KPower Industries K24 swap

[captain awesome]

I keep forgetting to update you folks on my shortened stock shifter carrier setup. For those that haven't been following along I cut up a stock shifter carrier and had it welded back together. My biggest reason to try this was to reduce the added NVH from the solid mounted Kpower shifter setup.


I hose clamped them together so I can test fit and if needed can move stuff around to align properly. With the Kpower kit the trans is lowered 1.25" over stock from my measurements, so I cut then stacked the console which just so happens to be about an 1". I "think" this should be ready to weld but better to test fit first before committing. 5.5" roughly shorter than stock.






I sorta test fit it to make sure it all would work and then had it welded up.




I failed to take pics of what it looks like from underneath but the carrier bolts/clips back in place just like stock. Unfortunately the Kpower shifter linkage was just a bit too short to work with the setup. Because the carrier puts the shifter back up inside the cabin higher there's about a 1/2" or more needed to get a good neutral position. I kinda figured this would be required so I started cutting up the stock linkage. It took WAY longer than I anticipated to get all the length and angles right. A lot of that had to do with fitting the carrier and linkage just to test and then pull back apart 30 times. Also the stock shifter had the locating pin things opposing eachother but now that it's way shorter the best path forward was to keep them facing the same direction. This wasted a lot of my time but I really didn't want to get it all finished and have a crappy shifter feel.











I had to shave one side a little for clearance but after getting it all back together I'm happy to report it all works. In fact the shifter feels better, less notchy, and so much smoother than the Kpower setup. It feels like it did stock. Which is what I wanted.


Initially I was a bit disappointed that the vibration reduction wasn't has great as I had hoped as there is still some mainly at the firewall. Idle vibration anywhere past the dash has been reduced almost completely. Highway buzz at 75-80 mph in the shifter is gone.



Now the shifter doesn't move under braking like it did before since it's no longer divorced from the trans. I think the carrier setup helps locate the trans more than I would have thought with the rearward mount keeping the trans from flopping over like it did before?


So all in all I feel the juice was worth the squeeze but it sure sucked getting there. Hopefully I can get some time in a parking lot checking to see if this will keep the trans buzz under tight high speed left handers but I believe that's also a thing of the past. As of right now I've driven through quite a few tanks of gas and I'm so glad I went through the trouble.



Also one last note, I am still on the stock trans mount WITHOUT the poly bushing.


EDIT: Also forgot to mention I had to do some hammering with the stock trans tunnel mount to make room for the stock locking pins holding the front two mounts. The room was only needed to install the pins. If I had taken a couple pics it would be obvious but I'm a failure.

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

I keep forgetting to update you folks on my shortened stock shifter carrier setup. For those that haven't been following along I cut up a stock shifter carrier and had it welded back together. My biggest reason to try this was to reduce the added NVH from the solid mounted Kpower shifter setup.
.....

Man I wish I could drive your car after all the NVH reduction mods you have done; just to see if I feel like it's worth pursuing or not. Great job on the shifter mod tho for real. Now let's just see if we can convince Kpower to release some "official" nvh mods for this package!

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Man I wish I could drive your car after all the NVH reduction mods you have done; just to see if I feel like it's worth pursuing or not. Great job on the shifter mod tho for real. Now let's just see if we can convince Kpower to release some "official" nvh mods for this package!

Think about how long we have been waiting on a strut bar. A simple strut bar. I'll assume once the turbo kit stuff is released they will be on to another chassis to plop the k24 and so on from there.



Also if they treat NVH like they have the added coolant line, that's gonna be a nope. Not trying to talk smack on them but I think it's obvious that unless they came up with or found a problem, the solution doesn't need to exist. From a business stanpoint I don't think I can blame them but it does seem weird to not want to improve an already great kit.

[funkjaw]

Had a weird one happen last night...

2014ish STI (stock) came up behind me when we were getting onto the freeway so naturally I egged him on to a drag race starting from 3rd gear. When I got to the top of 5th right around 7500 rpm the car hit a brick wall and completely stopped accelerating; the engine was still running it just didn't take any throttle input. Fortunately I was able to coast off the freeway into a safe location to check the car out. (BTW we were dead even the entire time which is fantastic and I can't say this enough that I love this swap and my 250hp of amazingness)

Here are the codes:
P2109
P2166
P2168


Once I shut it off and started the car back up the codes went away and the car has driven fine since, but I'm kinda scurred to race another car lmao.

Anyone seen something similar? Wondering if whatever it was will go away when I throw on my Bosch throttle body kit that I have chillin at home...

[RedReplicant]

I let a friend drive the car on track right after I finished the swap, he managed to fault DBW twice requiring the car to be restarted each time. I unfortunately didn't record the codes, but the best guess I had was that he over traveled the APP somehow. It has never happened to me though.

I would email Haltech because it sounds like your issue may be different since there is no associated APP fault listed there.

Reminds me that my car threw a code or codes last event, need to go pull them...

e: P0373, crank position sensor error. It's fine.

