Officially a new 240SX owner!

[Ullusion]

Hello all, I've been lurking here for several months now and I've been searching for a 240sx since the beginning of this year. Needless to say, God has finally blessed me with my very own(pray and have faith )'95 240SX! I have fairly big plans for the car and as a matter of fact it's pretty much tore down in my garage as we speak. Before I get into that, alittle info on it, its a '95 240sx white and 5spd. The body and interior is in fairly good condition considering its age and mileage (it has over 242,000 on the dash). I got her for $2500 and had to travel out of state to get pick her up. So for anyone currently searching for a 240sx take it from me, be open with your search and willing to travel. Depending on where you stay it will be fairly difficult to find one that isn't molested, beat up, etc. Just stay persistent and don't get discouraged! I suffered alot of disappointment and tribulations throughout my search, but it was only God's way of leading me to the right one just for me.

Now that you have the back story time to fill you in on the present status of the car. When I got the car it had a rattle which I pretty much immediately identified as it needing a timing chain job (I'm a Nissan technician). It also needed quite a bit more of work so I decided to order a ton of parts online to 'renew' the engine. Basically bought all new seals, gaskets, timing chain components, etc and the engine is now tore down to only the block and transmission which is still in the vehicle(trying to get an engine hoist :- p). I will keep everyone updated on the status as I rebuild it. Sorry no pics right now until she is done guys, but I do have some helpful pics I took during the tear down.







Removed Radiator and Shroud



Hardest part of the tear down was the gosh dang intake manifold! Note* Be aware of hidden bolts...

Hidden bracket underneath the intake

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Wow, you might have been better off just getting a lower mileage used engine for cheap.

What are your plans for the car? Just return it to stock, or turbo?

[Ullusion]

Hey Smurf, first off I just wanna say thanks for the comment. 76 views and only 1 reply, its either people here like to lurk or there are alot of shy members here ;- p. Well to be honest with you it was hard enough finding a 240, finding a cheap engine that actually had low mileage would have been like searching for a needle in a haystack where I stay(I noticed your from Canton). As of now my plans are to 'renew' the engine and return her to a reliable daily driving state. Eventually, likely sometime after community college, I plan on swapping a RB into her. Definitely not considering a turbo on the KA because the expense called for a reliable rebuild and turbo setup would be higher than to just do a swap, you know...

Anyway I checked into Harbor Freight today to pick up my engine hoist and again just my luck they are completely sold out of them all together. They should have more Monday, so they say, so I will return then and hopefully be picking one up. In the meantime I'm searching for a machine shop to do my head work. Looking to get a port & polish and resurface the head so I can begin reconstructing her :- ).

[Bokeh]

Always happy to see another 240 owner! Let alone a 95' 240sx <3 I'm glad you finally found your girl and treating her right. It took me awhile to get my car up to as reliable as she is (with around 250-260k) it is definitely worth it. I couldn't be happier with another daily, fun to drive, RWD, 5-speed and practical, what more can you ask for?
EDIT: NEEDS MOAR PICS.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

OP- where are you living now?

You MIGHT be able to rent an engine stand from one of your local auto suppliers, like Autozone, etc.

[Ullusion]

Hey Bokeh, thanks for the welcome and I'm glad to be here on an 'official' note now :- ). Yes I really love her like I do my first car ('00 Celica) and she is in the right hands. I definitely agree, she is my first RWD car and I can tell now that she is going to offer a whole new experience to my daily driving life. An experience in which Im completely looking forward to .

Smurf, I thought about renting one, but I may need the hoist for a number of days until I get things ready to go back in. I figured I'm better off just buying my own so I don't have to have any prolonged rental fees stacking up(plus future plans of any engine swaps). I already have an engine stand, so hopefully Monday they'll be in stock and I'll be in business with progressing with my build. By the way, more pics where asked for so heres a few I got around to taking today! Since the engines tore down in the car I been busy cleaning much of the heavy grimed up components. Most of them came out a world of difference once I got done and it should make the engine bay look much cleaner & nice. If anyones curious, I used basic engine degreaser spray from o'reily, Super Clean Foaming degreaser, and a scrub brush which did pretty good. I plan on painting the valve cover so I polished it and sanded it down, its currently smooth as a baby's bottom and ready to be coated!

[240jaysx]

Nice grab good luck with the car. I feel you on the views an low comments. Check out my vert please .

[Bokeh]

Looks good! What color are you planning to paint the valve cover?

