oil changes every 1500 miles

WOW.

An engine is as reliable as you maintain it. And it looks like you maintain it well

 

yeah whats he said, as long as your good to it it will be good to you

 

^Yes but that will only take you to a certain extent, so a rebuild should be planed soon

Possible option would be to buy a KA and rebuild that on the side so that your ready for the worse

thats just IMO, which I'm trying to follow right now, going downtown to look @ a long block

 

yeah my maintaince comes very soon all the time because i drift that motor. and when i do that i think to my self that i cut the life of the motor in half. so instead of 3000 miles. it 1500 miles.
i do try my best. its just that i have heard of people blowing thier ka motors while drifting a lot. i am just wondering how???? and how the treat thier motors?????
and also why people would rather swap thier motors to a sr, or rb engine.
i mean is it more reliable????? or is it just because its turbo charged and its jdm?????

 

and also why people would rather swap thier motors to a sr, or rb engine.
i mean is it more reliable????? or is it just because its turbo charged and its jdm?????

In a lot of cases it is just because it's the cool thing to do. Keep your KA if it's what you like. I'm staying KA on my current build. If your engine has an engine knock its days are severely numbered. Find your longblock now!

 

also what is the main thing on building a reliable ka turbo or non turbo for drifting????? is it the block or the head? or both? i'll eventually do both but for now i dont want it to blow while im in the process. plus this is my daily.

 

ok this is your daily driver, with 190,000 miles on it, and your drifting it to redline..... ok does this make no sense to anyone else. now i do "drift" in the rain or when its moist outside, and i do burnouts at work.... my car has 223,000 on her and i bout her with 198,xxx. If you do any of this DON'T expect that an oil change at double the normal rate is going to suffice.
i bought myself a block to work on outside of the car just in case ( 100$ ) and i recommend it to you. Other than that, hit around redline and expecting it to last like it came straight off the assembly line at 190,xxx+, is just ignorant :gaylaugh now im not flaming, i am just showing you the light. Even fully built drift cars, drag, track, cars blow under stress. so with that said, plan a rebuild.

OR just do as you would even if you didn't ask this question and continue with your maintenance and you should be good.... i think your on the right path as far as proper maintenance goes.

 

My ka has 185,000 miles on it and six months ago I boosted it a 12lbs and drove it every day. Till now after taking it drag racing 4 times and drifting it on the streets and at drift events its still going. The best thing is that the car is not even tuned. cheap and simple setup, small t/3 turbo, knock off rev hard manifold, 370cc injectors, ebay intercooler, ebay 38mm wastegate, home made piping, walbro fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator at 65psi, and 15 degrees total timing, and I got the car to run 13.1 at the 1/4 with drag radials and its still going. I owned ka's since 97 and I never had any problems with them as long as you maintain it. Most people out there dont maintain there shit and I Know because I work on cars every day and see the same thing over and over again. The thing with ka's is that they are a hit or miss motor. If you buy one off a dumb ass then most likely it wont last but if you buy it off someone who takes car of it then chances are that it is a good motor. Please do not attempt to make the same turbo setup I did because I am just waiting for the motor to take a shit but it still going and I have 2 spare ka's thats ready to take its place and another ka thats fully built that im thinking of replacing it with.
(note) don't forget to check your front seal on your ka because they are known for leaking oil.

 

mine has 227,XXX on a 1992 KA24DE, has no rust at all, mint paint, clean mint interior, and gets me 30mpg on the highway. I change the oil every 2000 miles, the car has run the same brands and wieghts of fluids its whole life, every time it makes a little tiny noise, I replace every part within a square foot of the noise. It will run forever.

I'm about to start doing mountain "touge" grip racing, and some time attack trials in it. For that, I will buy my good friends 78,000 miles 1997 drop out. I just dont see the point in running a car with those miles that hard. Age alone will dry rot, ans shrink or axpand random parts. Running it to 7000rpm all the time will simply make these hidden aged parts self-destruct.

I give you a big thumbs up for taking care of maintanence like you should... I give thumbs down for driving a poor 200k car like its built to race on. Daily driver, then build, then beat.

 

Its good that you care though.... You showed that by asking these questions. GOOD MAN!!

 

i guess i will granny my car until i buy a new motor. its very hard to granny a car. next thing you know that civic will drive next to you reving. id just have to kick his ass going straight. but after all the lextures. i feel i should relax.

just another ?? dont new motors blow too??

