Before you throw stuff at me.. just hear me out..
I've actually been researching this on/off for about a year, as I've always been impressed by what the K-series guys are laying down, all motor, with relative ease. So, I started looking around, taking measurements, and such.. and it looks like it'll easily fit in the engine bay of a B15.
My plan is to use a B15 6spd trans, with an adapter plate and custom clutch/flywheel, which will allow me to use the B15 starter and bolt right up to the K series engine.
I would like to use a K24 block and K20A2 cylinder head.. This, with a few bolt-on's, and a good tune, will produce in excess of 250whp.. Probably in the neighborhood of 260-270whp with decent cams. There are guys making in excess of 325whp with this setup, running higher compression pistons, head work, and such.
This engine would have a rod/stroke ratio of 1.54:1, and would be able to rev safely to 8K rpm without issues. The advantage of having i-vtec is pretty clear.. streetable cam profile on the small cam lobes, making it driveable, with decent low end TQ, and fuel friendly.. yet, HUGE lobes on the big cams, making tons of power up top. The QR simply lacks this.. and I'm disappointed that Nissan didn't carry it over from the SR20VE line. IMO, that was the next "step" in 4 cylinder engine progression for them.. They simply cheaped out, and dropped the ball.
Anyway.. This is a very loose idea right now.. but, a VERY feasible one. I'll be doing more research in the coming months, and working out the details of the adapter parts. Once I get that ironed out, this will be a pretty straight forward swap.. No harder (for me), than the initial VQ swap that we did years ago. If anyone is interested in working with me on this.. please let me know. Cost wise, you won't be looking at anything more than what a VQ swap would cost.. and the potential benefits are HUGE!
Travis