Hugh

Man, I don't know where you guys get all that mileage from. I guess I spend too much time with my foot in the throttle and the boost maxed out to get anywhere over 20mpg. I got about 17mpg or a little more with almost 100% city driving and a lot of punching it when driving late at night/early in the morning. That was with a 395rwhp SR20DET with a big, laggy turbo. One thing I learned is that gas mileage goes up with a laggy turbo. The reason is that you're not building boost all the time while just cruising, and making less horsepower in the cruising range. (therefore using less fuel) I went from ~14mpg with the stock turbo to ~17mpg with the T04S. In a comparable apples to apples EFI 4 cylinder comparison, you MUST realize that making more horsepower uses more fuel. It's not rocket science. Nissan put 270cc injectors on a 155hp KA24DE. They put 370cc injectors on the 205hp SR20DET. To make more power, you must increase duty cycle, and eventually increase injector size. This is because more horsepower requires more fuel. Putting a turbo on a motor doesn't reduce fuel consumption in any way. It will only increase it. Period.

It seems some of you guys are too quick to jump on other people's comments.. and you haven't read everything here:

I see. If gas milage is that important, you're not gonna want a small-turboed engine. You will drive around boosting all the time, and gas milage goes out the window. As far as peripheral parts to support turbo, yep... you're right. Buying an NA motor will be cheaper and require little extras. The motor mount points for the rwd SR and rwd KA are same. Both engines bolt into the 240sx in the exact same points. You should be able to use the Vildini SR mounts for the KA... I would venture to guess. The KA might be the way to go, then.

VG30ET? I would stay with a VG probably. If you really want to change engines, then you could put in a CA18DET or SR20DET. The CA18 should be easy to get locally from the European 200sx. Your English is difficult to read, but I think I understand what you were asking.

I run straight through mufflers on SR's. The power gain is noticable over a more restrictive muffler. Response is quicker, full boost comes sooner, and it will sound good as long as you put on a larger muffler. Dynomax Ultraflo round is a great option. Get a muffler with some packing, or it will make an annoying resonating sound that drones into your head. Running no muffler on an SR will sound like a tractor with a turbo on crack. It's not a pretty sound, and its not very tough sounding, either. The best setup I built was full 3" mandrel bent system with a Dynomax ultraflo round (6" outer diameter, 4" inner) with another inline muffler like the Megans sold on Ebay (4" outer diameter, 3" inner). The sound was incredible. It was deep and smooth, and actually eliminated all of the 4 cylinder whine that I know most of us hate. There was no backpressure from any restrictions along the way. Here's a video clip of it while I'm pulling my old 180sx onto the dyno. I can't show you how the muffler sounds at full boost, because I run an open wastegate - and the wastegate noise drowns out everything else. I'll post a second video that gives you an idea of how it sounds in the car, but when the boost comes on... thats all wastegate noise. The little backfires you hear in this clip are from running it too rich. Soon after, I tuned that out. (old computer setup was not ideal) (pushing 345rwhp) http://72.29.75.31/~videof6/features/hugh/hugh-buddyclub.mpg And here's a video of it on the street, showing my speedometer getting stuck at max. (pushing over 395rwhp) http://72.29.75.31/~videof6/features/hugh/speedostuck.mpg

The only problem I see with the SR20DE or SR20VE is that they usually can't reach 200rwhp and remain streetable. A bone stock SR20DET with a muffler and some boost can push 200rwhp. Light tuning can put it to 250rwhp or more. The power gains from mods on the turbo motor ridiculously outweigh most things people don't like about turbo motors. Not to mention, the power band on the NA SR's looks somewhat like a Honda. Peak power is nice, but there isn't that much power under the curve. (narrow power band) You can build a 300hp SR20DET and keep awesome reliability, with minimal turbo lag, and the power band will be wide and useful. I'm not just talking here, I've driven and built many SR powered cars. It might be time for you to at least consider turbo as an option.

If its any concellation, your car is beautiful. Just swap those springs around and it will be perfect. Damn I wish my Z's body looked that good.

braking, not breaking I've never used a braking calculator online, or anywhere else.. sorry. But I googled "braking calculator" and found some really complicated formulas. Here's one: http://www.csgnetwork.com/stopdistcalc.html

Cool, I didn't hear about this until now. I may just make it out there to look around this afternoon. I wouldn't waste anyone's time showing my car, though

I assumed that as well. Kind of a no-brainer.

