Ok....who wants my car? I'm done with it.

[Mustangs_Suck]

Alright....after uncountable times being broken down and in the shop, I'm finally starting to realize I'm just never going to catch a ****ing break with this car, and to cut my losses (which is up at about $14k now dumped into this thing to get absolutley NOWHERE) and get rid of it......it's absolutley pointless to continue with this car...every single mother ****ing time I get something fixed, something else breaks right away.

I just picked it up today after being down for about a week getting some piping redone, as I had a terrible boost leak. I had fun with it for about 15 min, and then I heard a loud pop, and I immediately lost all my power and black smoke started coming out of the exhaust......luckily I was near a gas station so I pulled in fearing the worst. Popped my hood and there's no sign of anything wrong....I look under the car - no leaks anywhere, but I noticed my CAT was smoking like crazy...I looked at the temp gauge - normal operating temp. Well I let it cool down, and decide to start it again, it fires up right away but idles oddly, as if I have yet another boost leak. I drive it, it drives fine - but the turbo won't really spool at all - as if I have another terrible boost leak. I let it sit at idle for awhile, and I listen and I notice a very odd airy ticking noise coming from where my exhaust manifold is....I remember I had a small exhaust leak, and now it's seemed to of gotten much greater. I'm thinking I had a small hole in some pipe that deals with my exhaust, the pop was the hole bursting open more, and the black smoke/burning in my CAT is whatever blew got sucked into the exhaust piping and stuck in the CAT to burn. I hope to god it didn't go through my turbo - I could hear it trying to spool, but because the system has NO pressure due to the leak(s) it really didn't do anything but sputter alot.....no oil leaks, no smoke from the engine bay - so i'm hoping my turbo is ok. Either way..I find out tomorrow what happened, and I'm really debating selling it at this point..as I'm sure whatever it is this time if I get it fixed, something else will break right away..again...like it has countless times in the past....I'm absolutley tired of it - I bought it for $6000, and have spent about $8000 now repairing everything the dead beat ******* liar seller didn't do correctly/bought broken and passed it off as good condition. I'm unemployed, have about $350 in the bank, and in debt to this thing around $14k now, and for whatever reason - I just can NOT catch a break, ever. Reason of unemployment? I have no transportation to get to a job..as this is my only car, so I'm highly considering just selling it for whatever the **** it is I can get for it - cry for awhile because I'm sure I'll end up losing around $10,000, buy some old *** civic and deal with driving a slow boring, but reliable car for the rest of my sh1tty life.

Lord help the kid I bought this from if i EVER go to flordia...........

[Craving4Boost]

i always thought your car was fine...you dynoed it and everything and it seemed lots of fun

[Mustangs_Suck]

i always thought your car was fine...you dynoed it and everything and it seemed lots of fun

I dynoed it after about $3000 of work went into fixing the turbo and my hydraulic system and clutch., after that the cooling system failed, then my transmission failed and then all the piping went to hell, now who the hell knows. All in all I've spent about $14000 on a car with a stock 107k mileage motor with a basic stock SR20 set up.....biggest waste of money the planet. Sure it's fun to drive when it works, but when you average being able to drive it 1 week out of 5 for over a year - it's ****ing pointless. For 14k I should have a beast of a 240 with a rebuilt motor and much bigger/better turbo set up.

[veilside180sx]

^Agreed, that's why I don't buy other peoples problems...or tuner cars. Learned that mistake too many times. You need to buy a cheap Sentra(GA16DE) for $1000-1500 and use that as a daily driver. Which is what I have. 200,000 on the clock and has never skipped a beat. This is how I can work on my car and not worry about how I'm getting to work.

[fiznat]

Ugh sorry to hear about more problems, Mustang. I can understand you're frustrated but after all this time, effort and money the car must be just about 100% your work by now eh? It would suck to sell it now, take a huge loss, and find out a week later that your car was 99% and just needed some small tweaking after all your work. My advice is to stick with it man- you've come this far and put in so much effort: dont throw it all away now!!

[nissanfanatic]

Yea it does suck buying project cars from people. First rule of thumb: Check everything! But I mean, i understand you couldn't check gaskets and stuff.lol But yea, just keep fixing things. AFter a while, everything is fixed right? As long as you do it right, you'll be golden.

