every drag race sooo far with my S14 i've lost. and just to make sure htat it wasn't the me, i let my friend race for me. hes the most skilled skilled out of my friend. i lost last night by one car to my friends 2002 accord LX 5 speed. then my water pump and fan pully broke. checked over the car, spark plugs were bad, and oil was old as hell, esp with my dirty ass air filter. got my 750 dollar tune up and repair. raced again for round two. guess what? i lost again!!! this time even worse!! by 2 cars by 3rd gear. i don't get it. we both got manuels, my car has more horsepower and torque and weights 500 pounds less!! and i had the best driver i can find driving for me!! plus i should have a better launch and pick up since i'm FR instead of FF. what da hell is goni on here!! its drivin me nuts!!! i must win!!!!!!!! argh!! any advice?

Get the car dynoed to see how the hp and torque curves are. Maybe threre is a problem that you don't know about that affects the car. The dyno will spot if the car is running bad.

well i also think is casue my engine doen'st like to rev. the KA is basically a truck engine put into a sports car, sooo after it hits 3000 its rises slowly, it still has power, the engine doens't strain if i let off the gas and gas it again on a high gear, but its just rising slowly. you know what i'm saying?

I know what you are saying. The best remedy for that is to always let the cluch slowly and press harder in the same time the gas so the rpm won't drop. Just keep it high at all times like 4000-5000 or wherever your car feels more powerful. It will be hard on the cluch but youll be fast.

Originally posted by TatII
then my water pump and fan pully broke. checked over the car, spark plugs were bad, and oil was old as hell, esp with my dirty ass air filter.

first try to take care of your car, if you care about the lifespan of the car you would not race with it in that condition.

I agree with neutrino, take your car to get dynoed. If your car is really putting out the numbers it should, then you would not be losing.

well all in honesty, me and all my friends had no idea that the car was in such bad condition when i baught it last week. the engine revved extremely smooth, every body whos drove it said that it was really smooth. since it was soo smooth we had no idea how messed up the car was until somehting went wrong. as i found out, the car had been sitting there never been driven for like months!! soo its just sittin there rusting and dying slowly. but now that its in my hands, i'll walk it plenty of times and give it more time to play.

well just use this as a learning experience then. Even if everything is running smoothly it doesn't hurt to make sure.

Make it a habit to get the oil changed every 3 months tops, and only use synthetic oil. And have the oil filter replaced too. Walmart does a excellent job for like 25 bucks including oil.

But yea, a 240sx should not be losing by as much as yours is.

jesus, i could have had that entire engine rebuilt for 750 bucks!
since it's been sitting for a while, you probably have lots of carbon build up all throughout the engine
try getting an extensive fuel system cleaning done...for 750 bucks they should have cleaned the whole thing out but you never know, you probably got ripped off
if the car has problems revving, check your exhaust
is cat plugged? that will cause a huge performance decrease and your gas mileage will go to hell too. is it hard on gas or really good? it should be pretty good.
either way, get rid of your cat and put a high flow muffler on it.

I agree with him, might be carbon build up in the motor.You might want to get the transmission flushed to, u never know if it's ur transmission.Oh, and shame on you for racing ur car so quickly after getting it. you really should have waited about 2 months to see what kind of power your car actually has and how it puts it to the ground.I mean jeez, after i got my SR20, i waited a good month before trying to race anybody, i wanted the motor to settle in so i could get a real good feel for it.

Also, you say your RPM rise slowly, you might want to check out crankshafts, they give a significant increase in Rev. speed, meaning it will Rev much quicker then before.And check ur Cat, i would suggest gettting a Catco Converter, they flow air out real good.

cut the cat off and have the whole exhaust redone, put every type of engine treatment and fuel treatment u can find in it, and get some crappy used tires on the back so theyll spin a little and keep your rpms up. :D

it was my friend who did the tune up for me. the water pump was about 200, so was the fan clutch. so those two parts alone costed me 400. plus i changed rear brake pads, new pcv valve, oil filter, gas filter, air filter, distributer cap, distributer rotor, and spark plugs. he gave me all the name brands sooo i don't think hes ripin me off, cause he took time off and worked on it for me in his home. and he told me to use 10w 40 casue my engine got burned. the guy never changed his oil, soo my engine was burning oil. synethetic is too thin for my burnt motor, but its still smooth, and my transmission shifts really smooth so i don't think its the transmission. there is a hole in one of my cats. but i'm tooo broke right now. i need to save up over the summer for some real mods.

