74 ka-t 620*update* MAYBE sale/trade

[baked_beans_]

*5/18/15 update..: my 620 may be available for purchase or possible trade. i dont NEED to sell, but if interested, i may consider a sale/trade. not trying to turn this into a for sale/trade thread, just throwing it out there with the update. check out the most recent posts for updates/details.

 

decided to wait til i was close to finishing before making a build thread so i wouldnt leave you guys hanging or in case for some reason i ended up abandoning the project. this is my first automotive build and aside from welding, machine shop work, and an occasional helping hand, i literally did everything myself. i think i did pretty good for a first timer lol. although im very mechanically inclined, ive never done a project like this before and did tons of research before starting. everything about this build has been done before and if you are reading this and plan on doing a similar build, just know that all the info you need is already out there, you just gotta find it.

 

little about the setup..

went with a basic-ish ka-t build. wiseco 9:1 forged pistons, eagle h beam forged rods, precision pt6262 turbo, xcessive intake manifold, stock heads, cam, crank, throttle body, block bored 0.020 over, injector dynamics 1000cc injectors, all running off of nismotronic.

using redeyes engine mounts, 85 720 fs5w71b transmission, and icehouses can am box for the wiring. for a 620(my 74 at least), if not going turbo, these pieces make a ka swap literally a bolt on affair.

i sourced pretty much all my parts through ebay, craigslist, and zilvia.net(excellent source for cheap ka/240 stuff)

a few other details ill go over with the pics.. here we go..

 

74 620 how i got it. unknown mileage, all stock, l18, dropped on torsion bars and blocks. ran great, picked it up and drove it down from modesto to south san francisco no problem.

 

picked up this blown ka.. condition didnt really matter, it was gonna be machined and getting new parts anyway..

 

 

 

teardown..

 

 

picked up this fs5w71b trans out of an 85 720 from an auto dismantler

 

cleaned it up a lil

 

block back from the machine shop, bored 0.020 over, decked, checked, new freeze plugs

 

so fresh so clean

 

heads checked and decked along with the timing covers(dont forget, the timing covers need to be decked too!), valves jobbed lol

 

also had the entire rotating assembly balanced, bearing clearances checked and all that jazz. heres the crank in with arp main studs

 

pistons to the rods..

 

pistons and rods in, arp head studs in

 

head goes on top..

 

cams in

 

timing stuff

 

 

covers and stuff on

 

quick lil mockup

 

oil drain bung welded in the pan. used -12 an drain, its a huge fitting. probably overkill, but for a turbo drain, it doesnt hurt.

 

 

 

competition clutches "white bunny" setup, arp flywheel bolts

 

 

[]2eDeYe]

Awesome intro :thumbup: 

 

That motor looks great. :cool:

[baked_beans_]

goferit tapers welded in for the centerlink flip

 

 

 

the ol l18

 

comin out

 

almost

 

there we go

 

 

 

look at all this space for activities

 

that new new goin in. dat angle doe

 

 

almost

 

oh yeah

 

[baked_beans_]

used this cxracing top mount turbo manifold for a 240 sx

 

all wrapped up

 

had some fitment issues.. the turbo manifold itself fits fine and clears everything, but when mounting the turbo, the 620s brake master gets in the way. same with the wastegate placement on the manifold. it fits, but the steering column gets in the way of the wastegate itself when you go to mount it. instead of relocating the brake master, or modifying the steering column, i remedied these problems by using adapters and spacers. i didnt get pics of the ill fitment, but here are the fixes.

 

had this turbo spacer made. its just a 2"x3" piece of rectangular steel tubing cut at an angle and rewelded with t4 turbo flanges on it. gave it the perfect lift and angle i needed to clear the brake stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

for the wastegate i went with a turbosmart 38mm for its compact size. supposedly its supposed to flow just as much as a tial 44mm too. to make it fit i used a 90 degree wastegate relocation adapter like dis

 

 

mocked up my downpipe with pvc pipe to get the angles and to make sure everything would fit. then i bought the individual bends i needed, cut em up, and had everything welded along with the v band flange to connect it to the hot side of the turbo. i went with 2.75" exhaust pipe over 3" because i wanted to make sure everything would fit comfortably

 

 

wastegate dump tube with the downpipe. probably could have fit 3" pipe, but 2.75" worked well.

