Talk to me about the 240SX

[RobertK]

Bought a 1995 240SX for $350 from a guy in Smithfield, TN. I couldn't pass it up. The car needs a front bumper, driver side fender, and recently started overheating. I'm getting the car shipped to my door for $150 so I have yet to see it in person if it's too far gone for me to be interested in making it a project car then I know I can part it out for more than I paid for it.

I'm a newb when it comes to talking Japanese cars so I was curious if anyone on R3v has had experience with the S14 240SX? What's the best way to go about modifying the car.. (not Tokyo Drift Style)?

[Intense]

Stock engine = KA24 = truck engine....overall it's not a bad engine, but you should plan on dropping a SR20DET in there. Looks like you got an S14, good choice. What trim? 5-speed or slushbox?

Fun car, fix it up and you'll have a nice reliable daily driver

[etxxz]

i had one...but the previous generation one and one of my best friends who lives ~ 5houses down has your car w/ a modded s13 sr20det, silkroad coilovers etc...what you need to know is that for the $350 you paid its probably in horrible conditions. av price is above 3Gs.

its a horribly engineered car and stock vs stock the e30 outruns and outhandles that 240. The 240 i had oversteered much easier than the e30 i have and the ae86 i had before! + the engine has plenty of torque. Best mods...sr20det...or do i/h/e and suspension...but from what you described you wont have any money to mod b/ all the repairs you'll be doing.

got picS??

[delphini]

well..............http://www.ifarted.com/wav/ofart3.wav

[RobertK]

I figured for $350 I can just replace the entire front end to the newer 97-96 style for $1600 if I order the parts direct from the nissan $tealership and I found a RB25det w/ transmission and everything else needed for the swap online for around $3000 shipped.

With me it's either all or nothing.. I'll post pictures when it gets delivered then decide whether to start parting it out on eBay or keep it as a project car.

Either way don't think I won't continue to keep and work on my E30.. or not to buy another.. ultimately this car is meant to replace my 02 Galant so it will become Tara's car if we keep it.. I might just get joint custody of it on some days :evil:

[Erick]

S14s are great cars... thats for sure. Now oversteering more than an e30??? I dont know about that.... maybe with coilovers, but I havent been able to drive an e30 with coilovers to compare.

From experience an e30 is much more oversteer happy than a 240sx due to a shorter wheelbase. For the same reason, the e30 is harder to control sideways than a 240sx. But when you got money, its only a matter of how much is invested to figure out who handles better.

But here I am talking about drifting again.

The stock KA engine isnt good to take a continuous abuse..... so my suggestion would go with an SR.... its easier to maintain than an RB since the engine is much more popular here. Those engines can easily be tuned for a substancial amount of power with no issues.

Thanks to drifting, the car has an amazing aftermarket support... so modding it is much cheaper. If I had to start from scratch, I would go with a 240sx. But since I have so much invested in my e30... might as well go all the way with it.

- Erick

[RobertK]

How are they as AutoX cars?

Plus.. how much of a cost different is there between the RB and SR engines when it comes to maintenance?

[HST]

S52 swap FTMFW!!!!!

[rede30]

fix the car up and sell it right after tokio drift comes out. Serioulsy you can make some money. fix it up so its running and looking ok and slam it and you should be able to make some money.

[Erick]

How are they as AutoX cars?

Plus.. how much of a cost different is there between the RB and SR engines when it comes to maintenance?

From what I hear they are solid cars.... nothing too great.

SRs can be found for $2k..... RBs start at $3k.

[EtaSport]

Yea, you wont be able to touch one for under 3k after F&F TD comes out.

I just towed an 89 s13 for a friend of mine. blown auto trans and all for 500 bucks, so 350 for an s14 is a steal. He will be selling his 90 16 valve after he turns the 89 into a 180SX. Hes getting a full front clip, sr20det and RHD conversion. I think hes picking up the clip for under 3k.

[RobertK]

Hmmm.. I'm thinking for $3000 I can do the RB swap and flip the car on EBay... but I'm scared once I'm done I will like it way too much.

[shiftbmw]

Your KA will be popular with the Datsun 510 crowd, so when you sell it, throw it up on a couple Datsun sites...

KA 510's are dominant btw.

[ddongbap]

How are they as AutoX cars?

Plus.. how much of a cost different is there between the RB and SR engines when it comes to maintenance?

Okay, first off to explain the way Nissan names their engines.

Lets take the KA24DE.

The KA part, denotes the engine class. For this, the class is called KA.

Now, the 24 part. This shows the displacement size of the engine. So its 2.4. Rule of thumb is to put a decimal between the numbers. =D

Now, some engines have the D, and some dont. For example, the 80s-1991 240sx came with a KA24E engine. The D tells if its Dual Cam.

Now the E. I THINK, it means if its fuel injected or not.

The SR engines came with two types. Each of them with the option of factory turbo.

SR20DET - Turbo 2.0L i4.

SR20VET - Same deal, but with Nissans Variable Valve Timing. I wasn't sure of the name of their timing. Three stage monster. Hondas only have a two stage cam. To find this particular engine with a turbo, really rare, really expensive. I heard someone put the SR20VE (Stock engine, nonturbo) version in a 200sx, and ran a 13sec 1/4th mile.

The RBs went like this.

RB20DETT

RB25DETT

RB26DETT

Same i6, with a Twin Turbo for all, but with different displacement.

Of course the T means Turbo, and the TT means Twin Turbo. Each of these engines have a option for non-turbo. But noone really imports the non-turbo versions.

Okay, as far as costs go, the SR plants have a base here in the US. So parts will be cheaper. Not just with the SR20DETs, the Infiniti G20, the Sentra 2.0, and the 200sx SE-R's came with the SR20s. Though none were factory turbo.

The RB is a legendary engine. But parts are expensive. There are only a handfull of shops in the US that have the proper knowhow to tune these machines.

I'm typing this at work, so it took me 30 minutes to type up something so easy. Let me know if something dosen't make sense.

[E30_pilot]

dam s14 for $150. you luck sob!

drop by norcal240sx.net

Ryan's,a moderator, recently did a RB25DET into his s13 fastback.He had a Redtop Sr20det before.
He's also a novice E30 m3 fan ;)