240SX rebuild
 

'ello guys,

Figured I'd share my current build. As most of you know my baby was sent on a ping pong ride across the highway one fateful Jan day and was deemed totaled.
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I cried I mourned, I lost my job, and then lost my gf (cheating whore!). I picked up a 97' Volvo 850 Wagon and thankfully it helped me out while I moved out. It lasted till this November when someone decided to rearend me.
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Yeah I know a pretty bad year for me I know.
I said screw it I'm single, no kids, no gf, no wife, and I have a decent paying job now. I went about a search and found this.
A 1995 Nissan 240SX SE
When I got her she looked like this....
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At this moment she looks like this....
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If you guys wish to see more let me know. I still love the Rx-8 and still poke in here time to time. :D

So you got a new hood? :lol:

J/k man, nice ride! I would love to see where you go with it.

i'd like to see how it goes too

my buddy has 2 240s he's currently swapping a ca18 in one
they're pretty awesome

haha hush up.. nah did some rust repair by the drivers side fender, replaced the rusted out drivers side fender, replaced the black hood and grill with the Arctic White Pearl colored ones. Also slapped in some coilovers, and other various mechanical crap. Car has 175k miles on her now. Figure instead of posting up all the photo's now see if people are interested in seeing what I did :rock:

It's a 240sx, of course we're interested! :drool:

dont care what the car is. Always love to see a build thread

congrats man always liked these (just not when they dog us at our meets :squint:) here's hoping you do it up right

Haha alright some interest and no hate.. (nice to see this place hasnt changed :mdrmed:)
Well when I got her the alternator was like DEAD I knew it and was part reason I got a steal of a deal 1.4k. I changed that out easily enough.
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At the time though I noticed a oil leak and thought it was the oil pan and figured I'd do that in a few.
After the Alternator was the regular tune up stuff, plugs and wires.. then brakes and rotors.... this is what the fronts looked like!! :SHOCKED:
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And yes that is pretty much bare metal on those pads.
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At the time it was December and it was freezing out and the car kept on reading C and I had no heat. I got sick of it bought a coolant temp sensor and a NISMO stat.
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Turns out my OEM stat was busted take a look.
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Shortly after (about lil over a month), my clutch went. Since it was my DD and I had next to no extra loot at the time I just bought a new OEM set up. This is what my clutch looked like after I got it out.
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sheesh those pads are terrible

Yeah the brakes were horrible. They went two weeks after driving. Only thing that caused me not to bitch out the previous owner was the low cost I got the car at.

I have a friend that does fabrication and welding. We've known each other since High School and I asked him to fix my rust issues. He just grinned and said "We have the technology we can fix her!" After that it was on! :rock:
The cancer
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Yes that is a hood, and yes it came off of a chevy truck!
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My friend has worked on cars from Ferrari, Merc's, BMW's, all the way to VW New Bettles. He'll soon be opening up his own shop after his previous shop went under due to the owner not paying taxes and other stuff. I'm hoping he remembers me when he really hits the big time (he will trust me).

When we did this we also ditched the rotted rusted drivers fender and replaced it with another one. It was primer puke green. While my friend Eddie was off doing his welding I became bored and decided to take some spray paint and be creative for awhile haha.
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I decided to change out the old end links with some new OEM ones.
Comparison shot. Guess which is which? lol
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More plz, I love car rebuilds and stuff. Can't wait to see you turn this into a menacing car.

Wow you sure are doing that car right, man. Props to ya! Definitely need more.

Found a used sunroof from a forum member of a 240SX site in CT. Went down an picked it up back in Jan.
This was what mine looked like before.
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And this is what it looks like now. A seal that was around the previous sunroof came off and Nissan doesnt sell it by itself. I'd need to by one for about $800 and that is at my cost o.0!
New to me Sunroof!
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No more rain leaking down into the trunk or into the car either now!

About a month ago I finally got around to changing the transmission fluid!! It looked very very nasty. I put in some Royal Purple Gear Oil in there.
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Front Main Oil Seal Replacement
 

At the same time I tackled my oil leak. After some research on various 240SX forums, I noticed several people mentioning that their oil leak came from a cracked front main oil seal. I figured I'd give it a shot since it would be way way easier than taking off the oil pan.
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Taaadaa.. all done!
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I did a write up on a local forum to rave reviews (with more photo's than this). This by far (at the time) was the easiest fix I did on the car, had to buy a few tools but overall it was worth it.