 

all wrapped up

 

[baked_beans_]

punched out holes in the wheel/fender well area for the intercooler piping. didnt do too clean of a job with it but fuggit, it works and i can clean it up later if i want. you can kinda see my cardboard box template for the intercooler in the background

 

 

intercooler mounted

 

ic piping through the wheel/fender wells

 

 

50mm tial bov on the passenger side intercooler pipe

 

 

radiator clearance

 

used some ebay fan, where the wp pulley sits would be right in the middle, but i had to mount it kinda offset because of the water pump pulley. i could most definately have fit a pusher fan on the opposite side, but i already bought the puller fan, so i just made it work. seems to cool just fine where it is so no worries.

 

[baked_beans_]

the stock 620 tank had a bunch of rust on the inside, so instead of cleaning it out, drilling holes and modding it for an efi setup and all that, i just went with a 12 gallon jaz fuel cell and a bosch 044 external pump. ideally id like to have it behind the rear axle under the bed, but thats a whole bunch of work i didnt feel like doing so i just mounted it behind the cab. works great, and if i wanted to relocate it later, i can. used -8 an feed, -6 an return.

 

cut out a hole in the bed for the cell sump. i saved the little plate i cut out in case i want to move the cell later and patch the hole

 

used some random plastic tubing to sheath over the cuts to keep from cutting into the cell

 

fuel line routing.. i also strapped some rubber around the parts of line that touch things as ss line is known to saw through stuff.

 

the holes in the frame rail tab thingies make excellent guides. using a bosch 044 fuel pump. this was the mockup, its mounted better now instead of just hanging off the fuel line

 

 

 

 

return line to an aeromotive fpr

 

 

 

back to the cell

 

 

 

[Farmer]

Two thumbs up.  If I had more, they'd be up too.

[baked_beans_]

-4 an oil feed to turbo from the factory ka oil block and oil pressure sensor. no more factory dummy low oil light, this baby reads 0-100 psi right up to my nismotronic dash. oh and just a fyi, i had to use 1/8" bspt to npt adapters for these fittings. these ports are bspt and not npt! also the alternator pictured is a 125 amp nissan quest alternator. seems to be a common mod for the 240sx dudes so since i never had a stock ka alternator to begin with i figured id upgrade from the start. dont think id really need all the extra power since im not running any accessories but whatever.

 

-12 an oil drain rightchea

 

 

some of the wiring.. if you think this looks sloppy, you should have seen it before.. i used to have a whole bunch of unused plugs and extra wiring all coiled up in the cab and engine bay. i unwrapped the entire ka harness, traced everything, depinned a whole buncha shit i didnt need(with a wiring diagram of course), and shortened up all the wiring to what it is now. theres still a bit to clean up, but everything necessary from the ka harness works. im in the process of simplifying the truck harness to toggle switches(because..racecar) right now and updating the fusebox and whatnot, so from the truck harness all i have hooked up right now are the headlights, taillights, and brake lights(fuel gauge works too). fuse panel is behind the toggle switch plate and behind the mess of wires is the nismotronic ecu and can am box.

 

nismotronic dash. im running this off of a windows 8 tablet mounted on one of those suction cup mount things that go on the windshield. has pretty much all the necessary info i need on there displayed in real time.

 

 

 

for brakes im running beebanis front disc conversion setup in front right now with stock drums in the back. seems to stop well enough for now, but i also drive pretty cautiously because this thing is fast as fug. ill be upgrading to a d21 front end setup soon, im just waiting on beebani to get the coil over brackets and fully adjustable upper and lower d21 ball joint conversion control arms made and shipped out. once i get those put on, i can finally get rid of the torsion bars and tension rods and have a sweet coilover setup. not to mention being able to run a full exhaust system as my torsion bars are in the way of putting anything on past the downpipe(running just an open downpipe right now and its loud as fug). i also have 720 lowering springs for the rear that just came in, so i can finally get the 620 off the blocks, just gotta get some 720 shackles before i can put em on. ill end up grabbing a set of those when i go to the pick n pull to grab a hub/spindle assemblys for the bj conversion.

 

ill be hitting up the datsun dyno day in manteca on the 15th to see what this thing does, roll through if you want to see it in action. thats all for now, this thing is so close to being done im stoked. ill keep you guys updated.

[Seansm10]

Aside from a rusty tank. Were there alternative reasons for going the tank route you did?it took myself a long time to reconvince my self it would be totally fine not cutting and making an in tank setup, and just splicing in an inline.

