Long time listener, first time caller...

I just bought a 97 240SX SE yesterday. It's an auto tranny (that will be remidied one day, but for now its the grocery getter) and has been cared for greatly. Aside from body dings the whole thing looks, feels, and sounds solid! I'm very surprised honestly. The car had a good 110k miles on it, it was just safety inspected the day I bought it and passed all state inspections. They are the second owners and had it for 2 years. Bought a new car and sold this one to me.

Now my question is, before I start tossing on the little things to keep me happy while I save for an engine/tranny swap, what parts of the stock motor should I look at the most and upgrade/replace? There are no liquids other than A/C moisture.

Belts? Hoses? If I want to upgrade the intake and exhaust system is there anything I should look for that would say, don't do it, you'll break something?

Thanks ahead of time for the feedback. This will be my first used car, and I don't want to just mod away and have it break.

 

Intake and exaust will not break anything and probably would be the easiest thing to get and put on.

Unless you have records that indicate that certain crap has been changed recently, you might as well do full 120k service, replace all the fuilds(coolant, tranny, oil, brake, power steering, maybe even differential), do sprark plugs and wires, replace all the hoses that look under par, same with belts. Check all the engine gaskets that you are willing to get to. Obviously brakes and tires. Now wash, wax and try to keep it smooth and pretty.

 

if your doing an engine swap, dont wate your money on stiff unless it it needs it. Just do regular maintenance stuff (tune up)

 

I agree with rocky if you decide to swap in an SR or something, but if you plan to keep the KA, then yeah, replace anything that looks bad and change out all the fluids. If you are looking into cheap mods then intake/exhaust is the way to go.

 

i would replace all fluids such as break fluid, clutch fluid, tranny fluid, differintial fluid, oil, coolant so on.... then start modding.

 

Thanks for all the advice, seems he services almost everything right before selling it, new brakes, rotors, belts, spark plugs, distributor (?). I am not planning on a swap in a couple months, may be even up to a year. So with everything looking alright, I should be adding on an exhaust, intake, and just working on the interior till its time for the swap.

 

If its only a year away, you might not want to waste money on the exhaust or even the intake. Thats about $350 that could go towards your new motor.

~James~

edit: If anything, that $350 should go towards the interior work you were talking about ^^^