Ok so after I had owned it for about 2 months the brakes decided to completely fail and lock up on me one day as i was driving home from school lucky for me they locked up at a stop light about a quarter mile from my house. So after I rebuilt the entire brake system I was feeling pretty comfortable with the car. I at the time did not mind the auto cause i was still in high school and couldn't afford any go fast parts so it was no be deal if it was slow. Now even with that being said I still had it set in my mind that once I got out of high school I would pull the engine and trans and do a dual cam 5 speed swap and have my perfect base to start modding. Well I got my wish a little sooner than I thought or wanted when one day on again my way home the water pump literally snaps in half leaving me with coolant everywhere and in a bad mood. So I changed the pump and thermostat and figured I fixed the problem WRONG! This is when the over heating then cooling down the heating up again started, I chased this problem around for at least 2 months (I didn't know really what I was doing) juggling school and other stuff when I finally found it was what I thought to be a blown head gasket. As it would turn out it was not the head or even the head gasket but the block itself, I had somehow cracked the block in cylinder two from the water jacket, through the cylinder wall, and through the cylinder sleeve as well. So I was left with a useless engine a dieing trans and no money. After this I did what any 240 owner would do and waited and saved for about 4 months until I had enough money to pay for a complete engine and trans swap, as well all the parts I could afford to go with it. Here is what I got; 1992 KA24de, 5 speed trans, uncut harness, nismo motor mounts, new clutch and other misc. trans parts, K&N drop in filter, and all the fluids and other stuff needed to freshen up the engine and trans.
The engine after it got put in.
The interior ripped apart for the install.
At this point I had sent the car to a shop for the install because the county wont let you have a vehicle torn apart in your driveway because they will tow the damn thing. This turned out to be a bad idea, the shop took like a month and a half to finish the job and they kind of half assed it together which pissed me off to no end. The shop failed to tell me that the ECU I got with the engine was the wrong year and would not work with the Maf I got so they just stuck the old maf and computer from the automatic in and tuned it so it would run and sent it out the door. Now when I first got it I had never driven a manual 240 so I didn't push the car on the trip home. I later noticed that it was limited to about 4000 RPM if I was really pushing it and the car would top out at about 80MPH which was way slow. I did my research and found out what really was wrong and bought the correct one which when installed did nothing even with the proper Maf. So we are now catching up to about 3 months ago when I finally had it and decided it was time for some real mods while I tried to figure out what was up with the ECU and such. I started with what I thought would be a good foundation for future mods; a complete Energy suspension bushing kit, B&M short shifter, and some new steering rack boots cause mine were F'ed over.
These were relatively easy cheap upgrades that would help the car as a whole. Then the modding bug hit after this I really started looking for some good parts to complement the little stuff I had done. While searching I was still trying to figure out why the ECU was failing. Here are some random shots I got one day (these are for a sort of before and after thing)
Now fast forward til a month ago I found an add on craigslist for a guy who had parts for sale, so i go and check them out and he turned out to be a dude here on Nico. After some talking I walked away with some Dmax crystal tail lights, ECU (the proper one after two tries), A/c control unit, and a gauge cluster. A few days later I went back and got even more stuff which was a rare limited edition SE wing off of his car that came on the 1993 hatch, a catalytic converter, and some strut bars. again not bad. The next week I bought a new exhaust from AZHitman here on nico, after that i talked to my now friend Ryan (the guy that sold me the other parts) and said I would fix his body damage for a straight trade of some Function and form 32 way adjustable coilovers (he later gave me his old SE wheels as well on top.) Here is a few pics of the progress as of last week when I installed the coils and other parts.
Tail lights and new exhaust.
Tails at night.
The coils.
Here is a random pic I have of my car and Ryan's new car that i did the body work on. This is when I installed the coils, I know I need more low but I had to get out of a steep drive way so that is why it is high even though its been lowered like 3 inches.
Remember the other random pics I had well here are some after shots with the coils.
And these are the pics with it a bit lower and on the SE rims. This is how she sits for now as I am about to pull out the trans and replace/rebuild it with the trans from Ryans (So-Cal240 btw) old car. So ya that is the story of me and my car as of late. Hope you guys like the thread I will be updating it as I progress and will keep you guys up-to-date. lol
Peace
