The I learned my lesson Build

[FlipCoupe]

Starting smarter this time with a running 240sx, that's the lesson part haha

Previous build thread here didnt go as planned, I did end up selling the car as a shell for $300 just to get it out of my driveway, the guy that bought everything got one hell of a deal.

1991-240sx-coupe-new-user-t503461.html


Would have preferred to find another coupe but I found a pretty good hatch. The guy was asking 2000 but I ended up paying 1300, the only thing wrong is it had the timing chain rattle and leaking valve cover gasket. Fixed the rattle but I need the pick up a gasket tomorrow, the old gasket was hard as a rock. All original, nothing has been modded on this car from what I can tell. AC, PS, ABS I think, all the egr stuff, factory radio, perfect dash. A few small issues like the sun roof latch is busted, the glove box latch is busted, and the passenger side view mirror glass is gone. Its also an automatic but thats the first thing I'm going to change, but other that that going to try to keep this as original as possible.

Oh yeh, 126K on the odometer.

Now the pics:


Right after I bought it, getting gas driving back to town. Had to drive 2 hours away to pick it up.





Got it home and started working on it







Plugs 2 and 3 had a bit of oil on them, replaced with NGK Platinum, iridium was $7 a plug, had to go cheaper.



Valve cover off





Cleaning up the engine bay a little



Heres the little bastard



Engine bay





Primered the valve cover, getting some high temp paint tomorrow







More exterior





Interior

[DaniMike]

Looks like a good start!!

[FlipCoupe]

Looks like a good start!!

Yeh i'm pretty happy about it...my wife, not so much lol but this 240 was in too good of shape ot pass up.

Heres as it sits now, should have it running again tonight after work.

[alms24sebring]

I IMMEDIATELY lost all interest and hope as soon as I saw that giant homosexual representation of a favorite local team. Thta needed to be the very first thing to come off before even starting the car to take it home. But, hope it works out for you.

[jsturges18]

I IMMEDIATELY lost all interest and hope as soon as I saw that giant homosexual representation of a favorite local team. Thta needed to be the very first thing to come off before even starting the car to take it home. But, hope it works out for you.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

goodluck with the car! doesnt look terrible but that interior.....

[FlipCoupe]

I IMMEDIATELY lost all interest and hope as soon as I saw that giant homosexual representation of a favorite local team. Thta needed to be the very first thing to come off before even starting the car to take it home. But, hope it works out for you.

lol agreed, its coming off once I finish under the hood, just didn't have the patience to scrape it off Saturday, its stuck on there pretty good. KC Chiefs! 1-3!

I IMMEDIATELY lost all interest and hope as soon as I saw that giant homosexual representation of a favorite local team. Thta needed to be the very first thing to come off before even starting the car to take it home. But, hope it works out for you.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

goodluck with the car! doesnt look terrible but that interior.....

Lol I know the seats are in piss poor shape but ill take cracked seats to a cracked dash any day, I picked up a mint S13 black leather backseat yesterday, now i'm trying to source some black leather S14 fronts. Possibly could go with black leather ebay seat covers for temporary.

[FlipCoupe]

Oh yeh funny story, so I finally separated my cap/rotor and set my timing yesterday and started her up, bam 3K idle. Couldn't figure out why, it idled fine before I removed the timing chain guide, and I know i didnt jump a tooth. Started toying with the idle screw, TPS, finally I took off my intake pipe and there was teh problem. I put a shop towel in the throttle body while I was cleaning the bay and never took it out, so removed it and now i'm idling about 500, going to readjust today, I messed with the idle screw while the throttle body was propped by that towel so its off a bit. Easy fix at least.

[jbracy7]

Yes the"missing blue shop rag" i learnd to count every one them suckers

[FlipCoupe]

So the head is unusually noisy, went ahead and measured my valve lashing (Measurements below)

Aside from the loud tapping the motor runs fine, no misses, no loss of power, just loud from the tapping, embarrassing at stop lights lol.
Will I do any more damage driving it? I'm running seafoam through the oil right now and want to get to 60 miles before I change it.

Intake:
.34
.42
.36
.37
.49
.39
.32
.31

Exhaust
.47
.51
.42
.46
.49
.42
.41
.41

[allenms240]

Damn, I read your old thread, it's so sad to see all that work just wasted, I can tell you spent a boat load of time on it. Any idea as to why it spun a bearing?

Good luck with this new project. I guess building motors isn't for everyone as previously mentioned. So many things can go wrong. Luckily, I haven't had any bad consequences with my rebuild, 600 miles in daily driving so far. Of course there were many issues that needed to be ironed out, and I had to walk to work a couple of days, but its good now.

BTW, glad to see you're still in the game!

[FlipCoupe]

Damn, I read your old thread, it's so sad to see all that work just wasted, I can tell you spent a boat load of time on it. Any idea as to why it spun a bearing?

Good luck with this new project. I guess building motors isn't for everyone as previously mentioned. So many things can go wrong. Luckily, I haven't had any bad consequences with my rebuild, 600 miles in daily driving so far. Of course there were many issues that needed to be ironed out, and I had to walk to work a couple of days, but its good now.

