So I went to drive this swapped '92 240sx with the SR20det yesterday. All I can say is "holy ****!" I have never driven such a fast car before. I was pulling it to 7500 rpm and it seemed like it could keep going forever. I am thinking about buying this car, even though the body is kind of ****ty, but I had a few questions for you guys. What things should I be looking for in the motor? The guy was saying some bull**** that SR20's have lower compression in the 1st cylinder, which I really don't believe. Since I can't take it to a shop and have them check the motor (since it's a JDM swap), I'm not sure how to tell if everything is working ok. There was a little smoke under the hood, but he said it leaks and burns a little p/s fluid. Is the speed limiter on the SR at 115 mph? I think the car may have been wrecked before, because it is green, but there is a gash on the driver's door, and you can see red paint underneath. The guy selling it goes by the name nurspec180sxr, and i think he is on club240.com, nico, and zilvia.net. anyone know anything about him? i thought that he seemed rather unknowledgeable about his car. he couldn't even remember what clutch it has! Can anyone give me some advice about buying a swapped car?

Thanks

Jeff

 

the red paint could have been from another car. check the sticker on the B piller it should say the original color.

 

He could have just had a bad paint job. The SR speed limiter is 115...but that can be bypassed, search to learn how. Can you do a compression check yourself? The actual tool doesnt cost much at all.

 

yeah my fridend has a compression tester so i will have to go
down again and check it out. so if the guy's saying that 'cylinder 1 on sr20det's has lower compression than the other cylinders' that's BS right? compression should be 150-160 right? so to do the test, i just unplug the coilpacks and the injectors and crank it a few times? also, another thing that i noticed was that the shifter felt kind of crappy when i would try to put it into 1st gear...like it felt all 'clunky' and it didn't seem to want to go in. but once it was in, it felt fine. would this be something in the shifter itself, or maybe the synchros are bad? any other advice anyone can give me would be great. thanks, i appreciate it.
later

Jeff

 

I dont know if you have drivin other 240`s before but the going into first gear is normal, I think it does that on all 240sx`s a shift lock were you can not put it in first unless u are at a almsost complete stop.
Ryan

 

On most gearboxes they kinda have that clunky feel. On my car it happens on 3rd mostly =/ the compression should be 160-170. But 150-160 is ok, as long as all the cylinders are about the same. BTW, the bad compression on 1st cylinder on all SRs is BS...at least from the ones Ive compressed. BTW again, take out one spark plug at a time...dont take out 2.

 

ok, well its good to here that the shifter thing is common on all 240's. i thought maybe the synchros or something were messed up because the guy was beating on his car a lot. another thing that was kind of bad on the car was the interior. it has the brown interior, and the door panels are pretty bad, like the little side pocket thing at the bottom is cracked and coming off. are door panels hard to find, specifically in the brown color? are there any websites that sell new or used nissan parts? also, the hatch is rusted a little, but from what i am hearing that is common. any other stuff i should look for? thanks a lot guys...this has been really helpful!

 

If they synchros were messed up you would grind very noticibly when shifting between gears at speed (I have this problem between 1st and 2nd in my SE-R). I would think a change in tranny fluid would help you out a lot.

As for the interior parts.... man don't try to find the stock brown ones, those are hideous. Replace all of the interior parts with the much nicer black peices. Hatch rust is normal and very fixable (unless you have 3 large holes you should be ok)

As far as othe things, just look up the basics when buying a used car. Most rules can be applied to any car your looking at.

PS: I think the red is from another car because I am pretty sure the only cars which came with the brown interior were green on the outside. So the green paint is probably factory.

 

yeah i agree, the brown/tan interior is ****ing hideous. i was hoping to just buy the door panels, because those are the only parts that are messed up. but i guess i could get the black interior. do you guys know any websites where i can buy these parts? car-part.com didn't have the door panels when i checked. are interior pieces hard to install? from what i hear, interior work is the hardest because all the parts have little clips that break easily.

 

I haven't touched the dash but the door pannels and the center console in the 240 are surprisingly easy to take appart and put back together without breaking em. I know there is a how-to somewhere, maybe on ********** I cannot remeber though.

Having the instructions helps a lot so you don't miss that one clip and end up breaking something.

As for where to buy the interior parts, I would try and find a wrecked 240 and see if you can buy the interior out of it. I would think that would be the cheapest way to do it.

 

cool, thanks for all the help guys.