There's no reason to build the motor right off the bat if he's coming from a KA. You can make 350 whp reliably on an SR with the correct bolt on mods. no need to get crazy with it. My car barely touches 250 and is an absolute riot to drive. a balanced car really makes up for a rocketship with horsepower that can barely be enjoyed because the rest of the car is a piece of shit.

for someone that's posting like this, not knowing a whole lot, the last thing you should reccomend is him tearing into his motor, because nissan already did a superb job assembling it from the factory.

Replacing the crank pulley with an aluminum one is a major thumbs down. if anything, he could upgrade to a fluidamper or ati super damper pulley, but those are expensive and only needed when doing major types of racing. Nissan put plenty of engineering into the stock crankshaft pulley, it will do the job just fine, as well as work perfectly with all stock belt sizes, and provide a long life for the new belts he's putting on, allowing all of the tensioners to work in the center of their adjustment, and everyone being happy.

WIth the proper degreaser and cleaning, a nice clean stock base primer'd engine bay looks awesome in an S13. There's no need to repaint your engine bay if you're simply swapping out the motors. This is another example of wasted time and money, and if he's going to do it, you forgot that he has to purchase all new tabs and hardware and plastic hold downs for the engine wiring harness, brake lines, clutch line, lower harness, fuel lines, power steering lines, etc. Buy some simple green, buy a few toothbrushes, and fall in love with your car. that's the best way to do it.

Rather than replace the water pump, an easy thing to do is to take it off, inspect it. if its rusted or in bad shape, then replace it. if it's not, simply re seal it with Permatex Ultra Grey. this will save you ~$80.00 as well.