[Craving4Boost]

mustang...i know how you feel...ive been having a down time of 5 months and i still cant get my car ready to go because of little sh*t...but honestly..it's just too hard to sell..mentally and physically

[Mustangs_Suck]

^Agreed, that's why I don't buy other peoples problems...or tuner cars. Learned that mistake too many times. You need to buy a cheap Sentra(GA16DE) for $1000-1500 and use that as a daily driver. Which is what I have. 200,000 on the clock and has never skipped a beat. This is how I can work on my car and not worry about how I'm getting to work.

I know I've learned my lesson over and over and over again with this car, never again will i buy a car off the internet without it being taken to a mechanic and FULLY inspected in and out before making a decision on it. I do need a winter car...but before that I need a job...and before that I need transportation to a job, and this car just is not doing what I need it to. idk what i'm going to do soon, i'm gonna be dead *** broke in about a month - and jobs aren't that easy to find anymore without a college degree, **** it's hard enough to get something worth while even after having a college degree. It just sucks because I'm trying to get back into school, and everytime things are looking good enough for me to get my foot back in the door, I get sh1t on...... idk what my winter car is gonna be, probably a cheap CRX or some ****...those fkers never die if you just keep it stock and maintained well.

[Craving4Boost]

its not worth selling but you gotta do what you gotta do and i think thats wise....

those Toyota Corollas last forever too...my girlfriend changes her oil every blue moon and its still fine...just a pointer

[Mustangs_Suck]

Ugh sorry to hear about more problems, Mustang. I can understand you're frustrated but after all this time, effort and money the car must be just about 100% your work by now eh? It would suck to sell it now, take a huge loss, and find out a week later that your car was 99% and just needed some small tweaking after all your work. My advice is to stick with it man- you've come this far and put in so much effort: dont throw it all away now!!

haha you've pretty much been here and read about every problem I've had since the beginning heh. As for "must be about 100%" hah I still have a stock motor with 107k miles on it with under "lowest spec" compression ratings on all 4 cylinders....but yeah after I re-do whatever the hell is wrong now, my exhaust system, my suspension, and my entire motor - then yeah...it'll be 100% all my work.....and honestly I don't know if I'm willing to do it anymore. I figure all that + labor will be a good 8k and I don't know if having a 400-450hp solid 240 is worth $22,000. **** - think of the car(s) i could of had instead. It would suck to find out that it was close, and I gave up, but honestly I'm really running out of patience with this thing... As for sticking with it - if the thing had a brand new motor and I was awaiting getting it ready to go to a dyno and have it give me a 400rwhp result - sure it'd be worth all this time/money/pain/frustration - but for all this sh1t, ending up with a worthless 200rwhp it's pretty sad, I don't think it's really worth going through all this money/pain/frustration/sadness to just have some stock 4-sedan be able to whomp on you still - but you're right....I probably will just stick with it and when I run my high 13/ low 14 I can say 'yay i spent ****ing 15k on a car that barely gets in the 13's, and definitley has no show value either' and cry some more.

[Mustangs_Suck]

Yea it does suck buying project cars from people. First rule of thumb: Check everything! But I mean, i understand you couldn't check gaskets and stuff.lol But yea, just keep fixing things. AFter a while, everything is fixed right? As long as you do it right, you'll be golden.

I was an idiot and trusted a moron, I didn't check it over at all, I believed what he said, and took the pictures he had of it for granted (what I can I say I was 18 and wanted a cool/fun/fast car and I owned 2 240's previous to this one, so I was just like OMG KA-T I NEED IT and stupidly bought it) and just had it shipped to my house......off the trailer it came with a blown turbo...and yes he compensated me the money I spent for another one, but didn't for any labor and after I told him the next thing that went he just said "well this is a used car...you should expect it to have these problems" and that was that.

