KPower Industries K24 swap

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

I think that topic came up earlier in the thread somewhere, but the short answer is that K series have a proven history of preferring a longer intake tube. The couple of whp you lose at the very peak are more than made up for everywhere else.

Ahh makes sense, thanks for the info.

[funkjaw]

Got around to installing the Perrin Reverse Lockout Lever
https://www.perrin.com/shop/interior...-lockout-lever


I'd say a solid 35% reduction in shifter rattle. I feel the rest of it is just coming from lack of bushings in the linkage assembly.

Worth the ~$100 bucks and complete PITA job? To me, yeah cuz my budget for this car is on the higher end. For someone trying to save some $$, there is likely a way more budget friendly way to tighten up the clearances on the reverse lockout lever. I think if I were to do it again it would be the last thing I did on my quest for better NVH

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Got around to installing the Perrin Reverse Lockout Lever
https://www.perrin.com/shop/interior...-lockout-lever


I'd say a solid 35% reduction in shifter rattle. I feel the rest of it is just coming from lack of bushings in the linkage assembly.

Worth the ~$100 bucks and complete PITA job? To me, yeah cuz my budget for this car is on the higher end. For someone trying to save some $$, there is likely a way more budget friendly way to tighten up the clearances on the reverse lockout lever. I think if I were to do it again it would be the last thing I did on my quest for better NVH

That may be next on my list if the shortened shifter doesn't make much difference. Got it back from my welder on Thursday but haven't had time to install yet. Pretty sure I'll need to tilt the engine a bit to install the stock lock pins so it could be a little more involved than I would like.

[statik]

I'm in a similar boat putting together a reliable track toy, currently considering an Elise or Exige

Pros for BRZ: Longer wheel base and FM layout make the car easier to control at the limit, and everything about it (minus the swap kit itself) is cheaper to maintain long term.

I was hoping to not read about so many issues cropping up with this swap kit, especially wiring issues and cracked welds.

I am curious for those who have completed the swap how bad does your rear view mirror vibrate? With my current setup I can't make out details of cars in the mirror while driving so I am used to a significant amount of NVH but based on the amount of bolts coming loose, it seems like the NVH is much higher than they are claiming.

Part of me just wants to shelve this, grab an Elise and enjoy it.

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Yeah, there were a fair few things missed in testing that should have come up prior, but it is what it is at this point.

This oil temp thing will slip past the majority of people since there is zero window into oil temp unless you either:
1. Plug an AIM Solo 2 DL / dash into the Haltech CAN network and choose to show oil temp
2. Datalog in Haltech and specifically look at oil temp
3. Set up Haltech failsafes based on oil temp and find out they are triggered all the time

I still have a few things left to do to shore up some shortcomings:
1. Make a bellhousing cover
2. Have the header completely rewelded with shielding gas or send it to hytech to be re-made when it inevitably cracks
3. Add more flex to the intake pipe to throttle body
4. Have the stock driveshaft shortened

All in all, I'm not dissatisfied with the kit but I have some remorse of not just splurging a bit to switch to an Exige when I was weighing doing this all.

[ML]

Originally Posted by statik

I'm in a similar boat putting together a reliable track toy, currently considering an Elise or Exige

Pros for BRZ: Longer wheel base and FM layout make the car easier to control at the limit, and everything about it (minus the swap kit itself) is cheaper to maintain long term.

I was hoping to not read about so many issues cropping up with this swap kit, especially wiring issues and cracked welds.

I am curious for those who have completed the swap how bad does your rear view mirror vibrate? With my current setup I can't make out details of cars in the mirror while driving so I am used to a significant amount of NVH but based on the amount of bolts coming loose, it seems like the NVH is much higher than they are claiming.

Part of me just wants to shelve this, grab an Elise and enjoy it.

People doing this swap in the future should be glad we have found all these issues because that's how things get fixed. IMO most of the NVH is coming from the higher RPM. I red light at 7300 and I don't seem to have as much of those issues that everyone else does with the vibrations. The header welds/exhaust stuff...yeah that was on Kpower, but I had mine rewelded where it cracked and added a flex pipe and an extra exhaust hanger and its good now.

[captain awesome]

Originally Posted by statik

I'm in a similar boat putting together a reliable track toy, currently considering an Elise or Exige

Pros for BRZ: Longer wheel base and FM layout make the car easier to control at the limit, and everything about it (minus the swap kit itself) is cheaper to maintain long term.

I was hoping to not read about so many issues cropping up with this swap kit, especially wiring issues and cracked welds.

I am curious for those who have completed the swap how bad does your rear view mirror vibrate? With my current setup I can't make out details of cars in the mirror while driving so I am used to a significant amount of NVH but based on the amount of bolts coming loose, it seems like the NVH is much higher than they are claiming.

Part of me just wants to shelve this, grab an Elise and enjoy it.

A swap car will require tinkering no matter what. If you want the car to be better as a street car you will need to do some NVH mitigation. If it's mostly race car then NVH may not be a concern for you. I can see objects in the rear view just fine. I've also swapped back to a 2 piece driveshaft and pulled the poly trans bushing which made a huge reduction in vibes.



If you want to buy and drive, the Lotus is the better choice to some extent. Of course maintenance is a different world with clam shell removal required for some rather mundane tasks. Buying the best example that's all caught up on the usual suspects is the way to go. So really what you want to do is K swap the Lotus.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by statik

I'm in a similar boat putting together a reliable track toy, currently considering an Elise or Exige

...