 

There are so many arguments supporting both that it hurts my head trying to make a decision with no personal experience in the matter

[Seansm10]

Hey farmer my two thumbs are up as well. That's 4 collectively confirmed.

[baked_beans_]

Aside from a rusty tank. Were there alternative reasons for going the tank route you did?it took myself a long time to reconvince my self it would be totally fine not cutting and making an in tank setup, and just splicing in an inline.

 

There are so many arguments supporting both that it hurts my head trying to make a decision with no personal experience in the matter

the rusty tank was pretty much the only reason lol. i didnt want to clean it myself and i was quoted somewhere around $100-$150 to have it professionally cleaned. in that same price range i found that fuel cell on craigslist so i just went with that. less hassle, less work.

 

i originally planned on using the stock tank and an external pump similar to the setup i have now. what i was going to do was drill a hole and put in a fitting somewhere along the lower/bottom part of the tank for the feed, and drill out an existing inlet/outlet port somewhere at the top and pop a fitting in for the return.

 

if you go this route with the stock tank and external pump, you have to make sure the pump is mounted lower than the feed fitting you put on the tank. most external pumps are good at "pushing" fuel rather than "pulling", so youd have to gravity feed the pump by placing it lower than the fitting. fuel line routing after the pump doesnt matter. also doing it this way, your gas tank will be "empty" as soon as your fuel level hits where the fitting is placed and there may be possible fuel starvation issues when your fuel is "low" (relative to where your fitting is for "empty") due to the fuel sloshing around in the tank. you can get by this by keeping your fuel above a certain level at all times, running surge tank, or baffling or sumping the tank(lotta work probably not worth it to do it that way).

 

ideally, the proper way to use the stock tank would be to get one of those efi in tank pump kits and run that.

 

as far as running an inline pump alone with the existing setup, im not so sure. in theory it should should work, but youd have to find a pump designed to work that way. it seems most external pumps(being "pushers") are used to supplement an in tank pump, or use gravity from a sumped tank to feed it. plus the factory fuel lines seem pretty small as they were designed to feed a carb running a much lower fuel pressure. being turbo you dont really want to risk any type of fuel starvation issues, but for n/a maybe itll work with the right pump?

[Farmer Joe]

damn! 

 

this is cool as fuck man! i dig it..

 

my buddy just got his ca18det 620 swap with a top mount done a little bit ago too. shits fast!

[]2eDeYe]

 

 

my buddy just got his ca18det 620 swap with a top mount done a little bit ago too. shits fast!

 

Wheres the pics? 

[TENDRIL]

Maybe I missed it but what size injectors and fuel management?

 

And how big is the turbo what kind of number are you looking at rwhp

[baked_beans_]

Maybe I missed it but what size injectors and fuel management?

 

And how big is the turbo what kind of number are you looking at rwhp

 

running injector dynamics 1000cc injectors, nismotronicsa ecu. i highly recommend nismotronic, its basically a hacked and chipped factory ecu reverse engineered to run like a standalone. im no tuner, but it has tons of features and would definitely give something like megasquirt a run for its money. for a nissan application at least. john as nismotronic is doing all my tuning, i just datalog runs and he edits them and sends me revised tune files. excellent product, excellent support.

 

the turbo im running is a precision pt6262 62mm turbo. to be honest, the reason why i went with this turbo is because i got a good deal for it on craigslist. not a lot of thought went into the turbo selection, i kinda just bought it and went with the flow lol. theres a more optimal way to choose a turbo, comparing compressor maps and all that stuff(i really dont even know), but i kinda just winged it with this one. the turbo selection was probably the least thought out part of this build lol. it seemed to have worked out though, runs great and takes off like a jet. i have no idea on rwhp numbers, but if i had to guess, id say maybe something north of 350 @ 14ish psi but i really have no idea. i dont know what 350hp feels like lol but the truck feels really fucking fast. ill be taking it to the datsun dyno day in manteca this month so ill let you guys know what it puts out.

[TENDRIL]

[5t341tH]

crazy project you got. we want running videos!

[baked_beans_]

still waiting on beebanis control arms and coilover brackets, so in the meantime i went to the local pick n pull and got some d21 stuff to prepare for the conversion. found this 2wd1990 d21

 

according to the vin it was a v6 "heavy duty" model

 

pulled the whole spindle/hub/rotor/caliper assembly. kinda scored on these as the v6 d21s came with the dual piston calipers and bigger rotors. i believe the 4 cyl d21s came with single calipers and smaller rotors.