Oh and it did solve my oil leaking problems. Before this oil was spitting out and lubing up the alternator tension bolt and causing it to slowly slip loose. Lost a belt due to this which was scary since it was on the highway :SHOCKED:.

Wow, nice! I shall keep reading!

very nice writeup so far. cant wait to see some more progress

Ugh more crap to replace/repair!
 

While I was at my work having the car up in the air I looked around. This is what I found. Rear sway bar bushings all shades of busted up and both endlinks snapped in half.
I ordered some Energy Suspension Bushings the next day and had to wait about a month or more for them to come in.
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Screw your Panda Look!
 

I came across a offer to good to pass up. A white hood for only a $100! I took my hood off and drove down to meet up with the guy. Nothing says Wicked Pissa! :ylsuper: like driving down I-95S with no hood.
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Love your determination and outcome, Kevin! I love build threads too.

wow good luck! i love 240s but my fave is still the s13 :yumyum: sucks that you lost ur job and ur gf, i did too, but no pain last forever ;)

hehe.. I was looking for a decent S13 but this S14 was priced to move.. sadly I found out afterwards why it was lol.

Well the job I have now at a Saab Dealership is way better than my previous job and I get paid more AND its part of a dealership network where we have own a Nissan dealership so most of my OEM parts have been at cost plus 10% hehe. :naughty: The gf 'eh.. Karma kicked her in the ass hardcore. She ended up being prego's (not mine) and after the baby was born lost her job. So overall I'm better off I believe :smoker:

That and if I was still with her I know she'd be giving me shyt for buying the car and spending money on it. My ultimate goal is to one day slap in a LS engine (leaning torwards a LS3 since they have one that is emissions legal now) and race it on the track. This baby won't touch a drifting area unless I have near bald tires and I'm bored shytless haha.

I wish to say about 3 weeks ago while surfing the local 240SX forum I came upon a FS thread that was just opened. Used D2 Coilovers for $100 :shocking:, the 240SX has its orginal suspension on it and at the time it was about 174k miles old. I didnt feel secure going at high speeds or cornering that much. Even if those coilovers where in horrible shape it would be leaps and bounds above what I had. So needless to say I bought them on the spot, the following weekend I picked them up.

The springs had some surface rust on them so I took it upon myself to grind/sand/strip 'em on down. Instead of repainting them simple black I opted for white. Thankfully I had some white engine high heat enamel left over and went to town.
Here is a side by side shot (the bottom portion of the coilover was off so dont worry lol).
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I didnt do the rears since well the springs would be so far up that no one would be able to see them ever so why bother.
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Sadly after putting the front coils back together I realized that one was longer than the other. The original owner sadly was busy and couldnt get back to me right away as to why this was.

While waiting for a reply about the coilover situation I decided I was sick of the faux flame custom job on my fender. Bought some spray paint and well went to town. Mind you I did take my time, I wet sanded and everything so its not all that well horrible, but its far from a real paint job I'm not fooling myself.
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All done... can tell its a different shade but at a passing glance you can't tell the difference.
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Oh also I do plan on having a real paint job for the fender this is just temporary till I save up some cash after fixing the mechanical bits :rock:

You got a lot of overspray on your tires it seems. But kudos for carrying out the task. Looks like it was a lot of work.

not bad at all from a rattle can!

The over spray on the tires was all off withing a 100 miles :D

The Big Day!
 

Well its about time I posted these up. I figured out how to adjust the coilovers and also found out form the orginal owner what was up with one being longer than the other in the front.
I took it to my work and put the car up on the lift. I must say this went about waaaaay quicker than it did when I seen my car taken apart for switching out my own suspension for that of Chrism's GT many years back.
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http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...X/240SX207.jpg

Difference between the two suspensions
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First time laying upon the ground.
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The Rear
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Difference between the rears
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As soon as I laid the car upon the ground it was perfect! Just had to adjust the fronts :rock:
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Jesh been awhile since I updated but been busy and figured I'd put down a big update dump on you all :D

Before being dropped on the coilovers.
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After the drop:
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The car handles way since putting these in.

