To make a long story short Cincinnati uses salt which basically turns every 240 around into a rust bucket. So i started checking craigslist in every major city within 1000 miles from here that didnt use salt for an S14 that was in good condition. After about 6 months of searching i found a black 95 240sx (my favorite color) with a blown engine and a nicked up front bumper in Knoxville Tennessee. The rest of the car was rust/dent free. It had been sitting outside for about a year or so but it was perfect for what i wanted since i knew i was doing the sr20 swap.
I borrowed my bosses truck and rented a tow dolly and me and my buddy went on a friday afternoon and got it. We made it there in record time arriving at about 830. The car was jsut as the pictures showed. NO RUST and no major body issues other than the front bumper was dinged up and the headlights severly fogged over but i had already known all that. (sorry i looked but i dont have pics going back that far). The interior was in mint condition except for the radio was gone but i cant complain all i cared about was the body.
So we loaded the car up and of course us being the stupid idiot that we were we loaded it onto the dolly front first not realizing that the transmission still engages at highspeeds. We took off heading back to cincinnati and i started noticing that it seemed very hard on the truck but i didnt think anything of it. We pulled into a gas station for gas and the car reaked of burning transmission fluid.
Fearing the trans would seize up, we pulled of an exit and into a deserted gas station that had a slight hill in the parking lot. We dropped the car off and pulled up behind it and let it roll down the hill onto the dolley.
STUPID IDEA
We took off headed for cincinnati. I really wanted to get home so i pushed it past 70. All of a sudden there are peoples brights being flashed behind me and i look in the rearview and the 240 is weaving violently back and forth taking up the median, my lane, and the middle lane. I slammed on the brakes and immediatly pulled over. My stupid a** had forgotten that trailors sway when there is more weight behind the axle and in this case there was WAY more wieght behind the rear axle. When we pulled over i found one of the straps for the wheels had come lose due to the swaying so that was sweet.
So as you can see this project was almost dead before it started. We ended up driving the whole way back to cinci not being able to go over 50. We didnt get back until 1030 the next morning.
To make this story worse as we were pulling the car into the garage my dad, who lives across the street, was helping me pull the 240 with my 89 toyota 4runner. I was in the toyota and he was in the 240 and a chain was hooked up to the tow hook. Of course the 240 started rolling since part of the driveway is on a slight slope and long story short my dad couldnt hit the brakes in time and since my yoda is lifted the front bumper is perfectly even with the rear tail lights.
Eh i was gonna order koukis anyway.
Since then the 240 has sat safely in the garage. I immediately ordered my engine. i decided on the S14 SR20DET since i knew i wasn't gonna do anything to the engines internals for a while if ever and it had a bit more HP than the s13. Plus it had a nicer turbo and it was jut a newer engine overall overall. I ordered it from a local shop called zerolift. HUGE mistake. After assuring me it would be there the next month it ended up arriving 7 months later. I had to wait 2 more months for the wiring harness and that ended up being f***ed up. I threatened to sue them and got my money back plus 2 new harnesses and i did it myself.
Along with doing the swap i converted it to a manual and took out all the unnecessary automatic transmission wiring and here is all the wires and junk you DONT need after doing the swap/conversion:
Sorry i dont have more pics of the swap and the interior all gutted but i didnt start documenting it until i did the front end conversion. I know i know what an idiot. You can find about 30 walk throughs online if you need pics. So that about brings us up to present day.
So I was doing the conversion on my 95 s14 and i was finishing everything up and then i realized that i would need the 97-98 headlight brackets (97 dollars from Nissan and good luck finding one in a junk yard). Well i dont have much money left after everything i have done to the car so i decided to make my own. here are a couple of pictures. All you need is a welder and about 7 dollars worth of material from home depot. You dont even have to be good at welding in order to do this.
here is the bumper on and one headlight bracket mocked up. Photos of the bumper support will come later.
side view of head light bracket. surprisingly the thickness of just the square metal stock and a flat peice of sheet metal work without any grinding.
top view the gap before the bracket is inserted
what she looks like with everything mocked up and ready to weld
Here is the individual bracket. If you just drill a hole where the top bolt goes in your headlight then you will be able to just use a longer bolt and run it all the way through your headlight through the bracket and into your original threaded hole. the bolts that hold your power steering reservoir to your firewall are perfect.
Here is the front bumper support. I didnt like how my bumper wobbled without it so i cut out a section of the original support and used the same material i used to make the headlight brackets with. I just welded it to the top and bottom. then i made a bracket that would connect the bumper retainer to the bumper support so everything is pretty solid and still left plenty of room for the intercooler.
The bracket that connects the bumper retainer to the top of the bumper support.
Here i just simply welded some nuts onto the backside of the bumper support where the bumper retainer attaches and there you go a threaded hole. Here is the finished bumper support.
Well i hope this helps someone out there who wants to save a little money and likes projects. Or at least can give you a few ideas. And if anyone wants to trade for stock headlights my E-mail is [email protected]. Ill give you mine plus cash.