Part of me just wants to shelve this, grab an Elise and enjoy it.

When I was saying I regret not just buying an Elise/Exige I think there is a bit of back story to be explained there.

I bought the BRZ I swapped in what I figured was a fairly sorted spec that would translate well to classing and allow me to move to a more modern car with (the big thing) a lot more interior room and the ability to fly under the radar with license plate when needed.

I sold my ex-S1 Supermiata that I'd put electric power steering, Continental MK60 ABS, etc into and had in an extremely sorted reliable state figuring everything was going to be good with the BRZ. A lot of pain and tough lessons went into that car.

I have driven two friends Exiges on track:
1. Exige S260 race car (caged) on A7s and extra aero
2. Exige built by Trackspec with absolutely everything ever and a K24

I absolutely hate the ergonomics of the Elige, but love everything else about it. The entry price was also steep ($35-40k) compared to what I'd paid for the BRZ ($25k) so I was alright with not buying one instead of an Exige since I figured I was saving myself quite a bit of money at the time.

Turns out the BRZ wasn't as sorted as I expected, so here I now sit with roughly $40k and a lot of time into a BRZ. I just have that "maybe I should have just spent the money up front" feeling, not really a big deal, I've still enjoyed the journey so far.

First track event with it is this weekend.

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Got around to installing the Perrin Reverse Lockout Lever

I'd say a solid 35% reduction in shifter rattle. I feel the rest of it is just coming from lack of bushings in the linkage assembly.
.....

Just to give an update after driving the car for about 600 miles - this has definitely reduced the shifter rattle a lot more than I initially thought, I'd go as far as to say 65% reduction. Easily worth the money. Only downside is the lockout is significantly stiffer than OEM and takes longer to spring back down after getting out of reverse which takes some getting used too.

[RedReplicant]

Put about 2.5hr of track time on the car today, it is everything I wanted.

Few small issues:

I let a friend drive it and he managed to fault the DBW twice yet I've never encountered it, I suspect he was mashing the pedal harder than I do and going past 100% calibration based on the fault codes left.

Blowing oil through the catch can

Transmission is leaking at the output seal... again

Car rips, that is all.

[captain awesome]

I had the same issue with the throttle pedal on my first test drives. I forgot I added a few washers to bring the pedal out but no extra stopper padding. Once I added that stopper I was good to go.

[funkjaw]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

Put about 2.5hr of track time on the car today, it is everything I wanted.

Few small issues:

I let a friend drive it and he managed to fault the DBW twice yet I've never encountered it, I suspect he was mashing the pedal harder than I do and going past 100% calibration based on the fault codes left.

Blowing oil through the catch can

Transmission is leaking at the output seal... again

Car rips, that is all.

Awesome man! Any footage?

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

I had the same issue with the throttle pedal on my first test drives. I forgot I added a few washers to bring the pedal out but no extra stopper padding. Once I added that stopper I was good to go.

Nice! Thank you, I'll take a look at it

I talked to another k swapped person that has the same issue of blowing oil straight through the can, so I'll see what I can do there too.

Originally Posted by funkjaw

Awesome man! Any footage?

I'll take a look at my memory card today, I was having issues with my AIM setup for whatever reason.

[RedReplicant]

Some S-Tier (shit tier) driving. Track is brand new so I was lost as hell and the AIM data is pretty wrong due to some kind of weird GPS issue.

We ran the outer configuration CCW with the chicane added in. Track is private and has only been opened a few months so there are no real times out there yet, I did a 48 in the heat / not knowing which way I was going - it is obvious there are a number of seconds left in it. One or two other local TT guys have been there and from the times they've done without the chicane I think the car will be competitive locally.

In the marked stuff below:
Esses were a mess
Hillcrest is deceptive because it crests and then drops away but there is still more track than you'd think out there
I want to try taking the sweeper flat, I'm guessing it won't work with my aero but at least there is nothing to hit
'T3' wtf is even going on here
'T1' should probably be taken wider and turned into later

[funkjaw]

4Piston TSX head came in, looks super nice!

What I did was found a cheap bare bones k24a2 head on eBay, bought it, put the shipping address as 4piston shop, and in the eBay "notes to seller" section told them to print out my order details and include it in the packaging. Doing this saved me $200 over paying 4P for a core.

4P Pro TSX CNC Head × 1 $1,350.00
4P Pro TSX CNC Head - Selections
Valve Spring & Retainer Kit: Supertech H1021D ($420)
Options: Manganese Bronze Valve Guides ($250)
Ferrea 6000 Valves (All Motor) ($304)
Viton Valve Seal Set (16) ($20)
Ferrea Valve Lock Kit ($80)
Disassemble your head ($50)
Assemble Cylinder Head ($75)
Jet Wash + Soda Blast ($50)

Total cost: $2,634.70 USD

Will be pairing it with a set of Toda D cams - which I discovered Toda has their own set of Valve Springs they recommend. So I hope those cams with be ok with the Supertech springs.... maybe I should get the Toda springs and sell these supertech springs??

I also need to figure out what kind of short block to build. Compression, bore, pistons, connecting rods, etc. etc.. Living in TX I have access to 93, so people have said to run 12.5:1 since I'm sticking with all motor. But I'm thinking what happens if I take it on a road trip and get stuck with 91, should I do 12:1 instead.... Or 11.5:1 in case I ever want to slap a supercharger on it down the road.. ionno.

Hopefully will have the new engine assembled and in the car this winter. Car is already a blast at 238whp, can only imagine how much fun it will be at ~275whp+