My questions (and concerns) about this car are these:
- At one point this car was a track-going car. I'm concerned that now the engine is one tick away from total death. I've heard and read that the KA engines are quite reliable, are there any warning signs to a KA motor on its last legs? Besides obvious things like 'theres massive amounts of smoke coming from the car' or 'it sounds like someone is hitting the engine block with a big hammer'
- Radiator leaks from the top (cap I'm guessing), overheats sitting at idle for 10+ minutes, the top of the radiator is rusty. I know this is a future disaster waiting to happen. I've seen the DIY radiator replacement and have found radiators for $85, I'm guessing they're not too terribly difficult to install?
- Apparently when the KA24 motor was swapped in, there was no room for the power steering unit and thus it was disconnected. Is there a difference between the KA20 and KA24 PS units? And about how much would a full PS kit run me/how terribly difficult would it be to hook it all up?
- Also from the swap, the heater and A/C do not work at all. No air whatsoever. I'm guessing the piping is gone.. therefore would I have to find/buy piping and whatnot? I'm assuming the heater core was left in place and the piping was removed.. would there be any sure way to see whether or not the heater core is still there? (I can live without A/C.. heat however.. probably not!)
- The transmission apparently "wobbles" at low speed. Like the gear shifter will kind of rattle back and forth.. so the guy tells me. He says it doesn't affect the way the car shifts and it goes away when you get up to speed. I don't know what would cause a problem like this (loose/missing bolt from the transmission/engine mounting?) and how difficult it would be to fix.
I didn't have time to test drive it today and only got to walk around it, get in, and start it up. Given these problems and the amount of money/labor involved into fixing it and making it all work, I think 1500 is ludicrous.. even especially since the rear tires are basically bald and the body is painted some sort of off white primer. I figure a grand would be sufficient for a car in this shape.. as I figure there's only so much work I could do to it to get it working and then have to rely on the fact that I have no idea how many miles the engine has on it and how hard its been driven..
I should note that this investment would be for the purpose of fixing up and having a little pocket sports car to putt around in from time to time (and turn into a drift whore probably). I have no real big intention of turning this into my daily driver, maybe one day turning it into a freeway cruiser (my Mk4 Jetta gets awful freeway mpg thanks to the gear ratios).
Any input/answers/comments are appreciated, and if all goes well I could very well be joining the 240sx club!
Sounds rough! I'd offer him $800 and see what bargaining pattern ensues. 
