Alright, well I found a '90 240SX HB with a 5-speed and 79xxx miles for $2100. It's being sold by the second owners, everything is nice about it and has been garaged when not in use and is totally stock...my first qustion is - is this a good price? Secondly, I heard swapping an SR20DET in a pre-91 240 involved more work and is not recommended. The only reason I'm wanting to get this car is because of the price and wanting to swap in the motor, but because of it's year it might not work out right. So, what would be your honest opinion?

-Dys

 

Buy it. Power Steering lines shouldn't be made to be such a big deal.

 

Power Steering? Is that all? I thought there were going to be fitment problems...what all extra will I have to go through with a '90s model?... I'm all ears man, I'm here to learn haha

 

Basically you just need to get the power steering set up from a '91-'94 in order to have working power steering in a '89-'90 w/ SR swap. If you wanna learn more check out www.heavythrottle.com


Edit: Oh yeah you need a tachometer too. If you buy a front clip, you can use that tach.

 

Also, where can (If possible) I get a step-by-step instruction guide on installing an SR20DET? Myself and a friend are going to be working on our project cars over the winter...well, so far just his car (rebuilding a 302 and adding a Vortech supercharger) because I'm not too sure what I'll be getting, whether it will be a 240sx and swap now, or just buying a Z32TT in the future, so who knows.

 

I went to that HeavyThrottle.com website and was looking over the specs of the engines and was wondering if there were any differences between the S13,14, and 15 engines? I noticed the newer engines made more power than the last ones, but they usually had a bigger turbo and ran more boost. so, what I'm asking is do the actual engines themselves make more power, or are they just aided with more boost?

 

S14 and S15 engines have VTC. It doesn't increase peak hp,but the midrange is higher. On the S15 though they have bigger injectors too.

 

buy it.

a/c is also a ***** to hook up when installing an SR into a pre- '91 240. get the May 2002 issue of SCC. they install an SR into an '89 and show a step by step.

 

Didn't SCC just take out the power steering?

 

they don't really say which one they do. they just explain the two options- re-routing the ps lines or not using ps.

 

also, the heater hoses need to be re-routed

 

The s14 engine introduced VTC (some variable timing junk) The S15 introduced better and more advanced VTC. S14 had a T28 instead of a T25 (I think), S15 had a T28 ball bearing.

Basically, S14 and S15 motors are a waste of money. The fundamentals are the same as the S13 engine, and for the extra dough you could take an S13 engine and get more power out of it than the S14 or S15 engine you're going to buy.

 

 

s-13(redtop) have better heads than the s-14,15's wich used vtc instead according an old scc arcticle, and from i have read and understand , with a s-13 you will have more hp per dollar potential

 

the S13 doesn't necessarily have a better head.

The S13 head, IIRC, has better ports because the VTC stuff kinda crowded the exhaust side of the head. I thought the intake ports were still the same size, but I'm not 100% sure.

Regardless, two things:

A) it's very common to see JDM S chassis tuners running S13 engines, even in S14s and etc.
B) the S13 motor is FAR cheaper and if yuo got an S14 motor, you'd be SERIOUSLY lucky to figure out how to wire it up so that VTC worked. I think there is one S14 in the US that has a fully 100% functional S14 SR in it.