UK build, KA24de-T in Ginetta IT LIVES :D

[MRLuke]

Hi all,

I bought a 1980s GRP kit car but after welding the diff the gearbox died and then it became obvious my piston rings had had enough as well.

Long and short is I managed to get hold of a KA-T at a bargain price (as nobody knows anything about them over here) now I just need to try and make it fit.

I got a decent quote from a local garage so dropped it off with them, 2 months later they had barely touched it so I have taken it back and going to do it myself

Weekends to do list:

Hoist out engine
Attach Gearbox and refit
Find an angle / position this engine fits at (much taller than 2.8 cologne)
Template engine mounts for tamed fabricator to make for me
Win at life.

Im not 100% on the spec of the engine but from what I can gather its a T3/TD04E 0.50 A/R and has 550cc injectors. Other than that I have yet to find out.

Some pictures for you as im sure youll have no idea what a Ginetta is and they only made 6 kits for this model. p.s. its not a pretty car









and a cheeky picture from my local track running <100bhp with no piston rings. Only done 3 laps in this car

[Jmcc]

thats a neat looking car. and somthing i have never seen before.

[187MotorSports]

Looks a little top gearish. car looks like a long lost cousin from the foxbody family.

[MRLuke]

Looks a little top gearish. car looks like a long lost cousin from the foxbody family.

You aren't far wong it is Ford based, the chassis fits a cortina mk3/4/5 jig and the rest of the parts are from varying UKDM models, fiesta doors, capri engine etc.

I see what you mean about topgear, the back end especially

thats a neat looking car. and somthing i have never seen before.

Thanks I doubt you will see one again either, I can only find pictures of one other.

[MRLuke]

To cut a long story short I dropped the car and engine off with a well respected garage back in April/May time as they gave me a very reasonable quote for fitting.

For whatever reason over 2 months later very little progress had happened and it was agreed the car would be returned to me to fit myself.

The list of reasons I had for the engine not fitting were as follows.

-Inlet manifold fouls the brake master cylinder smaller cylinder required.
-Engine sits too high due to lack of sump clearance on front subframe
-Bonnet needs cutting due to height of engine
-Gearbox fouls high level chassis member
-Gearbox does not line up with prop
-If the above gearbox problems are overcome then the shifter wont fit
-Chassis wont take the power

This was my progress in 1 day on a gravel drive with my newly purchased engine hoist



It fits !



Bit messy but its in, loads of space for new rad and intercooler.



Plenty of clearance here, note the shiny new non fitting bolts as the old ones were left in the engine bay when the car was transported...



Brake pipes are **** but fit as are and will be lots of room when re-routed



Even the shifter is spot on. (doesn't line up 100% as no engine / gbox mounts made yet)



Even the bonnet fits, couldnt have done it without my faithful assistant tho :wack::thumbs:

Not pictured but theres even a chance that the Nissan KA prop shaft is going to bolt straight up to my ford diff and be the right length. Held it up under the car and the pcd on the diff flange appears to match up but it might be 10mm to short. We will see.

The only issue I have found so far is that the external waste gate wont fit as is, I might be able to squeeze it on by clocking the housing around a bit but we'll see. Other than that its all good.

Next jobs are to lift it back out again so I can grind off the old engine mounts which are welded to the chassis, make up some new mounts (which will lift the engine about 5-10mm as currently resting on the subframe and then its just wiring and plumbing. I might actually have this thing back on the road by Christmas.

Turbo is a T3/T04E .60 A/R

Also I have found somebody with the same chassis as me running a tuned YB engine on the Hillclimbs so I should be okay chassis wise

Thanks to everybody who read that massive essay :smash:

[187MotorSports]

Good job man, I love the engine bay clean smooth lines.

[MRLuke]

Tried on some new shoes, sorry the pictures are lame.





Needs to be far lower but its slowly coming together

Im trying to get something that has the same look and feel as this older Ginetta. This is the style per se.

[NateDogg]

Nice sleeper.

Looks like a cheap turbo though - I wouldn't run it for fear of calving the motor. Might be hard to get replacement parts over there.

[s13grady]

Kudos on using an original chassis and taking initiative to do it all your self.
Ive never seen a Ginetta before, its got some odd body lines but i can dig it.
Judging by the pics, this car is being built for drift?

[MRLuke]

The car is being built for drift yes going to be fabbing up some solid engine mounts with box section steel next weekend and probably a poly mount for the gearbox, then should really start making progress.

Hopefully by solid mounting I will knock out a lot of the wheel hop I'm getting from the rear axle

Turbo wise, general UK consensus is eBay turbod are normally fine if run below 1 bar. I think this is an unopened block so 8-11psi for me

[silviaks2nr]

this thing is going to be sweet. If you decide to paint it do it red!

[MRLuke]

Does anybody know if I can use SR20det or CA18det clocks with my KA24de-t?

