new ITA racer, the death of an ITA Nissan and the birth of another...

[BlackFire240sx]

Always liked 240sx's but never had the chance to own or drive one til this year...

Got involved with a '90 240sx coupe built to compete in ITA with the SCCA. Have done two race weekends with and LOVE it!

Getting on here to learn more about the car and see what I can find for parts.

pics to follow...

That's the good news, bad news is I totaled the car a month ago at an SCCA event at NHMS! We are now in the process of building a new car and changing a few things up while we are at it...

all pointers, comments and suggestions are welcome!

and thanks to Richard for getting me on here! tough place to get into, quite exclusive


~Chris

[Matt93SE]

It can't be too exclusive... They let me in.

Welcome!!
Sorry to hear about the accident. At least you didn't get hurt- the cars can always be fixed... and be made faster in the process!

Are you planning another KA-E for ITA, or is the next car going to be a KA-DE engine in ITS?

[BlackFire240sx]

haha nice...

sticking with A... We have a strong SOHC engine and also, we feel the the 240 is more competitive in A than it is in S. Not that I wouldn't mind going (a lil) faster Maybe if(when) the SOHC blows up...

[Matt93SE]

Yeah, the KA-E isn't really known to be a great race engine. It can be built to handle some higher RPM, but it will still eventually shake itself apart. As you well know you can't do a whole heckuvalot with it anyway due to rules limitations, so you just gotta deal with the KA-E.
The good thing is that you can update/backdate engines. I'm running stock '93 cams (248 duration intake and exhaust) in my KA-DE right now, and IMO that's the best bet for a stock cam. It's not a whole lot of power, but it revs MUCH better than the stock OBD-II cams that were previously in the car. It does make it a bit peaky though, so in many corners I either have to rev the crap out of it or bog in the next higher gear. lots of tracks around here have ~50mph corners, so I'm at 5500-6000rpm in 2nd gear or I'm at 3500 in 3rd.

Anyway, you may definitely want to look into a KA-DE when yours eventually dies. I would think it would still be competitive in ITS assuming you have a proper setup elsewhere on the car.

[ecugrad]

Nissan's, Kessler, NHMS

You wouldn't have to know Greg Amy?

Welcome to the site!

[BlackFire240sx]

Yeah, the KA-E isn't really known to be a great race engine. It can be built to handle some higher RPM, but it will still eventually shake itself apart. As you well know you can't do a whole heckuvalot with it anyway due to rules limitations, so you just gotta deal with the KA-E.
The good thing is that you can update/backdate engines. I'm running stock '93 cams (248 duration intake and exhaust) in my KA-DE right now, and IMO that's the best bet for a stock cam. It's not a whole lot of power, but it revs MUCH better than the stock OBD-II cams that were previously in the car. It does make it a bit peaky though, so in many corners I either have to rev the crap out of it or bog in the next higher gear. lots of tracks around here have ~50mph corners, so I'm at 5500-6000rpm in 2nd gear or I'm at 3500 in 3rd.

Anyway, you may definitely want to look into a KA-DE when yours eventually dies. I would think it would still be competitive in ITS assuming you have a proper setup elsewhere on the car.

We shift at 6k... half the horror stories I've heard about these engines involve 7k plus rpm so we are not going there! Don't feel the need, with all the torque the engine makes there is no need to spin the engine high...

Sounds like you have the DOHC figured out pretty well... try changing your rear gear or tire diameter. for example at LRP and NHMS we run a 45 series tire, while at Pocono or the Glen we run a 50 or 55 series tire...

you may be right, but the S crowd is really stiff (not that the A crowd isn't) in the NE and we'll proly stick with what we know...

[BlackFire240sx]

Nissan's, Kessler, NHMS

You wouldn't have to know Greg Amy?

Welcome to the site!

Thanks!

I do actually... met him at the same race I met Matt. who's askin?

[sr20goofus]

doesnt greg amy run a sentra with NASA?

[BlackFire240sx]

doesnt greg amy run a sentra with NASA?

no... Greg (tGA) drove the red NX (also a B13 though) to set 6 ITA track records, won the '06 NARRC and the '06 ARRC. Now he drives an ITS Integra GSR and an ITB Swift. A new GSR is currently under construction because the old car got totaled at the Glen last year :/

A blue/purple Sentra? with yellow? the 01 car? That is "Crazy Joe" Domino and he usually runs SCCA... The random NASA events are just for fun.

They are, however, both part of Kakashi racing...

[BlackFire240sx]

a pic of me in the old car...

[Matt93SE]

We shift at 6k... half the horror stories I've heard about these engines involve 7k plus rpm so we are not going there! Don't feel the need, with all the torque the engine makes there is no need to spin the engine high...

Sounds like you have the DOHC figured out pretty well... try changing your rear gear or tire diameter. for example at LRP and NHMS we run a 45 series tire, while at Pocono or the Glen we run a 50 or 55 series tire...

you may be right, but the S crowd is really stiff (not that the A crowd isn't) in the NE and we'll proly stick with what we know...

Looking at all the ITA cars rolling out of Kessler's shop, I'd say you have your hands full there! We have a ton of Miatas in ITA here, simply so they can get more track time and run SM as well. Only a small handful of ITS cars, although I remember seeing more in the past.

I don't know hardly all of the tricks of the DE, but I know what works for cheap... I'll be building it for STU, so I have a lot more options when building my next engine. I can up compression to like 12:1 or so and run either 0.5" or 0.55" of lift, so I can make some good power with that. It's simply a matter of how much money I want to throw at it. I plan to build it more like an IT engine though to gain some reliability at the expense of the last few HP. (I can't afford to go THAT fast!!)


I also do plan to play with tire sizing for some tracks later, but until last month I've only had one set of wheels to run with and it simply wasn't an option.
I cracked a wheel just before an event and was able to sweet-talk the wife into letting me buy another set so I'll have some backups. I'll either get the cracked one repaired or replace it so I'll have two full sets of wheels. I can run a big and a small tire on it and play a bit now.

[ecugrad]

Thanks!

I do actually... met him at the same race I met Matt. who's askin?

He frequents another forum I am on and is a friend of a friend.

[a_ahmed]

That car is ballin on track

[BlackFire240sx]

That car is ballin on track

haha, thanks! well, it was...

[BlackFire240sx]

a few more pics...


On the Dyno at Kessler Engineering before our first race weekend with it. They also set it up (corner weights and all) that night. Matt, the guy that runs that place is the man!




The first day ever working on the car