Project Daily Driver..240sx Build Thread

[Jester236]

Okay so it was probably about six months ago that I decided a Mazda Protege didn't have nearly the capabilities I wanted. At our local car meets each week (300+ cars) there were lot's of 240's, all of which I knew the owners. Decided I wanted a 240 and searched around for a local shell. Just so happens that on 240sxforums.com I found Zach's240sx who was selling his 240 and had just moved to my town. Went over looked at it and fell in love. It's a 91 fastback, some body damage but nothing bad, rust free, and already gutted rear interior. Saved me some work lol. The KA was still sitting in it, though not running. I bought the shell for $600 and had it towed to my house.

PICS:

I researched the common engine swaps and decided on the SR20det for it's stock turbocharger, ability to hold 450whp on the bottom end, and the overall reliability and ability to modify it. So I ordered my motorset, and then ordered some parts.

Initial Parts List:

S13 SR20det Blacktop
Greddy Intake Manifold
Greddy Type RS BOV
Greddy Turbo Timer
Greddy M-Spec FMIC
Megan Racing Turbo Manifold (Not used as the motor came with a nicer one.)
Apexi N1 Evo Exhaust
Used Unknown Brand 3' Downpipe
Air Intake
Exedy Stage 1 Clutch
Walboro 255lph Fuel Pump
Koyo KA Radiator (Sitting in the hatch when I bought the car. Perfectly good, used with the SR)

PICS:

It was at this point I was forced to make a decision I didn't really want to. Due to the fact that the 240 was to be my daily driver, I needed the swap done quicker than I was capable of doing myself. Seeing as how I have school on top of working an average of 50 hours a week doing it quickly simply wasn't going to happen. Why did this matter? I had to take out a loan to buy the parts and motor, which I would pay off by selling my Mazda. This is why I chose to have NSP put the motor in for me, allowing me to sell my Mazda and not having to make two car payments. I really wish I had had the option of putting it in myself however it simply wasn't feasable.

 

[Jester236]

Before giving it to NSP I saved myself the $125 they would charge for putting the battery in the rear by doing it myself. $20 in 2 gauge wiring and a battery box and about 30 minutes of work saved me a bunch of money.

I got the car up to the guys at NSP and about a week and a half later I had my car running.

SR20det Installed:

So now that I had her running what else could go wrong? Hmmm well that was a bad question to ask. Less than a week after the finished install I found I was leaking coolant pretty badly. Found the culprit a coolant line with a hole the size of a quarter. Replaced it only to be confronted with another problem; my clutch was slipping very badly. Which didn't make sense considering it was brand new. First I adjusted the pedal to make sure it was engaging/disengaging completely, however that was not the issue. Jacked it up, found my clutch slave cylinder, marked where it was and then detached the clutch line. Upon seeing the cylinder move forward, I realized it must be bad headed to Advance Auto (2 miles from my house lucky aren't I?) Installed the new cylinder, bled the line, and voilah my clutch didn't slip anymore.

So I was still to encounter more problems however. My power steering line was leaking pretty badly. Here's the line that was leaking, and where it was leaking down onto.

Good news came though and I sold the Mazda for $5700, leaving me about $150 left over after paying off the loan. Not too bad huh.

So after fixing that, I was finally ready to solve some of the more mundane problems that I knew of. Starting with my rear brake pads. Simple right? Not quite. The rear pads hadn't been changed in a LONG time, so when I went to get the caliper off, the bolt sheared. Now this is the bolt that holds the caliper to the pad and disc. There was no way I could get the bolt out, so I got lucky and Advance had 1 set of what I needed. Not sure I explained what happened here real well, but anyone who has replaced their pads on a 240 should know what I'm talking about. Replaced the pads and off to more business.

My suspension is absolutely SHOT. I"m getting ready to order some Tein springs, and new tie rod ends. Here's a pic of the front:

Now I wanted to get rid of some of the vibration. After jacking up my car, I noticed my exhaust was scraping against a bolt. This was where 90% of the vibration noise was coming from. Used a small hack saw to try and cut it shorter, though it wasn't working well so I unbolted that portion of the exhaust and used a dremel cutting tool to get shorten the bolt, fixing a lot of my vibration problem. Not sure how well you can tell in the pictures but this is where the bolt was hitting the piping.

Now of course I couldn't go on forever without music right? I wasn't looking for anything fancy just something to listen to, and I had pulled out my pretty nice Pioneer Head Unit out of the Mazda before selling it. So I inspected the stock 240 speakers, not expecting much, but not expecting them to be this bad either.

 

[Jester236]

Went to Wally World, bought 4 Pioneer's. Not amazing speakers but good enough to listen to. Of course the speakers didn't fit the mounts for the 240 even though they are 6x9's. So drilled holes to make them fit, and mounted and wired up the rear ones. Come to figure out the wiring for the rear speakers doesn't work, and I was forced to run my own wiring.

Of course I had to run over a nail and was left with a flat tire on my way out of work one night. Patched it up for $15 the next day though.

Finished the speaker install tonight:

Put the door covers back on and I have the head unit harness all wired up. Too tired to mount the head unit tonight though...I'll do it tomorrow.

Here's a youtube video I made of the car...contains both footage from before the SR and from about after a week I got it back...http://youtube.com/watch?v=4nfpBLOtJQ8

 

[Jester236]

Nope. This car is going to remain as much a sleeper as I can keep it. I'm not a huge fan of the silvia conversion on fastback's either. I'm going to fix all the body work get it painted and possibly put on a front lip but that's it exterior wise. Of course lowered and rims are a given.

Got my manual boost controller and gauge pod in today.

 

[Jester236]

Ok so I finished up my head unit install tonight. Fit it in tight and securely it's not going anywhere. Not sure if the trim piece is going to fit perfectly yet because I can't find it lol.

The pioneers sound better than I thought they would. Pretty good base and very good highs. Well that's it for my music setup lol no amp or subs here...never will be.

I know it doesn't look perfect right now, but I"m in the process of fixing it, just not tonight too late.

Also fixed a problem with my intercooler piping knocking against the frame and making a ton of noise on startup and in the higher RPM's. Sounds much better. I've nearly eliminated all noise.

 

[Jester236]

Okay so I got my turbo timer installed today along with rebuilding both of my rear calipers.

I had hoped to buy and install my gauges today but I just didn't have time before work...prolly Monday when I get to that.

 

[mikeyb]

sweet build. There at a few members that have or are building s13s and s14s. My cousin and I just did a VQ35 swap in the a late s14.

 

[kickniteasy]

man....looks like a labor of love. Lookin really good so far and not bad at all considering it started off as a $600 non-running car =). I was I was good at wiring....that seems like it'll save me a bunch in the future. Keep us updated!

 

[Jester236]

Yeah it's definetly a labor of love lol. Put a TON of time and money in this car. Don't think I could bear to ever sell her.

 

[baconbitz]

Nice car mang. Where'd you get your sr from?

 

[mikeyb]

Nice car mang. Where'd you get your sr from?

I was wondering how long it was going to take you to post.

 

[Jester236]

Got it through a shop named NSP in my local area.

When I graduate college and have a full time job I plan on getting another blacktop, doing a complete rebuid, stroker kit, bigger turbo..etc. Can't wait lol. I'm glad you guys like the car. Hopefully I will be getting the rims I want for her in the near future, just waiting on a friend for those.

 

[MAZDA_SPEED]

Nice(yes)