I finally made the leap after searching for a while on a very limited budget. It has a blown head gasket, but I am looking forward to starting a project with my son. I am the 3rd owner and it has 164k miles. I plan on doing a auto-manual swap once I get it back on the road. Any advice or tips are welcome.
pretty. I really like those things.
You're lucky that no dorifutos destroyed it.
Yeah, it is absolutely stock.
rebuilds are super cheap on a ka, and you can turbo it for less than 2k, good idea to get forged internals though if you do
short shifters for this car are like $20 lol, its an amazingly cheap platform to build up
is it the double cam or sohc?
I had a 240SX coupe as a first car. Complete rust-bucket, also had a blown head gasket as well as a myriad of other problems. Still very fun to drive.
If you don't mind, how much did you pay? It seems to have avoided the drift treatment like JoeyM said, but did you avoid the drift tax?
Nice!
Quick question... Those stock wheels are 15"s, right? Do you know how wide they are?
They are 15x6.5ish.
I've had a few, if you have any specific questions lmk. The manual swap is very easy.
A good condition stock rebuild can do 400whp, its all in the tuning.
~Alex
RexSeven wrote: If you don't mind, how much did you pay? It seems to have avoided the drift treatment like JoeyM said, but did you avoid the drift tax?
I don't mind at all. I gave $500. The first owner was a retired army wife and the second owner was a 20 something young lady. She was very nice about telling me all the things that needed to be done on the car. She didn't even know what she had until she listed it for sale and got 25 emails overnight.
In reply to corytate. I think it is dohc. It is a 92 and I believe 91 was the first year for such. It says 16 valve on the valve cover...so I am guessing that is right. I am just beginning to learn about S13's and I am excited to get started.
16v is definitely DOHC. The SOHC was a 12v engine.
Make friendly with the local jrifters. They just about throw away KA parts, and they'll all have done 5-speed swaps. You'll probably want better rear subframe bushings if you're going to drive it aggressively (search for "drift pineapples").
If the KA isn't enough and emissions aren't a concern, the SR20DET was the motor put in that car everywhere else in the world, and swaps are supposedly crazy-easy.
ReverendDexter wrote: You'll probably want better rear subframe bushings if you're going to drive it aggressively (search for "drift pineapples"). If the KA isn't enough and emissions aren't a concern, the SR20DET was the motor put in that car everywhere else in the world, and swaps are supposedly crazy-easy.
Thanks for the tip on the bushings. I plan on driving it for SoloII so my plans are to 1. get it back on the road 2. Auto-Manual Swap 3. Suspension upgrades. Motor will come much later...as in last. A local guy has an awesome 240sx with the SR20DET. Check out the vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKUwM7uBqHs
Stick with the KA. A couple of Nissan SR20's would pull a premium one week before race wars.
KA > SR
Yeah, I was looking around and I think I might stay NA for a while. I am more interested in getting braking and suspension perfect before even thinking about power. Although I might do a full exhaust at some point in time. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a Factory Service Manual? Or does Chiltion or the like do an okay job with this car?
They're simple cars. Chilton/haynes should be fine i would think. I got an FSM for the MX6, and it's a much more complicated car, and i think i've used it.... twice. And both times it was frustrating because they was WAY more information than what i needed/understood.
I don't know how you guys even look at chilton/haynes, they are useless after looking at an FSM
Nicoclub.com has every nissan FSM, you just have to search on their forum. Which is a pretty good one too.
What class are you going to run in? I have no idea what mods put you were in autocrossing, but my favorite brake mod was Q45 calipers all the way around. I could get brake fade/warped rotors with a stock sohc (145BHP) with parts store pads and rotors. They are 2 piston fronts and bigger single piston rears, and need a drum style ebrake. its 75% of a Z32 brake setup for 40% of the cost. Great pedal feel and super cheap.
I'm not a fan of the SR. The rocker arms will randomly fail at high rpm's. plus they are going up in price and its getting harder to find one in good condition, becuase people have been buying them for years. Oh and just watched the video- I don't like the way most of them sound.
