tonight.

My car has the Eibach 21mm front bar, I didn't see it hitting the bellhousing adapter or pan but now I'll have to get under there to look.

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Very nice

I think another NVH source is the oil pan if you follow their directions to push the motor as far left as possible. Mine has maybe 1/16" of an inch clearance to the subframe doing this, I'm moving it back right tonight.

My car has the Eibach 21mm front bar, I didn't see it hitting the bellhousing adapter or pan but now I'll have to get under there to look.

Hmm that's good to know, I'll have to double check the oil pan.

Please update if your 21mm front bar is in fact touching or not, that will help me determine what size I might need to downsize too.

[funkjaw]

Update on my situation.

Got the car completely bleed it would seem and chills below 190f typically! However, one observation is when I was bleeding and it would go to 220+f, the temp gauge would still be in the middle. anyone else experience this and have a fix? This is obviously concerning because without a digital redout from my laptop I would never have figured it was running that hot. I am running the latest firmware/software versions I was able to download on NSP.

[ML]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Update on my situation.

Got the car completely bleed it would seem and chills below 190f typically! However, one observation is when I was bleeding and it would go to 220+f, the temp gauge would still be in the middle. anyone else experience this and have a fix? This is obviously concerning because without a digital redout from my laptop I would never have figured it was running that hot. I am running the latest firmware/software versions I was able to download on NSP.

I set my fans to come on at 190, and it will go up to 200 and then drop back down to about 186, and then repeat. This is only at idle, moving the coolant temps are very low.

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by ML

I set my fans to come on at 190, and it will go up to 200 and then drop back down to about 186, and then repeat. This is only at idle, moving the coolant temps are very low.

Yeah after some reading it seems the OEM temp gauge is more of a dummy gauge and doesn't actually start moving beyond half way until 240+ degrees F... so I think I'll just get this: https://www.haltech.com/product/ht-0...ion-can-gauge/ to have a more accurate readout at all times.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Yeah after some reading it seems the OEM temp gauge is more of a dummy gauge and doesn't actually start moving beyond half way until 240+ degrees F... so I think I'll just get this: https://www.haltech.com/product/ht-0...ion-can-gauge/ to have a more accurate readout at all times.

Reminder that you probably also need a Haltech CAN hub for that

Edit: also, I realized my bar is 22mm. It clears by miles.