As for after awhile everything - yes it's true, but i truthfully really am having a hard time believing a 200rwhp stock 107k mileage KA 240 is worth $15,000 +

[Mustangs_Suck]

mustang...i know how you feel...ive been having a down time of 5 months and i still cant get my car ready to go because of little sh*t...but honestly..it's just too hard to sell..mentally and physically

I feel ya man....it's just one thing after another and I swear to god it'll never stop. I'm just waiting for the call tomorrow "your rods are bent" or some ****. I'll flip....and if it's something not as major..I drive it just waiting for the next thing to go wrong - or my engine to go 'boom'......I know it's coming..I just don't know when. I'll have a hard time letting it go too, as I've dumped SO much money into it....but what's the point of continuing dumping money when it just feels/seems like the problems are NEVER going to end until you spend $20k redoing the ENTIRE car ??

[Mustangs_Suck]

its not worth selling but you gotta do what you gotta do and i think thats wise....

those Toyota Corollas last forever too...my girlfriend changes her oil every blue moon and its still fine...just a pointer

true...my buddy had one that hit around 300k and had NO problems.....boring *** car, but reliable as hell

[Craving4Boost]

maybe you can sell your 240 and buy another 240 all stock...haha fresh start and you can start up again when your ready...240's are actually a pretty reliable car

[Mustangs_Suck]

maybe you can sell your 240 and buy another 240 all stock...haha fresh start and you can start up again when your ready...240's are actually a pretty reliable car

true....in all honesty once I get a job, this thing doesn't even bother me, as whatever breaks, I just upgrade when I fix it......it's just my luck has been rolling downhill for MONTHS and the thing seems to break the most when I'm flat broke

[virus77]

The KAT can ruin your life man, its a scary thing. From the day I bought my car which is 2 years ago this coming september it has been down for a total of 11 months. This includes one stock blown KA being swapped to a built one,then one built blown KA being swapped for the current SR thats in my car right now. I have a 1:1 ratio of downtime to uptime which is ****ing terrible considering its my daily driver. I sometimes wish I didnt have a thirst for the power so I would be happy with my car the way it is with a stock KA in it. All the fun, looks, handling minus the damn motor.Moral of the story is thats what happens when you 4 cylinder that can compete with high end sports cars, you gotta pay to play.

[Mustangs_Suck]

The KAT can ruin your life man, its a scary thing. From the day I bought my car which is 2 years ago this coming september it has been down for a total of 11 months. This includes one stock blown KA being swapped to a built one,then one built blown KA being swapped for the current SR thats in my car right now. I have a 1:1 ratio of downtime to uptime which is ****ing terrible considering its my daily driver. I sometimes wish I didnt have a thirst for the power so I would be happy with my car the way it is with a stock KA in it. All the fun, looks, handling minus the damn motor.Moral of the story is thats what happens when you 4 cylinder that can compete with high end sports cars, you gotta pay to play.

eek you've blown 2 KA's? I'd push my car off a cliff with me inside it if I spent all the money building up a KA motor only for it to blow..........sorry to hear that man, hopefully the SR treats ya better. I understand your moral too....it just sucks because my car isn't even anything special and I'm already having to pay this much for it - I'm seriously afraid if I ever actually go for my 450rwhp goals...I'd spend so much making sure it was done all perfectly, but even then things can wrong and if the motor blew after I spent however much I spent on it, I'd break down.

[GEO]

You guys are having ****ty luck>

[Mustangs_Suck]

You guys are having ****ty luck>

Sure are.....but idk, this forum is filled with problems, just kinda seems like if you turbo your KA you are going to run into a ****load of problems....I'm starting to understand maybe why so many people go the SR route......but then again maybe it's just me. I love the KA's torque and whatnot over the SR, but jesus christ - the reliability of it is awful after you turbo it...or so it seems.

[Lil_JV]

Sorry to hear about your luck dude, but you're unemployed cause you don't have a car? Take the bus. Walk. Anything to get the cash flow going, then worry about your car.

[Mustangs_Suck]

Sorry to hear about your luck dude, but you're unemployed cause you don't have a car? Take the bus. Walk. Anything to get the cash flow going, then worry about your car.

