90sx

Hey guys, so my 1990 nissan 240 sx is starting to make some of the infamous timing chain noise....imagine that. It runs well besides a random miss at idle and has about 174k on it. So at first I was going to just replace the timing chain and guides to cure the problem....but with this old of an engine I think I would rather go to the junk yard and get another engine to rebuild. Is this a good idea or just replace the timing chain? This is going to be my college car so I want it to be reliable. The rest of the car is is very good condition with many years of life left. Naturally I would like better performance out of the engine so is porting/polishing the head or boring out the engine good for these 2.4's? It must be reliable so if stock is better that is what I will do. Who is the best company to get a rebuild kit through? Keep in mind my car is an automatic (I know that sucks for me). I orginally bought this car just to resell it for profit becauce I have a 99' firebird; but I love it so much I selling the bird! Thanks for any help!!!!! I have this summer to complete this, so I better get busy.

re037

good op to go with a twin cam swap and rebuild. id p&p but not bore. check out the free mods thread for easy simple stuff to yield more hp w/o compromising reliability

90sx

thanks, is putting a twin cam in hard? I'm assuming mabye engine mounts and wiring harness.....will it bolt up to my auto tranny? I will continue to search but your help is greatly apprecited!!

re037

actually the twin cam is a different motor. 89-90 has ka24e. 91 and up had ka24de, check out the engine swap sub forum faqs on the things needed for the dohc engine. but if its too much hassle for you, the single cam is still a great engine to work with.

90sx

Duh; I feel like such a 'tard....I was looking everywhere else BUT a couple of forums down for answers! Well it dosen't sound too hard...but I think I'm gonna stick with the good ol' sohc engine and just find one to rebuild. So, any performance do's - dont's would be appreciated. As you can tell I'm totally stupid when it comes to these cars but the engine seems fairly simple in design so I should be ok. thanks for your patience w/ me and all help will come in handy! Meanwhile I'll continue to search posts. Thanks again!

soldierdude262

keep it simple since it's a college car, if you wanna rebuild or swap do a cylinder hone and port & polish, then do intake, ehaust and headers. After that you can do ignitoon if you feel like it, iridium spark plugs, ignition coil, 8mm+ plug wires, and a voltage stabilizer.