 

 

also grabbed the shackles off the truck for my 720/d21 lowering springs that just came in

 

 

also on another note, i took the 620 out to a muscle car meet/cruise last night. playing around on the freeway, this thing pulls on 5.0s and ls1s at 14/15ish psi just to give you an idea of what this thing is capable of.. cant wait til the dyno day to see the actual numbers

[]2eDeYe]

Nice score on those brakes. :cool: 

[gunslinger]

love the turbo ka how does she drive have you had any problems with the swap was thinking about doing the same thing but hesitant to try it as it involves a lot more work and MONEY 

[datson4life]

Nice!

 

 

Numbers?????????

[datson4life]

And are u on the stock rear end?

[solo]

Seen this thing at the Datsun swap meet in Manteca on the dyno, It ripped on its first pass I believe it was 331HP and on his second pass with a few tweaks to his tune his numbers improved from what I heard I was gone after that. But sick ride either way.

[baked_beans_]

love the turbo ka how does she drive have you had any problems with the swap was thinking about doing the same thing but hesitant to try it as it involves a lot more work and MONEY 

 

runs good, handles ok with the original stock suspension from 1974 lol. kinda scary to go fast in. definitely a two hands on the wheel white knuckle grip when the boost is kickin. still waiting on beebanis coilover brackets and upper/lower control arms, and i still have yet to throw on those 720 lowering leafs with fresh new bushings. should improve the handling once all that gets done.

 

didnt really have too many problems with the swap itself, did a shit ton of research before starting the project. datsun ka swaps are fairly common and pretty well documented, so as far as fitment issues(as far as fitting the ka itself), i didnt really have any. i just learned from other peoples documented mistakes lol. specifically for my swap, a ka24de from a 240sx into a 74 620, i used redeyes motor mounts, a fs5w71b trans out of an 85 720, the goferit tapers for the centerlink flip, and icehouses can am box for the wiring. with this combo for MY 74 620(not sure about other years or models) everything literally lines up and bolts in. motor just drops in, didnt have to modify the driveshaft or trans mount, and the shifter lines up exactly where the old 4 speed shifter used to be. im also using the stock 620 radiator and it all fits. the only modifications for fitment was running an electric fan for the radiator and making new radiator hose lines. wiring with the can am box is pretty much plug n play, but i did shorten the ka wiring harness quite a bit and completely removed and depinned connections i wasnt using. that part is optional, i just didnt like having unused dangling connectors and hella extra wiring from the harness coiled up in the cab.

turbo and intercooler fitment and plumbing is a little more involved, but isnt too bad. if i did it in my driveway with basic ass tools, you can too lol. how i did it in this thread is one way to go about it, but theres more than one way to skin a cat.

 

as far as the engine build itself, i did end up spending a bit of money with all the machine work, new parts, and all that. just ballparking, i spent roughly 1000 in machine shop work, 1000 on engine parts and related things including a clutch kit, 1000 on the turbo setup and turbo related things, and about 1000 on nismotronic + the injectors. got a lot of stuff through craigslist and 240 forums too, so that saved me a bit of cash rather than buying everything brand fuckin new. i also bought everything throughout the course of a year so the cost of the build didnt hurt as bad as dropping all that cash at once. i did do all the labor myself though so at least i got that going for me lol. theres definitely a more budget oriented way to go about doing a ka-t setup, this is just how i did it. cheap, fast, reliable. choose 2.. gotta pay to play. lol. check out ka-t.org if youre thinking of going turbo, its a great resource and tons of budget to baller and mild to wild builds on there.

 

 

Nice!

 

 

Numbers?????????

 

418.9hp estimated @ the flywheel, 364.3hp @ the wheels. this was at 15 psi, injector duty cycle at around 60%, high 11s afr, on 91 pump gas, running a 14psi spring pressure in the wastegate alone. theres a little bit of overboost, but nothing to be worried about. pretty solid as is with room for more power to be had.

 

 

that last max torque reading reading was off due to something about a torque spike with the dyno machine(i dont really know, thats what the dude said). you can see how it is though if you just just look at the curve on the graph thing.

 

 

And are u on the stock rear end?

 

yep. one tire fires from first through third lol

 

[datson4life]

Very cool, love the power the ka makes with a turbo, considering going turbo hopefully later this year, good job!