KPower Industries K24 swap

[redlined600]

Cross-post since I'm guessing not everyone follows the build section.

I might win the award for slowest swap but I'm calling this close enough to complete for now (it'll never really be done).
2005 K24a2
K20 oil pump
50*vtc
Drag Cartel DIC cams
RDX Injectors
Bosch 74mm TB

I opted to not buy the complete Kpower kit and deviated in the following ways, mainly for reliability, some for cost.
-Modified S2000 header
-Modified stock driveshaft
-DIY intake
-74mm TB
-Winning Formula TB adapter
-Intake Manifold brace
-ATI Superdamper
-Miata coolant neck with bypass hose



Different dynos, but gives you an idea of the difference. That's a lot of area under the curve increase.


It saved about 25ish lbs over the fa20

This shifted the power to weight from about 13.8:1 to 11.5:1

It runs, it drives, it had zero issues it's first two days on track.

Thanks to everyone that helped along the way!

[autoracer86]

Congrats on finishing the swap! Looks great

[series.trackday]

Originally Posted by redlined600

Cross-post since I'm guessing not everyone follows the build section.

I might win the award for slowest swap but I'm calling this close enough to complete for now (it'll never really be done).
2005 K24a2
K20 oil pump
50*vtc
Drag Cartel DIC cams
RDX Injectors
Bosch 74mm TB

I opted to not buy the complete Kpower kit and deviated in the following ways, mainly for reliability, some for cost.
-Modified S2000 header
-Modified stock driveshaft
-DIY intake
-74mm TB
-Winning Formula TB adapter
-Intake Manifold brace
-ATI Superdamper
-Miata coolant neck with bypass hose



Different dynos, but gives you an idea of the difference. That's a lot of area under the curve increase.


It saved about 25ish lbs over the fa20

This shifted the power to weight from about 13.8:1 to 11.5:1

It runs, it drives, it had zero issues it's first two days on track.

Thanks to everyone that helped along the way!

So, what was your final cost?

My rough calculations for a swap with a stock JDM K24A2 come out to around 17K, but that's using the full-up KPower kit.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by series.trackday

So, what was your final cost?

My rough calculations for a swap with a stock JDM K24A2 come out to around 17K, but that's using the full-up KPower kit.

That is a pretty accurate and realistic price all said and done with the proper reliability adders, a dyno tune, and a few little extras like cams.

[redlined600]

Originally Posted by series.trackday

So, what was your final cost?

My rough calculations for a swap with a stock JDM K24A2 come out to around 17K, but that's using the full-up KPower kit.

Depending on mods I think $15-17k is pretty realistic.

Against my better judgement I added it up. It was off my memory so it might be +/- a bit.
Broad strokes, I came to ~$11.5k outright and ~$7.5k after sale of my engine and a few left over parts.

[series.trackday]

Originally Posted by redlined600

Depending on mods I think $15-17k is pretty realistic.

Against my better judgement I added it up. It was off my memory so it might be +/- a bit.
Broad strokes, I came to ~$11.5k outright and ~$7.5k after sale of my engine and a few left over parts.

I'm assuming the lower initial price on your part was due to purchasing the partial kit and assembling some components/alternatives yourself by getting cheaper/used parts?

[jflogerzi]

Originally Posted by redlined600

Depending on mods I think $15-17k is pretty realistic.

Against my better judgement I added it up. It was off my memory so it might be +/- a bit.
Broad strokes, I came to ~$11.5k outright and ~$7.5k after sale of my engine and a few left over parts.

honestly not worth it at all when you can just drop in a Gen 2 motor with little modifications.

[autoracer86]

Originally Posted by jflogerzi

honestly not worth it at all when you can just drop in a Gen 2 motor with little modifications.

I would take a k24 running a standalone over a fa24 any day of the week.

[RT-BRZ]

Originally Posted by autoracer86

I would take a k24 running a standalone over a fa24 any day of the week.

Sounds like you have money to burn. Putting a $17k engine build that has no motorsports benefit other than for things like track days seems like a bad investment. If you're doing just for "fun" then it really sounds like you're part of the 1% in this country. Don't get me wrong, it's cool but the money for it makes it seem like you bought the wrong car. (and you haven't addressed suspension upgrades in that cost)

[autoracer86]

Originally Posted by RT-BRZ

Sounds like you have money to burn. Putting a $17k engine build that has no motorsports benefit other than for things like track days seems like a bad investment. If you're doing just for "fun" then it really sounds like you're part of the 1% in this country. Don't get me wrong, it's cool but the money for it makes it seem like you bought the wrong car. (and you haven't addressed suspension upgrades in that cost)

Investment HAHA all of this is burning money you will never get back. I never said it was worth the cost or that I could afford it. Just that I would go K24 over a FA24.

