Sloppy Mechanics

95 240sx Engine/Tranny Install Project

Main Link:

http://www.e-rak.com/cody/gallery/album149

A local friend of mine acquired this 1995 Nissan 240sx from another kid in jersey, accept it had one problem: No Engine :( My pal called upon me to help him with the engine swap, and in doing so it went from beyond the bolt on stage, and became my first actual side job of the season.

The car's exterior WAS NOT touched by me or the current owner, and was instead painted/rolled by a previous owner.My job was to simply get the mechanicals working, and to get the car ready for either his own personal ownership, or for sale.

First Day:

http://www.e-rak.com/cody/gallery/album157

Matt, Ryan, Seven, and myself hopped into Seven's Trailblazer and headed into the armpit of America (New Jersey) to recover this poor car. The owner wasn't present, so as Seven was talking over the logistics with the owners dad, the rest of us were checking the car out, and deciding upon what was the fastest, most brazen way to get the thing on the trailer. Luckily for us there was a decent hill, and we used gravity to help us get the car on trailer. We brought the car back to Mr Halpin's house, where it sat until I could pick it up. I then brought it back to Ace Trucking, and it's been here ever since.

The car was obviously in rough shape, with oil everywhere, no engine, unknown harness, rolled paint, damaged panels, but they would all soon change.

Engine Bay Cleaning:

http://www.e-rak.com/cody/gallery/album154

When I recieved the car, it had no engine at all. Story has it that the KA24DE that was in the car blew up 2 owners ago, with the last

owner being responsible for removal. As we all known with any blown engine, fluids are bound to spray into every nook and cranny

imaginable, and this was the case with this car.

The engine bay was literally FILTHY and covered with oil (as is the entire underside of the car). A quick bath in Superclean, along with a scrub by the the hi pressure/hi heat pressure washer, and the engine bay looked like it had never seen dirt!

Nothign is worse than working on a dirty car, so the 10 to 15 minutes spent cleaning is WELL worth the aggrevation in my eyes...plus

cleaning while the engine out is MUCH easier.

Engine Install:

http://www.e-rak.com/cody/gallery/album156

After a solid cleaning, I began to put the KA24DE out of my 97 S14 into the chassis. While the mechanics of the swap are straightford,

the details are not. Being that the car was a 95, and the engine was a 97, the FULL OBDII 97 engine had a few extra sensors that the 95 chassis wasn't wired for. Luckily none of these things are needed. I ended up needing to use an S13 thottle body as well to help with TPS issues. Ontop of the that, the owner of the car sourced a transmission, but come to find out before the swap, it was in fact an s13 tranmission, so I needed to drill/tap and make a provision for use with an 95+ Crank Angle Sensor/Pickup.

All sensors were swapped over from s13 to S14, exhaust and driveshaft were installed, new seals in the transmission were installed, new bolts were put in, and new hoses, oil, and other fluids were installed.

Completed Job:

http://www.e-rak.com/cody/gallery/album152

Finally, the swap was complete. After buttoning up a few items, hookup up sensors, I went to tackle the bleeding of the clutch. Even with knowing what a pain in the butt my s14 was, I attemped to bleed the wacky system. Once again however, after wasting nearly 3 hours attempting to bleed the factory dampening block and slave cylinder, I decided to throw the dampening block in the brush, and simply bend the metal hardline, making it screw into the factory rubber line. Problem solved, system bled.

I washed the car down, cleaned up the engine bay plastics, and took a few pics. The car runs and drives like a baby, and is night and day compared to my s14 (obviously). It was a fun project, and wouldn't mind at all doing the swap again!