Don't live near a place that has buses, I'm not in a big city, just a small suburb village - not many job opportunities that aren't at least 10 miles away..and I'm definitley not gonna walk that far..... I have a good prospecting job I just applied to last night, so hopefully something comes of it. I used to work there a LONG time ago when my dad used to run the entire bottled water division of the company, but they split that off, and moved and are looking for shipping/receiving employees again - my dad left on great terms, so i'm hoping he can get my foot back in the door with em. I'll find out probably within' 5 hrs. what happened...so you all can probably expect an update around then....if it's just a mess of angry writing and ****** you can assume something major happened.

[veilside180sx]

A lot of people do have problems with KA-T's, but they also do with SR's and CA's too.

The majority of the time those problems are caused by people who cut corners to accomplish something. You have to be very careful where you place those comprimises in your build list.

If I was you, when I first purchased the vehicle I would've taken the whole thing apart and replaced every gasket on the vehicle so I knew what was on it and how new it was. Just me though.

[GrilledCheese33]

Alright....after uncountable times being broken down and in the shop, I'm finally starting to realize I'm just never going to catch a ****ing break with this car, and to cut my losses (which is up at about $14k now dumped into this thing to get absolutley NOWHERE) and get rid of it......it's absolutley pointless to continue with this car...every single mother ****ing time I get something fixed, something else breaks right away.

I just picked it up today after being down for about a week getting some piping redone, as I had a terrible boost leak. I had fun with it for about 15 min, and then I heard a loud pop, and I immediately lost all my power and black smoke started coming out of the exhaust......luckily I was near a gas station so I pulled in fearing the worst. Popped my hood and there's no sign of anything wrong....I look under the car - no leaks anywhere, but I noticed my CAT was smoking like crazy...I looked at the temp gauge - normal operating temp. Well I let it cool down, and decide to start it again, it fires up right away but idles oddly, as if I have yet another boost leak. I drive it, it drives fine - but the turbo won't really spool at all - as if I have another terrible boost leak. I let it sit at idle for awhile, and I listen and I notice a very odd airy ticking noise coming from where my exhaust manifold is....I remember I had a small exhaust leak, and now it's seemed to of gotten much greater. I'm thinking I had a small hole in some pipe that deals with my exhaust, the pop was the hole bursting open more, and the black smoke/burning in my CAT is whatever blew got sucked into the exhaust piping and stuck in the CAT to burn. I hope to god it didn't go through my turbo - I could hear it trying to spool, but because the system has NO pressure due to the leak(s) it really didn't do anything but sputter alot.....no oil leaks, no smoke from the engine bay - so i'm hoping my turbo is ok. Either way..I find out tomorrow what happened, and I'm really debating selling it at this point..as I'm sure whatever it is this time if I get it fixed, something else will break right away..again...like it has countless times in the past....I'm absolutley tired of it - I bought it for $6000, and have spent about $8000 now repairing everything the dead beat ******* liar seller didn't do correctly/bought broken and passed it off as good condition. I'm unemployed, have about $350 in the bank, and in debt to this thing around $14k now, and for whatever reason - I just can NOT catch a break, ever. Reason of unemployment? I have no transportation to get to a job..as this is my only car, so I'm highly considering just selling it for whatever the **** it is I can get for it - cry for awhile because I'm sure I'll end up losing around $10,000, buy some old *** civic and deal with driving a slow boring, but reliable car for the rest of my sh1tty life.

Lord help the kid I bought this from if i EVER go to flordia...........

I'm, in florida, want me to mess him up? But newway, did you buy your car stock or with mods? I bought my car off ebay w/o inspection, but too it was a mint bone stock s14 being sold by a middle aged woman(original owner) So i was sure it would be nice. She was even so sure of it that she offered to pay for my gas there and back if the car wasn't what she said. Here it is:

So i guess i got lucky on my find. I'm real sorry you are having trouble, but i guess thats what you get when you buy off a kid. I wish you the best of luck, and hope your problem isn't serious so you can have a reliable car to drive. who knows maybe it is 99% there I hope you get to keep her!

[S14tat]

thats really bad luck with you mustang. anyways we all run into our little problems here and there and we stick to it. like what everyone else said, you keep on fixing different problems and eventually you'll have all your problems fixed with brand new parts and you'll be set.

there are also a far share of us who don't have any major problems either. but i guess its mostly luck. if you want to know about someone who has bad luck with KA-T. my friend has one and he's blown the engine 4 times. 2 stock ones and 2 semi built ones.

the problem was he cut corners and he wasn't the most patient guy so its a mix of bad luck and lack of patients.