Also since my last update I have installed Energy Suspension rear sway bar bushings.
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Lets see what else have I done. Oh yes.. bought a front strut bar.
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I also got the front top hats from the previous owner of the coilovers. I've yet to install them :(
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About a month or two ago I ran into a issue where a bolt decided it didnt like helping my CAT and Headers stay together. So it left and made my car sound like some loudass truck on steriods.:rollingla
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Found a nice bolt/nut at Advanced and it fixed it up nicely (not really that bolt came undone and only 2 weeks ago did I replace both sides and they are not going anywhere for a long time lol).

After I fixed the exhaust I went in for a alignment since mine was way off. Was told I needed new hubs, inner and outer tie rods. I went with all Moog stuff for the tie rod portion. Alot of good reviews form 240SX owners for something that is OEM in style but not so aftermarket to rob the bank.
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I sadly have no pictures of the hub install :tear: but wowza what a easy job. Never did it on the Rx-8 but if its as easy as it was for the 240SX no one should be afraid of this job easy DIY.

Well I kept on hearing this knocking as I drove and went over bumps. One weekend I put the car up on the lift and I seen this.
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I put my camera in the engine bay and snap another photo to see what I'm dealing with.
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The constant oil leak I had via the front main oil seal worked its way inbetween the bolts holding the A/C to the block. FML!
I had to detach the A/C from the mounting bracket while also not
Oh and when the A/C fell down it also ripped the belt which found its way behind the crank pulley. This caused the front main oil seal to start leaking again :wallbash:
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I replaced that once again.

Yes I did clean the entire engine area before putting anything back on. Block was a dirty filthy thing (not in the good way either :rofl:).

2 weeks ago I finally got around to installing the Nismo Motor Mounts I bought a long time ago but wished to install only after I fixed for a fact that oil leak.

Difference between stock blown mounts and the Nismo.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...X/240SX261.jpg

Just before being tightened down.
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All done!
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And the absolute last thing I did was replace the front sway bar bushings. And all I can say is holy shytnit!

178k mile bushings vs brand new OEM ones.
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Well that is all for now mechanically.

Did some custom inserts last weekend.
Before:
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After:
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I have to redo it since the adhesive I used wasnt strong enough :( But still came out wicked pissa in my eyes. way better than the OEM.

Thats all for now guys thanks for letting me share! :bowdown:

nice build dude. i've dealt with quite a few 240's . they're fun to play with. first chance you get, ditch that delivery truck motor. (yes i know the ka24DE is technically not a truck motor, but it's based off one so suck it). i've driven an ls1 swapped one and it was fricken sick-go-nuts. lots of POWA! on the other hand, i've seen some ka-t's smoke ls's. it's all on what you wanna do. ca-18 is a VERY affordable option. whatever you do. good luck, seems to me you know what you's doin

haha thanks man :D
Complete end game is to have a LS motor in there. Its a 95 so in MA I just get saftey inspections hehe. Which LS dunno just depends on how much money I have saved up. Now if I hit the lottery (in my dreams) I'd shove in a LS9 again I can dream damnit! :rofl:

The car is luky you bought it and are taking care of thing now. It looks like who ever had it before had it parked underwater. Which ofcourse is impossible. But you are doing a great job my friend. I'm sure the car is going to pay you back with lots of fun.

Something for you to shoot for

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EWdz9xT9v3..._Side_View.jpg

This thread is awesome. That pic of you standing in the ice working on that body pannel reminds me why I live in south florida, lol. But mad props! Good luck and keep us posted!

http://www.crateenginedepot.com/stor...P1625C273.aspx
you need THIS one!!!:bling:

good lookin car bro the project is coming along nicely

:Eyecrazy: I'd have a 570SX Badass!!!! :rock:
Nothing to report lately sadly. Oh well the insert job I did apparently the spray glue I used isnt up to snuff. Went to HB and bought some 3M Spray thats perfect for headliners.. Humidity sucks btw! lol.