I recently bought this 240sx for 275$,...I start it up an after 10 seconds of cranking it's on. It is rough smells like unburnt gas and shakes a lot.

I was thinking this is all a dead cylinder or two, and if i replace spark plugs and fuel filter i'll be fine right? It also will only rev to 2000 rpms and sounds like it CAN go higher but it WON'T. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

I also would like to know which guide would be the best for helping me with an engine rebuild.

Any reason the car won't go into reverse?

 

come on help a brother out

 

the short answer is that that's why it only cost $275.

the long answer is too long to for me to type right now so i'll just say you should make sure all you're ignition related connections are corrosion free and secure. also look for any damaged vacuum hoses and replace them.

changing the plugs, wire, fuel filte........exc will not do anything if you are in fact dealing with one or two dead cylinders. you could have a blown head gasket or bad valves. i said could, so until you check compression and verify that you still have enough of a seal then all i can do is guess.

as for the reverse, is it an auto?

 

yeah its an auto

park is fine
wont move back in reverse
nuetral it trys to move
drive is fine

im thinking a messed up linkage of some sort?

 

what are symptoms of blown head gasket, i feel like the engine is just running on 2-3 cylinders an the other one is way it down, there is an unburnt fuel smell leading me to think a plug had been fowled, could this be the only real problem or is it worst then i thought

 

the thing about a blown head gasket is that depending on where it blow the symptoms might not be all that noticeable other that lack of power. have you checked the oil and coolant lately? when the coolant in the oil will make it look like chocolate milk. this is another symptom of a blown gasket.

i don't think that's that problem but it is a possibility bases on what you've said. the fact that you smell fuel could be due to a bad injector which would also explain the other problems you mentioned. an injector being stuck open will foul the spark plug and when the engine finally dose start you will have a hard time getting it to run. i know this because it's happened to me twice now.