[captain awesome]

It's an over-travel of the throttle pedal. When you set the calibration make sure you stomp the pedal like you plan to do when giving it the beans. I've had this scenario play out twice and it's annoying. Once when I first did the swap and the other day when I installed the 74mm TB. Both times were fixed with a new calibration using a more "aggressive" press of the pedal in the 100 percent position.


Edit:


Although after re-reading your experience I could be wrong. Having it bug out while already at WOT and not from stomping is interesting. My experiences were from stabbing the gas not from holding it wide open.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Here are the codes:
P2109
P2166
P2168

Once I shut it off and started the car back up the codes went away and the car has driven fine since, but I'm kinda scurred to race another car lmao.

So I ran an open event today and got a ton of track time.... but this happened twice:

P0228 - DBW TPS 1 Voltage High
P2109 - DBW TB Disabled
P2135 - DBW TPS 1 Voltage Correlation
P2165 - DBW Throttle 1 Relaxed Sensor Mismatch Settings

Had to limp back to the pits with 6th gear idle. Both times it happened when I was on my cooldown lap and in the same spot. One of the pins on the TB was kinda scorched. I switched the DBW to only read TPS sensor 2 instead of averaging them and it didn't happen again, obviously not a solution or super safe but it is how I finished the day.

Also, another goddamn TB bolt broke and ended my day - this one only lasted two events / ~140 track miles.



I have a few ideas, we will see.

[redlined600]

Which bolts are breaking? Adapter to manifold or TB to adapter?

Edit* I guess it should be obvious by the length

Is the intake tube attached to the body or can it move?

[RedReplicant]

TB to adapter

They sheer where the adapter mates to the rubber gasket.
I'm no engineer but it is my assumption that the lack of manifold bracing, rubber gasket, phenolic washers, stick size M6 with not really enough thread length / ability to get decent clamping force, and an inline 4 known for vibration allow the TB to walk back and forth until bolts sheer.

[RedReplicant]

Screwed up extracting the bolt this time and ate some threads.

Put the KPower 74mm adapter and Bosch TB on, I noticed that 100% commanded TPS is like 100* for the throttle plate, so I ended up limiting it to 93% to make it 90*. Still need to fix my idle but I don't want to annoy the neighbors.

I ordered one of these: https://www.ichiban.engineering/prod...e-body-adapter

I think the o-ring style gasket will help in a few different ways and it'll leave me with the KPower adapter as a track spare since extracting bolts is a pain in the ass. There are a few other things that could help mitigate the issue too, some of them easy, some of them not so much. We will see.

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Screwed up extracting the bolt this time and ate some threads.

Put the KPower 74mm adapter and Bosch TB on, I noticed that 100% commanded TPS is like 100* for the throttle plate, so I ended up limiting it to 93% to make it 90*. Still need to fix my idle but I don't want to annoy the neighbors.

I ordered one of these: https://www.ichiban.engineering/prod...e-body-adapter

I think the o-ring style gasket will help in a few different ways and it'll leave me with the KPower adapter as a track spare since extracting bolts is a pain in the ass. There are a few other things that could help mitigate the issue too, some of them easy, some of them not so much. We will see.

I assume the test fit worked out with the printed part?

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Screwed up extracting the bolt this time and ate some threads.

Put the KPower 74mm adapter and Bosch TB on, I noticed that 100% commanded TPS is like 100* for the throttle plate, so I ended up limiting it to 93% to make it 90*. Still need to fix my idle but I don't want to annoy the neighbors.

I ordered one of these: https://www.ichiban.engineering/prod...e-body-adapter

I think the o-ring style gasket will help in a few different ways and it'll leave me with the KPower adapter as a track spare since extracting bolts is a pain in the ass. There are a few other things that could help mitigate the issue too, some of them easy, some of them not so much. We will see.

I was curious about the drivability and idle tweaks that might need to be made. Keep us updated - would be nice to not have to spend another few hundred bucks on a re-tune if I put it on.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

I assume the test fit worked out with the printed part?

Not exactly, but I talked to the owner of the company and he said it'd work. We will see.

Originally Posted by funkjaw

I was curious about the drivability and idle tweaks that might need to be made. Keep us updated - would be nice to not have to spend another few hundred bucks on a re-tune if I put it on.

Fixing idle is pretty easy... here is a doc on the system
https://support.haltech.com/portal/e...uning-7-4-2020

I basically cut my max dbw open from 6% to 3% and Haltech was able to target the correct idle. You might need to mess with your min duty table a bit if you can't get idle to drop far enough just doing this.

As far as drivability, I'm not sure, I think it should be fine. Haven't taken the car out yet since I'm doing some stuff with my EPAS.

[RedReplicant]

I've been running a test baffled valve cover for someone for a couple of months, I went to put my Drag Cartel DICs into the car this afternoon and discovered something interesting.

Part of the stainless steel baffle had cracked, fallen into the exhaust cam position trigger wheel, and gotten wrapped around the exhaust cam sensor. A couple other parts of the baffle had cracked and were about to come loose too.

Vibration in these things is real, lol. Glad I pulled the VC when I did... I popped a CEL during a session a few events ago about a cam sync issue, but it never returned so I forgot about it. Guess that explains it.

Cleaned up the trigger wheel and sensor with a file, they seem fine.