As for your wrong car argument I don't disagree but not everyone lives in America... Getting into something like a cayman here plus getting it track ready would cost me like 40k not to mention doubling my yearly road tax. So... spending 20k on a motor swap for my car is way cheaper then getting something already faster that I would want.

Not that I am doing a motor swap but if I could pass my local inspection with a k24 I rather spend the 20k on it then 10k to do a fa24 swap.

Also the 1% is billionaires I don't even make 6 figures a year dude.

[redlined600]

Originally Posted by jflogerzi

honestly not worth it at all when you can just drop in a Gen 2 motor with little modifications.

Keep in mind the fa24 swap didn't exist when I started this. The k24 has about 1k rpm of powerband on top of a fa24, which might matter to some people. I'm also not convinced that fa24s are fully reliable on track yet.

Originally Posted by RT-BRZ

Sounds like you have money to burn. Putting a $17k engine build that has no motorsports benefit other than for things like track days seems like a bad investment. If you're doing just for "fun" then it really sounds like you're part of the 1% in this country. Don't get me wrong, it's cool but the money for it makes it seem like you bought the wrong car. (and you haven't addressed suspension upgrades in that cost)

That's a stretch, it's almost a spec motor in Gridlife ClubTR and GLTC at this point. There are also multiple people running k24 swaps in NASA TT with success.

[RedReplicant]

Originally Posted by RT-BRZ

Sounds like you have money to burn. Putting a $17k engine build that has no motorsports benefit other than for things like track days seems like a bad investment. If you're doing just for "fun" then it really sounds like you're part of the 1% in this country. Don't get me wrong, it's cool but the money for it makes it seem like you bought the wrong car. (and you haven't addressed suspension upgrades in that cost)

this certainly is quite the post

[series.trackday]

Originally Posted by RT-BRZ

Sounds like you have money to burn. Putting a $17k engine build that has no motorsports benefit other than for things like track days seems like a bad investment. If you're doing just for "fun" then it really sounds like you're part of the 1% in this country. Don't get me wrong, it's cool but the money for it makes it seem like you bought the wrong car. (and you haven't addressed suspension upgrades in that cost)

Is this what people mean by hot take?

Used K24A2s with low mileage can be had for $1500-1700 including shipping. The majority of the cost is in the actual swap components (adapters, bushings/mounts) and labor.

I also don't know what you mean by "motorsports benefit other than track days". Several series have regulations which allow for swaps. A 200 HP K24 has more area under the curve than a 200 HP FA20.

The FA20 motor is known to be weak in several ways for prolonged track/race use, whereas the K24 platform is known to be strong even in stock form. This very argument is one I had with myself within the past month, and it's what brought me back to this thread after originally saying the pricing on the swap kit was outlandish and ridiculous. Buying a re-engineered/modified shortblock which fixes the oiling priority issues of the FA20 is over $4K, adding a larger capacity baffled oil pan, higher-quality oil pump, and modified pickup is another grand. Add labor costs to R&R an engine and swap your stock block for the modified block and you're at $8K and you still have an FA20. IF you're going to go for adding power, you now still have all of the issues of the FA20 platform.


Motor swaps are not an investment. Car mods are not an investment. If by "investment" you mean a ROI in terms of winning races/competitions - you can't win a race you can't finish.


As far as "part of the 1%" - you okay, dude? There's a massive difference between someone who makes 100K/yr, budgets decently, and saves for a year or two to afford a big expense for their main hobby, and someone who makes millions of dollars a year.

Finally - what suspension upgrades are you referring to? The FA20-K24 swap leaves the balance of the car barely moved and the overall weight reduction over the front axle of is the same as buying a couple lightweight race seats.

[Tokay444]

Originally Posted by jflogerzi

honestly not worth it at all when you can just drop in a Gen 2 motor with little modifications.

And get all of the inherent drawbacks and short comings of that engine instead of something awesome like a high revving K! YAY!!