[USDM240]

Mustang, i feel your frustration. so far, ive blown up an SOHC and done a full-rebuild on a DOHC just to try and crank it up and it not work. ive wasted thousands of dollars to get my car looking good and running well just for it to be sitting at the shop that i work at for the past two months.

i turboed the DOHC KA: the turbo blew up and shot the exhaust wheel out the downpipe. i replaced the upper timing chain tensioner to quiet the noise: the engine leaked more oil. i put brand new struts on all four corners: the car still rides like *** and squeaks like ****. i rebuilt the motor: now it wont start. i sold my stock front-end and started buying the Silvia front-end piece by piece: i wrecked the ****ing thing six days after i got the hood.

the moral of my story? some of us have ****ty luck with 240's. i dont know what it is, but its like karma just doesnt like me. its like, "**** Bruce. He cant have a running 240. Hed be better off in a bone-stock Volvo that runs 30's at the track." ive been without a car for two months and also dont have the money to fix whats wrong with the problem. either way, best of luck with whatever you decide to do. and wish me luck also. i need a new KADE!

[Florida240sx]

My car killed me last year when ll the parts started going out.Now my clutch is going out again.Tired of autozone parts.But putting boost on it and hope things go smooth.Look at how much you've spent.Like Fiz said, could be one little thing.Hope everything works out for you.

[Craving4Boost]

mustang..how much do you plan on selling it for? will you be able to get it up and running before selling?

[Mustangs_Suck]

A lot of people do have problems with KA-T's, but they also do with SR's and CA's too.

The majority of the time those problems are caused by people who cut corners to accomplish something. You have to be very careful where you place those comprimises in your build list.

If I was you, when I first purchased the vehicle I would've taken the whole thing apart and replaced every gasket on the vehicle so I knew what was on it and how new it was. Just me though.

I hear ya, this *** i bought it from just through it all together, probably made sure it started, and then sold it off as perfect. damn him to hell. I've replaced my intake piping, water pump, thermostat, removed the A/C, front and rear main seals, and my intercooling piping will be re-done soon enough.

[Mustangs_Suck]

I'm, in florida, want me to mess him up? But newway, did you buy your car stock or with mods? I bought my car off ebay w/o inspection, but too it was a mint bone stock s14 being sold by a middle aged woman(original owner) So i was sure it would be nice. She was even so sure of it that she offered to pay for my gas there and back if the car wasn't what she said. Here it is:

So i guess i got lucky on my find. I'm real sorry you are having trouble, but i guess thats what you get when you buy off a kid. I wish you the best of luck, and hope your problem isn't serious so you can have a reliable car to drive. who knows maybe it is 99% there I hope you get to keep her!

lol i'd pay you to hit him with a bat and send me the video tape, but i'll need a job first hahaha .

sweet find on that car - looks like you lucked out. thanks for the kind words.

oh and btw - bought it already turboed.....seriously - every single part he's put on this thing I've had to re-do or have to still re-do...it's ridiculous.

[Mustangs_Suck]

thats really bad luck with you mustang. anyways we all run into our little problems here and there and we stick to it. like what everyone else said, you keep on fixing different problems and eventually you'll have all your problems fixed with brand new parts and you'll be set.

there are also a far share of us who don't have any major problems either. but i guess its mostly luck. if you want to know about someone who has bad luck with KA-T. my friend has one and he's blown the engine 4 times. 2 stock ones and 2 semi built ones.

the problem was he cut corners and he wasn't the most patient guy so its a mix of bad luck and lack of patients.

truth, i'm most likely gonna stick with it...it just seems like it's a terrible money pit with no end to breaking in sight...but i guess we'll see, not much left to break besides the engine. as for your friend - lol I'd give up after that, but yeah I understand the cutting corners thing - if I ever shoot for my 450rwhp goals - If I don't have enough money to do it, I won't do it - period. no sense in spending less to go cheap on something and have it ruin everything else.