In my experience, thats not true. Sure, the longer gears help spool the turbo, and thats great. But, the faster you go across your power band and get into the next gear, the faster your car is moving down the street. Longer gears make the engine rev slower, and that makes the car slower. In my 180sx, I ran a two-step rev limiter to spool the turbo off the line. It would boost 1.6kg (~22psi) from the moment I shove the gas to the floor. Coming off the line with a 4.90 rear end, an OS Giken close-ratio tranny (with a taller 1st gear than stock) it took off like a bat out of hell. Just to give you some perspective, heres a link to the dyno video of my old 180sx with SR20DET with a Tec3 ECU, and a T04S turbo. It made 399.8ps at the wheels which translates to 395 rear wheel horsepower. (at 1.4kg of boost) http://72.29.75.31/~videof6/features/hugh/HughDyno399.mpg Notice how short the run on the dyno is. From the moment the wastegate opens until he stops is very short. It's also 5th gear, because thats the only gear that would hook up on the dyno. (and I still had smoke from the tires, even with people in the trunk for extra ballast - so power was being robbed on the dyno) The short gears make it want to rev so quickly, the tires couldn't push the rollers fast enough. Now if that car winds up that fast in 5th, and the Z pictured here winds up that slow in 4th... which car do you think will win in a race? I think the answer is obvious. Granted, top end suffered. It would only go about 150-160mph. However, it would rip all the way to redline in 5th gear without a hint of hesitation. (hitting top speed was EASY) You don't want something crazy like a 4.90 on a stock transmission, though. A 4.66 maybe, 4.36 is best I think. Too short = crap for first gear. The OS trannies have tall 1st and 2nd gears, making a shorter rear end a necessity. Now with a short final gear, you must shift very quickly to see the real benefits of it. If you granny shift, you will suffer. I was a shifting fool in my 180sx. A side benefit of short ratios is less stress on the drivetrain. When you launch a 3.90 VS a 4.90, the abuse hitting the gears is much worse. Think of starting out uphill on a bicycle in top gear.

I have a Full-Race manifold that will be going into my Z when I get the SR to go with it. I bought their manifold, Tial Wastegate, and T3/T67 turbo anticipating a build in my 240sx, but I sold the POS first. Full-Race quality is amazing, and the guys over there are very cool. (Geoff, Javier, etc...)

Well, uh, the tachometer will keep you from throwing rocker arms as well. Keep your RPM down.

It didn't 'ruin' my ride height at all. It took out the majority of the fender gap and balanced the front and rear out. Look in this forum down a few posts at "Pics of my 240z with Tokico Suspension Installed" You will see how mine sits... its definitely not too low. It's just right for my taste.

I haven't examined them with the car on the ground. From your posts I thought you said you could see they were progressive before installing them. I've had progressive springs in the past and I know what they look/feel like. I'll see how they look sitting on the ground. Whichever they are, I'm very happy with the way it handles... so it's cool by me. I'm running my Illuminas on 3/3 for everyday driving. I still need a lot of bushings before I can really say how good this suspension is... but compared to what I took out, its amazing! My wife's Miata runs circles around it though, and I put Eibach Pro-kit on that. (progressive springs)

I've been told on this forum that those are not R230's, either... but the rest of the world seems to think they are. The hump on the front top area towards the nose points out that the ring must be bigger than the R200.

I bought the kit from that guy with the Illuminas in it. (white Tokicos 5-ways) My front and rear springs both look linear, and feel linear... and feel GREAT on the road.

No, my rear suspension was much worse than the front... so I installed the rears two weeks ago and drove around with the stock blown crap up front. The ride was really rough due to the mis-matched rates front/rear. Now I just put in the fronts, and it is great! The bouncing is mostly gone now. I may turn the struts up to 4 today and see how I like that. With the stock fronts and the tokico rears set on 5, it was ridiculous! It made my stomach churn on the bumps, it was so bad. Just put in all four and you'll be happy with it!

Thanks man! I am loving it. When I got it, the back end was sagged really bad. Swapping the rears in left it at the same height. My nose was way up in the air... making it drive like a boat or something. Now with the front end dropped, the rear doesn't looked sagged. It raised up and the front and rear sit evenly now. I couldn't be happier with it.

I'm looking at all this planning and all this work you're talking about here... and I'm seeing all these bushings. If you're going to overkill the strength of the piece, why put in any bushings at all?? When I had the R230 mounted in my old 180sx, I didn't have any bushings whatsoever. I mounted it solid to the subframe. My subframe was hung on Aluminum bushings as well... so there was no play anywhere in the system. This created a bit of diff noise in the car, for sure... but nothing I couldn't tolerate. It was weird for the first couple of days, then it was just normal. (and I grew to like having the sound) My diff had no twist, no play, no binding or wearing out bushings. Application of power (395rwhp SR20) was unbelievably direct and I loved it. This also should help to eliminate any wheel hop (as it did in my old car) Granted, for those who like their cars more timid and user-friendly... going bushing-less might not be a great idea.

I just finished putting it in yesterday. I got the Tokico Illumina 5 way adjustable struts and Tokico Springs from Ebay. I'm very happy with the ride quality. I like to set the struts on 3, 5 is a little harsh for rough streets and makes the car a bit bouncy. I wouldn't mind this if I was out to play around... but cruising down the 405 on the way to work bouncing on every little bump wears on me. I turned them down to 3 and it smoothed right out... very nice ride. This suspension is only temporary. I needed to put something in the car so I wouldn't die after dropping my SR20DET into the car. It was handling very poorly... now I feel I can trust the thing.

It was just a suggestion I was throwing out there... since nobody else had said anything yet. Why would it flop over if you mount it to the side of the tranny tunnel? Whats wrong with mounting it to the tranny tunnel? (fear of rust?)

My calculations tell me that you need to turn it down 31.5% or so. 185 x 270 = 18500 x 270X (cross multiply) .X.... 100 270X / 270 = X 18500 / 270 = 68.5 Take 68.5 out of 100% to get your new injector duty: -31.5%