From what I can see the gearbox mounts are the same for all 3 engines as well?

Nobody in the UK knows about part compatibility

[DeepSeaDynamo]

what do you mean clocks? I think that we call them something else here. I know the gear boxes (transmissions) have different bell housings, but internally they are the same other then the gear ratios are different, so you can swap the front half of the case of one to the other, here a lot of people do it because sr and ca transmissions are hard to come by here, but you could put a ka front half on an sr transmission just as easily.

[outlaw09]

can't wait to see this thing in action

[MRLuke]

By clocks I mean the speedily, rev counter etc

[supakat]

I figured that but I did not want to say anything and throw people off. Jargon like 60 clicks depends on what you are talking about. If speedo, then 60 km, if watch, then 60 seconds. I watch bbc top gear and pick up on this stuff. I especially like not to 60 which is 0-60 and pronounce the letter z as zed. For example 240 zed. It is great.

[MRLuke]

Lol wut.

I'm assuming as the gearboxes are the same the speedo etc will be plugin

Spent all weekend on the car but not much to show for it, refitted the engine in the final position so I can make up the mounts and took the dash out slow progress but still progress.

[schmauster920]

Spent a whole weekend and have little to show for it? Welcome to KA-T.ORG


Good thing us americans are always blowing these things up and parting them out.... you should have a few barges worth of KA parts on their way over

[MRLuke]

Lol fitting reply, not got much done since the last update really despite spending plenty of time on it. Main reason is I am fabricating the engine mounts and considering I've never made even a bracket before I want to make sure I do a decent job

Thought these might be of interest, its a mockup of the engine bay, forgive my lame CAD skills as its the first time ive attempted anything in 3D and technically im only using measuring software lol.





Its only a draft at the moment but should be almost mm perfect except for the subframe

Eventual plan is to get the whole frame into CAD.

[schmauster920]

Is the pink part the front of the car? I converted a 240 KA24DE pan to rear sump in order to fit my truck, i had the sway bar in the way, wasnt going to get rid of that.

[superDorifto]

I request a video of this thing on the road when its finished where you just mash the go pedal hang on and scream, "POWER!!!!!"

[MRLuke]

Lol POWAH! Top gear ftw.

Yeah the pink bit is the radiator mount at the front of the car.

Its all fitted really now, did you make the rear bowl or is it from something else?

[Freise]

I really like this car a lot, wish we got cool **** like this in America, take lots of videos. what does this thing weigh right now?

[schmauster920]

I cut the pan and spun the whole thing, without the flange.. then i had to make a pickup tube that went from the front, back. I have a picture that i can send you in a PM or post up here if you want.

[supakat]

Post it here. I want to see how it came out. I know how it should look but just curious on welds, placement, etc.

[schmauster920]

Haha its not pretty, but it works really well. I had to mount the stick on the pan, in an easy to reach spot. You could drill a hole in the block and do it right.

The big bung in the back is for a coolant temp sensor.

Theres a few threads along the girdle.. works perfect to steady the pickup

[MRLuke]

Yeah I had thought of doing that but its in with the standard sump. I dont have very much clearance as the steering rack is on top of the subframe but the whole front bowl fits infront of the subframe so it wont make much difference.

This is the only video I have but its pretty awful. This was the last journey the v6 saw before it finally died.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONBQlCALpOg

As for weight it should be about 950kg with all the interior and seats etc in. So I imagine that it should be in the region of 8##kg when its back on the road.

[MRLuke]

Just a minor update really as I have been away for the last couple of weekends and wont be around this weekend either

However I have progressed the 3D model a little bit and it now looks something like this..



it still needs plenty of refining and I have an error of about an inch between the main rails and clearly the rear section of the car still needs measuring up and drawing, however it is progress and perhaps when it is done and accurate it will be of help to somebody else.

In other news I have attacked the bonnet and it now shuts properly but I havent yet decided what I am going to do about making it look a bit more presentable.I dont really want scoops ducting any more air under the bonnet as at the moment it will have to come out of the bottom of the car creating lift and not doing very much for cooling. I am intending to open up the wings to help sort out the airflow but this needs more thought as yet





As you can see the cam cover is barely interfering with the bonnet and I could probably get away with covering the hole over with a thin layer of fibreglass however the turbo is a concern as its clearly going to get very hot and I dont know how well the bonnet will cope.

Also I have cut one engine mount to size but no picture of that yet.

[supakat]

What if you do like an eclipse?



Don't do this!

[MRLuke]

Its not a bad shout but the bonnet already has a raised section in the middle so its going to look a little queer with a bump on one side. It will also keep the heat in which is the last thing my plastic car wants. The last time I drove the car at speed the bonnet was bouncing around as the air was getting trapped underneath it.

Really ive just been putting off making a proper start on the engine mounts as its my first time doing any kind of fabricating and I dont want to waste a ton of steel with cockups