[Ullusion]

Thanks Jay and will do ;- ). I'm gonna stay with the color scheme of the car with the valve cover, so I've decided to go with a white w/red. I got some ideas for the color layout and I'm hoping it comes out nice. Going for a really bright glossy white base for the valve cover. I choose white because soo many people do red, blue would be off, black and red would have been cool but its not the look I'm going for for the car. When I actually get the painting done I will definitely be posting the pics so you guys can check it out :- ).

By the way new update; I got the head in the head shop today to get resurfaced and new valve stem seals installed, in addition, its getting a nice cleaning so I'm looking forward to a shiny ready to install head next week. On the otherhand, I made a dunce move and got the cams mixed up this morning when I grabbed the head. Now I'm not sure which cam is intake and which is exhaust! The craziest thing is I'm a Nissan Tech, so I checked the service manuals at work as well as the computer, and the specs say both cams have the same cam height ;- p. Furthermore, they are the same length and have no distinctive markings on them that indicate which is which. I checked with the parts department and they couldn't help me on the ordeal. Not only that, but the older guys at the headshop were stomped ! The only characteristic that is different is one has a green stripe and the other a red, which the guys at the head shop said usually the red is the exhaust but they have seen some that were vice versa...The only other thing I could differential was the cut of the lobe, in which cause one has a steeper lobe which would more than likely indicate the exhaust cam because the intake usually has a more rounded cut cam lobe(as far as stock cams go of course). If anyone has had their valve cover off and can chime in on correct cam location for a KADE please feel free to share lolz. Thanks in advanced.

[daemonyk]

Google Images has informed me that the orange one appears to be the intake cam, and the green one is the exhaust cam.

[Ullusion]

Thanks Daemony, I also noticed that upon googling it. Well that gives me some level of certainty instead of putting it back together and seeing how it runs XD..

[Ullusion]

Ok all, I know I've been absent for alittle since the last post but got some update news for you! Things are really starting to come together so that I can make some progress upon getting things back together. I finally got my engine hoist and got it assembled this week, also got my head back from the head shop. In which case, they did an awesome job resurfacing, cleaning, and installing new valve stem seals, quite please. The past couple of days Ive been busy trying to get things squared away to remove the block from the car. I've also got a good bit of painting done on my engine components. Made the finishing coats on the valve cover tonight and I will have pics coming possibly tomorrow. Hopefully the final product will look as well as I envisioned, I surely put the time in for prep work before spraying so we will see..Other than that, I'm off work this weekend so tomorrow evening, Saturday, and Sunday I will be hard at it getting everything else finished and reinstalled. Shooting to start her up sometime Sunday evening if all is well !

[PapaSmurf2k3]

By the way new update; I got the head in the head shop today to get resurfaced and new valve stem seals installed, in addition, its getting a nice cleaning so I'm looking forward to a shiny ready to install head next week. On the otherhand, I made a dunce move and got the cams mixed up this morning when I grabbed the head. Now I'm not sure which cam is intake and which is exhaust! The craziest thing is I'm a Nissan Tech, so I checked the service manuals at work as well as the computer, and the specs say both cams have the same cam height ;- p. Furthermore, they are the same length and have no distinctive markings on them that indicate which is which. I checked with the parts department and they couldn't help me on the ordeal. Not only that, but the older guys at the headshop were stomped ! The only characteristic that is different is one has a green stripe and the other a red, which the guys at the head shop said usually the red is the exhaust but they have seen some that were vice versa...The only other thing I could differential was the cut of the lobe, in which cause one has a steeper lobe which would more than likely indicate the exhaust cam because the intake usually has a more rounded cut cam lobe(as far as stock cams go of course). If anyone has had their valve cover off and can chime in on correct cam location for a KADE please feel free to share lolz. Thanks in advanced.

The colors kinda flip flop from year to year. If your whole engine is apart, it wont be an issue, just line up all your timing marks with the chain and the cams. If you have it right, the intake should be pointing at roughly the 9:00 o clock position, and the exhaust roughly the 3:00 o clock position (on cylinder #1). If you get them mixed up, all the lobes will be facing the same direction. Don't tighten the bearings down like that, or you'll force the valves into your piston. Trust me, I know

[Ullusion]

Thanks smurf. Yeah I'm sure I'll get everything in line when going back together, so long as the cams are pointing away from each other on #1 cylinder I should be fine. Probably will only have to do alittle adjusting to get the cam sprockets in time with the chain marks. As of now I'm home from work, and I have the whole weekend to get the engine ready to be pulled, fixed up, and reinstalled. Aiming to get it pulled out and on the stand by late tonight so I'll be ahead of the game when I wake up early in the morn to get started again. Will definitely keep you guys updated as I progress. Hopefully I don't run into any issues ;- p..

