Hello all!

I am new to the forum and new to imports, but not new to engines. I built the 347 Stroker engine in my fox body, and have fallen in love with cars of all kinds, and have been looking at craigslist for a winter car/beater car that I will use for maybe 4-5 months and then sell when I take the Mustang out of storage. I have seen a good bit of 240sx's on craiglist near me for seemingly reasonable prices.

I'm writing this post for a few reason:
How much should a low-rust 240sx s13 with an unmolested running engine cost?
How would it be to rebuild the engine with new rods, pistons, and a cam? (I did it on an entire 302 v8)
Is a car like this going to be a money pit? It is a swapped manual and I've heard you can rebuild manuals yourself.
Is there a large market for parts for these cars?

I would just like some background into these cars before I get into one. I have heard that the blocks are nearly bulletproof, where a stock 302 can only handle about 500 HP safely.
Any help/information would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, Welcome to NICO!
A low rust 240 with a good engine and decent interior/exterior is worth a decent amount of money now a days. Figure over 3 grand for the 91-94 dual overhead cam models.
If you're not going to add forced induction, you probably don't need new rods or pistons (unless you bore it out). If you want to just refresh it, you could hone and ring it. Stock internals are pretty stout. I wouldn't recommend trying to raise the rev limit on them... the stroke is just too high. To answer your question though, its pretty straightforward. I'd check valve clearance while you're at it too.
They generally are not money pits as long as you know what you're doing. Stock replacement parts are fairly inexpensive, and used parts (and entire engines) are readily available. Wiring harnesses by this point are getting a bit old and tired, so you may chase some gremlins, but entire replacement harnesses are available.
There's a pretty large market both aftermarket OE replacement, performance upgrades, and used parts.

The blocks, cranks, trans, and diff are pretty bulletproof. If you add forced induction above ~260hp, you'll want to get pistons, and might as well do rods while you're in there. With any forced induction, you'll want to upgrade the fuel system as well. With just cams, you'll probably be ok.

Awesome, thank you, I will make sure to return here for any questions I have about these cars.

Good deal. This is the spot!
We've got some archived articles located at www.240sxtech.com too