Well, as it says I am picking up a 240sx from a local junkyard to be my newest project. Its rough as it sits. He is going to get the car from off the ground and put the wheels back on it so we can roll it around and inspect its underside. Engine wise all I can tell that's missing is the fan and fan clutch are gone and there's not any other fan attached to the radiator. It is a manual transmission. It needs a steering wheel which he is going to replace. Also its needing a window in one of the doors. I might also talk him out of a door panel too, as one is discolored. The paint is faded out and rough to the touch almost everywhere. Body work wise I will have to look closer to even find (and remember) any dents, scratches, and rot. The license plate shows its last year on the road was 2009, so probably has sat for 5 years.

So now moving on to my biggest question of all...
The junkyard owner has no idea what, if anything... is wrong with it.
I am still going to buy it as he only wants $400 and I get to tow it home.
Its a KA24DE engine, so THE QUESTION. What are these engines and vehicles in general.... known failures? Like what should be inspected before I try and start this thing just to have it blow up....

Thanks for reading.

Good luck with this one. Junkyard goers are not nice when they remove pieces from a car. You're gonna run into a mountain of headaches trying to chase down gremlins with the car.

As for the motor, KAs are pretty stout motors. If you get a used one, just ask what kind of usage it saw before you slap it in. If it was lightly used, but high mileage, then you might be ok with just putting a new set of timing chains on it and leaving it be. If it was used more heavily and high mileage, consider doing a rebuild on it (rings, bearings, chain, etc)

Try turning the motor over by the harmonic balancer with a breaker bar to check if it rotates all the way without hitting piston or to see if it's locked up before putting any money into that motor. j

But like he said, the KA is a fairly bulletproof motor. Hopefully junk yard hooligans haven't ravaged the car too bad. Pictures!

Update: I went back down to the junkyard, conveniently located down the road less than 2 miles from my doorstep. I looked over the 240 again, may have been a bit over excited last post but the body is straight, no bad dents. As a matter of fact the only dent I could find was on the door trim on the driver side. The driver door is actually painted and still glossy... the only part on the car that is finished. The car isn't all one color as it looks like there was some body work started on it, some grey primer spots. The worst parts on the car are actually slight rust spots on some of the hard edges of the body work, as well as some spots on the roof and hatch. The roof will probably need sanded down to metal as well as the hatch which looks to have had a spoiler on it as there are 4 or 5 holes and has primer on it as well and looks like possible bondo work.

I popped up the hood and searched for more possible gremlins. First off, I noticed not only was the fan clutch, fan, and shroud was missing but so was the radiator... no matter the coupe has a spare radiator I can snatch. I checked the oil and it barely showed on the dipstick, I turned the water pump and heard some swishing around. Looked around some more and noticed the Fuse block.... The wires running to the battery were snipped.... Fair enough, the coupe has those spare aswell.

So parts list.....

Battery cables from Fuse block.
Coolant canisters (The usual brittle crap)
Radiator
Radiator fan. (Electric fans are being ordered)
A battery
Driverside Window
Driverside door panel doesn't match so I will just have to try and clean it up.

There's probably more I will post after I pick it up and start working on the car. Probably starting on the interior for clean up.
I'll post pics once I find my damn sd card adapter! lol

Here are some pics I took today.





Ok, now for the engine bay.




And now for the missing, broke, or replaceable bits.


Missing radiator, shroud and fan.

Snipped wires on the grounded side of the battery.

Battery positive cable snipped.


A lot of work but seems simple enough. Let me know what you all think. Good, bad... any tips? Let me here it!

Pig nose hatchs have my heart i swear.. but on the other hand. That looks like A LOT of work. I say if you have the resources to go for it, these cars are not going to be around forever, one more saved the better i say.

Yea, you see that's about the only problem... As far as resources go... Time is what I have the most of, and money... well I have enough to get the car and then some to start working on it. I just planned on a slow restoration and customization. The wife and I were debating on a color change, but I am still on the fence of just changing the shade of color instead. As far as the whole money situation... I was pretty much convinced to buy it just because compared to other cars I have repaired, upgraded, and what not... these 240's parts are cheap.

Strut towers look clean, hmm, I'd go for it.

Well, it is less than 2 weeks away from me getting to pick up the 240 from the yard. Still haven't been told if he has any wheels to get it rolling yet, so I haven't yet even bothered with swapping and snagging parts from the other donor vehicles to get my project ready to roll. I need to look at the other 240 hatch he has that's missing the drivetrain and see whether its hatch is worth swapping out so the body work will be easier... since the one on it currently has holes and patches that look and feel like bondo spots... I think the paint and body work won't be very difficult, still on the fence on color... either keeping it red... only darker. Or going a bright grey silver metallic... Also planning on doing the two tone black top side and color on the sides. Contemplating keeping the pignose front end and finding a lip kit.. Any good ones out there? May add sideskirts and also a lip for the rear..

Anyone have any good links to what I'm looking for?

I say if the other car is complete minus drivetrain try to buy that for cheap snag the man trams and front bumper from the 400$ one and find a motor you can hear run for 300 would probably be cheaper in the end who knows how long it's sat there with trashed fluids and the air intake is loose you never know what's fallen in there how many times the hood has been left up while it rained and what not might be better to spend a couple extra 100s out the gate to save a lot of 100s in the end