BTW, glad to see you're still in the game!

After I read that I went through and reread my old thead too lol

Pretty sure I spun the bearing because I overtorqued my crank girdle, its the only thing I can think of. My torque wrench was a b****. It had a knock, pissed me off, gave it full throttle and seized up the KA, not my brightest moment.

Nice, glad your rebuild went better than mine...they really cant go worse than mine i guess haha. Its definitely nicer to start with a running car but the entire reason I started with 240's is because I wanted to learn how to build a motor, ill consider it a success. My motor didnt run very long but I know quite a bit when it comes to the KA now.

Going to correct this head noise then 5sp swap, then bigger updates when I get tax money in Feb lol.

[FlipCoupe]

Doing small things here and there.

Fixed my driver side window by resoldering the window amp in the door, and put in 6" pioneer front speakers with the ebay adaptor plate. Still need to trouble shoot my side view mirror switch, cig lighter, and going to be putting in the maxima cup holder under the radio. Removing rear spoiler and rear wiper and going to try to reclear coat the hood. Small things until I can order the shims to fix the head noise.

[FlipCoupe]

Small update, havnt really been doing a whole lot to my 240 except enjoying driving it around. Ended up adding some Lucus oil stabalizer which didnt do anything at first but after about 50 miles my head tap went away, sounds very nice and quiet. Still need to reshim the head but for now it'll do. Currently just going to concentrate on the exterior, then 5sp swap, then interior, then ill worry about under the hood, its running to well to mess with right now.

Removed the spoiler/rear wiper, only 1 hole had rust, sanded it all out then used a bumper repair kit with some metal mesh to seal it from the bottom, bondo on top. Primered until paint. Going to have to resand, didnt get a couple of the bondo spots as smooth as they needed to be.










New door speakers and repaired my drivers power window thing by soldering the contacts. Nothing special, some pioneer 5.25" I think...maybe 6" speakers, not sure.





Replacing some fuses, this is after I used 2 of them, decided to take a pic. Was surpised to find the 3 fuses and the fuse puller in the door.



Painted the roof black, did 2 coats with a rattle can then brushed on 2 coats, wetsanding with 1500 after the rattle cans then 2000 after the foam brush dried.



And here is whats next. Harbor freight HVLP gun, rustoleum smoke grey paint, going to try to tint it to get more of a gunmetal color. Worst case scenario I wasted about $50 so I figure its worth a shot.




Also just ordered the ebay altezza tails and red tint so they look like this.

[usar89b]

I've seen this thread somewhere else too! LOL

[FlipCoupe]

I've seen this thread somewhere else too! LOL

yeh i have it up on KCDA also, copy/paste ftw lol

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Man, you should buy a $35 camera. Hell, I have an extra one I'd give you if I didn't hate going to the post office in the ghetto.

[FlipCoupe]

Man, you should buy a $35 camera. Hell, I have an extra one I'd give you if I didn't hate going to the post office in the ghetto.

Its at the top of my black friday shopping list, i hate cell pics also lol

[FlipCoupe]

And its done, ill rate the paint 6/10, going to be a bit of touch up. Color didnt come out as dark as I would have liked, but oh well.

Still need to wetsand/buff but the paint laid on pretty good, only a few runs that ill have to fix. Giving it a week before I buff it with ultimate compound.

[FlipCoupe]

Ok finally bought a real camera at the request of PapaSmurf2k3 lol

[mechanicalmoron]

Hey, I thought the paint was horrible in the first shot. It actually looks nice.

...but people might mention that gangster gloss primer, if you talk about your car

By the by, I know you did it a while back now, but I think seafoam in my oil, and too much driving majorly advanced the poor state of my rings and valve stem seals. Bear in mind that your oil won't act like a 5-30, in fact, hardly even like oil. And lucas oil "stabilizer" is great if your motor's on it's last legs like mine, but for any normal motor, you shuld just run a heaver oil if you think it needs it, there's some info on the stuff on bitog, if you care to google it. It's basically kinda low quality heavy oil stock, all it does is act like snot, and it will sludge and such long before a good oil, especially synthetic, will. And it dilutes the additives in your oil. Even if lucas quiets stuff, what you want is a high-moloy oil, I think.

But's just me, and I've currently got a quart of lucasoil in my 240, and just changed out the oil with seafoam in it (to remove lucas varnish, though). So, maybe I can't talk.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Ok finally bought a real camera at the request of PapaSmurf2k3 lol

WOHOO!!!

but I think seafoam in my oil, and too much driving majorly advanced the poor state of my rings and valve stem seals.

Yeah you're only really supposed to drive around with that stuff for about 15 minutes while it is in your oil.

[FlipCoupe]

Hey, I thought the paint was horrible in the first shot. It actually looks nice.

...but people might mention that gangster gloss primer, if you talk about your car

By the by, I know you did it a while back now, but I think seafoam in my oil, and too much driving majorly advanced the poor state of my rings and valve stem seals. Bear in mind that your oil won't act like a 5-30, in fact, hardly even like oil. And lucas oil "stabilizer" is great if your motor's on it's last legs like mine, but for any normal motor, you shuld just run a heaver oil if you think it needs it, there's some info on the stuff on bitog, if you care to google it. It's basically kinda low quality heavy oil stock, all it does is act like snot, and it will sludge and such long before a good oil, especially synthetic, will. And it dilutes the additives in your oil. Even if lucas quiets stuff, what you want is a high-moloy oil, I think.

