my sad, sad story

[tipota]

i finaly found a 240sx after searching for a while, and only for $600! i checked it out, and the car needed work, but i decided i would do the work. it needed a lock, e-brake(its a manaul so now its parked in gear), and a bunch of cosmetic work, but it would make a nice project car. the engine had 165k miles on it, but it was goign strong. the car needed new fuel injectors and i knew this, but i drove it home anyways. about 1/3 mile from my house, the engine blew...

someone correct me if im wrong, but what i think happened was that since the injectors were bad, the air/fuel mixture was off and the clyinder exploded wrong so the engine blew out, and there was oil on the road. do i definatley need a new engine? or could it be something like a piston replacement? when it happened i was only goign 30 mph and in 4rd gear, at roughly 2500 rpm. im not giving up on this car yet, and i am going to try and fix it.

[initial_d_s14]

i would go ahead and drop a new engine in, it would be way too much for you to pull the engine apart to fix. sorry about it but you get what you pay for, bad idea to run it with injectrs messed up

[Z Style]

I guess it could of leaned out and killed it, but if there is oil all over the road that probably means you blew a whole through the block. So just pick up a used engine and maybe do a rebuild on that depending the condition it is in.

[tipota]

i knew the car would be wokr when i bought it, and i bought it as a project car since the frame is not rusted. i was planning on getting a new engine anyways since mileage was so high, it just seems psychologically different when it blows on you. how much would a used KA24DE go for? i just want to know roughly what i shoudl look for.

[ferreed]

Was the oil light on? It sounds like you threw a rod through the block or pan (and thus dumped all your oil in the road.) If you heard a knock or your oil light was on immediately prior to your engine blowing I'd put my money on it throwing a rod. If you drop in another engine make sure that your oil light works. I can't speak for the '93 model, but in the '90 240sx (and just about every other car I've ever driven) the oil light SHOULD come on when you switch the ignition to the 'run' setting but have not yet turned the engine over to start it. If it does not come on, you have a problem, like a burnt out oil light, a faulty oil pressure switch, bad wiring, etc. Make sure that light is functional before you run your new engine because you won't want to go through this all over again. Good luck.

[tipota]

i didnt think to check for the oil light, but im bringing a friend to look the car over today(i had it towed to my grandmothers hosue since it was the closest space) if all it was was a thrown rod(it happened at only 2500 rpm's), is that goign to be easily rebuildable? and by that i dont mean the process will be easy, i just mean that the engine isnt too damaged

[ferreed]

If it threw a rod, you will most likely need a new engine. Normally you'll end up with a hole through your engine block and/or oil pan, and your crankshaft may very well be wrecked. When y'all go out to look at it, take a good look all around the block and oil pan. You should be able to pretty easily find where the rod came through. If it were me, I'd look for a low-mileage used engine from a salvage yard and just swap it in. Around here they can be pretty cheap, but I don't know about your area. Good luck with it.

[tipota]

where are you located? around here(boston) im finding prices in the 700-1000 range. also, was my anaqlysis right about it blowing due to teh fuel injectors?
Modified by tipota at 10:52 AM 2/28/2005

[ferreed]

Tipota,It is possible to damage your engine by running it lean (e.g., running on too much air and too little fuel), but if you have catastrophic engine failure with oil all over the place it is much more likely that you threw a rod due to insufficient oil pressure. If you look around your engine and find a rod coming through the block or pan, that is probably what happened.

Damage from running lean is normally not so dramatic, at least on the outside. You can literally melt a hole through a piston or melt/crack valves by running lean, but normally the symptoms are a non-running engine (or a poorly running engine) with no compression on that cylinder. The injector failures I've seen on my wife's 240 have either been electrical faults where the injector isn't firing at all (and the cylinder can't run lean if it isn't getting any fuel) or there's a fuel pressure leak around the seals where fuel is pouring out onto the intake manifold. I guess it is possible that a fuel leak or a clogged injector tip could cause a lean condition, but that doesn't sound like what you are describing. You can test your injector coils with an ohmmeter-- they should read around 14 ohms.

Was it knocking before it died (knocking sounds like someone knocking on your engine block with a hammer, and the knocking should speed up with increased RPMs if it's a rod, may also get louder) or pinging (sounds like someone shaking a can full of marbles, and would probably be most noticeable powering up hills)?

Prop the hood up and take a look around the top of the engine, then crawl underneath with a light and look for damage. If you don't see any damage and it doesn't make the most awful noises you've ever heard when you try to crank it, do a compression test. You may be able to get a loaner compression gauge from your local auto parts stores. Let us know what you find. There are lots of folks here that know a crap-load more than me about the mechanics of these things, but they're going to need to know what the problem is before they can give you any worthwhile advice.

To answer your question, I'm down in northern AL/southern TN and you can get a running 100k or 120k mile engine here for somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 or $500. If they're expensive in your neck of the woods you can always buy one in another state and have it freighted in. car-part.com will let you search local and national salvage yards for an engine.

Good luck, and let us know what you learn about why your engine failed.

[tipota]

well it was a knocking sound, and it got faster at higher rpm's and somewhat louder, especially when i changed gears. right now the car is in the street, but as soon as i get a few friends, im going to push it in my grandmothers garage where i can get under it(it has to go up an incline). once i check around, ill tell you guys what i see, and thanx for the support.

[tipota]

well i finally got under the car, and found a big rust hole. its so depressing because i really wanted to fix the car up. i onyl foudn one hole, but its in a spot wher u can poke into the interior. there is also rust on noe area of the frame cross member. i knew about that when i bought it and figured a body shop could fix it, but now im not so sure. can body shops remove the existing rust and weld on a new peice of steel? can rust be fixd?

[Veriest1]

My dad and I did this/are in the process of doing this with his jeep. I'll get a pic of it up later. It's amazing what can be done with a welder.

[NismoGreg]

ffffffffffff