 

My stock Ka24de is running great with 111,xxx orig mi. in my 91 coupe that I bought from a little old woman in Philly PA about a year ago. I run her hard every once in a while and have actually had no problems at all other then the clutch is just now starting to slip horribly but is expected considering its probably the factory stock unit from 16yrs ago. These guys are right though, on such an aged car you should be easy until built to take the abuse.

 

dont new motors blow too???? and when the ka does blow, what is the main problem?? or should i say most common problem????(pistons, lost of compression, rods, bearings, valves, etc.)

 

don't listen to anything i say.... i just cracked a piston


ka's suck.. go kill urself if you have one... go kill yourself if you like them

buy a ls1 and be reliable.

 

my ka has been reliable.. and i drift almost everyday.. and have been for a while.. my motor has 191*** miles on it and its still running super strong
i heart my car muchos

 

ka's are usually reliable except for when you really need them to be

 

I would say that the Ka is reliable as any well maintained motor. By maintained I mean more than just changing oil, but by just doing routine checks. I've seen lots of ka's with rod knock and or complete bearing failure. Most higher milage. Biggest issue. Low or no oil. People forget to do the simple things. For instance I check my oil and coolant everytime I fill up. Is it low? Hasn't been but it doesn't mean it wont be and the sooner a leak or something is caught the less likely there will be a catastrophic failure.

My .02

 

i second this, even the best maintained motor will spin a bearing if it gets low on oil. I say keep doing what you are doing.

I road raced my 145,000 mile 1990 until it lost a bolt and dumped its oil on the track, then proceeded to blow up before i could even slow down. Shit happens, but good maintenance is your safest bet.

wow, i am tired, I got engrosed in reading the thread and decided to post on a ~8 month old thread :/ :smacked49

 

190k I'm impressed my s14 has 125k on it as of now, and I'm geting ready to go KAT this month. I bought a backup ka24de from a 97 240sx with 30k on it, I got it for $250. I'm going to boost the engine in my car now, because my buddy boosted his ka24de at 130k and he just blew it at 160k. The reason it blew was because his friends had it on the track drifting it and they kept it pegged past 8000rpms their entire run :greddy:

 

1500 is pretty excessive.... i change it at most every 2,000 miles. i do mine every 3,000. If I drove rotary i'd definately do it ever 2,000 to 2500 miles. But 1,500 is wayyyyy too low.

 

I have 178k on mine and I keep it up around 6-7k all day and it has no problems. Regular maintenance is the key. There is no such thing as doing the fluids too often.
I live in CA as well and yes it is rediculous with regulations on vehicles. Stick with KA and get legal parts. (CARB)

 

My buddy and I both drift are cars on the weekend, His has 230,000 and still pulls very strong. Just take care of it and it will take care of you

 

Just take care of it and it will take care of you

The best way to put it, flat out.

 

ka's suck. avoid them and do yourself a favor by getting a LS2

 

My KAE had 147k+ on it and I beat the crap out of it for 3 years, crappy maintanence and all, it lasted me for 3 years, even bent 2 exhaust valves and that sucker still ran. (like shit though) replaced the head with a truck head or something, never found out what head it was exactly. ran it for another year before it blew. (probably from oil starvation) So, I'd say that its a pretty tough motor.

 

hey ive got a ka with 150000miles on the clock and plannin on going turbo, t3 @ 7psi intercooled 550cc inj with one of those eprom chips. Do you guys think it'll last long or should i be building up a new engine now?

 

speaking from experience, I can honestly say that the primary weak point of the ka are the main rod bearings, you spin one of those you'll know it. I have a 95 S14 that I promptly grenaded my whole #1 and part of my #2 rods out of. I take fairly decent care of my car the engine had had an oil change maybe 750 miles prior to the tragedy, it had 150K on it, oem clutch with roughly 6K on it, no boost, all stock except the exhaust system. The engine was dropped in 4 months prior when I did the 5 speed swap (original engine has 250K on it), took it to a drift event, clutch slipped, leading to a massive overrev along with oil starvation leading to the tragic loss of my block. Now I have to start all over by swapping in yet another block and working up from there.

Maintenance is not the end all, your mixing up a recipe for disaster, just ask anyone who has any experience with the KA and they will tell you be ready for the spun bearings and rod knock. Source yourself another block and start building it, or have a couple sets of rod bearings at the ready.

 

From the way you describe it you have the classic ka24de timing chain rattle. If you plan to keep the ka just remove the upper and lower timing chain guides and it will go away. Nissan issued a service bulletin regatding this matter. My ka has 202,000 miles and still runs like new. I bought it when it had 155,000 miles and have changed oil every 3000 miles. The only thing that went bad was a fuel injector but those go out anyway.

The ka is a very reliable motor if you take care of it properly.