But's just me, and I've currently got a quart of lucasoil in my 240, and just changed out the oil with seafoam in it (to remove lucas varnish, though). So, maybe I can't talk.

Yeh as far as the paint is concerend, its getting sanded down with 600 or 800, then I'm going to add a quart of gloss black to my existing half galon on smoke gray and roll on a couple coats, see how that turns out.

Pretty sure seafoam is what did my last engine in, it seemed like right after I ran the seafoam I lost compression in cylinder 1 and had to start the tear down (rings). Slow day in the office so I'll do a little research on that oil info you provided, I really just need to replace the shims but I'm a bit gun shy to jump into this motor more than necessary. Also burning a little oil, about a quart every 3k miles, so when I do the shims I'm also going to replace the valve stem seals, our local 240 genius suggested it so I'll listen lol.

I know the pics look like I'm leaking oil all over my driveway but all those stains are from the leaky/dying power steering pump in my wifes camry.

Yeah you're only really supposed to drive around with that stuff for about 15 minutes while it is in your oil.

15 mins!!! I drove about 60 miles with that stuff in my oil, glad it didnt seem to have any negative effects lol.

[mechanicalmoron]

Hey, I thought the paint was horrible in the first shot. It actually looks nice.

...but people might mention that gangster gloss primer, if you talk about your car

By the by, I know you did it a while back now, but I think seafoam in my oil, and too much driving majorly advanced the poor state of my rings and valve stem seals. Bear in mind that your oil won't act like a 5-30, in fact, hardly even like oil. And lucas oil "stabilizer" is great if your motor's on it's last legs like mine, but for any normal motor, you shuld just run a heaver oil if you think it needs it, there's some info on the stuff on bitog, if you care to google it. It's basically kinda low quality heavy oil stock, all it does is act like snot, and it will sludge and such long before a good oil, especially synthetic, will. And it dilutes the additives in your oil. Even if lucas quiets stuff, what you want is a high-moloy oil, I think.

But's just me, and I've currently got a quart of lucasoil in my 240, and just changed out the oil with seafoam in it (to remove lucas varnish, though). So, maybe I can't talk.

Yeh as far as the paint is concerend, its getting sanded down with 600 or 800, then I'm going to add a quart of gloss black to my existing half galon on smoke gray and roll on a couple coats, see how that turns out.

Pretty sure seafoam is what did my last engine in, it seemed like right after I ran the seafoam I lost compression in cylinder 1 and had to start the tear down (rings). Slow day in the office so I'll do a little research on that oil info you provided, I really just need to replace the shims but I'm a bit gun shy to jump into this motor more than necessary. Also burning a little oil, about a quart every 3k miles, so when I do the shims I'm also going to replace the valve stem seals, our local 240 genius suggested it so I'll listen lol.

I know the pics look like I'm leaking oil all over my driveway but all those stains are from the leaky/dying power steering pump in my wifes camry.

Yeah you're only really supposed to drive around with that stuff for about 15 minutes while it is in your oil.

15 mins!!! I drove about 60 miles with that stuff in my oil, glad it didnt seem to have any negative effects lol.

All my cylinders are the same, but they all have bad rings, and bad seals to boot. I ran about 150-200 miles with seafoam in, I forgot about it and revved quite a bit more than I should have. I've used it with thickened oil since, but with stock weight oil, it should probably be treated more like a motor flush, that is, damaging and dangerous, but if things are really dirty, it will be the lesser of two evils, if that makes sense.

Before hand, the car hardly smoked. After, the car smoked like it wouldn't make it down the block. That's why I now use the lucas junk. It's partly my valve stem seals I'm sure, but heavily thinned oil is going to be bad for your rings, for obvious reasons.

If that's really how much oil you burn, you're probably fine, because my motor currently burns over a quart (of heavily thickened oil) every 200 miles. A quart every 3k is not ideal, but is, overall, pretty healthy.

Moly is supposed to be amazing stuff, bitog also has an article explaning what it does and how it does it. I think it will probably keep your valvetrain safe, if you're using good oil but the lash isn't quite right. I think stuff like valvoline, shell rotella, mobil 1, etc, are supposed to have good amounts of it. bitog also has all the analyses of different oils, showing what they have in their additives.

[liquid_cool]

lets get you started on the rite track this time...i had to peak at your old thread to understand why you started a new project and where best to help you out along the way...your lacking information...not your basic information found on a forum of how too's and where it goes..your missing the information on the (why's) and (what for's)...to start you along the path of understanding..im sugesting a small book no thicker than a year end magazine..actually there the same size..its a S/A brand book called (How to blueprint your engine)..it has hardly and fluff, and is packed with information on why you do certian things when rebuilding engines..and it has the how's..its $20. bucks but worth way more imho...start there and by the time your done reading it..you will be able to call shinnanigan's on your s*** talking buddys and tell them why..