Engine Build vs KSwap
 

Ok,

So my motor looks to have at a minimum blown the head gasket, but I suspect it needs a full rebuild. Unfortunately it's a 85.5mm bore motor on 11:1 and running a turbo, so not ideal. I'm having a heck of a time trying to find a machine shop that I would trust to do a build in less than 6 months. Supply chain sucks right now, no surprises there. Ideal path would be to deliver / ship the VVT head (ported, cams, oversized valves, etc....) and have them build a bottom end and R&R the head. Anybody have any machine shops / engine builders they trust that actually can do it in a timely fashion?

My other option, albeit a lot more expensive path would be to just bite the bullet and do a turbo Kswap build. KPower is running 60-90 days for their parts, engines are plentiful and easy to get. A ton more work though, and this is 3-4K more though, but may actually be the quicker path?

Anybody have any other ideas?

I'm finally making more progress on my K24 swap after some distractions. I'm fully to blame for the fact the "three month" project has turned into ... eighteen months and counting? Ouch, I'm sorry I did that math.

I've fallen victim to several "while I'm in here" projects, e.g. running new fuel lines from the tank to the engine bay because reasons. Depending on your chassis and existing mods, you may need to do this in order to feed the larger Honda with a turbo. I also elected to rip out all the wiring and create my own harness that does only race car things, nothing more. I knew this was a risk, but I seriously underestimated the size of the project and the effort required to do it to the standard I want.

Overall, I think it depends a bit on your goals - I see ST3 in your signature, so your power goals are obviously higher than mine. I chose a non-turbo K24 over a turbo BP for my power goals. Apparently the K24As can be built to make lots more power N/A, maybe that's something to think about over the inherent complexity (and heat) of a turbo motor.

I guess my blathering can be summed up by saying - I'm a great example of how a "simple" K24 swap can turn into a major, expensive project. Don't be me.

Yea, I hear you on that one. That's where I was with this car up to now. I did a custom motorsports harness to an AEM Infinity, full fuel return system, body kit, new dash, new paint, etc.... To a turbo BP running about 280hp now.

My thought was Rywire has a premade harness to the AEM. I'd need to modify it, but not a ton.
I could get the car running without the turbo, but I'd be itching to turbo it fairly soon. I just know myself too well. If x is good ten(x) must be better... (ugg)
Turbo K24 would be hard to get down to 280hp actually, so I'd probably run it in a higher class. I'm just doing this for fun anyway.
At the higher power I'd need to do something on the transmission. I think I'd try the circlip mod first, and if that didn't work then a stronger transmission, and down the rabbit hole I go (again)

I can count the amount of people that have done the k swap in a reasonable amount of time on one hand.
Love the engine, love the swap, but would never recommend it for quickness to completion. Even with the machine shop delays for the BP.
Just $0.02

Yep, there's your problem. Consider starting off with the kit that uses the BMW transmission. Now you're doing an engine and transmission swap, so you may as well just swap the diff too, and go to beefier axles. Bye bye Alice, have a nice trip!

Guilty party here. I've been doing all this extra stuff, I argue, to make it bomb-proof reliable. And so far, I've missed over a year's worth of events. Somehow, I don't think that math worked out right. Hehe.

This is not my reality. I popped my "Last BP Ever" in October last year. Went through the same process of "Do I KSwap?" and eventually ordered my kit in December. Downpipes were due end of March and that was supposedly the holdup on mine, but I haven't received anything yet.

If you can find a known-good core and run the engine/tune turned way down in the meantime, or if you're ok with 6 months of the car being off the road, Kswap.

Thanks for that. That helps quite a bit. I'm going to buy another stock motor and turn it down a bit and run that until I get this one back. That will keep me running albeit a bit slow.

I completed my swap in a winter. Granted, it's been 3 years of continuous tinkering, but the bulk of the work done was done in about 3-4 months. I think your biggest issue will be waiting on parts from Kpower, I have heard their lead times are pretty brutal at the moment.