I'm a big fan of KA-t's and RB's. KA's make great autoxing engines, they make good power every where with a good setup. There are plenty of exhausts out there. Ive had a few. I now hate 3in cat backs, sooo loud. It does sound good and deep though. Now I use a silencer and just take it out a the track.
~Alex
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: KA > SR
What's your logic on that?
Not trying to be argumentative, just curious, and I put a hefty premium on the aluminum block over the KA's iron.
Rustspecs13 wrote: What class are you going to run in? I have no idea what mods put you were in autocrossing, but my favorite brake mod was Q45 calipers all the way around. I could get brake fade/warped rotors with a stock sohc (145BHP) with parts store pads and rotors. They are 2 piston fronts and bigger single piston rears, and need a drum style ebrake. its 75% of a Z32 brake setup for 40% of the cost. Great pedal feel and super cheap. ~Alex
Yeah the brakes are one of the first mod on my agenda. Where most people overlook this, I would much prefer that I can actually stop the car in a short distance than travel that distance quicker than anyone else.
Rustspecs13 wrote: I don't know how you guys even look at chilton/haynes, they are useless after looking at an FSM
QFT. I bought a Chilton's manual for my DOHC S13 shortly after I bought it. They crammed the S12 200SX with its three or four engine permutations, the S13 240SX with its two engine permutations, and the Stanza with its two or three engine permutations into one small volume. It was a confusing, useless mess.
Not all of those manuals suck, though. The Hayne's manual for the FC RX-7 is surprisingly good.
^^^ I'm with these guys. I used to religiously buy a Chilton/Haynes for any car I picked up, now not so much. I think in all the volumes that I had, they've saved me maybe once.
Mostly I just get irritated with things like "installation is reverse of removal, torque to X ft-lbs".
I joined Nicoclub.com and they have all the FSM's listed online and mostly by specific repair. I have already become a memeber. Plus the head gasket job...there is a video posted on how to do it...sweet. Already love their forums!
I've done a SR swap into an old pig nose, 5 lug swap and full coil over install in one weekend. Fun car, complete basket case
I, too, favor the ka over the sr, but maybe that's just because everyone does the sr and you can completely build a ka for about the same as it would take to do similar things to the sr.
I heard somewhere the sohc was more suited to building, maybe it's just the super low cr?
friend of mine right now is building a ka-et actually (single cam, so no "d")
hes going all forged internals, and pretty much all out with it. goals are a 450 whp super light street machine without a whole lot of boost.
When I do the head gasket repair, what is some suggestions to go ahead and work on while I have the head off. I don't want to spend a lot on upgrades but what stuff do I need to check and/or replace? What machine work needs to be done?
Not much, just your slandered stuff. Maybe ARP studs if your thinking of boost. The stock head bolts stretch so you'd need new ones any way. Ive heard the felpro HG's you get at parts stores aren't quite as good as OEM if your going for boost.
Just make sure the head is clean and level. If its no good, I have ka parts I need to sell.
I like the sohc's simplicity, but its lack of top end sucks. Both are good for boost stock though, Ive seen a few 300-400whp engines pop up lately with nothing done to them. They usually blow due to aggressive tuning though.
I did a 240deg/232deg I/E cam swap and it really helped out. Its what I had laying around when I was putting an S14 engine in my old coupe. Id recommend picking up a hot cam. I might even have one laying around. The DOHC does make NA power easier though. Both have great potential, especially boosted.
One thing I always do is remove ALL the emissions. It massively simplifies the motor, and on my friends s14, it cured some cold starting problems. But that was due to the previous owner messing with some stuff. Next time I do one though, I might try to keep the EGR, but I have managed 33mpg out of my old sohc with no EGR.
~Alex
ReverendDexter wrote:92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: KA > SRWhat's your logic on that? Not trying to be argumentative, just curious, and I put a hefty premium on the aluminum block over the KA's iron.
Stronger, cheaper, no replacement for displacement, head doesn't throw valve springs under extended high rpms usage as often, bigger supply, etc etc etc.
If you're all about the weight, then the SR is for you. The 240sx isn't an ill-handling car even with the KA lump up front, and i'd personally balk at the idea of swapping a motor to save 50lb. 
Of course, just my opinion, and we know what those are like.
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