The K20A3 is a base model engine with 160hp. Having said that, cause it is an i-VTEC and all that, what kinda numbers could this thing see? Boosted, built? Anyway, the way I see it is that the K20A3 is the worst of the best, but could it still toss out better performance then the B's and H's as the K20A does? I ask cause its soooo much cheaper then the K20A.

 

it depends on your application, goals, and the car itself.

btw if you want K get a k20a2.

 

the base k20 doesn't have real vtec, more like the vtec-e system for fuel economy

 

right well Im just looking into it, why the A2 ?

Im going with a h22a, just wanna know why no one just buys a base model a3 and builds it, but I guess I have an answer already here.

 

Head swaps and boost are an A3s best friend. One reason why not many people build them is cost and availability. You're dealing with an engine that is <4 years old, therefore wrecked examples are hard to come by. Demand up + supply down = expensive. In most cases, if you have the money for an A3, you have the money for an A2. However, in some rare instances, you can find an A3 for relatively cheap.