[Lobo240sx]

Congrats on the 240! Looks good so far.

[Ullusion]

Ok I know I haven't posted in a bit but Ive been bouncing between work and getting the 240sx back up and running. Currently I'm trying to get the transmission back onto the engine but it gave me quite a hard time tonight. I simply had to throw in the towel and consult with you guys for some advice/do some research. Not sure what the issue is, I knew it would be easier coming off than putting it back on but my goodness, she is really fighting! Just alittle info, the engine is on a hoist and lowered to the ground to help line things up. Is there any 'specific' method to use to get these transmissions back in?? It seems like it will get pass the pressure plate and maybe started on the spline but that's as far as I can get her. Hopefully the pilot bushing isn't pitting or out of round, but I don't think it is because I went back and examined it. It appears to be fairly contour. Anyway thats the situation as of now...Once I get the trans back on alll that's left to do is degrease/prep the engine bay then drop it back in :- ).

On another note thanks Lobo. Took some pics over the past weekend and hopefully I'll get a few up to give you guys a visual on what's going on and the things I ran into during the build. I'll try and get them up soon.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Wiggle/jiggle/press in all at once. Is the engine bolted down at all? If not, it might be swinging with the trans when you try to push it.

I've always kept it bolted in and put a scissor jack/block of wood under the crank pulley to rock the engine back to help line things up.

[Ullusion]

Well took another shot at the transmission tonight and yet again I got my butt kicked :- |....This is becoming fairly frustrating to say the least. I work at Nissan and have never had this much difficulty installing a transmission before, even the BIGGER ones..I could tell it got started into the pilot bushing slightly but I it appears that the bottom half of the transmission doesn't want to drop in. That and the splines refuse to mate up too I suppose..Anymore advice would be appreciated, until then I think I'll wait and work on her this weekend ;- p..How disappointing..

[Hijacker]

The motor and trans are just cocked at different angles. Just try to get them straight with each other and they should go back together.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I've always had my best luck when absolutely man-handling the piss out of it. Rocking it back and forth hard, rotating, up and down. Do the hula!

Did you grease the splines on the input shaft?

[daemonyk]

I've always had my best luck when absolutely man-handling the piss out of it. Rocking it back and forth hard, rotating, up and down. Do the hula!

Did you grease the splines on the input shaft?

+1. Last time I had to do this, I tried being careful and precise and trying to align everything - in the end it took angry violent flailing to get it on there, even with greased splines. Ugh, even had to take it back off a week later to check something, went straight to the violent flailing about, went on much easier

With cars, sometimes "finesse" means knowing exactly how heavy a hammer to bash something with

[Ullusion]

LOLz guys, I'm about to go at it again for this evening(I refuse to give up on this!)so I suppose it time to take the gloves off and get hardcore ! Thats funny how you have to act upon these types of things soo violently to get them to work ;- p...Kinda like a woman, she will take you lightly until you finally raise your voice and speak your mind back XD. Anyway thanks for the advice(last resorts haha)so I will leave you with some pictures I took while refreshing the engine.


Took this after successfully pulling the engine


The block on stand after degreasing

By the way if anyone is wondering how I pulled the block/trans out with the head off I'lll show you just in case any of you end up tearing things done pre-pull. What I did was took a 6ft chain and used 2 chain links; I used the chain links on both engine mounts(theres a circular cutout that fits them very well)and connected the chain up on both sides. Wahla, hoisted her out from there, it happens to work exceptionally well and the mounts are quite sturdy to handle the load without bending. Here are some pics.



This is a pic of the engine after I began reassembly. Cleaned and resurfaced head plus new water pump and repained thermostat housing.


Also, this guy was caught heading into my front yard while I was in the garage working. Someone from down the street thankfully notified me when he tried to run it over. Being unaware of what kind of snake he was we killed him...Later I found out it was a Kind Snake, which is supposed to intimidate other snakes and keep them away ;- p. Well couldn't risk it because my mother works in the gardens/yard often and dont need her stumbling over one XD. He was quite fast too..