well, the fuel injection cleaner will cost about $2.
and cutting the cat off and putting a straight piece of pipe will be about $15.
and i work at Partsource, a water pump for that car is 86.23 plus tax with a 10 dollar core charge (canadian)

well flushing the engine is a definit for me. but i dont' trust those fuel injector cleaners. cusae i've heard many things about them eating away the injectors and the injectors will break within a month. the cat i'll do. thats without a doubt. the funny thing about my car is that the fan clutch costed more then the water pump itself cause it also has a motor in it. but right now i have to practice launchin my car. everytime i launch it i bog in first. out of the 4 launches i only did 1 good launch. well practice makes perfect.

When was the last time the timing was checked properly? Timing out on a turbo car will have a huge effect even only 5 deg!

The S14 should do better than what you are discribing. I know quite a few guys with them here, and honestly they go very well.

bin the complete factory exhuast and replace it with a 2 3/4" system from the down pipe back. Do a pod filter and if you can afford it an electronic boost controller such as a Profec B. If your timing is set to right maybe a few degrees advanded over factory settings, good fuel (highest pumped octane), run a high boost level of .96 bar or 14psi.

The bigger exhaust system and pod filter will allow your engine to breathe a much easier.

As far as racing you have to know your car. If the motor is nosing over or the pull as you accelerate drops of at say 6,000rpms there is no sence in reving beyond that point. It is a waste of time as you are not accelerating quickly anymore.

Originally posted by Razorgtst
When was the last time the timing was checked properly? Timing out on a turbo car will have a huge effect even only 5 deg!

The S14 should do better than what you are discribing. I know quite a few guys with them here, and honestly they go very well.

bin the complete factory exhuast and replace it with a 2 3/4" system from the down pipe back. Do a pod filter and if you can afford it an electronic boost controller such as a Profec B. If your timing is set to right maybe a few degrees advanded over factory settings, good fuel (highest pumped octane), run a high boost level of .96 bar or 14psi.

The bigger exhaust system and pod filter will allow your engine to breathe a much easier.

As far as racing you have to know your car. If the motor is nosing over or the pull as you accelerate drops of at say 6,000rpms there is no sence in reving beyond that point. It is a waste of time as you are not accelerating quickly anymore.


Uh....he has the american version of the S14, a 95' 240SX.It's not a Silvia so it doesn't have the Sr20 motor that is turbo.I believe he has the stock KA motor. Which is why the power he's getting out of the car isn't that great.I would sugget a rebuild with some high quality replacement parts.Maybe new pistons and cams and get it port an polished.

yup you beat me too it. my car is the stock KA engine. i wish it was faster. but i need to money which is what i don't have currently. so if i cna't improve my car at the moment, then i have to improve my driving skills.

Maybe instead of putting a lot of money into this engine and you don't know if it will run good or no , then just save cash through the summer and buy a good SR20... Sell this KA and then mod your SR... Just a lil suggestion... Sometimes it turns out cheaper and it gives less problems , to swap the engine then to rebuild and repair the current one...

You beat me to it Tom. If you just got your car and you don't have a lot of cash, don't race. It doesn't matter how good condition it's in(to a certain extent) it's still used, and your still pushing it when you race. If your digging deep into your pockets just to repair things then you really shouldn't be thinking of upgrading and racing jsut yet. I know it's a drag, but trust me its te best way. Wait at least a few months, drive it as jsut a regular daily driver/commuter and save some money. This way you can just save up for either say an SR20, or some other mods for the KA and you won't have to worry about shelling out the little bit of cash you can save every month on repairs that probably aren't needed to just use the car as a commuter.

hmmmmmmm well i just bought soem engine flush and a fuel system flush for my car. do you think those are any good for my car?