Hey everyone,

I'm just a nub who wants to do a cheap build for my '09 SI. There's a few people at my command who are just telling me to drop a turbo in, but I don't want to go that route. I'm looking all motor opinions on my car for around $3k for when I get back to the states. Any and all help on part ideas will be appreciated

 

Forced induction will be easier and bring power faster. Why not go supercharged with either a rotrex style / centrifigual kit from vortech, jackson racing or kraftwerks or a roots blower by comptech?

All motor will be expensive for the power you will be making. Custom headers, cams, valvetrain, intake manifold modifcations etc.

 

Boost is out of the question given the budget, at least if OP cares about getting a quality setup and money for tuning is added to the budget. K series make good power NA. Don't get your heart set on 250 whp of course, but three grand could still get you somewhere on a K20Z3.

 

K-pro, cams and a nice intake/header/exhaust setup can be done for 3k and will be fun and impressive to start off with.

 

The stuff I was looking at came out to around 4k. I was told I wouldn't see a noticeable difference in performance.

 

You should check some dyno threads to see what kind of power people are getting with those engines. If you go with the typical I/H/E/cams + tune I'm totally off the top of my head guessing here: you'll get maybe 220-ish whp? That's a pretty sizable jump from stock. It's not turbo power, but then again turbo is off the table for $3k if you want any kind of reliability at all. Also keep in mine 220 whp is about 250 flywheel hp and that is nothing to shake a stick at in a < 1.5 ton car.

 

My buddies k20z3 stock w/ type r cams, asp header, RDX injectors, SRI w/ V-stack and K-pro put down 224whp and around 160tq on a dyno dynamics. In his gutted ek hatch it is very impressive and quick. Runs away from alot of "faster" cars up to 120. Mid 12's in the 1/4 mile too. For a daily its a sweet setup.

 

join k20a.org check out the tech sections and builds. Get a goal or an idea for what you want the car to do. Bump for a fellow soldier. Thanks for your service.

I would personally run the k24 cams, with a good intake, header, and exhaust with kpro, also a 5.0 final drive with tsx 6th gear and call it a day.