[Ullusion]

Ok VERY HAPPY tonight, why you ask, because I finally got the trans mounted up lolz. The crazy part about is it took no more than 10minutes to do so tonight! Well for all the inquiring minds out there who are wondering how I managed I'll let you know. I layed the engine down(on a tire)to keep it from rocking, then I straddled the trans with a chain around the front section near the neck of the bell housing with a 'bull rider' like grip. From there it was pretty lined up with the engine, so I had my brother turn the crank pully slightly to get the splines to mate, wiggled/pushed and pop she fell in place. In addition I also got the engine bay cleaned up tonight so all I have to do from here is drop everything back in and reconnect hoses/harness ;- ). I'll leave you with some pics of the engine bay before/after; turned out pretty well. If anyone wants to know I used Super Clean Foaming degreaser, pretty good stuff..

Before


After

[PapaSmurf2k3]

wait, you were talking about decking the engine and trans outside the car?!

Dude that's SUPER easy. I thought everything was already installed/in the car.

You can also use your driveshaft to spin the splines on the trans. Just put it in the tail end, throw it in gear, and turn the D/S a bit.

[Ullusion]

Ok all, I'm back and have a new update on the status of the build. As of now I have the engine and transmission back in the car, everything hooked up and ready to go, all fluids topped. Only thing holding me is my exhaust manifold pipe plug which I'm currently anticipating to come in the mail this week. I removed my EGR system while I had easy access to it, hopefully I"ll have no leaks ;- p. Other than that the clutch is giving me a hard time bleeding out. Attempted to clear the air out for a good while today with my brother but no luck :- \...I know how tedious it can get so I will leave the system open over night to do some gravity bleeding and let the air settle in one spot. Maybe I can get her bled out tomorrow..Have not started her, but if all is well tomorrow and my pipe plug arrives she'll be purring. I'll keep you guys updated and pics coming soon. For all the lurkers who check in but don't post, thanks for keeping up with the build and I appreciate your silent presence XD.

[Ullusion]

*Sigh* new update for tonight..Been very disappointed the pass couple of days I been trying to bleed the clutch system out but have had no luck. Printed out the service manual procedure for bleeding it using tubing and submerging in a cup to reveal the bubbles. Bled the car just now, solo, for an hour and a half straight with ZERO improvement. Talk about persistence met with anguish :- \...Pipe plug still hasnt arrived yet. Other than that I'm leaving the system open to gravity bleed all night and I'll check back in tomorrow..

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Did you remove the clutch damper box? That thing is the devil incarnate.

[Ullusion]

No I haven't, but I'm definitely contemplating it at this point..Took another shot at it tonight for about another hour and a half with no luck AGAIN...For a second it felt like it started to get alittle kick back but nothing major. I'm beginning to wonder if there is something else going on here...On a positive note, I could no longer resist so I attempted to crank her tonight. She was hesitant for alittle but actually started running with a rough idle after alittle playing with the distributor (need to retard it alittle more I believe). Put a smile on my face to know she would atleast run at the moment :- ). It was rather loud though because of the EGR hole not being plugged yet.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

yeah man, bypass that clutch box. Bypass the s*** out of it.

Just when it thinks its done being bypassed- bypass it some more. f*** that thing.

[Ullusion]

ALRIGHT, back again and with great news(finally ;- p ) on my 240SX. I took PapaSmurf and everyone else who owns a 5spd 240SX advice and performed the clutch damper removal mod. Afterwards I proceeded to bleed the clutch, 3minutes later completely bled....Wow, absolutely wish I would have done this several days ago, would have definitely saved me a ton of time and disappointment. For anyone who is attempted to bleed their 240SX with the clutch damper still installed taked it from someone who learned the hardway, just stop and take it off..Anyway clutch feels great and that's squared away. I also got the chance to get the distributor in time and actually got her running pretty smoothly. I let her sit to bleed out the cooling system(had radiator cone attached to top of radiator)but after awhile I realized she was running hot. Determined that the thermostat has likely taken a crap on me(I knew I should have replaced it during the build, dang it!)so I have to check with the parts store tomorrow to see if anyone may have one on hand. Pretty simple fix, so other than that im STILL waiting on my pipe plug to be delivered! Tomorrow will make it a week since I ordered it, and I choose air delivery which means it should have arrive WAY before now. Starting to think I got robbed so I will likely order another from an alternative site after I email them about the status of my current one. Other than that things are looking good and she should be on the road in a little.

Now the moment Im sure alot of you who have been following me and this build have been waiting for. Updated install pics, enjoy ;- D!


Dropping her in...


Installed